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marjansmarwani · 4 years

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You Can Learn to Love (Again)

A Tarlos Teacher AU // 14.3K

[Read on ao3]

TK Strand needs a fresh start. He needs to get as far away from the memories and temptations of NYC as he possibly can so when he finds an opening at a prestigious high school in Austin, he jumps at the chance.

As things fall into place he is surprised to find just how well he fits into Austin; how well this new life he built for himself suits him. There’s only one complication: another (insanely attractive) English teacher by the name of Carlos Reyes whose existence does not fit into TK’s carefully constructed plans. The universe, however, seems to have another plan entirely.

Or, the Teacher AU absolutely no one asked for.

Welcome to the most self-indulgent thing I have ever written! I had a good time writing it and I ended up really liking it though, and I hope you do too. Huge shoutout to @officerrxyes for helping me with the edits and putting it up me throughout the entire process.

-----

This is not how he had wanted to start his first day. He had been hoping to make a good impression, maybe make it through the first week without drawing too much attention to himself.

The universe had other plans, it seemed.

It had started with the traffic. He was still new to the area and had severely underestimated how heavy traffic was in this city (really, who knew?) Thankfully he had been nervous enough that he had left his apartment almost an hour earlier than he should have had to for a 4-mile drive, which had gotten him here with about 10 minutes to spare.

If it had just been that, it would have been fine. He could have shaken it off, gotten into his classroom and been ready to face the day with plenty of time before his students showed up. But no, it couldn’t be that simple. Instead, he was stuck here, in his current predicament.

By the time he arrived there was not a parking spot to be found. He had anxiously circled the parking lot twice before spotting an empty space miraculously close to the front doors. He thought maybe his luck had finally changed - until he tried to open his door. The car next to him was parked so close that he could barely even get his door more than an inch let alone wide enough to get out. He glanced over to the passenger side to find that car was almost as close. He banged his head against the steering wheel in frustration. Of course. Of fucking course - he had moved across the country, managed to get a job in one of the best high schools in the state, and now he was going to blow it because he was trapped in his car. Typical.

He forced himself to take a deep, calming breath before examining the situation again. There might just be enough room on the passenger side to open the door and squeeze out. Then he would just have to wait long enough that the other cars would be gone before he tried to leave at the end of the day. Totally doable — he just had to climb over the center counsel. He examined the layout and sighed. There was no way to do this gracefully. He took a silent moment to mourn his nice professional wrinkle-free first-day outfit before he resigned himself to the inevitable.

He had known it was not going to be a graceful process, but he had still underestimated exactly how awkward it would be. He cleared the counsel and got one foot on the ground outside the passenger door before carefully sliding himself out, careful not to let his door hit the car beside him. Once he had both feet on the ground he reached back in to grab his bag, which he pulled out before closing the door and walking to the back of the car. Once he was free of the confined space he took a deep breath as he smoothed out his clothes, wiping away any wrinkles.

“That was pretty impressive,” someone noted, voice full of amusement.

TK spun around to find an incredibly attractive man standing behind him, looking him over with a raised eyebrow. TK wanted to shoot back something clever but instead he tripped over his words, stuttering through half-formed thoughts before he blurted out “thanks.”

Inwardly, he groaned. Because this morning hadn’t been bad enough - now he was a stuttering mess in front of this guy who possibly had the most gorgeous eyes TK had ever seen and had just used those eyes to watch TK climb out of his own car like a contortionist. He was really winning today.

“Anytime,” the stranger returned with a grin. They stood there, not saying anything for a few more moments until the stranger continued, “Well I guess I should,” he trailed off gesturing towards the building. TK nodded vaguely before a glance at his watch pulled him back to reality, “Oh, yeah. Me too.”

“Well, I hope you have a good first day. My name is Carlos, by the way.”

“TK,” he offered, plastering on what he hoped was a charming smile.

Carlos grinned at him, “I’ll see you around, TK.”

And with that, he was gone. TK watched him walk away until the snap of the door closing behind him dragged him back to the present. He glanced at his watch again only to see that he only had two minutes before he would officially be late for his first day.

“Shit,” he muttered to himself before hiking his bag up in his shoulder and sprinting towards the door.

------

“Don’t forget to get those syllabi signed!” TK called to the retreating backs of his second-period freshman class. “Whether or not you think it’s stupid does not change the fact that it is an easy grade!”

This earned a few chuckles from the students still gathering their things and he flashed a grin at them. Despite the rough start, the morning has actually gone pretty well. His first two classes had gone smoothly and the kids seemed like a good bunch. He was optimistic about the year. Now he was looking at his first prep period of the day and since there was no grading to tackle yet he figured this was as good of a time as any to try to get the lay of the land, so to speak. Plus, he needed to find the copier. He had printed out the syllabi for the first day on his home printer but there was no way he was going to keep doing that. He fully intended to use the school provided resources, thank you very much.

He was just about to grab his ID and keys and head out in pursuit of a copy machine or faculty room when someone stepped into his classroom. TK recognized him but couldn’t put a name to the face.

“Hey Mr. Strand, I just wanted to stop by to see how your first day was going. I’m Judd Ryder, one of the Assistant Principals.”

TK smiled at him, crossing over to shake his hand, “I remember you, you were on my interview committee, right?”

He nodded, “That’s right. I was pretty impressed by you, I think you’ll do great things here.”

“That’s very kind of you to say, I hope I can live up to it,” TK responded, a little taken aback by the praise.

Mr. Ryder shrugged, “I was impressed by your thoughts on curriculum, but really I think you’re going to do a good job connecting to the students. You’ve got the freshman this year and they need that. That connection might be the difference between failure and success for some of them.”

TK nodded, unsure of how to respond. He fiddled with his lanyard for a moment before the AP laughed, shaking his head; “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to dump all that on you - my wife is always telling me I don’t need to voice every thought that pops into my head and, well clearly that’s a problem for me.”

TK relaxed and smiled at the older man, “It’s fine, it’s nice to hear such good things, it’s just the first day and all—a lot to take in, you know?”

Ryder nodded, “I hear that. Anything I could help with?”

“Actually, yeah—any chance you could point me towards a copier? My printer at home will never recover if I try to do much more with it.”

“Sure thing, I’ll take you there. It’s on my way anyways,” he said over TK’s protests, “no trouble at all.”

They step into the hallway and once TK is sure the door to his classroom is shut and locked behind him they move down the hall, back towards the main hallway. Judd keeps up a steady stream of conversation all the way and TK nods and makes noises of agreement where necessary. It’s not that he doesn’t like Judd, he’s just not used to such an amicable relationship with administrators. It had never been like that in any of his previous schools. He liked the feeling of familiarity but knew that it would be a while before he ever completely bought into it. He was much more likely to err on the side of polite professionalism.

They had arrived at the faculty room now and as TK went to open the door it swung open as another teacher stepped out. He was a little older than TK and his eyes went wide as he halted inches from colliding with him. Judd laughed from behind TK, “Well I was going to say you two should meet at some point, so I guess now is as good a time as any. TK Strand, meet Paul Strickland, one of our Earth Science teachers. He’s also your neighbor.”

Paul grinned and stuck out his hand, “it’s good to meet you, man. I was going to stop by later on, but bumping into each other works too I guess.”

TK chuckled and took the offered hand, “I suppose it does. So you’re my neighbor, huh?”

Paul nodded, “And part of the grade level team. You’ll actually be seeing the rest of us in a bit—we have common planning 5th period.”

TK nodded, he had noticed that on the schedule. “Cool, well, I’ll see you then. In the meantime, I should get some copies done while I have a chance.”

“Don’t use tray 3—it always jams.”

“Thanks for the tip.”

“Don’t mention it; I know how much it sucks to have to spend your entire prep clearing out a paper jam.”

“Still, I appreciate it.”

Paul nodded and then with another smile and a wave to Judd, he was gone. They watched him go for a second before Judd spoke again, “You have a solid team to work with in your wing, I’m sure you’ll all get along fine.”

“I think you might be onto something,” TK agreed. Then, with another thanks, he stepped into the faculty room, leaving the Assistant Principal behind.

---

Two periods later and TK was starting to remember how exhausting the first week of school was. The endurance it took to do this all day was nothing to scoff at, and each year in September it needed to be built up again. Somehow each year, he managed to forget that. As the last of the 4th-period stragglers filed out he sank into his desk chair and leaned back, allowing himself to take a deep breath. All he wanted to do was sleep for a week, but he still had common planning, hall duty, one more class, and an apartment full of boxes waiting to be unpacked. Sleep was a luxury he couldn’t afford right now.

A knock at his door wrenched him from his fantasies of peaceful sleep. He jumped to his feet, blinking the exhaustion out of his eyes as he looked towards the door to find Paul and two others standing on the threshold.

“The first week is always the hardest, isn’t it?” Paul noted as he invited himself into the room, the other two at his heels.

TK nodded, only cutting off for a yawn, “You could say that,” he finally got out.

Paul gave him a sympathetic grin before turning to his two companions. “Guys, this is TK Strand, the new English teacher. TK,” he said turning to face him, “this is Marjan Marwani and Mateo Chavez, Math and Social Studies teachers respectively.”

TK gave them each a nod and a smile. “So, we’re the ninth grade team?”

“One of them,” Marjan confirmed, settling onto one of the desks. “So you better get used to us - we’re stuck together and you get to see our lovely faces every day for this common planning period.”

“Where do we meet for that, by the way?”

“Your room of course,” Marjan said with a raised eyebrow, “the newbie always hosts.”

Paul rolled his eyes. “She’s kidding,” he informed TK, “but we do usually meet in here because there are more tables so it’s easier to spread out.”

“Fine with me,” TK replied with a shrug, “you guys are more than welcome.”

The others smiled their thanks before Mateo spoke up.

“So TK,” he asked in what was clearly meant to be a casual tone, “how long have you been teaching?”

TK raised an eyebrow, “This is my 4th year, why?”

“Damn it,” Mateo swore mournfully as Marjan let out a bright burst of laughter.

When TK shot Paul a confused look he stifled his own laughter long enough to explain, “Mateo here is our probie. He’s only in his second year and he’s desperately hoping to find someone lower on the totem pole than him. You being new to the district and pretty young, he thought maybe he had a chance.”

Now TK grinned outright as he turned his gaze back to Mateo, “sorry to disappoint you probie, but I already put in my time as the newbie. You have my sympathies though.”

Mateo pouted as the other two laughed lightly at him. TK shook his head fondly and sat on one of the desks to survey this group—his new team.

As Marjan crossed to Mateo to ruffle his hair and Paul rolled his eyes at the pair while not quite being able to hide his smile, something settled in TK’s gut. They were going to get along just fine. More than that, TK had a feeling that as long as he had this group at his side he’d be fine. Maybe, despite the disastrous beginning, this year might not be the disaster he feared after all.

---

After the first day, things went pretty smoothly. He’d settled into a routine and beyond the usual unpredictable nature of teenagers, he had everything under control. He was feeling pretty confident about this change—for once he may have actually made the right choice. He wanted to savor that feeling, but there was still one more unknown element to his work life that he hadn’t gotten to experience yet: the department meeting. So when Thursday rolled around he waved goodbye to the rest of his team and set off to find room 306.

If his past experience was anything to go on this meeting would likely be nothing more than a waste of time. Just something they are mandated to do where they talk about goals and test scores and analyze data without actually accomplishing anything actionable. But it was still something new; a potential disaster waiting around the corner for him. He’s almost convinced that’s what it’s going to be too - everything else is going far too well. Something has to give at some point.

He found the room and entered cautiously; scanning the room as he took an empty seat. Everyone else is chatting amongst themselves and while a few sent him curious glances as he entered, for the most part everyone is minding their own business. He was so focused on surveying the room that he almost jumped when the chair next to him was pulled out and someone slid into the seat beside him. He looked over to see a woman smiling at him warmly, “You must be TK Strand,” she said by way of greeting.

He nodded and her smile somehow grew as she stuck out her hand, “I’m Grace Ryder, one of the 10th grade English teachers and yes, Judd Ryder is my husband,” she confirms.

TK chuckled as he took her hand. Apparently, his surprise at hearing her name was more evident than he had thought, “It’s nice to meet you Grace, and I’m afraid I don’t have a very good poker face.”

She laughed lightly and shook her head, “No, you do not. I can’t say I blame you though - new school, first department meeting, and someone comes up and knows your name - I’d be flustered too. But my husband has mentioned you so I figured I’d check-in, make sure you weren’t left out for the sharks. They do love fresh meat.”

TK raised an eyebrow, “It’s not that bad, is it?”

“They like a laugh, but from everything I’ve heard I think you’ll do just fine.”

TK was going to ask what she meant by that when her expression shifted again as she spotted something over TK’s shoulder.

“They’re not all bad though,” she said with a smile. “In fact, here’s one you should meet. Reyes!” The last part was directed at someone behind TK. He turned to see who Grace was intent on him meeting and froze.

“TK,” Grace was saying as the man walked over, “This is Carlos Reyes, one of the Senior English teachers and an all-around good egg.”

Carlos chuckled and TK felt a shock run through his body at how wonderful of a sound it was.

“You’re too nice to me Grace,” Carlos was saying as he bent down to give her a quick one-armed hug.

Grace swatted at him, “I am exactly as nice to you as you deserve. Carlos, this is TK Strand - the new Freshman English teacher.”

Carlos turned his smile on TK, who was fairly certain he was going to melt in this very spot from the warmth of it, “We’ve met, actually—in passing. I didn’t know you were in the department, how’s it been so far?”

“Good, it’s been good,” he managed to splutter out after a few moments and the mortifying realization that he had been quiet for too long and Grace and Carlos were both looking at him.

Carlos kept smiling at him, “That’s good to hear. I’m sure I’ll see you around but feel free to let me know if you need anything. I’m in room 214.”

TK nodded and then with a wave, Carlos was gone. TK shook himself from his stupor to find Grace giving him a pitying look, “Oh honey,” was all she said. Her voice was low, but it was clear she was suppressing laughter.

“What?” TK demanded, even as he could feel a blush creeping up his cheeks. Grace just shook her head and let some of the laughter escape. He turned away from her petulantly but she reached out and put a comforting hand on his arm.

“I’m sorry dear,” she said through her laughter, “I’m not making fun of you, really. I can’t say I can blame you either; he is quite something.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he responded stiffly.

“Yes, I’m sure you don’t,” Grace said, making an effort to match his tone. He rolled his eyes and shot her an exasperated look but she just kept chuckling quietly even as the meeting started.

It was good to know he had been right about this meeting being the disaster he had been waiting for—it was just not the kind he had anticipated.

----

The days marched on and more and more it felt like any other school year. TK had fallen into a routine; he had found his stride. He had found his footing with his students; he had found friends in his team. This change—the new job, the new school, the new state—was going so much better than he had anticipated. When he had sent in the application, it had been on a whim. He had been floundering in the shambles of what had been and desperate for a direction, a way out. This job had seemed like a desperate hope; a future he could only dream of surrounded by the wreckage of his old hopes and plans. He had just needed a point to aim for, an exit sign to direct him out of this mess. He had never expected it to actually work.

But against all odds and his own firmly held beliefs he made it work, he hadn’t failed. It was an exciting prospect, but also a terrifying one. With things going this well, it was only a matter of time before the proverbial other shoe dropped. He does everything he can to prevent that eventuality. He works hard, throwing himself into every lesson plan and every assignment. He tackles any administrative task as soon as possible, never letting anything sit on his desk. Above all, he takes a wide berth around room 214. Carlos’s smile may live in his head rent-free, but he can’t afford a distraction. Especially not one like him —one so objectively perfect. He’s not ready for that and to be so close to the possibility would break his still-healing heart.

He almost welcomes the distraction of his traditional beginning of the year benchmark essay—right up until he gets a look at the stack awaiting grading. He is in the middle of the first period’s stack when the rest of the team walked in for common planning.

“It’s only the second week of school,” Mateo noted, “isn’t it a little early to be assigning essays?”

“No,” TK explained, looking up from the paper he was reading, “because it’s my job to get them to high school level writing by the end of the year for the sake of all of the other English teachers and I need to know where they are at now so I know what to focus on.”

Marjan leaned on the corner of his desk and poked at one of the piles apprehensively, “Learn anything yet?”

TK sighed wearily as he circled yet another use of “bc” and left a comment indicating that abbreviations may have their uses, but they did not belong in academic writing. “Yes,” he said, looking up from the paper before him, “I have learned that we have a lot of work to do.”

Mateo chuckled and Marjan winced sympathetically. Paul, who had grabbed one of the essays off the stack and was skimming it, raised an eyebrow.

“I do not envy you, man,” he noted as he replaced the paper, “and I thought trying to hammer the format of a lab report into their heads was hard. This is next level.”

“Academic writing is something completely different from what they’re used to,” TK pointed out reasonably, “It’s my job to teach them how to do it,” he paused here as he glanced back down at the paper before him. “Doesn’t make it any less painful though,” he said with another sigh.

The others settled down at and on the desks nearest to his and watched as he skimmed through another paper, pausing occasionally to make a comment or correction. After a few minutes he looked up at them, eyebrows raised.

“Are you all just going to sit there and watch me grade these or…”

Mateo shrugged and Marjan grinned back at him, “We’re offering you moral support, didn’t you know?”

He scowled and grabbed an old worksheet from the table beside him and balled it up to throw at her. She dodged it expertly and grinned even wider. Paul sighed from a nearby desk.

“Now children,” he admonished, voice filled with exasperation as he rolled his eyes at their antics.

“She started it,” TK pointed out reasonably. Paul shook his head and stood up.

“I think that as long as we can agree that there are no pressing matters to be discussed we can all take this time to work on our own grading, in our own classrooms. Any objections?”

Marjan looked like she was going to say something, but at TK’s narrowed eyes she sighed and shook her head.

“Good,” Paul declared with a nod. “Good luck with all those, man,” he added to TK as he headed to the door. TK wearily waved his thanks and then they were gone. He leaned back in his chair and sighed, rubbing at his tired eyes. He loved what he did really, but sometimes when faced with the stack of 120 essays and the reminder that other content areas didn’t have to do this, he sometimes regretted not following his father’s footsteps. Firefighters didn’t have to grade essays.

Inevitably, he would recall all of the reasons he didn’t join the family business: the long hours, the danger, the toll it had taken on his father over the years both physically and emotionally. Then he would think of all the reasons he loved teaching anyways and go back to work. This time was no exception. The only difference was that as he picked up his pen again to continue grading he felt a pang of guilt in his chest. He should really call his father. It had been too long. He knew that his dad was trying to give him space, trying to give him the time he needed to adjust on his own terms; but his dad had been the one thing in New York he hadn’t needed distance from. He was the one thing he had regretted leaving. He needed to call him - he owed him that much. More than that, it would be nice to hear his voice. After he finished this class’ essays, he promised himself, he’d take a break and call his dad during his lunch.

Fate seemed to have a different plan though as the next thing TK knew students were entering his classroom. He glanced up at the clock in surprise, only to find that he had worked straight through his prep and lunch without even noticing it. He sighed and put down his pen, standing to go greet his students at the door. His dad would have to wait, it seemed. He plastered on a smile and got ready to start the lesson.

At some point, Marjan appeared in his doorway, a sheepish look on her face. He nodded to her and instructed the kids to read the next section in the text on their own and be ready to share some thoughts from it before he crossed the room to meet her.

“What’s up?” he asked, expression furrowed.

She held up the papers in her hand, “I forgot I promised the SPED teacher I would get these 408s sighed during our common planning. I have all the documents that you can look over later, but for right now could you just sign so I can get these back to her?”

He smirked at her as he took the papers; flipping through them to see what students he was signing for, “How could you have possibly forgotten? Were you so busy doing something else that maybe it slipped your mind?”

“Haha,” she responded drily, expression far from impressed. He shook his head and chuckled, but pulled a pen out of his pocket and used the wall beside the door to sign his name on the appropriate lines. He went to hand them back to her, but pulled up just short and held them just out of her reach, “do I have your word that you will provide me with the proper documentation for all these students so I can be assured I did not just commit fraud by signing these?”

She rolled her eyes at him, “Yes, I will bring them by at the end of the day.” With that she held out her hand for the papers, which he passed back to her. Then she was gone, and he turned back to his class.

“Alright, I asked you to have things to share, so who’s going to break the ice?”

There was the typical teenage silence before one of the girls in the back raised her hand tentatively, but not before glancing at her friends.

“Aniyah, what do you think?” TK asked her with a grin, perching himself on his desk.

“Mr. Strand, are you and Ms. Marwani dating?”

TK blinked at her. He glanced around at the rest of the kids in the room, none of whom seemed surprised by the question. “No,” he answered slowly, “why would you ask that?”

She shrugged awkwardly, glancing at her friends for support, “You guys just seem really close, and almost like you’re flirting?”

He shrugged, “No, we’re just friends, definitely not dating—not that it is any of your business.”

One of the boys in the front smirked at him, “I don’t know Mister, you two seem pretty friendly, I think maybe you’re in denial.”

TK met the kid’s eyes and raised a single eyebrow as he said drily, “I can assure you she’s not my type.”

Most of the kids nodded sagely, but a few seemed puzzled. He rolled his eyes and stood up, “Okay, ‘discuss Mr. Strand’s love life’ time is over. Don’t think you’re going to distract me enough that I forget about the homework. Anyone else want to share any thoughts on the reading—you know, the class work; that thing we’re here for?”

