#i would buy a new CO detector

[feral-and-chaotic]

Here's the thing.

If a fairy knocked at my door.... I would go and check for black mold, check the last thing I ate and maybe get a new carbon monoxide detector.

If a walrus turned up, the number of mental gymnastics are greater and it's less plausible that I'm hallucinating

[nonbonberry]

worst fucking day oh my god. boss texted yesterday telling us all to come in for a managers’ meeting at 8a.m. today and had to tell us that corporate decided to close our store in april 🙃 our boss was supposed to retire at the end of january and the plan was our full time keyholder would become manager and i would become full time keyholder (essentially assistant manager). now she and i are especially fucked over.

the job market in my town is absolute garbage unless you want to work for a factory literally notorious for random mass layoffs and fraud (and life-threatening accidents recently)

told my bf about this and he’s such a fixer that he immediately started looking for job listings and suggesting moving somewhere else for job opportunities and all these other huge overwhelming things i just had to sit him down and tell him i was still processing the news and we could figure something out in a few weeks

then our carbon monoxide detector starting giving “low battery” beeps. replaced the battery and it was fine for about 6 hours. minutes before i was going to go to bed it started doing the same shit. so the detector is just dead and i have to go out tomorrow to buy a new one

our area is also experiencing an arctic blast and strong wind so it’s cold as fuck outside and a lot of the local businesses have already announced they’ll be closed until tuesday so i can only selfishly hope national chain stores will be open and i can buy a fucking co detector

also my fucking oven broke just before christmas and that’s been fixed for a little bit now but like ​literally why is everything fucking breaking down and falling apart recently when is it MY turn to break down and fall apart i’m at my fucking limit here

[permanentlyexhaustedpigeon88]

Pigeon Rambles

So I was very adult today (I know, shocker, right, compared to my usual M.O of spending all day reading, re-blogging, and attempting to write). Got up early to go grocery shopping. Cleaned the ENTIRE house (yes, the entire thing, and not just in my 'meh, that's good enough' way, either!) in one go, washed dishes, and tidied up a bit outside.

Apparently, after all of that, I reached my 'adulting' threshold (which I didn't even know was a thing, honestly). Because my carbon monoxide detector starts angrily beeping at me every 30 or so seconds from down the hall. So I drag my step-ladder down there to take a look because I'm short, and would prefer not to die of CO poisoning if I have anything to say about it at all, and it turns out it's just warning me that it's old and needs to be replaced (I did triple check this with both the manual, the verbiage on the detector itself, and the interwebs, to be safe). But...here's the kicker...I can't find a single way to make it shut up and stop beeping.

You'd think I'd just get in my car and get my butt back to the store to buy a new one, right?

Nope.

Adulting threshold reached. Brain not willing to persuade body to budge on this. The carbon monoxide detector now sits, still beeping angrily in my garage, and I'm going to get a new one tomorrow. Hopefully tonight isn't the night my house floods with the stuff 😅😅😅.

[chelseamount]

Carpool Karaoke - Tom Holland x Reader

BEFORE YOU READ IMPORTANT 

when there are songs

cursive is you

BOLD is James

and This  is both of you

this story was requested by @tomsirishgirlx​ 

---

"Thank you so much for helping me to work today the traffic is crazy" James

"yeah no problem," I say

"you wanna listen to some music?"

"let's do it"

"Are we gonna have a problem?

You got a bone to pick?

You've come so far why now are you pulling on my dick?

I'd normally slap your face off And everyone here could watch But I'm feeling nice Here's some advice Listen up beeyotch"

"I like"

Lookin' hot

Buying stuff They can not

"I like"

"Drinking hard Maxing dad's credit card"

I like

Skippin' gym Scarin' her Screwin' him

I like

Killer clothes

Kickin' nerds in the nose

If you lack the balls You can go play dolls Let your mommy fix you a snack(whoa)Or you could come smoke Pound some rum and coke In my Porsche with the quarterback (whoa, whoa, whoa)

Honey, what you waitin' for? Welcome to my candy store Time for you to prove you're not a loser Anymore And step into my candy store

Guys fall At your feet Pay the check Help you cheat

All you Have to do

Say goodbye

To Shamu

That freak's Not your friend I can tell In the endIf she Had your shot

She would leave You to rot

Course if you don't care Fine, go braid her hair Maybe Sesame Street is on(whoa)

Or forget that creep And get in my jeep

Let's go tear up Someone's lawn (whoa, whoa, whoa)

Honey, what you waitin' for? Welcome to my candy store You just gotta prove You're not a pussy Anymore And step into my candy store

You can join the team

Or you can bitch and moan

You can live the dream

Or you can die alone

You can fly with eagles

Or if you prefer

Keep on testing me

And end up like her

Honey, what you waitin' for?

Shut up, Heather! Step into my candy store

Time for you to prove You're not a lame-ass Anymore And step into my candy store

It's my candy store It's my candy It's my candy store It's my candy It's my candy store It's my candy store

"I think I just got chills there," James says as we laugh "so Y/n it's so great to have you here"

"it's so great to be here it's like a dream come true" I smile

"y/n you are a Broadway singer and actress"

(all of these musicals and movies don't really make sense with the years they were made in but just imagine that they fit the age the reader is if that makes sense"

"yes that's correct"

"so what was your first role like ever"

"ever was Jan in grease"

"really" James looks at me

"yeah I was so happy"

"that's amazing and you were how old"

"fourteen"

"wow and what was your first broadway musical"

"that was heathers as the role of heather chandler as we just heard"

"I love the heathers songs and you are still in contact with some of your co-workers right"

"right I am really close with Barret who played Veronica but we don't get to see each other too much but when we do it's amazing"

"but you two played in mean girls too right"

"right I played Regina George and she played Janis, and that was probably one of my favourite musicals I have been in because obviously mean girls was like my favourite movie when i was younger"

"yeah so what was your favourite song from mean girls"

