#how much work and effort I put in my writing

[jflemings]

— visiting hours

pairing: jessie fleming x reader

synopsis: five times you got a visit at work and the one time you returned the favour

warning: minimal allusions to sex

୧ ‧₊˚ 🧸 ⋅ ˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚

you and jessie had been seeing eachother for a while now, having met one hectic morning at a coffee shop during her first few weeks in portland. you had spilled your drink all over her training kit and stammered your way through an apology whilst attempting to dry off her shirt with some near by napkins. in your frantic effort to clean her up she had placed a hand over yours and shyly told you that you could make it up to her by letting her take you out.

you agreed with a shy smile and nod before realising the time and hurrying to your car so that you wouldn’t be more late than you already were, choosing to write your name and number on her own cup and practically flying out the door.

it all snowballed after that first date, the two of you quickly realising how much you enjoyed eachother’s company leading you to spend whatever time you could spare together.

1. FORGOTTEN LUNCH

jessie navigates her way through the school halls quietly as she tries to find your classroom. the brown paper bag in her hands crinkles slightly as she readjusts her grip, hoping that you were where the lady in the admin office said you would be.

she nervously bites the inside of her cheek as she approaches your open classroom door, peaking her head inside and rapping her knuckles against the wood three times to get your attention.

you look up from what you’re doing with a smile before a slightly shocked expression takes over your features “jess?”

jessie steps inside nervously “hey” she greets quietly “you left your lunch this morning”

your face drops in relief, your hand immediately falling to your stomach “you didn’t have to drop it off, i was just going to buy lunch”

the canadian shrugs as she walks to your desk and puts the bag down in front of you, her palm flattening on the wooden surface “it was my fault you were late” she mumbles looking down, a slight blush creeping up her cheeks “it was the least i could do.”

you smile up at her, crossing your arms and leaning them on your desk. the memory of this morning’s activities flashes in your mind and you smirk, jessie’s sudden embarrassment being a stark difference to her needy, cocky exterior from a few hours ago.

“i don’t recall me complaining” you tease as you tilt your head and look over your girlfriend’s shy form. she’s dressed in her training gear, the white shirt accentuating her broad shoulders in a way that has you reeling.

she cracks her knuckles against your desk and rolls her eyes playfully as she watches you check her out shamelessly. folding her arms, she turns and sits herself on the edge of your furniture, her posture going lax as she crosses her ankles and tucks her head into her shoulder slightly.

“stop staring” she mumbles quietly into her shoulder

you can’t help but smile slightly before you prop your chin up on the palm of your hand “am i making you nervous, fleming?”

jessie squints at you slightly, unfolding her arms and leaning back on her hands “i didn’t say that”

“you didn’t have too” you smirk before standing and leaning over to kiss her cheek “thank you though, saved me both time and money”

the canadian smiles “anytime”

2. DROPPING IN

it’s during your free period when jessie drops by unexpectedly. she stands in your doorway aimlessly before knocking, making you look up from your laptop.

you smile “what are you doing here?”

“got bored at home” she says as she walks in “thought i’d come see you for a little bit”

you push out the chair that’s next to your desk with your foot, signalling her to sit down. she does so and tucks her hands into her pockets before kicking out her legs and crossing her ankles “finished your book, then?”

she nods “this morning. then i put on some laundry and sorted dinner out but i quickly ran out of things to do” she picks at the hem of her shorts “what are you up to? i’m not interrupting am i?”

“no, i just finished up a couple emails and was hoping to put a dent in this stack of assignments i’ve got to mark but i can’t focus” you assure her whilst pushing your laptop away “you’ve given me a reason to have a bit of a break”

jessie hums “the ones you were marking last night?”

“yeah. i only got through about three before i fell asleep”

“you were up until midnight doing them” jessie points out with a cock of her head, now only noticing the bags under your eyes. she tuts “you’ve gotta stop stressing yourself out”

“i could say the same to you” you rebuttal, referring to the numerous times jessie’s stayed after training to do some practice by herself. you cock an eyebrow “you overwork yourself”

“so do you”

“but i’m not an athlete” you point at her as you prop your legs up on her own “if you don’t rest your body you’re going to do yourself more harm then good, jess. you don’t need me to tell you that”

the canadian shifts in her seat and rests her hands on your legs, running them up and down your shins over your jeans. she leans her head back and rolls it on her neck, coming to look at you half over her shoulder. she raises her eyebrows before huffing “fine” she says “dinner tonight then? sounds like we could both use a bit of down time”

“you said that you already had dinner sorted” you point out.

“i do” she nods her head “i actually came to ask if you wanted to come over for dinner, i’ll cook and you can just sit and look pretty”

you can’t help but smile at jessie “i would love to”

3. EXAM SEASON

you were freaking out. an absolute a wreck as you go through your bag, folder and every drawer in your classroom.

exam season hit you hard and fast. you had been barley sleeping so that you could finish grading your sophomore’s and junior’s midterm english exams, determined to not make them wait for their grades longer than they had to. you had finished them last night and now you had lost them.

checking your watch, your eyes go wide at the time. only ten minutes before you had your sophomores for first period. ten minutes before you had a bunch of tired highschool students in your classroom awaiting their grades, and you’d have to tell them that you didn’t have them.

it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if they hadn’t complained to you earlier in the week that most of their teachers had yet to give them their other exams and assignments back. you had of course tried to explain to them that grading exams wasn’t as quick as taking them, especially since most of the staff had more than one class, but you still promised to have them marked and ready by the end of the week.

only, you didn’t have them.

they weren’t in your backpack, your laptop bag, tucked away in your desk or misplaced in another drawer. they just weren’t here.

you hang your head and screw your eyes shut, cursing at yourself for being so stupid and misplacing them when your classroom door opens, interrupting your train of thought. you turn around to greet whoever it is with the best smile you can muster, only to be met with jessie dressed in her training gear and holding a stack of papers.

“you left these on the kitchen bench this morning” she holds them up and waves them “i tried to call you but you didn’t pick up so i thought i’d just come drop them to you personally”

you drop your jaw “jessie you are a lifesaver, oh my god” you laugh in relief, crossing the length of your classroom to meet her at the door. you take the papers off her and kiss her hard, her hand finding your hip easily “you have no fucking idea how stressed i’ve been trying to find them”

jessie smiles and squeezes your hip “babe, you have got to stop putting so much pressure on yourself” she says lowly “and you need more sleep”

you roll your eyes playfully and tap the thorns crest on her training shirt “yeah, well, i’ll be sleeping a lot better now that exams are done with” you say lightheartedly before realising what jessie’s dressed in. your eyebrows shoot up as you look at your watch “and you need to go, jess, you’re going to be late!”

she puts her hands up as you push her into the hallway protesting “i’m not going to be late—”

“jessie go!”

the canadian pecks your lips “i’ll see you later” she says as she begins to walk down the hall. “don’t stress!” she yells with a smile as she rounds the corner, winking at you before dashing off.

4. FOUND OUT

jessie’s once again sat on the chair next to your desk when a student comes looking for you. she loudly walks into your class before seeing the canadian, immediately going quiet and pausing when she realises you aren’t in the room.

the two of them stare at eachother for a moment before the teenager speaks “i’m looking for miss l/n…” she trails off.

“she just went to the bathroom, she’ll be back a minute” jessie answers, sending her an awkward smile as your student nods. the canadian was sure that all the kids had left and she doesn’t know what she’ll say if the one in front of her recognises her or asks what she’s doing in your classroom.

you approach your door from the hallway, catching your student and jessie in what looks to be a staring contest. a wave of relief washes across jessie’s face as she spots you.

“olivia, what do you need?”

olivia turns suddenly, a book in her hands “i’m not coming to school on monday so i thought i’d give you this back so i don’t forget” she explains quietly.

the rattling of a keychain gets jessie’s attention. she squints and sees it’s a little chelsea jersey with FLEMING 17 printed on it. jessie smiles but diverts her eyes back to her phone, not wanting to get caught staring.

you smile “thanks, liv” you say as she nods at you “have a good weekend!” you tell her.

the teenager smiles and nods again, sneaking a glance at jessie before she rushes off down the hall. you tilt your head as you watch her leave before turning back to your girlfriend.

