#guy who thinks his answer to the trolley problem is the only right one (half joking)

[astrumocs]

💫oda!!

💫- One of his secret flaws is that he thinks he's more equipped to make a moral decision than most other people. He's very good at not expressing this to people and thinking it himself, though.

[mysticalrambling]

Hi this is mine request, y/n and chris (evans) are married and the have 2 kids, Emma and Jason, and y/n takes Emma to get there nails and hair done they have a girls day , while the boys a a boys day at home, and when y/n and Emma comes home, the boys have cooked dinner for the girls and later that night the have a family movie night, in matching pyjama's

A/N: I loved the plot line and I was happy to write about it. This is what I came up with and I might have added a few more things to the plot line. I love dad Chris Evans and I would love to write more about him. Hope you guys like it and please tell me what you think about it.

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Family Time (C.E)

Chris Evans Fanfiction (Fanfiction Master list)

Warnings: None. Fluff all the way.

Summary: dad! Chris Evans x reader. Chris and the reader spends the whole day with their family. They enjoy the free day with their children and enjoy every moment of it.

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Having two kids was a bittersweet experience for the two of you as they were close in age so they fought a lot. It could be over the simplest of things such as who will eat in which bowl or who will cuddle with daddy at night. Emma and Jason loved each other to death but Jason being the elder was sometimes a little too stubborn. The one thing that always came as a shock to Chris’s family was that your son was a total daddy’s boy and vice versa for your daughter. Your family was always a little different from the others and you loved it.

“Mommy, Jacey pulled on my hair and threw my dollies to the ground.” Fat tears poured down her baby blue eyes as she jumped on your shared bed, effectively waking you both up. Chris just groaned and buried his head in the soft pillows and hands placed on his ears. You didn’t blame him, you both were up pretty late last night because Jason had a severe stomach ache. But he was okay now, considering he was busy annoying his younger sister.

“I will scold him but can you lie down with daddy now so I could freshen up and make you guys breakfast.”

“But I want to stay with you-,” she began to protest and you quickly silenced her by promising a girls only day.

“Besides, you don’t want to cuddle with daddy?” Chris growled playfully and started tickling your three and a half year old daughter. Taking this as your cue to leave, you went to the washroom. Meanwhile, Jason also joined the two of them in bed and lazed around for the whole morning, You prepared pancakes and scrambled eggs that was your family’s favorite breakfast and put out some dog food for Dodger.

“I want dad to feed me today.” Your five year old son declared when Emma sat on Chris’s lap to be pampered by him.

You sensed a fight heading towards the dining room and you quickly tried to diffuse the situation. “You are going to spend the whole day with your father today so let him feed Emma, please.” He huffed out a fine and you cut his pancakes in to little pieces.

“I am thinking of taking James to do some grocery shopping and then spend the whole day at home.” Chris was free today because his shooting does not start until Monday and he wanted to spend as much time possible with his family before he gets busy. He always hated being apart from you guys and would feel bad if he missed out an important step in his children’s life because of his career. You guys were truly blessed to have him in your life.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I will get them both ready for the day and then we can all get on with our day.” Pecking him on the lips, you took the kids to your room and Chris went to clean the dishes.

“Mommy, I don’t want to sit in the booster seat. I want to sit with you.”

“No, baby, it is not safe.” She was hell bent on her request today and you just ran out of patience. Snapping at her, you were instantly filled with guilt because tears pooled in her eyes.

“Darling, I am sorry. Babe, can you drop Emma and I at the parlor before going to the supermarket?”

“Sure. Just let me get my keys.” Sitting in the middle of two booster seats was highly uncomfortable but you would do it for your children. The whole car ride was filled with both the kids babbling about their school and day care respectively. Your husband silently made eye contact with you from the rearview mirror and you knew he was thanking you. “When should I pick you both up?”

“I’ll text you half an hour earlier.” Getting Emma out of her seat, you walked towards your favorite salon. You already knew that Emma wanted a mixture of blue and pink nail polish because colors are gender neutral. Chris always made sure that your kids never follow the obscene rules set by the society.

“We are going to have so much fun, mommy.” The little girl skipped towards the reception and stood on her tip toes to see you make the reservation.

“Baby, do you want to get a haircut as well?”

“Are you getting one?”

“Yes.”

“Then I want one as well.” The receptionist smiled at your daughter’s excitement and complimented her saying that she looked just like Chris. Emma puffed out her cheeks and mumbled, “I look like my mommy.”

“Sorry. You are a carbon copy of your mother. Now, I have you two stationed right next to each other and you have manicure first.”

On the other side, Chris sat his little boy in the trolley and marveled at how big he was slowly getting. He had decided to properly pamper his family today and an Italian dinner was just a start. One of the things that you always craved in both your pregnancies was his pasta pomodoro and he sometimes had to make it at three in the morning to satisfy your cravings.

“Daddy, can I get some cookies?”

“Yes, but only one because we don’t want you to have stomach ache.” Chris quickly finished the grocery shopping and then went in to Cartier. Pampering his girls was his top most priority today so he had already ordered a bracelet for you with all of the family’s birth stones engraved in it, He also ordered the same exact bracelet for his baby girl just in a smaller size. Emma always wanted the same exact things as her mother and Chris always tried to fulfill her wish.

“Can we get them some pretty flowers, as well?” Quickly, he wiped all the cookie crumbles from Jason’s face and agreed with him. They decided on getting them some pink roses because you both loved them.

The moment they arrived at the house, they quickly got to cooking but Chris made sure that he went no way near the stove. He was given the task to open up the spaghetti packet and picking out the red carrots.

Meanwhile, you both got your nails done with you opting for a bright yellow colour. Chris’s favorite colour. You got your hair cut in square layers while Emma just got a nice trim for her dirty blonde hair. Both the kids had inherited Chris’s hair and eyes but the nose and the smile was all you. During the whole time, you and your daughter talked about anything and everything. She talked about the cute boy in her daycare and how she wanted to be his friend but she got a whole circus running around in her tummy.You just chuckled and thought to not tell Chris because he will freak out and bully that poor boy.

After about two hours, Chris and James came to pick you both up and the whole way back, both the kids kept bickering with each other. The moment you opened the front door to your house, your favorite aroma hit you and a blissful sigh escaped your lips. “Have I told you this new look suits you a lot?” Your husband took you in a backside hug while both your munchkins ran towards the dining room.

“Just like a thousand times from the moment you picked us up. Is this dinner a hint?”

“Well, it’s true and maybe it is.” You kissed him slowly on the lips because the prospect of another kid was exciting to say the least.

“Daddy, I want the pasta!” Emma screamed from across the hallway and you both made your way towards them. The dining was all set and the kids were already sitting at their assigned places with their plastic forks in hand. Chris quickly served the food and you all got to eating. Dodger was sitting by your chair and happily munching on his food. Making silent eye contact with your husband, you guys silently agreed on having another kid. You were thrilled.

They all went to their rooms and came out in their matching Captain America pjs that Chris bought from Los Angeles the last time he was there for shooting. He always loved the idea of twinning with his famiily.

“We have a little surprise for you, don’t we, Jason?” The boy ran towards the living room and you all followed suit. Chris gave you a bouquet with a red long box and Jason did the same but with a smaller size to his baby sister.

The moment you saw the content in the jewelry box, tears welled up in your eyes. This was such a thoughtful gift and there was an empty place in the bracelet for a new gemstone. “You thought of everything, didn’t you?”

“I am giving you a lot of hints, here.”

“You don’t have to convince me, baby. I was thinking about this as well.”

“Then, it’s done. Baby number three of our family.”

“Thank you, daddy,” Emma jumped on Chris from the back and he immediately caught her in his arms.

“No problem, baby. Which movie do you guys want to watch?” He asked but he already knew the answer.

“Lion King!” There were a lot of things that your kids didn’t agree with but this was an exception. They were both die hard fans of Lion King.

“Aw, I thought we will watch Captain America today. But that’s okay, I guess.” He pretended to be hurt by their answer but the kids took it seriously.

“No, daddy. We love Captain America and we can watch it today.” Little hands cupped his light stubbled cheeks and Chris just smiled at his two babies. He was so lucky to have them and he could not wait for a third one.

“It’s okay, bubs. I was just kidding, We can watch it tomorrow. Today is Lion King’s day.” They all got together under the blanket and kept all the snacks on their laps. This was what Chris wanted the whole day; his whole family under his arms, happy.

“I love you.” He whispered to you while you cleaned off Emma’s sticky fingers and the drool on Jason’s chin.

“I love you, too.” You spent the whole night on that couch and somewhere in between the movie, Dodger came up and cuddled to your side. Your life was blissful and it was all because of Chris, the love of your life.

Hope you guys liked it!!

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A/N: This is just some family dribble that I wrote related to Chris Evans. I just love the idea of dad Chris. Send me some ideas related to Chris as a family man and I will be happy to write about it. Tell me if you wanted to be in the taglist.

Tag list: @maximeevansblog, @justile 

Like, comment and reblog.

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[sly-merlin]

okey dokey! I'm gonna be a father!

Requesting pregnant reader scenarios, wanna see more of the guys’ duality balancing domesticity and impending fatherhood, and running the world, ya know 🙏🏾😎🤔😀 Just throwing the idea out there since you said we could. Y’know things like ‘I’m trying to leave to set up a meeting but her back is sore & she wants ice cream so one of u needs to suddenly be available. now’ & other things ig. I imagined Ty Kun, John Jae or Kun in as leader & probably hc or jaemin as the wife-sitters (lol)

Since you didn’t specify the unit,I did this with the few members from hyung line. This got so long that I ran out of ideas so let me know if you want me to write for some other members.  though j incorporated your ideas but i based it on the concept of them managing the treats in both hands. This is my first time doing reactions so leave some feedback if you wish! Have a nice day everybody.

(7 members) Ft. Taeil, johnny, taeyong, yuta, ten, jaehyun + kun

TAEIL 

"Let me message you back!" Taeil whispered into the phone and raised his body to observe your sleeping form. Your head was securely resting on his arm and he let out a relieved sigh as it was one of the few Lucky days when you were not thrashing around in your sleep. Day after day, you were getting uncomfortable with your heavy belly and all he could ever do was keep you company in your frustrations. He couldn't risk waking you up so he tried his best to complete the task in the painful position. He fidgeted with the phone for it was impossible to handle a 6 inch of metal device with one hand. Struggling with the grip for a few more seconds, he finally managed to send johnny a message regarding the inquiry.

Ask tae He has ab eztra key 2 my ofice.

Maybe he should turn his autocorrect on for situations like this!

Thinking his work was done, he locked the phone. just when he was about to put it on the nightstand on a blind guess, it vibrated again! 

John: He is out! You need to come asap.

He stopped to watch out for any movement from your side and when there was none, he shifted to his phone again.

Nt my pblm. 

He couldn't understand why johnny was being so persistent when everyone was under strict orders to not call him after 10 p.m unless someone was dying!

John: Jungwoo is in trouble with police. I need his fake ID!

Taeil’s scoffed a bit too loudly causing you to stir.  He paused in his actions only to continue when he noticed your even breathing. Weighing the options, he concluded that Jungwoo must have forgotten to pay for the food again or something like that otherwise if it was work related then johnny would have been screaming at his door and not through the phone.

Not his 1st time. dw too much. Jst send him some food so he wont cry like last tym.

He deserved that much punishment! With that he switched the device off and wrapped his arm around your waist, returning to the warmth he got to experience only at night times.

JOHNNY

You were on edge since the day you got yourself tested. You could blame it on the suddenly changing hormones or the never present johnny but one thing was sure that you were missing him more than ever. Johnny on the other hand, avoided going back home for the sole reason of finding himself incapable of taking care of you and his dangerous job. That’s why he had assigned hendery to be at your beck and call. He was a medic and since the other medical emergencies could be handled by xiaojun and renjun, hendery had no problem in spending some time with you. His company was full of funny stories of other members and silly jokes. Despite his endless efforts to distract you, the thought that your daughter’s father was missing the growth of his own child always remained at the back of your head. You couldn’t understand how all of a sudden his workload had increased so much that he barely had any time to even see your face let alone talk to you for a few minutes. But all your worries vanished the day he returned and sarcastically ordered hendery to show his donkey self out of his house to never come back again.

“I managed to prepone some important weapon deals”, he bowed gracefully to acknowledge his own achievements, making you chuckle at him, “and I’ve been rewarded with three months of holidays so I shall be spending these months making up for the lost time and creating new memories” he completed, kissing your forehead.

"I never said I need you 24/7. A few hours at most would do John" you said, knowing how his absence would affect the black neos. 

"Yeah. But then I realised what if my baby girl mistakes hendery for her father. Can't let that happen now yeah!" 

Masked under jokes, you were very well aware of the real reasons behind the toil he had subjected himself to! It was all for you and your baby girl and you knew he would do it again and again even if it meant the end of his life!

TAEYONG

 From sharp cold deadly glare to the dragon tattoo that adorned his neck and arms, fellow criminals had every reason to fear this man. His name, in the underworld, screamed  cursed royalty. But that was Lee taeyong, leader of black neos.

The taeyong standing right in front of you, struggling with multiple boxes of boards was anything but scary. Cladded in baby blue hoodie and black boxers, he was reading the manual, knocking down the structure again and again as he repeatedly found something missing from it. 

"Leave it tae. I can complete this later on. Come and eat now." You whined and suggested while taking bites from the creamy pasta he had prepared earlier. 

"what do you mean i can complete this later on. Do you find me incapable of making a crib?"

Yes you did!

But that was not the answer you could give when he was clearly trying his hardest. It was indeed baffling as to why the man who could assemble a weapon with his left hand was unable to join the pieces of a crib with both!

"No tae. You were out for three days so maybe you are just too tired to concentrate!" You explained in the politest way possible that clearly didn't reach him properly. He let out an audible gasp at what felt for him to be the accusatory tone.

"Eat your pasta and watch me complete this in half an hour! You'd regret saying that to me!"

Why was he the one with mood swings?

Just like other bubbling thoughts, you gulped down this one too and nodded enthusiastically, giving him a thumbs up as if you would never doubt his capabilities.

But you knew, he might have started the task but he was surely not going to be the one to complete it!

YUTA

“How about sakura?” hyuck suggested. Looks of disapproval were exchanged across the room and sound of mark hitting hyuck’s arm resonated in the living room.

“Cliche!” jaehyun laughed.

“Yes. We aren't naming our daughter sakura and that is final. She’s one of a kind and her name should also be!” you announced your arrival in the room and sat on the floor, making yourself comfortable between yuta’s legs. He wrapped his arms around your belly before leaning his neck to greet you with a sweet cheek kiss.

“Yes. What y/n wants, y/n gets. No sakura!” he held his one hand up in the air, forbidding any further discussion on the name.

"That's not fair!" Hyuck whined only to be dismissed by a wave from you.

"Just because it's not hyuck's choice doesn't mean that you have got right to choose by yourself. The baby is a part of this family so we get to decide what's best for her!" Ten exclaimed loudly getting everyone’s attention.

“How about ayaka?” kun suggested, entering the room with a trolley full of snacks. As the recommendations poured in, the snacks were passed to everyone. Days like these were rare and from the past two months, these rare days were spent daydreaming about the very first child in the black neos house.

“Akira? It’s quite universal you know.” mark joined in, reading the meaning of the name in different cultures and languages.

“Haru”

“No kai!” 

Somewhere in the conversation, yuta’s hands had travelled from your tummy to your sides. He knew the little brushes of his fingers had started to work on you as you swatted his hand away with yours. It only encouraged him and he tickled you on your sides more and more, getting the desired reaction. Your body being more sensitive and responsive than usual, you wiggled in his arms and squealed loudly enough to get everyone’s attention. Suddenly his hands stopped as he heard a whiny shout.

“Why are you bugging her?” hyuck hollered, “can’t you sit still for once? Let her breathe for a freaking second. You wanna tickle! Tickle me. Come tickle me but Don’t bother her!” 

You were aware of hyuck’s sudden outbursts of protection for you but this was truly something new! And you new tickles were not the reasoning behind his irritation. Sakura was!

“Le-let’s play a game”, kun interrupted before haechan’s frustration would land him into some trouble with the elder, “we’ll write all the suggestions into paper and whichever y/n chooses would be final. How does it sound?” 

Everyone hummed along to the idea. Looking over at Hyuck, you noticed a sudden glint in his eyes that spoke trouble. He was clearly planning something evil and until it was all fun and games, you had no trouble for his intentions.

“Since when did you get a bodyguard hmm?” yuta whispered, planting another wet kiss on your right cheek. 

“Yua.” you said.

“What?”

“We are naming her yua! When are you gonna tell them that i’ve already decided!” leaning backwards, you said in a hushed voice meant only for his ears.

“When they are tired enough to play any more games. Till then, let’s have fun. Look at hyuck, he’s surely gonna cheat and mark and renjun are going to strangle him.” yuta chuckled against your ear, making you laugh again. Life was good!

TEN

“Xiaojun! Xiaojun! Show yourself you good for nothing potato!” you winced at the volume of ten’s voice. Even though he was outside the room, his vocals were irritating. But you held your tongue from scolding him as he was the only one you could rely on at the moment. 

“Xia-

“Did bella bite you again? why are you shouting at-” xiaojun squinted at the wall clock and adjusted his glasses, “at 5:30a.m?”

“Half of the world is up you hibernating bear! y/n is craving ice-cream. You know better than to refuse her so go to her. Your service starts right now.” 

Xiaojun scoffed and remained glued to the stairs. Ten raised a brow questioning him but instead of answering him xiaojun came up with one of his own.

“And why aren’t you going?” 

“Switchblade prince is called so I gotta go. I don’t think you want her to wait!.”

Xiaojun groaned when ten shot him a wink and left the living room. Of course he had no trouble in tending to your demands which as a medic, he understood very well but ten’s cockiness wasn’t something he was ever ready to handle.

“y/n! What does our prince wanted to eat this early in the morning?” he smiled at you, plopping down on the edge of the bed.

“Apples and bananas.” 

“I meant what ice cream flavour do you want?”

“Ice cream? Who said ice cream? I want bananas.” you answered him, confused at his confusion!

It was only then that xiaojun realised that switchblade prince was never called in the first place. Ten had fled. Due to fruits! He was contemplating as to what extent he should be manipulating ten’s words while telling you about his betrayal when you spoke up.

“Umm. i guess we can eat mint chocolate as well. I’ll eat a banana chocolate sandwich first then we can both watch a movie and finish the ice cream. What do you say?”