"oh totally world burn I think it's amazing"

"My name is Regina George And I am a massive deal I will grind you to sand Beneath my Louboutin heel This is what I get for helping Helping someone lame fit in Cady Heron, enjoy your temporary win" I sing "My name is Regina George "Regina is a fugly cow." Hey Cady, how ya like me now? I wanna watch the world burn I got the gasoline I wanna watch the world burn And everyone get mean I wanna watch the world burn I got the gasoline I wanna watch the world burn And everyone get mean Cady, time to watch your back Cady, time to turn and cough Because you took me down But you didn't finish me off My name is Regina George And in case you're keeping score Cady may have won the battle But I will win the war, for I wanna watch the world burn Trang Pak is a grotsky bi-otch! I got the gasoline Ms Norbury is a drug pusher! I wanna make the world burn Janis is a space dyke! Regina is a fugly cow Regina is a fugly cow And you can quote this Ohh. Woah-oh-oh! Who wrote this? Who wrote this? Who wrote this? I wanna watch the world burn I got the gasoline! I wanna watch the world burn And everyone turn Mean So mean! Mean So mean! Mean! I wanna watch the world burn Who wrote this? Who wrote this? I wanna make the world turn So mean! I wanna watch the world burn!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"y/n you were in les misérables too"

"yes I played fantine which was amazing but it hit hard you know it was very much touching

There was a time when men were kind When their voices were soft And their words inviting There was a time when love was blind And the world was a song And the song was exciting There was a time

Then it all went wrong

I dreamed a dream in times gone by When hope was high and a life worth living I dreamed, that love would never die I dreamed that Go

d would be forgiving Then I was young and unafraid And dreams were made and used and wasted There was no ransom to be paid No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night With their voices soft as thunder As they tear your hope apart As they turn your dream to shame He slept a summer by my side He filled my days with endless wonder He took my childhood in his stride But he was gone when autumn came And still, I dream he'll come to me That we will live the years together But there are dreams that cannot be And there are storms we cannot weather I had a dream my life would be So different from this hell I'm living So different now from what it seemed Now life has killed the dream I dreamed

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"that literally just made me get tears in my eyes," James says as he points to his eyes

we laugh and talk for some time when the thing I have dreaded the most comes up

"so y/n I have to ask you this because everyone wants to know encluding me"

"oh no gosh I know what it is already"

"are you dating tom holland"

"oh god Tom and I are just good friends"

"really because your two have been spotted a lot of times holding hands"

"friends do that"

"sure"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Regina George is the queen bee

She's always dressed up She always wins Spring Fling Queen We're just drones that work for her And then die"James says as he turns on the radio

"My name is Regina George

And I am a massive deal Fear me, love me Stand and stare at me And these, these are real I've got money and looks I am, like, drunk with power This whole school Humps my leg like a chihuahua the prettiest poison you've ever seen I never weigh more than one-fifteen My name is Regina George And I am a massive deal I don't care who you are I don't care how you feel"

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"so y/n, let's get a little serious"

"yes" I say

"in this song, you sing 'i never weigh more than 115' but you said something in a video that Regina doesn't have to be that and that you aren't and i found that amazing"

"thank you I really don't think that she has to be that and I am not and will never be near that and I'm proud of that you should be proud of how you look"

"I love that. you're also in a musical right now hamilton"

"yes I am in England"

"so any plans for what you are going to do after hamilton"

"yes but it's a secret for now

"Okay but you play one of the Schuyler sisters"

"yes I play Eliza"

"and you're amazing in it I saw it some time ago and I love it as I wrote to you"

"it still warms my heart"

"but my biggest dream is being in hamilton but as one of the Schuyler sisters"

"mmm-hmm" I laugh

"I wanna be angelica"

"you can be James"

There's nothing rich folks love more Than going downtown and slumming it with the poor They pull up in their carriages and gawk at the students in the common Just to watch 'em talk

Take Philip Schuyler, the man is loaded Uh oh, but little does he know that His daughters, Peggy, Angelica, Eliza Sneak into the city just to watch all the guys at

Work, work

Angelica!

Work, work

Eliza!

And Peggy!

Work, work

The Schuyler sisters

Angelica!

Peggy!

Eliza!

Work!

Daddy said to be home by sundown

Daddy doesn't need to know

Daddy said not to go downtown

Like I said, you're free to go

But—look around, look around The revolution's happening in New York

New York

Angelica

Work!

It's bad enough Daddy wants to go to war

People shouting in the square

It's bad enough there'll be violence on our shore

New ideas in the air

Look around, look around

Angelica, remind me what we're looking for

She's looking for me!

Eliza, I'm looking for a mind at work (work, work) I'm looking for a mind at work (work, work) [x2] Woa-oah

Woa-oah

Work!

Ooh, there's nothing like summer in the city Someone in a rush next to someone lookin' pretty Excuse me, miss, I know it's not funny But your perfume smells like your daddy's got money Why you slummin' in the city in your fancy heels? You searchin' for an urchin who can give you ideals?

Burr, you disgust me

Ahh, so you've discussed me I'm a trust fund, baby, you can trust me

I've been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine So men say that I'm intense or I'm insane You want a revolution? I want a revelation So listen to my declaration:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident That all men are created equal"

And when I meet Thomas Jefferson (unh!) I'mma compel him to include women in the sequel

Work!

Look around, look around at how Lucky we are to be alive right now Look around, look around at how Lucky we are to be alive right now

History is happening in Manhattan and we

Just happen to be in the greatest city in the world In the greatest city in the world!