“did she talk to you?” you ask as you approach your desk.

jessie shakes her head “we kind of just… stared at eachother. i didn’t know what to say”

you huff a laugh as you tuck the book away into your desk “she’s a fan” you say “she’s a chelsea supporter and was really excited when you signed with portland. she talked my ear off about it after she went to watch the first match”

“i saw the keychain on her bag” the canadian says quietly.

“she’s told me you’re the reason she plays soccer” you admit whilst putting your laptop in it’s bag “i’m not surprised she didn’t tell you though. she’s pretty shy”

all jessie can do is nod in thought. it was nice to be the reason someone fell in love with the sport she so passionately played, even more so that it was a teenage girl.

you clap your hands once as you hike your backpack onto your shoulder “right. i think we should make pizzas and watch that movie we saw on hulu last night, what do you say?”

jessie’s attention is now completely on you “pizzas from scratch or pizzas with store bought bases?”

“who do you think i am, fleming. store bought bases, obviously, i can’t be bothered making the dough”

when olivia returns to school on tuesday you have a signed portland thorns fleming jersey waiting for her. the look of gratitude on her face when you give it to her is priceless.

5. SOFT SPOKEN

“it was a hard exam” you say softly to olivia who stands in front of you. she’s gripping her paper tight and looking down on it like she wants to make it disappear “but you can get your grade back up to an A by the end of the semester if you do extra credit. i promise it’s not the end of the world”

“my parents are going to be so mad at me” she whispers “i studied so hard”

“exactly. you studied hard and you did your best, that’s all you can do”

olivia nods weakly, the paper crinkling in her grip as she looks at you “i just really wanted to keep up my grades this semester, especially after last semester” she admits to you, her voice quiet “i thought i did so well on this”

“you aren’t the only kid who got a bad grade, liv” you attempt to assure her but frown when you realise you might not be getting anywhere. you found your desk and open your top drawer, pulling out a packet “here’s a little bit of extra credit to start you off. get it back to me by monday, okay?” you hand it to her and tilt your head “we’ll fix your grade, i promise”

olivia takes the packet from you and nods before putting it, along with her graded test, in her backpack. just as you open your mouth to speak again you get a knock at your door.

you expect it to be another staff member, or maybe even jessie seeing as though she would’ve finished training by now. instead you lock eyes with an awkward looking christine sinclair. her eyes shift between you and olivia as she smiles sheepishly “sorry, i was just looking for y/n l/n?”

“that’s me!” you exclaim before turning back to your student “come see me on monday, okay?”

“how many soccer players do you know” olivia whispers to you, completely ignoring your request. you smile as her and jerk your head in the direction of the door.

she walks out, giving christine a smile and nod as she passes, before you turn to the former canadian international “what can i do for you?”

your sudden perk up makes her eyes brows raise “jessie gave me her house keys to drop to you. she’s in with the physio and didn’t want you getting locked out of her place”

you smile gratefully and beckon her in with a wave of your hand, taking the keys from her as you stick your free hand out for her to shake “i know you know, but i’m y/n”

“christine” she says smiling “jessie’s mentioned you before but i didn’t realise you, uh, were seeing eachother”

you feel heat begin to creep up your neck “yeah, a few months now”

the footballer nods “it’s good to meet you” she says, putting both hands behind her back.

you smile “it’s good to meet you too” you echo before clipping the keys onto your key ring “is jess okay?”

“she’s all good, it’s just a tweak in her calf. it was bothering her during training so she got it checked”

you nod along “alright”.

the canadian jerks her thumb in the direction of the door “you’re good with her” she says “your student, i mean”

“yeah, they’re great kids” you can’t help but smile “most of the time, anyway. they have their moments”

“don’t we all” christine jokes before checking her watch “well i’ve gotta run but it was really nice to meet you finally. i’ll see you around?”

“definitely”

+1. CLEATS

jessie was one of the most organised people you had ever met. she has a place for everything, her books, her training kit, her shoes, her spices, everything. she even leaves all her training gear by your front door when she stays over so she knows exactly where it is and doesn’t have to run around silly in the mornings.

this morning she hadn’t even been in a rush. she’d woken up at the right time, made the two of you coffee and breakfast, had a shower and got changed, and then left your place.

you had unfortunately woken up sick with a stuffy nose and nasty headache, meaning you took the day off work but even that didn’t disrupt her flow. she simply left you with painkillers, a full waterbottle and a kiss on the forehead before leaving.

so it was a surprise when you got up to make yourself a cup of tea and saw her cleat bag by the door. you checked your phone to check if she’d called, which she hadn’t, and then realised that she might not even know yet. you quickly abandoned your tea and got dressed into something you wouldn’t mind being seen in public in before making your way to the thorns training grounds.

you sent jess a text before leaving and then again as you pulled up before walking into the facility and stopping a staff member apologetically. he told you that they hadn’t started training yet and then pointed you in the right direction before he disappeared, leaving you to navigate the building on your own.

you cursed yourself and your stuffy nose as you went, just praying that you’d find jessie or at least a player you recognised.

you turn down a hallway when a door opens, revealing your canadian peering out puzzled “i swear i had them, they were with my bag when i left this morning!”

“maybe you were distracted” an unknown voice teases, earning a snicker out of a few other people.

jessie frowns and rolls her eyes “no, janine, i wasn’t distracted i— y/n?” she exclaims when she sees you, a look of surprise on her face “what are you doing here?”

“y/n!?” the voice from before — janine — shouts from the room jessie just came from.

she shuts the door quickly and holds it closed, smiling at you as you wave her boots “you left these this morning”

“oh my god” she says, taking them from you and pulling you into a hug. because she can’t help it, he places the back of her hand against your forehead “you’re not burning up like you were when i left”

“headache’s gone too” you say proudly “nose is still stuffy though”

she pouts momentarily before the door pushes open, revealing a blonde freckled woman. she grins at you “you’re y/n?”

“that’s me”

she pushes the door further and sticks her hand out for you to shake “i’m janine” she introduces as jessie rolls her eyes “jessie here has been a bit tight lipped about you”

“no i haven’t” your girlfriend groans.

janine rolls her eyes and pushes the door open fully to lean her hand on it “yes you have! we didn’t even know you were seeing her until sincy dropped your keys to her”

“but you knew she existed!”

“even that wasn’t clear!” janine exclaims again, throwing jessie a look “we thought you were making her up” she mumbles to herself.

“oooookay! y/n is sick so she has to get home” the younger canadian pushes back on the door. janine gives up and waves you goodbye, the grin still present on her face, before jessie clicks the door shut. she smiles at you “she’s joking”

“about you being tight lipped or about ypu making me up?” you half smile, grabbing her free hand.

jessie blushes “about making you up”

“ahhhhh” you say teasingly whilst nodding.

jessie squeezes your hand and tilts her head “thank you for bringing me my boots”

“anytime” you say quietly, leaning over to kiss her cheek. “call me when you’re finished?”

“of course” jessie says as you drop her hand, waving you goodbye as you walk down the hall.

[scoonsalicious]

6.2 Lily

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Summary: Lily McIntyre, trainer for new SHIELD recruits at the Avengers Tower, has been in love with her best friend, Bucky Barnes, from the moment she met him. She's been content with her role of the #1 girl in Bucky's life, even if it means she has to sabotage a romantic relationship or two. It'll be worth it when he realizes that they're meant for each other, right? There's just one small problem: Lily McIntire never expected Bucky Barnes to fall for You.

Warnings: (For this part only; see Story Masterlist for general Warnings) Language, toxic plants being manipulative and toxic.

Word Count: Bucky done fucked up.

Previously On...: 2.5k

A/N: Please note: I will be taking a one week break from posting starting on Thursday, May 16th, to focus on writing. I will resume posting on Thursday, May 23rd.

If you ever feel so inclined to support my work, hop on over to buy me a coffee; it's much appreciated! <3

NOTE! The tag list is a fickle bitch, so I'm not really going to be dealing with it anymore. If you want to be notified when new story parts drop, please follow @scoonsaliciousupdates

Thank you to all those who have been reading; if you like what you've read, likes, comments, and reblogs give me life, and I truly appreciate them, and you!

He was on his way! 

