#he did say hitties

[manchesterau]

Harry tonight in Edinburgh

[didhewinkback]

seeing the full clear video of him saying "the hitties are out" has done something to my brain that i will never recover from

[muddyorbsblr]

bigger than the whole sky [rtc what if…?]

'relinquish the crown' masterlist See my full list of works here!

BE WARNED SPOILERS FOR THE LOKI SEASON 2 FINALE AHEAD

Summary: What if…you'd broken Frigga's memory spell without Loki? | Your search for your husband leads you to a peculiar void beyond the Nine Realms, to a place that vaguely resembles the Tree of Life that you'd only read about in historical texts.

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Word Count: 3.3k

Warnings: angst with no happy ending in sight; this is in the RTC universe so…themes of incest if you squint; Loki S2 finale spoilers; slight violence in the beginning [let me know if i missed anything!]

Things to be aware of: gonna repeat it again…Loki S2 finale spoilers ahead; no prior reading of RTC is required to suffer enjoy reading this story

"I will ask you one final time, you sadistic hedonist," you panted, taking a moment to lean on Stormbreaker while the eccentric tyrannical leader of Sakaar laid bleeding on the ground. One hand clutched his abdomen where you'd struck him, the other gingerly held his broken nose.

This wasn't something that you enjoyed doing, putting others through pain. But knowing Loki's history with this Grandmaster long before you two had met was easing your worry somehow that you were doing something reprehensible. There were pains that your beloved, even after all the time you'd known each other prior to your betrothal and marriage, were not quite ready to share with you.

His time in Sakaar was among those pains.

That knowledge alone was enough to get you to stop catching your breath, marching over to the Grandmaster and pinning him to the ground with the end of your battle axe's handle.

"Where is Loki?"

"Lady, I already told you back in the viewing box, I haven't seen your u--Agh!" You pressed Stormbreaker's handle harder against a tender spot on his shoulder, his body visibly showing signs of surrender before he started tapping on the floor. "Alright I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he whined.

"Shall we try this again, then?" He did his best to nod his head, sighing heavily. "Where did you last see him?"

"I swear to you on my Champion's grave it's been millions of years for me here in Sakaar," he choked out, still audibly struggling to draw in his breath. "It was a time he didn't even know you yet. You probably hadn't even been born."

"So you truly bear no knowledge of my husband's whereabouts?"

"Your hus--I thought he was--"

"Mind your words, charlatan god." He let out another groan of pure agony as you pressed harder on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry! I--I really don't know where he is, Your Highness, I don't--"

"Then what use are you to me," you said darkly, another corner of your soul feeling ass if the lights had gone out. Another dead end.

You took a dagger out with your free hand, the Grandmaster's pleas of mercy sounding muffled as they fell on your dulled ears. Nothing he had to say could spare him now; to you, he was no longer a lead, a well lit path that could perhaps point you to where Loki had been all this time.

Now he was simply a shadow of your husband's past. Something so dark that he didn't even dare let you know about it.

Despair began to seep into your veins, a single question overtaking all other remotely coherent thought. Would you ever find him? Would you ever get to apologize? To tell him how you felt? How you'd always felt?

Before you could strike, a loud crack resounded throughout the Grandmaster's suite, coming from a glowing green portal that appeared in the center of the room.

"I would probably take that call, if I were you," the Grandmaster quipped, exhaling a large sigh of relief when you removed the weight of Stormbreaker off of him as you stepped toward the portal. Once the threshold had begun to close after you stepped through, he let out a final sentiment. "Please say hello to your husband for me when you find him."

That was more than enough for you to decide throwing your dagger into the small opening that remained, hitting the smug anachronistic bastard on his uninjured shoulder.

Then the portal finally closed, leaving you in a place you couldn't quite describe. All you knew was that it felt like a place you should never have been allowed access to. A place that should be beyond you. Beyond anyone.

Winding, glowing vines surrounded you, each of them looked and sounded as if they were teeming with a life of its own. If you listened carefully you could hear voices. Your voices. Infinite iterations of them. But one rang clearer than every other in the entire space.

"Did I do something that angered the Norns so fiercely that they condemned me to love a man I could never have?"

"I know what it feels like to kiss him. To touch him. To be desired by him. And it's ripping me apart to know that I will never know that again."

"The people will look at this union and see it for what it is. Sinful. Shameful!"

You tried to block the memories out of your mind, of you begging your grandmother Queen Frigga to lock your memories away. Of arguing with your grandfather Odin and with your father Thor because they were signing your life away to marry Loki. Of the harsh words you spat at them all behind closed doors.

Of the day the lock on your mind finally broke, after finding your journals prior to the spell being cast chronicling how you'd fallen for the god despite your better judgment. The head-splitting agony of your memories reconciling and finding their place back in your mind.

An agony suffered in your lonesome while Loki was away on assignment.

You scrambled desperately to think of anything else, to follow along the path of the vines and hear something other than your own mistakes being echoed back at you. These desperate attempts made you realize that the vines converged in a structure that eerily resembled an image that you'd only learned about in your youth.

"Yggdrasil?" you whispered in awe, your feet bringing you closer still until you found a parting just large enough for one to squeeze through.

Once you'd finally freed yourself from the winding vines, all air left your lungs at the sight that greeted you. A golden throne at the heart of the tree. All the vines anchored to the man -- or God, rather -- seated in it.

Loki.

"You've left quite a trail of bodies in your wake throughout this quest of yours, little Princess," he spoke, not moving even a fraction from where he sat.

He gave you a soft smile, tears beginning to form in his eyes as he stared at you. As if he couldn't believe you were here with him.

"It's been too long, my darling wife."

You'd rehearsed time and time again throughout your search for your husband what you would say to him once you'd been reunited. You would tell him how wrong you were for how you behaved throughout your betrothal, your marriage. And you would abandon every shred of your pride and beg for his forgiveness. You would tell him you loved him, that you'd always loved him.

And that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with him.

Yet somehow you could form none of those words. Instead you finally felt your body succumb to the tiredness brought about by the centuries you'd spent searching and laying waste to every imaginable corner of the Nine Realms and beyond for even the slightest shred of a clue as to where he could have been.

Instead you sunk to your knees, the tears streaming down your face as you stumbled over your words. "I remember everything. I had to find you. Tell you that I'm--"

"I know you are, my love. I watched you on the day the spell broke, the day you finally remembered. I wanted so desperately to come home to you. To not let you have to endure that pain alone."

"Why didn't you?" you blurted out, staring at all the vines he held in his hands. "What are all these?"

"Timelines," he answered you simply, giving you a minuscule shrug of his shoulders. "In every single one, there is an iteration of you and me. Some circumstances may differ, minor details. But at the heart of each of them, we live a life together. We find each other, fall in love. In some we even start a family."

"A family," you repeated breathlessly. The knowledge that each vine -- each timeline -- that was anchored to him held a variation of you and him, of your story, began to eat away at you, flooding you with guilt.

How wretched did you have to be that in your timeline you'd rejected him? Foolishly pushed him away with every mistake you made until finally it took you centuries to find him again?

"What happened?" you finally spoke after what felt like hours. "How did you get--"

"That is quite the long and harrowing tale, darling. In truth, it was a cavalcade of miscalculations and bad judgment calls, failed attempts of trying to save all these lives until I realized that the result would always stay the same if the equation contained the same variables."

"And what was that result?"

"Annihiliation," he answered you simply, giving you a misty eyed look. "Every single strand of time that I hold safe now would have been obliterated on sight. I know it. I've seen it. I've seen you disintegrate before me too many times than I wish to count. The device that once held them stable could no longer scale for an infinite number of possibilities, and letting countless timelines die in the name of the survival of a few was…unacceptable. The only thing that could carry a burden that great was--"

"A god," you finished, the words fighting you their entire way out, nearly choking you on the weight of them. The question that you wished to raise crippled you with its answer's implications. For you and your timeline specifically. "What happens if you let go?"

"It dies. Slowly. Drifts away until it eventually turns to ash." He began to make a motion, as if to approach you, until ultimately he decided against it. "This was the only way. It remains the only way. I must stay, and keep them safe. Watch our lives play out in derivatives of what ifs."

The selfish question that danced at the tip of your tongue plagued you with even more guilt. But what about my timeline? What about our life together? "There has to be another way," you grumbled, stubbornly shaking your head as if you were once again a toddler, refusing to accept the world for being what it was rather than what you wished it would be. "I could stay with you. I could stay and we can find a way together."

Your heart splintered watching him shake his head at you. "My beautiful headstrong wife," he breathed out, his tone filled with both fondness and heartbreak. "I can't in my good conscience let you abandon your life just so you could stay here with me. That would be too selfish, even for me. What would you have here?"

"You! I would have you. All these centuries I've spent in a desperate scramble to find you and tell you that I lo--" You found yourself completely choking on the words now, never having to articulate them before. "That I love you. That I've always loved you and I want us to start our lives together. I refuse to accept that after all this time I have to let you go. You can't make me."

"Asgard needs you, its future Queen."

"And I need you!" Your voice finally broke, sobs that you'd fought inside starting to bubble up. "It isn't fair that you hold all these different tellings of our story in your hands, but your story, yours and mine, ends in us apart. That you spend your days here, watching our life play out somewhere and somewhen else, and you're alone. Please don't send me away, husband," you began to beg. "Don't make me leave you. Let me stay."

He let out a sharp exhale, a tear escaping his eye, rolling down his cheek. "I've longed for the day I would hear you call me that," he sighed, a rueful smile gracing the handsome features that you were bereft of for centuries. "Truly I didn't think I would ever see you again, Y/N. My Y/N. I never thought that I would have you before me, and I hear those words you would only say in dreams with my own ears. Thank you, my dear heart. You have given me a gift in this quest of yours, in having a final moment with the woman I love…" More tears rolled down his cheeks when his smile widened before finishing his sentiment. "And the woman that loves me."

Your sobs filled the endless space, your body collapsing onto the ground as your grief overtook you. The notion of grieving for the living never seemed sensical to you until now. Now that the man, the god, you loved was calling this the last time you would ever see each other.

And you knew in your heart that with the power he wielded now, he could make that your reality without even lifting a finger. He could push you out of this void and back into any timeline of his choosing just as easily as he pulled you out of Sakaar.

The feel of familiar large hands pulling you up to your feet startled you, only having the briefest moment to look at your husband before he pulled you into a crushing embrace. You didn't think twice before wrapping your arms around him, holding him as close as you could and sobbing into his shoulder before realizing…

If his hands were on you, then why were the vines still in place?

"Loki," you sobbed. "Husband, please. No illusions."

"I can't hold you," he said, choking back his own sobs now. "I couldn't watch you break like this and do nothing." The duplicate he cast to hold you disappeared from your hold in a flash of green. "I've done it before against all my better judgment, I refuse to do it again."

"Then don't." Against your own better judgment, you stomped your foot, like a bratty child being told you had to go home. Which was almost precisely what this was. "If this is where you are and where you will remain, then this is where I wish to stay. With the god that owns my heart. With my husband." You blinked rapidly to expel the tears that blurred your vision before uttering the words that splintered at your heart even more. "I was made to be yours. You said that."

"And I yours," he finished, averting his gaze, letting his own tears drop to the fabric of  his trousers. "In every timeline. We must take solace in knowing that among these infinite tales, one is ours. What could have been ours."

"What should be ours," you insisted. You made your way over to him, placing your hand on the side of his face. He closed his eyes, leaning into your touch, the sight breaking your heart further. "Our story deserves its bliss-laden epilogue, too."

"Not at the cost of everyone else's. Deep down you know this to be true."

"That does not mean I accept it," you grumbled. "Let me stay."

"You know that I can't. I will not subject you to live out the rest of your days here. Without friends nor family, and only a husband that cannot even hold you as company."

"But at least you would have someone to hold you," you argued, throwing your arms around him and letting your tears flow once more. "I can't just leave you here all on your own. You can't make me." You knew that he damn right could.

"My love," he sighed, turning his head to press a kiss to your temple. "I wish for you to live a long, and fulfilled life. You've lost so much time in your search for me only for it to end like this. I can give you those centuries back, as a final gift. Reverse the clock, undo the toll it took on you. Let this be the final token of my affection. My fealty. My undying vow."

"Let me keep my memories," you pleaded, already feeling that this would truly be your final moments with him. You did not need to turn your gaze to know that the portal leading back to Asgard was there, waiting for you. Perhaps he would simply nudge you through with his mind, knowing that you would refuse to leave. "Let me keep my remnants of you if that is all that I can leave this place with."

He nodded once. "Very well, little Princess. When you walk through the portal only the physical years will be stripped away. Live well, and remember always that I love you. My heart will only ever belong to you. Until the end of time."

"I love you," you choked out through your tears. "Husband." Your heart ached at the sight of his tears, not bothering to fight back the urge to kiss them away. "I will miss you desperately and always. In every step that I must take in this life without you."

"You will always have me by your side," he swore. "When you feel a presence you cannot see, in gentle breezes within a still room. I will always be there."

You continued to wipe his tears away, the god constantly kissing at your palms. Seemingly refusing to let you go, too.

"May I kiss you?" you asked, barely audibly, your voice unable to even completely form the words. "One last time?"

He gave you a small nod, and you leaned in to press your lips to his, trying to pour out your years of lost time and the future that you were doomed to lose in just a few short moments into that single kiss. You could feel that when he kissed you back, he did so with both all the love he'd never been able to give you before, and the love that he would never be able to bestow in the future.

It was a kiss of finality. A kiss of goodbye. A bittersweet final page in the story of you and Loki.

I love you more than words can ever say, his voice echoed in your mind. Goodbye, my love. My fated. My darling wife.

When you pulled away he was gone. And you'd been returned to your shared chambers back in Asgard. As he promised, the physical toll the centuries-long search had taken on your body were gone. No more scars from miscalculated skirmishes. No more bruises from Sakaar.

No more physical reminders of what you'd endured trying to reunite with the love your life.

All that remained were the memories of those years, and your time in his domain beyond the Realms.

"Goodbye, my darling husband. My love. My Loki," you whispered into the quiet of your marital chambers, sinking to your knees once more and letting out a shriek of pure agony, the sobs swiftly returning and wracking your entire body as you lay pathetically on the floor.

"Y/N??"

The sound of your mother Lady Sif's voice provided little comfort, but it felt like a familiar balm. "Mother," you said weakly, unmoving from your spot on the ground even as she rushed to you, cradling you in her lap.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" She stroked your hair while your tears soaked her sleep dress. You felt her wave someone over, and moments later you felt your grandmother Queen Frigga's presence in the room with you.

"I lost. I lost and I know not what to do now," you managed to say through your tears.

"What did you lose, Daughter?"

You'd briefly considered explaining your journey, from breaking the spell, to your journey through the centuries, to Loki's domain beyond the reach of space and time. To relay what had become of your husband.

Ultimately the words were beyond you due to your grief.

"Everything," you answered her, holding on to her tight as if you were a child again. This would be the only semblance of comfort you would have. "I lost everything."

A/N: I had to after that finale had me processing and feeling the big sad all day, I promise I'm working on 2 other stories based on the finale that have kinda better endings.

Also I sobbed throughout writing this entire thing, just for the record.

Now here's the song to add to the vibe:

'everything' taglist: @simplyholl @loopsisloops @imalovernotahater @coldnique @loz-3 @huntress-artemiss @salempoe @vickie5446 @athalialaufeyson @lokiprompts @kats72 @kikster606 @asgards-princess-of-mischief @lokixryss @thomase1 @mischief2sarawr @peaches1958 @lovingchoices14 @lunarnights95 @goblingirlsarah @iamlokisgloriouspurpose @creationsbyme @maple-seed @mjsthrillernp @ladyofthestayingpower @mygfloki @sititran @glitterylokislut @ozymdias @fictive-sl0th  @lokidbadguy @mochie85 @silverfire475 @joyful-enchantress @elizabethmidnight2017 @holdmytesseract @smolvenger @gigglingtiggerv2 @lokidokieokie @superficialdomina @anukulee @kmc1989 @november-rayne @goddessofwonderland @buttercupcookies-blog

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

not sure if anyone's asked you this before/yet, but so you have any opinions or thoughts of the relationship between all of the pantheons? general relationship and possibly some more personal ones?

I've read many different headcanons and fanfiction where people have mentioned their thoughts on it, but nothing they've ever gone into detail about.

there's nothing really preventing them from interacting *👀 I keep remembering the smallest tiniest hint of freypollo we got* but that doesn't mean they go out of their way doing it, yk?

