#i got a really good deal on it too it was like. 12 dollars for a used copy.

[hyperthinks]

my giant ~1400 page leather-bound tome of the collected works of shakespeare gets here todayyyyy ^_^

[stereax]

How is Toronto doing over there?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Okay let me explain what Toronto is doing... actually no I can't, what they're doing defies all reason. Or it makes perfect sense, but only if you're on the same cocktail of black tar heroin and crystal meth as Brad Treliving. Here we go!

This is the Leafs' page on CapFriendly. They are currently almost 9 million dollars over the cap. This is the offseason, so nobody really cares right now - teeeechnically you can't go over 10% above the cap during the offseason but nobody's really watching. So why are they over 8.8 million dollars over?

Let's review why.

This is the Leafs' forward core. (There's a league minimum deal for Dylan Gambrell too.)

This is the Leafs' forward core with a $5.5m deal to Bertuzzi, $3m deal to Domi, and $1.35m deal to Reaves. And you'd think "oh, they're trying to get tougher, okay" and they really don't, because Bertuzzi and Domi aren't punchers and Reavo is getting old. Bertuzzi is a more expensive Bunting sidegrade on a one-year deal seeking term in next year's free agent market. Domi is a center whose defensive numbers are in the shitter, also hoping for a better deal next year when the cap jumps up. Reaves is honestly just happy someone signed his ass for three whole years. He's 36. This is his second 35+ contract. Massive red flag.

What you're also going to notice is that Matthews, Marner, and Tavares take the lion's share of the cash - over $33m between the three of them. Nylander adds another $7m to the pot, making each of the Core Four average around $10m. Oh, and Nylander is angling for a pay raise when he hits UFA next year. :) And Matthews hits UFA next year too, good luck icing a 12-forward roster that doesn't have two lines' worth of rookies if you keep both! :)

Compare this to, say, the Devils, who have their cap situation under control. How the Devils work is they rely on everyone taking a discount for the benefit of the team (or just signing them to "overpays" before they get good and make the contracts worth it, like Jack Hughes). In the same $40m as the Core Four, the Devils have Timo Meier, Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, Tyler Toffoli, and Erik Haula. An entire top six. And I'm not even counting Dawson Mercer because he's still on his ELC and that would just be unfair.

There's a saying that "you can't win a Cup with a $10m player". Jack Eichel proved us wrong. However, the idea of that saying applies - if you have too many top guys who are all demanding too much money, your boat is going to capsize because you're not going to be able to get the rest of the team signed. (Unless you're the fucking Rangers and get everyone on league minimum contracts because you're the fucking Rangers and you run a retirement home in New York, but I DIGRESS.)

The main issue with the Core Four, and the idea of the Core Four, is that they're eating up basically half the cap by themselves. And if you look back on it, you can go "Kyle Dubas was a moron", but you've got to remember: Dubas inked those deals thinking the cap wouldn't go flat due to covid. With the cap due to jump next offseason, you're looking at a LOT of 1-year deals because most free agents think they can get more money when there's more money to throw around. Bertuzzi and Domi are no exceptions.

Oh, also, Brad Treliving signed a 4C (David Kämpf) to a $2.5m contract with 4 years of term. You don't sign fourth liners for that money or term, as a general rule, unless they do something for your team that is literally irreplacable. Kämpf is good but he's nowhere near the great that justifies that.

Bertuzzi: Fair value for him, but you had Bunting who just signed for $1m less with short term to the Canes. Possible upgrade but too early to tell, probably a sidegrade.

Domi: Really should learn how to play wing. Inconsistent. A bit of an overpay for a third line center who can't play D at all.

Reaves: Punchy McFourthLine. That's it.

The Leafs' defense doesn't have anything too glaringly awful, on the other hand - except that newly inked $4.15m contract to a John Klingberg who can barely play defense on a good day. When you already had three at least passable RDs on the roster (don't know how good Liljegren or Timmins are). I get the idea of an RD upgrade, but man, that was not it.

Klingberg: We're really in the "outscore your opponents" phase of the meltdown now, aren't we? He is worse than Erik Karlsson at defense. Erik Karlsson, Fourth Forward, is a better defenseman. Good God what I would give to see Klingberg and Rielly on a D-pair together. Threat to score... at both ends of the ice.

So the Leafs are over the cap, but a few shenaniga- Wait, what is that? An unsigned RFA goalie?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA YEEEEEP. THEY QUALIFIED SAMSONOV AND HAVE $-8.8 MILLION IN CAP SPACE WITH WHICH TO GIVE HIM A CONTRACT. Better pray he doesn't get offersheeted because you won't be able to sign a big deal for him. Good Lord.

And now here's your injured reserve.

Note that Muzzin's $5.625m is already coming off the books and there's noooo way they can take him off IR (see the top). They still need to shed $3.2m just to fit under cap. With Sammy needing a contract and being arbitration eligible? Oh boy.

So what's going to happen here?

Firstly, Muzzin has to stay on Robidas Island. He comes back, you're fucked capwise.

Murray needs to go. You can't buy him out because that would put $2m on the cap next season as penalty - $2m that you need to resign Nylander and Matthews. Either you Robidas Island him (break his kneecaps permanently) or you trade him as a cap dump. You can't get value on him because he's already retained salary and with an M-NTC that limits where he can go. So you need to ship Murray out with a sweetener for our good friend Future Considerations or a seventh-rounder. The sweetener in question? Probably a first-round pick. Maybe a third if the team in question needs a netminder. Toronto is fresh out of second-round picks. Sweet.

Even with Murray out, you have $1.4m in cap space, and with Robertson probably drawing into the lineup because he's cheap and hopefully fixed by now, so only $700k to spare for Sammy's contract. You better believe Ilya Fucking Samsonov is not going to take a league minimum contract... especially when he's valued at around $5m.

You can ship out Jarnkrok and/or Timmins (as per the internet, the most likely to be dealt). Even with both gone, you only have $3.9m in cap space, which means Sammy would either need to take a team friendly or get dealt, leaving Woll and Literally Nobody to take the net for Toronto. And even if Sammy takes a $3.5m deal, you have next to no cap space and no 13F/7D.

Did I mention Samsonov can arbitrate? Because Samsonov can choose to arbitrate for a higher salary. For another Devils comparable, the reason we didn't qualify Bastian or McLeod was because they could choose to arbitrate if we did, with the arbitrator awarding a higher salary than Fitz would be comfortable paying. Arbitrator says $5m, Treliving can't pay it, Sammy walks. Great work, Brad.

The other speculation is that these moves are setting up for a Nylander trade, breaking up the Core Four. Don't know who the hell wants Nylander at almost $7m of cap hit - maybe the Senators if they manage to ditch DeBrincat? The Leafs would probably have to retain significant salary. Also don't know who the hell the Leafs would replace Nylander with. I doubt this happens, honestly, especially because Nylander's 10-team no-trade clause can kick the Leafs further in the ass. But who the fuck knows anymore?

So to recap: The Leafs just shopped for a bunch of guys with no defense at all that's going to make them have to get rid of Murray and has made resigning Samsonov tough. They need to let go of some of their depth (Jarnkrok and Timmins most likely) to make it work at all, and that's assuming Sammy does them a favor and signs for cheap. That's not even including the possibility of an offersheet to Samsonov - which, if you're a GM with goaltending issues and cap to spare (Chicago comes to mind), you should seriously consider dropping a $6m offersheet to Samsonov and watching the chaos erupt. If Kyle Davidson is reading this right now, do this and I promise I will stop bringing up the Kyle Beach scandal every time I hear about the Hawks and let your franchise turn over a new leaf. (Or Leaf, as it were.)

@excuseme-jimin @storybook-strange you guys also expressed interest in this :)

[cosmicthrillseekers]

bought a really really nice pair of pants today at goodwill they fit so well and have a good texture and i don't even need a belt for them and i don't even need to roll up the ends because they're not too long and i was like. eek! 12 dollars..idk....but im looking at their brand online and all their pants new sell for TWO HUNDRED dollars which is insane. what a deal i got

[pleaseplaygrimfandango]

MASSIVE PSA TO ALL STRAIGHT PEOPLE:::

STOP. FUCKING. PLAYING. TEAM FORTRESS 2!!!!

i see you out there in the crowd,, youve got like a bagilion hours in this game but YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO. This game was always meant for gay people, you were never su[pposed to play it. Think about it, in what straight ass game is it fucking normal to say shit like “”AH fuck that guy is toatally DOMMING me rn“ or “can’t wait for someone to get caught in my STICKY TRAP“, no fucking way dude. youre telling me that a game about 9 hot and sweaty men duking it out on the battlefeild and blasting each other into KINGDOM CUM is supposed to be for strAIGHT people?? not a chance. let me tell you about these gay fucks

Soldier... This guy gets arounbd and y’know what he’s good at? blasting. this guy fucking BLASTs EVERYWHERE HE GOES. he is an asolute EXPLOSION MANIAC. you telling me this guy who loves to blast men is straight? get out. and hey, we’ve all equiped the Original, we all know what it looks like, but you never made the fucking conection that soldier is fucking OBLITERATING men with his massive phallic rocket launcher???? and that’s supposed to be straight?? i dont buy this for a fucking nanosecond

demoman, yea he also blasts. he blasts fucking hard too. this guy does some major blasting, HE’S THE DEMOMAN THATS HIS THING! but you know something, he can be pacient too. sometimes he play with his STICKY BALLS and just sit there and wait for someone to come by. he saves up his load. and the moment some poor unsuspecting gayboy wanders by? FUCKING BOOOOM. his blast is FUCKING MASSIVE be cause he’s saves up and waits for the right opportunity to blast

okay yea, you might think that this guy is actually into ladies. NOT FOR A FUCKING SECOND. this little fucking twink is a complete brat to these guys, just an absolute motherfucker only to get blasted into yesteryear by some heavy. his body is BUILT to be blasted. but dont just think because he gets blasted that he can’t FUCKING BLAST either. nah, you might think this shitty little fruit can’t do jack shit and then BAM he blasts you. also, “““MAD MILK“““>>??? Get fucking real, we all know whats in that jar you fucking freak.,

now this guy, he’s not really known for blasting. he can deal out some blasts in a pinch but overall this mans not really a blast master. but that’s because he’s PRACTICAL, he knows his frail little texan bod cant dish out the blasts like his commrades. but you know what he does do? he makes machines to do the blasting for him. THINK ABOUT IT that big machine you’ve been eyeing on amazon that you can’t possibly afford, you know the one im talking about. this guys, HE JUST FUCKING BUILDS IT and watches it blast everyone out of existance. he doesn’t need to blast, he’s just fine watching as he kicks back with a beer

god... do i even need to say it?... you already know this man. youve seen art of him and medic, you know how much he fucking loves MOIST and DELICIOUS meat. i dont even need to say it but im going to anyways. this guy is a fucking BARA GOD. yea, maybe he takes a second to unload, sure he’s a bit slow, but when he’s reved up in your face ready to go??? you are fucking GONE. HE WILL BLAST YOU. NO FUCKING MERCY. you cant even comprehend how hard this man will blast you. and on top of that, according to him it costs him like a billion dollars just to blast for 12 seconds. dude is going ABSOLUTELY BROKE from BLASTING HOT MEN in the face but he still fucking loves it. he knows its the only way he can be happy.. and scout, that little gay boy fuck? you think he’s going to outrun heavy? THINK AGAIN. heavy has a entire waepon dedicated to pinning that fucker down. this guy cannot be straight

okay yea ill say it, he doesn’t blast. not even for a second, not even a little bit, so you might think this guy is off the hook. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND??? nope. you see, he may not blast, but his team mates? he knows EXACTLY how to get them to blast. soldier is a pretty good blaster but when medic sticks his beam in him from behind, soldier is a FUCKING BLASTING MANIAC. he may not be the guy dishing out the blasts but he’s there to top every single one of those guys off and make sure they are EXPLODING

picture it, you’re just strolling around badwater. just having a nice time and FUCKING BANG. this guy blasts you from across the map. this guy right here? the only thing thats straight about him his his fucking perfect persionsion BLAST to your face. he’s got it down to a science. it doesn’t matter how far away you are he’s going to abosutely unload on you from across the map. and hey if he’s got the right weapon, he’s going to get you SOAKING WET absolutely SOPPING.

alright, lets get real for a second. this guy? you might think, no fucking way does he blast. not even a single chance. this french fuck? no way. but oh contrare. you see, this guys knife, its small. laugh it up fuckers. but guess what? he knows EXACTLY where to stick it. he knows all your weakspots better than you do. you think this guys tiny little knife isn’t going to get you off but when he puts it in you just right you will be on the ground in SECONDS FLAT. yea sure, heavy and soldier will rearrange your guts for you yea but this guy, he’s going to do things to your body you wont fucking believe. and i hear you saying but wait, spy fucks ladies right??? yea sure, delude yourself even more fuckers. you dont think this guy is a bisexual god?? you really think a guy who hangs out with men all day long who talks about just how much pipe he lays ISNT getting railed behind the lockers? fuck you

AND PYROOO!!!     idk i think matpat said he was a gay guy in one of his videos or something

but there you have it, you cant deny it anymore straightos. un install the game RIGHT NOW and go play overwatch or some shit. this ones for the gays now

[void-thegod]

I've been playing with an idea.

A desperate and foolish attempt to make people care.