---------------------------------

"All my dreams just came true," James says as I laugh at his comment "okay now time for something a little different"

"oh gosh," I say "what is it"

"we're going to take a lie detector test"

"nooo"

after some time I'm all strapped up while a man is on a computer checking whether I speak the truth or not

"okay let's start out by some to test if it works"

"okay"

"is your name Y/n"

"yes"

"true"

"are you currently in hamilton"

"yes"

"true"

"did you play Regina George"

"yes"

"she's telling the truth"

"Great let's start easy so...Y/n"

"yes"

"Which one of your castmates is your favourite"

"Barrett"

"true"

"great, y/n am I your favourite host"

"oh absolutely"

"true"

"yes you had to get that right, okay this one is the best one are you dating tom holland"

shit

"no"

"lie"

"YES I KNEW IT I KNEW IT OMG YES" he smiles

"no that's the truth," I say

"you can't lie on accident"

"well fuck me then"

"how long"

"not long"

"lie"

"okay five years almost"

"WHAT," James says in shock

"I'm sorry we just didn't want our relationship the get ruined by hate"

"five years"

"yeah"

"When were you going to tell everyone when you had seven kids"

"haha no I don't know when but I guess it's out now"

"well some people are going to get heartbroken, someone gets hurt"

-----------------------------

Ice queen, that's what you see It's what they all expect from me But it's all show Face it, you used me You saw the sexy clothes My supermodel pose But did you know?Was I a game to you? Was I way to be cool? I truly cared Was I the fool? It's fine for you It's fine to flirt It's fine 'Till someone gets hurt 'Till someone gets hurt

----------------------------------

"Y/n it was amazing to have you here"

"it was amazing to be here James, even tho I now have to go home to Tom and tell him the news, gosh this is so fucked"

"wait you guys live together too"

"bye James" I run out the door

--------------------------------

"Baby I'm home" I smile

"hi love," Tom says as he walks over to me and kisses me, gosh I missed him

"I missed you," I say

"I missed you"

"you love me right"

"more than anything my - wait what did you do"

"well"

[girlofmanyfandoms]

A/n: Next chapter is out! This one has a lot of setting up of the future plot points, it’ll be fun if y’all can pinpoint it. If the next chapter takes too long, I’ll post more of “The Plot out of context,” if it’s wanted!

Key:

Tater - @a-lonely-tatertot

Lynn - @lesbilynnette

Gray - @silver-snow

Lilah - @tribblemakingalicorn

Cadence - me

Ivy - @imaramennoodle

Molly - @molly-sencen

Farris - @everyonehasthoughts

Speens - @an-absolute-travesty

Holes - @holesinmyfalseconfidence

Connor - @linhammon-roll-bromance101

Panda - @worldwidepandamonium

Meg - @ultralazycreatorfan

Word count: 2,740

Warnings: Nothing makes sense.

“Lynn, can you have the next shipment of the Gatorade sent to my address in Peru?”

“Farris, what did you do now?”

“Nothing!” They grinned nervously.

“I swear if you moved to Peru just so you could buy an alpaca, I will-”

“It’s not that, I swear! Well, not just that. Boss called and said I have to be at the excavation site by tomorrow, that it might be a big break.” Farris scoffed. “As if. Last time, the only thing I found with my metal detector was someone’s Betty Boop keychain.”

“Yeah, I can ship them there,” Lynn sighed, exhausted from a night of getting a deal with the investor and setting prices for the products. “And that’s crazy.”

“I know right?” Farris answered. “Betty Boop? When was this person born, the 1950s?”

“That’s not- yeah, you’re right, Farris.” Lynn changed her sentence halfway through. “Any word back from Panda?”

“Yeah, Panda got back to me. Said that her sign is a Scorpio.”

“What?”

“Exactly, who would’ve thought Panda was-”

“Farris, you were supposed to ask about the chain restaurant idea!” Lynn massaged her forehead. “Why did we agree to be partners?”

“Because I threatened to blackmail you,” they responded, taking a bite out of an apple. “And I did ask about that. The zodiac sign was probably the question I wrote on my arm so I wouldn’t forget.”

“And?”

“She said the chain restaurant idea is a good thing to look into, as soon as we can make a good menu, hire some staff, good prices, nice locations, accessibility, y’know, all that jazz.”

“Because that’s so simple.” Lynn sighed, shuffling through the paperwork that had accumulated within the past week. “Alright, tell you what, I’ll get an artist to make an ad, maybe a social networker, I’ll set up a blog and we get the word out. As soon as you get back from the gig, you call me, alright?”

“Yup,” they agreed. “Oh, and Connor just texted saying he needs your help. I told him to wait ‘til I got back so I could teach him how to properly rollerblade, but the kid’s a madlad.”

“Anything broken?”

“His sanity.”

“Farris.”

“And a lot of furniture.”

“Guess I’ll have to find out for myself, huh?”

“You sure will.”

“Alright, I’m checking in with the supplier. Talk later?”

“Cheerio, mate,” Farris grinned, saluting her before ending the call.

Lynn opened her laptop and emailed her supplier, who had requested to remain anonymous. This was fine though, identities shouldn’t be known when dealing with the black market and pyramid schemes. Lynn was fine with using her real name because of her position as co-founder of Forbidden Incorporated. If she was going to go deviant, she’ll be damned if she didn’t do it with style.

_________

Cadence’s phone buzzed, as an email from a client had just arrived.

“Forks do not work with ice cream,” Tater yelled for the umpteenth time.

Holes clutched their head in a mixture of disappointment and annoyance. “Why would you use a spoon? It’s not soup, you can’t just spoon it out!”

“Then pop it in the microwave for a few seconds, for fu-”

“Crank it down 12 notches,” Molly suggested.

“-for Pete’s sake,” Tater acknowledged Molly. “And didn’t you just eat an entire bag of flamin’ hot Cheetos in one sitting?”

“They were good! And I’m fine,” Molly insisted. “Sure, we’re out of milk, and I have strep throat, but I just took a shower and I don’t think I’m gonna pass out just yet.”

Tater and Holes pulled out a Lysol can, masks, gloves, and a plexiglass barricade within seconds, clearly getting flashbacks from 2020. Cadence wasn’t paying attention, as usual, and kept writing her response to the email.