OKAY SO-

The pantheons I'll be mainly focusing on are the Greek, Roman, Norse, & Egyptian ones. I'll probably make little nods to other ones too tho :3

Don't be surprised if this mainly centers on Apollo XD He's my guy <3

GREEK & ROMAN

Let's kick it off with these two!

"But aren't they the same-?"

Nope! The Roman pantheon started off as their own sets of gods - the thing is, they had very little myths written down so we don't know much about how they were characterized :(

Howmever. We do know that when they were synchronized with Greece's gods, you can see the little differences between them - for instance, the Roman gods were more Forces Of Nature than gods who went out and Did Stuff, like Greece's.

Jupiter for example! He didn't have the "fucks around" rep Zeus does! Jupiter from the Roman's perspective didn't go out and do much. He rooted on Aeneus, yes, but the myths of his children weren't quite as popular in Rome as they were in Greece (probably because they were. ya know. Greek heroes, and not Roman)

And Apollo. Oh, Apollo...the only major god who didn't have a Latin equivalent.

Rome loved you so much they adopted you and went "no. no. he was always here. no we aren't lying. see? he's in the Dii Consentes!" XD

Fun Fact: Apollo is basically multiple gods in a trench coat. Paion (Mycenean), Smitheus (Mycenean), Aplu (Etruscan), Apaulinus (Hittie), Grannus (Celtic), ect were all Apollo-equivalents who historians have concluded to be past incarnations of Apollo!

which is INTERESTING because...do those gods still exist in the RRverse? Are they connected to Apollo in some way? Are they little voices in his head? DO THEY HAVE DRINKS TOGETHER?

I have questions and I need answers.

Greek & Egyptian

Saving the Norse for last because we all wanna save Freypollo for last <3 the best for last lmao

RIGHT OFF THE BAT I'M GONNA SAY THAT ZEUS DOESN'T LIKE THE OTHER PANTHEONS! I BET HE DOESN'T!

Which sucks for him because Apollo has friends in Egypt XD

I do think Apollo and Horus would be friends! Not only are they both associated with the sun in some way, but they were actually identified with each other when Greece met Egypt!

Greece: Oh so you have a super-powerful son of the king of the gods associated with light? So do we! :D

Egypt: Oh my gosh we do! :D

You know the myth of Typhon? Apollo transformed into a hawk to escape, and you know who has a hawk head?

Horus. :D

also Horus took over the thrown from Osiris - sure, not in an overthrow way but still. he overthrew Set and claimed the throne

sounds like something we all want hmm...

Also, I headcanon that Helios and Ra go WAAAAYYYY back and Apollo only met Ra like. once. before Isis did her blackmailing and Ra disappeared.

SO WHEN RA CAME BACK, WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN DURING HOO BTW, APOLLO HAS NO IDEA! HE'S ON DELOS AT THAT POINT! THEN HIS TRIALS!

So when he rolls up to the next sun god meeting he sees Ra and is like "wait what who are you- OH WAIT!"

And Ra's like; "WHO LET THIS CHILD BE PUT IN CHARGE OF THE SUN???"

Apollo: I'm over 4,000 years old-

Ra, pointing: BABY

(Headcanon that Ra & Amaterasu are like. the defacto sun god 'leaders' who keep the meetings rolling. Amaterasu was very tired when Ra disappeared and she had to wrangle these fiery gods together XD)

(Also Helios thought Horus was a lil' upstart XD)

Finally, I also saw someone else mention that Apollo could have learned some Egyptian magic and used it to create the border of CHB!

Headcanon Hecate snuck along with him and it's their little secret :3

Greek & Norse

HERE. WE. ARE.

LEMME GET MY MAP OUT

SO.

Green highlight is where Greece is. Blue is where Hyperborea is (see this post for details)

In that post, I came to the conclusion that Apollo Totally Definitely Has Met Norse Gods BECAUSE OF HIS WINTER VACATIONS!

AND IF YOU LOOK ACROSS THE BALTIC SEA-

STOCKHOLM.

AND WHERE DID APOLLO MEET THAT HOT GOD WITH A TALKING SWORD???

A TAVERN. IN. STOCKHOLM!

FREYPOLLO LIVES (<-knows very well it's basically already canon XD)

Fun fact: the people of Hyperborea were most likely the mythological avatars of the Norse people! :D

SO I CONCLUDE-

Apollo takes a trip across the Baltic Sea and flirts in the Stockholm tavern and that's how Freypollo happens <3

Other Pantheon Thoughts

Hindu: This thought came while I was creating my @underrated-lovers-of-apollo-poll - Apollo & Indra!

They shared an elephant ride that one time! Wouldn't it be fun if they also kissed? :3

also Indra is a storm god with thunder and lightning think of the angst-

Shinto: Amaterasu taught Apollo Japanese when he discovered the haiku for the first time - sadly, only Athena ever bothered to learn it to experience the haiku in its fullest. pushing my sibling agenda again haha

Because haikus always sound better in their native language <3

Hittie: This connects to the 'Apollo trenchcoat' thing earlier - if Apollo is like. the current form of Apaulinus, would the Hittie pantheon like. drop in from time to time like 'heyyyy we miss you <3'

Apollo: *trojan war flashbacks*

Apaulinus was heavily associated with Wilusa, whom historians have confirmed was Troy, and Apollo's first temple doesn't show up under AFTER the bronze age collapse and the war happened BEFORE that happened meaning HE WAS APAULINUS WHEN THE WAR HAPPENED MY HEART-

i need to look into more pantheons. it's so much fun making these connections and coming up with headcanons for the RRverse :3

[suck4angststory]

Sequel for You Never Like Every Man I'm Dating

Pairing: Pete 'Maverick', Mitchell x Cain!Fem!Reader. Moodboard

I Still Don't Like Him

Warning: fluff, angst, but happy ending, Top Gun: Maverick Spoiler. English is my second language. Feel free to give me a comment about my writing and grammar mistakes.

Author Note: If you want to be tagged just let me know in the comment. I can't reply to any of your comments because it's sideblog. But I really thankful for your comments and responds.

****

Summary: This is the next part of your journey with Maverick after you got deployed to the middle of the Ocean and he became a Top Gun Instructor for a special detachment.

When you arrived at the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier, the sun almost set. The sky colour in the Pacific Ocean has painted a pinkish and orange colour. You are welcomed by fellow Warrant Officers you're gonna work with when you landed on the tarmac.

They show you around the carrier before they take you to your office where you're gonna work. After that, They take you to your room where you'll gonna take a rest and put your belongings.

***

You are just taking out your clothes from your bag when you hear your phone ring on the bedside table. You saw the ID caller and smile when Maverick name was displayed on it.

You sit on the bed and click the green button to accept the call. You place the phone on your ear. "Hello, Handsome" you put a smile even though he can't see you. You hear him chuckle on the other side.

"Hey, gorgeous.." his voice sounds different, something must happening.

"Talk to me.. what happened," you asked with concern. You move to the middle of the bed and sit crossed your legs.

"You know me so well, baby." He let out a sigh. "(Y/N), they want to teach in Top Gun for a special detachment program."

"And.." you raise your eyebrows, intrigued. You took the pillow behind you and place it on your lap. You rest your arms on it.

"And I can't do it. I'm not a teacher, last time I became an instructor in Top Gun, I just last for a month" he let out a deep sigh, something still bothering him, not the teaching thing.

"It's not about the teaching, isn't it?" You urged him.

He was quiet for a bit. "He's one of them and this mission they'll gonna do is suicide. I can't make him do that. I can't lose him" he whispered his last words. It's been a burden for him after Goose died. And now, if something happens to Bradley, you don't know what's gonna happen to him. He already feels so guilty about Goose's death.

You know Rooster when you're working with his Squadron in Virginia long before you met Maverick. You got close back there and became friends. When he found out you dated Maverick, he never answers your call again. With how many times you get deployed, your relationship with Rooster begins to distance and you never spoke to him again.

You wish you can fix your relationship with him again.

"Have you talked about that to Cyclone or Warlock?" You asked softly.

"I have, but they said I don't have a choice. He said if I don't take this mission, I'll never fly for Navy again" He let out a sigh again. You purse your lips and nod, and you move your phone to the other ear.

"What Iceman say?" You inquire.

"Nothing, he said I wouldn't have come if he told me Bradley gonna be in there"

"And what do you think? You still wanna take iylt? Or.." you raise your eyebrows, waiting for him to answer.

He let out a deep sigh " what choice did I have? But I don't know if I'm capable to do it"

"I know you can do it..." you smiled and leaned back to rest your back on the wall behind you.

He let out a sigh and took a deep breath and released them "So..What're you doing right now?"

"Nothing just arrived here, take out my clothes from the bag and anything" you looked around your room and brush your feet to the duffle bag that you place at the end of the bed "they give me this room where the window face to the sunset" you looked at the window where the sun slowly begins to drown, the light hitting your room in an orange glow.

"Wow, it must be nice"

"It is, especially if you're here with me," you said softly. You sat in silence for a minute before Maverick speak again. "I love you (Y/N)"

"I love you too Pete," you said to him, a single tear escaping your eyes. You miss him, and it's not even 24 hours you're away with him.

***

You are just come out from Meeting with the other Warrant Officers for the next week's testament when your phone rang in your pocket, you took your phone and smiled when you read the caller ID. You immediately click the green button on the screen and placed the report on your armpit.

You place the phone on your ear "Hey baby, what's up". You smile and walked through the hall to your room.

"Nothing, I just want to hear your voice"

You placed the phone between your shoulder and ear and take the report to your left hand.

"Oh... I miss you too" you cooed. "How's the teaching going?" You arrived at your room and open the room with your left hand.

"Great, but they still can't pass the lesson"

you step into the room and placed the file on the table.

"Give them time, I think they'll pass them and you'll get the pilot you're looking for" you open your cap and place it on the table.

"I try to talk to him by the way"

you stopped on your track for seconds.

"And, what he says" you sit on your bed and place your phone beside you. You put him on the speaker.

You open your boot when he talking

"Still the same, cold, he even talks to me as if I'm his superior, not his uncle. God, I miss him"

"Try again baby, I think he'll soften if you keep trying to talk to him" you bend down to open the lace and placed your shoe under the table with your sock on them.

"Oh, by the way, I met Penny" you stopped in your track to open the other shoe when you heard that name.

Your furrowed your eyebrows. "Penny who? Penny Benjamin?" You open your shoes while he's talking.

"Yeah, she owns a bar beside the beach in Fightertown. The first time we met, she threw me out of her bar because I place my phone on the table, she has these weird rules that you'll have to buy everyone round if you break them"

You scoffed and open your shock harshly and throw it under the table. You place the shoe under the table "Oh.."

"Yeah, and I help her fix her boat this afternoon" you gawked at the phone and scoffed quietly. So that's what he's doing in there. You open your bun harshly and throw the hair tie to the bed, it bounced out of the bed.

You picked up the phone and place it near your lips "Oh yeah, that's great, you're so kind Pete. I think they need me, talk to you soon" you told him quickly, annoyed, but he didn't notice that.

"Oh, I thought it was already late in there"

Damn! he must be set the timezone for here.

"Yeah, we have meetings for the test tomorrow" you rolled your eyes, you hate lying to him but you are mad at him right now.

"Oh, Okay, bye baby, I love you," he said cheerfully.

"Yeah, bye, love you," you told him lazily and ended up the call

"Fucking Penny Benjamin," you throw your phone to the bed and it bounced hitting the steel wall. Luckily it didn't break.

You sigh and lay on your bed, you hate Pete Mitchell. If he isn't talking about Penny Benjamin, maybe you'll gonna spend your free time doing phone sex with him. But he ruined your mood.

***

Maverick on the hangar fixes his plane when Hondo arrived beside him. "Hey, Mav"

"Hondo" he greeted back without looking at him. Still busy wrenching something inside the plane.

"I heard you talk to (Y/N) about your meeting with Penny" this get his attention, he stopped his task and throw the Wrench on the box tools.

He turn to him and furrowed his eyebrows."Yeah, how do you know about that?"

"She told me last night" he shrugged. Maverick raise an eyebrow at him.

"Weird, she didn't pick up my call for this past three days, when I text her she said, still busy" he shrugs. It's true, you never pick up his phone because you are still mad at him. You put your phone on silent and hide it in the drawer whenever he's calling to prevent yourself to pick up his call.

"Oh, you think?" Hondo raised his eyebrows.

Pete furrowed his eyebrows to him and nodded "Yeah,"

Hondo let out a chuckle at his credulousness. He then takes out his phone from his pocket and dials your number, not a minute you pick up the call.

"Hey, Hondo what's up?" He put you on speaker. He put the phone between him and Maverick.

"Oh nothing, just want to check on you. You seem so upset last night" he glance at Maverick that looked at his phone with wide eyes, surprised.

"Yeah, but I feel a bit relief talking that to you." You let out a sigh. Maverick glances at Hondo and then at the phone.

"Yeah, I'm glad it helped" Hondo looked at Maverick that try to put two and two together.

"Anything you want to say?" Maverick want to talk but Hondo holds his hand telling him to wait.

"Are you busy this week?" He inquired.

"Not really, they give us a break before the next test comes."

"Oh, What're you doing then?" He then glanced at Maverick that now has a dejected look on his face. Why you didn't pick up his call, why did you ignore him for the past three days? The thoughts begin to fill his head.

"Nothing, just watched some movie, review the Death Star Project I asked you last night."

"Oh good, I'll talk to you later (Y/N), duty calls" Hondo give Maverick a thoughtful look.

"Oh okay, bye Hondo"

"Bye (Y/N)" Hondo ended a call and looked at Maverick that now frowning.

" But why she didn't pick up my call?" He took out his phone from his jacket that he place on the bench and call your number. He places the phone in his ear but a few seconds later he harshly takes it back.

"What!? She rejects me?" He exclaimed. He calls you again but it is just a ringing sound that can be heard.

Hondo let out a sigh and place his hand on Mav's shoulder to get his attention. Maverick turned to him with a frown on his face "Mav, She told me last night about your meeting with Penny Benjamin and how you help her fix the boat"

"Yeah,? I just trying to help her, she doesn't have anyone for help" he exclaimed and let out a frustrated groan when you didn't pick up his phone call again.

"Maverick.." Hondo call him again and give him look.

And it hit him. Maverick raised his eyebrows. "What? You mean she's jealous" He exclaimed.

"I don't know man, she's your girl, ask her" Hondo rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"But I just want to be honest with her about my day" he frowned.

"Woman always be a woman" Hondo pat his shoulder and walked away.

Maverick then let out a sigh and lick his lips. He walked to his office, open the door harshly and sit on the couch. He try to call you several times but you still didn't pick up.

***

You lay on your stomach in your bed with your laptop open up. Something's Gotta Give played on your laptop, you rest your chin on the pillow that you placed underneath it and bawl over the ending when Erica prefers Harry over Julian.

You placed your phone on the drawer and let it vibrates while you watch your movie, it's been two hours now since you placed it on the drawer.

Then, the vibration stopped and was replaced by a single vibration.

You wipe your tears and take your phone from the drawer, the phone turn on when Maverick text appears.

"Baby please pick up"

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to make you jealous"

"Let me make it up to you"

"Please (Y/N), I love you.."

You want to ignore it but he called again. You let out a sigh and pick up his call.

You lay on your back and place your head on the pillow.

"Oh thank god, I'm sorry baby, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you jealous, I just helped her because she doesn't have anyone for help. And we didn't do anything, just a casual chat, nothing happens"

You didn't reply just looked at the ceiling with your phone in your ear. Maverick let out a sigh

"(Y/N) please, I love you. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you sad" you hear him sniffle, and now you feel bad because you make him cry.

You let out a sigh "I forgive you. It's just I'm jealous because you have past with her, you used to be dating her and you have so much history with her, and she's more beautiful than me. I'm just afraid you're gonna fall for her again" you told him quietly. You begin insecure when talking about Maverick ex-girlfriends.

"Baby, there's no one in this world I'm gonna fall beside of you. She's just my past, you're my future. I used to be dating her, but now I'm dating you, I'm with you. I had a history with her, but now I'm making history with you. You're the most beautiful woman for me and there's no one compare to you. And I'm not gonna fall for anyone, I love you, I love you, I love you, you're my girlfriend, my girl, the love of my life. You're the only thing that I have now, you're the only thing that matters to me. I love you" he uttered.

You don't realize you're crying while he's talking. You sniffle and let out a sob. You turn to your side facing the window "Why do you make me cry"

"I love you too Pete Mitchell. I miss you" you said between your sob, you smile and wipe your tears.