Ok!  Maybe revenge could wait. Ice cream would be a priority here! 

JAEHYUN

If your husband was cocky, you were seriously too many steps ahead of him and it has taken only 10 days for jaemin to realise that you were just jae's cup of tea and no one else's, at least not as a 4 months pregnant woman. 

"Why are you sitting on the floor?" Jaehyun laughed at jaemin sprawled on the floor like a toddler. 

"Noona screamed at me" jaemin mumbled, hiding his face in his neck.

"Oh jaemin! Why did she do it? Were you teasing her again. You know that she doesn't take sarcasm too we-

"No. She threw up the food i made for her and that too thrice since yesterday. I got angry so i told her to eat up or else i won't be making anymore for her. She threw the pillow at me and ordered me to never talk to her again! I mean it's not like i was showing real anger! She's hungry since yesterday. If she won't eat up then she'd be sick. What did I do wrong! Now I made her favourite pasta and she won't open the door for me."

Jaehyun sighed and crouched down to jaemin's level. He knew your emotions weren't in your control anymore but jaemin wasn't wrong either. He was just doing what was right for you and unintentionally, you had ended up hurting the poor boy. Jaehyun patted jaemin's hair before he told him to inform taeyong about his possible absence from the upcoming meetings and activities.

"You can't do that." Jaemin said the obvious.

"Do you want her to eat or not!" Jaemin frantically nodded at him before running off to the main office.

Heating up the pasta, jaehyun made his way to your shared bedroom in black neos. 

"Baby open up it's me!" He knocked at the door and hearing his voice,you immediately opened it. 

"You are here!" You exclaimed, feeling beads of moisture in the corner of your eyes.

"Aww. Now is not the time to cry." He cooed, entering the room with the tray. Placing it on the coffee table, he turned around and hugged you just the way he missed you.

"I'm sorry for being occupied and only coming back at night. But I'm here for a few days so let's get you all happy like a seal!" He laughed, ruffling your hair.

"I-i yelled at jaemin for no reason." You confessed not being aware that he was already filled in by the younger boy. 

"You wanna apologize?" You nodded as he squished your cheeks in his hands and leaned in to kiss your pouty lips. 

"Later on! Now's the time for evening lunch and getting this food in your tummy without it backfiring!" 

You laughed at how smoothly he eased your worries. After eating properly, you apologised to jaemin which he accepted but not before crying like a little boy he was!

Bonus :

KUN

"Yangyang what the heck are you doing near y/n. I told you to keep your meaningless books away from her!" Kun felt like his blood pressure would shot up anytime soon.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh really? What's the book that you are reading to her?"

"How to walk like a pro when you are only 2 months old! I want the baby to be high class like me."

Kun's hands found refuge in his hair as he groaned at the boy. Now he needed to read all the books that could possibly reverse yangyang's teachings.

"There is no such book available."

"Yeah that's why i wrote it by myself. Pulled an all nighter but when the baby would start walking at only 2 months of age, you'd thank me!"

[batz]

Alternate timeline coomer and tommy who turned out to be the evil guys in the end

i remember in one of the commentary streams they mentioned that coomer and tommy could be potential Good Villains and honestly YEAH

itd probably be a bit different than the whole bubby and benrey thing tho. like, coomer is 100% the orchestrator to whatever fucked up thing happens to gordon, BUT its less out of spite (like with bubby n benrey) and more out of necessity? a situation where he thinks, and in some way is, the good guy in the situation! the games going to End, which means coomer and his friends are going to End as well, and coomer figures immobilizing gordon will make it way too difficult to win the game. if its too difficult to win the game, then the science team will Stay Alive, Live Forever! think The Trolley Problem, either kill one person to save many ppl, or kill many ppl to save one person.

coomer definitely doesnt Like being an antagonist, he was gordons friend after all! but what other choice does he have? tommy ends up being like,, a reluctant right hand man kinda deal, he's only w coomer bc hes scared of things ending bc what happens once the game shuts off??? he wants to hang out with his friends adn see sunkist snd drink soda,,, the possibility of things just. Ending. is terrifying. theres no books or wikipedia articles that say what happens to them once gordon leaves, and tommy doesnt like when something doesn't have a definitive answer. so he obv sticks by coomer bc coomer seems to Know what hes doing and Knows how to stop this!

bubbys 'never leave a man behind' mindset (that he apparently has??? lol) clashes with coomer and tommys mindset so he obv sticks with gordon and benrey. he kinda figures like hey if the games gonna end its gonna end like theres no use fighting it, we Shouldn't fight it. also being stuck in half life 1 forever sounds like super boring. benrey just kinda sticks by gordon bc hey wtf the script was changed why is he not the big bad anymore why isnt he the endgame battle???? realizing that bc of coomers choices it was switched around and now COOMER is the final boss, benrey just kinda tags along w bubby n gordon bc he wants 2 see what happens.

the final boss battle would be cool tho. big ol glitchy superplayfeature coomer. v much the same as benreys battle with the whole 'hey pls stop fighting bc i have no choice but to fight back'. less funny nonsensical lines and more shouting abt how 'theres nothing there'. maybe tommy has a change of heart and is on gordons side again bc he doesnt wanna hurt his friends, even if it means things potentially ending. now The Trolley Problem is reversed!!! now coomer is the One Person thats gotta be killd to save Many Ppl!!!! o shit what a twist!!!!

the scene where gordon gets shot w the portal gun and goes back to black mesa to destroy his passport has like, same circumstances, except coomer is Normal Sized and probably just calmly follows him to the locker room trying to convince him to like. Not Beat The Game. bc the science team may just be polygons n pixels to him, but they are very much Alive. and shutting off the game can only really mean one thing. everytime gordon tries to shoot him the bullets kinda just phase through coomer, who looks just, so disappointed in gordon. he rlly hates how things turned out..! pre-aware!bubby is the one that ends up opening the portal back to xen for him, even tho he rlly doesnt want to, bc it like, takez a LOT of effort and is super tiring like hes gotta use mind powers hes gotta use his brain to shoot a whole ass portal at a WALL like bruh but he does it anyway bc timelines or whatevr but he WILL complain while doing so

coomer is VERY glitchy and a lot more fucked up looking than benrey was when gordon returns, like hes just constsntly morphing and its suppper spooky! forbidden science evil moments!!!maybe coomer controls sunkist now too? sunkists got thos mspaint angry eyebrows and mspaint evil red eyes its SOOO spooky oOoOo. seeing that coomers got control of sunkist tommy goes full rambo on him like tommy is def the one that delivers the final punch n coomers eventually defeated!!! the ending scene is essentially the same, and the final speech is the same too! although a good portion of the speech is an apology to gordon bc. y eah. he def kinda deserves one. but he still mentions the science teams files being transfered, and Saved! he also makes sure to say that he Understands if gordon doesnt want to transfer over his file too, considering he did break the game. he just wants to make sure the rest of the science team gets to see the world bc they deserve it!!!!

tldr; if coomer and tommy were the villains itd be a completely different story and tommy wouldnt rlly be a villain fr long and coomer would be villain w grey morality / flawed morals n everyone is aware that its a game and its honestly probably a little bit more sad:(

[storyunrelated]

NaNo 2020 - Conclusions

So I didn’t finish this year. Whatever. Any time I have quote-unquote ‘finished’ it’s been a steaming pile of shit anyway, so did I really lose anything? Did I? Really?

No, the answer is no.

But did I learn anything?

No, the answer is no. Again.

What ideas bloomed this month though? Ideas that might charitably described as having sprung from NaNo in some way, shape or form? 

Everywhere Be Dragons

The original idea that I abandoned. Schlock, standard sci-fi. Lasers and shit. A retired man and his electronic friend who is presently in the robotic body of a bird go off to try and find out who injured his nephew. Turns out its some guy from some podunk evil space empire with a sword that can some summon chrome space dragons that can fly through space or some shit. Whatever. Garbage garbage garbage

Here’s a bit. The first lines, in fact:

Alarmingly naked, David Bellamy strode up to the largest of his windows and flung back the curtains to let what he hoped was the glorious sunshine of another sedate, mellow day flow in and bathe his more personal regions. 

Being a man of leisure now he had the time available to do this sort of thing.

Awful. 

Anyway, next.

And now for something completely different

Some admin schlub who works for a nebulous evil organisation ala SPECTRE is tasked with sourcing twenty-five red, plastic wallets by next week. It should be easy. It is not easy.

This was a very threadbare idea based on something I actually had to do, leading rather naturally to the thought “Wouldn’t this mind-numbing task be funnier if it was happening in an evil organisation?”. High-concept stuff.

Here’s a bit:

“Why am I doing this? This isn’t anything to do with me?”

“It’s nothing to do with me, either, but they passed it to me and I’m passing it to you. I’m higher up than you so now it has something to do with you. It is, in fact, now your problem.”

“What happened to Bill anyway?”

“Dead.”

“Dead?”

“Yeah, him and a bunch of others. Whole chunk of procurement, in fact. Super agents, last month.”

“What had procurement ever done to them?”

“I don’t think they were aiming for there specifically, they just got in the way. Think they were trying to hit the weather control department - they’re underneath them.”

“Oh yeah, yeah. Poor bastards.”

“Yes, well, now you’re here to carry on their fine work. Next week. Red. Sort it out.”

“But-”

“You’re a resourceful man, I’m sure you can manage.”

That’s literally all I did before I got bored.

Next!

Bad Wizards

I was reading about The Sword of Truth and I was reading about how Confessors worked in The Sword of Truth and it was this super-weird combination of an absolutely terrifying sounding power being the implications of which were ignored in a super-weird way.

Basically a whole class of women can ENSLAVED ANYONE THEY TOUCH FOREVER and this ability isn’t something they use it’s something they have to concentrate NOT TO USE and the purpose of this class of women is to...

...basically go around and brainwash/murder anyone they deem isn’t being honest and good. Oh, and they decide who’s honest and good. And there’s no question that they’re honest and good.

Oh and there’s no men with this power. Why? Because any male infants born with this power are murdered by their brainwashed loveslaves ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS.

Very odd. Very very odd. But easy fodder for villains, so I just thought “What about people being charged with coming up with ways of trying to fix this or go against it?”.

Then I did a bit where two guys are visiting a dead guy in a dead city. I don’t know why.

Much to his displeasure Percival was once again accompanying First to the city of Erhart, home to the court of Baldric the Everliving. Percival did not like the court of Baldric the Everliving. He didn’t much like Erhart, either.

He did not like the silence, the utter and complete silence. He did not like that, despite all of the citizens having died, there were no bodies anywhere, nor even a hint of violence or struggle to mark their passing. 

(Not that heaps of corpses would have made him feel better, obviously, but knowing that they had died it was eerie not seeing so much as an upset teacup to indicate that this might have been the case. It just didn’t seem fair to them, somehow. Like they’d passed on without a fuss, without so much as a whimper.) 

He did not like the way the empty windows seemed to stare at him. He did not like the way the streets were so dusty. A dirty street he might have been able to understand, but to have such a layer of dust, lying as thick as snow, untouched by the elements, undisturbed by any living footfall other than their own periodic visits - it just made him uncomfortable.

Everything about Erhart made him uncomfortable, frankly, from the mere thought of it, up through the physical reality of it all the way to the ruler of it, who he was going to have to go and talk to. Again. Nothing about this day was good for Percival.

BORING! NEXT!

Worse wizards

Uh, another idea, less related to anything else I was reading - I think? - but more, uh, what if there was a horrific ruling class of magical people who were for all intents and purposes utterly untouchable. 

Can kill you soon as look as you, mess around with your brain and your body just for kicks, come back from death easy as anything and only get more powerful as the years go on. One of them has a huge tower held up solely by their willpower, whatever. They’re a horrible, immovable fixed point in society.

Then one day mechanisms and techniques start showing up that can kill them and ignore their powers. Just out of nowhere. And these methods are super-simple to do and also start to spread.

What happens?

Lame lame lame lame lame.

“Did all of you miss what I told you at the start? The nature of what was used to kill Dennis?”

Blank looks. They had listened, but they had promptly forgot. It hadn’t seemed important.

That it was important and that this should have been obvious had passed them by. John gritted his teeth and straightened up, reaching around to a nearby trolley and - carefully - picked up a kidney-shaped dish resting on it and bringing it around so they could all see its contents. In the dish rattled several small, dark, sharp bits of what sounded to be metal. These the wizards peered at.

“He was killed by something that not only ignored his magical protections and ignored them completely, might I add, but which also then drained his body of even the merest trace of magic and severed whatever connection there might have been between his mortal shell here and anything beyond the material. Did you listen that time? Would you like me to say it again? Would you like me to go slower?”

More blank looks, though some were starting to get less blank. Some were getting confused. Some were getting worried. They’d actually paid attention this time.

What was I THINKING?!

Indulgence

This was me just doing a re-write of one of my secret, shameful pieces of fanfiction, with the fanfiction elements removed. Because why not?

[REDACTED]

Nope, not even a little bit.

Stupid! Next!

N/A

Some random thing in first person about following some rambling lady across some bridges and getting some weird book I don’t fucking know.

Where did all this water come from, anyway? And where did it go? I could see the vast lakes below us, of course, stretching off as they did towards wherever these caverns terminated, but did those lakes drain anywhere? The flow of water from above never ceased, and yet the levels below never rose. What maintained this equilibrium? Or was the scale involved simply so great that no change could ever or would ever be observed?

I do wonder why I wonder about these things sometimes. The answers to these questions wouldn’t benefit me in any way. 

Yet still I wonder.

Who ccaaaaaarrreeeessss? Next!

Delicious Godmeat

A long, long time ago in some faraway land in another universe or whatever there was some vague, vaguely benevolent overgod. They had of children and they looked after all the normal people and blah blah all was well.

One day those children decided to devour their parent and split up their power between them, so they could care out their own little demenses and rule things the way they thought they should. So that happened.

However, the biggest, juicest bit of godly meat went missing somehow, much to their chagrin. They looked and looked but they never found it. Because it fell through time and space in a way that’ll never be explained, and ended up here. And now, by accident, some random young lady touched it.

Whoops! You’ve got a chunk of a dead god stuck inside you now! Better go free the land of those rapaciously evil children, absorb their power and try to bring some goodness back to this land! Whatever that means! Figure it out! You’re basically a demigod now!

Have fun battling the alien feelings of a dead deity and an ever-increasing level of godlike power! 

“Sooner or later you’re going to have to make a choice knowing that whatever choice it is you end up making it is going to make a lot of people very, very upset with you.”

“Can I just do nothing?”

“Sadly, no. Someone in your position chooses not to decide, that’s still making a choice.”

“Gah! I can’t win!”

CONCLUSIONS

Awful. Awful awful awful awful. They’re all awful. They’re all terribly. Sweet Jesus what a waste of time, every last one of these is a stinking, rancid turd now fouling my Google Docs with their stench. Awful awful awful.

Know what’s missing in all of these? Well, lots of things, but you know what crucial element hobbles each and every one of them from right out of the gate?

No fucking characters! Just a half-baked idea shoved out and left to die in the sun! No-one involved I give even the merest whiff of a shit about! Not a one! And no situation I care about either! None of these do anything for me! They leave me cold! And everyone in them leaves me colder! Frozen!

A setting isn’t worth shit if you’ve got no-one to do anything with it! Settings just sit there, inert, characters make it happen! Characters make the story! AND YOU’VE GOT NO CHARACTERS YOU WORTHLESS SHITHEAD! YOU’VE GOT NOTHING! JUST THE SAME WORDY BASTARDS OVER AND OVER AGAIN! JUST A THOUSAND COPIES OF YOU! I HATE ME! THAT’S USELESS!

I’m dead inside now!

Well, deader than I was before!

Awful! Awful awful! Eurgh!

Oh well! Same time next year!

[ambersky0319]

GONNA RAMBLE ABOUT THE NEW VIDEO SO

SPOILERS AHEAD

note this was written AS I was watching the video and NOT after finishing it

Roman and Thomas saying they could have just talked with Lee and Mary Lee at the beginning? Hell yes. Exactly. Best option. Should have done that.

Patton is walking on thin fucking ice. Think his friends would have felt guilty for asking Thomas to stay at the wedding? Maybe they would have, bUT YOU WOULDNT KNOW THAT UNLESS YOU TALKED TO THEM. And!!! Who knows, maybe they would have AGREED that Thomas going to the callback instead was a good idea! And just. What about Thomas? He's clearly feeling shitty. A conversation could have possibly made him feel better, if he had talked with his friends and just communicated better then maybe everyone could have been happy-

Just. Urgh. Patton. Want to slap him rn honestly.

Also

Roman clearly looking off. Like, he's clearly upset but he's trying. He's defending Patton even if he doesn't necessarily agree with Patton's statements/ideas and just. Yeah. Whereas Patton, although he says he's realizing how he's compromising Thomas's happiness, idk, it still feels like he doesn't actually care? Or at least, he doesn't understand why Thomas is feeling shitty and he's not trying hard enough to understand.

Also, the video game thing is... Okay, I guess? Not really my favorite thing to ever happen. The censorship whenever he curses looking like a coin tho is nice.

Okay. No. No no no no. Patton no. That sharp intake of breath when Roman said you didn't need to give the guy a hotdog. No. No no no.

But also.

That's not... A good comparison. To the wedding and how it would make Thomas feel.

Neither the callback or the wedding affects someones survival. One is not a game and the other someone needing food. Both are luxuries, as Patton stated. You don't need a wedding, and you don't need a callback(Though the callback has more benefits since, if gone well, it could kick off your career). It just. Idk. Wrong example I think to use in this scenario.

"You shouldn't do a good thing just because it makes you feel good."

Listen. Before, I didn't mind Patton. I really, really didn't. But. Jesus, I want nothing more than to punch him rn.

Also love Logan's explanations but oh my stars its distracting me from what Thomas, Roman, and Patton are saying-

"You just... KNOW."

People don't necessarily know what the right thing to do IS tho. Thanos believed he was doing the right thing (my knowledge on the MCU is limited but I'm fairly certain Thanos didn't believe he was doing wrong) to him, wiping out half the universe was the right thing to do.

Clearly it wasn't, but it proves that not everyone believes the same thing when it comes to what's right vs what's wrong.

Also, the trolley problem. Honestly surprised I didn't think that would pop up!

Oh my fucking STARS ROMAN'S GONNA MAKE ME CRY WHILE HE TALKS ABOUT GETTING IN THE WAY JUST, FUCK

And just

Patton's logic is... Hurting my brain. It feels like going in circles. That just me?