After disconnecting from her call with Bucky, Lily bent down to her front driver’s side tire and, using her car key, pried out the nail she’d run over to ensure it would go flat while she ran the trail. Walking to the edge of the parking lot, she hurled the nail into the woods, getting rid of any evidence that she’d manufactured the current predicament she “accidentally” found herself in.

It didn’t matter if Bucky hadn’t come home from his date last night. Hadn’t told her that he’d even been on a date to begin with. What mattered was that, when Lily had called, Bucky had left the bitch behind and had come running. To her.

And that meant something. 

Right?

Bucky could go out with some slut if he wanted to, but when Lily had needed him, Bucky had dropped everything to be there for her, and that knowledge made Lily’s insides glow with warmth. She was still his number one girl; she shouldn’t have let herself get worked up over one date that probably didn’t mean anything. Bucky had dated before, and Lily had made sure none of them stuck around for very long. This time wouldn’t be any different.

So, Lily waited. She checked her email, she played some games on her phone, she listened to a podcast. Finally, a little over an hour after she’d hung up with Bucky, she saw one of Tony’s sportscars speed into the parking lot and make its way to the trailhead.

Her heart sank at the thought of Bucky sending Tony Stark to help her in his stead, so it was quite a shock to her system when the car pulled up next to hers, turned its engine off, and Bucky himself stepped out. He wasn’t wearing his usual tshirt and jeans, no– he was wearing a rumpled burgundy button-up, sleeves rolled up to the elbows and the first couple of buttons left undone at his neck, and a pair of fitted, black trousers. 

Lily swallowed. His hair was a mess, but she could imagine how put together he must have looked the night before, and that made her stomach twist. He’d made an effort. He’d made a real, genuine effort to dress up for this date that he lied to her about.

“Hey, Lil,” he said, once she got out of her car to meet him. He smiled, but she’d known him long enough to be able to tell when his smiles weren’t genuine, and this one didn’t reach his eyes.

“Hey, Jamie,” she said, offering him a fake smile  of her own to hide her distress. “Thank you so much for coming out. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” 

“I’m sure Steve or Sam or anyone from the Compound would have been more than willing to help you out, Lil,” Bucky said as he walked to the back of her car. “Could you pop the trunk for me so I can get your jack and the spare?”

Lily bent her head back inside to unlock the trunk, rolling her eyes as she did so. If she’d wanted someone else to change her tire, she’d have just done it herself. Or, you know, not popped her own tire to begin with. But that was beside the point.

She walked around to the back of the car so she could help Bucky move things around in her trunk to get to her spare. “You’re dressed awfully fancy for a Sunday morning,” she said, watching him out of the side of her eye. “You find God and suddenly decide to start going to church?”

Bucky chuckled. “Something like that,” he said. Lily stole a glance in his direction and caught him smiling softly to himself as he pulled her spare out from the trunk with his vibranium hand. Taking her car jack in the other, he moved around to the driver’s side and began loosening the lug nuts with his left hand. Lily shivered when she considered how strong he was, how much power that one hand contained.

Once all the nuts were loosened, he slid the jack under the frame of the car and began raising it. He was annoyingly efficient at this, Lily thought, and she realized her window of time with him wasn’t as big as she had originally anticipated.

“So, where were you when I called this morning, really?” she asked, leaning up against the side of Tony’s car as she watched him work. She just wanted him to be honest with her. She didn’t think she could take it if he continued to lie.

Bucky stilled in his motions. “I… I, uh, had a date,” he said after a moment.

Lily paused, playing confused. “A date on a Sunday morning?” she asked him. “That’s a really weird—oh.” Bucky left the car suspended on the jack and turned to face her, hands shoved into his pockets, and the guilt in his eyes nearly palpable. 

Good, Lily thought. Let him be guilty, now that he realizes I know he lied to me. “I didn’t realize you were seeing anyone, Jamie,” she said, voice deliberately meek and soft. “Why didn’t you say something?”

Bucky sighed and leaned back against her car. “It’s new,” he said. “Like, really new.”

Good, she thought. This hasn’t been going on for a long time. There was still a good chance she could nip it in the bud before it grew into a real problem. “So, when you said you were out with Sam last night…” She left it hanging in the air. Let him be the one to say the word.

“I lied to you,” he said with a sigh. “I’m sorry.”

“Why, Jamie?” she asked him. “I didn’t think we lied to one another.” She thought about the hole she’d punched in her own tire. Well, she didn’t think he lied to her.

“We don’t, Lil,” he said. “I just… It seems like whenever I start seeing someone new, you just…” he paused to consider his words, and Lily started to get nervous. Did he know… did he suspect the things she’d done in the past to keep other girls away from him? He couldn’t. She’d been so careful… “You just form a lot of opinions on them, really quickly,” he said, and she released a breath. He didn’t know anything. She was safe. “I wanted to get to know this girl on my own, without any outside influences, before I decided to find out what everyone else thought about her.”

“I only tell you what I think because I care about you, Jamie,” Lily protested in her gentlest voice. She was going to have to walk a very delicate line here, between stressing her point and sounding sympathetic. “I’m just trying to look out for you, that’s all.”

“I know,” he said with a sigh. “I know you are, and I do appreciate it, but… I want to be able to figure out how I feel about this one before I start soliciting opinions about her from everyone else. Does that make sense?”

It did. Fuck, it did. Usually, Bucky was so eager to talk about the new girls he was dating, to introduce him to his best friends and find out what they thought about her, to get their opinions. If he was reticent this time, it could only mean one, horrible thing:

“You really like this girl, don’t you, Jamie?” Lily asked, trying so hard to keep her voice light, when inside, she felt like she was dying.

Bucky looked up at her. “Yeah, Lil,” he said, his dazzling white smile beaming at her and making her heart stop. “I really do.”

“That’s great,” Lily choked out. She turned back to the trunk of her car, pretending to busy herself with its contents so she didn’t have to look at him. “That’s really great.”

She heard Bucky move around and start working on the tire again. “Not really,” he said, his voice sounding dejected. Lily moved her head around from the back of the trunk to look at him. 

“What do you mean?” she asked, a spark of hope coming to life in her chest. 

Bucky let out a long sigh. “I think I might have blown it with her,” he said as he worked to take the flat tire off of her car. 

“Oh no,” Lily said, trying to keep the smile out of her voice. Maybe she wouldn’t have to do anything, afterall. Maybe Bucky had managed to fuck it up on his own. “What happened?”

Bucky was silent for a moment as he replaced the tire with ease. “I don’t really want to talk about it,” he said eventually. “Let’s just say that we left things very… ambiguously. I asked her if I could call her later, she didn’t really give me an answer either way. Just kind of shrugged. If she wanted me to call her, she would have just said so, right?”

Lily felt her stomach do a happy flip, but she put on a fake pout. “Oh, Jamie,” she said, fake sympathy oozing over her words, “please don’t tell me she’s playing mind games like that with you already! If a girl wants you to call her, she’ll tell you to call her, not play hard to get.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Bucky said defensively as he began re-tightening the lugnuts on the tire. “I just… I did something she didn’t like, is all. And she’s probably rightly pissed about it.”

Lily walked around the car to stand next to him as he finished up. “I don’t think I like this, Jamie,” she said cautiously. “You’ve barely started dating this girl, and already she thinks she can dictate your actions? That doesn’t seem healthy to me, at all.”

Bucky stood, running a hand across his face. “Nah, Lil– you’re… you’re getting it twisted. I made a mistake. I know I did, and she’s got every right to be mad at me about it. I need to talk to her, to sort it out.” Lily was losing ground; thankfully, she’d come prepared.

“Listen, Jamie,” she said, abruptly changing the topic in the hopes of getting his mind off this mysterious skank, “I was planning on having lunch up here today, since it’s so gorgeous out. I probably overdid it when I packed my food. Do you want to join me?”

Bucky heaved a sigh and looked like he was about to decline.

“Consider it my way of saying ‘thank you’ for you coming all the way out here to rescue me,” she added, knowing that she was laying it on thick, but not wanting him to walk away. “Come on, we’ll make a picnic of it. It’ll be fun!”

“Yeah, alright,” Bucky said, letting a smile cross his face. “I could eat.”

Bucky Barnes always did have a soft spot for a damsel in distress. With a grin, Lily opened the backseat of her car and pulled out the cooler she’d preemptively packed in the hope that just such an opportunity would arise. Lily was nothing if not prepared. 