About my plight, yes. And this condition I share with the rest of humanity.

But I should know better. I keep overworking myself - physically, mentally, and spiritually - for something I really have no control over.

If you care about a human being or a cause or anything, you try. You try and try over and over.

I'm at my wits end with trying. For myself. For humanity.

I don't have the energy for it. I don't have the resources for it. I don't have the support for it.

Why should I continually put myself in harms way? Because it's the right thing to do? Because it's my only recourse? Because other people are doing it too?

If I've learned anything from living on this planet, it's that people are selfish. They're not really "good", per se. They're just not "evil" either.

It's not black and white. But if you think of how we got here... well. How many truly good people could there be?

1% rule the world. Maybe 10%. The other 90%?

Let's say over half of people physically and mentally cannot do anything. Resources, support, disability, money, etc

Maybe 45% of people have the rest. But.

That also has to be split up by demographic, age, sex, race.

White (and Western) supremacy/ imperialism in America keeps the wealth with white folks primarily. Most of the people who have money don't seem (???) To help as many people as they possibly could.

Most people are more committed to keeping and growing the wealth they have than trying to change/destroy the system that gave them that wealth.

Don't get me started on conspiracies

How our government loses trillions of dollars. Black government projects. The military industrial complex. Police.

So forth.

There's a lot of money out there.

Just a rant, I guess.

I've felt this way since I learned what all this was.

When I was 12.

And you may ask why I haven't done anything. But : I'm one of the most disenfranchised groups of people on the planet. Barring being in someplace worse than America.. which there are many.

I'm lucky for what I've had. What I have.

I've been homeless. I was an alcoholic.

I'm autistic and brown and have cptsd from dealing with The Horrors.

I have no friends that really understand me. I am estranged from my family for similar reasons -- they'd rather I be anything but disabled.

So like. I need help. Yes.

But humanity needs help. Our civilization is killing us, this planet, and what we could become.

Elon Musk lost 200 billion dollars.

What could we have done with that?

Is capitalism and democracy in their current forms the best we can do?

Absolutely not.

We can all do better. I think.

If you made it this far: $onepeaceman is my cashapp.

It'd be nice if a miracle occurred. But I won't hold my breath.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

So yeah... That totally unnecessary Nelson Peltz proxy fight saga of current-day Disney is finally over.

Thank goodness. Peltz seemed like he was acting on behalf of former Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, another guy who is bad news bears to say the least. Peltz just looked like another old man who plays to the crowd that loves to call everything "woke". While it doesn't take rocket science to figure out that The Walt Disney Company is having some trouble across various divisions, their solution wasn't even a solution. Nothing remotely near that.

Interestingly, Disney finally released their first *new* theatrical movie this year, a $30m prequel to THE OMEN that got solid reviews but struggled on opening weekend for whatever reason. It's looking to perform more like last year's new EXORCIST movie than 2018 HALLOWEEN (both films directed by David Gordon Green), I guess not all horror legacy sequels (lega-sequels) are destined to make coin. No matter, $30m isn't steep, it should make it back eventually if not in theaters. It's a 20th Century Studios movie, so it's no big deal really.

Weirdly, POOR THINGS is one of their few box office successes released over the past 12 or so months, outside of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and - by a hair - ELEMENTAL. 20th kinda came to the rescue there, too: A HAUNTING IN VENICE doubled its budget, THE BOOGEYMAN did pretty good.

All I know is, Disney's probably never going to relive 2019 again... And I feel like they keep trying to make that year happen again... But it won't, because that was a case of the planets freakin' aligning...

I extend that to the 2010s in general, honestly, but I'll focus on 2019...

That year saw the billion-dollar releases of - in order: CAPTAIN MARVEL, AVENGERS: ENDGAME, ALADDIN, TOY STORY 4, THE LION KING, FROZEN II, and THE RISE OF SKYWALKER... They got a moderate success out of the MALEFICENT sequel that year, too, while the live-action DUMBO didn't recoup its - ironically - massive budget. (The original 1941 DUMBO was a low-budget picture belted out during the war.) Some 20th titles came out that year, too, most of them not doing great, like the X-Men movie DARK PHOENIX and Blue Sky's penultimate SPIES IN DISGUISE (I call it penultimate because I consider NIMONA a partial Blue Sky movie, their swan song).

Even then, that was a year to die for. But that's the rub... ENDGAME was the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's whole Infinity Saga. 11 years in the making, it's astounding it was able to have juice for that long! Yes, yes, I know, SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME was the *actual* end of Phase 3... That functions more like an epilogue, while ENDGAME was the big finale event everyone waited for... and of course, CAPTAIN MARVEL benefited greatly from being the movie that preceded ENDGAME. By less than two months... TOY STORY 4 was locked to be big, because TOY STORY 3 made a billion nine years earlier. ALADDIN and THE LION KING were remakes of some of Disney's biggest animated movies, and FROZEN II was a sequel to another one of Disney's biggest animated movies. RISE OF SKYWALKER ended the entire Skywalker Saga... And ending the main story of one of the biggest franchises- You get the idea!

Suffice to say, Disney's not going to have that year again. They'd have to acquire like another 2-3 franchises, and release their finales all during the same year in addition to two other favorites. The MCU isn't the must-see event with each and every film anymore post-ENDGAME, Star Wars' future is probably in serialized shows still, the remake well has run dry and all the biggest Disney animated movies were pretty much covered (SNOW WHITE - from the one that started everything - is on its way, but I see that performing more similarly to DUMBO and not LITTLE MERMAID), and... Well, animated movies that aren't sequels are more of a gamble nowadays.

But it seems like in 2025 and 2026, Disney's looking to keep trying this usual platter of movies that would've been a killer line-up in 2017. Not today. That's how I felt about their offering last year, too.

It's a lot of reliance on the brands. New Star Wars sounds like box office gold, right? Well, two new Star Wars movies in 2026 after all those movies Disney did from 2015-2019 in addition to what seems like a ton of Disney+ shows... And Grogu was super-popular back when he first appeared in THE MANDALORIAN back in 2019... Yeah, like, who knows how those will do... In addition to all the Marvel movies planned, not all of them are gonna get everyone packing the auditoriums - as we saw with QUANTUMANIA and THE MARVELS. (And on the Warner Bros./DC end, SHAZAM! 2 and BLUE BEETLE, even AQUAMAN 2 didn't make half of what the first one made, THE FLASH fell sharply after its opening.)

And then you have the animated sequels, which seem like safe bets. Disney only missed with Pixar's LIGHTYEAR, which was a spin-off that went a totally different direction that seemed to have alienated the audiences that made all the TOY STORY movies the big hits that they were. TOY STORY 5 likely does way better than that, but I expect it to be a box office come down from the last two. It would have to have a real banger story, I feel, to get people to keep coming. I think MOANA 2, ZOOTOPIA 2, and FROZEN III - all from Disney Animation - are locked to at least open big. If they're very unsatisfactory movies to the public - like STRANGE WORLD and WISH were, then they have weak legs... And smackdab between this sequel-frenzy is one original Pixar movie: Space adventure ELIO.... Which got delayed, supposedly because it was a big mess and it needed another year and a half to be reconfigured. Not that that really means anything, but it's sure to balloon its probably already-big budget. ELEMENTAL had to climb and climb to somewhat eke out a profit, ELIO might have even more trouble as an original movie. It's also not known what Pixar's other 2026 movie is opposite TOY STORY 5, though I suspect it is another original, which will make it stick out as well. WDAS' original movies seem missing in action at the moment.

20th Century Studios and Searchlight continue to have the interesting stuff, which I think will last longer than more Marvel and Star Wars movies. Both studios really did become a replacement for Disney's former adult movie label Touchstone, didn't they? And they too have their franchise biggies, more for Disney, with the likes of PLANET OF THE APES and ALIEN... Whose new installments come out this year and are sure to do okay. Plus, more AVATAR... And yet those franchise don't feel - to me - as overdone as Star Wars and the MCU. It's been 7 years since the last APES and ALIEN movies, weirdly enough (WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES and ALIEN: COVENANT), and AVATAR took a long break before returning with a cluster sequels all reasonably spaced out from one another. PREDATOR/PREY looks to keep going. I also wonder if future KINGSMAN movies are still in play.

Again, it's the little stuff that matters, because wells always run dry... And I think that's Disney's problem at the moment, ditto them playing things way too safe in other areas... I've said that before, but they - specifically on the "Walt Disney Pictures" end - need to just let loose and let a filmmaker just make something dynamic and cool and new. Something that takes the audience completely by surprise, not just another "Disney movie". Something like PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN or WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. And make more smaller movies, too, and not relegate them to streaming. Little movies like THE PRINCESS DIARIES, HOLES, etc. We're in that scene in RATATOUILLE again where the patrons of Gusteau's ask if there's anything *new* on the menu...

The time is now, Disney. With a new head of your live-action division, let's see what you've got. We're past calendar years locked and loaded with 8 tentpole movies...

[bamababygirl7]

🥰💞 I was tagged by the awesome and super gorgeous @angelsleaze

1. Are you named after anyone?

I wasn’t named after anyone. My name is pretty unique (I’m pretty sure my parents were on drugs lol)

2. Last time you cried?

Yesterday when I saw a post from @mister-s0013 about a 4 year old dying after an exorcism so I googled it and found way too many cases of this happening. Children are my soft spot.

3. Do you have/want kids?

I am a proud boy mom 💙💙💙 I wanted a little girl so badly, but after having nieces, I am so thankful that I didn’t have a daughter. I think they come out of the womb with an attitude lol

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Me sarcastic??? NEVER lol

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Their sense of humor (if they have a dark sense of humor and/or love memes, they are automatically my bestie) Also, one of the first things I notice is how their mind works. I am drawn to people who are brutally honest like me (don’t just tell me what I want to hear) and who are passionate about certain things but not judgmental and like to discuss different subjects even if we don’t agree on them because I learn a lot from listening to different perspectives on subjects. (I’m a huge nerd and love learning)

6. What's your eye color?

My eyes are hazel. They are usually more green, but it depends on what I’m wearing, and they can get really blue when I cry.

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

I like both. It really just depends on my mood. I love being scared, but not when I’m all by myself. I love movies with twists. I get bored with predictability (probably because I’m so random and impulsive lol)

8. Special talents?

NSFW answer 😈😈😈

SFW answer 😇😇😇 I think I’m pretty good at coming up with ideas and designing the shirts and tumblers that I make. I like my things to be unique, so I can’t bring myself to buy premade designs on Etsy (even though it would cut the time of making things in half 🤦🏼‍♀️)

9. Where were you born?

In the hospital.

10. What are your hobbies?

COLORING 💓💓💓 Collecting stuffies, Designing and making shirts, tumblers, paddles, keychains, etc… Listening to music, Reading, Watching Disney movies and anything that has to do with GLITTER ✨

11. Have any pets?

I have the sweetest doggy in the whole wide world named Luna.

12. What sports do you play or have you played?

I was a cheerleader 😬

13. How tall are you?

I am 5’6”

14. Favorite subject in school?

My favorite subject in highschool was Bible (I went to a Christian school, not by choice. I begged my mom to let me go to public school and she refused 🙄🙄🙄) because I loved aggravating my Bible teacher by asking a million random questions that would distract him from his boring lectures. (ie… Is it a sin to have oral sex before I’m married? Is it a sin to take shrooms that we find growing naturally in the cow pasture? etc.) And if his answer was yes, I always asked for an explanation as to why. He would always divert from his planned lecture and answer my questions (the class was very appreciative lol)

15. Dream job?

I actually do what I love now… designing and making things. Although, it would be nice to get paid just to sit around and color with glitter pens all day lol. Due to getting pregnant as a teenager (Thanks mom for refusing to discuss sex other than to say NO sex until you are married 🙄🙄🙄) I could no longer go away to college like intended to become an attorney, so I stayed in the town I lived in and got my degree in Accounting. 10/10 do NOT recommend (It is super boring and due to ADHD I can’t sit at a desk and deal with numbers all day everyday and during tax season, everybody and their momma wants you to do their taxes for free and get them back thousands of dollars 😂🤣😂) Long story short, life is too short to be stuck in a job that makes you miserable, so I am super thankful to be doing what I love❣️

Tagging these lovely folks (No pressure if you don't want to participate) @missathesiren @pure-hell2 @drinkyourmilf @dominant-dominion @thebeardiswriting @anotherboredaustralian @mister-s0013 @c4c4ine @iecholouder @nerdy-boytoy @naughtybeardedguy

[openheart12]

Replay

A/N: used this generator to create texts, but just some lighthearted fluff

Summary: Texts between the FBI besties.

WC: 1,160

Warning: swearing

Power Rangers

6:12 am

Stuart: good morning

Tiffany: good morning

Jubal: good morning

Maggie: you all sound like robots, try spicing it up a bit

OA: MORNING MOTHERFUCKERS

Maggie: not that much. it’s 6 in the fucking morning

5:38 pm

Tiffany: my god, would you two just get a room already?

OA: excuse me?

Tiffany: you both keep agreeing about horrifying things and relishing everybody else’s misery. so seriously, when’s the wedding?

Maggie: there is no wedding, we’re just besties

Stuart: I SHIP IT

Jubal: can you all not???

7:14 am

Stuart: how would you like your pancakes?