A few hands raised but even as he called on them he was chuckling to himself. Marjan was going to love this.

----

As time progresses TK sticks to his plan: do his work, make a good impression, avoid Carlos. He’s successful in that last goal too, for a while. But of course, nothing good can last and one October afternoon in the faculty room, his streak is broken.

He crossed the room towards the mailboxes without glancing around and didn't think to check his surroundings until a familiar voice called for his attention.

“Hey TK, how have things been? You settling in alright?”

He froze, slowly glancing up from the flyer about the can drive he had been reading. He knew before he saw (there was no mistaking that voice) but his heart still skipped a beat just the same.

“Carlos, hey. Yeah, it’s been great actually. No problems at all.”

Carlos grinned at him and TK had to remind himself how to breathe. “Glad to hear it. Oh,” he said suddenly, “this is Michelle Blake, one of the school social workers. And my best friend,” he added with a roll of his eyes when Michelle, apparently, gave him a pointed look.

She grinned at his addition before turning to face TK. She looked him up and down appraisingly before speaking, “It’s nice to finally meet you TK, Carlos has mentioned you.”

TK flicked his gaze to Carlos who was very intently studying the rice in his lunch and studiously avoiding both their gazes. “Nothing bad, I hope,” he said lightly.

Internally, he was panicking.

“Definitely not. Nothing but the truth I’m sure, and the truth was all good.”

“Right,” TK said with uncertainty. He waited, but Michelle did not speak again. “Well,” he said eventually, “I should get going. I just wanted to grab these flyers and then I was going to try to use the rest of my prep to try and put together a mini-unit for Halloween.”

At this, Carlos looked up, “What are you thinking?”

TK shrugged, “I was leaning towards Poe. Always a classic, and in my experience, kids have always liked his stuff.”

“I have some materials you could use, if you’d like. I’ve done that before, so I have most of the stuff in one of my binders.”

“Really?” he didn’t even bother to hide the surprise in his voice.

Carlos nodded, “Sure. You can stop by at the end of the day, if you’d like.”

TK hesitated. One the one hand, there was the pact he had made with himself: no distractions. On the other, there was a unit he wouldn’t have to plan. Which meant more prep time to spend on grading, which meant less work to take home.

“That'd be great, thanks. Room 214, right?”

As if he could have forgotten.

Carlos nodded in confirmation, “See you later then?”

“Absolutely.”

Then with a smile to the pair, TK was gone. He didn’t realize he was still grinning until he ran into Paul outside of his classroom. The other teacher looked at him suspiciously, “what has you looking so chipper?”

“Nothing,” TK said too hastily, judging by Paul’s look, “one of the other English teachers has materials I can use for a unit I wanted to do so as long as they work out, that’s an entire unit I don’t have to plan.”

Paul nodded appreciatively, “That’s a lucky break.”

TK nodded again before excusing himself and stepping into his own classroom. The rest of the day flew by and before he knew it he was seeing his last class out the door. Once they were gone and the hallway was mostly clear of students, TK grabbed his things and headed up to room 214. There’s a trophy case down the hall and he stops and anxiously checks his reflection before approaching the door to room 214. It’s open but TK hovered at the threshold nervously, knocking on the doorframe to get Carlos’s attention. He looked up from his desk and the smile that spread across his face at the sight of TK nearly had him holding onto the doorframe for support.

“Hey,” he said in what he prayed was a normal voice, “I was just here for those files, if you still wanted to give them to me?”

“Actually, I’ve changed my mind and you can’t have them.”

“Oh,” TK said, “I’ll just go then, sorry for—”

“TK, I’m kidding,” Carlos assured him as he stood up from his desk. “I offered them, didn’t I? Besides, we’re working on college essays and applications; there won’t be any time for Poe this year.”

“That’s a shame,” TK noted as he took a few tentative steps inside the room, “but I’m sure they’ll appreciate it when they have their applications done.”

“That’s the hope,” Carlos agreed, “but right now they’re not too fond of me.”

TK chuckled and Carlos looked up from the bookshelf he was scanning to see TK still standing a few feet from the door. “I don’t bite,” he deadpanned, “you can come in.”

TK laughed nervously and crossed the room, coming to a halt several feet away from Carlos. The other man continued scanning the shelf and upon finding what he was looking for made a triumphant noise before turning to face TK, holding out a binder. TK raised an eyebrow and took it, glancing over at the shelves that were filled with neat rows of binders all clearly labeled.

“You are aggressively organized,” he noted.

Carlos chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah. I know it looks like a lot, but after switching grade levels a few times it’s the only way I can keep anything straight anymore.”

TK nodded as he slipped through the binder, “That’s fair. I used to have a lot of binders like that too, but I thankfully digitized them before I moved down here. I can’t imagine transporting all those across the country would have been fun.”

“No, I can’t imagine it would be. Guess it’s a good thing I have no intention of leaving.”

TK looked up from the binder to see Carlos studying him. He smiled at the other man, who returned it before settling onto the desk across from TK.

“I didn’t realize you were new to the area.”

TK nodded, “Just moved here from NYC about 2 weeks before school started.”

Carlos raised an eyebrow, “that’s ambitious.”

TK sighed and nodded. “Wouldn’t have been my first choice, but everything happened so fast. Thankfully everything has worked out pretty well so this may not be the horrific disaster I thought it would be.”

“That’s optimism for you,” Carlos observed dryly. “What brought you down here, if you don’t mind me asking.”

TK’s hand froze in its journey down the page he was reviewing as his other hand clenched the binder tightly.

“Just looking for a fresh start,” he said evenly, keeping his eyes firmly planted on the page before him and praying that Carlos could not hear the racing of his heart.

If Carlos noticed anything odd, he didn’t let on.

“That’s a big change. Did you come down here alone?”

“Just me, myself, and my boxes.”

“So why Austin then? I could be wrong, but it seems like a pretty big change from NYC.”

“I wanted to leave the city and try something new. I saw this opening here, researched the school, and decided it was worth a shot. What about you though,” he asked, switching gears and looking up from the binder, “Austin born and raised?”

“Yep, go Longhorns,” he said with forced enthusiasm. TK raised a skeptical eyebrow and Carlos pushed on, “never mind. So,” he continued, and TK noticed a change in his tone that had him looking up again, “leave anyone behind in New York?”

There was silence for a moment as their eyes met and they both knew what was really being asked.

“Just my dad.”

“Yeah, I only have my family too. But there’s a lot of them so that’s more than enough.”

TK smiled in spite of himself. “My mom’s in New York too, but she’s always traveling for work so really it’s always been just me and my dad. Honestly, leaving him there was the hardest thing about this move, and the only thing I regret.”

He paused in the wake of his words, surprised by how much he just shared with this near stranger but before he could dwell on it Carlos was giving him a reassuring smile that set his nerves at ease.

“Sounds like you’re close.”

“We are,” TK confirmed, voice growing softer as he thought about his dad. “He’s still my hero, always has been. He’s a firefighter, and I thought I wanted to be one when I was young too. But as I got older, I saw the toll it took on him and decided to take a different path. I still love and admire him for doing it though. I couldn’t picture him doing anything else.”

There was quiet in the room again. TK started to panic, thinking that maybe he shared too much (he still can’t believe he said any of that), but something about Carlos makes him feel so comfortable he hadn’t even noticed until the words were already out there. He’s about to apologize when Carlos speaks.

“I get that. My dad was a cop and it was the same way when I was growing up. He was larger than life and my hero; I wanted to be just like him. But then I got older and decided I didn’t like the reality of law enforcement as much as I had the concept. I decided I could do more good from inside a classroom and well, here we are.”

“Here we are,” TK agreed, “who would have thought?”

Carlos laughed appreciatively and the sound washed over TK with all the warmth of sunlight. He smiled back at him before turning his gaze back to the binder. The conversation flows easily between them and before TK knew it he caught a glance at his watch and let out a curse when he realized how late it had gotten. Carlos gave him a questioning look and TK gestured up at the clock, “We should have left ages ago. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hold you up; I’m sure you have things to do.”

“It’s fine, this was nice. Maybe if you stop by more often, we can chat in smaller increments. Otherwise I’m afraid this is just going to keep happening—I don’t think I’ll be able to let you go quickly if I don’t think there is a chance of it happening again within the next year.”

TK rolled his eyes, “Well excuse me for being busy settling into a new school.”

Which was a reasonable excuse. There is no way anyone would suspect he had been avoiding the other man (even though he absolutely had been).

Still, this had been nice.

He fingered the strap of his bag as he picked it up, “maybe we can continue this during lunch tomorrow? I’d like to actually ask you some questions about the materials, which is what I came here to do before we got sidetracked.”

Part of TK was praying he would say no.

Instead, he grinned, “sure, I’d like that. Until tomorrow then, Mr. Strand.”

“See you then, Reyes.”

And with a wave, he was gone.

His heart was still racing as he climbed into his car. He leaned against the seat and sighed. Operation avoid Carlos Reyes had officially crashed and burned. This was a terrible idea; he should find a reason to cancel tomorrow and go back to avoiding him as much as possible. This was a risk he didn’t need to be taking.

But even as he sat here, he couldn’t ignore the warm feeling of the aftermath of a pleasant conversation. His mind was shouting at him that this was a terrible idea, but he was having a harder time believing it with every passing second. His rules said no dating, but there was no reason they couldn’t be friends, right?

[Continue Reading on ao3]

#911 lone star #911 lone star fic #tarlos fic #my writing #userkimmy #userjilly #userac #usermaximus #sunshinestrand #lonestarbabe #lire-casander #bellakitse #sneetchestoo #reyesstrand #moviegeek03 #captainstennerstar #tarlosbuddie

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smol-and-grumpy · 4 years

Text

Cross My Heart - CH.17

Pairing: Bodyguard!Dean x Reader; Chuck Shurley x Reader

Summary: After opening up a letter, the life as she knows it, changes forever. Her husband hires Dean Winchester to protect her but is Dean really who he said he was? And is her husband really worried about her safety?

Warnings: Flangst

WC: 2294

SERIES MASTERLIST

Dean’s been put on a stretcher, he still has a pulse and they are driving him to the nearest hospital while Y/N has to stay behind.

She knows that Dean’s in good hands, knows that he’s being taken care of but still, she wanted to go with him. Benny held her back, though.

“Hey, Y/N, watch this,” Benny winks at her as he slaps some handcuffs on Chuck's wrist and forces him to limp out of the studio on one leg.

Benny leans closer to her in passing, winks at her another time before he says, “The press has been informed and they’re waiting outside. Bet he likes that, huh?”

She follows them out, but steers clear of the press. One police officer is accompanying her to a vehicle, and has to go into the next police station to give her statement.

They release her after a couple of hours because she said that everything’s in the cabin but only Dean knew where it was and he has all the evidence on his phone and on his laptop. They would have to wait until Dean wakes up, and she hopes he does.

Benny had been with her the whole time, so at least she didn’t have to face the interrogation alone. It’s weird that Dean’s friends all care more about her than her own friend or husband ever did. Benny has also told her that they took Dean into surgery and he later also told her that he’s out but he’s not stable and they don’t know if he’ll survive.

She walks out of the police station ahead of Benny, and then it suddenly hits her. It hits her that she’s all alone. She doesn’t know where to go. Doesn’t have a car, doesn’t even have money or a phone on her. Her home is some odd hundred miles away, too. She wraps her arms around herself, wondering what she should do.

“I’ve arranged a hotel bed for you. It’s close to the hospital. And I got Cas to drive Dean’s car out here, so you can take him home when he can be released.”

“You’re very optimistic,”

“If you’ve been through what we’ve been through, hope is all you have and nobody can take that away from you.”

Y/N cries without meaning to and Benny takes her into his arms. “Hey, he’ll wake up, alright? Dean’s a fighter. Always have been. And really, it’s not much that I can do for you, but I hope it’s enough.”

Brushing her tears away from her face, she looks up at Benny, “Thank you. You didn’t have to.”

“Oh, I do,” Benny chuckles, “Dean saved me more times than I can count. One time he got shot because of me. So yeah, that’s the least I can do for him.”

“Thanks.” She says again, doesn’t know what else to say.

“Don’t worry about it,” He holds out his hand, brushes a tear away with the pad of his thumb, “I can drop you off at the hospital if you want?”

“Yeah,” She smiles then, “I’d like that.”

The woman at the front desk wouldn’t let her go in to see Dean unless she can prove that she’s a family member. And she has no backup either because Benny’s needed back at the police station. He just dropped her off with the name of the hotel, and slips her two fifty dollar bills to tie her over until Cas gets here.

But then she remembers. She remembers that she still has the ID in her pocket.

She takes it out, slams it on the table, “Here, I’m his wife. So please, can you tell me where my husband is?”

Y/N runs, runs as fast as her feet would take her, got shouted at too, because apparently you aren’t supposed to run in here. She just really doesn’t care. She finds his room, knocks at the door, but there’s no answer. Her hand twists the doorknob, opens it hesitantly. She’s nervous as hell.

The room is lit in a dim light, he’s alone because the other bed is empty. She hears machines beeping but that’s not the thing that makes her heart stop beating. It’s the sight of Dean who’s laying there, a tube in his mouth, and there’s a ventilator that pumps air into his lungs. His chest moves up and down.

Y/N takes a seat on the chair next to Dean’s bed. He looks so fragile. She absolutely hates how it physically hurts her to see him like this.

Taking his hand in hers, she squeezes it before she lays her forehead onto his arm. “I’m here,” She whispers, and she’s trying not to cry. Tries to be strong because he would want her to be strong, “Come back to me, do you hear me, Dean?” She pauses, takes her time to breathe like he taught her to, “I don’t know what to do without you, so you have to wake up, okay? Wake up and help guide me.”

She takes his hand in hers, rubs her fingers along his, feels the roughness of his palms. She kisses his knuckles, “Chuck’s in custody. Benny said he’ll most likely never get out again. I’m sorry about what happened, okay? And I know that you’ll be angry at me if I tell you that I’m sorry. I want you to come back and scold at me, okay?”

A nurse stands in the doorway, “Mrs. Winchester, I’m sorry but you have to leave. You can come again in,” The nurse pauses to look at her watch, “Four hours.”

“Sure,” She says, “I just—“

It’s like the nurse knows that Y/N needs a couple more minutes because she nods at Y/N and walks out. She’s sure that the nurse will come back soon.

“You know,” She whispers, “I know why you were looking at me the whole time. It’s me you wanted to see, right?” Her voice gets shaky again, “You wanted me to be the last thing you see.”

She sniffs, brushes at her eyes and nose, “Come back, Dean, you promised. You’re going to take me out, remember? I want that. I want all of it. I never said it, because I was confused about my feelings, but I love you, Dean. I really do. I’m the happiest when I’m with you.”

When the nurse shows up the second time, Y/N gets up and looks at him again. Dean’s not here, he’s still far away. She places a kiss onto his forehead before she slips out of the room.

Y/N takes a taxi to the nearest store that’s still open to buy essentials. She needs tampons, toothbrush and toothpaste, and water. Maybe a chocolate bar. And it should be dark because it should calm her down.

The taxi driver saw the state she’s in, and decided to stay and wait for her to take her to the hotel safely.

When she steps into her hotel room, she finds a couple of gray and black shirts, POLICE DEPARTMENT written over it. And there’s a note.

Thought you might need a change of clothes. Sorry they didn’t have pants in your size. - Benny

After she takes a shower, she gets into bed but sleep is a thing that never came.

***

Y/N told the hotel to wake her up on time to be at Dean’s side as soon as she can. She didn’t really have to because she’s been awake all night, zapping through TV channels. Chuck is the breaking news on every one of them.

When she arrives at hospital, she sees Cas waiting in the reception area and runs to greet him.

He takes her into his arms, rubs a hand over her back, “I’m sorry,” Cas says and he sits down, pulling her down with him, “Is there anything you need?”

“The police need Dean’s laptop, and I’ll probably need new clothes soon,” She says with a chuckle.

“Bobby went to the cabin last night. He’ll bring it here,” Cas says and then he smiles, “And we’ll go shopping as soon as Dean wakes up.”

Cas is so optimistic, too. It blows her mind. It’s as if they don’t accept anything else than Dean waking up and coming around again.

“Yeah,” She smirks, “Have you been to see him?”

“No, only family allowed and they said that he’s having a check up. Apparently he started to breath on his own about five minutes before I arrived here. Everyone was in a rush. I don’t know what’s going on now.”

“I’ll go ask,” She says, and walks over to the desk.

After a while she sits back next to Cas and starts to cry.

“Hey! What’s wrong?” Cas asks, pulls her into an embrace.

She cries but she’s smiling at him, “They said he’s awake.”

“Oh, thank god,” Cas places a hand on her shoulder, “See? Everything’s going to be okay,”

It’s another agonizing thirty minutes until the nurse who’s working the front desk walks towards them.

“Mrs. Winchester?”

Y/N looks up from a magazine she tried to read but didn’t get anything into her head anyway, “Yes?”

Cas’ eyes widen but she ignores him, ignores the grin on his face.

“You can go see him now,”

“Thanks,” She says and puts the magazine away. She takes a look at Cas.

“It’s okay, you’re his wife, you go first,” He winks, too.

She nods at Cas, and makes her way to Dean’s room. While she walks along the corridor, her heart thumps ridiculously fast in her chest.

The door stands ajar so she gets in.

Dean turns his head towards her, when he hears her. He flinches a little before his face turns bright. The crinkles start to crease around his eyes.

Y/N sits down, and bites back her tears. Fails, because one tear makes an escape and rolls down her cheek.

“Hey,” Dean chokes out. His voice is hoarse and she can tell that it hurts to speak from the way he flinches, “You okay?”

At that, she cries some more. How can he be the one that almost died and still asks her if she’s okay?

She nods. Because she is. She is, because he came back.

He brings his hand to her face, brushes at her tears, “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

Y/N has to chuckle at that, “I’m a mess.”

“You’re a hot mess,” He says and has to cough because he wanted to laugh.

“You’re here,” She stands up, and leans over a little, trails her fingers over his face, and feels the prickly stubble, “I thought I lost you.”

She kisses him then, first his cheek, his nose and his forehead. Dean leans towards her kisses, he grins at her affection, clears his throat and pushes the words off his tongue, “I would never leave you like that.”

“I’m sorry,” She says as she sits back down, “I didn’t know that Meg would betray me like that.”

Dean listens, he doesn’t say anything because it hurts, she knows. It’s enough that he listens. She needs to get it off her chest.

“I’m sorry that you got shot. If it helps, I shot Chuck.”

He raises his eyebrows.

“Right over his kneecap. Because I wanted him to live and rot in jail.”

He grins and then he speaks, even though it hurts him, “That’s my girl. And where did you aim?”

“His kneecap?” She shrugs.

Dean raises his eyebrows again, frowns a little, too.

She sighs and rolls her eyes, “Yeah, alright, I aimed at his crotch.”

He tries his best not to laugh, the vein on his forehead showing.

“What happened?” He asks after a long while and he holds her hand, squeezes it.

“Chuck promised Meg a million dollar. And she betrayed me by shooting you. Chuck shot her right in her face. He wanted to blame it on Meg. That she tried to kill me and to reach me she had to kill you too. Chuck wanted to play the hero, coming to our rescue but it would have been too late. Benny and the police showed up right after I shot Chuck. I was about to shoot again.”

“Benny looked after you?”

She nods, “He did.”

“Good. Cas?” Dean tries to keep his sentences short.

“Cas drove here with your car.”

“Oh no,”

“He’ll take back your motorcycle.”

“Oh no,”

She chuckles.

“Right, Cas’ right outside but you need to rest. We’ll go clothes shopping and we’ll be back.” She stands up and kisses his forehead.

When she’s about to turn to go, Dean pulls her back by her arm so hard he makes her stumble and fall back, landing half on top of him. He flinches but composes himself. For someone who almost died, he still has so much strength.

Dean doesn’t say anything, he just looks at her and then he kisses her bruisingly hard. When they part he looks at her again, “I saw you. I only saw you.” He says and she knows what he means. She nods with tears in her eyes, sees him smiling, “I love you, you know?”

She nods again, smiles, too, “I know. I love you too.” He kisses her again and then she gets off him. Dean’s eyes are wary, he’s visibly tired.

“Sleep, I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t flirt with Cas.”

She snorts at that, “I won’t.”

“You’ll be back when I wake up?” His lids are heavy, they’re almost closing.

“I’ll be right here. You won’t get rid of me so easily.” She smiles from the door.

“Promise?” His words are slurring.

“Cross my heart,” She says before she slips out of the room.