"I miss you too baby, and never doubt yourself again. You're my girl okay? Don't be sad again or worry about another woman."

"Okay, gosh I wish you were here so I can give you a hug and kiss you" you turn to your back and wipe the remaining tears with your shirt.

"Just a kiss and hug? Nothing else?" You hear his teasing voice.

"You Pervert" you let out a chuckle.

"I love you (Y/N) Cain."

"I love you too Captain Pete Mitchell," you said softly and bit your lips.

***

You're in deep discussions with your team about the last test for the weapons when two Midshipmen appeared at the door. They salute all of you and look straight at you. People in the room were quiet waiting for the Midshipmen to speak up.

"Ma'am.." one of them said to you.

"Umm.. yeah" you raised your eyebrows.

"There's a chopper waiting for you"

You looked to your team but they just shrugged. You let out a sigh and follow the Midshipman to the tarmac.

When you were inside the chopper, they explained to you that Iceman passed away and you'll have to go back to San Diego to attend his funeral. You're quiet in the entire flight, your mind begins to think of Maverick. He lost his other best friend again, he'd been left by his best friend before, and now he has to go through that again.

When you arrived at the Pacific Fleet, it was Admiral Bates that waited for you when you landed. He knows the looked on your face and told you where he is.

"He's in the conference room" you nodded to him and purse your lips. You make a beeline and walked towards the entrance door. You walked through the hall until you find the conference room.

You open the door quietly and saw him. He sat on the seat in the corner, with his elbows resting on his thighs and his hands covering his face, he still have his flight suit on. You frowned and walk toward him.

You sat beside him and placed your hand on his shoulder. Maverick lift his head from his hand and turn to looked at you. His lips quiver and he throws himself at you.

You placed your arms on his midsection and Maverick circled his arms on your waist. He begins to sob on your shoulder. His body shook and you caress his back.

He pour all of his grief into his crying, his tears begin to soak your uniform but you didn't mind. He grips your uniform on your back tightly and he let out a whimpering sound. You cry quietly at his shoulder and rest your chin on it. You let him pour all of his sadness and grief onto you. He held onto you for his dear life.

***

After he calms down and collects himself, Maverick brought you to his house that Iceman set for him while he's in Miramar for Top Gun. It was a nice house with a beach backyard.

It's actually your dream house with him, you always love the beach. Despite you growing up at downtown, you always beg your father to take you to the beach once a week. You've always dreamed to have a nice house near the beach where you can enjoy them with your lover to watch the sunset in his arms.

It was already dark when you step out of Top Gun. You told Maverick to shower and you place the clothes he's gonna wear for sleep on top of the bed. You walked downstairs to make him some tea but there was nothing here, just some water bottle on the fridge and cups of ramen noodles, oats, and bread.

You let out a sigh and take his bike to buy him some groceries.

When you get back, Maverick is already waiting for you on the counter with a water bottle in his hand. He turn his head from the water bottle when he saw you walk toward him with two bags of groceries.

"Where were you" his voice is hoarse with how long he's crying on your shoulder. His hair is still damp from the shower and it soaked his shirt.

"Bought you some real food. You should eat real things, not something from packages" you show him the bag and place them on the counter. You begin to take out the groceries from the bag to the counter. You glance at Maverick and saw him fidgeting with his water bottle.

"Baby.." you call him softly, he lifts his head to you, his eyes are glossy, he probably thinking about Iceman again. You reach for his hand and squeeze it softly "why don't you wait for me upstairs, I'll make you some tea" you squeeze his hand.

"No, I want to be close to you" he shook his head. You let out a sigh and nodded, you continued to load out the groceries.

***

You found yourself standing on the Balcony with Maverick behind you, watching the pitch black ocean, contradicted by the sky that is so bright with the star scattered around them. Maverick circle his arms on your stomach from behind, chin resting on your shoulder, you intertwined your hand with his that rest on your stomach. Two Cups of tea resting on the railing still steaming hot.

"I miss him" Maverick muttered. You leaned your head on his shoulder.

"I miss him too" you squeeze his hand "without him, maybe we can't be together right now"

You feel Maverick hand tighten his grip on your stomach "he's doing so much for us. He give me this place because he thought you're gonna come with me" he inhales deeply.

"The place is beautiful baby" the sound of waves hitting the sand filled your conversation.

"The last time I spoke to him, he told me to let go." You turn around to face him and place your arms on his neck "he told me it's time to let go. But I don't know how" he looked into your eyes, his lips begin trembling and his tears begin to fall, you brought him into your arms and he begins to sob in your shoulder. His grip on your waist begins to tighten. You caress his back and let him cry on your shoulder.

***

When you woke up, Maverick still sleeping beside you, his arm resting on your waist. You reach out to caress his cheek and brush some of his hair that got into his forehead. He must be exhausted from all of the cryings last night. You carefully lift his hand that rests on your waist and get up from the bed.

You take a shower and prepare his uniform for the funeral today. You walked downstairs to make him breakfast and coffee.

When you pour the coffee from the pot, you saw him walk downstairs with a white undershirt and his uniform trouser. He was still fresh from the shower with a towel hanging on his neck.

"Why you didn't wake me up" he walked toward you and threw his arms on your waist from behind.

"Good morning to you too, I'm sorry, you looked still so sleepy" you turn your head to him and kiss him on the lips.

"Good morning baby" he leaned to kiss you again softly.

"You don't want to be late." You pat his cheek. He pursed his lips and nodded. Remembering about the funeral.

***

At the funeral, you stand with the students and aviators. You saw how Maverick try to hold his tears while placing Iceman Naval Aviator badge on his casket. You want to hug him and let him cry on your shoulder, he didn't have to hold back.

After the funeral, Maverick got called to Top Gun by Admiral Simpson. You hug him before he's gone to base, he wants to take you home at first, but you reject and told him you already have a ride. A few minutes later, an SUV was parked in front of you. The Navy assigned the driver while you were here. You climbed into the back seat and told him to drive to Maverick's house.

***

When you go out of the shower, Maverick is sitting on the bed with a sad look on his face. You sat beside him and touch his shoulder. He looked at you "they fired me (Y/N)"

"Oh baby.." you hug him and he buries his face on your neck. After a few minutes of hugging each other, Maverick pull away, he looked into your eyes "Can you help me forget about this day?" Lust hooded in his eyes. You nodded and pull out your shirt, Maverick leaned to kiss you passionately and lay you on the bed with him hovering over you.

The kiss begins demanding with Maverick hand trailing down to your back and unhooking your bra, he threw the bra somewhere in the room. His kiss trailed down to your jaw and neck to your free breast. He pull away and stared at your swollen lips. You breathe heavily and catch your breath. Maverick raise his hand to brush your hair.

"I love you.." before you can answer back, he leaned down to kiss your lips with so much passion.

***

After your lovemaking session, you rest your head on his naked chest, a duvet covering your naked body with him. You two still embrace your after-glow sex.

Maverick have his arm behind his head and the other caressing your naked back softly. He stared at the ceiling.

"I don't know what to do (Y/N), when I'm ready to take the responsibility, they set me off" he let out a sigh. You scoot closer and rest your chin on his chest with your hand underneath them.

Maverick tilt his head down to look at you, you give him a small smile "you don't sound like Maverick"

He raised his eyebrows at you and looked at you puzzled.

"Maverick I know never say I don't know, he always knows what to do," you told him and reach out to caress his cheek with your free hand.

Before he can answer back, your phone rings on the nightstands. You turn around to reach out for your phone, you read the caller ID before hitting the green button and accepting the call.

"Yeah.." you place the phone on your ear.

You propped your body with your elbow.

"Okay, I'm at Captain Mitchell's house.."

"Thank you.." you ended the call and place your phone back on the nightstands. You get up from the bed and gather your clothes.

"Wait, you already want to leave?" He frowned and propped his body to look at your naked body walking around the room gathering your articles of clothing.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to leave after the funeral," you told him and after you find your bra under the bed. You walked to the bathroom to change into your uniform.

You're out ten minutes later. You sitting on the bed to put your boot on. Maverick still lay on the bed, with a duvet covering half of his naked body.

"(Y/N), what do you think I should do?" He turns to look at your back. You tie your lashes and turn to him.

"I don't know "you shrug and smile at him, Maverick cock an eyebrow at your answer.

"What do you always do when people start to doubt your skill of flying?" You stared at his eyes.

"I'll show them that I can do that" he shrugs. You smile and reach out to touch his cheek "exactly, that's what my Maverick always do" you caress his cheek lovingly. You hear your phone ring again, they must be here.

You leaned down and give his kiss a smooch "I'll see you in two weeks. I love you baby"

"I love you too" you stand up and reach for your phone on the nightstands. Maverick let out a sigh and lay his head on the pillow beneath him. He staring at the ceiling thinking about your words.

***

You're inside the Comanche plane preparing the plane and the weapons for the mission today. A Midshipman approached you and informed you that the pilot that'll do this mission has arrived.

"Ma'am, Captain Mitchell requested to see you" another Midshipman come and inform you, he step aside and revealed Maverick with his flight suit on.

"Oh no...." you muttered. He let out a sigh and stared into your eyes. "Can we talk" he glances at the crew on the plane " in private"

***

Now you found yourself in the hangar, watching the ocean with Maverick beside you.

You hug yourself "You said you just gonna be the instructor, not the one that'll gonna lead this mission," you said to him, still looking at the ocean. Your tears are at the bay. You turn to him and that's when your tears fall down. "I read the mission Mav, it's dangerous, and-and has low chances to get out alive" your lips quiver and you bit your bottom lip to hold yourself from sobbing.

Maverick leaned closer and reach for your hand "But we did it baby, we trained, and we know how to do it successfully and return home safely" he reassured you.

"Training is different from real life" you exclaimed.

Maverick brought you to his arms and you begin to sob in his arms. He strokes your back and kisses your hair, trying to calm you down. He can't bear it when you're crying or sad because of him. After a few minutes, your sobbing begins to reduce. He rests his chin on top of your head. "You remember when Ice told me I should let go this time?" He muttered. You nodded in his embrace. "I think this is the time. This is gonna be my last mission and" he pull you away from him and stared at you.

He grabs something from his pocket and takes out a black velvety box, you let out a gasp and covered your mouth with your hand. He opens the box and a beautiful ring with a blue diamond in the middle of it is presented to you.

He looked into your eyes "I'm gonna spend my life with you. So will you marry me?"

You let out a choked sob and begin to cry again. "Why now? It's not the right time" you sniffle, and Maverick begins to frown, thinking you reject him, but you reach out for his hand. "Of course, I want to marry you"

He chuckles and takes out the ring from the box, he takes your left hand and put the ring on your ring finger.

You looked at the ring on your finger closely and examined it."It's so beautiful." You cooed, you looked at him "But you're gonna do this mission Mav, I can't bear myself if I'm losing you" you frowned.

Maverick leaned closer and cup your cheek, he wipe your tears with his thumb. "You won't baby, I promise to you. I promise I'll come back. If you want we can go to Hondo and marry us right now in here" he offered.

You let out a chuckle and sniffle "I want you to be my husband for the rest of my life. Not just a day. I don't want you to get hunted by my dad's drones and get killed". He let out a breathy laugh and tuck you into his arms.

He kiss your forehead "I love you (Y/N) Cain" he muttered on your forehead

"I love you too, Pete Mitchell" you tightened your grip on his waist.

***

"Maverick," Hondo called for Maverick that looked lost in thoughts.

"Maverick?" Maverick turn to Hondo on his side. He was already seated on his Jet.

"Hey, you with me?" He looked at him in concern, Maverick just give him a look "I don't like that look, mav." Hondo shakes his head.

"It's the only one I got." Maverick was silent for a second. He turned to Hondo again "Thank you. If I don't see you again, Hondo, thank you."

Hondo shakes his head "Don't say that, (Y/N) told me what happened. You can't bail on her, you know how her dad is", he and Maverick let out a chuckle. Maverick actually want to marry you when he proposed, he's not joking about getting Hondo to Marry you on the Hangar. He can call you his wife, and you can call him your husband even if it's just a few hours. He'll die in happiness because he knows how it feels to build a life that he dreamed about last night, even if it is just a few hours.

Hondo then places his hand on Maverick shoulder. "It's been an honour, Captain."

Maverick nodded and Hondo leave him for his takeoff.

***

You're sitting in the control room with Hondo beside you, the headphones rest on your head. They want you to control the Comanche for the weapons operations inside the plane, but you can't do that, not with Maverick on the team. You don't want to jeopardize the mission.

The Comms officer begins to send the Dagger team and Comanche on the air. You looked closely at the screen with one arm resting on your stomach and the other resting under your chin.

The Comms announced that the Dagger Team and Comanche are below the radar now. You held your breath for a second and waited for their attack.

The Comms looked over to you and you nodded "launch the Tomahawks" you said to your comm.

"Tomahawks airborne. Thirty seconds to tomahawk impact on enemy airstrip." The second Comms informed the room and you let out a sigh, the real mission is gonna start soon.

The Comms informed about the delay on Rooster jet. You shared a looked with Hondo when the second Comms inform that the missile hit the target. The enemy gonna know now.

You bounced your leg and bit your bottom lips hearing the squad destroy the target and try to escape the missiles that chase them, and then something that you prayed for not to happen, happened.

"Dagger one is hit! I repeat dagger one is hit! Maverick is down." You abruptly rose to your feet and looked at the screen with wide eyes. It is not happening, he promised you to come back.

Your ears begin to ringing, and the sound around you has faded away. You begin breathing heavily. You take out your headphones and turn around to walk out of the room, you hear their faded argument and Hondo calling your name, but you just keep walking out of the room.

Your feet carry you to the hangar where Maverick proposed to you. You fall to your knees and begin to sob.

He promise to come back, he promise to marry you, but now he's gone, and there's nothing you can't do. Maverick is gone, your boyfriend, your best friend, your lover, half of you is gone.

You begin to sob and placed your left hand on your chest, his engagement ring begins heavy in your hand. You should accept his offer when he says he would marry you here. You should accept it, you would be happy to call him husband even if it is just a few hours. But now he is gone, and you can't call him your husband.

You don't know how long you sobbed and sit on the cold floor when Hondo place his hand on your shoulder. You looked at him with puffy eyes and tears still streaming down your cheeks. He already has his CWO vest on.

"They're back, Maverick and Rooster are alive," He told you. You stared at him, you didn't know Rooster got hit too.

You wipe your tears with your sleeve and Hondo offered his hand to assist you to stand up. He smiles at you and pats your shoulder.

You wipe your neck where the tears trailed down to there. Hondo leaves you to prepare for Maverick landing and you go to the bathroom first to wash your face. Your eyes are still puffy with how long you cried. You walked out of the Bathroom straight to the entrance door. You stood beside Admiral Simpson and looked at Maverick that embrace Rooster. You let out a small sob and place your hand on your mouth. He's alive, without a scratch.

Maverick pull away from Rooster and looked at you, he mouthed I love you to you and you looked at him and kiss the engagement ring that he gave you.

***

You stared at the standing mirror in front of you and looked at your wedding dress. It was a beautiful wedding dress for your beach theme wedding. You're gonna marry Maverick today in the backyard of the house Iceman bought for him. It has a nice beach at the back, so you decided to Marry in there.

You hear knocks on the door and turn around to face the door.

"Come in" you called out, your father, Admiral Cain, dressed up in a tuxedo stepped into the room. You decided you didn't want any military traditions for your wedding, you want them simple like any civilian wedding. Besides, it is just a small wedding in the backyard with just family and close friends attending them.

He looked at you from the open door, "You looked beautiful" he walked toward you, and you smile sheepishly at him."Thanks, dad"

You saw him try to hold back his tears but they still come out. You let out a breathy laugh and your tears spill down too. He wipes your tears with his thumb and caresses your cheeks lovingly. He kisses your forehead and pulls away.

"C'mon, I think it's time I'm handing you to that punk," he told you and give you the flower that you place on the Vanity. You take the flowers from his hand and rolled your eyes. "Dad, he's gonna be your son-in-law soon, be nice to him."

He grumble something and you looped your arms with his. You walked to the backdoor of the house that already decorated so it is visible for someone to see from outside.

The piano song of 'Here's come the bride' can be heard when the backdoor is opened. You put on your biggest smile and walked down to Maverick that wearing a blue Tuxedo on the decorated aisle waiting with Bradley as his best man. Hondo is gonna marry you today.

"You know, I still don't like him" your dad muttered in your ear when you two close to the aisle. You just rolled your eyes at him and continue to walk to the aisle.