OA: plain

Tiffany: with sprinkles 

Jubal: chocolate chips

Maggie: potatoes 

OA: wtf maggie

Maggie: what? they’re good

5:39 pm

Jubal: what does rainbows mean to you?

Maggie: gay rights

Tiffany: there’s money

Stuart: the sign of god’s promise to never destroy the whole earth with a flood

OA: it is an optical phenomenon that separates sunlight into its continuous spectrum when the sun shines on raindrops

12:21 am

Jubal: what’s the worst thing you guys have done?

Tiffany: rickrolled my teacher in 4th grade

OA: i kicked stuart in the shin 

Stuart: so i kicked OA between the legs

Maggie: i burned a town down

Jubal: what?

Stuart: what the hell is wrong with you?!?!?

Maggie: a lot of things

OA: no shit

F is for Friends who do Stuff Together

3:13 pm

OA: my life is a little too much panic and not enough disco

Jubal: my life is a little too much fall and not enough boy

Maggie: my life is a little too much chemical and not enough romance

Stuart: my life is a little too much imagination and not nearly enough dragons

10:04 am

Maggie: my stomach growled super loud in french 

Maggie: i’d like to clarify, my stomach did not speak in french, it growled during french class

Jubal: bonjour 

Stuart: le growl

OA: hon hon hon, feed me a baguette

4:58 am

Stuart: what is love?

Jubal: an emotional minefield 

OA: a neurochemical reaction 

Maggie: baby don’t hurt me

4:24 pm

Juba: LOWERCASE LETTERS ARE FOR THE LOWER CLASS

OA: and here we have a capitalist 

Stuart: did you just-

Maggie; let us all take a moment to appreciate that all of human history, human language, and the universe itself aligned to make this joke possible

5:28 pm

Jubal: i still don’t have a new years resolution 

OA: you could lose a few

Stuart: you could be less lazy

Maggie: don’t be such a bitch

Jubal: okay DAMN SHIT

Federal Besties of Investigation

4:38 pm

Maggie: either buckle down and do your work or you’ll end up at mcdonalds 

OA: we’re going to mcdonalds if i don’t do my work?

Maggie: no

OA: and what do i get out of this?

Maggie: a dollar

OA: what do you think i am? a chump? i would never do it for a dollar

Maggie: 2 dollars?

OA: you got yourself a deal

11:11 pm

OA: O

Maggie: what?

OA: don’t read into that

Maggie: but i will read into that

OA: HOW??? IT’S A LETTER

Maggie: why is there a space after it, hmmmmmm????

OA: dude, really? it’s a fucking letter

Maggie: it could stand for something

OA: IT DOESN’T I PROMISE

Maggie: like oppression or worse…

OA: i just typed the letter O, it means nothing :/

Maggie: optometrist 

OA: omg

8:29 am

Maggie: as usual, maggie has to save the day

OA: as usual, OA has to hear about it

7:02 pm

Maggie: treat spiders the way you want to be treated

OA: killed without hesitation 

2:42 am

Maggie: strawberry milk doesn’t taste like strawberry or milk

OA: go the fuck to sleep maggie

Maggie: you’re an asshole, man

OA: you are what you eat maggie

Maggie: i don’t think i can handle any more of your tomfuckery 

OA: oh yeah? well i can keep going until you’re all tomfuckered out

12:48 pm

OA: remember what i told you

Maggie: don’t be a cunt

5:18 pm

OA: between tiffany, stuart, jubal, and isobel – if you had to – who would you punch?

Maggie: no one, they’re my friends. i wouldn’t punch any of them

OA: jubal?

Maggie: yeah but i don’t know why

1:17 am

Maggie: OA, i screwed up big time

OA: given your daily life experiences, you’re gonna have to be more specific

Avengers Dupe

5:27 am

Isobel: well, aren’t you all a rag-tag group of adventurers with unclear motives and good hearts! let me guess, you’re out to save the world

OA: well, actually, that sounds like a pretty fair assessment

Jubal: more or less, i guess

Maggie: that sounds awesome. let’s do that

Stuart: i’m new here, but i am open to the concept

Tiffany: i thought that’s what we were doing

9:40 am

Isobel: if you got arrested, what would be the charges?

OA: theft

Jubal: disturbing the peace

Tiffany: aggravated assault

Stuart: arson 

Maggie: all of the above, probably in that order

7:25 pm

Stuart: rules were made to be broken

Jubal: they were made to be followed, nothing is made to be broken

OA: piñatas

Maggie: glow sticks

Tiffany: karate boards

Isobel: spaghetti when you have a small pot

Stuart: rules

Jubal: …

10:51 pm

OA: fine, judge me all you want but stuart married a lesbian, isobel left a man at the altar, maggie fell in love with a gay ice dancer, tiffany threw a girl’s wooden leg in a fire, and jubal lives in a box

Maggie: damn way to air out all of our dirty laundry 

2:58 pm

Stuart: imagine if someone handed you a box full of all the things you lost throughout your life

Isobel: it would be nice to have my sense of purpose back…

OA: oh wow, you found my childhood innocence! thank you for finding it

Tiffany: my will to live! i haven’t seen this in years

Maggie: i knew i lost that potential somewhere 

Jubal: mental stability, my old friend

Stuart: jesus, could you guys lighten up a little

4:48 am

Isobel: who else is hiding in the laundry room trying to listen to jubal and stuart’s convo?

OA: me, i’m in the laundry basket 

Tiffany: i’m in the washing machine

Maggie: i’m in the closet

OA: we accept you maggie <3

Maggie: no, i’m literally in the closet 

OA: love is love <3

Tiffany: ALLY

8:37 am

Maggie: you guys don’t wanna mess with me

OA: yeah, maggie will straight up cry in public. don’t try her

Maggie: exactly, i will straight up…

Maggie: why would you say that? :( 

Jubal: great, now she’s crying in the middle of the JOC 

4:39 pm

OA: i’d die for you guys

Stuart: then perish

Tiffany: you will

Jubal: please don’t

Isobel: cool

Maggie: i’d die for you first

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary336

8/21/24

wednesday

errands day... bluh.

i hate being in the stupid hot car so much, i hate hearing my gf and her mother fight the entire time, even when they're both laughing it's just venomous and tense. i know it's intellectually untrue, that my gf is feeding into it as much as her mother, because her mother is the one who began abusing her, and it's obvious her mother is good at goading people, it's obvious, but it still feels like she feeds her, i know it to be true as much too i guess, there's points where she says things that don't need to be said and snaps at her mom, like vengeance, little things, i dunno. it's just uncomfortable, if she had to experience spats between my mother and i, would she understand? would those be worse, because of the total silence, us not saying a word about it, silently ruminating on it, for months even, putting it away in a little box to never return, just another tension we're both recalling sometimes, if she had to experience that, would she see me there doing the same as my mother, as someone doing something bad, refusing to deal with something unpleasant, failing to try for another person, or even themselves, just to not have that awful silence? i would honestly hope so. i don't judge her too harshly but she seems to not understand how i ever feel, how i feel seems like a mystery or meaningless most of the time because i'm just quiet always. her emotions seem bigger than mine anyways. during the whole time i'm in the car i'm being he/him'd even though i dress how i dress and i guess a lot of the time i'm okay with that or i just tolerate it because, i dunno, a lot of the time it's meaningless and whatever. i'm not a man, i hope people see that... i don't want to be a man... but it feels pointed from her mother, she says i'm like a 70s rockstar is all. i don't want to be anything but myself. but it's the box i'm in for her. and my gf doesn't like that it makes me feel bad but she also doesn't want to have any conversation with her mom about it because she knows she wouldn't get it + what if her mom thinks it's disgusting + what if her mom starts to insinuate awful things about me or something. i get it and maybe i should be not a coward and bring it up myself.

it just frustrates me. i feel like nothing compared to people. everyone is louder than me. that's pathetic, right, just speak up, in truth i must just feel nothing and that void makes me anxious so i spout nonsense. whatever. it's an unhealthy feeling. i love my girlfriend that's all that really matters. i just wish her coming home and feeling fried and me feeling the same, i don't know. anything anyone says to her can be turned into something negative. she has a horrible voice in her head. i said to her earlier, because i know she worries about money, oh this weight is 12 dollars, most people just buy one and alternate hands, because i thought she'd want someone to say that. in target she said she only got one because when i said that, she thought if she bought two, i'd call her stupid. i don't know how to unpack that, all i can really feel about that is hurt but i don't think she recognizes that. she's like this with a lot of people. it just upsets me.

this comes back to gender in some way, because i feel like all my bitching here, what if this is just a man making something all about himself, and i'm just like, lying to myself. my lack of being anything in any solid way certainly makes it easy for people to say i'm just playing... right,. or whatever. i've seen it around online. and i've also seen terfs just say people i resemble are just like that totally. so what if i am truly awful, and just blind or whatever?

i can't really think like that... i just don't know, if i can't know anything for sure i can't disprove it so the worry is always going to be there.

it's not that i think i'm perfect in all this, or something... i just want to do better and not feel bad after doing errands. sometimes it isn't this bad. i just hate feeling like i have to manage a bunch of people's emotions. that's how i feel in the car. that's what it's like after she has to deal with her mother. or her brother. i am sick of her family.

i should not really think of myself how i am... maybe i'm making myself the victim too much. probably, in fact. i'm not being mistreated by anyone, i don't believe that anyway, i just have to be upfront about it being a bunch of unpleasant circumstances, stress from every angle, multiple people feeling fried. i dunno.

at least it's making me write. i guess. i dunno. i don't know anything. literally all i want is for someone to stick a gag in my mouth and do lots of bad things to me and then kill me. maybe just because it seems easier than living?

i did work on music today... a little more effort into getting that song to sound right. i'll listen tomorrow and see how i feel. and i took selfies but i need to see if they're any good so i'll figure that out tomorrow. as always after days like this, if i just sleep, i'll probably regret even saying anything about it here...but i guess i just should... it's what's on my mind.

with that... i will sleep,

so

byebye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[alyssalikestoreadbooks]

Sweeten The Deal - Katie Shepard

"MBA student Caroline Sedlacek knows her personal balance sheet is a little lopsided. On the asset side, at twenty-two she’s got an NCAA trophy, a great education...and the two million dollars she unexpectedly inherited. Liabilities? She's never had friends, a boyfriend, or any life experiences away from the tennis court or the classroom. She'd love to invest herself in everything else, but "everything else" never came easily for her.

In the ten years since he left art school as a vaunted prodigy, Adrian Landry has won shows and major prizes—and done his best to shed his reputation as a pretty man who makes pretty paintings. Though currently broke and sleeping off a bad break-up on his college roommate’s couch, he knows this is the chance to get his life back on track at thirty-three—he just needs the money to find a new gallery. 

When Adrian’s roommate lists him on a thinly veiled escort site, Caroline is not the patron he expected. She’s way too young, way too naive, and loudly uninterested in having sex with him. Instead, they’re both going to get exactly what they want: a little culture on her side, and a lot of cash on his. Aside from their sugar baby arrangement, they’ve got nothing in common. But as they reel from the symphony to the Haymarket, they learn that what they want and what they need might be two very different things."

Read Date - July 2024

Length - 384 pages

Genre - Romance, Chick Lit, New Adult

Rating - 8/10

Stars - ★★★★☆

Notes - The concept of Adrien becoming a sugar baby is SO INTERESTING because you usually only hear about it from the women's perspective. Swapping the gender roles here is beautifully done and I adore it. Obviously I haven’t gotten too far in the book yet, but I feel like Caroline is so Autistic Coded like that girl is ME. I don’t care if it’s not canon, this is an autistic girlie pop. I think Tom and Adrien’s friendship is cute, and the way they look out for each other is nice. I love how Caroline is clueless, and honestly is just really good autistic representation in my (autistic) opinion. Like, the sushi scene specifically was such a cute example of autism that doesn’t include meltdowns, and I loved how they talked about all the different colors and textures of the sushi were described, and the way she’s physically unable to finish the sushi. I like that Adrien keeps trying to get Caroline to go out and interact more in the world with people that aren’t just him and Tom. Caroline and Adrien together are such a cute and hot duo, i genuinely can’t get enough of them. The hatred that her family brings is an interesting dynamic, because not a lot of people talk about the resentment and ableist thrown around so carelessly. The spice in this book is so well played out and I’ve never liked it more. And in chapter 12, Tom mentions that he believes that Caroline is neurodivergent. GIRL ME TOO!!! I THINK THAT SHIT TOO!! THATS MY AUTISTIC QUEEN!! and my LORD was the representation FANTASTIC!! Sometimes, the best part of coding a character as autistic instead of writing them as autistic is that you arent confined to certail social pressures that are expected when writing an autistic character. You’re able to write them more realistic as a result of coding them, and i think its perfect here. Adrien’s friends being piece of shit assholes actually makes sense when you consider the fact that Adrien himself used to be a snob. They’re also upset over the break up, which doesn’t justify anything but makes it make sense. Their first kiss was so passionate and it make my stomach do little flips like hello!!! The declaration of love was also so sweet. He supports her during the ‘othering’ of the people which was a realistic thing to talk about. Again, the spice and smut in this book is so well done, and i loved every moment. It was so sensual and sweet and delicious. I think it’s even better knowing Caroline is meant to be a neurodivergent person, because it shows that even we can have sex lives and be active. The drama that happens in this book is also so good, and as someone who just enjoys drama, it was also perfect. The conversation with Caroline’s family was tense as fuck and hard to listen to when they’re sitting there verbally harassing her for her money. Adrien trying to sell his portraits as a struggling artist is interesting to hear, with Adriens love of Caroline being intertwined with it. The “big bad” of Adrien viewing their relationship as a bad thing was another realistic plot point, and i generally adore their relationship. The choice of moving in together is very sweet and it’s amazing. They deserve each other and it’s been awhile since I’ve felt this way about a book. I think it was perfect and i recommend it to everyone, and i think it’s perfect representation without even outwardly saying it. This was a really really good book. 