Bucky reached for it. “Here, let me,” he said, taking it from her. Lily smiled to herself as she reached back into the car to pull out the picnic blanket she’d packed. 

“Such a gentleman,” she said as she closed the car door and led Bucky down one of the trails. It was a gorgeous late-summer day, and Lily could almost convince herself they were on a real date together. Almost. God, what she wouldn’t give for this to be the real thing. 

After they’d walked for about fifteen minutes, Lily veered left off of the trail and into the woods. “You bringing me back here to kill me?” Bucky asked in a playful tone as he followed her with the cooler.

“Yup,” Lily teased right back. “I definitely have faith in my ability to take out a super soldier on my own.” Her heart swelled when she was rewarded with an amused chuckle from Bucky. 

Soon, they reached her destination: a cozy clearing that sat along the bank of a creek that ran through the park, with a small waterfall that fed a crystal clear pool below.

“This is nice,” Bucky said, coming up behind Lily as she fanned out the blanket. “How’d you find this spot?”

Lily sat down and reached to take the cooler from Bucky, beckoning him to join her. “I was scouting some potential off-trail runs for the recruits and just kind of stumbled upon it,” she told him. She opened up the cooler and began taking out the food she’d brought– all of Bucky’s favorites.

Bucky nodded, then looked at the spread with wide eyes. “You packed all of this for yourself, Lil?”

Lily felt a slight blush creep up her cheeks– she had not, in fact, packed it all for herself, but specifically in the hope that he would end up joining her, though he could never know that. “I guess I just overestimated how hungry I’d be after my run,” she told him as she handed him a bottle of water. “Thanks for joining me so that all this food doesn’t go to waste.”

“No problem,” he said as he began to tear into the food she’d brought. “Thanks for getting a flat tire, I guess,” he added with a laugh.

They ate amicably, making small talk about their upcoming plans for the week, and how Lily’s latest batch of recruits looked. Lily was itching to ask Bucky more about his mystery date, to find out who she was, if she was someone Lily knew; but she didn’t want to bring it up– the less Bucky talked about her, the more likely he was to just forget about her all together, right? Especially if he’d done something to piss her off. Better to keep him distracted so that the window of opportunity for any reconciliation closed without him noticing it.

Soon, the food was gone, the sun high in the sky. Lily and Bucky both lay back on the picnic blanket, staring lazily up into the blue sky. “We should do something today,” Lily suggested, trying not to sound too eager.

Bucky chuckled. “Aren’t we doing something now, Lil?” he asked.

She playfully shoved his shoulder. “Later, I mean. Like, we’re having a good time; we should continue it. Go somewhere nice for dinner, do something after, like go to a club or see a show or something. Make a whole ‘friend-date’ night out of it!” Anything, she thought to herself. I’ll do anything, as long as I’m doing it with you. And who knew what could happen in the right romantic setting?

“Yeah, that sounds like it could be fun,” Bucky mused. “Sure.”

“Really?” Lily couldn’t believe her luck. “Leave all the planning to me, then!” She’d make sure she got a table at the most romantic restaurant she could find, and get them tickets to something steamy that would put Bucky in the right mood… She knew just what dress to wear, to show just enough skin to be tantalizing…

Yes, tonight, things were going to change. Lily could feel it.

<- Previous Part / Next Part ->

[ghcstao3]

Hi please keep rambling about your DBH AU it’s so well written and amazing! I love the characterisations of everyone and how you handled their relationships there in. My favourite part was Ghost thinking he’s a coward but he’s not he’s just been so badly hurt and when everyone learns about his past they don’t blame him for trying to protect himself they actually try and comfort him 😭 god damn that made me cry

Anyway it wouldn’t be annoying at all it’s obvious by the care and effort you put into writing it that you love this au.

apparently i am. a liar. but i still have a few thoughts about this AU

separating it into two parts:

misc:

- soap used to be a child caretaker android. he still keeps contact with the family, who have always treated him like one of their own

- for that reason also, he was somewhat eased into deviancy. he never even realized it first, because he’d always been happy as is—it was the sense of purpose that ticked him off, the want to try something new and completely different to what he’d always known

- ghost has heterochromia essentially for the same reason as markus (optics damage)

- ghost doesn’t remember much prior to his deviancy. roba erased a lot of memories, and sometimes he still experiences minor memory loss here and there, if it’s something from years prior. those pieces are still stored somewhere, but ghost has never bothered to go searching

post-reveal:

- soap is the only individual other than himself that ghost trusts to do repairs. even still he’s reluctant, at first, only letting soap help with the parts he can’t reach, but eventually even the simplest fixes he has soap work on

- unfortunately ghost isn’t given much of a choice but to reveal himself to the team about a year later, when he’s injured and price and gaz get a scare out of soap tearing ghost open to fix the worst of the damage and at least have him functional until they could get parts

- (it’s just a bit traumatic to watch your sergeant open your lieutenant’s chest. just a little)

- ghost still pretends like he isn’t an android around them, however. it’s how he’s acted forever now and it’s a difficult habit to quit—may not even be possible to quit. they wouldn’t treat him any differently, though, and he realizes that now with a slight guilt

- going back to soap’s ‘family’, he even goes so far as to bring ghost home to them, like he’s seen and read in movies and books. they’re more than happy to meet ghost and welcome him into their home—a glimpse of kindness ghost seldom sees, so he decides that they’re not so bad (meaning he memorizes every detail of their lives and interests, just so he can know the people who cared for soap in return for his service)

- both ghost and soap’s white casing are very scuffed and scratched, but if you look closely at their wrists, you may find one another’s initials etched into the plastic

[the-delusion-corner]

Girl Megumi would not be vocal during sex or bjs for that matter 😭

The fic wasn't realistic 😭😭

PLEASE READ

There's always one.

Okay I'm just gonna say this now cuz this ask is a perfect excuse for me to rant about it.

Content creators on this app are not obliged to make a character completely Canon, that's why headcanons and ooc exist. They make gifs, fics, smaus, everything on that line out of their own free time for people to enjoy and put themselves into a mindset of being with a favourite character.

I do not mind if you don't like my content, if you don't like it, don't read it, it's as simple as that. But going out of your way to comment on the fact that someone's work wasn't "accurate", when it's clearly something that doesn't happen in the TV show just isn't necessary.

I'm not asking everyone to like my writing whatsoever, you either like it or you don't that is fine. But me, and many many others, don't have to do this kind of thing but we do to make those who want it happy.

Constructive criticism is completely welcome, and love or kindness. But don't bother using your effort to hate on someone's work just because you don't like it as much as someone else might.

Feel free to share this a bit, cause its important. Writers are allowed to write when how and what they want to, and shouldn't be hated on because of a simple different opinion

- abi

[suashii]

— 𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝓂𝒾𝓈𝓈 𝒸𝒾𝓉𝓎 𝑔𝒾𝓇𝓁 ౨ৎ

boothill x f!reader. 2k wc. ﾉ non-canon compliant ﾉ sfw ﾉ some vaguely suggestive bits ﾉ farmhand!boothill ﾉ flirty teasing ﾉ pet names ( darlin', princess, honey, sweetheart. . . i went crazy @.@ )

my comeback to writing for hsr! first time writing for boothill so pls don't be too tough on me :3 hope u like ! !

the new farmhand at your grandfather’s ranch is trouble.

he shouldn’t be, not with the way your grandpa speaks so highly of him—he’s exactly the kind of help this place needed, he tells you. starts on time, is thorough in his work, and takes good care of all that your grandfather holds dear. you should love him simply for that—taking a weight off the old man’s shoulders and putting his heart at ease—but you’ve seen an entirely different side of the so-called saint.

ever since you arrived at the ranch a few days ago, the one called boothill has been a pain in your neck. it took nothing more than you stepping out of your car for him to label you that city girl, the “little lady” who looks like she’s never stepped foot in mud a day in her life.

from that moment onward, it’s been nothing but sly remarks at your expense. you don’t miss the chuckles he makes no effort to hide as you refamiliarize yourself with the animals and get used to the scent of hay and manure. his not-so-subtle smirks when you’re simply passing by have been the most irking. your mere presence is seemingly a joke to boothill.