“Relax,” Molly laughed, clearly not finding it strange that they had those on hand at least a decade later. “I got my antibiotics, it’s not contagious anymore. And hey, good news: I made a questionable decision, and that’s also not contagious.”

They threw the equipment behind them, seemingly into the abyss, and relaxed a bit.

“Ok, now to address the real problem,” Holes started. “Who is Pete and why are we doing everything for his sake?”

“Oh my gods, it’s an expression, Holes,” Tater sighed.

“No, no, Holes, is onto something,” Molly said, grabbing the detective hat Lynn had designed for her and putting it on. “And I intend to find out.”

“Cadence, please make it two against two,” Tater pleaded.

Cadence glanced up from her phone. “What’s happening?”

“Oh my- you know what, I should’ve expected that, considering the Paint Water incident.”

“Ok, the Paint Water Incident was ONE TIME!”

“The what?” Holes looked interested.

“We don’t talk about it,” Cadence chimed in. “Think of it as the Great Gulon Incident of our group.”

“Great,” Holes sighed. “Another mystery. You’re all high.”

“I was fully aware of what I was doing in that incident.”

“Even better,” Holes commented dryly. “Nevermind, I don’t need to know.”

“Besides, there are great puzzles to be solved,” Molly continued enthusiastically. “Onward! We must scavenge for our first clue of Pete’s identity.”

Tater closed her eyes, telling her conscience to shove it for a moment. “Where do we start, Detective?”

Holes raised their eyebrows.

“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Tater shrugged.

Molly looked at Holes in expectation. “Alright, fine,” Holes caved. “But I’m taking Cadence with us, I’m not going crazy alone.”

“That ship has sailed for both of us,” Cadence commented, not looking up from her phone.

“Yeah, haha, very funny. Let’s check out the corner opposite of the one they’re searching.” Holes paused, waiting for them to be out of earshot. “We don’t have to do anything, just pretend to search, I’ll be watching to make sure they don’t get killed.”

Cadence looked down at the email from her client. A shipping of 500 bottles, and 3,000 containers of newer products. And to Peru? Why had they changed the shipping address? She sighed. It was going to be a long day.

________

Connor’s house was on fire. Connor’s house was on fire. Why was Connor’s house on fire, you ask? Well, if you need to ask, you clearly haven’t met him. Lynn gazed at the sight in front of her tiredly, not knowing how she hadn’t expected this to happen.

Speens was calmly watering the bushes surrounding the house, not giving a second thought about putting out the fire with the water they had.

Lilah appeared beside Lynn, startling her. “Oh, good, you came. Gray has been trying to help Connor stand up for the past 30 minutes, but he’s way too drunk and he keeps refusing to ditch the rollerblades. Oh yeah, and his house is on fire.”

“About that, how’d it happen?”

“He was rollerblading on the stair railings when he fell onto their lamp, which tilted over and fell onto the seance that he was holding earlier in the day so the candles fell onto the hardwood floor, and then he spilled vodka everywhere, and then the flames turned blue, so here we are,” Lilah recounted all in one breath. “It’s kinda beautiful to be honest.”

“Beautiful isn't the word I would use to describe it,” Speens called. “It’s interfering with the plants. Well, except for Suzy, she’s a stubborn one. She wouldn’t burn, and believe me, I tried to make her.”

“I believe you,” Lynn said, quite understandingly. She had seen Speens around on the Deep Web, but had respected their secret. They all had secrets, after all.

Lynn walked inside where the hose was already uncoiled and ready to be used. Connor, however, was clinging to Gray’s leg. “NO, DON’T USE A HOSE, THE HOUSE DOESN’T LIKE SHOWERS.”

“Connor, the house is an inanimate object, it does not care,” Gray told him, trying to get control of the fire in the kitchen.

Connor gasped. “How DARE you talk to Cynthia like that?! She deserves better!” He crawled over to a wall that was, inevitably, about to burn down, and he stroked it. “You’re gonna be okay, sweetie. Don’t listen to the mean person, they’re just a hater.”

Gray shook their head and sighed. “Hey, Lynn. Can you increase the water pressure?”

Lynn did so, much to Connor’s dismay. To make up for it, Lynn handed Connor a piece of a floorboard that had undoubtedly been broken into pieces when they fell off of the stairs. He hugged the floorboard close to his face, crying happy tears, not thinking about the possibility of splinters. Lynn was confused, but had a feeling she would need him as an ally soon, and this was the best way to start.

Lynn babysat Connor as Gray put out the fire. When they had finished, none of the house had fallen down. It was weaker, and very charred, but somehow it hadn’t fallen.

Gray reached behind them and pulled out a ladder and a blueprint covering the new design of Connor’s structurally damaged home. Everyone had become acquainted with such things being summoned when needed. “Alright, I got the materials in the car, but we need to fix this house, er, Cynthia, up.”

“Renovating a house, huh,” Lynn muttered. “Better than spending all day dealing with paperwork. But if I’m going to help you and Connor, I’m going to need both of your help. So, how about an offer?”

Gray narrowed their eyes. “What would that offer entail?”

“Well, for you, Gray, I’d need help renovating a certain building. We’re talking about new elevators, knocking down walls, putting up new ones, new furniture, everything businessy. As for you, Connor,” Lynn paused, waiting for him to look at her. “I need a spy. You don’t have to be sober, but you have to keep them talking alright?”

“I’m feelin’ woozy,” Connor giggled.

“Can you overhear what people say and report back to me when you hear something important despite the wooziness?”

“Yup, and I can be a skater dude, too,” he grinned goofily. “We can all live our dReAmS.”

“Well, I’m in,” Gray said, helping Connor lay down. “I’ll certainly need a team for that building of yours, but I’m in. I can’t repair a house on my own anyway.”

Lynn nodded. A team, huh? For that she needed customers, crazy, loyal, and determined enough to support her products. She had a few people in mind who might be able to deliver.