[the-firebird69]

We have a brewery it's already made we have our own f They had too much beer to makevats and we're making a beer for other brew houses. These vents are gigantic and they go together they're about 400 foot tall and it's what we're talking about and we have the big huge 1.5 billion square foot brew houses that we activated before it's not too long of a trip and we put it on a boat and it doesn't get shaken up too much and you can actually put the you can put the carbon dioxide in later because we're sending in big huge tanks otherwise it doesn't make sense if you sent in beer cans it gets shaken up too much so we have to do it that way so we have to work on your end of it you need to make a sanitary facility to receive in Canon bottle it and that has to be done pretty soon so it's gonna have to be a meeting and it can be in the south at first and you have a one of those weird cities now this is like 5 there so and Jason is saying he's got a city there and Brad has one separate and BJA and Trump too so it's a good start and we just roll down the river. And it would be a lot of beer it's a whole bunch of beer.

- Another thing going on Biden is saying maybe he will step down from the race he's taken a beating his grandson says you can help with projects he'll be funding get me to the rain lanning and he's doing it anyway it's been humans to make it happen but he says he can't do it up there and there's too many people at him they want his job is taking a brutal beating and it isn't fair he's too small so it's his decision his grandson says and he does another facts if you and she are taking a beating it's something to think about but it's also something to think about whether it has a wild card ruler you would lose support from big groups and take a massive beating. So he's gonna think about it also to contemplate foreigners are coming in and Europe is his support and he's never had support like that before it will be increasing rapidly and it's never done that before and the max are the ones who installed him and want foreigners to come in so he's seeing that and he hears it and he says what position would I have outside the presidency I wouldn't have a job for others for the most part unless I ran another country but so he's thinking about it and doesn't think that he'll drop out. The same. He is locked in and our son says I'm in a similar situation. Just not in the public eye.

- We're gonna get this done and we're going to get it done very soon. These vets make a lot of beer it's one that a day and it's about 700,000 beers but we need a lot of beer and a lot of hops and barley and we make it and we've got a crop coming out and it would be perfect timing the whole south would be floating in beer and we can make other brew houses but we'd rather make our own and get famous for it and this is a wonderful beer that we would make it's really nice it's not rich in hops or bodily but it is rich in nutrients and low sugar and esters doesn't have any bleach and it has good preservatives and they're all listed. A decent amount of alcohol it does help preserve it and these days you need it. There are people rushing around to try & on to the board and they have cities down south and they want to supply them the special deal is we sold it cheap out there and we did have our own brand. but this brand would be inexpensive by the time just a consumer would be less than natural light beer about a dollar or less a case of 12 or 24 would be about $2 less. So people like it they say that's amazing and now that's a lot of beer for a lot of us money we do need you to can it LOL seriously you gotta shut up he says this will help it's like a pacifier or milk bottle. Depending on who's doing it. That is. Drinking. they have the equipment they have the facilities they have to start them up it's in their areas and we're making a batch now we do have some of it made we're making a little bit of it because of the local community we have a brand out there and they know about it they say we should keep the brand and we probably agree so we can send that out tonight and they want to do it there's only one plan to open it's like 5 vats and everybody in town knows about it and they want to be famous and they want to be part of the company and have some controlling shares. And so we'll have a company meeting tomorrow and that's what they wanted to hear and our son didn't know. They wanna have business and they're really **** **** now they're gonna have huge amounts of business tons of tons of it and a lot of money and they'll be buying stuff lots of it. Bobby castles and they say yeah probably castles. We are going to send for them and we will meet at the plant and they work there everyday and we'll tell them he says don't just send a thing for a meeting people are answering jumpy say that it is for growth and for stuff like that. So we're going ahead and we're going to do that now. And the others want to be chair people they know who they are and as they're already part of the company but we'd like it to be that branch it's a particular brew that's why and it is nice and it does not have anything but what we said so we're going forwards with it now.

Thor Freya

I'm a little nervous for you and you for me and it should be that way and you're telling people what you can do which is great we're tired of what's going on and we know that they understand we're helping that plant. It's gigantic and there's others around too and they have their own brew I know but we only have a couple that's what they said it is true and we are the ones who came up with it well that's not true so they might change the recipe but those people are going to stay on and we can brew their beer and that's not a big deal a few vats won't make a difference.

Hera so we stick to our name of it

We do hear that and we accept.

Olympus

we see it we do this new beer for all. the others cn grow thier brand and own it too. we see

jason

we like this and can do it. tell them and so on sell it and we use more of the plant and he says we build more and ok. hahah lol can do it yes

beer workers and midwest and half cork and haflf trump and we say it lol that way

Olympus

[daniella100]

The long weekend is here! Uhuuuuuu. Uhuuuuu. Uhuuuuu.

I’m about to take off, take off real good, a last minute deal on Memorial Day Weekend to make memories more memorable . A great last minute deal I got, after a day in which water flooded from Heaven and only the good Lord knew where it was coming from. At work, close to our 1/2 million dollar equipment. It took us 12 hours to get it fixed, 6 to figure where it was coming from.

And all is well as Shakespeare wrote, all is well when it ends well.

The dating season is upon me, I hope to find cute interesting prospects at my last minute fantastic deal locale.

Voting season is upon us too. I’ll watch the Presidential debates as closely as I have been watching the NBA playoffs. I agree with Trump that he should demand a drug test for Biden. The man is a zombie. He not should have never be at the position he’s now. He’s an embarrassment to this country. Even if you vote for him, you gotta admit. he’s not fit in any shape or form to the task. If you are like most of the people that voted for Biden because it was either him or Trump, you can vote for Robert Kennedy Junior, the candidate the Democrats did not allow to run. BobK Junior is not a zombie nor a moron and I really like what he says about Big Pharma, addiction, Ukraine and NATO.

[amazing-spiderling]

So for the two ask games: 3,12, 17, 21, 36, 49 for murderdock and 4, 9, 13, 23, 27, 31, 35, 44 for Gwen, then 🧭, ♻️, 🤔, ❤️!

I think I already answered all of those WIP asks (and honestly, I don't have that many going at a time) so I'll answer the character asks!

MURDERDOCK:

3. Obscure headcanon

The Hand tried to diversify their portfolio by breaking into the entertainment industry, starting in Japan with musical groups. Matt had a short-lived stint as a solo artist but the project was eventually scrapped. He still misses it sometimes. Nobody knows about this until Foggy finds a beat up CD case in used music store one day and spends a full minute gawking at the familiar brooding face on the cover.

12. Crack headcanon

I just think it would be funny if he was a vegetarian. I don't even know that I consider this a headcanon, it would just be funny if the guy going around murdering people with his sword cane ate a lot of tofu.

17. Quotes, songs, poems, etc. that I associate with them

I've made a few playlists over the years, but a song I haven't had a chance to put on one yet is "Promiseland" by Mika

21. Drink of choice (not just alcoholic)

Robbi Rodriguez has art of him with a martini glass on his IG and I decided it was an appletini not because he likes the flavor but because he's committed to the bit. In the privacy of his own home, I see him as an unsweetened hot green tea kind of guy

36. Their favorite season

Winter. There's less people around, the snow helps muffle the sound and things smell less when they're cold.

49. Favorite toy as a child

Gwen Stacy (65 I presume)

4. Favorite line

"But if the only way I can help is with my fists -- then I've already lost. I have to try a different way. I have to know I tried."

9. Scene that first made me love (or hate) the character

I read Spider-Verse before it was cool (JKJK I mean before the first movie because I was deep in my Spider-Man era) and there's a part in the story where a lot of the main Spider-People split up into pairs to go and visit other universes to recruit more heroes/ ward off the Inheritors etc. Gwen ends up in a world where Peter Parker has become the Goblin, going down a path not too dissimilar from her own Peter's. This Peter also ends up dying in her arms, but she shows a great deal of compassion and understanding towards him and I think that was the moment that really made me want to check out her series. (Which had been written at the time I read that comic, but didn't exist when it had been written, which I think speaks to how good of a job that one scene did at developing a character who had literally just been invented.)

13. Dumbest thing they’ve ever done

Not dumbest in that it was a conscious decision she made, but her complete misreading of the emotions of her friends (Peter's obvious crush on her, MJ's annoyance at Gwen's missing Peter's crush on her, MJ's jealousy and motivation for creating the band in general) sort of stretches the limit of general obliviousness, especially since she CAN read people when she's trying to.

23. If they were a scented candle, what would they smell like?

Backstage sweat and like... raspberry body spray from the drugstore

27. Their guilty pleasure

I'm low-key obsessed with Dollar Dog and I love that for Gwen. I wouldn't say she felt guilty about it before it became a hipster nightclub but she sure does now. I hope it fell out of fashion and Mr. Alby got to run it again.

31. If the had a tumblr what would it look like?

She stayed up late one night picking out some cool colors, hot pink, purple, something very chillwave, and like a very heavily filtered landscape photo of the city to go at the top- she posted semi-regularly for a month and a half and then forgot about it.

35. Their idea of a perfect day

She gets to sleep through most of it, but wakes up and finds out that her dad has invited her over for brunch and she's got time to make it and pick up juice on the way.

44. Their happiest memory

Probably something like a middle school holiday spent with her parents and the Parker family. Before things got complicated. She understands now that the roots of her larger problems were always there, but she can appreciate the comfort her innocence afforded her back then.

[muchadoaboutnot]

First interaction, let's go!

"How much will you give me if I tell ya?"

"I've got... A hundred on me."

"Deal."

It's simple. If you see a guy acting suspiciously at three in the morning, especially in Gotham, you leave them alone. Unless of course you yourself can be considered up to no good. Which, she really isn't, Mina is actually doing her job. Somewhat.

Said woman pulls out a crumpled hundred dollar bill, passing it to the rough-looking individual before her. Already she knows he profiled her, sized her up, most likely thinking to mug her for all she has. Except she knows well enough to flash her concealable, the shoulder holster snuggled against her body and underneath her beat-up jacket. It's enough to stave him off. Clearly, he just wants to keep things simple in what he's doing, nothing more, as he takes the money and tosses her an illuminated green question mark object.

"Won't your boss be mad?"

"He's not my boss, just some guy that paid me to set this up right over there. But who cares, I got paid from you AND that guy now. See ya."

Mina watches him walk off, leaving her alone in the stillness of the autumn night, or early morning however you wanted to look at it. And when she knows she's alone and safe for the time being, she looks down at the object in her hand. It's mechanical in nature, however, the neon part of the question mark illuminates beautifully in the darkness. It's well crafted. And It's a trophy. One that belongs to The Riddler. Something she should not be messing around with, yet out of sheer coincidence she had happened upon the man setting up a trophy for The Riddler.

"Gotcha."

Mina was only a private investigator, she didn't work for the GCPD, and didn't take things on other than missing people's and cheating cases. Those sorts of things. Nothing like this. Nothing that ever had to do with the hardcore villains out there, or bad guys, or weirdos. Whatever you wanted to call them. But curiosity and just the thought of interrupting whatever plan that man had for this trophy was too good to pass up. Either way, she flicked the switch on the trophy, turning the light off, before gripping it and walking forwards towards what looked like a half-set-up puzzle.

The area the man had pointed out where he was supposed to set it up was in a secluded corner. Off the side of the bridge and close to the sewer lines here in the park, the area she was originally there to look for clues on her case. Missing person. Apparent suicide the GCPD had left it unsolved, her clients however were adamant about knowing what happened to their family member.

Mina's reputation preceded her, she was known to find people even after a case had been closed for years. Something she felt pride in. And this was another one she'd like to solve, however, at the prospect of playing games with a certain man of puzzles... She decided danger wouldn't be all that bad. Maybe something was wrong with the connections in her brain, or maybe she felt as long as he never knew who it was. She could do as she pleased, right?

A buzz nearby had alerted her to a tossed-off flip phone, something the man from earlier had thrown away. Leaving the half-set-up puzzle, her boots crunched a few fallen leaves in the grass as she left the sidewalk to pick up the device. It was the type of flip phone you bought at a corner store, or the free ones government officials would give to low-income persons. Upon opening the phone a series of text messages notification were blaring up at her from an unnamed number. [Text: 3:12 AM] Did you place it? [Text: 3:12 AM] ? [Text: 3:12 AM] ??? [Text: 3:12 AM] ?

[Text: 3:13 AM] I'm waiting.

[Text: 3:15 AM] If you think you can steal from me you'll soon find out what happens.

[Text: 3:16 AM] Therefore activate the puzzle already! The texts were laughable to her, all they did was show her the man behind them; The Riddler, was a huge child. Impatient. Spoiled.

But... She made quick work of texting back.

[Outgoing Text: 3:18 AM] No.