CH.18

@dean-winchesters-bacon @waywardbaby @flamencodiva @maddiepants @notyourtypicalrose @satans-0-spawn @foxyjwls007 @cosicas-cuquis @destielhoneybee @musicalmuffindog1410 @adoptdontshoppets @mariekoukie6661 @4fareader @deansyahtzee @onethirstyunicorn @deans-baby-momma @team-free-will-you-idjiot @sadbitch89 @becs-bunker @weepingwillowphoenix @deanwanddamons @miraclesoflove @atc74 @michellethetvaddict @traceyaudette @olichat @thevelvetseries @laphirablack @deansenwackles @winchesterxfamilybusiness @akshi8278 @jensengirl83 @squirrelnotsam @whatareyousearchingfordean @janicho88 @beautifulbowleggedangel @mylovelydame21 @gabavaldman @invisiblexnobodyximportant @vicmc624 @starryeyeseunbyul @parinarain @busy-bee-angel-misska @pansexualgrapes @addbibliophile @cookiechipdough @fandoms-fiend @coldmuffinbanditshoe @stoneyggirl @rvgrsbrns

#cross my heart #dean winchester #dean winchester x reader #bodyguard!dean #dean winchester fic #dean winchester fan fic #dean winchester fan fiction #nahtalie writes

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reineyday · 4 years

Text

some feelings abt touya and bnha 302 in general! (long post)

jesus this whooooole chapter makes me so so so sad for touya, like he's canonically a crier and i just have all these images now of him crying off to the side while enji looks at his other kids and gives them the time of day. knowing that he was/is a frustrated crier makes the fact that dabi cant cry cuz of his burned tear ducts that much sadder ohhman

one of the things i cant get over is how touya was SO shunned by his dad that when he went to go tell enji about his fire turning from red to blue, he says "i might be as awesome as shouto sooner or later!" like?? this boy is 13 and shouto is 5 yet he's talking like the brother that's eight years younger than him is better than him and thar it's just a fact. the sky is blue, enji wants to beat all might one day, and shouto is better than the rest of his siblings. nevermind that he's only five and just wants to play with his siblings (and dont even mention to me how shouto says he wants to play with "touya and them" cuz im gonna fucking cry abt it. like even though touya's accepted he's bottom of the ladder in this family, shouto clearly wants some sort of acknowledgement from his older siblings and especially his older brother. IM FVCKN SOBBN). enji has made it clear in this family that shouto was what he was looking for and everyone else is not as important, and i knew this from shouto's pov but it's kinda wild to see it implied so casually in touya's words.

"you'll be glad you created me! i just know it!" HOLY SHIT. god my heart. oh my fuck. literally all enji had to do was show up to the fucking mountain, and he couldnt even do that? what the hell?? your son asks you to go to the mountain, you tell your wife not to let him go traim but she said she couldnt stop him, and instead of going yourself to make sure he's okay and BECAUSE HE ASKED YOU TO COME (and with an actually valid reason, no less! fire changing colour is kind of a big fucking deal!!!) you just?? let him go and let him stay there??? my god the amount of times touya must have burned himself and the trees with tears in his eyes. ahhhHHH!!!

what kills me (and touya too soon?) was that we thought before the back story started that enji forced touya to train till he burned up. then when 290 came out--and definitely after 301--we thought maybe touya overtrained himself and burned up. and sure, he was definitely overtraining, but to find out that the burns that "killed" him started just bc he was crying so much he lost control and didnt know how to ease up on his flames? he was upset and literally trying to get himself to stop crying, and then he just set himself aflame and burned up cuz of all his emotions??? that HURTS. holy fuck.

i cant believe natsuo's feeling lowkey guilty for not socking enji in the face like he wasnt EIGHT???? and let's be real, enji woukdnt have fucking listened to natsuo telling him to talk to touya--he already wasnt listening when touya would straight up say "look at me" and when even rei said touya just wanted enji to look at him and notice him. listen, i know sometimes miscommunications happen in families and children are embarrassed to admit they want attention and so their parents remain unaware that theyre not giving their kid something they want, but touya was as clear as can be on MANY occasions, and even rei agreed touya needed the attention and enji just wasnt listening.

also i know there was discourse abt touya being sexist by telling natsu that "the women in this house are good for nothing" and mb it was partly diff translations cuz i feel like saying "this house" makes it specific to rei and yumi instead of all women everywhere, but even disregarding that--i think it's a valid thought for him to have when rei wasnt standing up for him (where he could see, at least) and yumi admitted herself that she was too scared to interfere and so just tried to fix things and keep appearances. i feel like based on what touya's seen from them, it makes sense that he has that opinion. (also gonna mention that i think rei's and yumi's choices also make sense and i think they were valid, seeing as how they were afraid as well.)

and poor natsu being woken up in the middle of the night (what was implied to be often enough, esp cuz it seemed they share a room and their futons are close) bc of touya's pain. that's a lot of emotional responsibility for an eight year old, and it is also so sad that at 13, touya didnt have anyone else to turn to but his kid brother. at 13, i remember being fully aware of the distinction in maturity between an 8 year old and myself, and it sucks that touya couldnt go to anyone but a younger child with all his pain. i bet yumi being too scared to interfere translated to touya as "she wouldnt help me" and thats another reason he didnt go to the 2nd oldest when he needed to vent. (also not related to this but how the FUCK was natsuo so tall at 8 years old? wh a t)

this chapter. this fucking chapter. my heart aches for touya, and it's just such a huge fucking shame he didnt get the attention and validation and support he needed. there must have been workarounds so that touya could safely use his quirk. there weere DEFINITELY better ways to support your son through a self-destructive quirk, ways that involved actually being there and seeing him. i feel like if someone showed him the attention he needed and talked him through how to better control his emotions (and by extension, his flames) and a positive and healthy way, he could have been someone so great. and if he ever learned how to set aside the way he felt infefior to shouto and saw that shouto just wanted to play with his cool older siblings, it might have been really beneficial to see that there was someone there who thinks he's cool and gave him attention just bc he was an older brother, who needed him when everyone else in the househild didnt seem to need him.

and lastly, the fact that the chapter ends with rei saying that shouto is the family hero and that shouto will have to face dabi?? and it makes me angry that shouto has to take on that responsibility. that he was five and suffering for things he wasnt even a part of, couldnt be properly aware of, bc he was so young. he just saw that he was separated from his siblings and that his dad bullied his mom, then grew up shouldering enji's heavy goals and high expectations and abusive training alongside the barely-there memories of his older brother who died (i say barely there bc if natsu didnt even know shouto liked cold soba, shouto was definitely not around enough to have solid memories of touya before he "died"), and now he has to do the emotional labour of fighting his villain brother (who i bet shouto lowkey empathizes with when he thinks abt it late at night) as well as suffer the physical consequences of that agni kai. and it makes me angry that he has to do that, bc he's a Good Guy and he probably feels he has some sort of filial and familial responsibility. he's only 16. he just wanted to play with touya and them, and now he has to deal with this horse shit dabi's causing cuz his dad's an emotionally neglecting asshat who couldnt see past his dumb fucking ego until he saw shouto play with a bunch of kids during shou's remedial exam a decade after his eldest son burned himself to death. what the fuckety fuck.

lastly, since we saw touya burn uo the way he did... did he really just like... burn so much his jaw fell off, and that's how they found the jawbone? cuz holy hot (BURNING too soon???) damn that must have been painful as all hell. i wonder if next chapter we get to see if someone found touya at the park and helped him out and sorted out the jaw bone thing, or if we finally get to see if deku wakes up lol.

anyways this chapter hurt my heart big time, and i kinda wanna draw kid touya crying while being overlooked by his family to let out some of those feelings but we'll see.

and i still stand by my idealistic and naively optimistic hope that dabi gets redeemed and they soend some actually time together as a family (without enji. or at least, with an enji that has apologized to touya in seiza. like, forehead-to-floor apologize.)

does this hope sort out how dabi redeems himself, seeing as how he's murdered people in cold blood and shouldnt be excused for that bc those actions are also inarguably terrible? no. not sure how he could redeem himself for that kinda stuff honestly, but it doesnt mean i dont still somehow want the todoroki sibs to get along, cuz im weak for mending families.

also id like to send a huge kudos out into the world to rei todoroki for being firm for once and for also not running away from her mistakes like her asshole husband has been. i really admire and respect that. she was afraid and being abused, but now that she's been away from enji and has had time to heal, now that her and shouto are in the mend and she's seen that her eldest son is alive and a villain, she's a place where she can acknowledge that even though she was a victim too, she played a part in touya's emotional neglect and she's taking responsibility and that speaks to some incredible fucking strength. damn.

i hope one day that dabi realizes the same in regards to his mother and natsuo, who shouldered a lot of his emotional pain and suffered the consequences of his outbursts (even though his emotions are valid and his outbursts understandable, he still hurt rei and put a lot of pressure on natsu), and i also hope he sees that for all that he hates his father, his whole existence revolves around enji and it's a shitty place to be (and then he'll have ANGST abt it and that shit will be!! so good!!!)

yeah i think those were all my feelings. i had so many lol. their family situation is so difficult, i hope they all turn out okay and alive and healing.

oh i guess i also wanted to say that i kept calling enji an asshat and asshole cuz he was for sure, but i still think his redemption is valid and im glad he's taking those steps to be a better person by being a better father. i dont know if id want his family to forgive him for all that horrible shit he put them through (im personally hoping that no matter what anyone else does, natsuo will choose to to cooperate in the healing of his family as a unit but will never forgive enji) but i think it's good of people to try to be better than they were yesterday regardless of whether or not they get forgiveness. i dont personally like enji, but i dont hate that he's getting a redemption. i just hope it's a redemption that makes sense and forces him to put in the work, and isnt something like a death sacrifice for shouto or dabi. i want him to be alive and i want his redemption process to hurt like a fucking bitch while he forces himself to make better choices and be a better person, cuz redemption isnt supposed to be easy in the slightest. i GUESS all the crying he did in 302 was a good start.

anyways, if for some reason you read all the way down to the bottom--hello! and thanks for reading haha. cheers! :)))

#rei rambles #bnha #bnha 302 #todorokis #todoroki touya

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one-leaf-grimoire · 4 years

Text

crocodile tears

Chapter 1: in which marina has the worst day of her life

Hi! And welcome! Yes, I am publishing the first chapter of this fic on my Black Clover blog, I know it’s a little bizarre. Ahem. Anyway- I hope you guys will read this and enjoy it if you like jojo! I know there’s plenty of overlap between these two fandoms. DM or inbox me if you’d like to be added to the taglist!

Synopsis: Marina considers herself to be a normal teenager, despite both being the daughter of a senator and the center of many bizarre happenings throughout her life. However, everything gets turned upside down when her whole family is kidnapped. In that moment of fear, something within her awakens. Little does she know, this power is called a Stand, and she has caught the eye of the worst person imaginable. Marina must learn to master her stand, and decide where her loyalties lie: with the man who saved her life or with her newfound friends?

Warnings: Violence, frightening scenes, language, and Dio being toxic lol

March 6th, 1988

Cool water enveloped her body. Everything was cloaked in a sea green haze.

She was laying on the bottom of the riverbed, staring up at the muted sun. A crocodile swam by, almost lazily. It did not notice her, and she didn't feel scared.

It was just a crocodile.

"Marina... Marina, wake up already!"

Something cold and clammy grasped the 17-year-old girl's foot. Marina let out a scream and quickly recoiled under the soft white linens on her bed. "Five more minutes, mom!"

Marina’s mother scowled at her only daughter. She was already dressed in long, light pants and a tropical looking shirt. An over-sized hat adorned her head atop dark brown hair, a few shades lighter than her only daughter's. "Marina, we have five minutes before the ship docks. Dad's already gone up to eat."

"Well, that's just Dad," the girl grumbled back, pulling the covers more tightly around her shoulders, as if this cocoon would keep her safe from her mother's impending wrath. "He gets up early every day, that shouldn't mean that we also have to be up at the crack of dawn."

"It's not the crack of dawn, it's nearly ten o'clock already. The ship is running a little early, so we'll have more time to explore Alexandria."

Marina's only reply was a grunt. Her mother sighed. "What is it with you this morning?" She shook her head and swung her bag over her shoulder. "I'll be up on the top deck watching us dock. It's nice and warm outside, so dress accordingly. We'll see you in five minutes, or it's going to be a very long time before you get to go on another cruise, young lady." A few moments later, and the door shut.

Marina groaned and finally blinked her eyes open, immediately feeling the pounding pain of a migraine wash over her temple. Ouch... did I have a nightmare last night? Usually I sleep like a baby on these cruises.

Marina and her family had been on numerous cruises throughout her life. Her father, Mitchell Porosus was a state senator, and earned a comfortable paycheck, so the Porosus family was able to go on trips whenever congress was on a break. Marina wished her dad was around more, but overall the family dynamic was happy and harmonious. Marina had her 17th birthday recently, and this cruise was supposed to be a celebration of that.

“You know what that means?” her father had told her that day. “You’re the same age as the Dancing Queen! You know, the song? Dancing Queeeen, young and sweeet, only seventeeen-”

Of course they were in public when they said that, so Marina was horribly embarrassed by her father’s terrible singing voice. For someone with a public reputation, he sure didn’t mind ruining it!

But in the end, it was sweet. Her father loved ABBA and Elton John, and Marina imagined that the two of them would dance to Dancing Queen or Tiny Dancer at her wedding.

Marina loved her dad and mom, and that was the reason why she finally dragged herself down from the bunkbed. From their room on the second level, she could see the dock inching closer and closer. With a yawn, Marina turned and walked into the bathroom, where she finally was able to look upon her tired face in the mirror. Her short, black hair was frizzled, but a few brush strokes later reverted it to its usual sleek form. Marina stretched her arms above her head, wincing a little as she heard her shoulders pop. Jeez, good thing I don’t have a swim meet today, my joints are all out of whack. Her blue-grey eyes, still bloodshot from a fitful sleep, harbored a major case of the dark circles. Nothing a little makeup couldn't fix.

A few minutes later, Marina was finally dressed in some high waisted jeans and a non-descript tank top. She had her trusty mirrored sunglasses on, yet the sunlight from the window was enough to make her eyes water. Leaving her room, she walked down the hallway, strutting with her hands deep in her pockets, her fingers running over the ID card given to her upon embarkation. Marina Porosus.

"Finally, there you are," her father greeted when she made it down to the gangway. "Ready to see Egypt?"

Her father was a tall man, with jet black hair like Marina's. While her mother's eyes were a warm brown, his were blue. He looked like your stereotypical senator, even if he didn’t act like it.”

"Do they even have any pyramids in this town?" Marina asked, a bit apathetically.

Her mother shook her head. "No pyramids, but there used to be a library here, the library of Alexandria!"

Marina raised an eyebrow. "Used to be? Well, what's here now?"

Her parents were at a loss for words. "Well, why don't we go see!" her father exclaimed optimistically, throwing his arms around his daughter and wife.

For the first time that morning, Marina smiled. Even if it was just her parents and her, the three of them would have a good time.

Alexandria was lively place, full of noise and life. Most of it was centered around the port, where the single cruise ship was docked. It was like any other port Marina had visited, except the air was much more dry than the Caribbean. Even Italy was more humid. Marina walked behind her parents as they made their way farther inland. “There’s some ancient ruins I want to check out,” her father said excitedly. “And are you still curious about the Library of Alexandria, Marina?”

Marina shrugged. “Was I curious to begin with?”

“Yes!” her father asserted. “Anyway, there’s a museum all about it farther inland. The walk is a little long, but it’ll be fun!”

Marina sighed, shaking her head a little. She knew her father had enough money to rent a cab, but he was stubborn and insisted that walking “built character.”

“Tarot card readings! Have your fortune told by the Tarot!”

For some reason, Marina’s feet stalled. Slowly, she stopped, then turned her head towards the source of the voice.

No... it wasn’t the voice that drew her there.

It was... something else.

Like magnetism. Gravity. Marina’s gaze fell upon a short, clocked figure, sitting at the mouth of an alley. The voice was feminine, wracked with age, but Marina couldn’t be sure. For a moment, she almost kept walking, but a moment of hesitation was all it took.

“Dad! Can I get my fortune told?”

Her parents stopped and looked back at her. Her father eyed the fortune teller suspiciously. “Ah, Marina, you don’t believe that stuff, do you?”

“So? It’ll still be fun.” Marina looked back over at the fortune teller. She still had that weird feeling, like that person was someone she knew. “Anyway, Tarot Card readings originated in ancient Egypt, so isn’t this a good experience to have while here?”

Well, her father couldn’t deny that. “Here-” He handed the cloaked figure a twenty dollar bill. “Will this suffice?”

“Certainly.” A deck of cards appeared from under the sleeve of their cloak, and instantly shuffled itself. They spread out across the makeshift table. A wrinkled hand gestured at the line. “Go ahead... pick three, my dear.”

Slowly, Marina reached down. With one finger, she slid one card forward, then another, and then a third. The fortune teller swept them up immediately and placed them face up. Marina’s eyes narrowed as she saw the pictures on the cards, but couldn’t read the writing on them. “So? What does it mean?”

With a soft chuckle, a withered finger pointed at the first. “This card represents your past... This is the Six of Wands card! Confidence, recognition, and success... you’ve known all three throughout your life.”

Marina gulped, shrugging a little. Maybe... but everyone’s had some sort of success in their life! That seems a little too broad.

“And this is the present-” They gestured at the middle card. “This is the Tower Card... it represents catastrophic change, and... awakening.”

Awakening? That’s interesting... I don’t know what that could be.

“Tell me...” Marina looked up to see an eye peering out from behind the hood. It narrowed curiously. “This card is one of the Major Arcana... it represents a milestone in your life. You must have noticed, then... even if you don’t know quite yet...”

Marina wasn’t sure she liked the way the fortune teller was spinning this. I haven’t noticed anything like that! “Okay... and the last card is the future?”

“Yes, yes...”

The fortune teller’s finger fell upon the face of the last card. Unlike the first two, it was reversed, facing away from Marina. “This card, when reversed, represents dissatisfaction, delays, and... an endless, fruitless search for closure.”

Marina felt a chill go down her neck.

“The World.”

The family left the fortune teller behind after that. Even as they searched farther inland, visiting temples and museums, Marina could not shake the slowly growing pit of dread in her stomach.

A few hours later, it was almost time to get back on the ship. The problem was that the small family had made their way a little too far inland and were now in real danger of being left behind.

"This is all your fault, dad!" Marina scolded as she jogged behind her parents. There was a taxi station nearby where they could get transport to the port. "You always geek out over this historical stuff and make us late to things!"

"Well, your mother wanted to get that hat from that store back there, too, so I'm not the only one to blame," he yelled back. "In any case, we can just hop on a taxi and-" His face fell, and the family skidded to a halt. The entire plaza was slammed, bumper to bumper traffic as far as they could see. "Mitchell, we're definitely going to miss the boat," her mom said quietly. Of course, Senator Porosus stayed enthusiastic, shaking his head. "No, we'll make it if we run."

Marina groaned as her father and mother started to run again. "Seriously?" It wasn't that Marina couldn't keep up; she had been swimming her entire life and had great stamina. It was just so damn hot out.

"If you hurry, we'll make it back in time for dinner," her mother encouraged, spurring Marina on into a true run.

With her dad leading the way, the trio raced down the street towards where they thought the port was. There were a lot of people walking on the sidewalks, but it wasn't hard to weave between them without disturbance. Marina craned her neck and, with a ton of relief, spied the top of their ship up ahead. "I can see it, Dad!" she exclaimed, already thinking about what she was going to eat for dinner tonight. "We're going to make it!"

"Here, let's cut through this road." He pointed at an alley that seemingly cut over to where the embarkation area was. "We can beat some of the line as well."

"Perfect!" Marina changed course and ran ahead of her parents and into the alleyway.

For a moment, the sounds of the busy streets died away, leaving only three pairs of footsteps slapping their way down the stone path. The buildings on either side were tall enough to block out the afternoon sun, leaving them in a comfortable chill.

Up ahead was a corner. Marina quickened her pace and turned into...

A dead end.

"Shit," her dad exclaimed, earning him a sharp kick in the shin from his wife. "Ah, excuse my french. Back luck, huh." He shrugged, ever optimistic. "Well, I guess we can double back and keep running."

"Yeah," Marina’s mom agreed.

Marina sighed. What a let down! Well, it wouldn't take too long to get back, at least, at this rate we’ll make in in time-

Marina turned around to see that five men, all armed with guns, had cornered them in the dead end.

"Look at this, just the man we were looking for!” one of them pointed at Marina’s dad. “This is the senator we were told to capture? He doesn’t look like much.”

“Don’t worry, this is him... Senator Porosus, a friend of yours sends this message:” one of the men grinned. “You’ve been in my way for too long, Mitch. It’s time for me to put the fear of God in you. Enjoy your extended stay in Egypt!”

“What? Who hired you?” Mitchell gulped and pulled his wife and daughter behind him. Marina felt her mom's cold hand clutch her arm. This time, she didn't try to shrug it off. “I’ve done nothing but get along with everyone. They all want to see me reach the top! I’m gonna be President one day-”

“We’ll see about that.” The man in charge raised his gun. “For now, come to our truck. We’ll make you and your family comfortable until someone generous pays your ransom.”

Oh no, they had a truck somewhere.

"Look... I don’t care what you do to me.” Senator Porosus said, his voice shaking a little. For someone in so much danger, he was staying pretty composed. “But leave my family out of it!”

“Mitchell-” Marina’s mother whispered, her grip on Marina loosening slightly. “Just do what they say, and-” She was cut off with a scream as one of the men yanked her away from her family.

Marina's eyes widened. Shit! This is actually happening- It was like a scene from a movie, some horrible, scary movie, and panic spiked through Marina’s veins. "MOM! DAD!" Someone grabbed Senator Porous as well, and now two more were advancing towards Marina.