______

“Meg, you got the snacks?” Ivy called over her shoulder, setting up the gaming consoles. They had finally stopped procrastinating and organized a group hangout between Speens, Ivy, and Meg, making it a game night. Ivy brought the video games, Speens brought the hands-on games, and Meg was in charge of snacks.

“Yup,” she smiled, wheeling in a wagon of junk food. “Anything you could want, it’s here. What games you got?”

“Rocket League, Mario Kart, only the best of the best. How about you, Speens?”

“Uno, Jenga, Connect Four, Scrabble, Twister, Monopoly, you name it, I got it. Where do you want to start? Virtual or hands on?”

“Virtual, I guess,” Meg decided. “Haven’t played in a while, ever since a pigeon yeeted my controller out of a window.”

Ivy tilted her head, asking for an explanation.

“T’was like a message from an angry god,” Meg said wistfully, resting her head in her hands. “A god who preached ‘live, laugh, yeehaw, and stop playing The Last of Us 2 because it’s a trash game.’”

“Are you on drugs?” Ivy looked sincere.

“I mean, I wrote ‘gay’ and ‘yeehaw’ all over my dad’s truck, and later that night I had a dream about falling in love with the sister of this prince that I had to stop from destroying everything at exactly 12 AM, but I don’t think that’s what you’re looking for.”

“No, that answered my question,” Ivy said, setting up the board out while the sunset shined brightly onto their faces in the cool evening light.

Meg chose the monster truck token. “Refresh my memory, how do you play again?”

“It’s literally just capitalism for kids, and I am above you mere mortals,” Speens helped, choosing the rubber duck token, and taking a Snickers and KitKat from Meg’s snack wagon. What happened next was ungodly. Speens opened the KitKat bar and ate it. Without. Separating. The Bars.

Ivy reeled back in horror, and Meg hid behind her, terrified of the scene going on before their eyes.

“What?” Speens finished the chocolate and wiped their hands with a tissue. “Are we going to play this game or not?”

“Oh no,” Ivy said, pulling her hair slightly. “You don’t get to gloss over that. The Forbidden Spicy Gatorade is for all of us to share and enjoy once we get our hands on it, but you never, never, disrespect the KitKat bar.”

Speens scoffed. “You’re really going to dwell on that?”

“Going to dwell- I can’t even-“ Ivy took a deep breath to steady herself.  “I will not allow this in my house. So you know what? Let’s raise the stakes. We need this Monopoly game to be a game-changer.”

Speens narrowed their eyes. “What are you saying? You’re betting something?”

“Yup. If I win, you have to wear a hoodie that says “I love Holes” and you have to help me with a plan of mine. If you win, I’ll help you get revenge on someone.”

“And if I win,” Meg continued. “Y’all owe me a lifetime’s supply of fro-yo and you both have to agree to each other’s bet deals.”

“Deal from my end,” Ivy pitched in, selecting the top hat token. The other two agreed, and the game commenced.

By 3 o’clock in the morning, Ivy had been in jail 17 times, and Speens had one hotel left. With a few lucky turns, Speens was bankrupt.

Ivy smirked, having a good feeling about this. “I call upon the power of the almighty Top Hat!”

“Oh, don’t look so smug, Ives,” Speens scowled, opening their suitcase of vodka and pouring their version of two shots. “You can still lose to Meg, and she bet a lot.”

“True, but in reality, would you rather lose to Meg or me?” Ivy flashed a grin. “The hoodie’s in my room, by the way. Don’t worry- it’s washed!”

Sighing, Speens went to retrieve the hoodie. A deal’s a deal, after all. When they returned, they looked ready to kill someone. They wore a baggy bright pink hoodie with “I Love Holes!” spelled in purple glitter. “You better win this, Meg.”

Meg stuffed a hand in her bag of snacks and nodded. Ivy’s turn was next, and it brought Meg down to $100. Speens muttered something under her breath and waved her hand in an elaborate motion. Seconds later, a loud crash was heard, followed by the breaking of glass and the sound of spraying water.

Ivy frowned. “What was that?”

“Go check,” Speens suggested.

Ivy looked out of the kitchen window to see… no window. The top of a fire hydrant had come bursting off of its mounted position and had crashed through her window. “No!” She frantically ran to the street to assess the damage from outside.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Speens stirred their beverage casually. “She’s not looking, you can win this.”

“Even if it means you always have to pay for my fro-yo?”

Speens shrugged. “Beats having her win. Besides, I’ll eat just as much fro-yo as you do if I’m paying for it.”

Meg went through the cards quickly, ignored whatever magic just went on. With a lifetime supply of such an other-worldly snack, who wouldn’t? Meg found her card just in time, as Ivy came back in, looking surprisingly calm.

“I boarded up the window, insurance will cover it,” she explained. “Your turn, Meg.”

Meg pulled the card she had placed on top of the pile and made her move. She had done it. Ivy was bankrupt. Not only that, but she was going insane. She flipped the board, sending everything tumbling into the depths of her house.

“How did you- you had no chance-”

“Breath, princess,” Speens joked. “I know what’ll take your mind off of this: some good old fashioned revenge on an old rival of mine. Whaddaya say, pal?”

“This day could not get any worse,” Ivy whined.

Except it could. And it did.

The electricity cut out and Ivy let out an ear-piercing screech.

__________

A/n: Not my favorite chapter, but I have some freaking PLANS for the next ones. Stay tuned! And if I made any errors, let me know because I can’t sit still for more than 5 minutes, so I only corrected a few things.

[fatgirlsguidetodating]

My bullying hell.

NOTE: I know this isn’t a dating piece (I’m working on a couple of blog posts at the moment though) but I went walking near my old school, which has been demolished for housing although there’s a fight to make it parkland instead, and it brought back memories. I know most of us get bullied for something. For me that was often my weight but in this case it was more. I think this is why I can be so insecure, and sometimes too sensitive and needy. I contemplated changing initials on the off chance any found my blog or twitter but decided not to. Not once did they display an iota of regret. Even as adults they acted like mean girls do you know what, fuck them.