[Text: 3:18 AM] No what? No, you didn't set up the simple puzzle with my simple instructions? No? What is no?

[Outgoing Text: 3:19 AM] No. I didn't set it up.

[Text: 3:19 AM] Is this some sort of sick joke? Set. It. Up. I paid you for a reason because I thought you could follow a set of instructions a five-year-old could understand. But as it seems I was incorrect.

Snorting, the woman flipped the phone closed and looked around the area. In a stroke of genius, or really, just an idea to be difficult. Mina picked up a pine cone from the ground, turning on her heels she headed back to the half-laid challenge. Setting down the pine cone in the middle of the sorta dangerous-looking mechanism, before using her booted toe to gently push on one side of it to set it. It sprung up around the pinecone and activated the actual puzzle a few feet away. One that Batman was supposed to solve no doubt. And she only knew that from snooping on the GCPD and their radio comms.

Immediately the burner phone buzzed in her hand.

[Text: 3:25 AM] Good. It shows online. I don't need you any longer, toss the phone and I'll remember you. Incompetent. Not someone who can attend to a simple task.

Holding up the phone, Mina snapped a picture of the pinecone where the trophy should have been. Sending it to the unknown number who was obviously The Riddler.

[Text: 3:26 AM] No! [Text: 3:26 AM] No! [Text: 3:26 AM] No! [Text: 3:26 AM] No! What did you do!? Why did you do that!? What kind of moron does this?? Do you know who I am? I will find you!

[Outgoing Text: 3:26 AM] lol

Flipping the phone closed again, she felt the heavy buzz of it in rapid-fire successions. He was texting back a storm but she could care less. Instead, she walked over to the side of the bridge and threw the phone into the dark water below. She did however give a good look over the Riddler trophy in her hand, turning it around, now she knew she'd have to open it up to make sure there wasn't any sort of signal device inside of it. Because she was defiantly going to keep it. A nice knick-knack for her shelves at.

Now, however, as much as she'd like to look around for her own clues on her own case. Mina knew she'd have to flee for now since obviously puzzle man was down a trophy and would have to replace it.

Walking off, Mina had no idea what she had started.

[mionemymind]

Chapter 3: The Harsh Treatment

Fake Memories

Series Summary: After Y/n is caught cheating on Wanda with Carol, Y/n would do just about anything to get Wanda back into her life. But was it even Y/n’s fault that she cheated? Or was it the new enemy set on revenge?

Chapter Summary: What will happen to Y/n as the team pushes her past her limits? 

A/n: I lied, I decided to be nice and post it now. Honestly, the amount of support that I’m receiving from this fanfic has literally made me smile so much. I really love all of you who read and/or comment. You mean the world to me. Let me know what you think. :) (Not my GIF)

Warnings: Starvation, harmful thoughts, curse words, self-doubt, mentions of blood, injuries, angst

Word Count: 5k

Masterlist

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 |

Y/n abruptly woke up at the feeling of pressurized gas coursing through her body. She quickly sat up, unable to see anything in the white fog. The cold feeling only lasted a couple seconds before F.R.I.D.A.Y stated, “Fire has been contained.” Y/n hugged herself for warmth as she waited for the fog to disappear. This was the 13th time this month that she was woken up with pressurized gas. At first, it was foam but someone in maintenance had changed the system after the 5th time she woke up. 

Y/n looked at her surroundings and sighed at the damages to her sheets. There were burn marks along with small amounts of frostbite from the gas. “At this rate, I won’t have money for food.” With a grim face, Y/n got up from her bed and proceeded with taking everything off her bed, a routine she unfortunately started to learn. 

Y/n didn’t know when things got worse. If she had to guess, maybe it was after the whole fiasco with Wanda. The team had been on edge ever since then. “They probably thought I hurt her,” Y/n thought at the time, but it was far from the truth. She had wanted to explain herself to the team but dismissed those thoughts with, “What’s the point in trying? I’ll always be guilty to them.” 

As for Wanda, the still heartbroken girl didn’t dare to speak to the team about that night. Even she didn’t quite know what happened. Since that night, she only lied to herself stating that maybe Y/n had done something. It would probably remove the guilt she had when she thought of the blood running down Y/n’s face. But even the lie couldn’t repress the truth from her thoughts. 

After she collected her bedding, she threw it away in the trash can along with the other damaged beddings. Y/n grabbed her wallet off her night stand and opened it. She couldn’t feel it, but her heart dropped at the sight of the lack of money she had. Only a $20 dollar bill as well as a couple ones were left. She closed her eyes and tried her best to keep herself calm, to try and act like the world wasn’t closing in on her. It was a couple minutes later when she opened her eyes and looked at her wallet again. “This was supposed to last me for the rest of the month.” Y/n rubbed her forehead, feeling the overwhelming stress from her lack of funds. 

One might ask, “Aren’t you an Avenger? Shouldn’t you make a shit ton of money.” And at one point, Y/n would say yes, she did. But it all came back to that night. A week after, she had overheard a conversation that went…

“I just don’t understand why you’re doing this to her.” Y/n was about to go around the corner, but decided to wait at the sound of Steve’s voice. “It’s simple Rodgers - unless I have to remind you why we needed to redo the glass in the conference room.” Steve sighed at Tony’s simple minded actions. Y/n could practically feel him crossing his arms in a disapproving manner. 

“Well she did work fair and hard for her money Tony - this just feels wrong.” Y/n heard a couple clicks before Tony replied with, “This is for Wanda. Anything to get Y/n out of here by her own means is worth it. If you have a problem with this, you must not care as much for Wanda as I thought.” Steve sighed again seeing as he was morally put in an awkward position. It was either care for Y/n or care for Wanda. “That’s what I thought.” Tony left with a smug look on his face as he clicked more on the screen in front of him. 

It didn’t take long for Y/n to see the effects of Tony’s decision. Her pay day was the following day and the overwhelming sense of panic and anxiety rose up within her as she only had $400 to survive until the next pay day, which was a month later. Since then, her food portions have been small to say the least. Y/n learned that she only had enough money for the month to eat at least once a day and even that was cutting it. The dramatic changes to her diet had slowly affected her powers but it recently had an exponential increase. 

This was her fourth month of hardly eating when her powers started to flare at night. It has gotten to the point that Y/n couldn’t control them in her sleep leading to F.R.I.D.A.Y having to deal with her fireside. But her powers weren’t the only thing that has changed. If anyone were to actually look, they would see that Y/n had gotten skinnier. Her literal glow was getting duller and duller the more time passed.  

However, Y/n refused to feel sorry for herself. The sentence “I deserve this” was burned into her head. The brain tricks she puts herself through even allowed her to convince that Tony's decision was right. That Wanda didn’t need to tell the truth to the team. That Steve didn’t need to defend her. And that the team certainly was allowed to make her feel like nothing. Because to Y/n, if she didn’t deserve this, then why would you possibly treat a person like this? Just why? 

Of course, Wanda didn’t notice these changes at all. The girl was trying her best to avoid Y/n as much as possible. She always had exit strategies in place in case she were to be in the same vicinity as Y/n. However, Wanda also didn’t notice that lack of Y/n’s presence. Much to her dismay, Y/n’s efforts were the reason they didn’t see each other much. 

What Wanda did notice though was the slow and gradual decline of snacks in her cubby. It left her to question whether Natasha was done doing these small favors for her. But her reports were still getting done. 

The red head didn’t have much room to think though as she got slammed down on the mat from the other red head. “Take a ten - you’re distracted and we can’t keep going like this.” Wanda grumbled at another failed attempt to flip Natasha over. Hand to hand combat was one of the few subjects that Wanda hated the most. With the help of Natasha, Wanda got up and walked over to the waters on the other side of the room. She was gulping down the remaining when Natasha’s words caught her off guard. “What happened?” 

Wanda cocked an eyebrow while still drinking her bottle, needing more elaboration. Natasha faced Wanda while hundreds of thoughts racked her mind. Luckily for her, Wanda had trained her on how to make them quiet enough that Wanda wouldn’t be able to hear. When Natasha found the right words, she said, “I am not doubting you. I am doubting her…” Wanda closed the bottle and looked around the room to avoid Natasha’s eyes. This had been the first time that anyone from the team had remotely even asked her about that night. To be frank, she hadn’t expected Natasha to be the one to break the ice. Usually it was Steve that would act like the team’s counselor. Guess things change. 

Wanda sighed and recollected her memory for the night that continued to haunt her. “One minute, I left to get a drink from the bar. - she said that she needed to go to the bathroom. The next minute, I come back to see her all over blondie.” Wanda’s grip on the bottle tightened at the words she was going to say next. “I thought it was a mistake - that she could have been too drunk that night - b-but her thoughts were so - loud.” Wanda slammed her fist at the table in front of her, tears already falling down her cheeks. “A-a-and I saw everything-” 

The broken hearted girl didn’t have much energy left in her to continue. She dropped to her knees and sobbed into her hands. Natasha kneeled beside Wanda. She pulled the poor girl into her arms, trying her best to physically comfort her. But nothing could really make Wanda feel better. What could you say to a girl that saw every moment where her girlfriend has cheated on her? Nothing - you say nothing. 

“It’s quite pathetic actually,” Tony said as he spun the rod, causing his player to score in foosball. He was currently versing Steve as the two decided to quietly speak about Y/n’s actions for the past couple weeks. Going on the defense again, Steve shot back but Tony was quick to block. “She’s probably just trying to get her money back.” Steve huffed from the sudden slap shot as well as Tony’s rude words. 

For the past couple weeks, Y/n had gone from trying to win Wanda back to trying to win the whole team back. The first thing they noticed was all the completed mission reports and the continuation of it. Clint was the first to jokingly comment, “Bruce must really love mission reports.” But the genius bore a confused look before replying with, “It wasn’t me. Even I haven’t had anything to do in my stack for a couple days.” Bruce had a displeasured look on his face. Clint just assumed it was either he wanted to do his stack of reports or the comment was actually true...or maybe both. 

When it was time for the meeting, Clint had asked everyone in the room, minus Y/n, on who was completing the mission reports for everyone. “Well, I’m doing Wanda’s and mine,” Natasha claimed as she sat in her usual spot. No one was able to detect her lie, but then again, Natasha was always good at lying. 

Clint was quick to figure out that the only person remaining must have been the person responsible. With a straight forward voice, he explained to the team that Y/n had been completing everyones, besides Wanda’s and Natasha’s, reports. Still, Natasha sat there, copying the confused looks on everyone’s faces. She didn’t care to tell them the truth, it wasn’t worth it. However, the meeting proceeded with little comment on Y/n’s actions. She wasn’t worth the mention. 

“What if she actually is trying to say sorry to us?” Steve couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty for Y/n, but Tony’s words made the guilt go all away. “Oh - so miss Hydra over here actually wants to apologize - hilarious Steve.” With that, Tony quickly spun the rod and scored the final point, making him win the game. What the two failed to realize was the fact that Y/n had overheard their conversation. She no longer felt hungry for the day and had retreated back to her room, feeling overwhelmingly numb from the confession she heard.

It was a new and different day for Wanda. She had managed to want to try and sit in the common room with her team seeing as sitting in her room no longer gave her the same satisfaction anymore. Scrolling through the tv, she was about to pull up Bewitched when the following words appeared on the screen:

Bewitched is longer provided on Netflix. Please see related tv shows. 

“What do you mean it’s no longer available?” Wanda frustratedly questioned. And here she was trying to have a good day. “Sorry kid, I guess Netflix took it off their streaming service,” Clint said as he leaned over the couch. “No why would they do that?!” Wanda said with an exasperated look. Clint simply shrugged, Netflix did have an awful reputation for getting favorites removed or canceled. “No clue, but you could try other shows.” Wanda crossed her arms and huffed at his suggestion. “I was really feeling Bewitched today.” Ruffling her hair, Clint left after saying, “Try to feel for something else.” 

However, Wanda had failed to feel anything but angry for the remaining of the day. It wasn’t until she sat in her room for the night, aimlessly finding shows in her room when she noticed Bewitched on her home screen. She quickly clicked on it noticing that all eight seasons are there for her own viewing. Her mood immensely increased for the night as she fell asleep in the middle of season two. 

Outside of her room, Y/n had been cleaning up the compound for the night. It was getting harder and harder to clean the kitchen when everything in her wanted to just take a couple of snacks for herself. Her hunger was constantly on her mind as well as the stupid flashes that have sporadically appeared more and more everyday. But she wanted more than anything to prove to the team that she is a good person. Stealing, no matter how minor, was probably the last thing she needed to be labeled as. 

When she completed for the night, she returned to her room but paused outside of her door when she heard the Bewitched theme song loudly play in Wanda’s room. A small smile appeared on her face as she walked back into her room and slept on the floor tonight.

“Did it ever occur to you that I love you - like a lot?” The couple were laying in Carol’s room decorated with punk rock posters and pictures of their team. Small plants were placed around the room while Malcolm in the Middle was used as background noise. 

“Nah. I haven’t heard you say it in approximately - 10 minutes?” Carol laughed as Y/n glanced at her watch. They laid on their sides as they faced each other, their faces being only inches away. “Well I do.” Carol cupped Y/n’s cheek as she soon grew mesmerized. 