THANK YOU LOGAN FOR POINTING THIS OUT: PATTON HAS BEEN CONTRADICTING HIMSELF

AND THATS WHY IM SO FRUSTRATED WITH HIM

JESUS FUCK THAT TRANSITION IS TOO MUCH NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE

NOT EVEN GONNA BE PERSUADED TO BE A FAN OF THIS VIDEO GAME STYLE

Wait shit the sdv reference is COOL THO okay I like that little bit but just- the rest of it like Patton looking like that and just it feels like too much!!!

DEE'S THEME

YES

HAPPY TO SEE DEE

"Not that any of you care, but I am unharmed." Oh I am SO USING THAT IN FICS great angst potential!

SELFLESSNESS AINT ALWAYS THE ANSWER

LOVE THAT LINE

ROMAN SINKING OUT AND THERES ONLY 10 FUCKING MINUTES FUCK NO NO NO

Also, Deceit's named Janus!! I actually quite like that!!! Gonna take a while to get used to tho

So

We aren't gonna address Roman sinking out? Or any of his insecurities? We aren't... No? Like, no? He was just compared to Remus and left. Didn't even pop up in the end. Just. Oh. Okay. No addressing that then.

[strongsassysexysloane]

Take me for a Ride, Jack...7

Wow, this part was written so long ago.. I didnt realise it took me this long to get to the part that inspired this whole story. Time to get greasy. 

. . . . 

You eventually turn around and head back to the market, Jack tugs you back to the cheese stall, not before she stops in at a stall full of scarves and hats. You drop her hand and watch her hands run over a few scarves she likes and purchases just one before you move next door to the cheese stall.

"Pick your favourites and we'll find a spot to go eat." She rests her hand on your lower back as you scan the selection

"I love that you think I'm sharing this cheese with you." She laughs and you buy  almost double what you would usually get because you have a hard time sharing food. The man prepares it on a platter for you.

"You really have a problem sharing food?" She laughs sitting beside you at the beach side table.

"Oh, J. You have so much to learn." You smirk and dig into your platter. The meal is spent in mostly silence and a few moans of pleasure from the food on your end and you can see the affect it's having on Jack which only spurs you on more before she grabs your thigh tightly.

"Stop, now." She purrs into your ear and just like that you're undone. "Thank you." She clearly saw your resolve change and loosens her grip on your thigh, moving it slightly higher before going back down again.

"And im the tease?" You scoff and finish off the last of the cheese.

"You started it. I just finished it." She smirks, packing up the platter and picking it up before walking over to place it in the trash can. "Want to see anything else?"

"Not really." You smile, watching Jack walk back over to you and she reaches out to take you hand. You take another walk around the markets. Happy to just hold her hand in yours and look over the stalls closing up. Then you cross the road and stroll down the shop fronts, looking in a few shops. The second hand book store takes Jack's attention. She picks out a few books and buys them.

"I need a few more for my collection." She smiles swinging her shopping bags by her side. "Ready to start heading home?" The sun was slowly setting, the cool breeze brushing your faces. The small walk back to the bike was too short for your liking but you slid onto the bike behind Jack and held onto her waist all the way back to DC.

There was a bit of DC traffic heading back into the city. Everyone coming back into DC from their day out on the coast. You laughed when Jack took the back roads to your place, prolonging the ride. But it still wasn't long enough. She pulled up to your curb and you both hopped off.

"That was a lovely day. Almost perfect." You smiled, hooking up your helmet to the back of the bike.

"Almost?" Jack huffed, hooking her pinkie in yours and tugging you close.

"Yeah.." You smirked, resting your hand on her waist, while her other hand and pinkie was still hooked with yours.

"Ah so what Torres mentioned is true." Her smirk growing more smug by the second. "You like to drive but me driving seems to be a loophole."

"You are a loophole in my brain, Jack." You both chuckle. You shake your head at the way those silly words came out. Hoping to god it somehow sounded cute.

"Smooth." Jack leans in and her lips graze the corner of your mouth on the way to dropping a kiss on your cheek.

You close you eyes, enjoying the lingering touch of her lips against your skin before it's gone too soon.

"Today was almost perfect for me too." She whispers and you open your eyes, to see hers teasing you.

You huff out a laugh and squeeze her hand before dropping it and watch her walk back and slide onto her bike. "Maybe it'll be perfect next time."

"Next time? You think I'll let you ride this girl?" She winks, sliding her hips slowly back and forth causing you to drop your head back and laugh. "I left that one wide open."

"So wide." You laugh and look back at Jack. "I'm sure I can convince you." You wink.

Jack laughs. "I'll chat with you later and see you at work tomorrow."

"Drive safe." You just get a wink in return and watch Jack ride off down the street.  Smiling all the way up to your apartment, running through the events of the day. It was perfect and you can't stop smiling. Jack does text you when she gets home, it feels so couplely for you and for once that doesn't frighten you. With Jack you feel light, like you can float and nothing can hold you down. Even Jamie's pokes and jokes don't break your mood. The days events finally catch up with you and sleep finds you easy for once.

You catch a case on Tuesday that get's all your attention but Jack is unfortunately held up with helping Vance and another team with a case for the next week so you hardly see each other. The case drags on and you don't end up catching the bad guy until the following Monday. Gibbs thankfully gives the team a few days off but Jack is still held up with other team's cases that you don't see each other, even texting is minimal. Thursday and Friday is just catching up on reports. Thankfully no new case which means the team goes for drinks Friday evening after work, only Nick, Ellie and you end up staying the longest, Kasie and Jimmy too tired to carry on, before you head home around 2200.

Before you leave Ellie suggests joining her in her kick boxing class on Sunday. You give her a tentative yes unsure if you'll remember in the morning. Also leaving it open to see if Jack wants to do something. Ellie smiles, holding a hand over Nick's teasing lips.

"Have a good weekend, chat on Monday in the gym." Ellie waves goodbye and you see her release Nick's mouth once you are out of the bar.

Saturday morning rolls around and you lay in bed longer than you should. Over thinking about texting Jack, asking if she wants to go out. You had coffee with her twice during the week, nice chats, more hand holding and another kiss on the cheek. She even came into the bullpen before she left Friday afternoon to say goodbye to everyone and gave you an obvious extra smile.

You make yourself a coffee, fiddling with your phone in your fingers. Jamie notices. You check your phone for the tenth time in probably an hour. You bite the bullet and send her a good morning text to which you get a reply a few minutes later.

'G'morning to you too. I'm working on my girl (bike) if I don't reply straight away.' You laugh at her clarification.

'I'm sure she appreciates the attention.' You can't help it, she brings out the sass in you.

You manage to make a cup of coffee and slightly burn some toast before you get a reply. Making yourself comfortable on the couch across from Jamie who's watching some medical show on tv.

'You jealous? ;)'

"How's Jack?" Jamie asks tearing her eyes away from the tv and sipping her cup of tea. You notice she has bags under her eyes, decent ones and she's wearing scrubs.

"You going in for over time?" You look slightly concerned, it's meant to be her day off, she didn't come home until 0300 last night and it's only just hit 0800.

"Yeah, Patricia called in sick. So i'm doing her shift and Tyson is taking mine this evening."

You nod accepting that at least she got someone to take her shift and not have to pull a double.

"So how's Jack?"

You smile and look back down at your phone, still trying to find the right reply but you know anything would be fine. "She's good, cheeky as hell." You take a bite of toast.

"So what's the situation?" You look at Jamie wide eyed at the question she just asked.

"Ummm.." You look at the tv then down at your phone, not really sure how to answer but wanting an answer yourself, hell you hadn't even kissed on the lips yet.  

"Haven't talked about it?" You shake your head and Jamie accepts your wordless answer. She turns her attention back to the tv. One thing you love about your sister is she stops asking when you need her too, most of the time.

'You're welcome to come and watch.' You smile and hop up from the couch, finishing off your toast on the way to the kitchen.

'I might just do that.' You hit send and nurse the cup of coffee as you go to your bedroom to get changed.

You turn down Jack's street and pull your car up out from of her building. You notice the bike down the side of the driveway and smile as you see Jack lying beside her. Walking up the driveway you stop for a second when Jack stands up seeing you. Your breath falters seeing her in front of you in long sleeved overalls, they're dark denim in colour and she has the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, the cuffs turned up at her ankles. Your eyes are drawn to the deep v at her breasts where she's clearly undone a few too many buttons but you aren't complaining as the v dips deep between her breasts.

Jack smirks at your pause and you kick your brain back into gear walking up to her. "Hi."

"That didn't take you too long." She leans in and you hold your breath but she kisses your cheek.

"No traffic." You shrug, dragging your eyes down her body again, not ashamed that she can see you looking.

"You like?" She does a twirl and you laugh.

"You get all the grease from the bike on you?"

Jack is covered in grease. It's sexy as hell but also funny. She's got some splotched across her face, neck, arms, hands and even a smudge on her left ankle.

"She's a tough girl." Jack turns slightly, looking at her bike.

You follow her gaze to the subject of conversation. There's a mechanic trolly on the ground that Jack was lying on when you pulled up, a large red tool box (is there another colour for a tool box?) and a bunch of dirty rags scattered around.

"What's her problem today?" You walk over to take a closer inspection and Jack goes into detail of what she's been doing but you only understand half of it. As she gets back down onto her back on the trolley you find a spot on the garden wall beside her work area, giving you a good angle to watch Jack. You happily watch as she works on her bike for almost an hour, she chats with you in between grunts and swears. You find that her swearing is kind of a turn on, well this whole situation of her in those overalls, grease and her hair tied up in a bun with a dark blue and white poker-dot scarf wrapped around her head is making you hot.

You wonder what it's like to kiss her as she works under her bike, it's definitely crossed your mind several times since the markets but the moments seemed to fly by. Would she be gentle and slow or deep and fast. You bite your lower lip between your teeth and Jack looks over at you.

"You're making it very hard for me to concentrate on my task." She slides to the side and sits up, rubbing the back of her hand across her forehead and you smirk at the new line of grease across her brow, understanding now how easily she got into this mess. "I just smudged more grease didn't I?" You nod and she stands up walking over to where you are perched on her garden wall. You watch her eyes darken and a mischievous smile begins to grow across her lips but it's too late for you to escape (not that you wanted to), she closes the gap between you, placing her hands on the wall either side of your hips. Your knees bumping into her lower belly, at least that's what you're telling yourself is where they are touching and you open your legs for her to slide in closer.

"You like me betw-" Her smart ass comment is cut off by your lips meeting her smug smile and she moans, she's kissing you back. Your hands wrapping around her neck and the tips of your fingers playing with the hairs at the base of her neck that have come loose from her working.

She swipes her tongue across your bottom lip and you make a whimpering sound parting your lips to give her the access she asked for. Your mind goes blank and all you can think and feel is her. You feel her tongue glide along yours, teeth clash, her hands grip at your hips and her left hand goes around to cup the side of your butt. It's too soon but she snaps back heaving for air but you don't let her go too far, your hands still tangled in her hair. elbows resting on her shoulders.

"Been wanting to do that for a while." You let out between breaths and Jack smiles, leaning in to peck your lips but you hold her close, dragging the kiss out longer, sucking her bottom lip between yours and releasing it with a pop.

"Me too." Jack breathes and kisses your cheek with a laugh.

"You've transferred the grease to me, haven't you?" You let one hand fall from it's spot tangled in the back of her hair and run it along your cheek where Jack was looking but you think it only made it worse because Jack just laughs harder. "How about helping a girl out?"

"Why would I do that?" She closes the small gap between you again and kisses you with more passion than the first time, she brings out sounds you don't think you've ever made before. Something between a whimper, mew and sigh which only spurs her on and she nips at your bottom lip before pulling away. "If I look half as sexy as you with a little grease on your face, I'd have kissed you hours ago."

You smile, your cheeks going a slight pink and run your thumb across Jack's cheek, smearing the grease a little more but bringing your thumb back to your face, dotting it on your nose. "Trust me, I'm shocked with my self control. Although I wanted to kiss you when you picked me up for breakfast."

"I wanted to kiss you when we spent three hours instead of one searching through profiles." She squeezes your hip and goes to step out of your embrace but your legs come up and slightly hook behind her knees and she slightly stumbles into you. "Let me finish this one last thing, I promise it will only take ten minutes and then we can kiss, cuddle or go for a ride, whatever you want." Jack smiles and you bring your hand up to your chin pretending to think about an answer but then realise you've smudged more grease onto your face in the process.  

"Might want to shower first." You add, dropping your legs to let her go and you see her huge smirk. "I didn't-"

"I know." She pecks your lips and you see her smile, it melts all your nerves away. "Ten minutes."

You squeeze her hand before dropping it. You watch her work, she bugs you again for chewing your bottom lip but you cant help it, she's dam attractive working on her bike and thankfully she sticks to her ten minute promise. You follow her up to her apartment, quickly realising this is the first time you've actually been inside her place and your heart skips a beat stepping through the threshold. It's very minimal, she has a beach style vibe as you guessed there might be as she misses the ocean so much. She offers you a seat in her lounge room and tells you to get comfortable while she takes a quick shower.

You take the opportunity of being alone in her space to wander around instead. Her living area is simple, a two seater tan linen couch with a huge circle armchair to match. There's a small oval glass coffee table with a few files spread across it and a few large shells scattered across. It's an open style area and you walk into the middle section where the four seater dining table is tucked into the corner behind the couch then onto the kitchen, its small but you can see dishes and utensils taking up most of the bench space. Taking a turn you go through the doorway into the hallway, to your left you hear the shower and see into Jack's bedroom which she's left the door open to but you turn right deciding you'll hopefully get the opportunity to see that another time.

There's four photo-frames equally spaced along the wall, all with pictures of a desert landscape. It isn't until you walk up to the last one at the end of the hall and near the front door that you see a much younger Jack with her Wingo's and you reach up and trace your fingers down the side of the frame with a sad smile. After you spoke to Jack about your time in Afghanistan you did take the liberty and did a search, asked an old friend in the Army if he recognised the name and he didn't share much but said a mission went horribly wrong with her and her team. You didn't want to know anything else even if he did want to tell you. You wanted Jack to tell you when she was ready.

"That was my team." Jack said softly beside you and you almost jumped out of your skin. "Sorry, saw you were deep in thought and couldn't resist." She smiles and wraps her arm around your waist. "Come with me." She tugs you down the hall and into the bathroom. "Sit." She motions to the side of the bath. You look at her confused and she just nods in the direction of the bath again.

"Wha-" You stop when you see her squeeze the wash cloth, water dripping out and brings it to your face and you laugh. "Thank you." She wipes away the grease you'd forgotten about.

"Might get certain looks if you go out like this.." She smiles, you feel the nice cold cloth travel down your neck and you close your eyes enjoying the feeling although you sweat there was no grease there.

"Gave up caring what people thought a long time ago." The cloth leaves your skin and you open your eyes to a questioning looking Jack. "Well mostly."

Jack turns away to wash the cloth in the sink but you happily stay seated, watching her. She catches you in the mirror and just smiles at you.

"So we are going out?" You try to not sound disappointed but you could happily spend the day wrapped in her arms, biting your lip bottom lip.

"I'd call us 'Going Out'" She raises her hands in the bunny ears formation to make her point.

Rolling your eyes at her. "Not what I meant and you know it.." But you blush anyway, her eyes havent left yours, looking at your through the mirror. You subconsciously bring your bottom lip between your teeth.

"I want to give her a test run to see how she goes then we can cuddle the day away." She winks at you. "If you keep biting that lip..." She doesn't finish what she was thinking, instead she shows you, turning around to you again, cupping your face with her hands and sucking you lip into her mouth, drawing a moan from deep within you and she kisses you. No one has kissed you with so much passion, ferocity and tenderness before. You surrender to her and she tugs you up, standing, you wrap your arms around her neck, never breaking the kiss.

The kiss ends and you can't not look at her, her eyes glaze over and you assume yours are as well. "So ..umm .. that ride." You breathe, the words no louder than a whisper.

Jack just nods, softly pecking your lips again before dropping her hands. "Yeah." She breaths

"Come on, baby." You smile, liking the name flowing from your lips. You grab her hand and lead her out of the bathroom and down the hall. She grabs her keys along the way and you walk out of the apartment.

. . . . 

Well? I kept re reading, adding, subtracting, knew i needed to post it before i re wrote it completely. Hope its ok.. 7 is my lucky number, funny how that worked out.

[the-canary]

Modern Times - B.B (11)

Summary: 1938. Working for the summer in booming Los Angeles, Bucky Barnes has his eyes on a certain dame. (1940′s Reader/Bucky Barnes)

A/N: This chapter we are exploring a little of the San Pedro Port, also known as the Port of Los Angeles! Thank you sooo much to @polaroid-idiocity and @ramblerumble for their love and support of this series. Just a few more chapters left! 

Feedback is always appreciated.

I hope your mother taught you better than to come up to a young lady’s room without an invitation, much less without her knowing.

Even a week letter, the woman --who he is guessing is your ma-- and her words had stung both Bucky’s ego and his pride. He knew that if his mother ever found out, she would drag him and he would never see the light of day again and while he had had his fair share of failed escapades here and there, he had never been caught doing something so simple and been reprimanded in such a way.

I do not know who you are or what you are doing with my daughter, but whatever it maybe stop this moment. I will not have some nameless vagabond sully her, not when she has so much ahead of her. Do you understand, young man?

She hadn’t even asked for his name during her little tirade and even though she was was wearing some of the shabbiest clothes she had -- there was just something about her that commanded his attention. It wasn’t like when his own ma was mad at him, there was something bitter and dark about how she looked and spoke to Bucky in that moment. Though, deep down, he knew that she was right.

James had no right in getting tangled around you when there was no chance after the summer was over -- he would be heading back to New York and working his ass back in the docks while you were teaching rich girls how to dance, at least that was better than his current situation.

Hell, maybe you even caught a rich guy’s attention and they swept off your feet where all the movies stars lived, though he knew that had never been your own plan maybe that’s what your ma hoping was for.

James Barnes had no right being so doll dizzy over you, but at the thought of you with someone else sent a shiver down his spin and punch the wall next to him. But, he had made your ma a promise and he was a man of his word.

So, he stayed back in San Pedro as his time in sunny Los Angeles slowly ran out, as much as it hurt him.