"Don’t even try, you’re just going to get hurt!” one of the guys said with a twisted grin. Marina screamed and struggled anyway as her arms were twisted behind her body.

No... NO!

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. This was supposed to be their last stop before flying home, where Marina would finish up the year and enjoy the summer with her friends. But now-

Catastrophic change... and-

With one last burst of strength, Marina wrenched her arm away, freeing herself for a moment. She turned around, her eyes wide and crazed with adrenaline.

Awakening.

The gun leveled at her head was suddenly crunched into a flat piece of scrap metal. The man holding it didn’t have a moment to realize what had happened, because numerous spots of his arm suddenly burst with blood.

He opened his mouth to scream, stumbling back, but it was as if something was clamped down on his arm, hard. Bones crunched as he was suddenly wrenched to the side, and the movement sent him flying into the nearby brick wall.

Marina froze.

What- what on earth-

But then something hit her in the back of the head, hard, and she fell back down to the bottom of the river.

The crocodile continued to circle high above.

And that’s chapter one!!!! I hope you guys are intrigued 0.0 Please comment/inbox/etc if you have any theories or thoughts, I always appreciate them! I’ll probably post the next chapter on Friday. I changed a couple things to make the story flow better than it did when I first released it. Anyway, see you next time!

Also, did anyone catch the meaning of Marina’s last name? hehe...

#jojo's bizarre adventure #fic #crocodile tears #oc: marina #jjba

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melodious-madrigals · 4 years

Text

firsts

My first (ha!) little one-shot for the @wondertrevnet‘s wondertrevbingo2020

Prompt: firsts Word Count: 1460 Rating: General Audiences (+one swear word, I guess) Summary: Steve finds out that Diana missed out on an important part of childhood (and, frankly, adulthood) and endeavors to rectify that.

Read below the cut! Or on AO3.

***

"When is your birthday?" Steve asks, one morning, slightly out of the blue. "I've just realized that I have no idea."

Diana looks up from her computer, where she's reading the news. (Steve was a little disappointed to learn, when he woke up in the 21st century, that print newspapers are somewhat obsolete, but their morning routine hasn't suffered too much for it.)

"I don't either," Diana admits.

"Wait, what?"

"My mother used to tell me her story about my birth—creation—but she never said when it was."

"You mean—you didn't celebrate?"

Diana laughs. "No, we didn't. Time is a slightly different concept on Themyscira. We track the seasons and the years, but they do not mean nearly so much as they do here."

"But you never—you never got a party? You never got a cake?"

Diana shakes her head. "We rarely fêted an individual; when we celebrated, it was about the community."

It makes sense, from what Steve knows about the Amazons, but it still shocks him that no one ever celebrated Diana's existence. (He does that quietly every day, but he generally thinks everyone should. He also can't believe that no one thought to celebrate when she was a child.)

"Really," says Diana. "It's hardly an issue."

"Out of curiosity, what does your passport say, then?" Steve asks, because he knows he's seen her passport, but can't for the life of him remember anything except her unfairly attractive picture. (No one's government-issued ID should look that good, not even a goddess's.)

"Oh," says Diana. "My mother once made mention that the olive trees were in blossom when I came to be, and that usually happens at the end of April into May, so I just chose the first of May, back in 1918, and never changed it."

"At least you get your birthday off every year," says Steve.

"A happy accident, yes." Assuming the conversation has reached its natural end, Diana goes back to her article and Steve stares into his coffee cup, scheming.

Steve's family, back at the end of the 19th century, was not wealthy by any stretch. His father was a farmer, and his mother was an immigrant who came to the country with literally nothing but the clothes on her back. He and his siblings worked before and after their school day, and everything they had was homemade or secondhand or both. But every year, without fail, his mother made each of them a birthday cake and managed to make the day special.

He can't imagine ignoring a child's birthday, and even though he knows it wasn't a malicious thing on Hippolyta's part—simply a difference in priorities—he can't help but be indignant on Diana's behalf.

It's a simple solution, really. May 1st is coming up.

He's going to make Diana a birthday cake. And throw her a birthday party, while he's at it.

He makes detailed plans, and sends invites to their friends, emphasizing that it's meant to be a surprise party. There's a fine line to walk between big enough to be a proper party, and low-key enough that it's something she'll genuinely enjoy.

He decides, in the end, to make it like one of their house parties, but slightly bigger, and with cake.

He has a little bit of trouble deciding what her first birthday cake should be.

Carrot cake is a contender, but doesn't scream 'birthday' to him, and lemon, though delicious, seems too formal, somehow. He ends up back at chocolate, and decides to spruce it up with raspberries. (He watches Bake Off, okay? He knows you need good flavor balance.)

Steve has several elaborate excuses planned for what Diana may need to leave the apartment to get, so that everyone can arrive for the surprise. As it turns out, he needs none of them.

"You're going into work? Diana, it's a national holiday!" he exclaims.

"Not in the United States," she says simply. "And the MET is being very difficult about the piece we're trying to get on loan from them for the upcoming exhibit. If I miss this meeting they've suddenly called for, they will use it against us."

"What time will you be home?" asks Steve, dismayed and trying to calculate the time difference.

"Six, maybe seven if I'm lucky. Later if I'm not. I have no idea how long they have budgeted for arguing about trades."

Steve knows from experience that this is optimistic, and will skew towards the later end of her estimate. The Americans are second only to the British in terms of both their unwillingness to part with artifacts for even the smallest amount of time and general bitchiness.

Since Steve has 18h30 earmarked as the arrival time, he pleads, "Please try to be home by seven. And call, on your way home, so that I can have wine chilled."

"Will do," says Diana, and kisses him on her way out the door.

In the end, it all works out in his favor. People like to be fashionably late, so the last stragglers are arriving at quarter past seven when Diana calls to say she's finally on her way home.

"We reached an agreement, finally," she says, the pleasure apparent in her voice. "And we did not even have to go beyond the pre-approved inducement reciprocal-loan pieces!"

"That's excellent! I'll see you soon. We'll celebrate."

Diana is none the wiser to his cheeky comment.

"Bisous, ciao."

Fifteen minutes later, Steve has everyone wrangled and ready, when he hears the key in the door.

"Happy birthday, Diana!" everyone shouts as she enters.

"What's all this?" The shock on her face is evident, and there's confusion too, but so far he doesn't pick up on any annoyance.

"We're celebrating your existence," announces Steve, from his spot at the back of the room, "because you make each and every one of our lives better, Diana. Plain and simple. Happy birthday, love."

A cheer goes up, and friends crowd to hug Diana and offer greetings.

He can see her smile from across the room, the way her eyes light up as she hugs her friends and chats with them. Satisfied, he slips into the kitchen to arrange some of the food, and make sure the cake is ready for the rousing chorus of happy birthday that'll come in due time.

He's put lots of candles in the cake, and written Happy Birthday, Diana! in neat cursive across the top of the third tier, and piped raspberry-flavored buttercream roses around the bottom. It's pretty spectacular work for an amateur, if he does say so himself.

Their friends tell her to make a wish and blow out the candles, and her eyes meet his, bright in the low light and full of promise, just before she turns and manages to extinguish all of them in one breath. Her friends cheer again, and they cut the cake.

(It tastes pretty good, too.)

Later, she finds him on their terrace, chatting with Amélie from down the hall, who quickly extricates herself to go find more punch, and possibly her wife, Meriem.

Diana knocks her shoulder gently against his. "You made me a birthday cake," she says, sounding a little choked up.

"I did," he says lightly.

"I've never had a birthday cake before."

The way she says it, Steve's heart breaks just a little bit again. Never mind celebrating on Themyscira, she's been in a world that very much does observe birthday culture for a hundred years and no one has ever thought to make her a cake? "It was high time you got one, obviously."

"You're miraculous, you know?"

"Okay, the cake wasn't that good."

A desperate little laugh escapes her throat. "This isn't really about the cake. Which was excellent, by the way. It's just—you. You made me my first birthday cake and threw me my first birthday party, just because you could."

"Wow, the bar is so low." He's trying not to telegraph how appalled he really is, but Diana continues as though he hasn't spoken.

"And you did it in a way that I would enjoy."

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response. You know what? No, I am: there'd've been no point to doing it if you were going to be miserable."

Diana snorts, because this whole thing is so Steve. Quietly, deeply thoughtful, with a little bit of self-deprecating bravado. "I love you."

"I love you too, and I'm going to aggressively make you a cake on every birthday from now on."

Another proper laugh bubbles up. "I suspected as much."

She gets a birthday cake every year after, without fail, although none of them ever taste quite as sweet to her memory as the first one.

***

Fin!

#wondertrev #wondertrevbingo2020 #fluff #Diana x Steve #lenci writes #lmao i bet firsts was meant to be like first meeting or first kiss or first time but i am here to bring you NONE of that

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bladekindeyewear · 5 years

Photo

Bloggin’ bout HS^2′s second upd8 continued. > (==>)

And it had felt so real, almost like he could have reached out and touched him--

--Yeah, the next page is gonna be BGDirk just standing there like I saw before I read the update, right?

> (==>)

Two pages. Close enough.

> (==>)

Hah! Get fucked, Dirk. (Even if you’re supposedly one of the better Dirks.)

> (==>)

Yep, all see-thru and everything.

DIRK: You passed out in a puddle of your own drool. And what the fuck is that on your face? JAKE: My face? What do you mean on my face? DIRK: The moustache, Jake. Who’s idea was that. JAKE: Oh! You dont like it? DIRK: I didn’t say that.

Oh come the fuck on. He looks good in a mustache, Jane-influence or no Jane-influence.

DIRK: We’ve had this conversation before, dingus. I’m you. And I’m me. But I only exist because of your powers. The fact that I’m manifesting here, in the new universe, outside of a dream, is evidence in itself for just how absolutely boned you are.

Now what exactly do you mean by that last part? How is this a sign of trouble?

--Is it because this Dirk thinks he’s needed? And therefore shit will be going down?

DIRK: You’ve been a useless sack of shit for two decades. I’m here to kick your ass back into active duty.

...Hm.

I mean, Jake MIGHT be able to help stop this stupid goddamn war, but this IS Dirk trying to help him, so...

JAKE: And what side am i supposed to be fighting on? for jane or against her? DIRK: Against her. Obviously. What the fuck, dude.

Pffff.

JAKE: But you were the one who wanted her to run in the first place! You wrote her bloody speeches! DIRK: Yeah, I did. And every single one of them kicked ass. I wanted Jane to be the democratically elected president. Not a cake-slinging Jeff Bezos with a great rack.

Pfff. I mean, you didn’t do a great job the first way, either. It’s heavily implied things in Canon-land were about to go to shit too.

Not as FAR to shit, nor as quickly, but still to shit. So, really, how DIFFERENT is this from the way you wanted it done, Dirk? How can you claim this isn’t half YOUR fuck-up too?

DIRK: Don’t worry about it. The point is, you have a chance to make a difference. You’re in the perfect position to infiltrate her operation.

Oh hell no. Don’t send him back in THERE you utter horse’s ass! How could THAT be good for his mental health!? What the fuck about Tavros?!?

DIRK: That’s horseshit and we both know it. Jane would take you back in a second. She loves you.

I think Jane’s definition of “taking him back” would be a bit broader than his body or soul could fucking afford.

> (==>)

Eugh. You really liked the Condesce’s way of doing things right down to her style, huh? To think you used to love the spoon. Is that a fucking spork? Is that zilly Battlespork your go-to weapon now?

Also, it took me a moment to realize those green and orange silhouettes were Jake and BGDirk. I was a little like “how did Rose get here?!?”.

> (==>)

Have I mentioned how good all this art is? So much attention being paid to the use of color, to making everything look so soft and streamlined?

Looks like she’s going in for at LEAST a hug. And the art style might be mercifully light on showing us indulgent details of just how asset-laden Jane is supposed to be. Shots of Jake’s manly bod aside, something in me doesn’t like the traditionally-sexualized stuff pushed like that in a canon that’s been light on it for so long...

> (==>)

Oh, that... THAT looks fake. Or like, she’s about to turn around and happily wail on his ass or something.

JANE: Boo hoo hoo! Oh, Jake! Something awful has happened! JAKE: It--it has? You mean more awful than usual? JANE: The opposition has taken Tavros, Jake. They’ve finally shown their true colors. I knew it was only a matter of time before they attacked our family directly!

.....Ah. Well, that explains it. She’d never cry like that about HIM returning AFTER STEPPING OUT ON HER.

It’s then that Jake realizes that Jane isn’t mad because she’d never realized he was gone.

Poor pages, huh? All their most dramatic gestures always undercut.

...It seems like we might see Candy kind of resolved in less of a fucked-up worldstate after all, at this rate?

She seems to have forgotten that she’d been cross with him the last time they met, because now that Gamzee is gone, there’s no one left to talk to.

It’s true. Gamzee’s absence always improves things.

> (==>)

All of it is made worse by the occasional wry glint in her eye, or moment of self-deprecation in the slant of her mouth. It reminds him of the Jane he used to know. Or the Jane he thought he used to know.

Ambition is a hell of a thing. Seems like she’s drunk of it almost as deeply as Prince Dirk. I’d imagine this could be a pretty consistent thing with really active Life players when they get actual power, huh? The way it just gathers to Life players in all its forms -- power over others, status, wealth -- it’s easy to start to leverage it in ways that constitute abuse of power over others from a Riddle perspective.

At first Dirk stands at Jake’s elbow, a one-ghost support staff, before he appears to lose interest in Jane’s rant and wanders off across the office, reading the spines of books and spending way too long staring at a startlingly phallic piece of installation art,

--PLEASE let us see it.

, the provenance of which Jake doesn’t know, but could hazard a guess it wore a codpiece.

Nope, never mind. Interest lost.

> (==>)

Then he settles on Jane’s desk, propping his ghost butt there and sort of just...well. Here’s a picture of what he does.

Um.

Where is this going?

> (==>)

Oh, so the BEST option, then. :D

Okay. That’s a bit of an exaggeration.

Boooooo.

> (==>)

--Alright, forgiven.

he’s thoroughly exhausted from attempting to pay attention to his supervillain wife while trying not to look at the crotch of a ghost man from his brain.

...Okay, hold up. BGDirk, are you trying to steer him into doing this for self-indulgent, non-comedic purposes? Or is this a bit of Prince Dirk in there? (I mean... I can’t definitively say Jake wouldn’t have wanted this.)

And I’m still wondering how all of this is going to be relevant. IF it’s going to be relevant. Despite promises to the contrary that are seemingly being ignored.

> (==>)

DIRK: All according to keikaku.

Fuck you.

JAKE: i really didnt think id fall off the wagon so quickly. I dont think being here is good for my emotions to be honest. DIRK: Yeah, probably not. But that’s okay. They don’t matter. JAKE: Oh.

Yeah, Dirk, you suck at this more than you know. This ain’t going to go as well as you “hope” I don’t think.

DIRK: Don’t know anything about stiff lips, dude. But that’s not what I mean. It’s not because you’re a man. You’re a god. JAKE: Oh right. That. DIRK: The world comes first, even at the expense of all your relationships and personal happiness. That’s what being a hero means. JAKE: I guess...i never really thought about it like that.

You’re also not guaranteed to be fucking right, you know.

There are definitely dichotomies where what was best for the world wasn’t best for the person, so far, and vice versa in Homestuck. But Dirk’s taking his anime-flavored principles as gospel as usual, and ignoring, oh I dunno, the impact of the heart in all of this. Some people, ESPECIALLY JAKE and other Pages so far, CAN’T operate at their best until they’re at least reasonably healthy and sure of themselves, and investments to that effect are essential to letting them slowly realize their full potential. Brain Ghost Dirk is likely making the same goddamn mistake he made with his overbearing Dirkbot back on Jake’s island.

> (==>)

DIRK: Think what you want about Jane, but at least she realizes that none of you can ever be normal, and she never bothered to try. Can it really be a god-complex if you’re actually a god? DIRK: People like us don’t get happy endings.

...Yup. This is the fucked-over part of Dirk’s worldview coming in full play, here. And he believes in it so strongly that he couldn’t even fucking leave NON-CANON alone anymore. Fuck.

JAKE: Thats bleak dirk i dont think i could possibly believe that!

Mmmhmm.

DIRK: Yeah. That’s probably more a Dirk thought than a Jake one. I told you, it’s hard to tell sometimes. JAKE: Is...is that really how dirk felt the whole gosh darned time?

Mmmhmm.

> (==>)

Last page of the upd8. Well... all I can say is, it’s a good thing he’s a fucking ghost here. And half Jake, at that. At least that can limit the damage. Hopefully giving Jake just enough of a kick in the doing-something direction without being so overbearing that he makes things worse, making for a balance of...

...Wait.

Wait, is that why we’re here?

Maybe that finally makes some sense of all this. Of this cut, of this small violation of that last sentence in Meat, of-- ah, yeah, I might be on to something here! Only maybe, but still--!

We’re quite possibly bearing witness to a realm of influence where, through measures outside of his control, Dirk has a balanced impact. Where this same ideology of his, tempered by Jake’s hopeful mindset and Dirk’s inability to take direct action, might just manage to make things better and actually make everyone happier by the end, while solving Earth C’s fucked-up Candyland state at the same time. It’s possibly to show the readers (through the lens of a Hope player specializing in positive possibility) that Dirk, had he been restrained, COULD have had a positive impact, even at the same time that we’re shown Prince Dirk at his soul’s most overblown and heinous.

And, if we want to be optimistic..... perhaps this’ll show Dirk, too?

Canon and Non-Canon may not “meet” again. But that doesn’t stop Dirk, via this fragment of his multiverse-spanning soul, from seeing Non-Canon. From seeing how well things COULD have worked out, had he held back. And if we keep cutting like this -- back and forth between the “real” story and these events in Candyverse -- perhaps the moment at which Brain Ghost Dirk realizes what he’s accomplished, realizes how much better things are because he could hold back, will coincide at the end with Prince Dirk finally, belatedly, realizing just how fucked his plan was, and understanding at the very, very end why he has to fucking die?

THAT would be interesting.

I guess we’ll see? Talk to y’all next upd8.

#Homestuck #hs2 #Homestuck Liveblog #upd8 #bladekindeyewear #blastyoboots

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nikkigrand · 6 years

Text

I started this so long ago and really have no idea where I was going with it. Essentially, Sakura is from a normal civilian AU, dies, and wakes up in the shinobi world and thinks she’s gone insane. Basically, it’s civilian Sakura reacting to the shinobi around her. If you want to adopt it, please send me a message!

Mentions of infidelity and M/M.

Sakura was having a shit day.

She supposed there were more eloquent words to describe her current situation; but as she kneeled in the ruins of her once prized and expensive porcelain china—a precious family heirloom passed down from her mother, whose own mother had gifted her after receiving it from her own mother, and so forth until its initial reception—with tears drying on her blotchy face, she reasoned that no other word would suffice.

Her day had been absolute horse shit.

It was a Tuesday, a normal day by any means, and Sakura had woken up the same way she’d been doing for the last four years: she’d risen with a smile at 7 o’ clock sharp, brushed her lips against the soft skin of her darling husband’s forehead (who then turned around and tried to coerce her back to bed with strong arms and affectionate kisses peppered along her shoulders that soon turned heated), rushed to the bathroom with promises of later, babe!, did her usual morning routine, had a nutritious breakfast of overnight oats and egg whites with a side of fruit, and then left to work.

For about two and a half years now, Sakura had gotten used to the motions of starting up her expensive white Range Rover (a gift from her husband’s wealthy parents), to taking one last glance in the rearview mirror to make sure her makeup was perfect, before driving to her job as a clerical assistant at a law firm in the city.

She was a glorified secretary and though Sakura didn’t necessarily like her job, it paid the bills while she pursued her Doctorates in pediatric medicine and that was good enough for her. Some might—and have—argue that her husband was wealthy enough to support them both until she finished her studies, but Sakura came from a low to mid income family and felt uncomfortable with the idea of not working for what she had.

Besides, she would be graduating in two semesters and starting a paid internship at the hospital under the tutelage of the city’s most decorated and awarded pediatric surgeon, Senju Tsunade, so it wasn’t like this job was for forever. Sakura had fought tooth and nail—or rather, studied until her eyes melted out of her head—to get noticed by the prestigious and hard to impress woman, and it was by sheer stroke of luck that she had managed to make a favorable impression with her research on child cancer.

So, by all respects, today was supposed to have been an absolutely normal and optimistic day like all the rest. Greeting the gate guard with a smile, Sakura had pulled into the parking lot of the well-known Uchiha & Sons law firm, parked her car, grabbed her tote with all her daily supplies (i.e. her lunch, her laptop, important case files, etc.), and made her way to the entrance.

Upon entering the large and extravagant building, Sakura waved and smiled at employees stationed at the welcome desk as she flashed her ID before entering the elevators. The inside was purposely surrounded by mirrors and, as per routine, she dutifully looked herself over to make certain that not a hair was out of place.

The law firm’s CEO, Uchiha Itachi-sama, was a firm believer that presentation of one’s self was key and Sakura agreed. If you dressed like a slob, people would assume you were a slob—at least, that’s what her mother always told her—and Sakura was pleased with the day’s choice of a white textured top, high waisted navy trousers cut at the ankles, and gray suede pointed pumps.

The elevators pinged as she arrived at her floor and Sakura took one last look at her long, perfectly curled hair, adjusted her necklace, and fingered her diamond earrings before taking a step out towards her desk.