I know that for many people high school can be hell in parts. I know that many kids have been bullied in school. For me that part was almost the entire year of 8th grade, a year so horrible that I regularly contemplated killing myself, cried myself to sleep most nights, woke in the morning crying because God (despite my not believing in God) hadn't answered my prayers to let me just die, and just generally was completely and utterly miserable and totally alone. I remember one day, with my usual puffy red eyes in the morning, thinking how if it were possible that we only get a certain quota of tears in our lifetime that I must surely have used up a shitload of them. I remember mum, in tears with me, having to practically drag me to school. I remember countless meetings with the school social worker, the year co-ordination, the vice principal and mum. All this was because it had been decreed by the popular girl of the class that I was persona non grata. Nobody was allowed to talk to me in class or out of class- unless it was to say something cruel like about how I was fat. That was allowed. Tripping me over was allowed. Knocking my bag or books over so I had to pick everything up was allowed. Pulling my school dress or skirt up to laugh at my fat arse in front of the boys was allowed. But nice things? No.

There were only 2 people who went against this. On one occasion one of the boys who I had also gone to primary school with asked me if I was ok? Such small words. I managed to nod, unable to speak past the lump in my throat. "Hang in there," he said. "It'll blow over." I had to hide my face behind my then long hair so he- and nobody- saw my tears. That one simple act of kindness meant more than he will ever know.

The second was when one of the girls I used to hang around with before the decree returned a book she borrowed from me. Her little sister had made a mess of the book. She offered to buy me another one to replace it. I said it was fine. I didn't need to be hated anymore than I was. She left me a note inside the book apologising and signing it with xoxo. I remember thinking how hollow it was given she hadn't spoken to me in a few months. But at the same time I appreciated it.

How did this happen? In an absolutely ridiculous fashion.

Something mean was written about me on a table: it said, in essence, my name is X and 1) I want to be TC’s girlfriend (ironic as he was my best friend), 2) GW’sbest friend , 3) I never have showers and I think there MAY have been a fourth one but I can't for the life of me remember what it said. I think I blocked a lot of that year out. My minds way of protecting myself I guess, like people often do for traumatic events.

As an adult I can say they were relatively benign statements but as a 14 year old they weren't. The thing was the popular girl, LA (now LH) decided that I had written them about myself. (Seriously!) Her reasoning: it looked "kinda" like my handwriting (it didn't) and it looked like it was written by my pen (one owned by something like half the class including, ironically, her). Interestingly a few months later one of the popular girls told me that she had seen her coming out of that classroom at one of the break tones not long before it was discovered. I'll never know who did it but the simple fact that the popular girl said it was me meant that naturally the class agreed with her.

So when she said nobody was to talk to me they all just did it. Not a single person stood up for me. I have felt lonely at many, many times in my life (haven't we all) but the loneliness of that one moment will never ever be forgotten. Even now I feel literally sick as I remember that moment. It was like one of those movies where you wake up from a dream and everyone's gone, and you are all alone. Or a dream where you suddenly become invisible and no matter how much you scream and jump up and down and wave your hands you remain invisible.

I had hoped that maybe my friends would have stuck up for me. I would even have taken them doing it not publicly but privately if they were too scared to disobey or too ashamed to be my friend in front of the popular girl and her best friend JB (now JI) my two tormentors. Like still hanging out with me at lunch and recess. The popular girl wouldn't know after all. But no. Even the girls I had hung with pretty much since the start of school when we'd made friends with me followed and I was suddenly cut off from everyone, completely and utterly alone....

There are some things that stand out from the next eight or so months, things beyond the pain and loneliness. Moments where the bullying was worse than the usual daily taunts. Like the time they soaked a bunch of tampons in water so they became nice and big and ran around the corner and threw them all at me. Because I found a spot to sit and have my lunch all alone day in day out. Technically, being at the front side of the school, near the road, it was out of bounds but I didn't care. On rainy days I got a bit wet but I didn't care- I even thought well maybe I'll get pneumonia and even if I don't get lucky enough to die from it I could get some time off school, away from my living hell. Sometimes I'd eat quickly- prompting comments from the girls about how fat people like me ate too quick- and then go to the library to hide in a corner and read. Being a bookworm over those eight or so months I got through even more books that I ever imagined I could.

I was trying to eat healthy (I was on a diet which, lets face it, I have been on for most of my life!) and I often had those little tubs of two fruits in my lunch. The girls would sneak around and laugh at my lunch. I'd be tripped over, had leftover bits of food thrown at me, was called fat and ugly so many times that even now I say it about myself and actually mean it. One day after PE I discovered my watch had been stolen from the box we put all our special items in. It was a Mickey Mouse watch I got from Disneyland that played music. I was devastated. These girls that I speak of were- surprisingly- not my two tormentors, the instigator of it all, but my former friends. I think that these girls, and the few boys who sometimes hung out with them, were actually crueler to me than the popular girl and her friend. I could never understand that. I still don't.

For almost eight months my mum battled with the school to have me moved to another form but they kept saying that the numbers were at maximum in each form. I offered at one point to take a lie detector test to prove I hadn't written those things. I spent way too many hours in the social workers office in tears.

At one point all of a sudden one of the boys started being nice to me. I lapped up the kindness, kind of like how an abused dog will still always want their masters approval. Every kind word was like a balm on my soul. He'd come and sit with me sometimes at lunch and we would talk and laugh. It was only when someone slipped a note in my locker- I suspect the girl who returned the book- telling me that he had been given a dare by the two tormentors to get me to sleep with him. Needless to say the next time he came to see me I said to him "I know what you're doing. I know it's a dare and you've been telling them everything I said!" (Probably one of the only times in my life I stood up for myself.) He didn't even look ashamed or guilty, he laughed and said "well I wouldn't sleep with a fat four eyes like you for no reason. You are pretty dumb for believing it." Perhaps the saddest thing was the fact that I contemplated not telling him I knew. Oh I wouldn't have gone so far as to sleep with him knowing what I knew but to just continue the ruse for awhile because he provided the only conversation in school hours, the only kindness, in all the pain and loneliness. But, ultimately, I knew being alone was better than living a lie.