It takes you a whole week to feel better and it’s only then that you realize that either James never came back or you were passed out when he had come back, only for him to meet up with your mother. Though she never spoke a word of it when you were ill, but you knew her too well. Mother wasn’t the type to point out your own mistakes, she would wait and make your wallow in your own guilty until you confessed -- it made the punishment and groveling that much sweeter. It was the same thing she was doing with Gladys -- your mother was always willing to play the long term sort of game like she had all the time in world.

But, you were stubborn and it wasn’t until two weeks without a word from James that you finally head back home and catch here cooking in the kitchen. Your younger brothers were playing outside and your grandparents are nowhere to be found for the time being.

“Oh, you made it in time for dinner,” she remarks with a happy tone as she goes back to the tiny stove, while you take a seat near the wall. While, you might have never been her favorite, there were only things you really understood about your mother and how she was moving about showed that she wanted to avoid what you might want to talk about.

“Mama,” you start out and she freezes, “What did you tell him?”

“I have no idea--”

“The boy that came through my window when I was sick,” you start explain as she walks over to you, “You musta ‘ve meet him. He hasn’t come to see me again, what did ya tell ‘im?”

She stands a bit straighter than before and clenches her hands her hands once then twice. The light of the widow shines a bit brighter and for once more your mother seems so much older than she is meant to look. There is a calmness and annoyance that goes through her face that you had never seen before. She lets out a deep breath before speaking.

“You are meant for so much more,” she starts off before you cut in and tell her that isn’t the answer you are looking for. Her breathe stalls for a second as she closer to you and grips your shoulders “It might take some time, but you just wait and see.”

“Momma,” you whisper out, unsure of what is going on anymore, “Please stop.”

“Do you love him?”

“What...I--”

“Do you love him?” she screeches and digs her nails deeper into your blouse and into your skin, as you look her with widening eyes. Your mother, even with everything she had gone through and lost, had never looked this distressed before and the look of utter desperation on her face drove your answer.

“No,” you sob out as she loosens her grip, “He’ll be gone by the summer. Just a fling, nothing else.”

“Good,” she states with a sweeter smile as she lets go completely.

You stare at her for a good moment. She resettles her skirt once more before going back to watching over what she was doing, but before she can ask if you are going to stay and eat -- you’re already out the door.

“One day, she’ll understand,” she murmurs to herself before going back to her daily routine like if nothing had changed. She was used to waiting by now anyways.

“Mickey, I need a ride!”

“Where to, sweetheart?”

“San Pedro!”

It takes the two of you half an hour to get to the port from the heart of downtown and thought Mickey didn’t want to leave you on your own, he had to head back though you had promised you would head back on the trolley as soon as you found James. The problem was that you didn’t know where to being to look for the man -- you knew James worked at one of the docks but you didn’t know what exact company it was that he worked for either.

After awhile, you got tired and annoyed of asking about and simply ended up at the beach for a good while, staring at the waves and eating a light dessert you had bought. You tried your hardest not to think of what your mother had said and her reasoning -- it was just to scary at the moment.

It soon hit a quarter past three and you were ready to head back to your little bordering room. You were walking between the tracks and the sand, just a couple of steps away from the station when you hear it -- your name being called by a familiar voice.

And while you try to ignore your own heart stopping at the moment.

“Darlin’” you pause at the new nickname, which allows James to catch up and grasp your hand, “Where ya lookin’ for me?”

You don’t say anything as you turn to look at him -- bright blue eyes, excited smile and dirty as hell in his white shirt and suspenders. You aren’t quite so sure how he found you or what he had been doing in your time apart, but at the sight of him standing in front you a bright and warm feeling filled your very core. His smile flatters just a little at your silence, as he rubs your knuckles lightly.

“I--” he waits as you try to find the words, but you can’t. So you decide to show him instead, as you grab his dirty cheek and bring him in.

He grabs your waist and pulls you in closer. You let out a happy sigh as he deepens the kiss and as you end up spending the rest of the night dancing at the longshoremen’s bar -- you both deny the fact that you might be in love.

[ladybub]

The next chapter is here! I got on a roll last night, I wanted to get the next chapter out ASAP so that we could get that sweet, sweet action going.

Enjoy!

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe Characters: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Sabine Cheng, Tom Dupain, Chloé Bourgeois, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Lila Rossi, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Nathalie Sancoeur Additional Tags: Overboard AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Miraculous, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst, Fluff, Fake Marriage, I have literally got nothing planned, i am winging this, most likely smut Summary:

Overboard AU. Marinette Dupain-Cheng hasn't had the best of luck in her life, not only has her husband Luka passed away tragically three years ago, she's one failed test away from losing her scholarship, and also already lost her job at the cafe. With three children to take care of, she doesn't have the time to dawdle and needs to find another job, or a miracle, stat! Meanwhile, on his own personal yacht, Adrien Agreste - the heir to the Gabriel fashion line - hasn't a care in the world and women on his arms at all times. He's living the life of a Bachelor with no problems whatsoever, other than the hangovers he gets the morning after. However both their luck changes after a chance meeting, and when the son of the rich designer has an accident which causes him to lose his memory...

So... Marinette didn't end up with a job at the end of the day.

It seemed word got out about a clumsy waitress that was rumoured to have recently broken over half the mugs in the Le Blanc café - her old workplace - in one fell swoop, and had gotten fired. So when Marinette rocked up, resume in hand, it seemed that the managers were all too eager to turn her away, saying that they had no positions available and that they were very sorry - no matter how much she insisted.

She knew her luck was bad, but come on! She figured she wasn't going to get a job straight away, but she couldn't believe not one place would give her any hopeful indication that she had a chance. Even the ones that did take her resume didn't seem like they were interested. She felt the fuzz of anxiety in her mind, as her fear of losing the apartment loomed overhead.

Marinette shook her head and slapped her cheeks. She didn't have time to dwell on that right now, she had to get on the game! She opened the van door; she had just parked near the dock, right next to the hugest yacht she'd ever seen. Like, seriously, this thing was practically a cruise ship. It had multiple rooms and levels, and was absolutely spotless. She already knew that they had a kitchen on board, a fully-functional chef's kitchen nonetheless! More staff ran around on the board, and there were people on the deck, setting up for the party. It looked like it would be a long night.

She started packing the containers in the van onto a collapsible trolley that was tucked in the back. It wasn't even dusk yet and they needed to have everything ready by 9pm. She was so happy that her parents had opened the store to catering. Since they got the extra business, Tom and Sabine had extra time on their hands. They had taken a small step back now that they were older and the business was pretty self sufficient. They loved to babysit their grandchildren regularly for Marinette, and she was so happy that they were so involved in the kids lives, but mostly happy that they could take the time to enjoy themselves.

Marinette immediately felt out of place when she took a step onto the boat, just to her right was a giant spa! As she continued through the yacht, she walked past exquisitely décored rooms, each with their own ensuite. When she reached the kitchen, it was brilliantly polished and sparkling. As if it was brand new and untouched.

She finished depositing all the containers of food into the kitchen and already had completed the preparation, so all that was left was to stick them in the oven when the client wanted the appetisers shared around, and she was currently waiting for the first batch to come out. All the cold appetisers were plated and ready to go.

Marinette sat and watched the other staff scamper around in the meantime. She knew at 9pm, Tikki - the other server who was rostered for the night - would arrive, but that wasn't for ages away. She knew no one else here.

It seemed like the client wasn't here either, since no one bothered to greet her when she arrived. She couldn't help but feel curious about the many rooms in the boat, and quickly checked to see if anyone was paying any attention to her. Nope, coast seemed clear. It couldn't hurt to have a quick look around the yacht, right? She wasn't a thief, she just wanted to have a peek at exactly how big it was.

It was huge.

There was one kitchen, with in-built pantry the size of a room, two bathrooms - one with a bathtub, three master bedrooms and the forth one had its own balcony over the first floor. The fourth bedroom was the one she was in now, and it seemed to belong to someone, considering all the blankets were mussed up and there was more personal decorations around the room.

She quickly called Alya, she just had to know where she was. It didn't take long for Alya to answer.

"Hey Marinette, what's up?"

Marinette held in her giddiness, "Alya, you won't believe where I am right now. I'm doing a catering job for the bakery, and the place we're serving is a freakin' 5-star mini cruise ship!" She walked into the en suite, and eyed off a bottle of Gabriel cologne on the bathroom bench. Look's like the client is a guy... She thought.

"Really?! Who is hosting the party?" Alya asked excitedly, "Someone famous you think?"

Marinette quickly popped Alya onto speaker as she opened her emails, "Hmm, let's see... A guy named Adrien Agreste..." Her mind went blank, as it stuttered over the last name. "Wait, as in Gabriel Agreste's son?!" Marinette almost shouted.

Alya gasped on the other side of the phone, "You've got to be kidding me! Model for the Gabriel fashion line, mega hottie, Adrien Agreste?" Marinette knew the exact face Alya was pulling right now, and she was already dreading her next words. "Get in girl! This could make your career if you manage to get a contact with Adrien. Plus, have you seen him?" Alya made a noise that Marinette didn't want to put too much thought into.

"No way, Alya. I mean, you know that I used to have photos of him in Collège... But that was just a... Celebrity crush on a 14 year old boy. I haven't really been paying attention to social media, so I have no clue what he looks like now. Besides, I don't want to use some poor guy. I want to achieve success on my own merit."

"Mari, if you saw him you might change your mind." Alya encouraged, "You HAVE to open up Instagram right now, his handle is-"

"Do you mind keeping it down?" The voice came from the bed. Alya went silent and Marinette's blood went cold. No way.

Marinette's turned around, words of apology on her lips but then froze. It was like she was watching a magazine shoot in real life - on the bed was Adrien Agreste, sex hair from sleeping, and completely naked. Luckily (or, unluckily, depending who you asked) the sheet covered the important parts, but as he stood up, unbothered by her presence, and she got a full glimpse of his ass.

Notably, she noticed that on his left cheek, there was a cute little paw print, with the words 'Chat Noir' written below it.

Her face went beet red and she quickly looked away, she finally spluttered the words that she meant to say before. "I'm so sorry, I had no clue anyone was here. I was just looking around but I-It was rude of me to intrude, I'll leave now." She quickly turned to leave, hoping that if she walked off fast enough, he'd not notice her face and she could not die of embarrassment.

Before she'd managed to get out the door she heard his reply, and paused. "Don't worry about it, I'm not shy." Said Adrien, wrapping the sheet around him, and gave her a charming smile. "I mean, the world has seen most of it anyway." He shrugged, moving past her and into the walk-in wardrobe. As he dropped the sheet behind him onto the floor again, he gave Marinette a wink before walking out of view to get dressed.

After Marinette started thinking straight again, she began for the door once more. "Still I'll get out of your hair." Right as she reached the door, she saw Adrien's blonde head pop out of the wardrobe.

"Oh, wait!" He called, causing Marinette's heart to skip a beat. He walked out the wardrobe, buttoning up his perfectly pressed white shirt. "While you're here, do you mind getting me a..." He pursed his lips in thought, "A bloody mary. Yes."

Marinette's brain froze. Again. But this time, it wasn't because she was getting lost in his emerald eyes. "O-Oh, sorry, I'm not a bartender, I'm one of the servers of the catering company you hired, Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. We're here to serve the appetizers."

Adrien looked at her for a long moment. Shit. So much for leaving before he saw you properly. Marinette scolded herself. She then felt her skin prickle as his eyes dragged over her body. She suddenly felt self conscious. "Is there something on my uniform?" She looked to check.

"No, no. You're fine, it's just..." Adrien let out an over dramatic sigh, "You're a bit flat, princess. I prefer my girls with bigger breasts, what a shame, since your face so cute." Adrien gave her a very fiendish smile. "But still, I wouldn't mind if you crawled into my bed at the end of the night." He winked at her.

Marinette felt herself flush in embarrassment, but also felt like she had a bucket of ice water dump on her head. That was no way to talk to someone! Who did he think he was? "I-I have to go. To serve the food." She bit out. "You'll have to get your own drink." She stormed off.

Marinette reached the kitchen and opened the oven to peek inside. She closed the oven door, making a new timer for the next 5 minutes. She was barely containing the growing anger inside. If she wasn't representing her parent's bakery, she would've clocked the guy. Well, probably not. But she wish she could! Right in his smug face, maybe break his nose. Okay, that's excessive. She sighed, frustration now mingling with a bit of sadness. At least now she'd be able to distract herself with serving, and she'll just ignore him. She'll treat him like any customer, and the moment that the kitchen closes, she's out of here!

She groaned. Except that she had to come back in the morning and collect all the equipment. She couldn't be packing away everything and transporting it into the van so late at night. Guess she'll just have to take it as it comes, she didn't want to let her parents down.

Finally, right as the timer went off, Tikki arrived in the kitchen, a cute little ladybug pin on her apron.

"Tikki! Just on time, as always." Marinette was relieved to have someone else with her now. "I love your haircut! Short hair looks really cute on you."

Tikki touched the short red locks on her head, "You think? I was worried it'd look weird, but..." Her smile shined brightly. "I really love it! My head feels so light."

"Its super adorable." Marinette began filling the trays with the first round of appetisers, and set the first tray on Tikki's open hands. "Now we're just serving in the open areas," Marinette instructed, "I'll be keeping an eye on the ovens and get the new trays ready as they are needed. When you want a break, let me know."

"Got it, ma'am!" Tikki smiled playfully, before shooting an excited eye beyond Marinette and towards the music, which had just begun blazing throughout the yacht. "I can't believe that we're here, I feel like I'm on one of those party boats for celebrities."

"Well, considering the host, it pretty much is..." Marinette laughed weakly, she really didn't want to ruin Tikki's fun by being a wet blanket, but she knew she should tell her what happened the moment before. "Our client is Adrien Agreste, and unfortunately the only nice thing about him is his face." She scowled.

"Adrien Agreste?!" Tikki exclaimed, "Wait." Her excitement turned into a look of concern. "What happened? Did you meet him or something?"

Marinette sighed as she finished preparing the remaining trays and walked out the kitchen with Tikki, "He called me flat, and then invited me to his bed! I've head of negging but," She huffed, "he really seemed like he didn't care about hurting my feelings at all. Trust me, avoid him if you can. Adrien is a entitled brat."

Tikki gave Marinette a pitying look, "I'm so sorry, Marinette. You didn't deserve it, but," Tikki stopped and smiled at two guests who took a few quiches of her tray, "What do you expect? I mean, he's had beautiful girls throwing themselves at him all his life, and people sucking up to him for his wealth. He probably has some sort of God-complex."

"Ugh, you're probably right." Marinette's nose crinkled up, but she gave Tikki a reassuring smile, "I won't let it get to me, don't worry. I have bigger problems to think about."

Tikki reached up to Marinette and pinched her cheek, "That's my girl!"

It was an exhausting night, but Marinette was glad it was finally over. Lucky for her, Adrien was distracted the rest of the night and seemed to forget about her existence entirely - which, she admitted made her bristle slightly. What happened was so insignificant to him that he didn't even notice when she served him multiple times, whilst she had anger coursing through her the entire night every time she looked at him.

She parked the van in the same spot she had last time, and unpacked the trolley from the back. She'll be in and out, before anyone knew she was there. She brought along a cap this time which she pulled far down her face and wheeled the trolley up onto the deck and into the kitchen with no issues.

Just has she finished putting the last container into the van, the trays were the last things she needed to get. She sneaked onto the yacht one last time, and was just ready to leave the kitchen after collecting the trays when she heard the sound of two set of feet coming down the hall. She quickly ducked behind the wall, not wanting to be seen.

"Adrien, this has been going long enough. I won't tolerate any more of your abhorrent behaviour." A pang of familiarity hit Marinette. This voice, no, it couldn't be...

"Or what, Dad?" Adrien's voice spat out, "You'll cut me off? Your heir?" Marinette heard Adrien scoff, and she could tell that they both moved into one of the spare bedrooms just outside the kitchen. Adrien's words confirmed her suspicions, right in the room across from her had to be Gabriel Agreste. The same Gabriel who hasn't been seen out in public in years - and here he was, on Adrien's yacht.

"Perhaps I will!" Gabriel snapped, and Adrien seemed to go silent for a while, probably shocked to hear his father raise his normally reserved voice. "I will not have some brainless, alcoholic bachelor as the face of Gabriel. If you don't fix up your act soon, son..." A pause. "You won't be an Agreste anymore."

Marinette sucked in a shocked breath, was he going to disown Adrien? She couldn't believe what she was hearing, and she couldn't hear anything from Adrien either. A long moment passed before she heard someone leaving the room.

"You have one month. The week before the Spring Gala, if you don't come back to the estate with the intention on apologising and becoming an heir worthy of the Agreste name... Don't bother coming back at all."

With that, Gabriel Agreste left the boat. Marinette couldn't help but feel bad for Adrien, she couldn't imagine having that sort of relationship with her father.

She waited a few minutes before peeking out into the hallway, she couldn't hear anyone anymore. Perhaps now was the time to get out of here.

But before she could get away completely, a voice called out.

"Hey! Server girl." Adrien stood at the door to the bedroom, his eyes were red and when he walked up to her, she smelt the distinct scent of alcohol coming from him. "Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you for a drink." He shot her a entertained look as he stumbled a little when he made his way towards her. "Instead, how about some more of those little..." He gestured with his hands, "cheesy, bacon... Egg things. Hm?"

All sense of sympathy Marinette felt was gone as she remembered the night before, but she couldn't bring herself to get angry at him after what she just heard. Not to mention, she was in uniform. Ugh, she hated the hospitality industry sometimes. "Sorry, the contract was only for yesterday evening. Besides, there's no more food and all the equipment is packed away."

Adrien plucked out his wallet and then grabbed a wad of cash, dumping it on the trays she was holding. "Go get me something to eat then. I'm feeling something..." He thought for a moment, "sweet. Maybe fruit? What's in season right now?"

Marinette balked at the money, but still, grabbed the cash and shoved it into Adrien's chest. "I'm not doing anything for you. The contract is over. I'm going home."

Adrien grabbed her arm before she could leave, "Aw, come on. I don't bite." He winked, "Unless you ask."

"Ugh!" Marinette yanked her arm from his grip, "I don't want to spend one more moment with a sleeze like you."

"Me-owch. This girl has claws." Adrien didn't seem perturbed by her comment, "Did I hurt your feelings last night, princess? I was wondering why I didn't see that cute ass of yours in my bed."

Marinette felt the disgust curl in her stomach, "No. I just would never sleep with someone who didn't respect anyone but himself." She turned on her heel to leave, only to feel herself begin to pitch to the side - falling right into the spa!