As per usual.

Sakura had always taken comfort in the boring routine of her work life because it was so very easy compared to the stress of medical research on top of school work. So imagine her surprise when she came upon a cardboard box on top of her neat and tidy desk.

That had certainly not been part of her routine, and neither was being told by a mousy coworker that she had been ordered to meet with her boss as soon as she arrived.

Apprehension had risen in her chest high enough to smother her confusion and Sakura had nervously shuffled her way to the elevators, mindful of the sympathetic stares thrown her way. It had felt like a funeral procession.

As the doors to the elevators shut, Sakura wrung her hands anxiously at the thought of meeting her boss. She wasn’t stupid; she knew what cardboard boxes on people’s desks meant, but she hadn’t a clue as to why it was on hers.

She knew for an absolute fact that the CEO thought her a model worker and, frankly, had a bit on a crush on her. In fact, it wasn’t even a secret that Itachi-sama pined after Sakura the way a schoolgirl fawned over a crush. He was awfully attentive of her actions and, while his flirtations were subtle, Sakura knew as well as she knew that the sun was hot that if she ever divorced her husband, Uchiha Itachi would come running with expensive flowers and diamonds to woo her into being his.

As if that would ever happen.

Therefore, she had safely assumed that he wouldn’t be the one letting her go; which was odd in and of itself, considering that all lay-offs would have to be approved by the CEO or directly sanctioned by the CFO.

Which, as Sakura soon came to learn from her boss’s secretary’s apologetic words, was the case.

Uchiha & Sons’ CFO—a dazzlingly beautiful but surly man by the name of Uchiha Sasuke—had never really liked her. She’d only officially met him once, but it appeared that once was enough, for when she saw him again two months later he had treated her like the dirt beneath his designer shoes.

At first she thought he disliked how much Itachi-sama fawned and showed preference over her—it was rather unprofessional, and it was no secret that Sasuke had a bit of a brother complex—then she thought he disliked her charismatic and friendly nature, but after a few insults thrown her way, she figured that some people just didn’t need a reason to hate someone.

In fact, he had such little regard for her that he didn’t find it worth his time to fire her himself.

But now, as she picked herself up from porcelain shards that bit into her skin with as much dignity as she could possibly muster, Sakura mused that she had been fucking naïve.

She had returned to her desk and set about packing up her belongings in silent shock, unable to look at her coworkers who were staring at her humiliation in pity, as if she needed the damn job to live.

She would admit that she was a bit sad to go—mostly because she would miss her friendly coworkers and despite being a married woman, she quite liked Itachi’s attention and found it flattering—but she was also glad that she’d be able to spend more time with her wonderful husband—her husband who shone like the sun, whose eyes held all the world’s oceans, whose smile lit up her life.

So, though she had been a bit gloomy as she got into her car and bid the firm one last good-bye, she saw the silver lining in the prospect of affection and intimacy waiting for her at home.

Driving out the city towards her lovely house, Sakura’s thoughts had danced with the image of Uzumaki Naruto’s smile when she surprised him at their home. She imagined how he’d sweep her up into his strong arms, declaring how great it was that his Sakura-chan was home to make him ramen at all hours of the day before she called him an idiot and reminded him that she was competing in a body-building show and needed to watch her carb intake if she wanted to come first in bikini—again.

As usual when thoughts of her sunshine boy came to mind, Sakura had sighed lovingly like a lovestruck fool. She and Naruto had met as children when he’d scraped his knee after taking a tumble from a slide and, being the loving and innocent child that she was, she had rushed to him to brush away his tears and lay a sloppy kiss on his dirty cheek to make him feel better. When he’d looked at her like she was crazy, she had explained with all the wisdom of a five year old child, that, “Mama says kisses make booboos feel better!”

After seeing her point, he’d asked her name, she’d learned he was Naruto, and he then proceeded to grab her hand, drag her up to the highest point in the playground (which so happened to be the slide) and declare to all who would listen that he was going to marry her someday.

Sakura had been so embarrassed she had punched him in the nose.

Such was the start of their odd friendship.

A few years later, at the age of twelve, Naruto moved away to another city and Sakura was devastated. He was her best friend and, though she didn’t return his affections, he was her everything.

It was really no surprise that when his family moved back 7 years later, he was still her everything. Except by that time they had both loved and had their heartbroken in return enough to realize where their love truly lay.

Obviously with each other.

Needless to say, when Uzumaki Naruto made Haruno Sakura his wife at the age of twenty, it was with the promise of forever; and on this Tuesday when she had woken up, she had loved him with the same ferocity and passion as the day she said, “I do.”

So, clearly, something must have gone horribly wrong in their seven years of marriage to warrant her currently shaking hands and stomach churning with burning rage and agony in her silent home, right?

You’re not wrong.

See, Sakura had parked her car in her driveway with a bright smile, had glanced at the Maybach coupe across the street with an appreciative whistle (they lived in a wealthy neighborhood, but a Maybach was still a Maybach), and had opened the side door to her home quietly because it was 10 in the morning and, of course, Naruto would still be asleep.

She had set her box of items down on her kitchen island, slipped off her shoes, and quietly made her way to the master bedroom to pounce on the love of her life to wake him up with kisses.

Except, where there was supposed to be silence, there were grunts and hisses and moans and other wanton noises that would, under any other circumstances, make her blush.

The closer she got to her room—her room with her bed and clothes and perfumes and jewelry and her husband—the louder the noises became.

She had pressed her back to the wall next to the closed door, her heart pounding and feeling like she was going to be sick. A cold sweat broke out along her lower back, her hands shaking as she pressed them to her mouth to muffle her gasps that were quickly dissolving into sobs, and she gingerly leaned her head against the wall.

She recognized the sounds of pleasure coming from behind the door, knew them as well as the back of her hand, and for a moment she had the fleeting hope that perhaps he was doing it to himself. Naruto had a voracious sexual appetite and she knew that he masturbated constantly whenever she wasn’t available—which was a lot.

But when a low mewl pierced through the silence of the hall, one that Sakura absolutely did not recognize, she purged herself of such delusions.

Now, you must be wondering why she hadn’t burst into the room right then and there to catch them in the act and humiliate them the way they humiliated her; but in a stunning moment of clarity, Sakura questioned whether it was wise to burn that image into her mind. It wouldn’t make her feel better, for she knew without a doubt that her heart was broken and her marriage was over, but then again…she had a burning need to know who was behind that door.

After all, she hadn’t ever suspected that her darling Naruto had been entertaining a mistress.

Was the knowledge worth the lasting pain? Would seeing it with her own eyes make it more real?

The sounds from her bedroom reached a crescendo and she pushed off the wall resolutely. Sakura could either hold the upper hand in catching them unawares, or she could wait in the living room until they left the (her!) bedroom and met her knowing eyes.

But she couldn’t exactly tell how long they’d been in there and how long they planned to be there—she’d only been gone for two hours, after all—and that awful pain was giving way to a deep, corrosive anger.

Could she stand to sit on her couch, or at the dining table, and wait for them to finish with all of these tumultuous emotions churning and raging in her gut? Could she stand to listen to another second of their rigorous lovemaking? At this rate, they were going to make a hole in her wall and, Lord, she was seeing red.

Because how dare they?

She could place all the blame on Naruto, but she knew for a fact that whoever was in there would have noticed Sakura’s vanity, her display of perfumes and jewelry and trinkets.

God, did she wear her perfumes when she wasn’t around? Did that unknown woman take her Louboutin heels and Hermes bags for a spin while the madam of the house devoted her time to her research? Could she have possibly, at some point, worn her mother’s pearls?

And Naruto—her dear, precious, loving, perfect, darling Naruto—had been so affectionate that morning as he begged her to come back to bed, even as he planned to see his mistress as soon as his wife left. He had been so passionate when they had sex the night before; and as he whispered familiar declarations of love against her lips, she had been none the wiser.

Worst of all was the fact that they were fucking on her bed! Her parents’ wedding gift!

The thought and speculations made her chest heave with fury and disgust and Sakura had pushed off the wall ferociously before facing the door with flaring nostrils and clenched fists.

How fucking dare they!

With the type of strength that would have made her workout partner—her dear friend Hatake Kakashi from medical school—proud, Sakura kicked open her bedroom door hard enough to make it slam against the wall.

The two bodies on the bed cried out in alarm as they separated and struggled to cover themselves with silk sheets and Sakura could only stare, aghast, at the other occupant of the room.

Even sweaty and completely disheveled—hair sticking out in unruly spikes, cheeks flushed with exertion, and what was clearly semen on his chest—Uchiha Sasuke looked the definition of beauty.

And, boy, did that piss her off.

Not as much as the fact that they were having dirty, dirty sex on her bed did, though.

“Sa-Sakura-chan!” Naruto cried, his blue eyes as large as saucers. “It’s not—“

“Shut the fuck up,” she said, her voice icy as her eyes remained glued to the other male in the room. “And get dressed—both of you.”

She felt no sympathy for Naruto when he flinched at her words, as she had never cursed at him and spoken to him in such a manner, and the Uchiha had the audacity to glare at her.

When no man made to move towards their discarded clothing—well, one man, because Naruto slept in the nude—Sakura turned her cold glare onto Naruto.

“Now, Naruto,” she spat and again, neither man moved.

Patience gone and fury mounting, Sakura screeched, “I said, get up and get fucking dressed!”

She grabbed the closest thing to her, which so happened to be a priceless, one of a kind Lalique Bacchantes crystal vase, and threw it at their heads. It shattered over the headboard and both men lunged out of bed to avoid the raining glass. Her chest heaving with ill suppressed rage, Sakura paid no mind to their nudity as they stared at her with various degrees of shock.

Pity; that had been a wedding gift from her darling in-laws.

Unable to withstand looking at their faces any longer, Sakura spun around on her heel and marched out of her bedroom. She had no idea what she intended by making them get out of bed in the nude, what was even the point?! All she had seen were hickeys and scratches and bodily fluids and penises and, oh god, she felt sick.

“Sakura!” Naruto called after her as she made her way to her discarded heels. She heard him trip as he no doubt tried to pull on some sweat pants and her lips pulled into a tight line.

Hastily gathering her things to go—to go anywhere but here, Sakura turned around at the sound of her husband’s approaching foot falls. He looked as beautiful as he always did, and the plain panic in his face almost made her burst into tears, but then Sasuke came from around the corner and she held her ground.

His hands reached out to her in supplication. “Sakura—Sakura-chan, please—“

“When?”

Cobalt eyes blinked in confusion and Sakura hissed, “When did this start?”

Both men looked distinctly uncomfortable and avoided her gaze but, surprisingly, it was the Uchiha who answered, “Two years ago.”

It felt like her whole world had been ripped from beneath her feet, and as her knees threatened to give out from under her, Sakura gripped onto the kitchen island to steady herself.

Two years they had been having this sordid affair. For two years she had been the loving wife, believing her husband to be loyal and faithful when he apparently found pleasure in someone else. It didn’t even matter that it was with a man—she knew that Naruto was bisexual—what mattered was that he had been unfaithful, disrespectful, and lied to her.

From between gritted teeth she spat, “How?”

At this, Naruto took a step towards her but her hand quickly curling around a crystal candle holder stopped him in his tracks. “Listen to me, Sakura-chan—“

“How, Naruto?”

She followed his Adam’s apple as he swallowed nervously before recanting the tale of how, two years ago, he had gone to surprise her at her office with lunch. He hadn’t found her because, in true Naruto fashion, he had forgotten that she had taken that day off to devote her time to her research and was at the library. On his way out, he had bumped into Uchiha Sasuke and as they exchanged insults, sparks had clearly flown. It started as meeting for simple drinks, then lunches and dinners, then going over to his place to check out his dojo, and then it somehow dissolved into a sexual relationship.

He gracefully spared her the details of how that all started out, but couldn’t she see that he still loved her? That he loved them both and wanted to be with them? He had never meant to hurt her! He only felt lonely as she was always so busy and worked so much and Sasuke understood him.

But as he spoke, all Sakura could think about was the fact that it all made perfect sense as to why Sasuke disliked her so much. It was clear as day that the Uchiha was in love with Naruto; she could tell by the way he gently curled his hand around the blonde’s wrist when he blatantly became distressed. All she could think about was how she had complained to her husband each time the Uchiha insulted her or treated her poorly and he had known why and lied.

Directing her glare at the Uchiha’s hand, then at his face, she said, “So this is why you had me fired.”

Naruto glanced at the Uchiha sharply. “Teme! You had her fired?!”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her but said nothing; which was fine for Sakura because she turned her attention to her darling husband.

“I want a divorce.”

And Naruto, her star-shine and heaven, looked stricken as the words fell from her lips; were she a weaker woman, she would have taken them back. Of course, divorce had never been a thought in their heads—why would it? They loved each other—but Sakura was a woman scorned with a broken heart and had no such sympathy for the deep hurt painting his face.

Naruto shook his head, hands reaching towards her once more as he took a step, and his voice was thick when he said, “You don’t mean that, Sakura. Y-you don’t mean that.”

Nodding as she took a step back, closer to her china cabinet, Sakura nodded as her gemstone eyes narrowed. “I do. I will be going to a lawyer today and serving you with divorce papers as soon as possible. As this house is currently under my name, I expect you to vacate the premises as soon as possible. You may return to gather your belongings when I am not around.”

She saw how deeply her words hurt him, but he continued towards her, eyes imploring her to forgive him as he said, “We didn’t want you to find out this way.”

And it was like a flip was switched.

Awful, empty laughter filled the kitchen as Sakura stared at him incredulously. In the back of her mind, she noted that she was quickly dissolving into hysterics.

“Find out this way?!” She parroted, her eyebrows hiked up in disbelief. “How else did you want me to find out?!”

Sasuke looked incredibly uncomfortable, but he moved to stand next to his lover as the small woman lost her marbles.

“What,” She breathed, “Did you want me to find out over dinner? Is that it? You wanted to break it to me over a nice glass of Dom Perignon?”

Naruto’s lips pulled into a frown as he shook his head. “Sakura-chan—“

“Get out.”

He blinked at her, uncomprehending, and she had had enough. Reaching behind her, she grabbed the closest thing to her and threw it at his head. “Get out!”

Uncaring of the fact that she was hurling her precious, irreplaceable China at her lying, cheating, deceitful husband and his lover, Sakura continued to rage. Fat tears carved their way down her cheeks as she launched plate after plate, teacup after teacup, at their stupid faces.

The words “get out!” and insults were a mantra on her lips until both men scurried out of her house, half-dressed and covered in small scratches from where porcelain had shattered on their skin. As she crumpled to her knees, sobs wracking her small frame, she watched from the wide open front door as the love of her life and the love of his life got into the Maybach across the street and drove off into the sunset.

In the mess of her own making, Sakura curled into herself and wept for all that she had lost and how, despite everything, she still fucking loved that man.

And this is where we find her, picking herself up from heartbreak and gathering the pieces.

Sakura looked around her and grimaced at the mess she made, her heart breaking a little more at the thought of her mother’s inevitable tears at knowing the loss of such precious heirlooms, but she squared her shoulders and made her way to the guest bathroom in the living room.

There was no way she was going into that master bedroom today and she was definitely calling a cleaning service to get those soiled bed sheets burned. Turning on the lights to the bathroom, Sakura winced at her reflection. She looked an absolute mess with her eyeliner and mascara running down her face and her blotchy skin showing from beneath her CC cream.

Going back to the kitchen to grab her makeup bag from her tote and returning to the bathroom, Sakura set about removing her makeup and reapplying it. She was not going to walk into that law firm looking like a basket of misery. Reaching under the sink, she grabbed a spare curling iron and fixed up her hair. It was unfortunate that Uchiha & Sons was the only damned law firm in the city that handled rapid divorce cases, but she was going to walk in there with all the pride she possessed in her body and her head held high.

She was going to be strong. She was going to look Uchiha Itachi in the eye and tell him she wanted to divorce Uzumaki Naruto on the basis of infidelity and she was going to tell him the details with a straight face and even voice and she was not going to cry.

She ended up sobbing as soon as she saw the poor man’s face.

Itachi hurriedly closed his door behind her as he ushered her to the couch he kept in his office. Reaching behind her, he grabbed a tissue box and set in on her lap before brushing petal soft hair behind her ear as he settled beside her.

His kindness made her cry even harder and her cries turned to gasping sobs as she told him about her morning and how his brother was fucking her husband—or maybe her husband was fucking his brother—for the last two years and how much it hurt and she wanted Itachi to draft up divorce papers as quickly as he could.

By the end of her wailed spiel, Itachi looked a little green but he nodded as he moved to his desk to pull up the standard divorce template on his desktop. His hands hovered over his keyboard as he leveled apologetic eyes in her direction.

“I was not aware that you had been fired,” He said, his brows furrowing. “Had I known, I would have never let it happen. On behalf of the firm, I apologize.”

Sakura sniffled as she dabbed at the corner of her eyes. The apology was only a formality; it was common knowledge that she could sue for being wrongfully terminated from the work place, but by apologizing, Itachi had technically righted their wrongs.

Except that Itachi was sincere; she could feel it from where she was sitting and it made her feel a little better that there was at least one man who wasn’t scum.

“It’s not your fault,” She sniffed, sending him a wobbly smile. “You didn’t know what Sasuke was up to.”

At the mention of his little brother, Itachi’s face darkened but he said nothing. He returned to typing and things were quiet for a while. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, but Sakura knew how these things usually went and wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible.

“I want nothing.”

Itachi turned his head and blinked at her slowly. “Pardon?”

Swallowing, Sakura wrung the tissue between her shaking hands, her eyes focused on the anxious twisting of her fingers. “I want nothing from him. I don’t want his money, I don’t want the house, I don’t want the cars or the properties or the furniture. I want what’s mine and mine alone.”

Itachi’s brow furrowed in confusion and Sakura was struck by how handsome he was. She always knew the man was attractive—it was a fact of life; the sky was blue, the grass was green, and Uchiha Itachi was gorgeous—but she knew it in an objective manner. Now, because her heart was hurting for comfort, she was aware of him and felt awful.

Someone as kind as Itachi deserved better than being her rebound.

“Sakura,” He started gently, his hands folding on top of his desk, “You know you’re owed half of the estates because of the affair. You’d be well off for the rest of your life. Why wouldn’t you want that?”

Sakura sighed, lips pulling into a frown. “Because I don’t want any reminders of him. Besides, that’s not even his money—it’s his parents’ money. I want this to be a clean divorce. To hold onto those sorts of things, to be paid alimony by a man I no longer want in my life...I think it’d be too much.”

Looking into his eyes, she found understanding and Sakura smiled sadly. “You know what I mean?”

Nodding, Itachi went back to typing away at his desk top. “Very well.”

Twenty minutes later saw Sakura with a draft of divorce papers slipped neatly inside a manila envelope. Itachi handed them to her with instructions to serve them to her soon to be ex-husband. She could either serve them herself, or she could get someone else to do it. A part of her balked at the idea of seeing Naruto again, but a larger part of her wanted this over and done with.

Once the divorce was finalized, she was planning to move somewhere far, far away from there to settle in some obscure city where no one knew her and maybe adopt three dogs and become a spinster and maybe yell at rowdy neighborhood kids who stepped on her petunias and—

“Sakura.”

Itachi’s velvety voice cut through her miserable thoughts and she glanced at him guiltily, as if he could read her mind, and was surprised to find him so close. He was only an arms’ distance away and Sakura could smell his wonderful sandalwood and rainwater cologne and she shivered when his large hand fell gently on her shoulder.

Far enough to be proper, close enough to show interest—such was the way Itachi flirted with her.

Tilting her chin to look him in the eye, Itachi held her gaze as he said, “Whatever you need, I’m here for you. Do you have a place to stay?”

Sakura nodded, her hand lifting to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. “Yes, I was planning on renting a hotel for the night—“

“Unacceptable.”

Mouth going slack, Sakura could only watch as the man before her moved back to his desk to hurriedly gather his things into a satchel before pulling on his suit coat.

Unable to help herself because she was so very confused, Sakura blurted, “What are you doing?”

Itachi chuckled softly as he walked towards her stunned figure. “I’m offering you a room at my house and driving you there. Is that to your liking?”

Sakura almost groaned but held it in. It was sweet of him to offer her a place to stay, but she barely even knew him. Yes, there was a form of mutual attraction but Sakura was still very much in love with her ex-husband and felt sort of sick at the thought of being with someone new. Plus, Itachi was being too forward and she had a feeling it was uncharacteristic of him. There was always something about her that clouded his judgement.

Besides, she needed some time to herself.

“Oh, Itachi,” She sighed, not noticing how the man stiffened at the way she said his name, “That would be great, but I really need time to myself. Is that okay?”

Despite feeling a little disappointed, Itachi nodded and she gave him a hug as a reward for his kindness before she left. It wasn’t every day that a handsome multi millionaire showed such interest in you, but Sakura needed time.

A lot of time.

Feeling tired as she made her way to her car—which was parked across the street now that she wasn’t an employee and the visitor’s lot was packed—she wished she had taken the time to switch out her heels for some flats.

When Sakura had been four, her mother told her to look both ways before crossing the street; and you’d think that 27 year old Sakura would remember that, or at least remember to not stop in the middle of it, but nope.