you’ve made it your mission to steer clear of the man but the task is proving to be difficult. the fact that he’s now living in what you used to know as one of the guest bedrooms coupled with your grandpa’s oblivious albeit innocent nature seems to be enough to throw a wrench in that plan of yours. 

your trip here was meant to be a relaxing getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life but you’ve only taken on a new role as boothill’s personal assistant if the tray with two glasses of lemonade is any indication. if it were up to you, you’d be enjoying a peaceful breakfast without worrying about the man bothering you but it’s just your luck that your grandfather caught you before you could make the meal, politely asking you to deliver a cold beverage to boothill who has been working since the sun rose over the horizon.

luckily for the farmhand, you can’t say no to your grandpa.

that’s how you find yourself wandering the grounds in your satin pajama set and the boots your grandpa prepared for your arrival. your legs move in muscle memory as you navigate the vast stretch of land in search of boothill. thankfully, you don’t have to go much farther, catching sight of the man at the entrance of the barn.

he’s gone for a simple look today—a white t-shirt and jeans paired with the dirtied boots you haven’t gone a day without seeing him in. his shirt is already stained and is darker around the neckline, dampened with sweat. he’s made an effort to tie back his black and white strands of hair, though, a few of the shorter ones have escaped and frame his face. the hat you’ve grown accustomed to seeing him in, strangely, isn’t sitting atop his head.

he must see you approaching out of the corner of his eye because he turns to face you, an immediate grin taking over his lips. it makes you grip the tray tighter.

he looks you up and down as he pulls off his gloves, stuffing both in his back pocket. when gray eyes settle on yours, he tells you, “nice get up.”

you roll your eyes because you saw a comment like that coming. everything you do down to the way you dress is scrutinized when it comes to him. even though you’ve only been here a short while, you’ve come to expect this kind of behavior from boothill.

he huffs out a laugh at your reaction before his gaze falls to the tray in your hands and the glasses that sit on it. “that for me, darlin’?”

against your will, your heart jumps in your chest. that, you haven’t grown accustomed to. you’re not sure you’ll ever get used to him throwing around pet names at you like it’s nothing, like it’s the most natural thing in the world to him. it’s easier to blame the heat blooming in your cheeks on the sun’s beaming rays rather than boothill’s sweet talking.

you hold the tray out to him, hoping the effect of his words isn’t visible on your face. “courtesy of grandpa.” you can’t have him thinking this gesture was born from the kindness of your heart. his teasing would be merciless then.

“of course,” he drawls, grabbing one of the glasses and swallowing a few gulps. the shine of the lemonade is left on his lips when they pull away from the brim, his tongue poking out from between them to lick up the lingering drops. your eyes remain on his lips longer than they should, long enough to see them curl up into that annoyingly handsome smile. “little miss city girl wouldn’t be caught dead out here on her own accord.”

he can only stay charming for so long. “did you miss the whole part when my grandpa told you i grew up here?”

“no, no, i caught that.” he takes another sip of his drink. “it’s just that you strike me as the type who spent more time riding the horses than cleaning up after ‘em.”

you keep quiet and nurse your glass of lemonade because the only other option besides lying is telling him that he’s right. in your defense, what ten-year-old wants to spend their summer hauling hay and shoveling up horse crap?

“look,” you start, “i’m not some delicate glass figure who can’t get her hands dirty. i’m perfectly capable of helping out.”

boothill raises his eyebrows, a glint of humor sparkling in his steel irises. you know the look of a challenge when you see it and it almost makes you regret trying to defend yourself. “oh yeah? then the princess wouldn’t mind lending me a hand?”

“i wouldn’t,” you tell him. contrary to your statement, you really don’t want to spend more time with him than necessary, even if that means proving a point and settling some stupid argument. your mind races to find a believable excuse that’ll let you off the hook. “but i’m barely dressed to do any work. another time, maybe.”

he waves his hand in dismissal. “don’t worry, darlin’. what i’ve got in mind ain’t much work and won’t steal too much of your time.”

you nervously chew your cheek as boothill takes the tray that’s tucked under your arm, setting the now empty glasses on it and finding a place for them to rest. he nods his head in the direction he wants you to follow and, reluctantly, you do just that. he casts a glance over his shoulder to look at you. “just help me get this hay inside the barn, will ya?”

the job seems easy enough, a surprisingly straightforward request from boothill who seems to derive pleasure from giving you a hard time. too easy, you think to yourself as he heaves one of the rectangular bales of hay from the top of the stack. the task looks effortless when he does it, a short grunt being the only suggestion of exertion on his end.

he disappears into the red building and you take his temporary departure as an opportunity to pick up a bale of your own. you grab a hold of the twine keeping the hay in its shape and immediately grimace at the way the fodder pokes and prods at your palms. you’re tempted to let go and step away but you have a point to prove and plan on doing so. with a groan, you lift the bale, or at least try to. it’s heavier than you expect it to be and the scratching against your exposed legs is uncomfortable, sure to get worse with the distance you’re meant to walk.

you’re about to drop the bale back in place when a pair of arms reach around you, calloused hands joining yours to carry the collection of hay. boothill’s unexpected presence catches you off guard and the proximity of his mouth to your ear makes your breath catch in your throat. “having a bit of trouble, love?”

love? your skin prickles with goosebumps at yet another pet name. this time, it’s more difficult to blame the heat running beneath your skin on the sun. it takes a moment for you to find your voice and when you do, the ones you manage to get out refute his claim. “i’m not. i told you i wasn’t dressed for this.”

he snorts at your reply as though he can see right through the flimsy excuse. “right, well, you’re in my way, so why don’t i help you with this one?”

before you can protest, boothill is on his way, dragging you along with him. your steps match his, his bigger boots trailing behind yours as the two of you walk the path to the growing supply he likely started before you interrupted. you’re released from your place between the bale and boothill when he drops it on top of the other.

you’re free to make a move, to slip away from the charged air and reclaim your personal space. instead of doing so, you simply turn around to face him. you’re met with his broad chest before you tip your head up to meet his eye. “i could have done that on my own.”

“i’m sure you could have,” he says, but the smile pulling at his lips tells another story. he reaches behind him with one hand to pull the gloves from his pockets, waving them between you as an offer. “these might help.”

you happily take the gloves as he takes his leave, slipping your hands into the protective gear. they’re larger than you need and there’s extra space in them but you don’t mind, not if they’ll help you show boothill that you refuse to be reduced to some city girl.

and they do help, at least with shielding your hands from the unpleasant sensation of hay against them. the bales are just as heavy and just as awkward to haul but you’re able to get the job done, nonetheless. for every one you carry, boothill lugs two more past you. his familiarity with the job means the two of you are finished one within a reasonable amount of time. 

you drop the final bale with the rest, a relieved sigh pushing past your lips at a job well done. boothill stands off to the side and whistles as you snatch the gloves off, wiping your forehead with the back of your hand. “well, would you look at that.”

“surprised?” you ask, tossing his gloves back at him.

“honey, anyone can hoist some hay.” he catches the gloves with ease, stuffing them back in his pocket. you’re almost offended at how easily he dismisses your efforts but you don’t have time to let the annoyance sprout before he’s approaching you, tipping your chin up so that you have no choice but to look at him. “though, i doubt they’d look as pretty as you doing it.”

you can’t tell whether he’s trying to get a rise out of you or if he truly stands by his statement. all you know for sure is that his sugary words and the feel of his skin against your face leave you unmistakably flustered, so much so that you can’t control the erratic beat of your heart and can’t stop the little nagging voice in the back of your head from whispering that you don’t dislike him as much as you let on.

boothill is trouble, but not in the way you thought he would be.

“i have to go.” you knock his hand away and turn on your heel in a rush to get back to the house, far away from boothill.

you can escape the sight of him, the feel of him, but not the sound of him as he yells after you. “see you around, sweetheart!”

thanks for reading! consider reblogging if u enjoyed :3

[acanthawrites]

SasuNaru (a rant)

I think one of the things I rallied against in the manga was trying to make them both into performative heterosexual roles. When the author themselves had put so much effort into writing a complex and let’s be honest traumatic relationship between the two main characters everything else fell really really flat.