Or, well, she almost did. Then two muscular arms wrapped around her and stopped her from falling. Marinette became very aware of that fact that she was pulled towards Adrien's bare chest. Did this guy ever have any clothes on?! She couldn't stop the blush that made its way to her cheeks. Adrien was a prick, but, even she had to admit was he fit.

She pushed his arms away hurriedly, "Get off of me!"

"Is that anyway to thank your saviour?" Adrien chuckled, the sound deep and sardonic.

"I don't need your help." Marinette straightened up and smoothed down her clothes. "It's just a little water anyway, I would've been fine."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really."

"Alright then..." Then Marinette felt his hands on her again, but this time instead of pulling - he pushed her!

Marinette fell into the jacuzzi with a large splash, the trays clattering to the floor loudly, some of them denting as they fell down the steps beside the jacuzzi, down into the entertainment area below. When she resurfaced, she gasped loudly, "What the fuck! I could have seriously injured myself if I hit my head." She spluttered, and wiped the water from her face, "You really are a dick, you know?" She didn't care anymore, she couldn't hold in the anger.

Her only answer was Adrien's entertained laughter.

So she got out of the jacuzzi, slapping away Adrien's offered hand while he snickered. When she began collecting the trays, she noticed three of them had huge dents in them, making them unusable. Her heart sank. These were her father's favourite silver trays that they saved for the high-class events, like the one last night.

She stomped up to Adrien and waved them around in his face, "You need to pay for the damage on these, look!" She pointed at the dents, "These are custom silver trays that my father ordered for the business! They cost hundreds of dollars, and that's just for one of them!"

Adrien shrugged, "Not my problem, you dropped them."

Marinette seethed, "You pushed me!"

Adrien bent to her level, "What you gonna do, sue me? With what proof?" He laughed as he walked away, "Since you're not going to stay and suck me off, you can leave." He looked into the distance, waving someone over.

"W-What?!" Marinette spluttered, "You can't do that, you- you damaged our property!" Suddenly, the sun that was warming her back disappeared as a large shadow blocked the heat.

"Gorilla, escort her out. If she struggles, just throw her into the Seine." Adrien plastered on the fakest, sweetest smile she'd ever seen. "Bye bye, server girl."

Marinette didn't want to satisfy him with a response. She turned towards the Gorilla, a frown deeply set on her face. "I can see myself out. This isn't the last you'll hear from me."

She left the yacht in a huff, trying to ignore the burn of Adrien's stare on the back of her head.

Oooh, she was going to make him pay her family back, one way or another.

Notes:

Yes. Adrien is a huge dick in the beginning. I promise that he'll get his just desserts, and also that he'll get better.

Chloe and Lila will be back in later chapters, I promise there's more to them than being the bikini girls who hang off him.

I hope this chapter was more entertaining than the last! I really want to get to the good, juicy stuff. It'll come, eventually.

[basedonatruestory-official]

CHAPTER THREE: SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT

It's pouring. It's six in the morning. Whose idea was it to leave this early? And on a Monday morning. Oh right, Mr Dwight. That man is restless.

Teachers and students are gathering to take a giant bus and get to a fancy resort in the city's countryside. The meet-up point is actually right behind Maggie’s house, although I highly doubt anyone except me knows it.

"I'm going to call your last names to check that everyone is here,” Mrs Potts shouts to make sure everybody can hear her. I immediately raise my hand when she calls my name and my classmates must think I'm a nerd, but I'm actually always nervous about being in the spotlight. Does it ever happen to other people? To mentally repeat what they’re going to say or do over and over before actually doing it? I'd be at the supermarket and rehearse what I'm going to say to the cashier while I'm waiting in the queue until it's finally my turn and I stutter and blush all the same.

"What's up, Sallow?"

I jump slightly and turn around to face Maggie, who has apparently popped out of nowhere.

"Hey, ready for the trip?"

"If the weather is any indication, it's going to be a disaster."

Boy, was she right.

Mrs Potts goes over our names once again when we're seated and then the bus driver starts the engine. 

"So, you mean to tell me that you've never listened to a Nirvana song?" Maggie enquires shocked.

"I mean, I'm sure I'd like their songs if I ever listened to them!"

"You bet your ass and you are listening to all of them. Right now!" she exclaims mischievously taking her iPod out of her pocket. In between "Polly wants a cracker" and another song, a hand makes its way to Maggie's shoulder from the seats behind us, and taps it lightly. As we both turn around, we are faced with the curly-haired boy who was looking at me last week during PE.

"Hey, I'm Jacob", he states smiling at us.

"Maggie."

"Robin."

"Great! Robin, can I ask you something?"

Remember the blush thing? Yeah, it happens every time someone speaks to me. Of course, it happens now, too.

"Sure."

"Would you mind switching seats with me? Midge here fell asleep", he points at the seat beside him and we all briefly look at the resting form. I stare at him and suddenly feel stupid for thinking he was interested in me, but also somewhat relieved. I suppose that's normal for someone who has never received this kind of attention.

"Of course, no problem."

I completely forget that Maggie might not want a guy she doesn't know to sit next to her, but it's too late now. I turn towards her hoping she might say something.

"Yeah, no problem", she doesn't look me in the eyes and I'm afraid I’ve screwed up.

I continue listening to music on my mp3 player for the next hour or so until Midge wakes up and I know it's not going to be quiet anymore. I've also been trying not to eavesdrop on Maggie and Jacob's conversation, a goal that has become particularly difficult since it looks like Midge is about to have an aneurism if that boy doesn't come back to his seat.

"So, what was that all about?" I ask Maggie once I get back next to her, the journey almost over.

“Ah, you know, he was just being friendly I guess”, she answers shrugging her shoulders and I decide not to insist.

•••

The resort is surrounded by greenery, there are two tennis courts and a horse stable, which we will visit according to what the professors have told us. There’s also a resident goat whose name is Vincent Van Goat; I don’t know whether I should admire the person who came up with that name or despise them for such a bad pun.

We’ve made our way to the reception where Mrs Potts is ready to assign us to our rooms, while Mr Dwight is playing around with Vincent Van Goat. Boys and girls are to sleep in different rooms, this was made very clear since the beginning of the trip, everything else is left completely up to us. Midge immediately asks for the room with four single beds, so that she can stay with her friend Serena and two other girls. After a couple of minutes, there’s only two rooms left and four people remaining; one of the rooms has a king-size bed and the other has two single beds.

“Well, you gals won’t mind sharing a bed, will you?”

The question throws me off and I remain silent. Was this girl implying something? And what’s her name anyway? I have never spoken to her, how would she know if we do, in fact, mind?

“No, we don’t mind”, I hear Maggie’s answer as she steps up beside me.

In just a few minutes we are settled in our room, there’s no need to use the wardrobe and the drawers since we’ll only be staying for one night.

“You don’t mind, right?”

Maggie is looking through her clothes, similarly to when students look in their backpacks when the teacher is about to quiz them.

“Of course I don’t!"

I realise I haven't spoken since the conversation about the rooms and she must have been wondering if I was upset. She briefly smiles at me and resumes what she was doing. I keep thinking about switching seats with Jacob on the bus and potentially ruining my brand new friendship with Maggie, so I decide to get it off my chest.

“I’m sorry if you were uncomfortable with Jacob. Earlier. I shouldn’t have agreed without asking you first.”

I adopt the same technique Maggie was using, I start needlessly moving things in and out of my trolley, waiting for an answer. The room has grown still and, just when I think I’m going to explode, a voice reassures me.

“Look, it’s not a big deal. I simply would have preferred to spend my time with you.”

“…so we’re good?”

“Of course we’re good! We’re sharing a bed, remember? And Midge can have the biggest room for herself and her besties.”

We both laugh at Maggie’s jab, but I suddenly remember that I’ve seen Midge’s friend before. Her name is Serena Scott and she went to middle school with me!

“What’s wrong? Why are you so serious all of a sudden?”

“Sorry, I just remembered something. Serena went to middle school with me”, I explain cautiously. I’m not ready to talk about middle school, not even with Maggie, and I hope she doesn’t pry.

“Okay, so what?”

“So I don’t have the best memories of middle school…”

“Who does?”

I look up at her and I think she understands, without knowing what happened. She gets me.

“I’m sure she doesn’t remember you and, if she does, she won’t bring anything up.”

She looks me straight in the eye, waiting for some kind of response on my end. I eventually nod, feeling more confident, and she smiles seemingly satisfied.

•••

I didn’t think I would ever say this, but watching the sunset with my classmates, with Maggie, over a tennis court in the middle of nowhere makes me feel like I finally belong somewhere. There’s something about the quietness that surrounds us and the pretty colours of the sky; they always stir something up in me, it almost feels like nostalgia. Nostalgia for something I've never had and never known. We’ve played tennis and ridden horses and practised archery and just immersed ourselves in nature for the whole afternoon. It might be the first enjoyable school trip I’ve been to.

We’re now back in our rooms and we have to get ready for dinner. Mr Dwight said that he has a surprise for us afterwards, knowing that man I guess I should be scared.

“Hey, how was lunch at your aunt’s yesterday?!” Maggie shouts from the bathroom.

I roll my eyes just thinking about it. Just as I am about to speak, I get interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Girls, are you ready?"

“Yes, Mrs Potts. We're coming," I reply without opening the door and turning around to call for my friend.

Maggie sprints out of the bathroom wearing only a towel and rushes to get her clothes. I'm not used to being this intimate with someone and I realise I'm continuously diverting my gaze from her. I don't think she notices, and if she does she doesn't say anything.

We enjoy our meal sitting in front of each other and discussing Nirvana songs, my favourite being "Smells like teen spirit", to which Maggie replies that it's too popular and that I should listen to more of their songs. The girls sitting next to us hear me saying the song title and immediately start gushing over how good it is. Maggie simply looks at me and raises her eyebrows, as if her point has just been proven. I hardly contain my laughter while Mr Dwight tries to draw our attention.

"Who wants to know what the surprise is?"

A disco. That's the surprise. There's an empty room with sofas on the second floor of the resort's warehouse and he asked the staff to set up a music system and colourful flashing lights. We're standing outside waiting for everything to be ready.

"Ugh, this is so stupid. Can't we just go to bed?"

"I mean, I'm not excited, but he was actually kind of nice to do this for us," I address Maggie's complaint and she just grunts as a reply.

We make our way upstairs and I have to admit it looks cool. I'm starting to get nervous though, cause I've never gone dancing.

"Hey, you're Robin right?"

I turn around and come face to face with Serena. I freeze and thank goodness Maggie is my friend, cause she saves my butt.

"Hey, I'm Maggie. You are?"

"Serena, nice to meet you," she shakes Maggie's hand and then turns back to me, "We met before, right?"

"Yep, yes. Middle school."

"Yes! What a coincidence that we met again in high school," she smiles brightly and I try to reciprocate, but I'm probably grimacing awkwardly.

"Come on, let's go dance together!"

"Oh I can't- I mean, I don't know how to-"

"Nonsense! You just shift your feet left and right, try to keep up with the rhythm of the song!”

Maggie, Serena and I have been dancing and jumping for around half an hour when we step aside to chat near a huge window. Maggie is mostly silent while Serena and I talk about middle school and exchange phone numbers. I'm glad and excited to get to know new people, and I also feel relieved Serena doesn't seem to know anything about my past.

"Hey everyone! How's it going?"

Midge has joined us and the conversation rapidly dies down. Maggie is quick to escape, taking advantage of Mrs Potts's proposal to escort anyone who feels tired back to their room. I'm standing awkwardly between Serena and Midge, we're gazing out of the window and somewhat moving around.

It all happens fast. We see Maggie and Mrs Potts reach the bottom of the stairs and cross the courtyard until Jacob comes running after them. Mrs Potts leaves them alone and heads inside the resort, Midge is boiling with anger and I'm afraid she might burst. I'm slightly nervous too, but I can't understand why. Jacob reaches for Maggie's hand and she immediately pulls away, turns around and pushes through the main entrance. Midge and I rush towards the staircase, me chasing Maggie and her striving to win over Jacob now that he's been rejected. I don't stop when we get to the courtyard, Vincent Van Goat attempts to charge me but gives up when I slalom between the other two.

When I get to our room, Maggie has already put on her pyjamas and is ready to go to sleep.

"What happened to you?"

I realise I've been standing in the doorway, panting, due to my increasingly faster running. 

"Well, I saw you. With Jacob," I reply, closing the door and getting closer to the bed.

"Great," she grits through her teeth. I sit on my side of the bed while she gets under the covers and crosses her arms. A smile threatens to spread on my face at her grumpy demeanour.

"He asked me out, ok?"

"Ok. And you said no?"

"Of course I said no! Boys are dumb."

"No, hey, I totally get it! Boys are very dumb."

"I mean, I know he's cute. Half the girls in our class want to date him."

"Right. Yes, he is cute."

My hands are sweating, this kind of conversation makes me uncomfortable. Maggie raises her eyes to meet mine, we hold each other's gaze for a few seconds and then we're both startled by a text notification on my phone.

"Um, it's Serena. She says everyone is going back to their rooms because of... Well, they're going back to their rooms and they want to have a slumber party in Midge's room. Wait, isn't it forbidden to go to other people's rooms?"

"Whatever, I'm not going anyway."

"It could be fun."

"You go, don't worry about me," she states curling on her side and facing the other side of the room.

I bounce my phone on my knee and resolve to get out of my clothes and into my pyjamas.

"Tell you what, I'll go over to Midge's room, see what the fuss is all about and report back to you. If it sounds fun you're going back with me. Deal?"

"You're doubling the chances of getting caught by Mrs Potts. You know her room is basically in front of ours, right?"

"I know."

After a few moments of silence, I hear a bashful "deal" and smile.

My journey to Midge's room, to the other end of the hallway, is nothing short of a spy mission. Actually, the first trip goes smoothly since no one is around. After establishing that the slumber party is, indeed, very fun, I inform our classmates that I'm going to get Maggie and bring her to the room. I'm making my way back to our room and feel the tension rising, it's making me sweat a bit. Nonetheless, I reach my destination and persuade my friend to come with me.

"Come on, you can't let one boy ruin your high school experiences!"

This seems to be convincing enough and we quietly open the door once again. We stay close to the walls and communicate with hand gestures. We’ve almost reached Midge’s door when we hear footsteps coming our way. I signal for Maggie to go first and she manages to get in, but I run into Mr Dwight.

“Professor-“

“Ah!”

He interrupts me and places his index finger on his lips. I stare at him with my mouth slightly open and continue watching him as he walks to his room without breaking eye contact. As soon as I get to the party, the girls ask me what has happened and we all laugh about Mr Dwight’s behaviour. Maggie and I get to meet some girls who are generally very quiet in class: Vanessa, Charlotte and Silke. We spend a few hours laughing about our other classmates and our teachers, then we ultimately decide it’s time to go to bed. The alarm is set for 7 and we’ll have to make the journey back to town.

Maggie and I exit the room first, we slowly and safely make our way back, but we hear Mrs Potts’s door open just as we’re about to get in. We look at each other and know we’ll get caught, we close our eyes and prepare for the scolding we deserve, but it never arrives. Instead, we hear Mr Dwight’s talking. Well, slurring more than talking. We realise he’s distracting Mrs Potts to let us go back to our room so we waste no more time and silently thank him. We burst out laughing and fall on the bed, trying to be as quiet as possible.

•••

The next morning, waking up is hell and we have dark circles under our eyes. Mrs Potts is surely starting to suspect something as we spend the whole ride sleeping. Before dozing off, I think back to last night and consider I might have misjudged Midge. Maybe she’s not as bad as she seems. She’s also Serena’s new best friend, apparently, so there must be something good in her.

Read on Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/837733367-based-on-a-true-story-chapter-three-smells-like

Read Chapter Four: We’ll Make You Scream.

[pi-cat000]

MSA time travel idea (part 9)

Summary: Arthur falls off a cliff and lands in the past.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Vivi POV, Part 8

Part 10: here

Arthur steps out of the office building’s foyer and is immediately accosted by the uncomfortably bright sunlight. He winces, shading his eyes, taking a moment to adjust and shake off the usual full-body jitters skittering along his limbs and torso. The air is hot, dry, and itchy. After being blasted with the cold air-conditioning for almost three hours, it's especially jarring. He takes a breath and lets the tension go, feeling a whole lot lighter now the hard part of the trip is done and dusted. All it took was a few hours of anxious waiting,-pretty standard considering he had rocked up without an appointment,-and he now has his new prescription and a referral to the specialist he actually wants to see. It had taken him a ridiculously long time to find this woman the first time around, what with having to cycle through an extensive line-up of medical professionals, and he’s glad he can skip the drama this time. Though, he’s not sure how he’s going to manage appointments when he’s road tripping across the country with Vivi and Lewis.

Arthur frowns down at the referral paper, continuing down the steps to the footpath running adjacent to the building. There’s no way he is letting Lewis and Vivi go on a supernatural road trip without him. Not with them being entirely in the dark about how dangerous the whole thing could be. Sure, they had Mystery, but he is beginning to suspect that Mystery didn’t care much for anyone who wasn’t Vivi (and he's not even sure he can trust that anymore). He would just have to manage alone until they returned. If they returned. Arthur forcefully shoves the paper down into the front pocket of his shoulder bag, trying not to think too hard on a topic bound to bring his mood lower than it already was.

As he turns to head back to his van, his gaze travels automatically across the plaza filled with shoppers, past the line of dinners and restaurants, to land on the looming grey, brick, cube-like structure of St Peter’s Medical and Emergency Centre. It’s the largest building in the block aside from the few office buildings behind it, and even those weren’t very high, causing it to lean almost threateningly over the shorter boutiquey outlets in the street just before it. Dry wind ruffles his hair pulling him its direction, and his steps falter. He stares at the structure wearily. Funnily, in this life, he’s never actually stepped foot in the Emergency Centre.

So entranced is he by the odd sense of dislocation that he walks straight into a thin woman pushing an overladen trolley.

“Hey, watch where you’re going,” She snaps, pausing to glare, while he’s busy ricocheting backward and stumbling in his attempt to keep his feet.

“Ah,” Arthur yanks his attention away from the hospital and tries for an apologetic tone, “Sorry?”  It’s not like the woman’s been affected by his mishap. Arthur is the one with sore shins. The lady huffs and continues on, a cloud of irritation following her down the path.

The small commotion has drawn the attention of several strangers who have all turned to give him a brief glance before getting on with their day. Now feeling overexposed and increasingly off balance, Arthur power walks around the building to the parking lot and the safety of his van. The back of his neck is prickling uncomfortably, and there is a disconcerting, foreboding taint, hanging about his shoulders right up until he slams and locks his van door. He takes a deep breath and rests his head against the steering wheel. Then runs a hand through his hair, twisting a strand between two fingers.