You arrived at Maverick and your dad give your hand to Maverick. He grab Maverick shoulder roughly and looked him in the eyes. "Take care of her, or you know what happened if you make her sad" he threatened him.

Maverick gulped and nodded"Yes sir".

He released Maverick and kiss your cheek before he walked to sit beside your sister's husband. You give the flower in your hand to your sister as your bridesmaids.

You let out a chuckle and Maverick hold your hands tightly. You can feel his hand sweating in yours.

Hondo clears his throat and begins the ceremony.

"We are gathered here today to celebrate one of life’s greatest moments, the joining of two hearts. In this ceremony today, we will witness the joining (Y/N) Cain and Pete Mitchell in marriage." You stared at Maverick eyes and he do the same. You two have the biggest smile on your face during the entire Hondo talk of the opening ceremony.

"You're beautiful" he mouthed. You tilt down your head to hide your blush and mouthed thank you to him.

"Today we have come together to witness the joining of these two lives. For them, out of the routine of ordinary life, the extraordinary has happened. They met each other, fell in love and are finalizing their wedding today. Romance is fun, but true love is something far more and it is their desire to love each other for life and that is what we are celebrating here today."

"Now, Repeat after me" Hondo turn to Maverick that still staring at you with a goofy smile on his face, Hondo have to repeat his words to break Maverick attention. Maverick looked at Hondo with wide eyes, embarrassed, he then clears his throat.

"I, Pete Mitchell take you (Y/N) Cain to be my lawfully wedded wife, my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence of our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honour and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live." Maverick follow every word Hondo said. He stared into your eyes and never lose his smile. He squeeze your hand after he finished his vow.

Hondo then turns to you "(Y/N), Repeat after me: I (Y/N) Cain take you Pete Mitchell to be my lawfully wedded husband, my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence of our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honour and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live." You follow every word Hondo said. After you finish your vow people begin to cheer and clap. You have to bite your bottom lips to contain your smile.

"By the power vested in me by the state of and American Marriage Ministries, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." Maverick and you begin to lean toward each other and he kisses you passionately. People that cheering and clapping are fades away with how Maverick kisses you. He reaches his hand to cup your cheek and deepens the kiss that makes people go wild.

***

After your wedding ceremony, Maverick brought you to his shop.

You are seated on the back seat of his Mustang P-51 that he got fixed before the wedding. You are still in your wedding dress and he is still in his wedding suit. He sat on the pilot seat and turn to you.

"You ready, my wife?" He called out

"Ready as I'll ever be, my husband," you told him. He closed the canopy and begins to turn on the engine, he takeoff the plane and takes you for a joyride to the valley with Sun illuminating your body. The banner that was written "Just Married" was tied up on the tail of the plane. It unravels when you two are in the sky.

[twopoppies]

Omg he actually did say hitties LMAOOOOO. I don't know how some people are hearing 'these are out' when there's 5 syllables, and hit-ties is so clear. But it could be to do with hearing his accent differently. But as someone from London, it's 100% hitties.

Oh it’s 100% hitties. You can hear the H and the extra syllable. Mjccmhdkgd. WHO TOLD HIM???

[volterran-wine]

Hi! I just wanted to say that i am a great fan of your work and i absolutely am utterly in love with the volturi so i wanted to ask you a question, you dont have to answer this if you dont want to:)

So i am very interested in the background of the three king, i mean they're from mycenaean greece!! I saw that you have written these short (ish) versions of their human lives , for example Aro is Minoan and lived on Crete and Marcus lived on the mainland in Pylos , but now i kind of want to know where did Caius live? He is supposed to be a general and he had children.

Btw, i know this is long but i am doing this kind of research on their backstories and it helps me alot if i know where they have spend their human lives :)

So again big fan and i hope you see this :)

• — 𝐂𝐚𝐢𝐮𝐬 & 𝐻𝑖𝑠 𝑂𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑠

First of all, thank you so much for your interest in my take on his vampires and their stories; hopefully you can continue to enjoy my blog regardless of if I am here or not. 

Caius and his backstory was supposed to be unearthed in the piece called ‘Of Most Dreadful Suffering. I am the Cause’ and there I would reveal of where he was from. But in short; Caius is from the surrounding areas of the ancient settlement of Mycenae which was the heart of Mycenaean Greece. He would however not lose his life in his homeland, for he was indeed a soldier.

Caius died on the Anatolian Peninsula, near the Hittie settlement of Wilusa.

[0nlythrowharrybeaux]

I’m late to the party but I wanted to say this.

That anon was very annoying and you’re allowed to have whatever ick you have. You can’t really help it. But perhaps you can look at it from another perspective.

Thousands of legendary things have happened in Wembley. It’s an iconic venue. For two years in a row now, the first thing Harry wanted to do while in it, was what Freddie did in the past. That’s not an homage or watering it down or anything of the sort. That’s deep love for an artist. Like, he sets foot in Wembley and thinks of Freddie. He has the opportunity to do what his idol did so he takes it. Of course you can have whatever reaction you want to it, but he’s as much of a fan as you are, clearly. He’s talked about Freddie multiple times. I think he’s the only artist he’s consistently named as his inspiration since 1D days.

I just find it super endearing that he’s essentially behaving like a fanboy of one of rock’s most talented legends of all time. It sounded like he revered the moment. Like he took it seriously and found it incredible to be able to do that at all. Maybe that can help with your ick. Maybe it can’t. Either way it’s okay!

Yeah, I get what you’re trying to say. Vb thanks for your input :) Obviously, it’s one of those things that everyone is gonna take a stab at given the chance, you know? Like obvs Harry had to do it at least once! Like as a fan, I get why other performers would seize the opportunity to imitate something that someone they look up to has done. I'd imagine it's like a full circle moment to have admired it and then to get to do it yourself. I just feel like it gets overdone, that's it. That's the ick. So maybe it’s not specific to Harry 🤔

A good analogy for my feelings is when you watch a good movie too many times or listen to a song too much and it doesn’t impact you the same anymore because you overdid it. Just because that's your experience/feeling it doesn’t mean that the movie or song is suddenly bad or that this thing has lost all significance to everyone as well. Just for you that thing that made that movie or song feel special and magical at first is fading a little more each time you encounter it. I think that’s a better explanation of what I feel haha

But yeah, that anon was taking this very personally for sure! Like I’m not judging people who like when others do this, nor am I judging Harry or other artists for expressing their feelings/appreciation for Freddie Mercury in this way. I get they’re literally just having their moment and having fun with this and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters! That they had fun and connected with their audience! Which I think Harry has done quite successfully. Like there’s no judgement about how he chooses to connect with the audience & express himself on stage! Well apart from his minion overalls (seriously? 3 in a row!?), now that I will judge him for because Wembley deserved the Hitties out at least once! The crowds looked lit!

[harryfeatgaga]

HE DID NOT SAY HITTIES HE DID NOT...................

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIMDNDHSKSJABANANSBZNA

[vineofroses]

I mean yea in an ideal world that would’ve been great but mickeys background didn’t really lend itself to healthy communication like that. Like I’m not saying his actions were good, I just think the show was highlighting that about him and I don’t think at that point with all of those heightened emotions that it would’ve even been in character for him to respond the way you talked about. Imo he was hurt and frustrated not just because of Ian’s actions about the wedding but bc out also btought back all the other times Ian let him down. Again I think Ian’s choices in the past were valid and understandable with all he was going through but I think after everything they went through Mickey is allowed to feel how he feels in that moment. Was it the most healthy way of doing it? No absolutely not but neither were Ian’s actions. I mean also joined Grindr in response to Mickey & flirted with that guy at the gym after the fight with Mickey in Hall of Shame.

I’ll agree with u it’s all just lazy writing but it seems like you hold Mickey to a very high standard while absolving Ian of a lot of his wrong doings.

It's season 10 though -- I would expect them to be mature about these things. Again, it is mostly the writing and the writers in my opinion not respecting these characters enough to have them be anything but bickering and acting immaturely.

lol don't get me started on the hall of shame stuff. I pretend like it never happened. It was bad and definitely OOC on both their accounts. Ian joining Grindr is different because it is in response to Mickey. And I think he did it pretty reluctantly and it didn't go anywhere? I think ... I can't remember. Is that how Cole comes in? Okay yes I just remembered. Yeah , that's just in response to Mickey being ridiculous 😭😭

I don't want to discredit Mickey's feelings. I get that he's frustrated with Ian going back on his word. But to me, getting married is a very serious commitment and if one of them is having second thoughts for legitimate reasons then that needs to be addressed. They set them up perfectly for it, too. But then sent Mickey off on a childish tantrum with Byron. I hate it!!! It wastes so much time!!! Why is this the thing that leads to them being engaged!!! Idk I just know that I don't like it!!!

I guess I just see Ian actively trying to explain what his issue is and Mickey blowing that off. Which does annoy me. But I do think Ian isn't totally seeing why Mickey is mad either. And also don't get me started on the promise rings!! Lolllllllllll I cringed hard. uncommon L for Ian. But all these things stem from Ian's main point, which is that he's not sure he's good enough for Mickey slash he doesn't want to burden Mickey.

Also another point: The way the wedding comes about is less than ideal. At first they were doing it for logical reasons about Paula's death or something and not wanting to potentially testify against each other. I think it's good actually that Ian didn't sign the papers because once they find out neither of them killed Paula, their main reason for getting married just went up in flames. That definitely is the time to reevaluate. I don't think Ian used any of that explanation but I do think that led to his initial hesitation and realization that they were about to get married for the wrong reasons.

And as a viewer, I didn't want them to get married because of Paula, or even because they figured out it wasn't because of Paula. I did have the privilege of already knowing they were gonna get married but I remember thinking as I was watching the first time "wait this is it? This is how they decide to get married?" I was very disappointed haha.

I don't really see myself as holding Mickey to a higher standard. Really, I think it's mostly I hold the writing for his character to a higher standard, and they fall short constantly. I just vibe with Ian more. There are definitely things that Ian has done that I don't like. Buying the apartment w/o talking to Mickey, hitting Mickey in the bar in season 11, not exactly comforting Mickey in the wake of Terry's death etc. a lot of my frustrations just come from the way I've seen people paint Ian, as the villain, needing to be punished, etc. it's not everyone, I know. I just see it a lot.

sorry for going so long. I do appreciate these asks. Sometimes my frustrations are just easier to get out by making small comments like "Mickey annoys me here" but there's always more nuance to it. I just don't always have time to write it all out.

[whattheabcxyz]

2023-11-24

Singapore

University dropout forged degree to get jobs for 16 years

Woodlands junction sees 2 traffic accidents in just 3 days

Foreign students from India who stole clothing from Uniqlo make excuses for actions - cane them then deport them!!!

36-year-old man fined $13.7K for covertly selling vapes @ West Mall's Harvey Norman - scumbag

MFA director-general charged with cheating & providing false information - misused diplomatic bags

Prisoner who absconded while on work release went on chaotic rampage - a very good example of why we should keep drugs out of our country!!!

Yet more people caught under-declaring cash at Changi Airport - mostly cash couriers

Science

^ Where did the mysterious Fermi bubbles in our galaxy come from?

Gossip

Sean Say resurfaces again

Paris Hilton welcomes 2nd child with husband - probably via someone else's womb again

People

Oscar Pistorius set to be released from prison early in Jan next year - he would only have served ~11 years of his 13-year sentence, which was already a joke in the 1st place due to its leniency, but I guess that's $hitty South Africa for you

[eatsleepmemerepeat]

Taco Hat Dad is Still Mad

(Stories about my very Larry Dad)

For context, check out my page and read my other stories about my dad (aka the taco hat guy from HSLOT San Diego 2021)

Okay, so my dad starts texting me tonight giving me the play by play of Harry’s concert. My dad is at home and he doesn’t know what Twitter is so I have no clue how he is getting updates about what song Harry is singing so I asked him if he was watching the concert. He is still upset about Harry not singing Medicine at the San Diego show my dad was at so this is how our text convo went:

He likes to add the word “harrylouis” or hair-lou-wee-us or hilarious/harlarious to the end of words whenever he is talking about something Harry or Louis related (all of those words basically mean larry but he can never remember larry so he uses one of his made up ones)

I asked him how he was getting his updates about Harry’s current LA show and this is what he said:

For a man that calls key strokes keystones and thinks that Youtube is two words, I am still confused how he even knows what song Harry is currently singing. Who is at the show feeding info to my dad?😂

Also apparently he is calling Harry “dirty-rotten-refuse-to-sing-Medicine-Harry” because he didn’t sing Medicine for “the good people of San Diego”. It’s been a week and he still isn’t over it. He calls me multiple times per day to talk about it. I understand he is disappointed but, I will not let anyone disrespect one of my larents, not even one of my own parents!! Harry treats everyone with Kindness. I will need to have a talk and play a TPWK again for my dad until he apologizes to Harry for calling him anything other than amazing.

The convo continues:

Lord he is dramatic😂 I guess Medicine is the hill my dad is choosing to die on. Now, he is in his 60s and isn’t in great health so the gravestone might not be too far away. Do you think Harry would sing Medicine at my dad’s funeral if he carved Medicine into his headstone? I bet if he didn’t sing Medicine at his funeral my dad would haunt the shit out of him. He would have to change the name of Two Ghosts to Three Ghosts.

“We’re just two ghosts standing in the place of you and me, trying to keep this other ghost the f*ck away from me”

Then, in a fit of rage, he decides to give up and watch SpongeBob BUT NOT WITHOUT FIRST INSULTING MY LARENT!

*the last line should say, “Him [meaning SpongeBob] put on a better show than hitties” (he had a typo*

The fact that 1) he says that SpongeBob is better than Harry’s show is not only inaccurate, it’s disrespectful and 2) he called harry, “hitties” (which… I have no words for that)

Also, I can’t skip over the fact that my 64 year old dad is watching SpongeBob at 9:30pm on a Saturday night. He is an interesting dude. A lot of layers.

My dad had a blast at Harry’s show. He hasn’t stopped talking about it since that night. He calls me multiple times per day talking about it. He is mad about Medicine, but the AUDACITY of him to name call HAROLD. I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!

He will not disrespect Harry or his hitties, not on my watch!

I may need to consider breaking the relationship with my dad. I can’t have this kind of toxicity around. Like Harry said, “BYE BYE!”

He then tells me he needs to stop texting because my stepmom is asleep next to him. This is how he says good night to me:

Good night

ilyd (I love you -Dad)

ihhs (I hate Harry Styles)

EXCUSE ME, SIR?!! YOU DID NOT!

So, I guess he is still mad about not hearing Medicine live. So now he’s being a drama queen about it.

He’s gonna get over it eventually. I’m sure he will hear HS3 and he will forget the betrayal he felt when Harry didn’t sing Medicine. Even Louis himself said he hates Harry sometimes, but he keeps on coming back. Harry has my dad wrapped around his little finger. My arrogant S.O.B. Dad will eventually say sorry to Harry. So for now, I apologize on behalf of my dad.

“Whoa, you stress me out, you kill me

You drag me down, you fuck me up

We're on the ground, we're screaming

I don't know how to make it stop

I love it, I hate it, and I can't take it

But I keep on coming back to you (back to you)”

Will update tomorrow when he inevitably calls me asking for more Harry content.

[symphonic-scream]

Oho! Guess whos back with

Yes, More Differences in the Jocks Kwami Swap

Pixelator, Darkblade, and Guitar Villain

Pixelator let's go

Not too different, only we get more of Doorman Kim and whatever it was that Ivan and Alix were up to

Pretty sure they were restocking rooms or cleaning? But they were acting like big dorks so whatever

Kim gets zapped in like in the episode and Alix and Ivan happened to be in the hall when Jagged nearly gets zapped so she ditches him to transform

She ditches him at the museum instead of the school cause honestly, why would they search the Louvre?