My persona non grata status didn't extend to just my class. All the popular kids knew not to talk to me and to make fun of me or even spit on me if I walked past. One of them even tripped me up on the top of the stairs so I went flying down them, landing on my side so hard it was bruised and hard to breathe for ages. I never told on them. I knew that "dobbing" would just make my life worse. Though how they could have made it worse than that I will never know.

The worst moment was when I actually did attempt to kill myself. This is something I haven't ever told a single soul. My mum only found out I had wanted to kill myself a few months ago- not that I attempted it a couple of times- and she was devastated. But I never told her at the time because I saw how much it pained her to see me so unhappy. I couldn't burden her anymore. The night it happened was a Sunday night, the night before school started again for the new term. I was pretty naive. It was pre-Internet which, in retrospect is probably a good thing because had Google existed back then I would have found a way to do it. I took a packet and a half of Panadol. I thought surely that was enough. It wasn't. Not only did I not die, but I simply woke up the next morning feeling like absolute shit.

The turning point came about seven months in. A chance encounter in the library with one of the girls I'd gone to primary school with and I told her about what my life was like. She was horrified and said I could come and hang with her friends sometimes. Not all the time, she said, because they wouldn't like that but sometimes. I probably should have thought it a strange offer but needless to say at the time a little bit was better than nothing. So maybe two or three times a week at lunch mainly I would go and hang with them. I didn't really say much. I had always been shy but my ordeal had made me even more so. When people came up behind me and stuck crap down the back of my top or yelled "boo fatty four eyes" suddenly I would jump a mile. If I saw one of my two tormentors or any of their friends I would instantly start shaking waiting for what they would do or say this time. They soon learnt they didn't even need to speak, just look at me, and I'd be affected. So when my school friend said to me that I couldn't really hang out with them anymore because the others thought I was stuck up (because I didn't speak much) I didn't feel much emotion. It seemed to me that it was perfectly right. Why WOULDN'T they reject me too? Who would even WANT to be friends with someone like me?

Finally, FINALLY, after eight months battling the school by mum they let me move classes. Not to the form I wanted to go in as by then I had made a couple of friends through my childhood male best friend who lived a few houses up and I had known since we were three and who I spent most weekends and school holidays with along with my brother and his younger sister who were in the same year, but a new one nonetheless.

It was the middle of second period, I think, that I was moved. The class were in the science block so I'm guessing it was a science class but I can't quite remember. The year level co-ordinator took me in there and just said, "X is in this class now. She's been given the class schedule." Of course everyone turned to look at me curiously. I slipped into a seat in the back of the room and put my head down. At the desk next along from me were three girls. At one point they said my name and I looked up and asked "yes?" I was given a withering look. "I wasn't talking to you. X here has the same name as you." I was told.

The next period those three girls asked me to sit with them and asked plenty of questions. But then after lunch they told me they'd spoken to my main tormentor and knew who I was and what I did. Great, I remember thinking, I could never ever leave it behind me!

But, slowly, over the remaining few months in the year I began to make friends. There were four girls in my form who became my friends- to this day one of them remains one of my best friends- and from another form there were another two. The six of them hung around together and, as time went on, I became part of their group. There were another few girls in the form who sometimes came to hang out with us.

I was with two of them (both had the same name and it also coincidentally happened to be the name of my main tormentor) one day walking across the courtyard when my tormentor and her best friend (the girl who had been one of my close friends for years before this all happened and who's friendship with me seemed to threaten my main tormentor for some reason before the table incident) suddenly appeared. Apparently someone had written something in chalk in the girls toilet near the year ten common room (or it may have been year twelve then, I can't remember when the merger happened) about her and I was blamed. One of the girls stood up for me, pointing out there were many with her name including my two new friends. But no. It was definitely about her because it had her last initial or name. She tried to get in my face, telling me she knew it was me and I had mental problems etc but my two new friends basically stood in front of her. They were a bit tough and told her that she'd have to go through them to get to me. She chose to walk away.

Though she did get the popular girls in my class to make extra fun of me for a bit but all of a sudden it was water off a ducks back because I had my new friends. They did try and get them to abandon me, telling them what I had done but I'd already told them my side and all the pain- though I had edited it because it was too raw to tell the whole truth, in all its intricate and painful details that soon- and the attempts failed.

Soon it was summer and I spent much of it with my new friends.

In the next school year my old friends and my tormentors still would make smart comments or something when I walked past but the more I ignored it, the more I showed no reaction, the less they did it though it never totally stopped throughout my whole time at high school.

Teenagers can be cruel and girls I think the cruelest of the bunch. Sure teenage boys can be cruel too but girls are bitchy and that is much worse in my opinion. Boys might have a fight and then it's done with. Girls will just bitch and snipe and make you miserable. My tormentors never said sorry, never acknowledged I didn't do it. I occasionally see their names pop up as comments on mutual friends posts on Facebook and I look at their profiles and see how perfect their lives seem. Both are married, one has two kids, one has one. I wonder, when I see them, how it's fair that they get the perfect life and I don't. There is no sign of karma having ever gone their way for what they did to me. As for the girls who were my friends before the decree, I'm Facebook friends with a couple of them. We never really spoke again at school. But, with school far behind us and time dulling some of the bad memories and letting most people look back at their school days as the halcyon days of youth, and remember the good times not the bad, a couple of them are friends on Facebook. Only one have I ever really caught up with but another two I do talk to sometimes on there.