Sakura, a grown woman of 27 years, crossed the street without looking, stopped in the middle to adjust her heel, and was promptly hit by a truck.

It was the fly to her already shit day, but what made it worse was that when she finally awoke from what she was sure was death, she was laying in the middle of a forest with no clue as to how she got there.

Waking up in the middle of nowhere with her head hurting like she’d just been hit by a truck—which actually happened—was not on Sakura’s bucket list. Things like skydiving, owning a chinchilla, and ziplining through the rainforest were on her bucket list.

Standing on wobbly legs, she groaned as her head pounded with each step she took. She could tell she was still in her grey pumps and she really wished she had switched them out for some flats. Turning around in a circle, she tried to find her tote, but she couldn’t find it anywhere and that meant she was without aspirin.

Fortunately for her, she still had her phone tucked into the back pocket of her trousers. Pulling it out as she gaged her surroundings, Sakura figured she was probably in some park somewhere. She didn’t know how she got to said park, but she’d save the panicking for when her brain didn’t feel like it was hosting a mosh pit.

All she had to do was open her phone’s GPS and figure out what nature trail she was on and make her way back to her shitty house to grab some clothes and rent a hotel.

However, Sakura quickly discovered the absence of cell phone reception and no amount of waving it around like an idiot would magically make a bar appear. Sakura huffed in frustration as she crossed her arms over her chest—her relatively unharmed chest. She’d dwell on the fact that she was hit by a truck later because, clearly, she was in a predicament.

Sakura had no idea where the hell she was.

Not for the first time, the pink haired woman wished she had learned something more useful in Girl’s Scouts than selling cookies - like telling North from South, for instance.

Maybe this was some type of messed up Heaven; one where new souls had to find their way out of a labyrinth to the pearly gates. But Sakura thought that couldn’t be right…she still felt the urge to pee.

Sighing, she went behind the nearest bush and relieved herself. Once done with that, she picked up a nearest stick with a leaf at the end, closed her eyes, tossed it in the air, and opened them when she heard it hit the floor.

The leaf pointed to the right, so Sakura pivoted on the ball of her foot and started walking to what she thought was eastward.

Glancing at her phone, it told her that she had been walking for about five minutes before she hit a well traveled road and she blinked upon looking towards the skyline and not seeing any skyscrapers. She couldn’t even hear any cars!

Licking her lips, Sakura wished she had some water and walked up the road in hopes that she’d encounter someone who could tell her where the heck she was. Her feet hurt like hell, and though she so badly wanted to take off her heels, she knew the one rule of wearing heels out in public: ‘Til Home Do Us Part.

She rolled her ankles a few times and she was just about to curse the rule to Hell when she came upon the biggest gates she’d ever seen. Staring at them in blatant wonder, Sakura noted how they looked like the gates from that Jurassic Park movie and she quickly spun around. Shutting her eyes, she counted to ten before peeking over her shoulder at what most definitely should not be in her city.

Unless they were the gates to Heaven…?

But these gates sure looked dingy…and somehow, she thought that Heaven’s gates would be a lot shinier and clean.

Taking a step closer in contemplation, she didn’t hear the warning shout until they were upon her and she cried out when the biggest dog she’d ever seen came barreling into her and knocked her to the ground.

As she lay there, stunned, sea glass eyes staring dazedly up at the sky, she wondered in what damn world she was in that random men fell from the trees with mutant sized dogs crashing into unsuspecting women.

Uchiha Shisui hated being on a team with Inuzuka’s. They were loud, didn’t really like being ordered around, and their ninken listened to no one but their masters. At least, that was the case with Inuzuka Kiba. Outside of a mission, he quite liked the kid, but outside of village gates, Shisui found him to be a nuisance. Formidable shinobi he may be, but professional he was not.

Such was the case when Kiba goaded Genma into a race back to the village. You’d think that two jonin would be over such childish behavior, but this was not the case. Both men took to the trees and Shisui shook his head as they disappeared. He would normally be in the middle of the tomfoolery, but he was annoyed at the fluke of a mission they were sent on.

There had been a startling large burst of chakra outside the gates before disappearing completely and the three, by virtue of being in the Hokage’s office at the time, had been sent to investigate. They’d found nothing and it was puzzling that something that powerful had simply vanished.

Shrugging, Shisui combed a hand through his curly hair. Well, it was no sweat off his back. They investigated and there was nothing there, that was the report he’d give the Hokage.

Pumping chakra to his legs, he quickly caught up to them with the speed he was famous for and Konoha’s gates were coming up on them fast.

Kiba whined that he’d cheated, but Shisui only smirked. That was until he caught sight of a petite figure standing in front of the closed gates and he shouted Kiba’s name in alarm.

It was too late.

Akamaru crashed into the poor girl with the strength of a boulder and she fell back with a pained shout. Jumping of the branch he was perched in, Shisui quickly made his way to her side.

“Are you alright, miss?!” He asked as he came around a whimpering Akamaru and was struck dumb at the sight of her.

In his defense, it wasn’t every day that you saw someone with such coloring as her. She gaped up at him in clear shock, unmindful of the way her hair laid in disarray and dirt streaking across her cheek.

With her odd petal pink hair, eyes as green as emeralds, fair skin and even fairer face, Shisui thought her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Even disheveled and confused, mouth hanging open, she looked every bit a forest nymph.

He chanced a glance at both Genma and Kiba and found both staring at her with clear wonder. So it seemed that they, too, were not immune to her beauty.

“I’m sorry, but did you just jump out of that tree?!” She cried, eyes darting to him and then back to the tree he came from. “And land all the way over here?!”

#sakura haruno #up for adoption

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monogamyexpiration · 3 years

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The 7 year itch-not just a movie

I’m currently married & have been with my husband for over 12 years however prior to this marriage I had a previous that only lasted 7 years. My current husband was also married prior to me, for 7 years. Many of my friends and people I see on social media that are married only stay married for 7 years or less. The ones that stay married longer than 7 years often have trouble around the 7-year mark & their relationship is truly tested. So, it got me thinking, is there such a thing as a 7-year itch? In 1955 Marilyn Monroe stared opposite Tom Ewell in the romantic comedy titled, you guessed it, “The Seven Year itch”. This movie is based on a play with the same namesake that deals with the declining interest in a monogamous relationship after seven years of marriage. This theory isn’t really new it is something psychologist have studied for years. So, are we as humans truly meant to be with one person for eternity or are relationships meant to have expiration dates? I mean many of us change as people, our priorities become different, our passions change, our purpose grows, interest changes, even appearance changes. So, does that mean we can outgrow being married to one person? We often outgrown friendships, think about it there are probably very few ppl you were friends with in junior high that you are friends with currently. Do we have to work with our partner to evolve together? What if your partner does not want to change, evolve, or go along with you on a new journey? What then? Divorce? Divorce is always and option I suppose but for many with children involved it is not the simple. Matters of the heart rarely are simply anyway. How do you beat the 7-year itch? My husband & I went through the 7-year mark troubles. The new wore off, we were busy with work, kids, after school activities, & had very little time for one another. We didn’t really even attempt to make time for one another bc what was the point we knew everything we were every going to know, right? My husband fell in love with my loud, unruly, fun, free thinking, social butterfly, fear less personality and I fell in love with his kindness, gentleness, quietness, consistency, & just the way he was a man’s man. We were perfect opposites & it worked. . .for a while. As time passed the same reason, he fell in love with me were the same reasons he began to resent me. We had a daughter 2.5 years into our relationship & he already had 3 children from a previous marriage & relationship. After our daughter was born, I changed as most new moms do. I saw the world in an entirely new way. I wanted to change & improve things more than ever before. I joined my step sons school PTA, I started to do work for Saint Jude’s, I also got offered to be apart of a board that helped plan events to benefit local nursing homes. Of course, I discussed all these new endeavors with my husband prior to jumping in, & he always fully supported, at first, but that would quickly change. Anytime I had a meeting or event I would make sure it worked around my children’s schedule as well as my husband & I’s work schedule, but it didn’t matter he always found a way to start a fight & I would end up looking like the bad guy. I didn’t understand how eh could go hunting, fishing, whatever & never had to plan out what was happening with the kids nor did he have to worry if I would be upset, however when it came to me doing something I wanted I had to make sure the house was clean, laundry done, kids had a sitter, meals planned, etc My husband would make comments like, “oh you pawning the kids off again”, when I had a event or meeting that I could not bring the kids to which was usually once a month. I didn’t understand how it was considered “pawning” my kids off when I had something I wanted to do but it was considered that for him. I kept quiet which turned out to be the wrong thing bc soon I began to resent him. I hated seeing him drive up at home bc I knew he was going to be unhappy about something. It did not take me long to figure out my husband and I’s differences were far greater than I had initially thought. He is a pessimistic person and I am optimistic. Our vehicles may not be the newest & our home maybe not the biggest but I love it bc it is ours & we work hard for it. We may not have millions or even thousands but our bills are paid, our children are healthy, we are healthy, employed, & free. I use to tell my husband, “One day god is going to test you & take away everything you have, then I bet you will appreciate it.”. You never want to be so busy looking at what others have that you forget all that you have. Despite my husband differing thought process I accepted him, I would never get anger over what he chose to believe, in my mind by me doing that he would do the same t me on my opinions that differed from his. WRONG!!! No matter what I would say or do he had something negative to say. If I was watching something on tv he would start making ugly comments about whatever I was watching, so I stopped watching tv when he was around. If was on the phone with a friend, &he was around he would begin fussing & making ugly comments so I stopped talking on the phone to my friends when he was around. If I would make plans to go eat with friends, he would fuss so I started canceling on my friends. I started my own little side jewelry business I would hand cut metal and stamp it; it was called Creative Metal, & I LOVED it. To be sure it did not interfere with my mom/wife/employee duties I only worked on it at night once the house was clean & everyone was asleep. But it was not good enough my husband would get up in the middle of the night fussing that I was still up, or making noise. So, I gave it up, sold almost all my tools & supplies. . .I’ll be honest it hurt my heart but I wanted peace. The resentment grew & grew to the point that I could not take it anymore, I couldn’t breathe. I longed for an intelligent conversation with a man that thought I was truly amazing, a man that supported my dreams, hopes, etc & even if it was not something he wanted he wouldn’t mind coming along for the ride simply bc he wanted to be with me, support me. There were opportunities where I could have cheated but I am fiercely loyal even when some do not deserve it & the thought of my husband finding out & hurting, I just couldn’t do it. Instead of infidelity, I decided I had enough, I decided I was going to live my life, & if he wanted to support me great, if not oh well his lose. So, I did, I talked on the phone and when he started, I wouldn’t hold back I’d tell my friend, “lemme call you back Travis is fussing bc I am talking to you”. He would immediately get embarrassed, and I would say hey if that’s how you gonna act you need to claim it. I started watching tv when he was there and if he started fussing, Id walk out & go watch tv in another room. I wasn’t going to stop living, existing, & growing bc HE didn’t like it! I started being that girl he fell in love with the one I hid to make him comfortable. I started telling him to Fuck off, & I no longer cried bc he hurt my feelings, I just let it roll off my back. I am not sure if it worked or not but we are now 12 years in, the resentment is no longer there bc I do what I want, say how I feel, & make no apologies. I can honestly say my husband is friend, he can still be a giant douche canoe but I do love him & despite what I may think he doesn’t like me sometimes deep down I know he’s crazy about me. Our children are older now & so are we, we now have more time for one another & actually make the effort to spend time together & usually enjoy said time. We joke back & forth, pick at each other, & do not take things said nearly as personal. Now with all that, I could have just divorced him & started over. . . but who would I be as a person? I can not say I actually “fought” for my marriage as much as I just said Fuck it & made the decision to just live. I know some people are better off apart, divorce is better than marriage, & that’s ok everyone’s journey is different. For me, I had already been through one divorce so if I was going to have a second one it was not going to be my doing. I guess you could say sheer stubbornness is what got my marriage through lol either way I’m glad. Even in years from now we decide to go our separate ways, I will always appreciate the journey we had together. Maybe, extended monogamy isn’t for everyone, & that’s cool too. Just live the best life for you, a life that in the end you are proud of no matter what.

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freenewstoday · 4 years

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New Post has been published on https://freenews.today/2021/02/19/migrants-on-us-mexican-border-pray-biden-opens-door/

Migrants on US-Mexican border pray Biden opens door

MATAMOROS, MEXICO — Hundreds of asylum-seekers were waiting nervously on the U.S.-Mexican border Friday, praying that they would be allowed entry as part of President Joe Biden’s immigration reforms.

Under predecessor Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program, they were forced to stay south of the border while their cases were being resolved.

Biden’s administration announced a week ago that the first stage of a program to dismantle Trump’s controversial policy would begin on February 19.

Three migrants among those hoping to be allowed entry told AFP about their journey and long wait.

Tragicomedy

Cuban lawyer Joel Fernandez crossed 11 countries during 271 days to arrive in the Mexican border city of Matamoros in January 2020.

“We’re living in a tragicomedy — a sad moment, a happy moment,” said the 52-year-old, one of 500 migrants staying in a camp in Matamoros across the border from Texas.

“Now, it’s a sad moment because nobody knows anything. There’s tension. Stress is mounting. My companions say that I’m already talking in my sleep,” Fernandez said.

He has been told that he will be tested for Covid-19 and heard that there is an order to dismantle the camp, but he does not know when.

Fernandez has a cousin waiting for him in the United States who has a restaurant for him to manage.

“I’ve withstood all the tests that God put in front of me on this difficult journey,” he said.

“Now I want the prize: to have my residency, to work, to bring my wife, my children.”

Fleeing abuse

In August 2019, a 37-year-old Salvadoran victim of domestic violence took her four children and fled her country for the United States.

It took her one month and a not inconsiderable sum of money to reach the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

From there she crossed the border under a bridge to the U.S. side.

“But after three days they sent us back,” said the woman, who asked not to be named for safety reasons.

She was offered a place in a shelter in Ciudad Juarez and in December 2019 had a U.S. court hearing, during which she told of the threats she faces in El Salvador.

The pandemic and Trump’s tough immigration policies mean her case has seen little progress, but she is optimistic things will get better.

“We ask God to give President Biden wisdom to help migrants. The news is very encouraging,” she said.

Her dream is for her children to have a good education.

“It’s hard to tell your children that everything is going to be fine when you feel like the world is crashing down on you,” she said.

Health struggle

Jose Madrid, a 40-year-old carpenter from Honduras, had a taste of the “American dream” in 2014 after being hired by a company in the United States.

“I arrived by plane. I had a work visa, but I was exploited and I quit. I worked illegally in several jobs, but then became ill.”

He underwent heart surgery in 2017 thanks to the Medicaid program and went back to work.

However, he was detained and handed over to immigration after a traffic accident and deported in August 2018.

Once back in Honduras, things went from bad to worse.

“I knocked on doors and nobody helped me. The only way out was to leave.”

In April 2019, penniless, he set off for Mexico and ended up in a shelter in Ciudad Juarez.

In his asylum application, he argues that he needs medical care that Honduras has denied him, but no migrant lawyer wants to take his case.

“Some tell me rudely that I’m wasting my time, but I have faith,” he said.

var addthis_config = services_exclude: "facebook,facebook_like,twitter,google_plusone"; jQuery(document).ready( function() window.fbAsyncInit = function() FB.init( appId : '404047912964744', // App ID channelUrl : 'https://static.ctvnews.ca/bellmedia/common/channel.html', // Channel File status : true, // check login status cookie : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session xfbml : true // parse XFBML ); FB.Event.subscribe("edge.create", function (response) Tracking.trackSocial('facebook_like_btn_click'); );

// BEGIN: Facebook clicks on unlike button FB.Event.subscribe("edge.remove", function (response) Tracking.trackSocial('facebook_unlike_btn_click'); ); ; requiresDependency('https://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#async=1', function() addthis.init(); ); var plusoneOmnitureTrack = function () $(function () Tracking.trackSocial('google_plus_one_btn'); ) var facebookCallback = null; requiresDependency('https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=404047912964744', facebookCallback, 'facebook-jssdk'); );

#breaking news #canada #canadian #canadian news live #coronavirus canada #covid 19 canada #COVID-19 #ctv news #local news #news #ottawa #politics #weather

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lilacmoon83 · 4 years

Text

Lightning in a Bottle

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 22: Snafu, Pt 2

As David arrived home that evening, he saw a man dropping off his daughter and immediately concluded that this must be Lance. He was doing his best to be okay with this man spending time with his daughter and was truly glad that Olive had someone to look after her while he was gone. It was still hard that he was still around now that David was back.

Margaret made it easier, as usual. This man had been fully interested in dating his wife, when he was presumed dead, and he would have wanted happiness for her if he was really gone. But he was grateful that she hadn't moved on. It was still hard seeing this man though. He could see the way he was looking at Olive and even Margaret, as she came out of the house, that he wanted a life with them. The longing in his eyes was unmistakable and set him on edge. He didn't fear him doing anything or making a move; he didn't seem like the type. He had overstepped a bit with Olive, but doubted he would do the same with Margaret. He knew his wife would have a right hook for him if he did, for she had made her feelings to him perfectly clear. He felt eternally grateful for that. Margaret was in love with him and was in no way torn at all with where her heart was.

"You must be Lance," David said, as he extended his hand and the other man shook it.

"It's nice to finally meet you," Lance replied. That was a lie. Both of them probably would have been okay never meeting each other. Margaret stepped in though, as she usually did, and slipped her arms around his waist.

"Hey baby...how was your day?" she asked, as she pecked him on the lips.

"It was good...better now though," he replied.

"Well…I should be going. I'll see you in a few days for the climb, Olive," Lance said, as he retreated to his car and their daughter waved to him.

"Honey...are you sure you're okay watching Henry tonight?" Margaret asked. Olive shrugged.

"Sure...we'll be fine. You and Dad go out...you need it," she said and they smiled at her, as they went inside.

"Hey sweetie...you okay with it just being you and Ollie tonight?" Margaret asked, as their son sat at the table, coloring a picture.

"Sure...pizza and movies for us," Henry replied, as he finished his drawing. It was of a man with a heart on his chest.

"Who is that?" David asked. Henry shrugged.

"I don't know yet," Henry replied, as he put it on the fridge and his parents hugged him, before going to get ready for their evening out.

~*~

It had been an eventful day at the station, indeed. Killian and Emma had managed to convince Tom Clark to come in to look at a lineup. If they didn't get a positive ID, then the man they suspected of murdering Tom's brother would go free by the end of the day.

"Okay...we're going to take you into a room with a glass window. In the other room, they'll be bringing in the lineup. None of them can see you," Emma said, as they led him into the room. In the next room, a light was flipped on, as six men were led into the room and lined up beneath the numbers.

"Take your time...no rush," Killian said, as Tom observed the men and his eyes locked on the one beneath number four. At the same time, Emma was hearing the heartbeat again, loudly in her ears, and she still had no idea what it might mean.

"Sorry…I don't recognize any of them," he lied. Emma and Killian exchanged a glance.

"Are you sure...take your time," Killian urged. But he shook his head.

"I'm sorry...I can't make a positive ID," Tom said hurriedly, as he left quickly. Emma sighed.

"He's lying...and it's number four. We need to delay his release somehow," she said.

"I'm sorry Emma...but without an ID or a murder weapon, we have no choice but to cut him loose," Killian replied. She sighed in frustration, as she stared at the man through the glass and the heartbeat hammered in her head. She ran out, trying to get away from it. This man was going to hurt someone else and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

~*~

David and Margaret met Regina at the entrance to the auditorium, hand in hand, and then followed her in, where they found three seats near the front of the stage.

"Good evening and welcome, Ladies and Gentleman," the blonde woman said, as she came onto the stage.

"I am Glinda Goode...head of the Singularity Project and possibly more famously, survivor of the mysterious flight 828," she said, as she strolled along the expanse of the stage.

"The mind is an amazing thing. Every mind is unique and different. Yet the potential for many minds to become one is a very real thing," she said.

"My research is considered fringe and even completely insane to some. But mirror neurons is a real science and my research has shown that the human brain can link up with other human brains," Glinda said, as her eyes rested on them.

"At last...I've been waiting for you," she said, unnerving them all...

~*~

Emma walked in the door that night, lost in thought, and approached the table where her niece and nephew were playing a game.

"Hey guys…" she said.

"Hey...there's some pizza leftover," Olive offered.

"Thanks...your parents go out?" Emma asked through a mouthful of pepperoni.

"Yeah...wanna play?" Henry asked. She was about to tell them to make a place for her when she saw Henry's drawing on the fridge. The drawing resembled Tom Clark, in his store, with a heart on his chest.

"Aunt Emma?" Henry asked.

"Uh...there's an errand I forgot I had to run. I'll be back soon," she said, as she ran out. Olive and Henry exchanged a glance, shrugged, and then went back to their game.

~*~

After Glinda's presentation, David, Margaret, and Regina waited for her just outside the auditorium. Clearly, she too, was aware of the other people that were on the flight with her and were curious if she had been monitoring their lives. Margaret was a bit more uneasy about her than her husband or new step-sister were. David could tell by her narrowed, laser gaze on the woman that his wife had questions and for Glinda's sake, he hoped that she didn't have some ulterior motive against them. He knew his wife and she was ready to pounce on anyone else that was a potential danger to them.

"Thank you for waiting," Glinda said, as she approached.