Kim eventually gets out and Alix gets zapped and does the whole Cataclysm thing and they save the day woo

Not much different there

Darkblade

This one was a trainwreck episode holy shit

Okay so Chloe is running for class rep

But so are Kim, Rose, and Marinette

Alya convinces Mari to run when cause might as well and Mari's like well there's three other candidates so it's less nerve wracking

Kim's running mate is Max who has great policies but Kim flubs up his speech without knowing it

And Rose and Juleka are partners, and Rose is overestimating and Juleka says a few things but it's all hand gestures that are actually signed words that no one gets but Rose and mostly mumbled so,, yeah

Andre Bourgeois is the one to bring Jagged to the launch party, which Chloe insisted on hosting to so they could do the speeches outside of school

Also she wanted to try being nice and all, and her dad misinterpreted her intentions and wanted to set her above the others

Alix and Kim have to break away to transform during the attack and it's a lot of them insulting Darkblade and hitti g him with things until they win

Mari wins class rep in the end for protecting the class during the attack and Kim apologizes to Max for ruining their chances and Max is like

"you did your best and that's what matters" and all that

Guitar Villain

Alix was chilling with Juleka and Nath, the Colourful hair gay squad and dissing XY

Probably on the houseboat, Luka gets a cameo and so does Anarka, just some gays chilling and listening to some rock music

Also being gay

Kim's probably doing something idk maybe he's at a sister's sports event? Who knows

Anyway Jagged gets akumatized and they slip away and try to chase him down

They basically piss him off into going full mad rock god and missing his shots in anger, throw him off his rhythym, and Kim gets to smash a guitar like he's always wanted to

Hehehe three mostly non too important episodes and then BAM Antibug/Vanisher time :) all these are pretty far ahead anyways, but I've nearly caught up to the other differences posts so eh, decided to watch some more and boy did I forget how awful this is

Anyways let me know what you think!

[halothenthehorns]

BEAUXBATONS AND DURMSTRANG

Remus gave Sirius one more uneasy look before he started his chapter. It was the first time he'd seen Harry and Sirius really fighting about something, and he almost felt bad that everyone was against Sirius on this, but not bad enough to endorse the idea that Sirius wasn't insane for wanting to come back. Still hoping somehow Harry might be able to convince him otherwise in the book, Remus got started.

Harry awoke the next morning with a plan already formed, as if his mind had supplied it while he slept.

"I've had moments like that," James nodded eagerly, throwing Sirius a look in hopes he wasn't so angry at them he wouldn't play along.

Sirius sighed for a moment before adding on, "yeah, some of our best pranks came from the brilliance of the first thought in the morning."

"Hopefully this one works out for Harry," Lily muttered.

He quickly got ready and made his way downstairs to where he'd left out his Divination homework,

"You didn't put up your homework?" Remus said absently. "Risky Harry, someone could have taken that."

"I can't see to many people clamoring for those kinds of fortunes," Sirius said back deadpan.

  and began writing a letter to Sirius starting with the fact that he'd just imagined his scar hurting.

That cracked a grin out of all of them, albeit a sad one from Sirius as he said, "if you actually think I'll fall for that, you clearly don't know me that well."

Harry muttered something inarticulately.

Going on to say he'd only been half asleep when he'd written Sirius his last letter, there was no need at all to come back, his head was fine.

"I still think you need it checked," Sirius snipped at him, to which Harry stuck his tongue out at him.

Harry then left for the owlery, and was only delayed by Peeves who tried to turn a vase onto his head.

"And you didn't want to stick around for that?" Lily chuckled.

The Owlery was in one of the turrets of the castle, with no windows and straw all over the floor littered with owl droppings and regurgitated owl meals.

"Oh so pleasant," Remus smirked.

"I remember Filch once gave me the lovely detention of having to clean that place," James said, a little twinkle in his eyes already showing where he was going with this before he finished, "for some odd reason he used that as an excuse to blame me when he found a bunch of rat skeletons in his office."

"Can not imagine why," Lily snickered, while Harry fully laughed at that.

It took Harry only a moment to spot his snowy owl amongst the present birds, but it took him far longer to coax her down as she kept turning her tail to him.

That made all four of them snicker to Harry's dismay, though he recognized he deserved it after the way he treated her last night.

Clearly she was still miffed at him for her treatment last night, and it took Harry saying how he'd just have to use Pig instead

"That'll do it, yeah," Remus chuckled, as Hedwig had already shown her vanity in any other owl that wasn't her.

that convinced her to stick out her leg and allow Harry to tie up the note. Harry carried her over to the window, brushing on her feathers as he pleaded with her to find Sirius before the dementors did.

The smile dropped off all of their faces, even Sirius couldn't help a light shiver, though he quickly masked it by grumbling, "you have no faith in me."

Harry gave him an exasperated sigh, saying, "you know that's not it Sirius, you just shouldn't risk-"

Sirius just ignored him, glaring hard at Remus. Harry cut himself off when he realized he may as well be telling the fireplace this was a bad idea, and Remus chose to keep going.

She gave him an assured hoot before taking flight, and Harry watched her go with a now familiar tightening of unease.

Sirius sighed at that, rubbing his temple. He didn't want to worry his pup, he was trying to do the opposite here by staying closer. Clearly though when he looked around they were all feeling the same way, and despite his insistence, the smallest part of him couldn't deny he'd be the first to have a panic attack if he was caught by those dementors again.

He had been so sure that Sirius' reply would alleviate his worries rather than increasing them.

"Well I'm so sorry having me around made your life worse," Sirius grumbled, redirecting his confusion at himself outwards.

James, who had lived with this for far too many years, snapped back, "only when you start acting like a prat, as Harry's learning."

As Harry told his two friends over breakfast what he'd done, Hermione's first response was to snap at him for lying to Sirius.

"Hey, his first lie to you!" Remus snickered. "You should feel proud Padfoot, he's already trying to figure out the best way to do that."

Sirius cracked and actually began snickering, while Lily rolled her eyes. Of course it would be that to make Sirius feel better, the only person in the world who saw lying as a good thing.

Harry shot back it was better that than him getting sent back to Azkaban.

Sirius let his head flop back against the sofa, all humor forgotten, and already feeling exhausted. They'd just started this chapter!

Hermione made to keep going, but Ron hissed at her to drop it, and for once she did.

"There is a first time for everything," Lily raised a brow at this show of restraint.

Harry did his best not to worry about Sirius over the next couple of weeks.

Remus' voice cracked on that last word.

"Weeks, plural?" James asked in a too high pitched voice.

"Breathe Prongs," Sirius muttered, closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to see any of their faces freaking out. "It took me awhile to get back to him because I'm clearly up to something more than moving around. Don't flip out on me until we've got proof."

The others couldn't help it, they were still on the edge of their seats as Remus forced himself to go on.

Every morning he anxiously watched the mail arrived with nothing for him, and spent every night with restless nightmares of Sirius being cornered by dementors.

Sirius couldn't even pretend to ignore the spasms that caused him, he'd been having nightmares about that coupled with some other things, and the fact that Harry couldn't even pretend this thought didn't scare him wasn't making any of them feel any better.

Harry was feeling a little desperate and panicky at this point, time was dragging on too long, he had to know if his godfather was going to be okay. He was fixing to throw his caution out the window and start digging right through his memories to find the source, just to know that Sirius would come out okay, but then Remus caught his breath back and kept reading very loudly to hopefully distract them all from that and Harry acquitted he may only make things worse.

At least during the day he had things to distract himself. He wished Quidditch were still on, nothing put him out like a good training practice,

"I've got my proof!" James said a little breathlessly, still blinking that terrible vision Harry had painted away from his mind's eye. "Quidditch is good for you, take that Lily!"

"Love you to dear," she gave a soft laugh back she didn't really feel, but admired the attempt he gave all the same.

but at least he had his lessons, which were more difficult than ever, especially DADA.

"I should probably be terrified," Remus muttered, "considering your first class, but at this rate learning about the Unforgivables would be a relief."

"You're depressing me," Sirius huffed back, his smile at least trying to move past strained.

To their shock, Moody had decided it would be best for the class to know what it felt like to have the Imperius curse placed on them.

"He's what now!" James shrieked, that had distracted him! The baby in Lily's lap began crying in surprise, and Lily tried to deny her shaking hands as she cuddled and soothed him back down.

Remus shook his ears in surprise at such a sharp volume, but after blinking down at the pages a few times and considering, he said, "I guess it's not the worst idea in the world."

James turned too wide eyes on him, forcing his volume not to keep breaking decibels, "he was the one to tell them using those on other people will get you put away, and now he's going to use it on them!" As he kept speaking though, some of the panic did start fading out, and after looking around at the others who all looked equally as upset, though somehow resigned, he acquitted, "though I guess, I can't deny it could be useful. Better a teacher who will force you to do your homework until you break free than a Death Eater."

"That better be the only spell he uses on them though," Lily said dangerously. "If he decides to give them a taste of what the Cruciates feels like, I'll rip his other leg and eye off."

"I get dibs," the others agreed.

Harry watched them all with fascination. Through most of his young life he'd always wondered what it would feel like if he had parents to write home to, to tell them how his day had gone and what he'd learned in class. He never would have dreamed of writing this type of stuff to Sirius, not now when he was so worried about him anyways. Now he was getting a first hand account of how they'd process things, and he would never not find it intriguing to watch.

Hermione tried to protest, saying how Moody had pointed out it was illegal, but Moody said back that Dumbledore agreed he thought they should be taught what if felt like,

They'd already realized that Dumbledore must have approved this, but the fact that Moody just so phrased it meaning he'd actually told Moody to go and do this gave all of them lockjaw. It didn't feel like it was a coincidence this was happening to Harry. Even if this was happening to all fourth years, it probably wasn't happenstance this was Harry's particular curriculum. There were too many times before where they'd felt like Dumbledore was putting Harry through a little something extra.

They'd all promised though, that since the man wasn't here to defend himself, they'd try not to throw too many accusations at him, but this was really hitting the fan.

but if Hermione couldn't take it, she was excused.

"How come we never got excused from class for questioning the teacher?" Sirius muttered, finding it much more pleasant to crack a joke then imagine his little pup being put under that spell for any bleeding reason.

"Because we'd have a zero attendance if we did pull that off," James sighed in agreement, both what he'd said allowed and what he'd been thinking.

Hermione went pink with shock but didn't move a muscle, as everyone knew Hermione would rather eat bubotuber pus then miss such an important lesson.

"That's as accurate as it could get," Harry chuckled.

Moody began calling the students up one by one and putting them under, and the rest of the class watched them do the most astounding things. Dean was made to hop around the room on one leg singing the national anthem.

"That poor kid," Remus said in pity.

Lavender Brown imitated a squirrel,

"Least Moody's being original," Sirius muttered.

and Neville did several gymnastic tricks he had no idea how to do himself. Then it was Harry's turn,

Harry watched all four of them tense as tight as they could go. It didn't seem to matter to them the reason and logic of this, clearly Harry being under the influence of any Unforgivable was like a nightmare come true to them. All it managed to cause Harry though, was a flood of warmth at how clearly concerned they all were.

and he moved to the front as Moody said 'Imperio.'

Remus let out a blistering sigh as he read that. First the problems with Sirius, now this, how come he hadn't been able to get one of the nice chapters?!

What washed over Harry was like nothing he'd ever felt before, and it was wonderful. It left him with a floating feeling of ease, and he felt a smile adopt his face as everything he'd ever worried about melted away, no longer even aware of those watching him.

"Well if it was unpleasant then you wouldn't want to fight it," Sirius grumbled.

James was practically shivering non stop by the end of that description, so he couldn't have added something if he wanted to.

From a long ways off, he heard Moody's voice instructing him to jump onto the desk.

"That's it?" Lily couldn't help but question. "We went from gymnastics and squirrels, to just jumping onto a desk."

"You've seen how high up those things are," Harry reminded with a shrug, "you try doing that without a running start."

Harry bent his knees at once to obey, before some small voice in the very back of his head asked why he'd do such a thing.

Remus wasn't sure he'd read that right, because that was the start to someone being able to break through the curse. Harry was fourteen, he couldn't really have that sort of will, especially on his first try!

Harry was watching all of them with confusion, and when they continued to just sit there gaping at him he demanded, "what?"

Sirius finally cleared up his expression and gave Harry a proud smile as he defended, "I'm really not that surprised, you managed a corporeal patronus at thirteen, around a hundred dementors! Clearly your strength is your DADA spells."

Harry flushed red in surprise at such praise, but Sirius' comment managed to shake the others awake as well. It was a startling and impressive feat for anyone to show, but Sirius was right, this wasn't the first time he's showed such strong strength in character.

Trying to push some of the attention off of him, Harry asked back, "hasn't any of you fought this off?"

They all went very still and quiet, this wasn't something any of them really wanted to talk about, but James broke first and whispered, "I did once," with such a disturbing look on his face, Harry was terrified to ask what he'd been told to do.

Lily watched her husband, her eyes suddenly too many shades darker, but knew that Harry deserved the answer no matter how unpleasant it was. "He came home one night acting funny," she explained for what felt like the millionth time, though every single one made the experience as raw and new as if it had just happened. "I was still pregnant with you, and he came home one day, but well, he wasn't acting right."

"I was there that day," Remus winced in horror as all the possibilities of what else could have happened that day still haunted him if he wasn't. His hand went to absently rub at his throat as he tried to get out, "and, well-"

"Remus stunned me," James got out in a frosty voice. He despised having to recall this, like the others he'd had to recant everything he could remember for the Order later, and it still gave him nightmares. Clearly no one else was getting this out though, and he wanted to move past it. "Sadly, that doesn't negate the effects of the Imperius curse, so it wore off, and I went to attack him. I was actually ordered to-" his face spasmed, he couldn't get that out if his life depended on it, so he hedged around, "well, anyways, I snapped out of it before I could do any real harm, but-"* he cut off, his throat feeling like it had closed shut.

Sirius' face was an ugly mask through this whole thing, he'd went nuts there for a moment when he'd heard and had felt so useless at only hearing of this after the fact. He'd tried, like Remus, to figure out who'd done it to him, but James had never recalled anything after he'd left the house.

Harry didn't think he could stand to listen to anymore even if the others could spit it out, so he was more then happy when Remus decided to move on.

Moody's voice kept repeating it, telling him to jump onto the desk, but that other voice was growing more insistent now, stating this was a terrible idea and he should do no such thing. Then Moody snapped the order, telling him to jump onto that desk, now! The results ended with Harry half trying to defy that, and ramming headlong into the desk and possibly fracturing his knees.

"I really am just blasted," Sirius said, shaking his head in utter amazement, still trying to shake past that terrible memory this stupid spell brought up.

"I'll take the surprise and be grateful for it any day," Lily agreed.

Moody was definitely impressed, praising Harry and telling the lot of them to see what he'd just done! He instructed that Harry was to do it again, and told the other students to watch his eyes, that's where you could see the struggle. Then he turned back to Harry, praising him that no one would be controlling him.

"If that doesn't show how impressive it is, nothing will," James murmured, "since it takes a miracle to impress Moody."

Harry was indeed forced to go through that several more times until he could throw the spell off completely.

An hour later as they were leaving, Harry was muttering to his friends about how Moody kept going on like they'd be attacked any second.

"You mean you aren't?" Sirius said with mock wide eyes. "Here I thought they had rabid bunnies around every corner."

"You and your blasted rabbits," Remus grumbled.

Harry frowned in confusion at the odd comment, but no one noticed.

Ron agreed Moody was borderline mad as he skipped along, not having been able to throw the spell off near as well, though Moody had promised the effects would wear off by lunch. Ron continued by pointing out he'd been like this for a while, pointing out the story he'd told Seamus about that person who shouted Boo at him on April Fool's Day. Then he bemoaned how they were supposed to fit in Moody's assigned homework along with everything else they had to do.

"Aw, we didn't get to hear the rest of the story?" Remus pouted.

"I'll tell you if you tell me what Sirius' thing with rabbits is," Harry offered.

James released a surprised snort of laughter, if anything could knock him back into this conversation it was that. He more than happily explained, "when referring to Remus' werewolf status in school, we called it his furry little problem."

"When anyone asked about it," Sirius said in a saint like voice, "I managed to convince them all Remus had a badly behaved rabbit. Had to keep up the gist, so I got him one that following Christmas."

"Of course I didn't keep it," Remus scoffed, "it would be insane of me to try and own a pet, plus most creatures dislike me. Yet he's persisted in trying to give me one nearly every bleeding holiday sense."

Harry was laughing so hard, it took him several moments to calm back down and explain his end. "I never heard the name of the witch, but from what Moody told, she got pinned to a wall by a permanent sticking charm. Poor thing had to undress in front of her whole department to go home and get a change of clothes, and they're still up on some floor at the Ministry."

"That's a kindness considering some of the things he could have done to her," Lily smirked, thinking that everyone knew better than to pull a stunt like that at Moody now a days, but add fifteen years to him, that was asking for trouble.

All the fourth years had noticed the increase in their homework, and when they'd complained about it to McGonagall in her class, she'd begun by lecturing them that their Ordinary Wizarding Levels were drawing closer,

"They're not until the end of next year," Harry protested.

"They do not care, one little bit," Sirius sighed.