It would have been more in keeping to leave them open ended. I think sometimes authors try to write or establish one thing but they end up with something else and need to be flexible enough to go with the flow. I always think HarryxLuna is a good example of this and the way JKR wrote that terrible epilogue (is it desired control over your story? Probably)

Even my partner who is totally Naruto naive was watching it with me the other day and commented how these two boys are very into each other, he was a bit taken back 😂.

The depth of Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship I think surprised Kishimoto to a certain extent, but I also think fundamentally it was the relationship that drove the whole manga.

Without that drive between them it lost a lot of depth.

Authors make mistakes and large publishers will drive a story on for profit regardless of whether it honours the original work… Death Note, Fruits Basket, Nana etc I think suffered similar fates.

I think it’s always a good idea to take inspiration from the manga/anime and make it your own. For me, NaruHina always makes me feel a bit unwell because it’s SO shoe horned in, it’s a waste of both characters and was lazy lazy writing. Didn’t they also steal some of Sasuke’s lines about Naruto and gave them to Hinata? Like what more evidence do you need that these two are really the main couple and the rest was a money grab 😂

[sessakag]

Now all I can think about is Prey!Papa-Naruto because it would be the wildest funniest thing ever! Poor Hinata is probably trying to make sure her kids grow up to be good morally upstanding people and Naruto is just….Yeah 😬. Funnily enough this Naruto probably wouldn’t have as much of a contentious relationship with Boruto because there’s no way he’s putting work above spending time how he wants 😭. And as a Kawaki hater I’m pleased to say I don’t see this Naruto being altruistic enough to take in some random abused kid so really we’ve got my ideal version of the Uzumaki family 🫢. Anyway, I bet parent-teacher conferences and kiddy playdates and birthday parties are gonna be fun times 🤣. Speaking of bday parties happy early birthday! I hope it’ll be a fun one.

Daddy Prey!Naruto is the funniest thing ever, lol.

For sure, Naruto would spend time with his little mini-me. Who would stop him?

I feel like Boruto would be very aware that his father is a homicidal nutjob and spend his time trying to keep innocents out of harms way, but he does it in ways that are just as bad as his father, because of course, the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree, and that he has this huge blind spot to when his own inner crazy is starting to show, lol. And of course, mess with his mom or baby sister, well then, you'll have a hard time telling Naruto and Boruto apart at all🤭he'd justify his violence and the bodies in his closet because Prey!Narupapa taught him that delusion is just another way to say correct, and there's nothing wrong with customizing your own reality when it's convenient. He'd also spend so much time trying to undo Hima's worst tendencies their dad is teaching her in an effort to help his mom out, but ends up making it worse by teaching her "alternative" tendencies that are just as bad but much more slicker than his father's open bluntness, which ultimately, makes Hinata's job harder, lol. Poor lady, I can see her trying to explain the situation to her crazy husband. Hinata: I'm trying to make sure the kids have a moral compass, Naruto Naruto: The fuck they need that for?

I'll be honest, I really don't know all that much about Kawaki since I don't watch the show, but his design is very cool, and the clips I've seen of him on youtube I vibe with🤭but Naruto being altruistic and adopting a poor orphan? Not fuckin likely at all, lol. Prey!Naruto wouldn't care about any kids but his own🤷🏽‍♀️so you're all set for sure, lol.

Parent-teacher conferences would be lit af😂imagine Naruto's big buff tatted up self sitting in one of those itty bitty chairs at a table lower than his knees while the teacher tries to get him to understand that it's not a good thing that his little girl is drawing her classmates with their heads somewhere other than on their shoulders🤣he would be so insulted and have a very scary diatribe about why Hima's work is "art" not a "red flag". The teacher would resign the next day by the time he was done. Omg birthdays🙈One word: Pinata. Take that as you will, lmao!

And omg, I wanna write Prey!Naruto at a PTA meeting, lmao! And you'd think Hinata was the one that dragged him to it, but NO, he'd go on his own because he's a super paranoid bastard that needs to know what is going on in his orbit and that includes his hellspawns, and if he doesn't like what he hears he'll have to retire a few folks to ensure things are being run for the benefit of his offspring😂

Hima's not doing a kiddy playdate, study date, pretend date, any date. Over somebody else's dead body would Naruto allow his baby girl to do any sorta dating🤣hell naw, and don't @ him about it. End of discussion. Why? Because Naruto knows how guys are, and considering the things he does to Hima's mother on a regular basis, he's dead set on not letting any guy near his daughter until she's at least 80 years old, if she's lucky. Teen!Hima good luck trying to date or get a boyfriend😅especially since big brother's not gonna be too keen on the idea either, lol. And thank you for the early birthday wishes!!💕

I feel like this SOL Prey!Naruto family is set in stone to be a thing at this point, lmao. I'm certainly sold on it. I won't say whether or not I plan on Hinata getting knocked up in Prey, ya'll will have to wait and find out but I definitely think this should be a full SOL fic at this point, lol. It's just too good to pass up🤭

[johnnyutah]

average adam faulkner stanheight fan: if adam isn’t in saw xi we riot! @lionsgate @kevingruetert @jameswan #adamlives #justiceforadam #corpseinconsistencies

average john kramer fan: What people don’t realize about John, is he’s such a genius that even when he makes mistakes, he planned on making the mistakes. He is the greatest villain of all time

average jill tuck fan: Appreciation post for the Women of Saw 🩷 [the same ten photos that get posted once a week]

average lawrence gordon fan: last night i watched a 2004 tv movie about serial killers called ‘the riverman’, followed by the cheesy family rom-com ‘a castle for christmas’. today my friends and i are going to binge the entire third season of netflix’s ‘stranger things’. none of us have seen a single episode of the rest of the show and we don’t plan on it. then we might rewatch ‘another country’ together

average amanda young fan: sorry i haven’t been online in 4 weeks i’ve been too busy trying to get the new pig cosmetic in the rift [posted 7 weeks ago]

average mark hoffman fan: [underneath a gifset of costas mandylor in a republican christian propaganda ‘sci-fi’ movie] #hes so fucking hot #i would give anything to put him in a sports bra and make him do jumping jacks in front pf me i would literally do #ANYTHING #i need to make him into a marionett and fist him lol

average daniel rigg fan: Here’s a quick low effort doodle I did of Daniel! I just love him so much ❤️ [a literal masterpiece, the best art you’ve ever seen in your entire life] [3 notes]

average allison kerry fan: i am hardcore attached to ONE ship which is probably either allison/amanda or allison/lindsey and my whole blog is devoted to them. there are dozens of us DOZENS

average lynn denlon fan: okay so i know bahar is a realtor now but in her last instagram post where she’s congratulating her son on some new achievement, both the first and last words in the post have 11 letters, AND there’s an X and an I visible in the background of her post 👀?? is this a reach???

average jeff denlon fan: No seriously let me finish seriously when you compare him to the other shitty men in Saw he’s NOT that b

average david tapp fan: i’m 39k away from publishing my 40k tappsing Everybody Lives AU <3 this is going to be epic [account has been deactivated for an indeterminate amount of time]

average brit stevenson and mallick scott fan: Hey I stayed up making this instead of writing my thesis paper for grad school. Here’s a 30,000 word document about the implications of Brit’s promotion within the Marshford group and how it would lead to her eventual demise and also how she rose to the top in her group. It also delves into her relationship with Mallick, whose existence, I believe, is an obvious literary reference to an ancient Roman play read by only me and three other people currently alive. I translated relevant passages and included them in my work. I got understimulated around page 8 so I did take a break to pierce myself in the same spot that I believe Mallick would have a piercing. If you read my fics on AO3 you will already be familiar with the location.

average peter strahm fan: haha peter does CRACK cocoaine haha i think he sniffeds some drugs! why else would he be so MANIC HYPER CRAZY!!! i love my crazy JUNKIE man LOL get him some andderall STAT!! if hoffman didn’t kill him the SPEED certianly would of! LOL!

average lindsey perez fan: i love lindsey perez i’m such a big fan of the character lindsey perez

average matt gibson fan: i literally would eat garbage out of a dumpster

average ezekiel banks fan: holy shit i just finished spiral what a good movie what the hell!!! what a cool addition to the saw universe! i bet everybody else loves this as much as i do! let me take a big drink of water as i check tumblr dot com to see all the nice things people will have to say about darren lynn bousman’s Spiral

average william schenk fan: my hobbies include: being a fujoshi,

average cecelia pederson fan: [pic of cecelia yanking on the metal loop around her neck and smirking] https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vT3f5IIzt5PG-M7G9_Z-gjY4gZaiUneTdMlYrFAcdBGcJo0-N-RDQcj2JfxOaBTxKa6J_DiDQNgqVpg/pub

average logan jigsaw fan: What people don’t realize about John, is he’s such a genius that even when he makes mistakes, he planned on making the mistakes. He is the greatest villain of all time

[imzadi-caskett-huddy]

Invitations (1/1)

So this is a one-shot piece because this idea popped into my head and just would not go away until I wrote it. And because the longer I think about the idea, the more ridiculous it becomes, and the more I laugh out loud about it. So I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it!