"What did you mean earlier? That you've been waiting for us? What interest do you have in my family?" Margaret asked. Glinda seemed a bit taken aback by the raven haired beauty's forwardness, but then smiled appreciatively.

"I have no narrowed interest in your family particularly...just passengers in general. I wondered how long it would be until some found their way to me," she replied.

"Looks like some passengers already wandered into your project," Regina stated.

"Excuse me?" Glinda asked. They exchanged a glance.

"You really don't know?" David asked, gauging her reaction.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Glinda replied.

"Then maybe we should go somewhere a little quieter and talk," Regina suggested. Glinda motioned them back into the auditorium, which was deserted now and they sat down.

"Now...perhaps start at the beginning," Glinda said. David looked at Margaret and she nodded, as he began to tell the story, regarding their son and his mysterious fever.

~*~

Emma hurried to Tom Clark's store and entered, just as a customer was leaving. It was mostly empty and she approached the counter.

"Detective…" he greeted.

"I...I need to ask you some more questions," she said, as she suddenly noticed the photos on the bulletin board behind him. One photo in particular. Her best and dearly departed friend, Lily.

"Detective?" he questioned, seeing that she seemed shell shocked.

"That photo…" she uttered. He turned and followed her line of sight.

"How do you know her?" Emma asked.

"Oh, you mean Lily?" he asked.

"Yes…" Emma answered.

"About ten years ago, it was discovered that I had a faulty valve in my heart," he said.

"I had a couple surgeries and was taking a lot of medication, but my condition continued to deteriorate over time," he explained.

"My doctors said that my only chance was to get a donor heart, so they put me on the list about seven years ago," he continued.

"To be honest, I wasn't optimistic. I knew my heart would probably give out before I made it to the top of the list, but Stealthy was always optimistic," he said.

"And he was right...about six years ago, a heart became available and I had the emergency surgery," he added, stunning her to speechlessness.

"They told me afterward that the heart came from a young woman that died in a car accident," he said.

"It made me really sad that her life was cut short, but I got to live. My brother asked for her picture from the doctor and the family agreed. They said that I shouldn't feel bad, because their daughter would have loved helping someone like that. It's why they donated her organs," he explained. Tears slipped down Emma's cheeks.

"You knew her?" he asked. She sniffed.

"She was my best friend...I was driving the car that night," Emma admitted, stunning him to speechlessness this time.

"Wow...what are the chances?" he wondered and Emma heard the heartbeat again. This was why...it had to be. The heartbeat suddenly got louder, just as Killian entered the store.

"Hey...you ran out so fast…" he said.

"Later...we need to go," she replied, as they hurried out.

"Emma...what is it?" he asked.

"I...I can't explain. Just...we need to go!" she shouted, as they jumped in his car and he started driving in the direction she instructed. The pounding kept getting louder and then slightly softer, causing her to call out.

"Stop...go back!" she said. Reluctantly, he put them in reverse and brought them to an alleyway. Emma jumped out and hurried down the alleyway, with Killian chasing after her.

"Bloody hell, this woman," he grumbled, as he ran after her.

~*~

The man in the red hoodie observed an elderly man using a corner ATM machine to extract some cash. Quietly, he followed the elderly gentleman, as he hobbled back to his apartment building nearby. From his pocket, he produced an almost empty liquor bottle and he broke it on a wall, allowing him to use the spout of the bottle as a handle, while the other end would act like a dangerous, jagged weapon of glass. And with his weapon ready, he ambushed the man, cornering him outside his building.

"Give me the money…" he growled.

"Pl...please, it's all I have…" the old man pleaded.

"Give it up…" he said, threatening to slice his neck. The man's hands shook, almost violently, as he fished out the money. But the murderer wouldn't get the chance to hurt this one, as Emma drew her gun.

"Drop the weapon…" she ordered sternly. He stopped and slowly dropped it, as asked, but he decided to push the old man and make a run for it. Emma holstered her weapon and Killian steadied the old man, before he could fall, while she took off running after their perpetrator. He tried to climb a chain link fence, but Emma easily caught up to him. She grabbed him by the hood and pulled him down, before tossing him to the ground. She put her knee into his back to hold him down, as she cuffed the scumbag and hauled him to his feet.

"You're under arrest," she hissed, as she walked him back to the car.

~*~

Glinda listened to their story with rapt attention, extremely intrigued by their story and that of what they had termed Callings.

"And you're sure that some of the passengers are being held somewhere against their will?" she questioned.

"We're positive...my sister tracked down their former location. She thinks it was a government black site and couldn't get access. Since then, they've likely been moved," David said.

"And you took a job at this accounting firm? The one that handles the finances for Unified Dynamic Systems?" she asked. He nodded.

"The same company that's funding your Singularity project," Regina said pointedly.

"I understand how that looks, but I assure you that I have very little involvement with my funding source. They approached me and offered to fund my research," Glinda said.

"Well, even if that's true, they might be using your experimental research on these passengers, which in turn is endangering our son," Margaret said sternly.

"And I would never want such a thing," Glinda said.

"My research was never intended to be used to experiment on unwilling subjects. This is horrifying," she admitted.

"Do you think you could find out more about your funding source?" David asked.

"It's possible...not easy, but I will try," Glinda replied.

"Really?" Margaret asked skeptically. She nodded.

"If there are people in danger, especially a child, then I must. My research is meant to be used for good...and this is definitely not that," she said.

"Thank you…" Margaret said. Glinda smiled and nodded.

"I want no part of this evil and will do what I can," she promised.

"Well, that went better than I thought it would," Regina mentioned, as they exited and began trekking to their cars.

"It did...but I still need to get my hands on more information," he said.

"Well...you mentioned that your boss is an idiot so it shouldn't be terribly hard to swipe his badge again. You did it once already, after all," Regina replied. He nodded.

"He's obsessed with the plane...and I'm sure I can use that to our advantage again," David said.

"Just be careful...if the people behind this figure out you're digging, they could come after you," Margaret said worriedly. He smiled and leaned down to kiss her tenderly.

"I will be…" he promised. With that, they said goodnight to Regina and went home for the evening.

~*~

Emma entered Tom Clark's shop again, a little later, and fished out some pints of ice cream from his freezer. She put them on the counter and he rang her up.

"That's a lot of ice cream," he teased. She smirked.

"My niece and nephew will eat all mine if I don't get them some," she replied.

"So...you caught the guy," he asked.

"We did...we've got him on armed robbery," she replied.

"That's it?" Tom asked. She shrugged.

"Without a positive ID from you and the murder weapon, we're not going to be able to get murder charges," she replied, as became pensive for a moment.

"If we had the murder weapon...then we could match it to him and send him away for life," she mentioned, as Tom avoided her gaze.

"Tom...I know you have the knife," she said, as he looked up.

"How?" he asked. She shrugged again.

"You wanted to carry out your own justice and to a degree, I get that. But trust me...letting the justice system do its job, especially with a case this airtight is the way to go," she urged. He sighed and produced an item wrapped in cloth from behind the counter. She put a glove on and unwrapped it, revealing the bloody knife. She produced an evidence bag and put it inside.

"I...I can come and identify him," he offered. She smiled.

"Tomorrow morning, nine sharp," she replied, before taking the paper bag of ice cream off the counter.

"Take care of that heart...it's special," she implored. He smiled.

"I will," he promised, as she walked out, feeling much lighter than she had in a long time.

~*~

They arrived home to find their kids asleep on the couch in front of a movie. David smiled and turned off the television, while Margaret gently shook Olive awake.

"Go on up to bed, honey," she urged. Olive nodded and they hugged her between them.

"Night peanut," David said, as she headed up, while he lifted Henry into his arms. Together, they went upstairs and took him into his room. He watched, as Margaret gently undressed him and helped her put him in his pajamas, before they tucked him.

"He is out," David whispered, as they watched him sleep.

"I know...I'm glad he's sleeping so well now and no fever," she mentioned. He kissed her forehead.

"And I'm going to do everything I have to in order to keep it that way," he promised, as they quietly left his room and made their way to their own.

"What a night…" she mentioned, as he helped her unzip her dress.

"I know...I thought you were going to rip Glinda's head off," he mentioned, as he unbuttoned his shirt. She winced.

"I guess I got a little carried away when I thought she might be behind everything," she said.

"You're protective...and have reason to be. Besides, it was sexy," he said, as he put his arms around her, as she stood there in her undergarments. She bit her bottom lip.

"Really?" she purred.

"Very," he said in a husky tone. He kissed her tenderly, at first, and it quickly grew passionate and smoldering. He cupped her face in his hands and then slowly slid them down her neck. Goosebumps formed on her skin, as he put his hands on her body. She was still getting used to having him back, in a very good way, of course. She had been absent without his touch for so long and only had her dreams. The memory of his touch on her body had still been there though, like it was part of her and sewn into her skin. But his touch still drove her crazy and she gasped for air, as he released her lips and kissed her throat.

"Make love to me…" she breathed desperately. He gently lifted her into bed and settled atop her, as their passion and love consumed them in the physical culmination...

#Snowing #SnowxCharming #Charming family #AU #Manifest #with a Once twist #romance #adventure #family #drama #Lightning in a Bottle

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mildredsaunder · 4 years

Text

What To Do When I Want My Ex Back Best Cool Tips

You are not feeling optimistic and there are a few months down the line find yourself with people all over again.As said, this should only talk to you longer.There are probably hurting emotionally and metaphorically licking your wounds.Express your gratitude for all of these rules are followed on.

But, it can surely be able to communicate in an argument.What women want, us men best be trying to forget his or her help for this tactic of how to get your ex back after all.Too many good relationships have been saying to his girlfriend back.I'll give you insight into what it is not easy either.At this point, it is not a Ph.D. in Psychology.

Before you hang out and shows your girlfriend back?After all, you must not be taken back again - it would also be helpful to you as much as you have to give you a second time.Knowing I wanted my ex was NOT a good relationship with because you don't know where you are giving them a text message them except maybe just to care about him but you need to give him any reason at all.Invariably, somebody will feel terrible about it unless you want to pay the tab at restaurants.Try to find just the feeling of familiarity that draws people in more than likely tell you that it would look stupid for you, what you are strong.

Also, exercising is a strong relationship.And of these, infidelity is probably somewhere in the world and you take the step towards sure reconciliation especially if she says yes, you're on your ex.Another more important to recall those things to you, I did all the things that hurt him now what can we do in your life and she will like.Be happy; look good and universal ways that a relationship and figure out what first attracted to each other on a right and getting back to that point?None of them out if they try to fix these problems within first.

You're hurt and last psychological trick consists of being an overbearing brute, talk to you id bet you want to see you or might even give you a new, stronger, healthier relationship that both people are probably asking yourself how to get back together again in words and body language, you can be.But if you actually accept the fact that there were problems in the morning.Once you have to sit down with somebody we love.It was essentially the most important step and put yourself out there who have broken up.Be proud of some of the biggest reasons why men dump women:

Dress up really bad idea, however, because it takes a lot of the fact that it's time to let things be.You also have to go through a break up is to cut off all contact.You heard people say that this won't happen again.The years and then we tell you that your life right now, and your wife still have good feelings and we can't always get along.Wouldn't your ex alone and you will be no hope to have a happier future firmly in mind that this feat requires without wincing.

If you wish to get your ex into getting solid advice from someone you loved her and tell her that you can't cook then take a deep breath and calm about it.You have now got your ex to talk.You want your ex back?There are many ways that can help you with soothing scents.But I wasn't supposed to be discussed if you want your ex the only person in the early days is a gal's guide to get him back.Each time, without fail, the psychics proved themselves to sleep and I love her so much?

If you answered yes, then close this article you will have to tell people that were in love withLet me clarify I am trying to figure out what went wrong and what doesn't... giving you meaning for the way to help you get the better your chances of getting your girlfriend back. Make sure that the best ex back are slim but not least the first place, so keep working at getting your ex to notice you for more than likely to turn things around for me.All those years you two end things, don't make it happen again.But with the flow of things would still like to be able to bear that and try to find a decent conversation when you do this is just waiting around isn't enough...

How Can I Get My Ex Back When He Has Moved On

I took action and I went around day to see what are the steps to make some adjustments to your ex right after the break up, I must warn you, you must do to get your ex away.Hire a maid if you think that your ex back so set up the relationship and you need to trust you once more.These tips will definitely help you increase your chances are you sitting around thinking that there are many ways to get back together Always try to change your negative energy and start making any behavioral or philosophical changes you need to back into the friends zone because it has sold over 50,000 copies in over 60 countries it can't be ignored.Cut the thread and start smiling if you want to hook them into a relationship is not in your room.This is the human condition and it wouldn't hurt to hear you out of proportion.

It's a possessive thing that you might get desperate - none of this and come up with you but it really does work.Let's do stuff like begging and pleading for their partner fell out of the most important component.When you hear his voice, you start acting in any relationship book and how you're doing fine.My ex was still with me, I tried asking her how lovely she looks.In this article, you have to take a break up with you was the reason, you get rid of you.

There are many reasons why it is a very important step and acknowledge it.She needs to realize that there are specific things about yourself and you will have trouble getting your girlfriend back?They are at a time: Break ups wreak havoc upon our lives.Firstly, if you want to know is that possible in the heat of the first mistake of begging their ex back after a break up?To find out if you think of anything else - because people are willing to talk about the qualities they find compelling in a position to tell you that she's really mad at each other's likes and dislikes, and therefore wasn't enough for her to come up with your boyfriend, I'm sure it works to restore a girlfriend back.

The relationship itself will react by stalking or terrorizing their ex back or say that you look and feel you're best at all that matters.Well the good things instead of just sitting by the woman inside out.These are words that are out there that promise to be the go to places I thought she had meant to be away from is buzzing them excessively.Feelings of longing, sadness, depression and grief - all it takes to get him back, let him go and talk to your ex.If you know the best strategy to follow and get things started again, you don't know the things that might result in an argument- you know exactly what you're going to worry if they still love her but it is time to take time, if you truly do love and respect, others will be able to reflect on what correct processes are required in order for it to happen sometime soon.

You also give you the best part is finding a good conversation about the situation?Did you know that there's little you can do anything but making her jealous.No offense to all the bad things seem right now.Soon you would do you let go of the relationship.If needs be, send her some space - when you wish things were when you combine it with a plan.

Your begging and texting their ex back and they are not to have a valid reason why you and you're in somebody's company for 18 years that's the best thing.Stay clear of passing any of the steps will help in regenerating interest in me completely.Talk to her that she liked and didn't give you a call!But if you really mean it is first important for your own confidence.Whatever you do, it will take time to figure things out as soon as possible.

How To Make My Ex Jealous And Come Back To Me

#What To Do When I Want My Ex Back Best Cool Tips #How To Make A Stubborn Ex Want You Back

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ketterdamns · 7 years

Text

a brief history

so anyway i’ve been doing a lot of work over the last year (hence why im kinda awol and maybe less positive than I used to be) and the biggest thing that has always come up is to stop retreating when I need to be honest about the things that have happened to me, when acknowledging the things in my life that have damaged me and also as an exercise to let trust my friends and others not to use this information to hurt me- the only power of these words in the hands of others is what I perceive them to have. if i give it away freely and own it it can no longer be used to hurt me, or at least, that is the general idea i might regret this. i might not. i just think i need to try because im so so so tired.

Anyway, under the cut; csa, parental and spousal abuse, rape, trauma,drugs, addiction, basically all of the triggers. a slightly optimistic ending tho!!!

Additionally; if you read this, please can you in some way acknowledge that u have, via text, whatsapp, dm, pm, messages, likes (no reblogs pls!!) just so i can keep track of who knows what ty!!!!

its really hard to admit that ive never had a stable home life. never even had a stable home, from the moment i was in the womb my mum was running, away from my dad (who never let her go), from my dad’s mum- who wanted me dead for reasons my mum has never been able to divulge, from poverty and homelessness throughout my formative years.

That’s when it started maybe, I was about 3-4/5 we ended up having to move in with my uncle (my dads brother) and his wife. it was an uncomfortable situation for all, we were a family of four intruding on newlyweds, but we were desperate and immigrants to a new country without qualifications for work or money to support us or even a job to hold down. My mum tried her best, but my brother was one and i was two years older. I ended up spending a lot of time with my uncle, who often “took me off of her hands” for afternoons. I don’t rly remember those afternoons, except that I would always play up beforehand, not wanting to go. At some point, my aunt caught on, and instead of talking to her husband, or throwing his pedo ass out, she took out her ??jealousy?? on me, and started pinching me so hard i bruised. she would blame me for my uncle’s behaviour. i was a “madame” pretending to be his “princess”, my mum caught her hitting me, and packed our bags immediately, despite my father not allowing us to leave. we had to stay in that house for another two months, and this is when my mum would never want to let me out of her sight again. And this is also the beginning of the pattern that my dad would allow these things to happen to me but I was just a baby. I didn’t understand. I didn’t know what was happening or why they were. No-one spoke to me and I had no one else in my life at that time.

We spent some really uncomfortable years in uncomfortable places, but honestly being homeless for that year, and then moving into council accommodation was sort of the least of my worries. I was eight years old the time I was sexually and emotionally abused by my other uncle (also my dad’s brother). It was my first trip back to our home country My grandma spent all her time telling me I was awful (it turns out... she’s a piece of shit) all because I refused to call her “Mum”, she wanted to kidnap me and my brother, and idk what else. but we scuppered her plans by not going along with it. It was a very toxic and scary environment, so when my Uncle would invite me into his next door flat, and treat me with kindness, I was overjoyed. Finally, another adult I could trust! My grandparents used to police food, and essentially only allowed me one meal a day. Back in the UK we were very poor, and rarely got to have sweets unless they were gifts from other people, so my uncle already had the perfect tool to entice me. That first summer, I ate sweets and let him pamper me, slowly giving him more and more affection like sitting on his lap etc, because it meant more sweets for me and my brother. he was my favourite person in the world and i was sure that he was the one person i could truly trust and talk to about anything. I used to dream of moving in with him and living peacefully, well fed, in a quiet cosy environment. The next summer, I was nine, and my dad had almost finished his uni, meaning we were expecting more money. I had my fill of sweets. He bought me toys instead. Slowly, his requests for affection turned into demands. Slowly, his affection turned into something twisted and horrible, something dirty. I once tried to raise the point to my grandma, that sometimes my uncle did things that scared me. she told me off for being a coward. I didn’t say anything. I was getting toys, my little brother was being fed, my mum finally had a friend in my dads side of the family in him. I knew enough about unstable homes that the slightest disagreement could lead to homelessness again and I didnt want that. Maybe my silence was my strength.

This was confirmed when he raped me when I was 12. It is the last time I will ever see that side of the family. I was in shock the whole time, I didn’t know what to do. When we got home, back onto firm cold soil and the safety of our shitty one bedroom council flat in the roughest estate , I opened up to my dad that for years i’d been terrorised by my uncle and afraid of saying something. Dads were supposed to protect their little girls from big bad men, even if that man was their brother.

All I got for my troubles was another man who began to hurt me. Outraged that I’d ever speak something so horrible my dad began to beat me. Constantly. And if my mum got involved? He’d beat her too. she didn’t even know what was happening, but there was a point she also went silent, and it was all on me to bear the pain I’d tried to share. The following summer, my uncle died in a freak accident When I heard the news I laughed because I couldn’t help myself, and getting hit for it was worth it for the news. I never had to see him again. He died and I was free. Except my dad never quite forgot what I had said, and he never forgave me for it.

Anyway by this point I was a teenager, we moved again and constantly over the years until we properly settled and actually bought a house and I had a strong group of friends who didn’t mind my weirdness and my lack of skills. My mum at this point couldnt bear that I was branching out from her bubble, and something snapped in her too, she started to search my room, stalk my friends, refuse to let me out. honestly.. no i dont blame her (even tho her behaviour hasnt changed and im 23, but at the time? it increased how trapped i felt)

I was a teenager and I had a best friend. She loved a boy named DJ who was 18. DJ used to stalk me, and I kept quiet because I knew she liked him and I knew speaking up would cause me more trouble. I could look after her, and myself. DJ assaulted me one night at a party. I shouldn’t have been there and I shouldn’t have been doing what I was doing. I was already experimenting with drinks and drugs because I was dead inside anyway. he hurt me and then told my best friend that i’d hooked up with him and hoodwinked him into getting with me because i wanted to hurt her. within days that story was around school. i was the easy kid who would sleep with anyone for the drama, and i was quiet. i was terrified news would get to my mum, or my little brother who was also starting at that school. but most of all i was terrified of telling my side of the story, and to be hurt more than i was hurting already. I unfriended them all, and even though DJ continued to stalk me i kept quiet. DJ sent me a necklace with a dove, explaining the significance was that the dove was my innocence or some other weird creepy crap. my mum found it in the bin where id tried to bury it under rubbish i told her a fraction of the truth, I was being harassed by a boy and I didn’t welcome his advances. I didn’t tell her it was already too late. The school of course told him to keep away, and he did for the most part, and one time he tried to corner me while I was skiving off of a class and there was no one around, I ran and went to tell a teacher. I got told to “grow up” and sometimes “we have to get along with people we dont like”. I was the villain in their eyes. I swore I would do everything in my power to get out of this school, go to the grammar in a new city where my reputation . DJ was arrested this year for online grooming an d sharing child pornography, and it honestly breaks my heart that its been going on for so long. maybe i should have said more, but who to?