Now that’s over with he should focus on the more enjoyable parts of his trip. Mainly, finding equipment and collecting some components to mess around with during those long hours spent alone in his room avoiding people. It’s a good thing he knows exactly where to go. Future knowledge: great for saving friends from certain disaster and navigating unfamiliar towns. He turns the key and pulls out.

A brief wave of melancholic nostalgia has him taking an additional turn around the block, passing several familiar shops. Tomb Tome, a frequent haunt of his high school years and Future Vivi’s old place of employment. He slows so he can stare at the shopfront, which is plastered with familiar colourful posters, pamphlets and info on local gaming and comic events, obscuring most of the shop’s windows. Vivi probably would have enjoyed it there a lot more if not for the circumstanced of their temporary move. It’s weird to think that she might never work there in this timeline. Not if his plans to change the future are successful. He speeds up, facing forward, massaging his right thumb into the steering wheel. The second-hand tech shop is a few streets down, and he pushes forwards, banishing the odd sense of disappointment.

Headphones and some slow music wash out the world until it’s just him and shelves of old computers, spare parts, and various mechanical and technical equipment. Slowly, the last few days of stress and anxiety drain away. He buys a whole lot more than he means to, which, on top of the doctor’s visit, takes a significant bite out of his personal saving. It doesn't bother him as much as it might.

It's towards the end of his shopping trip, or as Lewis would call it his ‘retail therapy,’ that the nagging feeling of apprehension, which he’d been trying to ignore since the running into the woman outside the doctor’s office, comes to bite him on the ass.

He’s back at his van, shuffling around with his overstuffed shopping bags when a shout, loud enough to penetrate through his music, catches his attention.

“Hey!”

Arthur pulls the buds from his ears, glancing over his shoulder to watch a heavy-set man, with an impressive beard and a leather vest, stomp towards him. There is something familiar and disconcerting about him.

“Hey, you! Kid!” The strange man yells again in a gravely southern accent. Arthur glances around, but he’s the only person out in the street. He watches the stranger approach, trepidation beginning to coil in his gut.

“You’re the kid from the diner, the one that made the suggestion about my bike’s engine.”

Oh. It clicks. This is the famed Leather Guy. It’s been almost two years, but Arthur still recognises the perpetually scowly face of a man never more than a few wrong words away from a fist fight.

“Err, yeah?” He answers slowly, hesitating.  

“Name’s Micky,” Newly named Micky introduces, coming to a stop a few paces from Arthur.

“Sorry about taking a swing at you kid. Had a rough day. Went in to apologise but only saw your big purple friend,”

Arthur begins sorting through his key ring as subtly as possible, answering, “No problem. I could probably have been a bit more polite when pointing it out,”

He knows not to judge people based on appearance alone, but this guy’s looking awfully intimidating. His heart rate is increasing, and he can already feel the subtle flush of adrenalin, wiring him up in case he needs to move fast.  

“Hey now, no need to be modest, kid. Not when you know your stuff. It’s good I ran into because I’ve been needing a second opinion on my bike.”

Micky shoves a hand into his jacket pocket and takes another step forward. A step too many in Arthur’s opinion.

“The mechanic I took it too was as clueless as a dim bulb if you catch my meaning.”

“Hehe, where’d you go? Donald and Son’s Repairs?” He laughs half-heartedly. Donald and Son’s is only other mechanic within several miles of the Pepper’s diner. Though, he’s sure there’s a few around this town as well.

“Yeah, actually, went there and they did a piss-poor job. If you could take a look at it, I’d feel a load better. Have a long trip coming, you see. Can’t have my baby breaking down in the middle of nothing now.”

Why does he get the feeling that Micky has never been to Donald and Son’s and that his bike is fine? Arthur, trying to keep his body language as light as possible, locates his key. He’d learnt from many a bad experience to trust his instincts. Right now they’re telling him to get out of dodge.

“Actually, I’m kind of in a rush at the moment,”

It’s not even a lie. He needs to start heading home soon if he wants to beat Lewis and Vivi who would be coming over after Vivi’s shift ended at five.

“But I work at Kingsman Mechanics …you can bring your bike there if you want it fixed,” he suggests, inserting his key into the door, preparing to make a break for it.

Something clicks, and it’s not the sound of his van being unlocked.

“Yeah, I don’t think so, kid. How about you step back from the van,”

Between looking down at the door and his key, Micky has pulled a gun, pointing it in his direction. Arthur freezes. Micky’s holding it casually so, to anyone looking, it wouldn’t be immediately apparent.

“Come on, then. Promise this’ll only be for a few seconds,” Micky says gruffly, seemingly irritated that Arthur hadn’t just followed him to straight into a back alley like a chump.

“Ah,” Arthur’s replies intelligently while his brain spins its wheels, attempting process this sudden change in circumstance.

He stares at the gun then up at Micky.

“Okay?” He offers when nothing better comes to mind.

It’s not the first time he’s had a gun pointed at him. When he had been road tripping with Lewis and Vivi he always seemed to be the one getting held up and chased by the wackos behind whatever ‘haunting’ they investigated. Remain calm. Don’t panic. Don’t antagonise. It’s the same sort of process.

Surprisingly, it’s not nearly as panic-inducing as those previous times. Instead of the fear completely wiping out logical thought like a bulldozer it’s just keeping him nicely tense and ready. How is that fair? Point a gun in his face and he’s not even flinching, but put him in a room with Lewis and he can barely function without throwing up the contents of his stomach. Just add it to the list of failures.

Note: Sorry about the two-week delay between parts, I was off battling the education system. I’m hoping to have a part 10 done in the next 2-3 days so you don’t have to sit on the cliff-hanger for too long. Hope people enjoy the slight shift in pace/tone.  

[ankelspanker]

redemption

Luna Valente is a 22 years old intern in Aleman Hospital. She's living the life of an ordinary girl. Working, dating, hanging out with friends, and is known for her perseverance, hard work and cheerfulness. But behind this smile, there's the past. The past that she can’t forget, the past that can't let her go, the past that is now ready to return into her life.

here’s wattpad if you like to read there more 🍓🌙

chapter one

“But for real, I'm telling you, being a teacher is a hard work. Sure when you teach in elementary school you can somehow deal with the children, but when it comes to students...Jesus. But what were you saying? You’re a doctor, right? It must be hard! But on the other hand, that’s the profession.”

Luna’s fork with the salad on it was stuck in the air for like five minutes already, while she was looking at the person in front of her. She literally has no idea how he even chews. They have been on this date for hour and a half already (and she’s been counting), and for all this time she was managed to insert only a couple of phrases. It’s impossible, it’s absolutely impossible for a man to talk that much. And only about himself.

“I’m not a doctor yet. Just intern.” Luna smiles a bit. “I’ve just graduated from the academy and now it’s only an internship program.”

“Hey, Luna, I’m sure you will be a great doctor!” He winks at her, keep eating his steak.

“Thanks.”  

Valente takes a sip of water, mentally trying to remember all prayers she knows so the God will save her. This is the worst date she has ever been on in her life. And there have been a lot lately. She’s is literally ready to pay anyone any money in order to get away from this pathetic dinner.

The guy was planning to say something else but heavens must have heard her and her phone started ringing. She quickly takes it from the bag seeing her best friend picture all over the display.

“Yes, Nina.”

“You still on a date?” Her tone sounds quite anxiously.

“Yeah, what happened?”

“I need to tell you something.”

Luna shifts her eyes on her date and then suddenly makes the panic face.

“Oh god, is that your old leg injury again?! That’s just terrible! Don’t worry, I’m coming!”

“Wha...”

Though she doesn't hear Nina's next words, declining the phone call.

“Lucas, I’m so sorry but I have to go now!” Luna's fakes her sad voice as she getting up from the chair.“It was my friend. Her old injury is getting worse and I’m the only one who can help her! But I’ll call you later, okay? Toodles!”

Without even hearing his answer, Valente leaves the restaurant with all speed possible, going back to her car which is parked near the building. She quickly gets in and only then she exhales loudly. Of course she understands that this action won’t make her an angel but this was honestly too much.

After giving herself a couple of minutes, Luna starts the car, heading to the direction of her best friend’s apartment. For the last year, her personal life was like the Titanic wreck where, like one after another, her dreams for a happy future are drowning. Although there is a worthy explanation for this — she’s 22 years old and at this age she has to go clubbing and mix all alcoholic beverages she’s able to find there, but instead Luna’s working 13 hours a day and she barely has time to have a couple of drinks with her friends in a bar downstairs her apartment building. She did know that such profession as a doctor isn’t easy, but she obviously didn’t think that everything would start right from the internship.

About twenty minutes later, Luna is already at Nina's door. She knocks only a couple of times before her friend opens the door with her face being extra stressful and worried.

“You literally just saved me with your call!” Valente says as she walks inside, taking her heals off. “I’m telling you, this guy would make the dead one rise from his grave just to shut him up.”

Brunette smiles at her own joke, making herself comfortable on the big couch, though her friend’s face still looks pale and probably even more stressful that it was before. And suddenly, nothing is actually funny anymore.

“Okay, Nina, you scare me” Valente’s voice becomes a little bit nervous as she carefully looks at the girl in front of her. “Is something really happened?”

She said nothing, dropping her gaze at her fingers and beginning to touch them nervously.

“Nina, please say it already.”

Simonetti takes her glasses off and lifts her head up to look into her friend’s eyes.

“Luna, just please, don’t freak out, but…” She takes a deep breath. “Matteo is in town. He’s back.”

🌙🍓

“If Mark really calls this garbage “an apartment”, then I rest my case.” A guy named Gaston Perida throws his almost empty Abercrombie & Fitch bag on the couch and turns around to look at the whole place again. “I’m telling you, as soon as we get the money, we will rent a better flat.”

His friend with dark and a little bit curly hair nods as he opens the balcony door and enters outside to take another look at the city. He’s agree with his friend – this place stinks. Although, currently it’s not his biggest problem. He lived his whole life here and then he just packed his bags and left. Not because he wanted to – because he had to. And there was too much to left behind. Too much, he didn’t have enough courage to explain or at least say a proper goodbye to everyone he loved here. To her. He was actually sure that never in his life he would have to come back here. Every corner in Buenos Aires keeps 20-year-old memories of him and his life, and he doesn’t think he’s ready to face them. Not like that and definitely not doing what he’s doing now.

“Bro, are you okay there?” His friend’s voice makes him come back to reality and he exhales loudly before leaving the balcony, closing the door behind him.

“This area of Baires doesn’t have better apartments, believe me.” Matteo smiles a bit as he sits on the couch.

“You from here?”

“Not specifically this district but close. I told you I grew up in orphanage and it was located in the same ugly shit as this place. So, looks pretty familiar for me.”

Gaston nods, keeps looking at his friend. “So what if you meet her? You sure you’re ready?”

“Even if I’m not, what can I do?” Balsanoshrugs. “We have a job here and we need to have it done.”

They sit in a silence for a couple of minutes more before Matteo gets up and saying something quick like “I’ll go buy some groceries”, leaves the apartment.

Thank God the nearest supermarket is only a block away and this reduces his chances of meeting someone he knows.

He walks into Disco taking the trolley with him. The apartment is new and totally empty so they need plenty of stuff. Plus, more guys are coming tomorrow and its gonna be six of them and not just two. Matteo stops near the bread shelves, taking several toast packs, and just when he was ready to move forward, he heard a familiar voice behind his back.

“Matteo?!”

He freezes and then slowly turns around. Nina Simonetti in the flesh and blood is standing right in front of him with her mouth opened in surprise.

“Matteo?!” She repeats his name as she doesn’t believe her own eyes. “What the actual fuck are you doing here?!”

“None of your concern.” The guy simply shifts his shoulders trying to stay calm. Though the storm of worry was growing inside him. If Nina knows, everyone else might know soon as well. Especially the ones who don’t really need to.

“Why in hell are you in Baires? You left! Why did you come back? Is it because of Luna?”

The sound of her name hurts a little bit.

“Jesus Christ, Nina!” Balsano rolls his eyes. “It has nothing to do with Luna. Will you give it a rest already? I just have some business to do.”

“Some business to do.” She mocks him. “Don’t you even think about going to her.”

Matteo exhales deeply, remembering what a pain in the ass this girl was when he was living here.

“For the last time, I’m not here because of Luna. And I will be very grateful to you if you don’t tell her that you saw me, okay?”

“With all the pleasure in the world.” Nina looks at him with the most disgusting facial expression she has ever been able to make as she turns around and leaves, dropping her food on the nearest shelf.

Buenos Aires is a big city. The chance of accidentally meeting someone familiar here is very and very small. However, it seems today fortune was not on Balsano’s side and an hour after his return to his hometown, he immediately met someone. And not just anyone, but Nina fucking Simonetti. Donald Trump himself talks less shit than this girl, and probably, even if they cut off her tongue, she will find a way to speak. So, despite the fact that he asked her to be quiet about this situation, he literally 100% sure that soon everyone he knows from here will be aware of his homecoming. Including Luna. And the last thing Matteo wants to see again is the eyes of his ex-wife.

🌙🍓

Luna takes another sip of the water from the glass in her hands and keeps staring at the wall right in front of her. This is just impossible. That can’t be. He was gone. He left everything and just disappeared, and now he has literally no rights to be back out of nowhere. And she was hella scared to even go outside now. What if she meets him? What will she say to him? What will do? Matteo Balsano isn’t just someone. He’s everything. Her first boyfriend, first love, first sex. For God’s sake, he’s her ex fucking husband. Yes, at the age of 22 she already has ex-husband. They were too young, too stupid, too reckless and too in love. They got married as soon as she turned 18, against her parents’ wish, and she hasn’t talked to them since. Luna’s parents are extremely wealthy people and she actually comes from the very rich society. So, of course, none of her family who’s used to luxury and success would ever accept her love for an orphan from poor and wrong sides of the tracks. Her father didn’t call him anything except low life scum and forbade him to even breathe near Luna’s presence. Though all of this meant nothing to her. She loved. She loved so deeply that it was impossible to even explain, so of course when Matteo suggested her to marry him and leave everything behind, she agreed without any hesitation. Even when two years later after their marriage Matteo just left, only leaving signed divorce papers behind him, she didn’t come back to her parents. Not like they wanted her to, but she was already so used to being independent that returning there was equivalent for her to locking herself in a cage again. It was almost a year since she stopped living her life thinking about him every day. She moved to another apartment, found a job, started dating again. Luna tightly closed that chapter of her life story she wasn’t going to go back there.

“I met him when I went grocery shopping in Disco. I really didn’t want tell you at first, but then I thought you should know because what if he decides to contact you.” Nina says, taking her friend out of her thoughts.

“What if he doesn’t decide?” Valente whispers, finally shifting her gaze from the wall to Nina. “What if he has other goals here and he absolutely isn’t going to contact me? And then I just wouldn’t know that he is here and it wouldn’t turn my life upside down again.”

“Why does it even have to turn your life upside down? He left! He has nothing to do with your life now!”

Luna angrily gets up from the couch and quickly moves towards the door. “I need to be alone.”

“Jesus, Luna, why so much drama because of him?”

“He was my husband, Nina.” Valente puts her Zara heals on and gives her friend another not so happy look.

“Yeah, the key word is was. In case you forgot, you got divorced almost three years ago!” Nina follows her friend. “Yes, he left you without saying a word but this the past.”

“I have to go.” Luna shuts the door behind her and quickly goes upstairs. Her hearts beats like crazy and she’s trying all her best not to faint right here.

She only manages to control her breath when she’s sitting in her car, stressfully trying to find her phone. There’s only one person she can call now. Only one person who will understand her. Because he also was left like her almost three years ago without any information. And he’s the only person who knows Matteo as good as her, if not better.

As she finds his name in her contacts list, Luna clicks his phone number and there are about three-four beeps before she hears his voice from the speakers.

“Luna? Hey! Haven’t heard you for a long time! What’s up?”

“Simon, he’s here. He’s back.”

And this is the moment when it finally and completely hits her, and she just can’t hold her tears anymore.

[onbartonspringsfic]

78

“Jesus it’s cold,” you manage through trembling lips. You shove your mittened hands into the pockets of your coat, pulling it tightly around you as you accompany Dave down the sidewalk to the taxi stand outside O’Hare. The wind whips through your hair just as he opens a car door for you and helps you in. The heat in the cab is a relief at once.

“Where to?” the driver asks, flipping the switch on his fare light.

“Four Seasons, please,” Dave answers as he turns the collar down on his coat and shakes off some of the cold. Looking out the window, you bite your bottom lip slightly and raise your eyebrows at the thought of staying at the Four Seasons. It was a famous name and notoriously expensive, most certainly not a place you would have ever dreamed you’d be staying.

Dave peers out the back window to make sure everyone in the rest of the group has managed to get cabs. They hadn’t booked a van this time, but had arranged for the crew to pick up and attend to their instruments and equipment for the night. There is no one left standing on the curb as you pull away and Dave turns to you with a satisfied look on his face.

“Well, you were right about Chicago being cold. It will be a little warmer during the day. Maybe.”

“I’m good,” you say in a cheerful tone, wriggling your toes inside the warm boots you’re glad you’d packed when you’d left The Whelk. “I’m kinda excited about staying at the Four Seasons. Most of the time when I travel, it’s Holiday Inn Express all the way. And you’re lucky if they have the free continental breakfast. I always manage to break the waffle maker and end up with a heat lamp warmed cinnamon roll and a tiny plastic cup of apple juice instead. Oh – and then there are the scrambled eggs that obviously came out of a carton. Those are kind of… ‘ew.’”

He looks at you with a furrowed brow and a toothy grin, half amazed and half amused. “I learn so much more about you every day.” You laugh and shake your head. “How do you manage to break the waffle maker?”

“I am kind of disaster waiting to happen in the kitchen. That’s why I let you cook.”

“Good to know. We’ll let room service make the waffles from now on.”

-----

Dave hands the cab driver a fist full of cash as a young valet opens the car door. He obviously recognizes Dave and can’t seem to wipe the grin off his face. “Any luggage?” he asks, closing the door behind you. Dave smiles back at him.

“It was delayed. The airport should be bringing it to us soon. Any chance you could take care of that for us when it gets here?” He holds out some cash, but the young man refuses with a wave of his hand.