It’s set sometime in the midst of the wedding planning of season 6. Castle sent some wedding invitations to some people, only he didn’t tell Beckett. And now she finds out when she’s looking through RSVP cards. I’m not spoiling the surprise more than that, lol.

I still don’t own Castle.

xxxxx

Kate sat at the kitchen island with her glass of wine, a stack of unopened RSVP cards for her wedding to her left, the guest list in front of her so that she could mark those who had confirmed, and the opened stack of cards to her right. She wasn’t surprised her fiance had insisted he had writing to do in his office, leaving her to do the tedious task alone. She had only agreed to it so that he would be finished with his book by the wedding because the plans she had for him on their honeymoon did not include his laptop.

Alexis had offered to help because managing lists and planning were things she enjoyed and was good at. However, Kate’s soon-to-be stepdaughter had not arrived yet, so she had decided to start tackling the stack of cards on her own. She was not the procrastinator her future husband was; she would much rather start on the task and just get it over with than keep putting it off and making it worse later.

Kate soon found herself in a rhythm–slice the envelope open, pull the card out, match the name to the list, move on. She had gotten through about 20 cards in this rhythm. In fact, it was because she was so involved in this rhythm, completing the tasks almost on autopilot, that she almost didn’t catch the name that she had just marked as attending on her list. She had already placed the card in the open pile when she froze.

No way. No. It couldn’t have been the name she thought she saw.

She grabbed the card she’d just placed down. Dr. Josh Davidson. She still recognized the writing. How…why…who would have sent him an invitation to her wedding? It sure as hell wasn’t her. She hadn’t included any of her ex’s on her side of the guest list. She simply stared at the card for another moment. Suddenly it came to her who had invited him. She spun around on the stool and hopped off, her lips pressed together tightly.

“Castle!” she damn near growled his name as she made her way toward his office in long, even strides. She stopped in the doorway and felt a wave of anger course through her when she saw him lying back in his chair, balancing pencils between his nose and upper lip. “Castle, what the hell?”

Her sudden appearance and tone made him nearly fall backward out of his chair as the pencils fell to the floor, despite his effort to catch them. “I swear, I’m writing…”

“Really? Because from where I’m standing, you're in here hiding...playing with pencils...while I’m out there going through RSVP cards for our wedding,” she crossed her arms, shooting him a glare.

“I’m watching the scene play out in my head…making sure it works…” he tried to convince her. “So…uh…what did you need?” he tried to change the subject to why she had come looking for him in his office to begin with, hoping to get out of trouble.

Her jaw clenched slightly as she approached the desk, slamming the RSVP card from Josh on his desk in front of him. “What the hell were you thinking?”

He winced slightly when she slammed her hand on his desk with the card. He was definitely not getting himself out of trouble. He had a feeling he knew what she was upset about, but he glanced at the card to make sure. “Hey, he’s coming,” he offered a smile, hoping to lighten the mood. Seeing her face, his smile faded. “I just thought it would be nice to show there were no hard feelings.”

“No hard…” she started only to trail off before she could finish her sentence. “Castle! What the hell? I dated him pretty seriously for a year! Why the hell would you think it was a good idea to invite him to our wedding?! Especially without asking me first!” She was pacing in front of his desk now.

“Wait, ‘seriously?’ How serious…” he trailed off, catching her look. Not the time to have that conversation. “I guess I just didn’t think it would matter to you. It’s not like you still have feelings for them,” he shrugged.

Kate froze and turned to face him. “Them?” she repeated him. “Them? Castle…what them? Tell me you didn’t…”

“Uh…” he started a little nervously. “I might have invited Demming…”

Oh, he did! “Tom? You invited Tom?” Seeing the look on Castle’s face, she had to force herself to take a deep breath. “Who else?”

“Um…”

“Castle! Who else did you invite?” she asked.

“Sorenson…”

“Will too? Oh my God, Castle…” she pinched the bridge of her nose before dropping her hands to rest on the edge of his desk and leaning on them. “What the hell is wrong with you? Who invites ex’s to their wedding?”

“Gina was invited,” Castle tried to counter.

“Yeah, because she’s your publisher, Castle, not because she’s your ex. And you were the one who invited her, not me,” she pointed out.

“Right…” he nodded. “Look, I just wanted to extend an olive branch…show we’re all friends.”

“Castle, that’s bullshit, and you know it. You didn’t invite them so you can all sing Kumbaya together. You invited them to rub their faces in the fact that I agreed to marry you…which I am seriously questioning my judgment about right now!” She began pacing again.

“Kate…”

“No, no. Do not Kate me! This is our wedding day…our wedding day, Castle! It’s supposed to be the happiest day of our lives, and you’re turning it into a dick-measuring contest!”

“Uh, about that…you know, you’ve seen…and I was just wondering who…” he stopped talking when he saw the look in her eyes.

“If you want to keep yours, you will not finish that question,” she got out through clenched teeth.

“If it makes you feel any better, you can invite my ex’s to the wedding,” he offered, trying anything he could think of to get himself out of the hole he’d dug, or at least calm her down. And though he desperately wanted her to calm down, he was at least not stupid enough to tell her to calm down. He’d learned that lesson a long time ago...the hard way.

She rolled her eyes. “Castle, I would have to invite half the women in Manhattan! And I do not want your ex’s at our wedding.”

“Technically, they weren’t all from Manhattan…” he trailed off when he caught her glare, “...which is so not the point right now.”

“Why…why would it not occur to you to ask me how I felt about this before you did it? Did it ever occur to you that I might not be okay with it?”

“It’s not like I expected any of them to actually RSVP as a yes,” he pointed out.

“So you just didn’t think I’d find out about it,” she realized.

“Yes, exactly…I mean, no….I mean…I didn’t think you’d have a problem with it if they said yes.”

“Really? You didn’t think I would have a problem with it? You didn’t think that maybe it might be slightly awkward for me to stand in front of three ex-boyfriends, one of which I broke up with before I ever met you and the other two I broke up with for you, all of which I’ve slept with…you didn’t think that I might feel awkward marrying you with them watching? That thought just never occurred to you?” she crossed her arms and stared at him. Her anger had gone from a boiling rage down to a simmer now that she’d vented her frustrations at him.

“I didn’t know you broke up with Demming for me. I thought…”

She rolled her eyes. “Really, Castle? That is what you took away from what I just said?”

He was quiet for a moment. Finally, he sighed softly. “I admit that it wasn’t my best idea.”

“It was definitely not your finest hour,” she agreed.

“It’s just…" he started, trailing off with another sigh. "Kate, I had to watch these guys be with you, kiss you…some of them more than others…when I was in love with you. And so maybe…maybe a part of me wanted them to have to watch me get to be the one who gets to kiss you, be with you now." He shrugged slightly before continuing, "Or at least force them to acknowledge it from the invitation. I’m sorry, ok?” he exhaled deeply, but it wasn’t quite a sigh. “And if that makes me petty then…fine. I’m petty. And I don’t know, I guess maybe still a little jealous."

She studied him for a moment, her anger dissipating slowly at his words. This man…this incredible, ridiculous man. God, she loved him. He’d done something incredibly dumb on an impulse, but now…now she understood the why. And she couldn’t stay angry at him over it now that she knew his reasoning. Annoyed, yes, but angry...no. “Castle…” she started, moving around the desk and turning his chair enough that she could sit in his lap. “The only man I am ever going to be with is you. The only man I’m going to kiss is you. I love you. I am going to marry you,” she kissed him softly to reinforce her words. “You know, someone told me, ‘Everything that I’ve ever done, every choice I’ve ever made, every terrible and wonderful thing that’s ever happened to me, it’s all led me to this moment, right here, with you,’” she repeated the words he had said to her a couple of weeks ago at a high school dance of all places.