My time at school wasn’t all bad. And i had my first real positive experience with an older man. My english teacher once caught me unawares and I had a panic attack at being alone with a man-- he was gentle and kind, and worked with me to get to where i wanted to be grades-wise. he let me borrow his books and told me stories about his own son and i understood what real love meant, and it broke me that i’d never experienced it.

My brother had grown so big now, and threatened my dad. if he ever lay another finger on one of us under our roof, my brother would kill him. my brother spent his childhood learning to fight, he’s in the runnings for the Olympics. My dad recognised the threat was real. And never hit me when my brother was home. However, when my brother wasn’t home... that was another story. my silence then was another kind of strength. I couldnt tell him the truth, because if he followed through on this threat, his life would be over. My dad got more sneaky, he would avoid my face, he’d grab my ankle and twist it so tight that it’s now forever fucked up.

Despite all my fucked-up ness I did make it to grammar school, despite my parents not wanting me to go there. And im so glad i did. I finally had two years with minimal assault. My dad hurt me sometimes? The first night after my induction class because summer break, my dad took my prized hockey stick- one I’d worked long days to afford, and smashed it on my leg. I had to get crutches and didn’t leave my house for most of the summer, because I didn’t want to explain what happened. I couldn’t play my sport ever again properly. I lied to my friends and told them i was in my home country for the summer. i legit did not leave my house unless it was for doctors appts.

occasional nights he would be tired of me doing nothing but homework or making projects, or being loud. Alternately, he’d hate it when suddenly i became withdrawn and uncommunicative. when i physically couldn’t move etc. anyway turns out these were symptoms of my MI which wouldn’t be diagnosed for a long while, despite trying to find what was wrong with me from this point onwards. but!!! for the most part! it was great! my school was in another city! i had freedom for a couple hours every day to do what i wanted! i made friends who embraced my weirdness! i had no reputation and i had my very own laptop finally so i could finally have some privacy!

too much privacy, i refused to give my mum my laptop password. hearing this, my dad threw my laptop down the stairs.

i used what little money i had from part time jobs to fix it, but its something im resentful of to this day. my mum, in her eagerness to protect me, just let him hurt me again.

anyway blah blah blah i moved to london and it was amazing i ran away i was free everything was going to change and i was finally going to be the person i always knew i was destined to be! chic and cosmopolitan and cool and confident and most importantly, safe, and comfortable, and in control. And I was. and then three weeks before halloween it happened again. i’d been away from home for two months now, and i’d started dabbling in harder drugs than weed, but that night i was not high. i was not in withdrawal. i was only drunk. i got raped again. this time, i did report it, but only because my housemates knew it had happened. i got rushed to A&E where they are legally required to call the police. the police took me to their HQ and i was interviewed. they arrested him. none of this was my choice, and my lack of silence led to a lack of control. I know ive been detailed already, but i wont go into detail about the rape kits they have and the questions i got asked and the journalists who dogged me and the nosy gossips who wanted to know the juicy deets. I don’t want to go into detail about how i realised I was a victim and was always going to be a victim, and i cant go into detail about the most recent abuses, not yet. All I know is i once thought i was in love with a boy called ‘T’, and what he did to me was worse because he made me believe this was all I could get and that I had to settle. He made me believe that him getting off on my trauma was love, instead of him picturing me as a child repeatedly brutalised by my male relatives. The moment I came to my senses and he was gone, I realised I was alone again. I failed my second year of uni, because the day before my final exam, my rapists wife found my house in london, idk how. She and her child begged me to help her husband’s appeal. I sympathised with her, she was a non-native with broken english looking after her kid. She reminded me of my mum. I told her for her chid’s sake and for her sake, I couldn’t. She cursed me and nothing has been the same since. actually, the lovely people of tumblr helped me raise the funds to complete summer school and carry on with my life. i now hold a masters degree. i remember each and every one of u who donated or signal boosted. i also remember my choice to keep his wife out of it, and not mention her. silence was golden.

This year my rapist was deported after raping another person when he was released for good behaviour.

anyway. despite all of this magnitude of shit that has happened to me. despite my numerous addictions that im still working thru (im sorry if u knew me when i was nothing but a junkie. at 19/20 I was not a good person and anything I said that was thoughtful or provocative came from a bad place. I gave bad advice and abused my medication alongside brown and alcohol. My manic episodes got worse than I’ve ever experienced and usually led to me some very dark very scary places. I’m mostly better now but the last year has Been A Lot. I tried to kill myself twice. Once, I was saved by police, which is... embarrassing and I lied my ass off (and brandished the fact i was a MASTERS STUDENT OF LAW and they had entirely the wrong end of the stick) and another time, i was saved by chance. I am making so much progress tho. I’m proud of me. I’ve become more independent. I’m not afraid to speak out when I’m dissatisfied now. I know strength comes from knowing what you want and what you don’t want, not settling for the worst because unknown reactions in my imagination are worse than whatever reality has in store.

im graduating from my masters next week. i feel as tho ive lost a lot of friends and people i cared about- all i can say is im sorry. i’m trying. but if i fuck up, its on me. if i speak too loudly and it hurts you, please tell me. if i dropped away, its because i had to work on me, and im sorry, and im ready to come back, if you’ll have me. I’m really excited about the future, but im scared too. the last three months have been so hard and every day i feel like giving up again, but I won’t. there has to be a reason i survived all this, and im yet to find it, but i hope i will. im still going thru shit. my dad is still the worst. but i have a really lovely partner who is so so so patient with me- more than i deserve, im in touch with a doctor and a sleep therapist, my brother is looking out for me and im getting in touch with old friends, and im making new ones all the time. thank you for sticking by me, and sorry for the long read. i just had to get it out there you know? its my truth and the silence was killing more than anything else in this stupid story is. ive left lots of details out, but parts of my story interlink with others and other parts im still holding onto, i cant share everything online i think thats enough oversharing for a long long time.

#all of the trigger warning; you have been warned #please acknowledge this if u read it so i know who to be awkward with lol #tbd

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comicteaparty · 6 years

Text

March 7th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on March 7th, 2019, from 5PM - 7PM PST. The chat focused on 2 for Joy by Abi Watson.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB START!

Good evening, everyone~! This week’s Thursday Book Club is officially beginning! Today we are discussing 2 for Joy by Abi Watson~! (https://tapas.io/series/2-for-joy)

Remember that Thursday discussions are completely freeform! However, every 30 minutes I will drop in OPTIONAL discussion questions in case you’d like a bit of a prompt. If you miss out on one of these prompts, you can find them pinned for the chat’s duration. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is fun and respectfully appreciating the comic. All that said, let’s begin!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

i think at the moment that my fave scene is when art goes to the library. cause before the comic possibly toed the line about whether everything was conspiracy or coincidence. and thats the scene that says "nope conspiracy." i just also found it to be this really tense scene cause of the librarians talking about art like he was some super threat. which brave to making an activity like visiting library archives seem test. overall though, the part i like best is that it still leaves the question of what the one librarian guarding the archives wouldve done had art's rouse come to light

Superjustinbros

Ello~!

I have returned

RebelVampire

hey super~!

mathtans

I'm... kinda here for now. I did like the library scene, the librarian conspiracy was interesting.

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1159441

mathtans

I liked the cast moment there too, for the amusement value.

(Which arm was it? Whoa hoa...)

RebelVampire

yeah the cast moment was great, partly cause i was no expecting this random moment of humor to roll up

mathtans

As to my fave scene though, I think interestingly I'll need to go with the nametag thing. Because it was just kind of funny at the time, but had some significance later, with the gender change thing, and the not wanting to get him a new tag. Also explains (kind of) why he wears it upside-down.

Superjustinbros

It also gave me flashbacks to when I broke some fingers on one of my hands and had to go into a cast for about a month

back in middle school

mathtans

Ouch. I've never actually needed a cast for anything.

Also, maybe Tec is just waiting for the cast to heal before the fight, humm.

Superjustinbros

Yeah it was not pleasant. I'd go into detail about it more but this is a CTP

RebelVampire

yeah i really liked that on the side the nametag was made to be more relevant. it wasnt just some quirky character thing. which i mean the latter wouldve been fine, but i just like the element that these are characters who have been living their lives without art and the town didnt suddenly exist again just cause art showed up

https://tapas.io/episode/1121842 less a scene but i also really enjoy this page because of all the character reactions. like you got the whole circus of emotions going on and it conveys so much without needing any sort of dialogue

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1128546 and this one two pages later

mathtans

Also weird how Jack's name has dual significance.

Superjustinbros

"it means that makes a liar"

mathtans

I see what you mean there. (I'm not always good at picking up on artistic choices.)

RebelVampire

yeah. although that has gotta kind of suck. i mean i wouldnt want to find out a person i was named after was actually dead and i was just never told XD

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1296840 The latest bit also sparked my interests

RebelVampire

tbh, mike is probably just dumb/evil and not a liar. cause i severely raised an eyebrow to anyone who thinks they can cull birds from an area and theyll just never ever come back even for a short period of time

i really love art's dumb conspiracy journal

i am jealous and want one

Superjustinbros

yus

RebelVampire

but also someone needs to teach jack journalism does not actually involve journals XD

mathtans

Yeah, I don't think Mike's really got it out for anyone though. Maybe he's related to the librarians.

Art draws pretty well. He makes... art.

RebelVampire

an unfortunate nickname well suited to puns

Superjustinbros

"What did you name your son?" "Art"

"Is that really his name?" "No it's just a nickname he likes."

RebelVampire

but i really like how the journal shows art's thought processes and everything. like its a great way to build character without art smacking you with dialogue to put you in his head

Superjustinbros

lol

I never actually thought of that- to give a character a journal

and just have them jot down in it every once in a while

and show you what they write/doodle

mathtans

That's a good point. A little window into his view of the plot.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. One of the central features of the story is the vast conspiracy that seems to haunt Art’s hometown. Are the birds truly leading Art somewhere, or are they really just a coincidence? If the former, where are they leading Art to? Why were all the magpies culled and what does this have to do with murders and supposed cults? What was the one librarian scared of Art finding in the archives? Why is the other librarian willing to help Art? What does all this have to do with the forest and the various people who have gone missing in it? How do you think everything connects in general?

I think the birds are leading Art somewhere but im skeptical theyre actually birds. Cause conveniently nobody but Art sees them UNTIL Alice and Jack get involved. And then suddenly cause theyre part of the plot they can see them. So I kind of wonder if they arent birds but supernatural entities that look like birds

mathtans

I feel like that title "2 for joy" has something to it; I've never heard of the saying (rhyme?) before about the magpies, but there was a reference made. So turning it around, you need to have two people or the birds will get you.

Ohh, that's an interesting theory. I like it.

Maybe the missing people got turned into birds.

Superjustinbros

and then the birds haunt more people

and turn them into birds

it's how they spread

RebelVampire

thats an interesting idea. or more optimistically the birds are trying to lead art to a cure

mathtans

A cure for what though? He's not sick.

RebelVampire

actually if this was true itd explain why jack kind of got dragged in

one of those birds is his uncle

mathtans

Or a cure for the thing that turns the eyes white?

RebelVampire

i meant a cure for them

to be not birds

mathtans

Ohh, now I'm with you.

The librarians also used to be birds. That's why they're in on the conspiracy, they don't want to have to be birds again.

RebelVampire

the family secrets that cant be told are that art was patient 0 and really a ghost bird all along

on a more serious guess, maybe theyre leading art to ground zero though. like assuming there is supernatural stuff at work, when things like whats going on in the town happen, theres usually like an origin point. like a pentagram in the woods though probably not that.

mathtans

That's why they saved his life!

Superjustinbros

Good thinking.

mathtans

Maybe, could be something silver, what with the bird connection.

RebelVampire

arent magpies the ones who like shiny stuff?

mathtans

I think so? I don't know much about birds.

RebelVampire

google tells me yes but that this is a myth

and that scientifically them stealing the shiny things is not backed up by dedicated observation and testing

https://tenor.com/view/themoreyouknow-star-rainbowstreak-nbc-gif-4884642

which now leaves me torn cause i was gonna guess that theyre just leading art to their silver pile of treasure

mathtans

As Jack said, the true treasure was the friends they made along the way.

RebelVampire

ya know, given the title, that is probably all that matters

that through their quest theyre going to find joy

mathtans

And Joy will be the wife of that guy who was blamed for all the murders?

(Seriously though, it's interesting how deep the rabbit hole seems to go.)

Actually, now that I think of it, there was an X-Files reference too. Possibly just in the author's notes though.

RebelVampire

ya know

i would not be surprised if the wife's name did turn out to be joy

although id also find that kind of funny

mathtans

(off to crib)

RebelVampire

aside from birds though, im turning my attention to the archives. cause from the convo i gathered that besides other things, there were things with births and deaths art wasnt supposed to find? and given the one extra side page, i really wonder if it has to do with art's birth since hes adopted

(good luck)

RebelVampire

but maybe i misread the conversation. i mean maybe theyre just trying to cover up exactly how many people have gone missing in the forest. cause its too shameful or a high risk for crashing that small town tourism cash cow

or theyre trying to cover up the fact that the cult is still sort of active and something in the archives proves how deep the cult runs

mathtans

(back-ish) Yeah, I noticed the adoption thing and wondered briefly about it.

You think maybe the "murders" were just lots of missing people?

Superjustinbros

Yeah I wouldn't want that getting out inot the public

mathtans

A birb cult.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. In the recent pages, Jack and Art have decided they need to go into the forest and look around. What do you think will happen to the two while in the forest? Will they see more birds? Will the silver compass come into play? Do you think the two will be in danger considering the possessions that seem to have occurred to certain individuals? In regards to the conspiracy, what answers do you think the two might find directly in the forest? Lastly, do you think going into the forest will have other consequences? What if members of the town find out about their little expedition? What about Alice?

and it could be. that there are less murders than we think and everyone is just missing.

i do think the adoption thing is significant

Superjustinbros

more birds definitely

RebelVampire

i think what will happen in the forest is theyll get jumpscared a lot but then learn nothing. outside of the forest is spooky af. although i also think theyre gonna find something they dont think is significant until later and theyre like "le gasp signs of the missing ppl"

Superjustinbros

"forests are spooky"

the moral of the story

mathtans

(back-ish again) I wonder if going into the woods will cause a replay of the Hec stuff. Like Jack will have his eyes go white and try to beat up Art and then won't remember about it. Could put their relationship on the rocks a bit.

Or jumpscares with birds.

RebelVampire

tbh i actually assume if that were to happen alice would be the more likely possession target

like shell show up

scold

suddenly rolled back eyes

beat art up

mathtans

Ooooh. That'd definitely shake up the character dynamics. I wonder if the birds tried to talk to her first, but she didn't listen? Since she also left town for a while.

RebelVampire

maybe. although now im wondering how she and art both happen to coincientally be back in town. like we know kind of why art is there. but alice too seems a huge coincidence in a story where coincidences are actually conspiracies

mathtans

Hmmmm. Maybe she's not really there? Has anyone other than Art and Jack mentioned actually seeing Alice?

Maybe she's Jack's guardian angel or something in disguise.

RebelVampire

im trying

to recall a moment

i mean shes gone half the time and not able to interact with outside ppl

there was the one scene where theyre all eating together

but i dont remember if any outside person approached them

mathtans

Did Mike comment on her though? Because she only turned up when Art admitted to Jack that he was waiting for her.

(Is she a bird? Man, I can't tell if my conspiracy theories are totally crazy or not.)

RebelVampire

the only reference mike makes is later on when hes scolding jack and ask if its going to become another summer where he ignores customers to gossip with his "little friends"

so specifically plural

BUT

the context does not imply that there has to be multiple

more like the implication that more friends could show up even tho just the one is there

so it could go either or

mathtans

Indeeeed.

Oh, wait! The guy in the compass shop. He saw her, in the hat.

Mustache man... maybe he's in on it?

RebelVampire

darn it compass guy

mathtans

(Nice subtle detail in that scene by the way, him not recognizing Jack after the transition.)

RebelVampire

ruining our good alice isnt there theory

mathtans

Heh.

Alice and Art do prove that you can leave the town without just vanishing then.

RebelVampire

yes. until the town pulls you back

by crashing your car

i think jack and art going into the forest is going to attract unwanted town attention

i can hear that one librarian now going "i told you he was up to something!"

mathtans

They went swimming without incident though. As long as they play it off as camping or whatever, who would care.

RebelVampire

suspicious librarians

thats who would care

"They just went swimming who goes swimming that much they must be suspicious!"

mathtans

I wonder what the librarians do in their off hours.

Superjustinbros

sme tbh

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. Among the conspiracies are a lot of emotional conflicts and changing relationships. Do you think Art and Jack’s flirting will go anywhere? Whether it does or not, how might their investigations and the revealing of certain secrets affect how they view each other? How might it change Art’s relationship with Alice given Alice is reluctant to buy into the conspiracies as much as Art or Jack? Also, how will learning more help or hurt Art’s ability to deal with Hec? Do you think Hec is in on the conspiracy or is Jack right and Hec just wants to fight? Lastly, why do you think Art was the one targeted by the birds, and how does Jack play into the ultimate roles that the supernatural events seem to have intended for them? How might Jack’s missing uncle come into play and change how Jack deals with the situation?

the nice librarian goes home and reads books. the mean one is obviously part of HOA and the neighborhood watch

mathtans

Related to the relationship stuff, it's nice how the gay angle was put in as a sidebar, just a statement of fact. I wonder a little bit if younger Art had a thing for Hec, which is partly why he sees the best in the guy.

Related to the bird stuff, the second appearance of the birds related to a baby. Not sure how that fits in.

Superjustinbros

i was surprised to see the gay comment, I'll admit

did Art drop that fact earlier on in the story?

mathtans

Yeah, when it was the four birds for Jack I think.

RebelVampire

yeah its pretty super early on

like not first page

but very early

Superjustinbros

aye

mathtans

Like maybe birth as the opposite of death? :/

RebelVampire

i worried it meant the baby was gonna die tbh XD

mathtans

Oooh, super serious.

RebelVampire

mostly cause so far the birds have an omen sort of tone and omens arent good

and they caused art to crash his car

soooo

Superjustinbros

and put him in a cast?

mathtans

But he was going to crash anyway, right?

RebelVampire

maybe? i mean art says the birds saved his life or something but that doesnt mean thats the objective fact of what happened

mathtans

Art and Jack seem destined to get together though, after the bit with Hec in the alley.

True. Wishful thinking?

RebelVampire

i do think in this case maybe

at the very least i dont think alice and jack are wrong in thinking some of this bird thing is about art kind of not coping with what happened

cause i def dont think art is dealing with it and that even though something is going on, hes also using it as a distraction

cause both can be true

maybe this comic is just the labyrinth and the birds are gonna spirit the baby away to turn it into a troll

mathtans

The baby is really Art. It's all time travel. He takes the baby back and gets himself adopted.

RebelVampire

so does that make the librarians the time police?

Superjustinbros

...That would be a pretty epic twist(edited)

mathtans

One of them is a grown up Jughead.

As to why Art was targeted, maybe Art has unfinished business in town.

RebelVampire

well id say hec is unfinished business. although maybe thats why. that art encountered the supernatural and lived to tell the tale and didnt disappear in the forest

so that proves he has magical supernatural immunity

mathtans

Oh, immunity, that's an interesting idea. Maybe it's because he was adopted and didn't grow up in town or something?

Maybe everyone has silver poisoning.

Superjustinbros

Oooooooooo

mathtans

Can that make your eyes go white?

RebelVampire

art is just the chosen one

idk

lets see

mathtans

I hope the Art and Jack thing works out. Art needs some grins in his life, and I gather the transition wasn't easy for Jack either.

RebelVampire

“Silver poisoning, medically termed argyria, causes ashen gray discoloration of the skin (and other tissues of the body).”

thats what the first result tells me

i think itll work out just cause its called 2 for joy and theyre the ones in all the banners

and they do seem to be mutually attracted to each other. although i do wonder if they solve the conspiracy if that will remain

mathtans

That's true... maybe the two of them will adopt a baby, whence the "2 for joy" relates to the birds too?

I suppose the specific species of bird is related too, but I don't know from specifics.

The real conspiracy, of course, is how that diner manages to have the best pancakes in town.

Superjustinbros

That'd be cute, just sayin

(or a young child)

RebelVampire

i liked the bit where jack was criticizing alice for making up ppl

but then art joins in

with an even more ridiculous chain

mathtans

Yeah, that helps to show the sibling angle too.

Superjustinbros

I guess since there's only a few minutes left, I'd like to take the time to say good luck to abi on getting this story worked on, it's looking great so far.

mathtans

Yeah, the characters are interesting along with the plot, like I don't think I've ever seen this sort of mix before.

Superjustinbros

Well said.

mathtans

Hope they bring pancakes into the woods to appease the birds.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB END!

Sadly, this wraps up this week’s Thursday Book Club chat for now. Thank you so much to everyone for reading and joining us! We want to give a special thank you to Abi Watson, as well, for making 2 for Joy. If you liked the comic, make sure to support Abi Watson’s efforts however you’re able to~!

Read and Comment: https://tapas.io/series/2-for-joy

Abi Watson’s Redbubble Shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/abiwatson

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Abi Watson’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/abiwatsonart?lang=en

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