There are words to always describe feelings with someone but they all felt overused or incomplete. Because everything felt like this daydream colored borders with warm tones and retro filters as she glanced at Y/n. She felt like she was watching a show that she would never get tired of. Even if the show was in color or black and white, new or old, slow or fast, she would watch just to see her. Just her. 

“You do what?” Carol flicked Y/n’s forehead at her response. “Kidding - kidding.” Y/n said as she rubbed her forehead. Carol rolled her eyes and kissed Y/n’s head as she cuddled into her arms, legs tangled within the sheets. “I do love you.” Y/n kissed her hair as she combed it with her hand. “I know,” she whispered, hoping Carol would pick up on the secret reference. Because to Y/n, yeah, she’s worth a whole galaxy. 

It was the middle of the night when Steve woke up from a nightmare that shook him from his slumber. Rather than staying in bed to force himself to sleep, he got up and headed to the kitchen for a late night snack. 

Heading into the pantry, Steve pursed his lips noticing that Y/n’s cubby had been empty for weeks it seems like. The guilt that was slowly forming inside him kept building and building. Although he knew he could try to do something about it, the loyalty he had to his family - to Wanda. That was something he didn’t want to break. 

The relationship with Wanda and Steve was something similar to a father and daughter relationship. Steve had always wanted a kid of his own and Wanda had lost her father. The irony of it all just happened to work for the two. Even though Wanda nor Steve would admit it out loud, they viewed each other as the roles that needed to be filled in their lives. They needed each other regardless of titles.

But then there was Y/n. The troubled girl that made Steve absolutely nervous with how quick her and Wanda seemed to like each other. It absolutely didn’t help Steve’s case when the whole team found out about Y/n’s past. His anxiety had practically skyrocketed. It eventually led to a one on one talk with Wanda about how sometimes we need to protect ourselves before letting people in. 

But Y/n was still there. Breaking down Wanda’s walls. So just like any Dad would, Steve watched over. Making sure his girl was always happy and safe. So while Natasha may have refilled Wanda’ cubby and did her reports, Steve had carried Wanda to bed during nights she couldn’t sleep. He made her tea for times that she didn’t want to talk, which was often. He tucked her in at night and cuddled with her when she needed a shoulder to cry on. He was just there. 

But so was she. She was there whenever Wanda cried at night. She was there when Wanda would sometimes forget to eat after busying herself all day. She was there to take care of Wanda. She was there when Steve wasn’t. And that meant everything to Steve. So why couldn’t Steve be there for Y/n? 

There were a lot of unanswered questions roaming around Steve’s head. Rather than pondering more about them, he walked around the tower, eating a pack of cookies for himself. Just as he was turning the corner, he glanced towards the conference room to see Wanda asleep in front of her reports. However, the more alarming part was the girl that happened to be right in front of Wanda. Steve quickly grew on high alert and observed Y/n’s actions. However, after a couple minutes of harmless actions, Steve forced his shoulders to relax. “She’s just doing reports - calm down,” Steve thought. 

But he couldn’t calm down. The guilt had maneuvered it’s way back up to his throat as he actually noticed the pale state of the once bright girl. For someone that had literal fire abilities, she lacked the glow of any raging fire. Feeling nothing but guilt all over, Steve felt compelled to say something - anything. But he froze. He didn’t know what to say. 

However, the opportunity soon was lost as Y/n finished everyone’s stack of reports. Steve hid around the corner as Y/n passed him. Hearing a door close was when Steve stepped out of hiding. He glanced towards the direction of Y/n’s room, feeling every need to go to her. But his footsteps led him to Wanda. He picked her up and carried her to her room. Wanda will always be first in Steve’s heart. And nothing could change that. 

“We have to stop this treatment Tony.” Steve waltzed into Tony’s lab the very next day. For once, he couldn’t sleep for the remainder of the night. Y/n was all over his mind. The guilt was practically eating him alive. 

Tony rolled his eyes at Steve’s dramatic fashion for entrances. “Oh - good morning Tony - how are you - I’m actually pretty good.” Steve rolled his eyes as he stood in front of Tony, a hologram in between the two. 

“Cut the crap Tony - I’m being serious.” Steve crossed his arms. This needed to end. “And you think I’m not Rodgers?” Tony was quick to respond, already growing irritated by the conversation. 

“This isn’t right - none of this right.” Steve wiped the hologram to finally get a clear view of Tony as he grew frustrated by the second. Tony simply swiped it back, not wanting to deal with the issue. “Well maybe if she just quit - we wouldn’t need to worry about anything. It’s not my fault Fury hired Ms. Hydra - and if he finds out I fired her, he would not allow it at all.” 

“But can’t you see that your stupid plan isn’t working? All we’re doing is abusing the girl.” Steve wiped the hologram again but Tony simply walked to a different station and continued his work. Angry with his response, Steve walked around the table and stood beside Tony. 

“This needs to end Tony,” Steve said through his gritted teeth. The man was clenching his jaw so hard, it almost looked as if he was going to break his teeth. However, Tony quickly glared at Steve at the mention of his threat. 

“Don’t you fucking dare. Can’t you actually see that I’m trying to protect Wanda.” Steve tilted his head at the awful reasoning for his actions. “How is this protecting Wanda? Why are you even trying to protect her?” 

Tony slammed his fist into the table, feeling his anger rising by the second. “We - no - I need to protect her Steve!”

“Why Tony? Why?” 

“Because I’m the goddamn reason her parents and her country is dead. I’m the reason that everything she ever loved is gone. I’m the reason for her sadness. She, of all people, deserves happiness. And I sure as hell won’t let anyone else hurt her anymore - no more Steve.” Tony didn’t give Steve a chance as he walked out the facility needing a day drink more than ever. 

It was lunch time and all Wanda could think about was the need to cook paprikash. She didn’t know when the last time she had actually cooked. And seeing as the majority of the team was on missions, she could actually cook without interruptions or lingering eyes. 

Walking into the kitchen, Wanda tied her hair up and started to take out the necessary ingredients for the meal. It was when she was talking the spices out when Vision had appeared out of nowhere, nearly scaring the girl. “Vision!” 

Sensing a slight rise in her heart rate and anger, Vision had quickly apologized. “Sorry Wanda.” Wanda shook her head and quickly resumed prepping. “I will try to work on making my presence known. If I may ask, what is it that you’re doing?” 

“I’m making paprikash.” Vision’s mind grew curious at the word and quickly searched his database for it. “I see. A traditional Sokovian food.” Wanda didn’t realize it, but she had felt a little annoyed at the synthezoid’s presence. It wasn’t anything he did, but Wanda desperately wanted alone time for herself. 

Before she could ask, Vision had said, “Good morning Y/n.” Wanda’s quickly grew wide as she avoided glancing in Y/n’s direction. She hadn’t stayed in the tense position though as Vision announced, “Oh - it seems she had left before saying hi back.” 

Feeling ever more frustrated with people’s presence, Wanda was about to ask him to leave but noticed the confusion written all over his face and didn’t hesitate to ask, “What is it Vision?” Vision pursed his lips and contemplated his words. It was visibly obvious to see that he was trying to wrack up what to say. “I think...it’s just…” He sighed knowing that this was going to be a sensitive subject to the witch but knowing everything she's been through, lying was not the best option. “It’s just that Y/n-” Wanda quickly cut Vision off in desperation to know what Y/n had done to Vision. If the girl were to even lay a finger on him, she was sure to deal with it herself.  “What did she do? Did she hurt you? I swear-” Seeing her eyes turn red, Vision immediately explained himself. “-No no no. It’s not that, the complete opposite actually.” Wanda’s eyes slowly turned back to normal. When Vision saw that her heart rate was close to normal, he continued. “It’s just that...Y/n’s vitals have been decreasing in a fluctuating matter. Some days it would be a small decrease, but some days it would be a big decrease. Overall, her health has been poor.” Vision looked back at where Y/n once stood. If he hadn’t quickly analyzed her, he wouldn’t have noticed that today’s vitals was record worst. “Although she does have physical injuries, she seems to continue to radiate pain throughout her body even when those injuries have healed. It starts through her head and it spreads like a radio wave through her nervous system. I’ve done my calculations and the leading cause could be migraines...” Vision soon was in deep thought, trying to recalculate just to make sure what he was about to say was correct. “...but it doesn’t make sense.” 

Wanda tilted her head. Processing this information was hard seeing as at her darkest moments, she wanted nothing but Y/n to be hurt. She deserved it for all the pain she caused her to go through. But hearing it now? That was a different story. It was like an internal conflict was going through her. Should she even care about Y/n’s health? “What doesn’t make sense?” Vision looked hard into Wanda’s eyes as he said, “Migraines shouldn’t cause her heart to stop multiple times.” 

Wanda stared at Vision, processing the information that the love of her life is practically dying. “A-are you sure?” Vision slowly nodded. “However, after some calculations, I do believe she will be okay. She only needs a good source of food for her healing regeneration to fully heal this.” Wanda relaxed at Vision’s words. Although she has been through immense pain through these past couple months, having Y/n gone from her life like that would hurt more than anything. 

Before Vision could continue his explanation, F.R.I.D.A.Y stated, “Emergency alert. All available Avengers please head to the quinjet per the request of Mr. Stark and Mr. Rogers.” Quickly, the two headed to the plane as the important part of Vision’s explanation was missed. Little did Wanda know, Y/n would not heal any time soon. 

The trio arrived on the quinjet and wasted no time trying to figure out the mission that was ahead of them. There was a serious feel in the atmosphere sensing that this had to be bad. There was no way that it couldn’t have been. Because if it wasn’t, they certainly wouldn’t have invited Y/n to this mission. 

Lately, the girl has been assigned to only solo missions. Y/n couldn’t quite remember the last time that she was on a mission with any team member nevermind the fact with the whole team. 

“Backup is needed immediately after touch down. Vision and Wanda, meet up with Steve and Sam at the Northeast corridor. Y/n, you are assigned to the entrance,” Tony stated through the intercom. 

The feeling in Y/n’s stomach worsened. Not only was she hungry and sleep deprived, she didn’t also have a partner with her. It also didn’t help the fact that the flashes have gotten worse. Y/n couldn’t help but pray for a miracle. After all, they were dealing with the very people Y/n hated - Hydra. 

Y/n couldn’t quite tell when things on the mission got to shit. Maybe it was the fact that as soon as they touched down and went to their assigned positions, Y/n received a massive swarm of Hydra agents. It didn’t help that her health regeneration was not at its peak or these agents actually were decently trained. Or was it during the third wave, that was currently happening, where Y/n tested the limits of her body. 

Seeing the onslaught of agents coming her way, Y/n decided it was time to test out her new ability. She rapidly swung her right arm, building momentum as the fire within her right side blazed. As soon as the enemies were close, she released a fire tornado in their path. It had managed to take out at least half of the wave, but more and more kept coming. 

Pressing her comms, Y/n said, “Can someone send back up my way?! There’s too many for me to handle.” Y/n kicked back the agent that was about to stab her in the back, but was too distracted to the point a different agent was able to cut her leg. “Fuck.” 

Y/n quickly released an ice wall that at first glance, appeared to be the same height as the Great Wall of China. She hoped the barrier would give her enough time for her backup to appear. Focusing all her energy on her fireside, Y/n aimed at any agent near her, using her arm as a flamethrower. 

However, worry immediately grew when no one had responded to her call within a couple minutes. Before she could request again, Nat had spoken bitterly in the comms, “On my way.” Sighing in relief, Y/n continued to fight off the agents the best she could. 

But no matter how hard she tried to buy herself time, it seemed that Natasha was taking forever to come. It had gotten to the point that multiple lashes already appeared. Her healing regeneration couldn’t keep up at all. Not only that, but her body was either giving up from exhaustion or blood loss. It was only during the last couple agents when Natasha had shown up and quickly killed the remainder. 

Y/n glanced at the assassin and noticed the lack of any injuries on her and it was as if she barely broke a sweat. “What happened? I almost got killed.” 

Natasha glared at Y/n as she responded with, “I helped Bucky and Rhodey on the way, they needed it.” Y/n swallowed the lump in her throat knowing the redhead in front of her had practically lied. If backup was needed, it was always voiced through comms. 

Even if Y/n had wanted to confront Natasha about it, she couldn’t. Natasha had already left to head to the quinjet. Y/n simply limped a couple feet from her. When Y/n arrived, it seemed that everyone else was already prepared for take off. Feeling ever more guilty, Y/n simply sat at the closet seat to the entrance that was away from the team. But something inside her broke even more noticing the lack of any questions or concerns from the team in regards to her injuries. 

Not even bothering to buckle up, Y/n sulked in her thoughts when she realized, “Why doesn’t anyone care about me?” 

Tag List: @halobaby​ @arelyitsherec8​ @blackxwidowsxwife​ @cristin-rjd​ @madamevirgo​ @trikruismybitch​ @paradiselost916​ @mmmmokdok​ @morbid-gaymer​ @dailyavengering​ @itsnottilly​ @helloalycia​ @randomshyperson​ @tomy5girls​ @daenerys713​ @ensorcellme​ @lezzzbehonesthere​ @imagine-reblog​ @sighsam​ 

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

If I Fell For You (Part 12) - Not So Sweet Home

Summary: Jensen is fed up with his parents ignoring Y/N all day and when he gets a moment alone, blows up on them like never before. The reader sees how upset Jensen is over what’s happening and does her best to defend him while still trying to salvage a relationship with them...