Dean interrupted to point out that wasn't until next year, but McGonagall persisted they needed the practice now! In this class no one but Hermione could turn her porcupine into a pincushion. Hermione blushed at the praise, trying not to look pleased with herself.

"And how was that working out for her?" Remus rolled his eyes.

"She'd stopped raising her hand and asking McGonagall to triple check it was the same style as McGonagall's, so quite well," Harry chuckled.

The two boys had been very amused at Trelawney fawning over their predictions,

At least they could agree with her on something, as they all couldn't deny their own amusement at that.

even having read some of them to the rest of the class and praising them for accepting their fate with unflinching horror,

"Such brave souls," Sirius said tragically.

but weren't nearly as amused when she requested the same thing for next month.

"Ra-rock cakes," James said with a straight face and a snap of his fingers, the others blissfully ignoring what he'd been fixing to say.

They were running out of ideas.

"I suppose it might be a little too obvious if you asked her for some, she's chock full of them," Lily sighed.

In History of Magic, Binns had them doing weakly essays over the goblin rebellions, and Snape had them all researching antidotes. This they took seriously,

"I thought you were worried about me?" Sirius said with an innocent voice. "Why would you take it to me?"

James reached around Harry like he was trying to smack him for that, but Harry was too busy laughing and being in the way.

as he'd made not so subtle threats about poisoning someone before Christmas.

Lily muttered several foul things under her breath none of them needed translating, as they all knew they were going to shove several poisons down Snape's throat when they got out of here, but if he touched Harry it would get even worse for him.

Flitwick had them reading three extra books in preparation for his lesson on Summoning Charms,

"Excuse him?" Remus spluttered. "Books, plural? A chapter or two I'll give, but Merlin man!"

Harry muttered his agreement, but for some odd reason was feeling regret he hadn't jumped on that one instead.

and even Hagrid wasn't helping as he asked them all to come down outside of class and take notes on the Skrewts.

"That's still the best homework I've heard yet," Sirius smirked. He wasn't exactly fond of these skrewts, but he couldn't deny he found them fascinating either.

Malfoy flat out refused this idea,

"Joyful, flunk him out of the class so we can deal with him a little less," James scowled.

and Hagrid snapped back that he would do as he was told, otherwise he'd see to Moody's idea. Remarking how he'd heard what a lovely ferret Malfoy could make.

Causing all of five of them a relapse in amusement, that joke would never get old!

The Gryffindors all laughed at that while Malfoy flushed with anger, but clearly the threat seemed real enough to him as he said nothing back.

"Please never let that fade away," Sirius begged, "this is better than the time Hermione slapped him!"

"I never thought that could be true," Remus nodded fondly, "and I couldn't be happier to be wrong."

The trio found Hagrid saying this particularly satisfying after Malfoy had tried to get Hagrid fired last year.

"Charming as ever," Lily giggled.

"Bless irony," James agreed.

They were on their way up the marble staircase when they ran into the crowd in the entrance hall, all hovering around and reading the sign announcing the delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would be arriving at six, the day before Halloween,

"Oh bullie!" Sirius chirped with real interest, he couldn't wait to see this Tournament getting started!

and that lessons would end a half hour early, where Harry interrupted to shout with joy that Snape wouldn't have time to poison them with that.

"There's the bright side," Remus snickered with only half his usual amount of jesting at that, considering they all felt it a very real threat.

Ron went back to reading that the students were instructed to leave their things in their dormitories and meet outside the castle to greet them. Ernie had been right by them as they read this, and he couldn't hide how excited he was before bustling off to go and tell Cedric. When Ron asked why, Harry suggested he was probably entering the tournament.

"Oh not him," James groused, "I couldn't stand rooting for someone who'd beaten Harry out of Quidditch."

Harry realized that his hands were starting to shake, a now familiar but never unpainful throbbing beginning in his forehead. It pained him that his first instinct was to snap at his father for saying a negative word against Cedric, while his fourteen year old mind fully agreed with James. He was sure that was indicative of something, but he knew he would regret it if he learned the answer.

Ron was outraged that this idiot could be the Hogwarts champion,

"Completely agree," Sirius nodded along.

Harry found himself having to beat down the urge to snap at both Ron and Sirius now for even thinking of saying a mean word against Cedric, and he knew they didn't really mean it...what on earth was that about?

Hermione snapped at him for that, saying they just didn't like him because he'd once beaten Gryffindor at Quidditch.

"Is there another reason not to like someone," Remus asked innocently.

"I'm not liking you lot very much right now," Lily shot back.

Ron said back that she only liked him because he was handsome, and Hermione was deeply offended as she said she'd never like someone for the way they looked! Ron coughed out the name Lockhart.

"Can't even argue with him that one," Harry cackled, more than pleased at finally being distracted from this.

The sign had reignited the talk of the tournament,

Harry had to press his lips tight together to suppress a moan. He'd quite enjoyed the long absence of this being mentioned, but now that it was all coming back that same feeling of unease was rising right back up. He tried his very best to ignore it, thankfully he'd had a lot of practice by now.

rumors of who was going to enter, what the contests were going to be, and comparing what little they knew of the other schools to Hogwarts, and what was better or worse.

"The accents," Sirius said with a dreamy look on his face.

"Do I want to know?" Harry asked with much more interest than he'd meant to, anything to keep the conversation off that Tournament for a moment.

"Oh please don't-" Remus began to protest, but Sirius instantly ignored him and explained, "I pinpalled with a girl from Uagadou, that's the school they have in Africa, and she was a real-"

"Perhaps we can continue this later," Lily quickly inserted, as she hadn't even known Sirius at that time and she could only imagine how inappropriate this was about to get.

"You lot are no fun at all," Sirius pouted at her, but Remus quickly threw her a grateful look and kept going while he could.

Harry also got to watch as the castle received a good scrubbing. Several portraits, much to the protest of its occupants, were removed of all dirt, all of the armor were removed of their creaking, and Filch became so strict to anyone with mud on their shoes he reduced some first years to tears.

Lily gave a huffy sigh, she really wished he'd be told off for that more.

The staff was beginning to act a little odd as well, McGonagall gave a much too stern lecture to Neville about not showing any Durmstrang student he couldn't perform a Switching Spell,

"I cannot imagine how that would come up in conversation," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"That was a bit harsh," James agreed with a wince for poor Neville.

as he'd somehow managed to get his ears on the cactus instead.

"Actually, now I can see why that would come up," Remus smirked. "That's quite memorable."

"What were you trying to do?" Lily raised a disbelieving brow. "When we learned that, we were supposed to switch petals from one flower to the other."

"We were supposed to be putting the spikes of the cactus onto our portion of the table," Harry shrugged, not wanting to admit that he'd somehow managed instead to remove his to Ron's chair.

The morning of, they went down to breakfast to find the Great Hall bedecked for a feast, with banners hung above every table with their house crest, and the school motto on a banner behind the teacher's table.

The three of them took seats by Fred and George, who were having another whispered conversation.

"What on earth?" Lily felt like she was asking for the fiftieth time.

"Hopefully they explain," Remus shrugged, several options still spinning around.

"I wouldn't hold your breath," Sirius sighed, thinking whatever their problem was, they clearly weren't up to explaining it to anyone.

They sat down to hear George saying that if 'he' won't talk to them in person, they'd have to send that letter after all, or shove it in his hand. He couldn't avoid them forever.

Remus looked up with a frown to indicate he was done with all the twins had said.

James's frown only deepened as he said, "well that didn't really explain much of anything."

"They're being avoided," Sirius said thoughtfully, rubbing at his chin as he swirled his mind around. "Maybe we were wrong and it is someone at Hogwarts, someone from another house this has to do with."

"What could they be accusing a fellow Hogwarts student of that's so bad?" Remus postured.

"We were clearly wrong, and it doesn't have anything to do with whoever attacked Bagman," Lily sighed, then waved Remus on to keep going as they were now having a fairly circular argument.

Ron asked who was avoiding them, and Fred shot back he wished they would.

"Ah sibling love," Sirius gave a light smirk.

Ron instead asked George what the deal was, and George snapped back having a nosy little brother.

"At that moment, I'm fairly sure they mean it," James snorted, no one liked having their conversations intruded on.

Harry instead changed the subject to ask if they had any more ideas about the Tournament, and George didn't seem any happier at the change of topic as he admitted he'd tried to get McGonagall to talk, but she'd just told him to stick to his work.

"How rude," Remus smirked.

"Should have gotten Hermione to try and ask," Harry chuckled, "she might have tried another argument like she did on Binns."

Ron wondered what the tasks were going to be, then told Harry how he still thought they could do them, they'd done plenty of dangerous stuff already.

"Who's this we?" Sirius gave a disbelieving look. "Harry's been left alone at all the big important things."

"Ron did knock out that troll," Remus said fairly.

"And he stood up to your arse, that's a dangerous feat in itself," James smirked.

"Plus going into the Chamber, and the Forest when he had a good idea what he'd find," Sirius agreed with a little nod, officially taking back his crack.

"This is actually starting to depress me," Lily muttered, she hated sitting around and thinking of all these things Harry and his friends had to go through.

Fred pointed out they'd never done anything in front of judges.

"There's that to," Sirius switched back, like he still wanted to press his point, "none of them have done any of that stuff with an audience around, and we know at least Hermione'll freeze under pressure."

"She was a first year," Harry defended.

Sirius still shrugged, giving Harry an obvious look, which the others suddenly realized he may be doing to try and get through Harry's head that he could fantasize about this all day, but he didn't want Harry in this tournament any more than any of them.

Harry either didn't realize that's what Sirius was doing, or was ignoring him.

George admitted McGonagall had told them that the champions get awarded points for what they did from the judges. Harry asked about who these judges were, and Hermione said she knew at least three of them were the heads of the participating schools.

"Which seems a little biased," Lily shook her head, "as they must be prone to supporting their own school. You'd think they'd get judges from other countries."

"I think it may be so that they can show how impartial they can be," Remus offered, "after all, a judge from Durmstrang giving a high score to someone from Hogwarts would make them seem fair and equal."

"That's if they actually do it though," James rolled his eyes.

She knew this because they'd all been injured during the Tournament of 1792, when a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on a rampage.

Sirius in particular gave a shudder at the thought of that, while Harry asked, "what's a cockatrice?"

"It's a dragon with only two legs and the head of a rooster," Remus said with a disbelieving look that students would have to put up with this. "They're born from a male rooster laying an egg, being hatched by a toad-"

"Thank you, because that wasn't a close enough description to how a basilisk's born," James muttered. It was amazing how the simple matter of the egg being from a male or female chicken made the difference.

"How would a male chicken lay an egg?" Harry politely interrupted to clarify.

Remus' pleasant grin only grew as Harry kept asking for more as he briefly added, "some hens can possibly change gender after they lay an egg, but they don't switch back to hens, so as long as the switch happened it is then technically a roosters egg. Cockatrice's have the ability that if it breathes on you it can kill you, which is a fair reason those judges made a run for it."

Now even Harry agreed with his dad, this was sounding far too much like a basilisk for his pleasure.

Remus was clearly ignoring all of them as he continued his rambling, "Merlin do I pity those contestants, but a sure fire way to keep it at bay would be to have a weasel around or to have it look at itself in the mirror, so while the challenge of capturing one is there, at least it seems doable."

"Can we please change the subject now?" Sirius begged, these things were far too close to dragons for his wanting to keep going.

Remus pouted at them, this was such a rarely mentioned creature he didn't get to talk about them much, but didn't argue the point either as he knew how uncomfortable it was making both of his friends.

She noticed them all watching her in surprise, and made a tsking noise that they hadn't read as many books as she had,

"I feel like you hear that a lot," Lily snorted.

as she continued the full account of it was in Hogwarts, A History. Of course she no longer considered that the most reliable book, as in her opinion it should instead be called A Highly Biased and Selective History of Hogwarts, Which Glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the School.

"But that title's such a mouthful," Sirius rolled his eyes, "I'm sure she can understand why they tightened it up a bit."

Ron asked what that was about, and Hermione shot back house-elves! Not once in those thousands of pages did it mention that this school had its history based in the oppression of them!

"Why would it?" James asked with genuine interest. "They had nothing to do with the school's history."

"It's the principle of the matter James," Lily sighed, "it's an injustice not to mention the fact that slaves live on the premises."

"Never heard you saying anything about this before Hermione," Sirius grumbled.

"I never put as much thought into it as she clearly has," Lily scowled back, "which I'm deeply regretting."

There was a lull where Lily and Sirius kept glaring at each other, each clearly deciding if they were actually going to revisit their earlier argument already, but then Remus decided to keep reading loudly while he still could.

Harry quickly went back to his breakfast to ignore her looks. Neither his nor Ron's lack of enthusiasm had curbed Hermione one bit about this subject.

Lily switched her expression to Harry, wishing her son would take more of an interest as he must see how wrong that is, he'd hardly been treated any better at the Dursleys, but Harry was thoroughly avoiding her eye as well.

They may have paid their two Sickles for their S. P. E. W badge, but only to shut her up. It had instead seemed to boost her, as she'd taken to spending nights in the Gryffindor tower rattling her box under people's noses, badgering all of her house to do so as well.

"I feel like that could be classified as harassment," Remus raised a brow at just how forceful she was being.

"Best way to keep up attention," Lily spoke from experience, the good and the bad.

Sighting over and over that they were all taken care of by the magical creatures who were unpaid.

"Well when you put it like that, it sounds like a bad thing," Sirius muttered quietly enough only Harry and James heard him.

"And how would you put it?" Harry murmured back. He may not have been as gung ho about this as Hermione, but he couldn't deny either he didn't like the ideas of more Dobby's being out there. He just knew better to go badgering other people about it.

"You ever watched them do their work pup?" Sirius whispered, waiting for Harry to shake his head no before finishing, "trust me, they're singing show tunes and beaming the whole time. They think they've got it made, and Hermione, or Lily, telling them otherwise will not make them any happier."

Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously, she could tell they were clearly saying something over there, but Remus wasn't pausing to let it come out.

Some, like Neville, had paid just to get her to stop. A few actually looked interested in what she was saying, but never campaigned with her.

"Maybe because Hermione can't prove her point either," James shrugged, throwing his hands up at once when Lily began scowling at him. "I'm just saying, most of the students aren't even aware there are house-elves there, so they can't get too worked up about something they've never seen."

Lily rolled her eyes, but wasn't going to say anything to that at least.

Many regarded the whole thing as a joke.

"There's the Sirius' of the school," Remus muttered.

Fred, who had refused to buy her badge along with his brother, leaned over to ask her if she'd ever been to the kitchens. Hermione said no at once, as that wasn't allowed,

"Can't believe she actually started to say that to those two," Sirius snickered.

but George cut her off to tell that they did all the time to nick food.

"Think you can hardly define it as nicking," James smirked in remembrance, "they practically give it away if you poke your nose in."

Telling her that they loved their job. Hermione practically growled back that was because they were brainwashed!

"No," Sirius drawled out, throwing this at Lily since Hermione wasn't around to here, "it's because that's about as much as their capable of understanding. Simple, normal chores."

"They can hold a conversation," Lily threw back at once, "you can't really say their un-"

"I didn't say they were troll levels of stupid," Sirius cut her off, instantly regretting saying anything as he should have known Lily would snap back. "Just that they aren't smart enough for anything higher. Didn't Dobby prove that when he tried to save Harry's life by killing him."

Lily wavered, recognizing that as she'd never personally held a conversation with a house-elf, she was being a bit of a prat by trying to say anything for them.

Sirius actually smirked, pleased to see he may have gotten through to her that time, but Remus still kept going before either of them could rally.

She was cut off though by the mail arriving, and Hedwig coming down to Harry's shoulder.

Which instantly distracted them from anything else.

She looked exhausted as Harry untied the paper from her leg, while also giving her his own bacon as he began to read Sirius' reply.

"There's the proper response," James muttered, not loud enough Remus would stop, but so at least Harry knew he was happy.

He made sure that the twins were no longer listening as he whispered to Ron and Hermione Sirius' response, which started with him telling Harry it had been a nice try,

"Actually no it wasn't, but you can't blame me for lying about that," Sirius gave an easy smile, slouching back into the couch with an insufferably proud look as far as the others were concerned.

but he was already back in the country and hidden away.

The others sighed, recognizing that Sirius had clearly gone off and done this probably moments after he'd gotten Harry's letter.

"You're welcome," Sirius huffed, glaring at James in particular.

James scowled at the opposite wall for a moment, working furiously to stop himself snapping that Sirius was being an idiot, before turning back and saying reluctantly, "thank you."