“No tip necessary. But I’d take a handshake. You’re kind of my hero.”

Dave enthusiastically shakes his hand and grins. “Kind of? What the fuck does that mean, kind of?” You love watching these kind of encounters, seeing kids meeting someone whom they idolize and learning he’s as good a guy as they thought he was. This remains one of the most endearing things about Dave. He’s genuine and honest and kind. He cares about his fans and he lets them know he does.

“You’re the reason I took up the drums, man.”

“You have a band?” He sounds genuinely interested. The kid is beside himself.

“We’re trying to. We mostly just fuck around in Jamie’s garage – he plays guitar. Sarah sings.”

“A female lead singer? Nice! What’s your name?”

As their conversation continues, the rest of your group pulls up to the hotel one by one, each of them getting out and retrieving their luggage. The airline only failed to put yours and Dave’s bags on the plane on time. The kid sees the rest of the Foos walking up to the hotel and looks back and forth between them and Dave.

“You’re all here?!” he asks excitedly as Dave calls them all over to say hi. You hang back with Alison while they carry on.

“I vote we wait for them in the lobby,” she chatters, the porcelain skin on her face turning visibly red in the cold night air.

You can barely get the word “agreed” out of your mouth before you both hastily duck into the revolving front door. They guys appear only a few moments later, followed by the ecstatic valet who is taking care of all the luggage. He is pushing a trolley in front of him while pulling another one behind.

“Taylor, what is WRONG with you?! Why would you let that poor boy carry all that on his own?” Alison scolds. Taylor looks shocked and defensive.

“It’s my job,” grins the boy. “And they’re the Foos! I consider this a privilege.”

“At least give him a big tip,” Alison murmurs, cutting her eyes up at you and smirking.

-----

The suite is enormous. It is, in fact, much bigger than the one in Austin. Not necessarily better, just bigger. Both you and Dave peel off your coats immediately and you hang them in the spacious hall closet by the door, inhaling the clean smell of cedar and lavender. A large brass framed mirror is mounted inside the door and you catch sight of your windblown curls and make an attempt to smooth them down before inspecting the next room. Meandering into the kitchenette, you open the fridge to find it fully stocked.

“Goody. There is a truckload of beer in here,” you call out in a flat tone. “Why is there always beer but no chocolate cake? Or bacon? Who do I have to have sex with to get some bacon up in here?!” You hear him snicker from the next room.

You follow the sound of his laughter through a small archway into the living room. Much like the Austin suite, there are two sofas facing each other separated by a coffee table, with a huge, flat screen TV mounted on the wall at one end. You have a quick flashback to the first night you and Dave spent together, each of you lounging on your own sofa and falling asleep watching TV.  

“This brings back a memory,” he says softly. “Wanna break a lamp? Or the shower rail? I’m buying...”

“Big spender,” you tease. “We just got here!”

“And?” he asks seriously.

Giggling, you back away from his advances, nearly toppling head over heels over the back of one of the sofas. He grabs you just in time, simultaneously sliding both hands underneath your sweater. You squeal in shock.

“Oh my GOD your hands are freezing!” He is now giggling along with you.

After a quick fumble, he holds your face with both of his hands, but you no longer notice whether they’re cold or not. “Guess what?” he asks softly.

“What?”

“We’re in Chicago.”

“We ARE in Chicago. And you’re making your documentary.” He has a look of wonder on his face. It is hard to fathom that he is as excited about the situation he’s found himself in as you are about the one you’ve found yourself in. The difference is: his incredible talent got him here. You’re here via pure luck.

“I haven’t seen you this excited since you played with John Paul Jones. It’s beautiful.”

“I could not be happier… than I am right now.” He searches your face just before kissing you deeply. He is gentle but passionate, acting out of love rather than lust, his hands still cradling your face, his soft hair falling across your cheeks and neck. No one has ever kissed you like he does. Not even Chris.

‘Chris,’ you think to yourself. ‘Why am I thinking about Chris right now?’ There is no reason on this planet why he should be a part of what is happening right now. You sweep him out of your mind immediately and give Dave a huge squeeze.

“I love you,” you tell him, burying your face in his neck.

“I know,” he teases. You chuckle but don’t lift your head.

“What time are you interviewing Mr. Guy tomorrow?”

“Mr. Guy. That sounds so weird. Oh God. Should I call him Mr. Guy, or Buddy? I hadn’t even thought about that! Fuck.”

Laughing loudly, you take a step back, marveling at his panic. “Dave Grohl Problems,” you manage with a roll of your eyes. “Just be polite. You’ll be fine. Do I really need to tell you this?”

He doesn’t seem to hear you, but suddenly remembers your question. “Um… he’s supposed to be there about 10:30 tomorrow morning.” He heaves a sigh. “I need sleep. I’m nervous and tired. And it’s past my bedtime.” He looks apologetic. “Will you be pissed if I don’t rock your world tonight?”

“Like you could,” you answer with a wave of your hand. “I’m tired too. You can give me a raincheck. Let’s crash.”

-----

“You won’t be in the way,” he exclaims, sounding confused. “As long as you don’t talk during the interview, it’ll be fine.” You tilt your head to the side in sympathy. “What if I need coffeeeeee?” he whines.

“Ask Justin. He’s your coffee bitch, not me!  I still feel like Yoko, sitting on the floor and watching everything from a corner. Besides, Alison asked me to go shopping with her and I’ve already said yes.” You are both touched and tickled that he seems to want you to stay so badly. “And I need a few more warm clothes.”

“That’s true.” He chirks up, takes his wallet out of his pocket and hands you a stack of cash. “Buy something sexy.”

“Jesus, Dave, I’m not looking to buy a house!” You’ll need to clean out your handbag just to make room for all the bills. “How do you sit on this?!”

“Just buy what you want. We agreed on this, remember? Buy what you want and, if there’s any left over, bring it back to me. How’s that?”

“Yes, dear.” He kisses you on the forehead.

“Now get the fuck out of here. I’m about to interview Buddy Guy and I don’t need you watching me freak out.”

You shake your head at him and step into the hall to find Alison waiting for you.

“Hello, lovely,” she smiles, looking as beautiful as ever. “Ready?”

“Let’s roll. Show me Chicago. Forward, shop!”

The cold hits you both with a shock as you step outside of the hotel and onto the street. “Let’s see,” breathes Alison, her breath forming a smoke cloud as she speaks. “You said you needed warm clothes. Anything in particular? Sweaters, jeans, shoes?”

“Some of everything, really. Dave said for me to buy something sexy. I’ve been thinking… I don’t have a nice dress. I’d love to have something pretty to wear for him. He’s never seen me in anything other than denim and t-shirts. Will you help me do that? You always look so nice.”

“Ah, you’re sweet. Of course! We have all day. We’ll just work our way up and down the street until you find what you want. Just don’t forget, we have other cities to visit. Austin has good shopping too.”

“According to Dave, I also need shoes. He finds it weird that I own four pair. I left most of them at home as they are my old lady funeral shoes.”

Alison guffaws at this. “Yes, we deffo must find you some shoes. Who has four pairs of shoes?! That’s unheard of!”

“Well, I spend most of my time on the island barefoot. It doesn’t get cold there.”

Alison looks at you blankly. “Okay, whatever. It’s changing.” You both laugh.

Three hours later, you’ve not bought a thing.

“Penny. Honey. You’re KILLING me. You’ve tried on like ten things that look GREAT on you! What the fuck?!” Alison sounds exasperated, but playfully so.

“This stuff just isn’t me, Ali. I guess I’m just a jeans and tee shirt kinda girl. I’d rather have a new pair of NIke’s than a new pair of cute heels. I can’t walk in those things anyway. And dresses make me look awkward.

“They do NOT. You look beautiful in that one!” You’ve stepped out of the dressing room wearing a sleeveless, brilliant blue fit and flare dress with a deep plunging neckline that is both simple and elegant.

“I love this, but I feel ridiculous.”

Alison smiles with pity. “You look stunning, but if you are uncomfortable, by all means don’t buy it. If you feel uncomfortable, you’re going to look uncomfortable. Rule of thumb.” You start back into the dressing room to change but stop suddenly and look at yourself in the three-way mirror once again. “It really is a pretty dress,” you say, twirling from side to side and checking out your profile.

With a small smile, Alison nods vehemently. “Either I’m wrong and you can feel uncomfortable while looking comfortable, or you’re more confident about that dress than you admit.” Popping up from her fancy, plush chair, she checks the price tag dangling from your waist and collapses back into her seat with a disgusted sigh. “It’s $50.00, Penny. That’s nothing. And you look gorgeous in it. The neckline is perfect for you. Dave won’t know what to do if you show up with cleavage exposed. If you don’t buy it, I’ll break your arm.” She smiles sweetly and you don’t know if you should be flattered or afraid. “You asked for my help…,” she reminds you.  

You quickly duck away from her beautifully evil smile and screw up your face as you study your reflection once more. “You really think he’ll like it? I don’t want to waste his money. It’s not exactly warm… and I’m not sure my Nike’s will go with it very well. I’ll need new shoes...”

She gives you a look of contempt.

“Fine!” you nearly yell as you scurry back into the fitting room to change.

After getting dressed in your own clothes, you re-join Alison. You are a little frustrated and ready to call it a day for shopping.

“Should we head back to the hotel and see how it’s going?” you ask hopefully as the sales girl hands you a carry bag with your new dress inside. The thought of beginning a search for shoes makes you weary on the spot and, quite honestly, you want to see what Dave thinks about the dress before you invest in shoes to match.

“Want some help with those,” you tease Ali as she begins to collect what appears to be a dozen or more shopping bags filled with her own purchases.

“Shut up,” she smirks and you both head back out into the cold, windy city.

[writtenbybigoceans]

Just you and me pt.1

A/N: You never thought Shawn would be the kind of guy to abandon you when you needed him most. Dramatic and angsty as fuck Dad!Shawn. Not sure how many parts it’s going to be yet.  

*

“Shawn, I’m in the middle of exams! I can’t just drop it all and run off to wherever you are at the drop of a hat.” You sigh down the phone, rubbing your temples in slow, deep circles. Your eyes were burning after hours of staring at your laptop and something awful was happening to your neck. You don’t know if you’ll ever get it straight again.

Now on top of all of the assignments and exams, Shawn was calling every night pestering you to go visit him up at work.

It wasn’t that you didn’t miss him, it was that he had no idea what uni was like or why it was so important for you to pass these exams. You had worked so hard to get in here and so hard to excel in all of your classes so maybe one day you could have your dream job too. It’s ok for him, he’s already achieved that dream. You still had a way to go.

“Y/n, it’s been forever since I’ve seen you. Sometimes it feels like you don’t want to be with me anymore.” Shawn’s voice is so different over the phone, tinny and thin.

“That’s all well and good for you to say! I don’t see you rushing home to visit me anytime soon even though you know how stressful it’s been for me.”

“I can’t leave now, I’m in the middle of work! We have deadlines to meet, Y/n. It’s been work 24/7 the whole time I’ve been here!” he exclaims, his voice rising to meet yours.

“Then why is it any different for me? I need to pass these exams. Just because I’m not famous or making a new, amazing album, my work isn’t important?”

“Y/n, you know that’s not what I mean.” His voice is soft, serious. Still so distant. I can’t even imagine it’s the same Shawn I love talking to me now. It’s like he’s taken on a different, harsher light.

“Look, Shawn, even if you don’t think this is important, I do and I need to focus. All of this is just more stress I don’t need right now.” There’s a long silence on the other end of the phone.

“So, you don’t want me to call you anymore?”

“I’ll call you when I can.”

“Ok.”

“Ok.”

“Bye.”

“Yeah, bye.”

*

That was one of the last phone calls you had with Shawn. You called it quits only a month later after another awful phone fight. It was all stupid, petty stuff but eventually, it just got to be too much. To be honest, as much as you missed him, it was a relief to not have someone else always weighing on your mind.

That was until you found out.

And there you were wishing he was still calling you every night.

But no, it was you, alone, in your shitty uni accommodation, holding a test that threw your entire feature into uncertainty. And now more than ever you wanted to have Shawn’s persistent badgering just so you knew you weren’t facing this completely by yourself, now that there was no way to repair whatever you’d both ruined between you.

He still has a right to know though, you’d thought.

You’d texted and called, all going through to voicemail. He hadn’t replied. Days passed with nothing from him. Eventually, you’d given in and just texted.

I’m pregnant. It’s yours. Obviously. Call me when you get this, please.

Less than twenty minutes later, your phone buzzed. Your heart was in your throat as you picked up the phone, dreading his response. What he wrote back knocked the breath out of you.

Shawn: Why would you text me that?

Y/n: It wasn’t my ideal way of telling you but you weren’t answering your phone. I’m sorry.

Shawn: If this is your way of trying to get me to talk to you, it’s not funny.

Y/n: I’m not lying. I’m not expecting us to get back together or anything. I thought you should know, and then you can decide what you want to do. It’s your baby too.

Shawn: I don’t want anything to do with it. Or you.

Shawn: We’re done.

Shawn: You know how important my career is to me. I’m about to release a new album. Something like this could ruin me. I can’t throw my whole life away for some teenage girlfriend.

Y/n: Are you serious?

Y/n: I can’t believe this. This isn’t like you at all.

Y/n: I always worried that you were putting your career ahead of everything else. I didn’t realise it came before basic human decency now too.

Shawn: Whatever. It’s your problem. I don’t care what you do with it just don’t involve me.

Y/n: Enjoy your career, Shawn. I hope you get all the success you want.

You throw your phone onto the couch, hoping it shatters. Hoping something breaks or rips. Anything. You wanted to tear the house down around you.

The rage leaves you as quickly as it came. Your legs go out from under you. You don’t even know you’re crying until a hot tear splashes on your leg.

“It looks like it’s just you and me then.” You murmur, your hand sliding across your flat stomach, no trace of the life inside visible.

“But, we’ll be ok. I’ll figure it out. I promise you that.”

***** three years later *****

“Can we get cocoa pops?” comes the tiny voice from beside you. Your son, Noah, was holding onto the edge of your cardigan as you both walked through the aisles of your local supermarket.

“No, sweetheart.”

“But why Mummy? It’s yummy.”

“Because you drive me crazy when you have too much sugar,” you tell him firmly, scooping some tins of corn into the trolley and crossing it off the list your mother had given you. When you hear him prepare to say something else you crouch down in front of him and whisper conspiratorially, “and having too much sugar is bad for you. Remember, it’ll rot your teeth and make you grow two little devil horns.”

Noah scrunches his face up and, sensing a storm brewing, you quickly try to distract him with something that almost always works.

“How does pasta sound for dinner? You can pick whichever kind of pasta you want: spirals, shells, dinosaurs…”

“Pasta dinosaurs!” Noah squeals and breaks into a run that looks an awful lot like a waddle down the aisle and around the corner. You grab the trolley and give chase, swinging around the corner seconds after him just to see his tiny body crash into the legs of a stranger.

“Noah, be careful!” you scold, catching up to him as he rebounds off the man and stumbles backwards. “I’m so sorry, he gets excited to pick out the pasta and doesn’t look where he’s going sometimes.”

You stand up as you’re talking and turn to the stranger and your heart stops dead in your chest.

The towering figure in front of you is someone you hadn’t seen outside of your own memories in nearly three years. Same dark hair and big brown eyes, same black jeans and green hoodie, just older with a little more stubble.

“Y/n?” Shawn asks, his eyes lighting up and a slow smile creeping across his features.

“Hi Shawn,” you answer shortly, hand resting protectively on Noah’s head.

“God, how long has it been, three years?” he asks, turning to face you properly. God, he just looks so familiar. Your tongue is tied, you can’t even begin to think of what to say. All of the rage you’d harboured for years towards the jerk who’d left you is nowhere to be found now. It’s like nothing has changed at all. He still has that crazy pull, like a hook in your ribcage dragging you towards him.

“Yeah, it would be about now.”

“Mummy, pasta.” Noah tugs on your cardigan again. Shawn glances down and his eyes lock on your son. His son. Your heart’s in your throat, you can’t breathe. Is that a spark of recognition, the beginning of shock, on his face?

“Hey, what’s your name little guy?” Shawn crouches down in front of him. Noah nuzzles into your leg, half hiding behind the tail of your coat.

“What’s your name, bud?” you ask, brushing back his dark hair, just like Shawns. If it weren’t for his eyes he would be the spitting image of his dad. But Shawn isn’t reacting at all. It’s like Noah’s a stranger’s kid, not his.

“Noah,” he mumbles shyly.

“Nice to meet you, Noah.” Shawn offers his hand for him to shake and smiles when he does.

“I can’t believe you have a kid, how old is he?” he asks, standing up and smiling at you again. “Who’s the lucky guy?” He adds jokingly.

“Are you being serious?” you say incredulously. What the hell is he playing at? But he’s looking at you in confusion now.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s two and a half years old. I think you already know the answer to the other question.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

“I don’t know how you can even ask me that. You don’t get to act all innocent and unknowing now after what you said to me.” You hiss viciously. “‘I don’t want anything to do with it, it’s your problem, do what you want just don’t involve me.’ Sound familiar?”

“Are you saying he’s mine?” his mouth is open in shock. “Y/n, I promise you I never said any of that. You know me, you know I wouldn’t.”

“That’s what I thought too, but I still have all the texts from your number that tell a different story.” You sigh. You’re tired. Sure, you were angry, and the last few years had been hard by yourself but hearing him deny everything and act like he really didn’t know just hurt all over again. Walking away now would be easier and less painful than doing all of that again.

“Goodbye Shawn. I hope your career ends up being worth it.” You pick Noah up and put him in the child seat at the front of the trolley, turning around and going straight to the checkouts even though you only had half of what you needed.

Anything to put the person who broke your heart and abandoned you when you needed him most behind you. Noah’s the only thing that matters now, not how much it hurt to walk away from the man you thought you hated. Even if he was telling you everything you wished was true. Even if being even a metre away from him so many years later had the same effect on you as when you first fell in love. Shawn decided years ago he didn’t want anything to do with his kid, he doesn’t get to claim innocence now.

[johannesviii]

Eater of Wasps

Some highlights of the last EDA I’ve read (Eater of Wasps).

I took these screens while reading, along with my reactions. As usual, this is full of spoilers.

O-kay, so this cover is pretty gruesome, I wonder if this is a-

OH SHIT OH NO

Well, that was unexpectedly great.