Masterlist

Pairing: Jensen x nanny!reader

Word Count: 6,200ish

Warnings: language, major family angst, mention of a dead parent

A/N: Eek! If you like angst this part is for you! Please enjoy and let me know what you think!

________

It was late, the kids asleep in the guest bedroom, Jensen’s siblings and their families gone home for the evening aside from his brother. He made some half ass excuse about wanting to hang out with Jensen more but you knew he could sense what you did. Jensen was getting close to popping after a whole day of politeness on his part and his parents ignoring you on theirs.

Jensen was bouncing his knee like crazy as he sipped on his beer around a gas fire pit, suddenly stopping when you shifted in your seat.

“Maybe you ought to cool it with the alcohol tonight,” said his dad. Jensen set his empty bottle down on the grass and breathed deeply through his nose. “Your legs been-”

“Y/N, would you get me another beer please?” asked Jensen. You took the opportunity to get out of there, surprised when the back door opened quickly after you, his brother closing it behind him.

“I don’t think your parents like me very much,” you said, going to the fridge and pulling out a drink. 

“I know,” he said, glancing out the dark window. “Jensen asked me to make sure you don’t come back out there.”

“He’s gonna go off on them.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m guessing,” he said with a sigh. “I have a feeling this isn’t going to go well. You guys can crash at my place if you want. We don’t have a guest room but we have an air mattress we can put in the family room.”

“You think it’ll be that bad?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

“Then why are we in here talking about this when we should be out there making sure he doesn’t say something he regrets in the morning.”

“You might hear things you can’t unhear,” he said. 

“Right now my concern isn’t if my feelings get hurt. He’s really upset and I need him to be okay.”

“You know that’s why the rest of us like you, don’t you? You care about him, the kids. You’re in love with him.”

“Yes I am,” you said as he nodded.

“You call me if either of you ever need anything,” he said, going back to the door. You nodded and took a deep breath, following him outside and already hearing raised voices.

“She’s half your age, Jensen,” said his mom. “She was your nanny. Sweetie you have to know what’s going on here.”

“You’re getting played,” said his father, catching you walking out with Josh.

“She is not half my age. She’s thirty fucking years old! She’s a goddamn adult and been through more shit then both of you put together! She’s not after fucking money,” snapped Jensen who was already out of his seat.

“You’re engaged to the girl after five months!” said his father. “It took you years to propose the first time around!”

“Because I was a nervous kid that was away working constantly. I didn’t want to make Dee stay if it was gonna make her unhappy. I’m not afraid of how I feel anymore because I feel the same about her as I do Dee and I’m not wasting my time so I can stick to your socially acceptable schedule,” said Jensen. “I love her and she’s gonna be part of this family whether you like it or not. Deal with it.”

“You need a prenup,” said his dad.

“No I don’t!”

“Yes you do! You’ve known the girl for not even six months!”

“She’s not up to anything!” shouted Jensen.

“Son-”

“Have you ever lost your wife? Have you ever been in the car and almost die yourself while you watch her breathe for the last time? Where she’s hurt and you can’t do a thing to fix it? Have you ever had to tell your children their mother is dead and she’s not coming back? You have no idea, no idea, what that does to you, how much it hurts and how much it hurts when you’re still so fucked up and your parents start making comments behind closed doors about you and you have to pretend you’re better when you’re really not. When you don’t even care about yourself anymore, when you pretend for everyone’s sake so they stop treating you like a child, when you don’t know how to tell your kids it’s okay because it’s not. It’s not. Until you go through that, until you know how bad it hurts, don’t assume a damn thing about her. She’s my best friend and she makes me feel like my old self again. I laugh and smile and have fun and when I get scared or feel guilty or freak out she makes me feel better. I don’t give a fuck how old she is or what her job was. She’s kind and good and she deserves better than you two. Danneel’s parents like her. Jared’s parents like her. Her old foster dad’s family likes her. Our family likes her except for you two. Get your heads out of your asses or you can not even bother letting me know you exist anymore. I’m done with things hurting the women I care about. I couldn’t stop what happened to Dee but I can sure as hell keep Y/N away from the two of you,” said Jensen. He huffed and walked off, Josh running off after him. 

“Well congratulations. You got your hooks in him deep, don’t you,” said his father. You rolled your eyes and his mother scoffed.

“You can take care of someone without treating them like a child you know. He’s an incredibly strong person. If you don’t like me fine. But don’t call him stupid or easily manipulated or imply that it’s wrong to know you love someone after only a certain amount of time. I love your son.”

“You love his money,” said his mom.

“I do just fine on my own,” you said, narrowing your eyes. “He’s staying at Josh’s house tonight. We’ll pick up the kids in the morning.”

“He’s overreacting. He’ll be fine in the morning,” said his dad. You crossed your arms and leaned your head back. “He’ll be fine.”

“You two don’t know a thing about me and you assume I want money because of my age and my former career. Don’t assume your son will be fine and get over it.”

“We’ve known him a lot longer than you have. He’ll get over it after a night’s rest.”

“You may have known him longer and I’m sure in some regards you do know him better but not the ones that matter. If you did, you would have seen how much he would have loved for the two of you to like me. I would have taken some respect and been happy because trust me, I get how this looks to everyone else. I understand you have fears and I’m not mad you have them. I’m mad you assume those are facts when all they are is a story you made up in your head you don’t want to change. He’s right, I’m not going anywhere. The difference between him and me though is that I’ll stay out here all damn night with the two of you until you get it through your heads that I’m not here to fuck him over. I love him. I don’t have family, not really. Things have always been screwed up for me pretty much until I met him and he didn’t have to say it for me to know that he was hoping he could share the two of you with me. Maybe I was hoping for that too. But right now I’ll take some goddamn respect and an apology to your son to start and we can go from there.”

“You’re gonna curse at us and expect an apology?” said his mom. “We know you took him when he was at his low and tricked him into trusting you so you could get exactly what you wanted.”

“You know what I want? What I’ve always wanted and somehow always seems to get ripped away? A family. A stupid fucking family. Being a nanny? That let me feel like part of the family. I could pretend I was like all of those people I worked for. Nice and normal and like people gave a shit. Some kindness and a family is all I’ve ever wanted. You two...you wouldn’t have survived a day in my childhood. In my adulthood with the shitty ex boyfriend and the crappy friends and I picked myself over all of them because my mom told me to stand up for myself. Even when she couldn’t be there and I wanted her to. So I stand up for myself and now I stand up for him and those three kids to anyone and I mean anyone, that hurts them. He’s my family and those kids are my family. I don’t know what you think I’m gonna do but I guarantee the only thing I will do is tell you two where to shove it and to leave him the hell alone.”

“Why would we believe anything you say? At all?” his dad asked. “It’s probably the same sad story you told him to get him on the line. I don’t buy it.”

“I have a million dollar book deal. I’ve worked rent free for a lot of rich people since I was eighteen years old. Do I sound like someone who needs his money?” you said. You put your hands on your hips and shook your head. “What is it? You want me to sign a prenup? I would but he doesn’t want one. He trusts me and for a guy that lost his wife and had to work through falling in love with another person, I respect that. He knows what he wants and he’s not wasting time. This is scary for him. It’s scary for me. But when Dee’s parents gave me open arms and kindness and their blessing, the last people I ever expected to disapprove were you two. If you’re going to stand there and keeping calling me a liar, I’m going to find your sons and I’m going take care of Jensen instead of wasting my time here.”

“We don’t disapprove of him moving on and marrying again,” said his mom as you turned to walk away.

“Could have fooled me,” you said. 

“He’s going too fast and he doesn’t know you either, not well enough to make a decision like that,” said his dad. You turned around and smiled.

“He knows my favorite color. He knows what my favorite flavor of ice cream is. He knows why I have nightmares and he knows how to make me forget them in the first place. I’m sorry we aren’t doing things on your schedule but it’s his life. He can do whatever the fuck he wants with it, whether that’s me or somebody else. For the record, he knows me just fine. Oh and if this is how you plan on speaking to him again in the morning, I’ll pick up the kids myself.”

“We’re looking out for his best interest,” said his dad.

“No, you think you’re looking at his wallet for him. See money? People think that’s important and it is but best interest? It ain’t that shit,” you said as you started to leave.

“Well what do you assume his best interest is then?” said his mom. 

“Treating him like an adult. He is smart and strong and the most emotionally healthy man I’ve ever met which considering all the fucked up shit he’s been through and felt the past year is really saying something. He’s your child but he’s not a child. He found someone he loves and all he wanted to do was share me with you. This was his worst nightmare and I couldn’t stop it. So if you’re not gonna even try with me, then I’m gonna protect him from you.”

“He doesn’t need protecting from us,” he said.

“You call him stupid and that he can’t take care of himself, that he can be fooled and that the person he thinks is his best friend really only wants him for his money. He knows none of those things are true but it’s what you said to him when you said that about me. For a man who went through what he did, it wasn’t mean. It was cruel. I’m gonna go fix what I can of your relationship with him because despite all that, I know you guys love each other and I’m not letting that get fucked up because you think whatever the hell you think about me.”

You stormed off around the house and found Josh’s truck still there but neither man in sight. You looked around and heard a sniffle, your head going up to the roof. You saw the lattice work on the side and climbed up, peeking your head up to spot the two of them sat on the roof.

“Hey,” you said quietly. Jensen wouldn’t look at you, Josh rubbing his back. 

“Careful,” he said as you climbed up and slowly walked over. You took a seat on your bottom, spotting the window behind them. “That was my room. Jensen used to sneak out this way. I was always too nervous of getting caught to try myself. You landed the bad boy of the family.”

“Oh yeah, such a bad boy,” you said. You scooted closer on your butt to him, Jensen resting his head on his knees. “Hey. Before you even think about it don’t say you’re sorry.”

“I know,” he said. He took a deep breath but looked up, looking fairly normal aside from a slightly pink nose. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Nobody was,” said Josh. “I’ll give you guys a minute. I’ll be in my car when you’re ready.”

“You should go home,” said Jensen. “Staying in a different house won’t change anything.”

“That was kinda fucked up what they said.” Jensen raised an eyebrow and he shrugged. “I don’t always agree with them. If you guys want to stay, that’s your choice but I’m not going home without telling them what a mistake they’re making.”

“You don’t have to-”

“You’re my little brother and I like her. Even if I didn’t, they’re being assholes and she doesn’t deserve that. You don’t. Alright?”

Jensen nodded and Josh walked off to the lattice and climbed down while you scooted next to Jensen. 

“You thought your siblings weren’t gonna like me,” you said.

“He’s a good person. He’s never told off our parents before so...I don’t know if I’m happy about that or not.”

“He’s a good big brother,” you said, wrapping your arms around him. “I don’t love you for your family though. I don’t care if your parents don’t like me. I’ll deal with it.”

“I wish you didn’t have to,” he said.

“I still like your dad so much better than mine,” you said.

“Yours is a monster to be fair.”

“Yeah, he is. Yours love you and I don’t agree with them but in their minds, they’re protecting you and I don’t have a problem with anyone trying to do that.”

“How are you so fucking kind to them after they basically said you’re with their dumbass son because of money?”

“Like you said, I know monsters. I know toxic and bad. They aren’t it. They raised you and I really, really like you. Good people can be stupid and still be good. In the morning we’ll try again.”

“What if I can’t get them to change their minds?” he said quietly. 

“Jensen,” you said, moving to squat down in front of him. You grabbed his cheeks and he stared at you. “You don’t have to pick anybody over anybody. Maybe I won’t be close with them but that’s okay. It’s so okay. We’ll respect each other or just won’t talk to each other and we’ll figure it out but we don’t have to do it all tonight.”

“I think what bothers me the most is they’ve already made up their minds about you based on your age when they don’t even realize who you are. They don’t see that this is the kind of person you are, kind and supportive and I heard you not taking their bullshit. You’re a stronger person than I am and I wish they could see that the reason I’m not freaking out over this is cause I know you’re my partner and you got my back like I got yours. I’m just having a hard time understanding why they won’t even listen to us.”

“I don’t know,” you said, eyes darting to the window when you caught some movement inside. You narrowed them and glanced down, spotting the crack between the windowsill and frame. “I’m a little cool. I’m gonna get my sweatshirt if that’s okay.”

“Careful climbing in,” he said, turning on his bottom and pushing the window up. You kissed his cheek and climbed inside, the room empty as far as you could tell. You stepped out to the hall and into his old room, getting your hoodie, his old hoodie. You pulled it on but went downstairs, catching his parents in the kitchen with Josh.

“Josh may I speak to your parents in private,” you said.

“Yeah. I’m done here. I’ll be over for brunch, okay?” he said. He walked past you and caught your arm. “Call me if you need me back.” You nodded and he kissed your temple before he went out. 

“Were you eavesdropping on us?” you asked, crossing your arms.

“We went to tell him to get off the roof. We could see him from the backyard up there,” said his mom, putting her back to you as she mixed up something in a mug. “But we heard the three of you talking and then the two of you. We didn’t mean-”

“We are all on the same side. His side. We should get along. It shouldn’t be this difficult and I don’t appreciate private conversations being listened in on. But I hope you understand that you hurt your son. I know you didn’t mean to and it’s the last thing you’d ever want to do to him. But you did. So please try to help me fix this. This isn’t easy for me to accept that you don’t like me either but you’re gonna respect me. If we can respect each other, then he’s not going to worry as much at least. Please promise that we can agree to that,” you said. His parents looked at each other and you sighed. “You have to be kidding me. What do you want me to do? Go away? I can’t do that. I won’t do that.”