Sirius beamed, clearly starting to preen himself any moment now that he'd at least gotten someone's approval.

"Why do I even bother?" Lily moaned, rubbing furiously at her temple.

Remus gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder, completely in the same boat as her. It was depressing when he thought about it though, that Lily wouldn't have been there to tell Sirius in person he was being an idiot while helping him go into hiding. That Lily and James would never again be there to deal with Sirius and all the insane things he was going to get himself up to. Remus would be alone in making sure he helped to keep his last friend alive, and that thought was pretty terrifying considering more than half the time he'd been an encouragement to Sirius' terrible plans. He had no faith he could talk Sirius out of anything, to be honest he'd probably be so guilt ridden for having spent twelve years thinking the worst of Sirius he'd help him with anything to make amends. He'd probably be in the same pot of hot water as Sirius soon enough when the others realized he'd be just as bad as Sirius and was probably helping him in any way he could; at least he certainly hoped so. He'd much rather deal with that then just bloody falling back out of the picture.

Remus hadn't realized he'd sunk so deeply into his thoughts until he realized Lily was snapping her fingers in front of his nose to get his attention, and had to shake his head slightly to realize Sirius was talking to him.

"-Moony, would you get a grip. You've spent more than enough time worrying about me, can't you just pretend for a moment this is a good thing."

He mustered up a smile for his friend, saying, "so long as it's just for pretend, then sure."

Sirius rolled his eyes while Remus quickly jumped back into the book before he could let his thoughts stray anywhere else.

Then he wrote that he wanted to know everything that was going on at Hogwarts, but not to use Hedwig and keep changing out owls.

"Well would you lookie there, Padfoot's actually showing some intelligence," Lily tried to hide her beaming smile with a smirk.

Sirius gave her a challenging look back, though there was no force at all as he snapped, "hardy har Lil, this coming from the girl who once got herself stuck up a tree, you're not the poster child for smarts. And who said you could call me that." He added on, doing a double take as he fully took in what Lily had said.

Lily went beet red at the reminder, snapping back, "that has nothing to do with your levels of idiot, that was done to me. And I can call you whatever I want to." She actually finished that with uncertainty though, as she'd only ever once referred to Peter by his nickname, and they had all laughed that off. She hadn't really meant to do it to Sirius now, it had just slipped out in her desire to show she wasn't really as mad at him as she put on. She knew she could never put into words how grateful she was Sirius really was out there looking after her son, even if he did give her gray hair along the way.

Sirius could only leave her on tenterhooks for a few moments more before his expression broke, and he gave her an indulgent smile as he responded, "right, well, you do that then dear."

Lily couldn't even begin to hide her smile at that, while the other three exchanged bemused looks at the two.

For some reason, Harry was all for extending this as he wanted nothing more than to never get to this Tournament, so he asked, "How did you get stuck up a tree?"

Lily sighed, wanting to throw Sirius a nasty look for the reminder, but she couldn't seem to hold it against him anymore as she explained, "I had this friend Mary, and it felt like at least once a week her cat wouldn't come back at the end of the night like the rest of them always do, so I was out on the grounds helping her look for it. Well we found it, up a tree, on the edge of the forest. My friend, she was afraid of heights, so I offered to climb up there and get it down. I wouldn't recommend using a spell to get a cat out of a tree by the way," she added on when she saw he was about to ask, "they do not take kindly to that, and they come down one giant ball of fur and claws. So anyways, I scaled up there, but the moment I was in arm's length of it, it shimmied itself down the tree like the little shit it was. I began climbing down myself, when I got myself snagged on a branch. I don't mean my shirt might have got ripped a little if I'd just pulled, I mean I somehow got so stuck that if I kept going, I was going to have to make it back to Gryffindor tower in my skivvies."

Harry looked properly disgusted at his mother saying that, but Lily hardly seemed to notice as she was still glaring at Sirius through the majority of the story. "Well Mary got a hold of her cat, and she knew the second she put that problem back on the ground he'd just scale another tree and we'd be in exactly the same situation, so she was going to go drop him in the first empty room she could find then come back to help me. No she wasn't going to stun her cat Sirius," Lily snapped when she saw him opening his mouth to say something. Her look of agitation continued to increase as she said, "so Mary ran off, and who should come across me in that bloody situation but Black. What were you even doing out there anyways?" Having been so mortified by the end of this she'd never brought it up since.

"That's on a need to know basis," Sirius began to say at the same time Remus butted in saying:

"He was probably out there to snog some girl."

"Moony," Sirius rolled his eyes, "that was a highly kept secret."

"That the whole bloody school knew," he shot back with the same eye roll.

Sirius switched back to Lily then, batting his eyes at her lovingly as he told Harry from there, "you just know she was thrilled to see me, we were on the best of terms at that time." Harry snorted lightly, it wasn't hard to pick up on the sarcasm he was using, clearly this was at a time when his mother was still friends with Snape. "So being the gentlemen I was, I climbed up there and got her down. I managed to only tear up enough of her shirt she was still decent and then we both got down and parted ways as bosom friends."

"You were even more of an ass back then," Lily informed him primly. "You lorded over me for the next month that you saved my life."

"Pissed off Prongs as well," Sirius said without a hint of remorse, "he would have loved nothing more than to be her knight in shining armor for that moment."

"Plus I wouldn't have teased her so mercilessly about it," James agreed, not even bothering to hide his laughter at this retelling.

Harry couldn't help laughing at the end, thinking he'd much rather sit around all day hearing stories about their school life than his own, but he was clearly outvoted as Remus was looking at him expectantly. Knowing he couldn't delay forever, Harry gave a nod to indicate he was done so that he could continue.

Finishing with the request that Harry shouldn't be worrying about him, and a reminder of what to do if his scar hurt again. Then he signed off.

"With any luck you didn't say that name out loud," James muttered.

"I didn't," Harry assured, as Ron and Hermione knew perfectly well who it had been from.

Ron asked why he'd have to keep changing owls, and Hermione explained it was because Hedwig was too noticeable. It would look suspicious if she kept coming around to where Sirius was hiding.

Harry still couldn't help a slight frown. He loved his owl, and she was a proud creature, so she wasn't going to like the next time he wrote to Sirius and didn't use her. Sirius' advice was sound and a good idea, but it still prickled him that just because he hadn't got some common brown bird he couldn't use her.

Harry tucked his letter from Sirius away, trying to decide if that had made him feel better or worse.

"I'm going to pretend you said better," Sirius sniffed.

At least Sirius had made it back without getting caught, and it would feel better that he wouldn't have to wait so long to be getting his response.

Then Sirius really smiled, giving a gloating look to Harry who couldn't deny the smile back. He wouldn't have admitted that out loud for fear it would prove Sirius' point, which Harry still disagreed with as he shouldn't be anywhere near him in fear the Ministry would find out, but he couldn't deny it either.

"There's the bright side," Remus chuckled.

Harry thanked his owl as she took off, and couldn't deny he was in a better mood the rest of the day.

They all did as instructed and met up at the entrance hall to find very harassed teachers, McGonagall telling off Parvati to take a butterfly pin out of her hair.**

"I find that rather rude," Lily sniffed, "the people from the other school shouldn't care what's in the student's hair."

"I doubt they even would have noticed," James agreed.

Once their head of house was satisfied with her lot, she led them onto the grounds and had them stand in lines according to their year. Ron was watching his watch, telling them it was almost time, then asking if they'd be arriving by train?

"Doesn't seem likely," Sirius shook his head in thought as he mulled it over.

Hermione disagreed, then Harry suggested by brooms,

"Nah, that's way too far to fly," James disagreed.

Harry felt a small moment hit him, like he may have been closer than his dad was thinking.

or that they'd all apparated here? While Ron offered Portkey instead.

"Both of those are likely, though they'd still have to take the Thestrals in carriages to get up there, and that's not nearly dramatic enough," Remus chuckled.

Ron agreed with the first one, saying maybe they didn't have to be seventeen where they were from to do this.

"You have to be seventeen to enter the tournament this year," Lily reminded, "so I'm sure everyone who is appearing could do that."

Hermione reminded that they couldn't do either of those onto the grounds though.

"And there's that," Harry agreed.

The whole of the students stood in silence as they watched their surroundings, and something of what Mr. Weasley had told Harry at the Quidditch World Cup resurfaced to Harry's mind, about how wizards loved showing off when they got together.

"Which I can imagine will still hold true for this instance," James said.

Dumbledore first spotted the Beauxbatons arrival, pointing over the trees. One first year spotted it and began screaming it was a dragon!

Sirius went a very ugly color in shock at the very idea, but had the sense not to flip out as he knew no one would be stupid enough to do that.

Dennis told her that was stupid, it was a flying house!

"Yes, because that's not stupid," Harry laughed.

Dennis' guess was close though, as it came forward and they saw that it was a large, blue, horse drawn carriage, being pulled along by elephant sized palomino horses with wings.

Lily let out a surprised whistle of appreciation at that description.

"Abraxan horses," Remus said with undisguised intrigue. "Those are only native to France, I've never seen them in person."

"Well to me," Sirius began in tones that already had Remus scowling at him, "it sounds like all you have to do is picture an elephant with wings, but more horse like."

"And white," James happily added on.

"Palominos are tan with white manes you twits," Remus sighed.

"Well excuse us," Sirius said without a drop of remorse.

"How about you and I go on holiday there and see some," Lily told Remus while shooting his two friends a look. "They can stay back and stare at a wall all day, it's the only thing they'd appreciate."

Neither heard the slam, they were still too busy laughing at their own wit.

Remus gave her a grateful smile before deciding to move on.

The closest students jumped back in surprise as it landed, with a bouncing thud,

"I'm sure that was a comfortable landing," Harry muttered randomly.

while the horses hooves slammed into the ground nearly leaving cracks, their fiery red eyes watching them all carefully. A Coach wearing a powder blue uniform got down, went to the door where a crest of two wands crossed with three stars over them, and let down some golden stairs before releasing the door.

A high heeled shoe first appeared, the size of a small sled,

At the beginning of the description, Sirius and James's snickers trailed off and they listened in confusion.

followed by the largest woman he'd ever seen. The size of the carriage made sense once you saw her,

"I thought it was because of how many students would be arriving," Lily murmured in surprise.

and a few people even gasped as she took to her full height. The only comparable person was Hagrid, there could barely be an inch's difference.

"She's a half giant too," Sirius raised a brow in surprise.

"Thank you, captain obvious," Remus rolled his eyes, not hiding his own shock. Hagrid, and by extension this woman, were a very rare occurrence but Sirius' comment was still idiotic.

"She actually may have Hagrid beat in height just a bit," Lily smiled, "if she's wearing high heels."

"Thank you for that wonderful observation love," James chuckled.

She was certainly more well-dressed then Hagrid though, wearing satin clothes which complimented her olive skin with a rather beaky nose. The opals adorning her throat and fingers gave her a regal look as she gracefully approached Dumbledore, who began clapping upon arrival. Many students began standing on their toes to look at her as they joined in.

"I somehow doubt that's an issue," Sirius smiled lightly.

She gave a warm smile as he greeted her, though a tall man hardly having to bow his head to kiss her hand as he greeted her by the name of Madame Maxime, and introducing her to Hogwarts.

"Oh wow, that's the Headmistress for Beauxbatons," Lily spluttered, getting over one shock to run into another.

"Congrats to her," Remus smiled warmly.

She had a very thick French accent as she returned the greeting, asking how he was doing.

He politely replied he was doing well, and then Maxime waved her hand behind her as way of introducing her students.

"Oh yeah, these people I brought along," James snorted.

Harry's sole attention had been focused on her,

"You're not the only one I'm sure," Sirius agreed.

but now glanced behind her to see several students in their late teens all wearing the powder blue uniform of the school shivering in their headmistresses shadows. Clearly the silk material wasn't keeping them warm, and none of them were wearing cloaks.

"It is colder out here than in France," Lily agreed. "Though I am sad not one of them thought to bring something warmer. They must have had a general idea of where they were going."

"Wanted to show off more," James shrugged.

A few were wearing shawls. They were all watching the castle with apprehension. Maxime asked if Karkaroff had arrived yet,

Harry felt a shiver roll down his spine at that name, though he had no clue as to why. He looked around curiously to see if anyone else recognized it, but was disappointed to see no one give much thought to it.

and Dumbledore answered that they'd arrived first. He invited her to wait inside and warm up, or to stay out here to greet them? She decided they would wait inside, but first instructed about her horses.

Dumbledore agreed that they had a Care of Magical Creatures teacher to look after them, he was just taking care of other matters first.

Ron whispered into Harry's ear the skrewts.

"That's probably true," Remus snorted.

Maxime wasn't so certain, saying her horses needed a forceful handler, clearly thinking no one at this school was up for the job.

"She hasn't met Hagrid yet," Harry grinned, knowing full well that Hagrid could take care of anything, even if he did prefer the more dangerous ones.

Dumbledore promised Hagrid could handle it, and Maxime instead said that this Hagrid was to know that her horses only drank single-malt whiskey.

"Expensive," Lily raised a brow in surprise.

"So I can hope this won't go on your ever growing list of pets then," James smiled.

Lily nodded her agreement, then shook her head as she was still boggling at how much they must drink of this.

Dumbledore promised this would be done, and then Maxime and her students headed inside.

Seamus began talking to them about how if Durmstrang's horses were any bigger, even Hagrid couldn't handle them.

"Nah, I sincerely doubt they'd bring the same thing," Sirius shrugged.

"It's not like they asked each other in advance," Remus pointed out, "they might have."

"A Durmstrang school arriving by horse carriage," James raised a challenging brow, "I somehow doubt it."

"Stereotyping," Lily snipped.

James stuck his tongue out at her, since clearly no one else was going to argue against him.

Harry voiced Hagrid would be lucky to be taking care of anything after he was done with the skrewts. Ron said back that if they were lucky, they'd all escaped.

"Oh that would be a nightmare," Lily shuddered, "them running all over the grounds."

"Wandering into the Forest and populating," James agreed solemnly, "I think I'd prefer to hear they all came down sick with something instead."

Hermione shuddered in protest, thinking about all of those things running around the grounds.

The crowd elapsed back into silence, until a few minutes later when many began to murmur that they could hear something. It was a sucking noise, like water being pulled from a drain.

"Ah," Sirius began in genuine confusion, but Remus was too curious to let anyone postulate.

Lee Jordan was the first to shout about the lake, and they all looked to see that the smooth surface was being disrupted as if caught in a whirlpool

"That is so cool!" James squealed, his mind running in all sorts of directions as he tried to guess before Remus could say how they were traveling by water.

and what seemed to be rigging coming out.

"It's a ship," Sirius crowed.

"That certainly is one way to travel," Remus agreed, his head bobbing so much with excitement it was likely to fall off.

"Oh please tell me you get a tour of that," James begged Harry, his mind already visualizing all the pirate like stuff that was most likely aboard.

Harry gave a childlike laugh back, hoping very much for the same thing as Remus eagerly read on a full description.

The ship slowly rose, and settled back on the water's surface where it splashed against the shore before stilling. It looked skeletal in the moonlight, seeming to carry a fog around it as the portholes gave the impression of watching eyes. The sound of an anchor dropping could be heard, and they all watched a plank make shore.

Remus still sounded like a giddy child as he read about that, though none of the others would have been any better. Lily was even imagining this sight in her mind's eye and couldn't deny the beauty of the scene, even if she'd never grown up with fantasies of pirates like most boys had at some point. She did voice aloud though, "now I'm half wishing this hadn't been hosted at Hogwarts, I'd want to know how they would have traveled to another school."

"That's a really good question," Harry agreed, "let me know if you think of anything."***

They could only make out the silhouettes of those disembarking, and at first they all resembled the thick build of Crabbe and Goyle.

Sirius made a funny sound, thinking he was all the more lucky he wasn't shipped off there now, as he might have come out looking like that as well.

The closer they got though, they could see these students were instead wearing thick furs for their uniform.

"Oh, that makes sense, Hermione did say they came from a colder climate," Remus agreed.

The man in front was wearing clearly expensive ones of silver, matching his hair and goatee. Dumbledore greeted him as Karkaroff, and they both shook hands warmly. Karkaroff, in an oily voice with only lightly laced Russian, praised how good it was to be here at Hogwarts. Then he asked Dumbledore if one of his students could step forward, referring to him as Victor, as he had a bit of a cold.

"Well that was sweet," Lily smiled, "but if the poor thing's feeling sick, I do wonder why he came along."

"He probably got sick on the way there," James shrugged.

The student who stepped out of the crowd had a prominently curved nose and thick eyebrows.