“Someone told you that, huh?” he chuckled, his arms sliding around her waist.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Sounds like a very wise, very smart, probably very good-looking man,” he was fishing for compliments.

She giggled softly and shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s kinda a jackass sometimes,” she smiled before getting serious. “Those guys…they’re my past, Castle. But my future...babe, that's all you,” she promised softly with a smile.

He returned her smile, kissing her softly before resting his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry I invited them and didn’t tell you.”

“Are there anymore surprise guests you’re going to spring on me? Now would be the time to tell me.”

“No,” he promised.

“Good,” she smiled, kissing him a little longer than before.

He smiled against her lips. “Does this mean I’m forgiven?”

“Not even close,” she laughed, standing and pulling him out of his chair. “You are going to come out here and help me finish going through the RSVP cards,” she stated.

“But I was writing…”

“You were procrastinating. And if you are going to procrastinate, you’re going to do it by helping me,” she insisted, getting behind him and gently pushing him out of his office.

"And if I help you, then I'll be forgiven?" he asked hopefully.

"No."

He pouted slightly but took a seat at the kitchen island with her. “Oh, hey…if they all say they’re attending, we can get a head start on the seating chart. We'll just seat all three of them at the same table,” he suggested with a smile.

“Oh God, Castle…” Kate’s face scrunched up at that thought. "No."

“We can call it the ‘Beckett’s Broken Hearts Club’ table,” he teased.

“No.”

“But…”

“No, Castle. Just…no,” she stated, handing him the letter opener and an envelope. “Open,” she instructed, ending the discussion. She sincerely hoped, though, that none of the other RSVP cards they were opening would contain confirmations from any of her other ex’s. Having one there would be awkward enough, especially since she was very much aware that Josh and Castle didn’t particularly care for each other.

xxxxx

Well there you have it! I might…MIGHT…at some point write a sequel to this that shows the encounter with the ex’s at the wedding. I make no promises, though. It’s all about how the muses and the inspiration flows.

I hope you guys enjoyed this one, though. I look forward to any comments you all may leave!

[justalittleguest]

Why is the spiciest, vilest, sinisterest take on Horror him being a cannibal. Girl that’s NOT his toxic trait. He’s so much worse.

[a2zillustration]

I think my favorite feeling about BG3, which your comics show, is how hilarious it can be, without demeaning or deterring the emotional attachment. The funny bits don't make the sad parts sting any less, or the catharsis any less gratifying. It makes it such a treasure to play and get immersed in, at least in my opinion.

Yes!! I agree wholeheartedly!

I think one of the most captivating things about this game is that, while the narrative it tells is so big and overwhelming and dark, there are so many charming and funny bits thrown into the game, both in the writing and in all the weird little antics that come with playing a massive video game that can't possibly have all the bugs worked out. But it never feels like it detracts from the experience!

I think it really embodies what playing d&d can be like, and it's wonderful.

[dailykugisaki]

Day 114 | id in alt

Kugisaki is horrid at English and honestly? Don't blame her. It's not too worth it.

[skitskatdacat63]

I have to write a relatively long German paper, and man its just so difficult for me. The pro side is that I can pick any topic I want, so of course I picked Charles VI. But I've literally not written any German in months, and I'm almost 100% sure our prof doesn't actually read them. I should just write and submit boy king fic....

[pokemonruby]

the cover i commissioned for my book is almost finished... this feels so surreal.

[chuu-huahua]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHUUYA

chuuya is so babygirl that he gets his own birthday post (dw dazai gets one too in june lol). slay ig

tw: fire? from a candle?? / dark era spoilers / mentions of alcohol because chuuya likes wine

he didn’t celebrate his birthday a lot, both in the sheep and in the mafia. prices weren’t low when he was younger, and he didn’t nearly have enough time to take a day off to relax from the bloodshed and fighting around him

so when he found a small cake sitting in his fridge that evening, with a small yellow sticky note with a handwriting he was way too familiar with, all he could do was smile. the stupid mackerel had gotten him a cake. it even contained alcohol. stupid bandage wasting machine…

and surprisingly, mori waved him off when he came over to submit his mission report that morning, telling him to take the day off and “enjoy his youth” (his words, not chuuya’s), slipping a paper containing red crayon marks wording something along the lines of “i’ll kill you”, whatever that meant, under his own piles of endless paperwork

so, he spent the rest of his day lounging around in his penthouse, savouring the rum flavoured slice of cake his ex-partner had gotten him (of course he checked for poison; it wouldn’t do him any good to drop dead on the floor of his house before he could even submit his mission report to mori), and nursing the glass of wine from a bottle he had stored away for some time now. the sun was starting to set, bathing the land with its warm oranges and reds and yellows, and the buildings around him were coated in golden light

his shoulders had finally loosened up from writing endless reports and tending to mountains of paperwork after a while, so when he received a phone call from kouyou telling him to come over for some business, his sigh cut through the comfortable silence that had mixed into the atmosphere of his living room

but when he arrived at the oh so familiar traditional japanese style house his ane-san resided at, the surprise was clear on his face when he slid open the door to come face to face with the ginger from the black lizard. kouyou was not too far behind him, going through the entire tea ceremony with grace akin to swans, the aroma of the fresh warm beverage now wafting through the entire estate. now that he looked behind tachihara, he could see higuchi and hirotsu, as well as the akutagawa siblings

his ane-san called him over, instructing him to sit down with her on the tatami mats that still bathed in the gold of the setting sun. a cup of tea was placed in front of him, as well as a small black box. blowing softly over the top of the cup before placing it to his lips, chuuya almost choked when he opened the box to reveal a brand new pair of black gloves. his current ones were worn and creased over the years of use, as well as the countless washings it went through to clean off the blood of his enemies. the people around him could only smile at the shock on his face, some giggling at his wide eyed look

so when he stretches the new leather over his hands and wiggles his fingers, the familiar warmth of his old glove is replaced with a new comfort that wraps his hand, and the warmth in his chest burns like an inferno

although he lost the sheep when he was younger, seeing the smiles on the faces of the people surrounding him as they bring out a cake from kouyou’s fridge makes the emotions in his chest swirl like the storms and tornadoes; if he had never met dazai, he would probably have never met the people who were singing him a birthday song (his very first one) and using the lighter from his pocket (when had they even got hold of it?) to light the tiny wax candle that stood proudly on the cream 

as he made his wish and blew out the candles, he could almost feel the hairs at the back of his neck standing, as if they too could tell that there was a certain brown haired detective toasting a glass of cheap sake to him from his own apartment

some PROFESSIONAL SQUASH PLAYER DAZAI content too <3

a kiss on the lips. 

that was what japan’s number one national squash player had gifted him for his birthday, right after he stepped out of the court, all sweaty from the movement and with his racket still gripped tightly in his hand. 

sure, the frame of the eyewear had pressed against his forehead rather harshly; sure, the mackerel had sweat dripping all over him from the exhaustive game he just had; sure, their teeth had knocked together when their lips connected. but chuuya could not deny that his skin shone as bright as his hair, the back of his hand pressed to his pursed lips, sharp blue eyes following the taller figure as he skipped off to find his manager. 

he continued to stare at the back of the exercise shirt that had gotten slightly see-through with the sweat running down the man’s back, but his shoulders visibly flinched when dazai turned to look back at him, eyes shining with mirth. happy birthday, he mouthed, before giggling cheekily and trailing after the man with sleek black hair that led him away, leaving chuuya to continue feeling the intense burn of his cheeks.

[onlineufo]

people grilling idols for their performances is so silly to me. go ahead practice singing and dancing for 14+ hours a day, get little to no sleep, have a concerningly strict diet, constantly be surrounded by people, constantly be on camera, and have no freedom. get up on stage and sing live while doing intense choreo in front of a crowd of people and cameras. make sure you dont make a mistake though! or else thousands of people could discredit your hard work and call you untalented! i get that it's their job but people have likely already criticized them for the same exact things you're trying to point out. why not just refrain from posting about it and focus on yourself! <3