“That’s not...Jensen called your father a monster up there,” he said. 

“I thought it was a sob story according to you ten minutes ago.”

“You said you don’t have parents. He said your father is alive.”

“What’s your point, Mr. Ackles,” you said. “Please enlighten me.”

“It doesn’t make much sense to tell different stories,” he said. 

“You can’t even give me the benefit of the doubt that I love your son. Why the fuck would I tell you things only he knows, things so few people know about. Why would I trust you with the worst parts of my life when you don’t accept the best ones. For your information, my birth mother is dead. My adoptive mother is dead. I wish my son of a bitch father was dead. The only glimmer of a parent I have maybe, maybe was my foster father. That was until last weekend. I met some parents. I met Dee’s. I met Jared’s. I got the same message from all of them. Let us know if you ever need anything. Oh the way he looks at you. You must be pretty special. Anything at all, you give us a call. People that don’t even have an obligation to look in my direction treated me like I was their kid. So maybe he and I both got our hopes up with you two and that was on us. If you want to pick apart what I’ve said and call me a liar…” you said, putting your hands on your hips. Your shut your eyes and breathed deeply, turning around. “I don’t care if you have to pretend to respect me. Just do it for his sake and the kids sakes, alright?”

A tissue appeared over your shoulder and you took it, blowing your nose and stepping away. 

“When did your mother’s pass?” you heard behind you. You threw your head back and took a deep breath.

“When I was born and when I was sixteen,” you said, turning around and swallowing. “Why does that matter?”

“When were you adopted?” he asked.

“Why do you care?”

“Please.”

“I was eight,” you said.

“So you only had your mother for eight years then,” he said. 

“Yeah. She got sick when I was fourteen. I stayed with her boyfriend until I moved out for my first nanny job at eighteen. It was all very sad and angsty,” you said.

“Who made the first move?” 

“I’m done with this interrogation,” you said. You started to leave but he stepped in front of you. “What do you want from me?”

“I just want to know who made the first move, you or Jensen.”

“I don’t…” you trailed off. “We had a fight. I told him I didn’t want him to be my friend anymore, he was just my boss and that was it. We couldn’t hang out at night and stuff anymore.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want him to hurt me,” you said quietly. “I didn’t fit with his life. I’m not a pretty actress. I’m not smart. I’m the younger nanny and that’s all I was gonna be until I became an older nanny and that was supposed to be my life. I didn’t ask for…”

“For what?” asked his mother, carrying over her mug and setting it down on the end table.

“I didn’t ask for him to love me. But he did and I don’t know why but I trusted him not to hurt me. It’s not fairytales and roses all day every day but I like having a best friend and I never would have submitted those books to a publisher without him encouraging me and I need him to feel better. He can’t catch a break lately and I hate seeing him upset. It makes me sick to my stomach and I really, really need him to be okay so please stop doing this. Just stop. Please. I don’t care if we have to pretend the rest of our lives but please, I can’t keep seeing him take hit after hit anymore and not being able to stop it.”

You weren’t expecting the hug from his father or to bury your face in his chest for a brief moment. His mom guided you to sit on the couch, pulling a blanket around you. She handed you the mug and you saw it was hot chocolate, your eyes darting back and forth between them.

“This isn’t about to be like a lifetime movie where you murder me, right?” you said. 

“No,” said his mom as she sat next to you. “We hurt you quite deeply today, didn’t we.”

You stared at the mug, holding it in your hands. 

“You were looking forward to meeting us,” said his dad as he sat down on your other side.

“It doesn’t matter. All I care about is him.”

“I don’t think he’d be very happy with you laying down for a semblance of normalcy for him,” he said.

“Just spit out whatever the fuck you want,” you said. You gripped the mug and shut your eyes.

“I’d like you to stop swearing please,” he said. “In exchange, maybe we can have a second chance.”

“Second chance at what?” you said dryly.

“At meeting our son’s fiance.” You lifted your head and stared at him, catching a bashful look you saw in Jensen every so often. “We understand, as well as we can, he was hurt after Danneel. We can’t fix those problems like when he would scrape his knees. We knew he was in a vulnerable position and things between the two of you seemed so fast for how in pain he was. We thought of the worst of you before knowing you and that wasn’t right of us. We were trying to protect him. But like you said, we all try to do that. So if you’ll let us, give us a second chance.”

“For him, I will give you both a second chance,” you said. “I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this but this sort of thing isn’t going to go away just like that, for him or for me.”

“Is there anything…” said his mom as you shook your head. “We are sorry for before. Truly.”

“I know. Trust is difficult for me on a normal day. You guys kinda tore through the safety nets I thought I had with you. I need to build them up again is all.”

“That was you that said that, people have safety nets,” she said. You raised and eyebrow and she sighed. “Jensen, months back, he told us his therapist told him that, put things in perspective.”

“I guess couple’s are kinda each other’s therapists,” you said. “Sometimes they just need to vent to each other too.”

“Before you said...has he ever been to one?” asked his dad.

“Last weekend was...intense. I went to one as a child and he talked to him for a little while, helped him put things in perspective,” you said.

“Intense? Did you fight?” she asked.

“He and JJ got stung by a scorpion. It was a little serious. We went out the next night and I made a comment and he took it a different way and he got upset thinking I thought of myself as being less in his eyes than Dee was. I know it’s not true, it’s just different. He’s been having a really great week aside from today.”

You took a sip of the hot chocolate and went back for more, drinking half the mug down. 

“We screwed up,” said his dad with a sigh, sitting back against the couch. 

“Yeah but he’ll forgive you,” you said. “This is really good Mrs. Ackles.”

“Thank you sweetie and call me Donna. I made it for Jensen. He’s always liked it when he was living here and having a bad day.”

“Why do you think he’ll forgive us?” asked his dad as Donna got up.

“Because he’s Jensen. He’s not an angry man. Angry in moments but he doesn’t hold onto anger. I wouldn’t expect anything less from him. So I know he’ll forgive you. When I’m not sure of but it won’t be forever.”

“Have you two ever fought badly?” he asked.

“We’ve had a few fights. Mostly small and when we’re both tired or hungry. We had a big one a few weeks ago when he got home but we talked about why it happened and how to make sure it doesn’t again,” you said. Donna carried over a kettle and poured more hot chocolate in your mug. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Don't ask about fights Alan. It’s not our business. We should let them tell us what they want,” she said as she walked back to the kitchen.

“They probably should have had a big fight at least once to know if they can work through those things and it sounds like they have,” he said when he turned to you. “I know you’re probably love struck but marriage? That’s a lifetime of putting in the work.”

“Alan if I didn’t care about putting in the work I wouldn’t be down here right now. I know I don’t know everything I’m signing up for and no one really does but I know him and the kids and that’s worth the parts I have to work at.”

“You sound older than you look.”

“Age doesn’t always equal life experience,” you said.

“I suppose not,” he said. He stood and took a deep breath. “I do apologize for thinking the worst of you and not giving you a fair chance upfront.”

“Thank you,” you said. “I’m going to bring this up and check on him.”

“Can I ask one last thing?” asked his dad. You nodded and he looked over to Donna who gave him a short nod. “Josh said you really love him.”

“I do.”

“Do you think he loves you the same way?”

“I know he does,” you said.

“How are you so sure?”

“How are you so sure your wife loves you?” you said. “Goodnight Alan.”

“Goodnight,” he said, his mom catching up with you in the foyer where the stairs were. You gave her a tired smile and she nodded.

“If I told you something, would you keep it a secret from Jensen?” she asked.

“No,” you said with a smile. 

“I had to try,” she said. “We’re not like this by nature. Something happened he doesn’t know about when he was recovering that put us off to you. A woman. A young woman at his physical therapy.”

“What happened?” you asked quietly. She took a seat on a step and you sat beside her. “If someone tried to take advantage of him, you should have told me and him. He thinks you guys have gone nuts, no offense.”

“You’ll find with time you’d rather have your child safe and upset at you than the other way around,” she said. 

“What happened?”

“We moved down to the house for a few months to help Jensen. He went to physical therapy. A very good place. A family friend works there and got him in and he regained a lot of strength in his leg quickly because of it. There were nurses that often helped and he worked with a few regularly and they develop a relationship and all that. It’s good for morale and healing we were told. One of these girls was about your age and our family friend overheard her gossiping to a friend on the phone during a lunch break.”

“Gossiping about…” you said. “Jensen?”

“They saw an opportunity to manipulate him. He is smart, smarter than the both of us together, but he was going through the motions that first month. She made him smile a bit. She flirted with him. Our friend told us what she’d said and we realized, he could be hurt again. Taken advantage of for what he has, what he can offer. His sudden shift in mood this year, introducing you as a fiance, made us think we’d failed to protect him this time.”

“Why not tell him that?” you asked.

“And tell him he was being manipulated back then? He’s so adamant that it can’t happen to him but we know different.”

“I think you should tell him, Donna. It makes your reaction today seem not so…” you said, her head shaking.

“Ma,” you both heard. You looked over your shoulders, Jensen sat against the wall at the top of the landing. “Mom. Jerry told me why I got a new nurse when it happened. She was nice, or was pretending to be, I don’t know. But I didn’t like her. I never got manipulated and I was never going to.”

“How long-” you said, Jensen rubbing the back of his neck. “You heard everything.”

“Yup,” he said, popping his p, his dad coming over to the bottom of the stairs and staring up. “I don’t want to talk to either of you right now. Y/N, I’d like to go to bed, please.”

“Accept their apology Jensen. You can hash out the rest of this in the morning but accept that they know they were in the wrong,” you said. 

“Why should I?” he asked, cocking his head.

“We both got hurt out of their love for you. They are not monsters and I know the difference,” you said. “You know too.”

“Will you two ever look at me the same again,” said Jensen, staring at the landing. 

“Honey it was a fight. It’ll be alright,” said his mom, his head shaking.

“Ever since I woke up in the hospital, you two look at me like I’m a kid. Like I’m weak and defenseless. But I’m not. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been and this whole day could have been avoided if you treated me like your adult son, not the kid who fell off his bike and cries over a cut. I needed you two to take over, I did, I honestly did after the accident. I couldn’t take care of myself let alone the kids. But you haven’t stopped thinking I can take care of me again. I can. I do. I know I’m your kid but let me be an adult again. Trust me. Please.”

“Come here,” you said, holding out your hand. He slid down the steps and you stood up and aside, letting him get a hug from his mom and then dad. 

“We’re sorry,” said his dad.

“I know,” said Jensen quietly. “Never do something like that again. Ever.”

“We won’t,” he said. You leaned against the wall and sipped on the hot chocolate, Jensen’s nose twitching.

“That’s my cocoa,” he said, turning his head up at you.

“I just Jerry Springer’ed ya’ll. I get the cocoa. Get your own,” you said. He smiled and you gave it right back, his parents pulling off and bringing him to his feet. 

“Come here,” said his dad as his mom dragged him off towards the kitchen with the promise of hot chocolate. You stepped down until you were about his height and took a drink, licking your lips when you finished. “How do you just let that go? You were so angry before.”

“I’ve been to therapy. I have good diffusing skills,” you said. 

“Is that a joke?”

“Not really,” you said with a smile. “You made a mistake because you love him. I’m gonna make mistakes because I love him. So when I screw up, now you owe me one, deal?”

“I know it’s getting late but would you be willing to stay up a while longer, maybe find out that favorite color?” he asked. You smiled and nodded, stepping down.

“Depends on the day,” said Jensen, stepping out with a mug of his own.

“He’s right,” you said. “You okay to stay up a bit?”

He nodded and walked back to the family room, taking your hand. 

“Better?” you whispered to him.

“Yeah. Not all the way but definitely better honey.”

It was warm when you woke up the next morning. You peeled open an eye and caught Jensen laying awake, staring at his ceiling. You kicked off the blankets and he reached an arm out, pulling you to lay on his chest.

“It’s hot in here,” you mumbled, eyes shutting again.

“There’s a box covering the vent,” he said, dancing his fingers lazily over your bare arm. “It’s almost noon.”

“Seriously?” you said into his chest, nuzzling against his soft skin.

“Yeah. Sounds like they’re out back with the kids,” he said. You nodded and felt him move his fingers all over you, soft and light, absentmindedly tracing patterns every so often.

“Still upset?” you asked, his head nodding. “They’re human. They fuck up.”

“Are you angry?”

“I was. Not anymore. I kinda like ‘em actually.”

“Why would you give them a second chance?” he asked. 

“When I got adopted I didn’t like, instantly love my mom. I was scared of her at first. I don’t know, I get that you can not like someone at first and then love them unconditionally, you know? It’s weird but your opinions can change once you get to know someone.”

“I don’t do a very good job of protecting you from things,” he said, tilting his head, moving a few hairs behind your ear. You looked up at him, his fingers playing in your hair behind you. 

“Honey you went off on your parents last night. I bet you’ve never done that to them. You were trying to protect me and you did. No one has ever protected me the way you do,” you said. “Today is a new day and I’d like to get to know my new family some more.”

“Okay,” he said softly. “I’ll follow your lead.”

_______

A/N: Read Part 13 here!