The problems keep piling up in this story and the action never really stops. It’s pretty straightforward and I wish some characters were given a bit more to do, but the regulars are still well written. Eight hasn’t been this alien since The Burning (which makes sense since it’s the same kind of story, with a basic plot but written like a thriller), Fitz is his usual loyal self, even when he’s scared shitless by the events, and Anji has some of the most interesting moments.

It’s also a real page-turner, with some gloriously horrible body horror left and right and more than a few laughs among all the stress. Unlike the previous book, this one doesn’t really try to make a point, it has a very traditional structure (if you forget the ton of gore thrown at us), and it’s just a gripping adventure with no other goal in mind. Definitely refreshing. 8/10

Okay this is a Baxendale book, so... how long have we got before the body horror and/or the killing starts

THAT WAS LITERALLY THE FIRST LINE

The TARDIS sounds like “a rather poorly cow”, according to this lady.

I laughed out loudly

Get back in the police box, Fitz, you unshaven untrustworthy criminal

Still laughing but I hope this old bigot dies in this story tbh

This description of our current Eight is simultaneously delightful and sad.

Miss “Old-bat-on-a-bike” Havers sounds exactly like a certain person who’s currently running for president in my country and who I hope to see crash and burn in the near future with all my heart

How many racist bigots are there in Miss “I-speak-for-the-whole-village” Havers’ shoes exactly

WELP TIME FOR FUN HEADCANONS ABOUT DANY PINK’S FAMILY TREE

“MISS HAVERS APPEARED READY TO COLLAPSE UNDER THIS ONSLAUGHT OF FOREIGN-SOUNDING NAMES”

Nope. Nope.

Eight wants to drive a tractor.

Also wasn’t he travelling far away from England in the thirties? I recall he said something like that in The Turing Test.

I’m smiling through the sadness this is confusing

Eight geeking about vintage cars, everyone

I really like the Pink brothers so far, so I’m pretty sure at least one of them is going to suffer horribly in this story

Well that’s also what Lawrence Miles claims and his books are roughly 50% politics so I don’t know about this

Eh eh

Eight playing Paranoid on a piano is my new aesthetic

Also I wondered how it would sound like on a piano and holy shit look at this video this person is so talented, like, damn

I don’t know who Kala is but her haircut made me laugh

So Rigby’s possessed by the wasps in some way?

Anji saying “bloody” impresses Hilary Pink and I find this endearing, somehow

We know, Eight, we know

The descriptions of the TARDIS team are great in this book.

I love this scene??

“There was something wrong” = understatement of the month

This creeps me out way more than the wasps themselves, to be honest, because I don’t particularly hate them. I have no idea how painful a wasp sting is because I’ve never been attacked by any of them ever. Granted, I don’t like them, but still.

Wait a second, is the old bigot contaminated too now?

“PITY ABOUT THE PLUMS”

COULD YOU PRETEND TO BE SAD ABOUT THE DEAD GUY FOR TWO CONSECUTIVE SECONDS YOU WALNUT

Extremely relatable

Run away. Run. Away.

Anji no

Good description cut, like, 10/10 would cut again

Can I breathe now? Cause I’d really enjoy that

Apparently I can’t

OH NOT MY HEART HE KEPT THE LETTER FOR 90 YEARS

I’m laughing like an idiot, that never gets old

Still laughing by the way

Well you did ask

Always the best course of action

I love this scene so much oh my god

Well that’s completely different, then

Have I already told you I loved this new TARDIS team with all my heart

[Unexpected sadness]

1) Eight was a sailor during the thirties, why isn’t there a book about that

2) Is that a reference to Pertwee’s tattoo?

3) If Eight really has a tattoo, wouldn’t that be a first (Three’s tattoo was there for real life reasons so it doesn’t really count)?

4) A tattoo of what

5) Where

6) If he hasn’t one and that’s all a lie… is… is he flirting with Fitz

I have no words

My hair is standing on end on my arms I’m not even joking at all holy f█cking shit that’s so f█cking creepy

OH. THAT’S EASY THEN. JUST IGNORE THE HUMAN WASP HIVE STANDING ABSOLUTELY STILL IN COMPLETE DARKNESS WITH HIS MOUTH OPEN TWO METERS AWAY FROM YOU. JUST IGNORE HIM. BECAUSE THAT’S VERY EASY, RIGHT

This shouldn’t be that funny but I’m half laughing half cringing

This scene is terrifying and hilarious at the same time, which results in me cringing like there’s no tomorrow

F█CK I KNEW IT

Holy shit Doctor

Good job, Kala, 10/10

Don’t we all

Oh god please try to explain the context to the police, Eight, I really want you to explain how you arrived in a police box and how Wasp Man is menacing that village because somebody dropped an alien thingie there

Nevermind

Funnier in hindsight

Fitz Kreiner, prison cells connaisseur

Of course he wouldn’t, but that’s still concerning.

Wait Miss “Old-bat-on-a-bike” Havers isn’t dead yet? Is there no justice in the world? (don’t answer that)

“I’m not sure what he is”

Oh that's perfectly normal then

Hey isn’t that the cover of the book?

Eight this is an autopsy for crying out loud don’t act like it’s an unboxing video

Oh. Oh wait. Oh f█ck. Is this book “SCP-439, but with wasps and the victims are mobile"? Oh shit that’s suddenly ten times worse

KILL IT WITH FIRE

FOR THE LULZ For the Vine no idea

Okay book I like you very much but there’s only so many times I can say "nope" in this liveblog and I’m going to run out of nopes soon

EXTREMELY RELATABLE??

I know the feeling, Eight, but please try to focus

That’s… that’s not exactly what she meant, Fitz. I do adore the fact that you had prepared an answer to that question, though

Hehe of course he would offer mint humbugs instead of jelly babies just to troll everyone about the wasps thing – also I want one, I’ve never tasted one before

Oh no cute

[Takes references for future drawings]

Honestly I love this description

SCREAMING

THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF GREAT SCENES IN THIS BOOK ALREADY BUT THAT’S IN THE TOP THREE FOR SURE

Eight you nerd

...........of course you did

implying things aren’t messy already

"overtactile"

Also I still can’t get this out of my head, wasn’t she attacked earlier ?

Ignore me I’m just dying a little bit over there

10/10 would fraud again

This book is almost non-stop action AND funny AND scary and honestly it would be a top-grade perfect Doctor Who book if the writing was slightly better and if the plot was a bit more original

Eight this is a bad idea and you know it

Anji is channelling my exact reaction

Eight every time you end up fighting someone it doesn’t end well for you

That quote is wonderful, I’m gonna memorise it for future D&D games

“It always looks easier in the movies”

This f█cking dialogue oh my god

Or perhaps you could blast the fire extinguisher right in his face before he hurts anyone else, just an idea

“Mad? I’m absolutely furious"

Nobody No-One’s on the phone & he wants his quote back

That’s always been one of my favorite things with Eight, his tendency to take one look at trolley problems and be like "nah". People die accidentally all the time but most of the time he refuses to be the person who decides who lives and who dies. Of course it’s highly debatable, but that’s what makes it interesting in the first place.

"Hope this is not Chris's blood"

Friendly reminder that the Doctor can detect blood types

I don’t know why but that particular sentence makes me laugh, the mental picture is irresistible

Fitz is that guy who always gets killed in slasher movies

And Eight can finally drive a tractor eeeeeee

That’s it that’s the book

Still in love with the descriptions from Rigby’s point of view, by the way.

GREAT EXACTLY WHAT WE NEEDED

GREAT EXACTLY WHAT WE NEEDED 2: THE QUICKENING

Also a defining trait of Eight in all his stories: his refusal to give up. Which is why the beginning of Dark Eyes was so great. And also Ship in a Bottle, because sometimes people need to remind him there’s always hope.

And that’s also what makes Night of the Doctor so heartwrenching ; it’s the Doctor who “never ever gives up” finally giving up, for good.

1) Anji is still channelling my thoughts 2) Honestly I’m glad Rigby’s now an actual monster because the human hive thing standing motionless in complete darkness was infinitely more creepy to me

Still loving these descriptions so I’m still screening them.

The fact that there’s still a part of him which knows this is a f█cking nightmare is the cherry on top, actually.

ASDFGHJHGHJK I FUCKING KNEW IT

“AND TO THINK I HUGGED YOU”

That’s your only reaction?

Ummm sorry I know the situation is extremely tense but look at this sweet little moment?? Thank you

Wasp Man

DOCTOR YOU LITTLE SHIT

Damn that was brutal

I shouldn’t be laughing so hard

Great just what we needed

Why is this still so funny

Can I breathe now

I don’t know why this is so cute to me but it really is

Friendly reminder that I love Anji

Everyone’s safe and nothing hurts, goodbye

Honestly I don’t even know which part of this I prefer.

Maybe "what deadline?".

[falke-scribblings]

I wrote a thing for the one-year anniversary of the film's U.S. release. Fair warning - it’s self-referential to the point of being obnoxious, and even mentions a thing or two I haven't gotten around to publishing yet.

Chronologically compliant. Might even be important later, who knows?

Nick had no idea what time it was when they came out of the studio, into the bright afternoon light of downtown.

It had gone quickly. Their interviewers had kept the discussion brisk, probably out of concern for their time slot. Nick and Judy were given just enough time to marshal their thoughts and answer the question, and it was on to the next one. Nick had liked the snappy pace, even if the content was safe-for-primetime softball. It reminded him of the hustling days.

Judy wasn't much better at on-camera work now, either - especially with the expectations that came with a taped segment. She hadn't been totally at ease with the tiny chair they'd give her to sit in. It was perfectly scaled - they'd just put it on a box, so she'd been at eye level with Nick.

But then she would rather be working, no matter the circumstances. Time out of their schedule, she'd frequently reminded him ahead of this show, was just going to put them behind on their cases.

Now that it was over, Nick watched her comb claws over her ears to reverse whatever the set assistants had done with their brushes, and check her phone. "One-thirty. We're not too deep in the hole, then."

"You know Bogo said we could take whatever time we needed. Want to grab lunch?"

"Whatever time they needed." Judy led the way down into the plaza. "And they're done with us."

Savanna Central was in full early-spring swing, with weather so temperate and warm that the transit authority had already broken out the open-air trolleys. They tagged onto the tail end of a nearly full car and sat in the rear-facing seats to watch the city go by.

It was just one stop back to precinct HQ, but there was a lot to see in that time: whole herds of mammals out for lunch or business or just to enjoy the weather, the lush greenery and fountains of the plaza, and the big afternoon train flickering behind the buildings in the historic quarter, on approach to Central Station.

Nick's nose twitched as they passed a food truck parked in the shade of one of the acacia trees. He could smell pretzels.

"Are you sure you're not hungry?" he asked.

"I am," Judy said. Her ears followed the truck, too, and she got a faint smile. "Just not hungry enough to stay late, if we can help it."

"Dinner it is," Nick said.

"No daydreaming." Her elbow jabbed him in the side. "I need your help with these scene reports."

"You'll get it, Carrots. You'll get it."

They made their way up the broad steps at headquarters and back to their desks. Judy leapt into her boosted chair with practiced ease, looking much more comfortable already.

They made good progress - half a binder, before Bogo came to check on them.

"They done prodding you for the day, Hopps?"

"Yes, Chief," Judy said. "We're almost caught up."

"City Hall had better stay happy for another year or so, then," Bogo said. "Unless they want to start filling in for you. If they keep bugging you, send them to me."

Now Nick hoped the obnoxious diversity committee reps would call back. "With perverse pleasure, boss."

He tossed his big horns in acknowledgement as he left. "And don't stay too late."

"If only it was just every year or so," Judy muttered. She had one paw on her chin, and she was bouncing her pen on top of the binder. "We've lost enough time to these retrospective pieces already."

"Not our problem anymore." Nick got to his feet. "I'm getting more coffee to power through this. Want some?"

"Half-caf. Thanks."

Nick couldn't remember exactly what the terms of their special interview had been - go here, answer this, it will play well with with the government's initiatives, yadda yadda. But now that Bogo had brought it up, he couldn't come up with a special reason for the timing. It would be published in a couple weeks, but the second anniversary of the Bellwether case was still about three months out. They hadn't said anything about his first year with the force, eventful as it had been.

There was one possibility, he realized, but he dismissed it almost immediately. Neither he nor Judy shared their personal lives. They didn't want to, and they had what was nearly a mandate from Bogo to leave it alone. Who you dated stayed home - especially in Nick and Judy's case. It had nearly bitten them more than once.

But it was about right, wasn't it? Now he wasn't sure.

To be fair to both of them, it had been a whirlwind, up and down, faster than any TV interview. They'd kept up. Their work had driven some of it by necessity, and when they'd both realized what was there and how important it was, they'd taken special care to strengthen it themselves. To find the time and boundaries and compromise and attention they both needed.

That was probably why it was hard to pin down, Nick decided, as he brought their coffee back. It was such a process.

But the more Nick thought about it, the more he realized they both deserved to figure it out. He stopped at the entrance to their cube, and watched his partner's ears shift their focus from paperwork to coffee. Judy looked up at him and smiled. He held her mug out.

"I know what we should do for dinner."

---

Judy caught on just before they stopped at the boardwalk, and spent the last bit of the trolley ride positively vibrating in anticipation.

"You didn't," she accused, when they debarked at the intricate garden pathways that led to Morgiano's restaurant.

Nick nodded. "I didn't. I did check, just in case, but the wait list is a mile long."

"Oh." She deflated, just a bit, and looked down at her pristine uniform. "We're not really dressed for it, either. TV interviews, sure, but not this."

"Maybe not for dining in, no," Nick said. He offered her his arm. "But I know a guy."

Stephane took time from his dining room duties anyway, to meet them in the kitchen itself, where a staff of tiny rodents scurried around an immaculate brick-and-brass space to make outsized portions of pasta.

He plied them with more spaghetti and house salad than they could possibly eat at once, in thick unmarked boxes. He was having fun with it, too.

"Not a word of this highly unusual behavior," the otter said. He could just barely lift the huge bag into Nick's paws. "We have a reputation to maintain, Officers."

"We're not on duty, Stephane," Nick said. He followed his grin over to where Morgiano himself was washing his paws in a tiny sink and shaking his head in amusement. He passed over the check. "You can count on our discretion."

Stephane waved the folio, and now he did look serious. "What have I told you about this, Wilde?"

"I cannot for my own life remember," Nick said. They started for the exit. "Keep it. For next time."

"Fine," Stephane called. "I'll hold you to it."

---

Nick saw how Judy was inspecting the food on their way to her apartment, and the way she kept looking back at him as they climbed the stairs to her floor. And she watched as he set the food down just inside her threshold to latch the door shut and slide the security chain home.

When Nick turned around she was pulling on his tie, making him thump to his knees. Her paws against his cheeks held him still so she could kiss him, hard, and then she nuzzled close with her chin over his snout. Nick closed his eyes.

"You felt it too, huh?"

"I figured something was up," Judy said. "Considering the last time we were there. What's the occasion?"

"I think it's us."

"You think."

"Ever since the interview it's been nagging at me. Bogo was talking about it today, too," Nick said. She let him get to his feet, so she could go find plates. "And I realized that we don't know how long it's been. Right? I haven't kept a calendar."

Her look made something warm start up in his belly. "Since our first time?"

"Since any of it." That night in particular was maybe the one he didn't have to worry about. It would be burned into his memory for the rest of time.

And everything else was just as vivid, even if he didn't have the dates down exactly. Shutting down Baird, and Boots before him. The rough encounters with larger predators, that still got him scared for her, even now. Lying half-naked together in bed, listening to her chat with her family. Standing half-naked in this very room not so long ago, when they'd first explored what they'd be getting into.

"I keep counting backwards," he summarized. "We went back to the farm that first time, what, six months ago?"

"Almost seven, I think."

"Right. And when we were settling in."

Judy had two big bowls in her paws. It was close enough. "There was Merc's concert, and all those nights before. The sky trams. And the garden."

Speaking of...

Nick found the cutting board, buried under a bunch of books on her desk, and rummaged in the crate by the microwave for the knife he'd gotten her. It was high-end ceramic - her sister Sharon's recommendation, when she heard how often they relied on fresh vegetables they grew themselves.

"Are there still carrots? Or cucumber?"

"We're going to have cucumber for months," Judy said. She went to the fridge. "More than we know what to do with. I need to call the food bank, or the farmer's market or something."

He accepted the one she held out and started chopping. It would go well in their salad. Judy sorted their food into bowls, and stowed the rest where it would keep in the fridge.

They sat against the front of the big green couch to eat. Judy had changed somewhere in there, into one of her favorite oversize shirts and apparently very little else.

"Definitely not dressed for the dining room, then."

"I think I like this better right now." She leaned against him. "You could join me."

"Do I even have clothes here? I thought I took all of them to wash."

There was that look again. "Even if you don't, it's not like I'm going to mind."

"I love you." Nick ducked his head, not to take a bite of his spaghetti, but to nuzzle her ears. "I'll get more comfortable after dinner."

So they ate, and Nick changed into the one pair of beaten duty grey pants he had on her clothes rack after all, and they curled up on his couch to quote the entirety of The Dusk Prowler at each other while they watched. The sun sank outside, and when the movie ended they stayed there to listen to the unmistakable rush and murmur of the city at night.

Judy had his tail hugged close. She squirmed on top of him, at his curious paws under her shirt. It was magnetic.

"Did you bring your muzzle?"

Oh. "No." He rested his chin between her ears. "This kind of came together as we went. Sorry, sweetheart."

Judy twisted around to look at him. Her claws prickled against his chest at his expression. "Something to plan for tomorrow, then. Quit it."

She was insistent that he stop being glum about it, too, even if it wasn't exactly helping matters. Judy pushed her chin and cheeks over him, until she had him chasing her around with his nose. He had to squeeze her tight to keep her still, and to keep his own paws from doing too much exploring.

"You're making me want to go get it right now, Carrots."

"I love you." Judy huffed against his throat. "And you know you're not going to need it forever."

Nick knew. And he was so happy for that. Everything they'd done together, every professional and personal problem they ever came up against - they always found a way to beat it. And who else could say that? That their relationship just got better and better? He hoped it never ended.

Judy did settle down after that, high up enough that she could hold his head in her paws and look him in the eye.

"Tomorrow," she murmured.

"First thing, if you like."

"And the day after tomorrow, and the day after that." Nick felt her nose tap against him. "I think that's how we should do this. That's how it happened. It was never just one night."

Leave it to Judy to turn uncertainty into something so perfect. Nick pulled her closer, to keep her wrapped up safe, to drift off as they watched the subtle glow of the city outside.

"It's a promise."