Harry gasped in shock, but when a prod from both James and Sirius still left him looking like a gaping fish, Remus read out eagerly.

Harry did not require the punch he received from Ron, nor the hiss he put into his best friend's ear telling him that was Krum!

"Victor Krum!" Sirius all but shouted, nearly bouncing in his seat at once. "You're going to get to spend the year watching a professional Quidditch player walk around Hogwarts!"

"Bloody hell you get to see the coolest things," James groaned, nearly vibrating in place as a million questions went buzzing around his mind of what he wanted to ask him!

Remus was snickering without remorse as his two friends kept babbling like this, and they'd mocked him for being excited about a rare breed of horse.

Harry broke out of his shock as well and looked just as delighted as either of them, quickly joining in on the conversation, saying how he hoped to maybe get some tips from him!

Even as Remus handed the book to her, and Lily found her spot, she realized they were still going full steam, so still smiling she got up and snuck off to the kitchen to go and fix dinner without any of them noticing. Remus was quickly wrangled into the boy's argument to settle some debate, so when Lily came back to announce the food was ready she had to say it three times to get through the lot of them.

They ate in peace for what felt like the first time in ages, this was definitely their favorite book by far. The Voldemort mentions still terrified them if they thought about it too long, but they could brush that off and hope it would stop before they progressed any further. They truly hoped they could get through the rest of this book in the same manner.

HPHPHPHP

*AlyCat3 actually has a story called Pensive, and several of the chapters in that story are moments like the one I just described, except in a full one-shot. I'd recommend it for more Marauder moments.

**Funny story about this one random seemingly unimportant line that I can't resist sharing with you all. I once saw online someone say that Harry Potter isn't realistic enough because it took place in the 90's, but not one girl had ever been mentioned wearing a butterfly. Below that, someone posted this one line, and I cracked up laughing hysterically as I just thought of someone furiously flipping through pages for this moment just to prove that person wrong.

***I sat around for like ten minutes trying to come up with something cool, but I really was at a loss. It would have been kind of funny if they all road Thestrals there, apparently arriving by nothing, but there's no way they would have flown that far, it's as bad a travel as broom honestly. I was also really angling towards the idea they all got there somehow from underground. You know, Beauxbatons got there by flying, Durmstrang by water, Hogwarts somehow would have dug a tunnel the whole way there or something...kay now I'm rambling and need to stop. So let me know if you have any ideas. And please don't suggest by dragon, that also crossed my mind, but I just cannot picture anyone, even Hagrid, taming one to pull that off.

...There is no point to that second * story, but I can't read that anymore without thinking of that moment. Hope you enjoyed!

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

1 And the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) spoke unto Moshe [He Who Draws Out Of The Waters], saying,

2 Sanctify (make holy; set apart for God’s use) unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever opens the womb among the people of Yisra’el [He Holds Onto The Heel Of God], [both] of man and of beast: it [is] my.

3 And Moshe [He Who Draws Out Of The Waters] said unto the people, Remember this day, in which you came out from Mitzrayim [Egypt - The Narrow Place], out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) brought you out from this [place]: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.

4 This day came you out in the month Aviv.

5 And it shall be when the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) shall bring you into the land of the Kena’ani [Merchant], and the Hitti [Terrorists], and the Emori [Highlanders], and the Hivi [Villagers], and the Y’vusi [Threshers, Trampled Under Foot], which he swore unto you fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.

6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day [shall be] a feast to the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate).

7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with you, neither shall there be leaven seen with you in all your quarters.

8 And you shall show your son in that day, saying, [This is done] because of that [which] the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) did unto me when I came forth out of Mitzrayim [Egypt - The Narrow Place].

9 And it shall be for a sign unto you upon you hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord-Yehōvah’s [Messiah Pre-Incarnate] law may be in your mouth: for with a strong hand has the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) brought you out of Mitzrayim [Egypt - The Narrow Place].

10 you shall therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year.

11 And it shall be when the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) shall bring you into the land of the Kena’ani [Merchant], as he swore unto you and to your fathers, and shall give it you,

12 That you shall set apart unto the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) all that opens the womb, and every firstling that comes of a beast which you have; the males [shall be] the Lord-Yehōvah’s [Messiah Pre-Incarnate].

13 And every firstling of an ass you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among your children shall you redeem.

14 And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What [is] this? that you shall say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) brought us out from Mitzrayim [Egypt - The Narrow Place], from the house of bondage:

15 And it came to pass, when Par’oh [Pharaoh - Great House] would hardly let us go, that the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) killed all the firstborn in the land of Mitzrayim [Egypt - The Narrow Place], both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) all that opens the womb, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.

16 And it shall be for a token upon your hand, and for frontlets between your eyes: for by strength of hand the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) brought us forth out of Mitzrayim [Egypt - The Narrow Place].

17 And it came to pass, when Par’oh [Pharaoh - Great House] had let the people go, that God-Elōhīm (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] led them not [through] the way of the land of the P’lishtim [Immigrants], although that [was] near; for God-Elōhīm (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] said, Lest perhaps the people repent when they see war, and they return to Mitzrayim [Egypt - The Narrow Place]:

18 But God-Elōhīm (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] led the people about, [through] the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the people of Yisra’el [He Holds Onto The Heel Of God] went up harnessed out of the land of Mitzrayim [Egypt - The Narrow Place].

19 And Moshe [He Who Draws Out Of The Waters] took the bones of Yosef [(God) He Shall Add] with him: for he had straightly sworn the people of Yisra’el [He Holds Onto The Heel Of God], saying, God-Elōhīm (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] will surely visit you; and you shall carry up my bones away hence with you.

20 And they took their journey from Sukkot [Booths], and encamped in ‘Eitam [Lair of Wild Beasts] [with them: their plowshare], in the edge of the wilderness.

21 And the Lord-Yehōvah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:

22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, [from] before the people. — Exodus 13 | New Messianic Version (NMV) The New Messianic Version Bible by Tov Rose © 2012. All Rights Reserved. Cross References: Genesis 15:18; Exodus 3:8; Exodus 3:20; Exodus 10:2; Exodus 12:2; Exodus 12:14-15; Exodus 12:29; Exodus 12:51; Exodus 14:1; Exodus 22:29; Exodus 34:20; Numbers 33:6; Deuteronomy 6:8; Deuteronomy 17:16; Matthew 23:5; Luke 2:23; Acts 13:17; Acts 7:15-16; 1 Corinthians 5:8; 1 Corinthians 10:1; Hebrews 11:27

[extremelyblackandwhite]

the light in the piazza

pairing: bucky barnes x reader

warnings: love at first sight trope

summary: sergeant james barnes of the 107th meets a woman in while stationing in florence. inspired by the song the light in the piazza 

I don’t see a miracle shining from the stars, I’m no good at statues and stories, I try. That’s not what I think about, that’s not what I see, I know what the sunlight can be ...

Wishing, wishing is a funny thing. When you wish for something you always think of the end goal of your wish, you never wonder how the universe will grant you your wish, in what conditions. It is not like you wish upon a star with a whole essay and plan of how your wish should be given, you just wish for it. Some wish for love, some wish for fame, for glory and riches, but no one wishes for something in a specific way that won’t guarantee the bittersweet hand of the universe. 

James had been the most recent victim of wishing carelessly. In this case, James wanted to travel, wanted to leave Brooklyn and see those places that were somehow always plastered in the highly stylised adverts stuck of the walls of his dead beat neighbourhood. He left Brooklyn, he had travelled. He had seen England, Ireland, Scotland and most recently Italy. The consequence? War. Suddenly, all those dreams of becoming the man in the airplane drinking expensive champagne and travelling to European dream lands were misshaped into flying in army airplanes and going to camps where hope was something that had begun to disappear.

The Italian base camp was no different. The soldiers were tired, those with wives and families only mumbled their names at times, the single ones had began to get tired of the nurses and girls that would come to entertain and help the tropes and those who had someone waiting for them back home had started to believe it was time to say goodbye. Hope was running low, but not for the Howling Commandos. No. Their motto was ‘as long as there’s a bar and you get to sleep another night, there’s hope’, but James was starting to lose hope. 

Today however was the day James lived by. Free day. They got to do whatever they pleased, whenever they pleased. James used this day to go sight-seeing, grab some postcards from his sister and try and rejoice in the twisted wish that had been granted. Florence was no different, he was walking around the piazza del duomo, looking at the view and how stunning it was. He stopped by a small shop, looking at the painted small postcards, offering the clerk some money and turning to face the middle of the piazza to return to the camp until he saw a small straw hat with a green ribbon wrapped around it fly aimlessly in the wind. James carelessly grabbed it from the mid air, wondering where the owner was. The owner of the hat wasn’t far as he saw a girl rush through the crowd dressed in a fancy outfit. He had seen something similar in the fashion magazines his sister would bring home. The new look, if he remembered. Hers was a shade of sunny yellow with green accents which matched the ribbon on her hat. 

She stopped in front of him, a look of uneasiness yet relief on her face. He finally could get a good look at her, along with the fancy and expensive dress, she had white gloves on adorned by a pearl bracelet on her right wrist with matching white lower pumps. Her hair was pinned back, showing the pearls on her ears and the camera hanging from a tan piece of fabric. 

      - Penso che ... uhm, I, how do you say ... cosa di testa? - James Barnes was a hundred per cent that he completely butchered the Italian language. Head thing? What was he thinking? 

      - You’re American? - the woman asked, noticing the slight Brooklyn accent in the middle of what was the worse Italian pronunciation she’d ever heard in her whole life. 

      - Oh god, you speak English. I have your hat. - he was nervous. Why? He did not know. He did not know why he was tongue tied in both Italian and English in front of the most polished woman he’d ever seen. She couldn’t be older than him, he actually thought she was even younger considering the lack of an engagement ring on her finger. 

     - Thank you so much. - she gave him the sunniest smile, sunnier than the dress she was wearing. James handed her the hat which she held with both hands in front of her abdomen. - My mother would kill me if I lost another hat. 

     - God thing I was here then. - god James sounded like Steve. That’s it, his power did not work outside of Brooklyn. 

     - I’m Y/N, by the way. - she extended one of her gloved hands and James wondered if his hands were good enough to hold what looked like the most softest piece of fabric he’d seen. 

     - James Barnes. - he shook her hand, a bit hypnotised with her. She had to be the prettiest woman he’d ever seen and he had some many women before.

     - Are you a soldier? - she noticed the mossy green suit he was wearing.

     - Sergeant, actually. We’re stationing here for a few days. 

     - Me and my mum are visiting. My dad is here on a business affairs and we thought to come and say hi. 

     - That’s a nice camera you got there. - suddenly he realised he was staring to intensely at her chest where her camera was resting. God, was he spastic? She pulled the tan string over her head, holding the camera with the hand he had just shook. - I, me and my friend Steve have this jar we put quarters in every single day to try and buy one of those. 

     - Do you wanna take a picture? Maybe to send home?

     - Really? - his eyes lit up like a child during Christmas. - No, I don’t want you to waste your film on me.

     - Well, you did save my hat so the least I can do is give you a free picture.

     - No, I don’t even know how use it. 

     - It’s easy. - she handed him the camera, standing by her side. - You look at this little window and find something you wanna take a picture off, spool the window and press the silver button. 

     - Are you sure it’s okay? - he asked, looking at the scenery through the small window of the camera. He slightly shifted the camera to face her, catching her staring at the church in front of them and clicked the silver button, she flash making her slightly turn her face to the ground. - That’s a heavy piece of machinery. 

     - Dad says it’s the future of fil ...

     - Y/N! - a much older woman dressed in a more fitted burgundy dress with a matching burgundy hat rushing towards them. - I’ve told you several times not to run off, what if someone kidnapped you? Or worse, robbed you?

    - Mum, this is Sergeant Barnes, he saved my hat. This is my mother, Margaret.

    - Oh thank you so much. Unfortunately, we have an appointment, I’m sorry we have to ...

    - What appointment? - Y/N interrupted, returning the camera to its resting place against her chest while placing her hat on top of her perfectly brushed and pushed hair.  

    - Let’s go, Y/N. - her mother turned on her back, walking straight ahead expecting her daughter to follow. Y/N gave him an apologetic look, knowing how her mother was when her plans got ruined and when she talked with someone she did not deem worth their time and attention. 

    - Wait, Y/N ... - James carefully grabbed her wrist, as not to alarm her mother who was walking with a might. - Where are you staying? I’d love to take you for dinner. 

    - I’m staying at the Grand Hotel. Go through the back. - she smiled at him before rushing to follow her mother wherever she was going, an ever so slight blush settling on the apples of her cheeks. 

Night couldn’t come earlier, the hours that once seemed like seconds took years to pass by but night eventually came and he found himself standing at the back of the Grand Hotel. It was a huge contrast to the front of the hotel, mostly filled with employees smoking or making out with the daughters of their clients. Speaking of which, he saw her come through the back door wearing a dress in the same shape as the yellow one except in a floral pattern, with a pink ribbon wrapped around her waist. 

    - Y/N. - he raised his hand calling for her attention. - You look beautiful. 

    - Thank you. We have two hours until my mother wakes up and realises I’m gone. 

    - I only need a hour ... Oh god why did I say that?

    - I have your picture by the way. - she opened her little bag, searching through it to hand him a black and white slightly sepia coloured photo. He smiled at it for a few seconds, realising he was now one of those army soldiers who had a picture of a lady in their pockets the whole time. - Where are we going?

    - I have no idea. - he started to walk the beautifully lit streets that made him forget they were in the middle of a war period. - So, Y/N, where do you live?

    - Well, right now we’re in London but next year we’re in New York. It always depends on where dad has business. 

    - Hey, I’m in Brooklyn, maybe you could come and visit me. My mum makes the perfect Sunday dinner and my sister can be less annoying than she normally is when there’s guests.

    - I’ve never had a Sunday dinner.

    - What? No way, doll. Do rich people not eat dinner? Is that why you’re all so very rich?

    - No, we normally have a very late supper with some hors d'oeuvres and wines. 

   - Well, you don’t know what you’re missing.

   - I guess I’ll have to take you on that offer then.

   - And you can meet Steve. He’s pretty scrawny but he has some fight left in him, probably would win the war if they allowed him. 

                                         PRESENT DAY (ENDGAME)

Bucky stood on the sidelines as he watched the funeral go through. He felt dirty, he shouldn’t be here, he shouldn’t be watching the funeral of the person he caused the most pain to. The worse however was Steve, he knew what he was about to do, he knew what he was about to go to. Sam was a great guy but Sam was not enough to make Bucky want to stay.

His hands went to his pocket, taking the worn out picture he had gotten from the museum, the picture of her. The picture had grown old, so had him and so had she, but he could still remember it like it was yesterday. No one could steal that memory, the memory of her kissing his cheek goodbye before she got back to hotel, the memory of the sun hitting his skin when he took that picture. 

   - It’s been 80 years, Buck. Wanna tell me about her? - Steve patted him on the shoulder. Bucky just smirked, turning his head slightly to stare at him.

   - No, I don’t think I will. - he used the same sentence Steve normally used when speaking about Peggy which always drove him off the wall.

   - You should come. 

   - I don’t think the James that she’s expecting is me anymore. 

   - If it doesn’t work, you can always return. What else do you have to lose?

He stepped with Steve onto what he thought looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, his eyes still on her picture as they stood in New York. He knew where she lived, she had wrote to him a few times during the war so he knew where to find her. Steve gave him a sympathetic smile, hugging his friend before they went their way. He wondered what she’d think or how he was going to explain the metal arm or the hair. 

James found himself standing in front of her home, fist coming to knock on the door. A slight commotion could be heard outside the door as the slight sound of heels was heard from inside the house. He thought about leaving, this was a bad idea, no, this was a terrible idea. As he was about to leave, the door opened. He saw her standing there, a blue dress on, hair free from any tight hair dos. 

   - James? - she questioned, recognising that face anywhere. 

   - Hi. - he didn’t know exactly what to tell her or how to say hi after all those years. The person he saw in his dreams at night was standing in front of him.

   - You know, it’s extremely rude to leave a lady waiting so long. - she leaned against her door. 

   - My apologies. - just like that he was that hopeless soldier in Florence. 

   - Y/N, who is it? - a man dressed in a dapper suit joined her by the door.

   - Oh, daddy, this is Sergeant Barnes, the soldier I spoke about. 

   - Oh, the hat guy. Come in, we’re having brunch and there’s always space for another one. 

He took her hand, walking into her home. 

Sometimes the universe puts you through one hell of a ride, but it eventually grants you your wish.