I do believe that, to this day, it has affected me. Just writing this is affecting me: for instance I'm feeling a bit sick, my hands are a bit shaky, and I feel like I want to have a bit of a cry. (Yes- I still have tears left despite those eight long months. The human body can be, I think, up to 65% water. I swear back then my percentage was much lower because of my nightly crying myself to sleep.) But I feel good having written this, having gotten one of my stories off my chest. Sure there are others in my life I may talk about in the future but this is one that shaped me. For instance I know I can be a bit of a needy friend, wanting to see friends more often, wondering when I haven't heard from them in a certain amount of time if I've been replaced or done something to make them angry or upset. I take things way too personally, am far too sensitive about things said or done, I overthink things. And I have no self-confidence at all. I don't see the good in me. Outside or in. When someone gives me a compliment my first reaction is to laugh at them. Especially if they say something positive about my body. I look at them and I say, "are you blind?"

If you take anything from my story please let it be this: kindness doesn't cost a thing and just a little bit can truly make a major difference in someone's life. Bullying- whether it's a child, teenager or even an adult- can really fuck someone's life up. And words- like fat four eyes- can do just as much damage, in fact I would argue MORE than hands. Words CAN hurt. Words can linger in a person's mind years and years after they have been said. They can affect the way they live their life and choices they make. They can reverberate in a person's brain for years. So please be kind. And if you are lucky enough to have kids teach them that too. Because- especially with the proliferation of social media in our lives- words can lead to people taking their lives. That stupid little childhood singsong retort to insults "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" is a load of utter bullshit. Words- just like actions- can kill. Bullying can kill.

[copperbadge]

chrisatola replied to your post “Hi Sam. Hope you're feeling better. If not do you have a working...”

Stupid question, but how old is your CO detector? IIRC, things like smoke and/or CO alarms need replacing every ten years, even if the test button indicates it still works, because the test button doesn't always tell the whole story. I've heard tell of cases where, even if the device beeps during testing, it's then failed to go off when exposed to scream-worthy levels of whatever it's supposed to be testing for.

Not a stupid question at all! I didn’t realize they had a shelf life, but this one’s only two years old -- I buy them new whenever I move into a new place. I’ll make a note to change it out in a couple of years....

stripedsilverfeline

replied to your post

“Christ it looks cold in Chicago! Hope you're weathering the wind chill...”

Better than Nair, then.

arsenicjade

replied to your post

“Christ it looks cold in Chicago! Hope you're weathering the wind chill...”

Dude, if I could actually depilate myself that way, I'd be all over that shit

I dunno, guys, I mean it didn’t ACTUALLY freeze and destroy my leg hair, but that’s the feeling you get walking around at -10 in jeans -- all your hair is frozen and the denim is chafing it off. I’ve never naired, but I was under the impression it was mostly painless. 

rdprice29

replied to your photo

“Apply directly to the forehead! [description: three images of Polk and...”

SAM! I have never heard of the Furminator before this post! I adopted a rescue kitty from Dubai last year, and she is an all white, long haired cat. She's our 3rd kitty, and my first with long hair. I've been struggling with knots in her fur and an appropriate comb/brush to use on her. And there's been a lot of biting (deserved, because sometimes I accidentally pull too hard). I bought the long-hair furminator and it's AWESOME! It works so well, Bianca and I thank u

Aw, Deebs and Dot send their best to Bianca! Yeah, the furminator really works best for dogs and longhaired cats. The cryptids have such short hair that really all the brush does is put a dent in their shedding, but for longhaired cats, the matting can get to be an issue. Glad the furminator is working so well for you! 

quackenstien-blog

replied to your post

“As someone from Pennsylvania I would like to petition for our state...”

Ok, after much debate between my family, all of whom are from various parts of PA, we decided that scrapple should be pur food. In eastern PA, Sheetz doesn't have the cult following that Wawa does. And while we like water ice, it isn't a big deal like soft pretzels or cheese steaks are. But neither cheese steaks or soft pretzels are big deals to most of PA (just the east part), hence the scrapple.

Scrapple! A new and weighty contender. It could be you’ve solved the east-west divide! 

Maybe I was just an especial fan of the water ices. They hold such a place in my heart. 

col1999 replied to your photo “Tuckered out after a long morning supervising Dad at work.  This...”

You call her Dot.... I can't, it's too sweet, too perfect, too pure....��

What’s funny is I never intended to...it’s just “Polk” is hard to say on its own, so I’d call her polkadolka, and then polkadot. 

[ironwoman18]

The Worst Third Date Ever final part.

Chapter 32: A Clean Sweep for Team Reid.

Mount Pleasant Women's Correctional Facility.

"Hello Dr. Reid, it's been a while since I saw you" said the prison guard as he and Max walked in.

"Hello Officer Grey, it's good to see you, of course I would prefer it could be in better conditions" the man nodded.

"I'm agree. Please put your weapon here and everything that could be use as one for the prisoners" Spencer does it "who is she?"

"My wife" said Spencer.

"Oh congratulations doc. I didn't know you got married"

"We just got married so it's still something new" he smiled and the couple walked thru the metal detector and the officer lead them to the room where Catherine Adams will die "officer I would like to talk to her before you take her to her execution"

"You sure? I know she did some bad things to you"

"Yes sir, I'm sure" the guard nodded.

"Ok, ma'am the room you must go is at the end of the aisle then turn to the left" he pointed where she had to go.

Max nodded and kissed Spencer before said "be careful, she will try to get under your skin one more time before she left this world"

He looked in her eyes and nodded "I know but you will be in my mind" he smiled and left with the guard as Max walked where the office said so.

Spencer took of his wedding ring for the first time in a month. He wanted Cat to know that he got married while the needle was under her skin.

The officer left him in an interrogation room. The feeling of being in a prison again was terrible but he knew he would never return there.

Some mini later the guards sat Catherine in front of him "Spencie you came!" She said in an exciting tone and he rolled his eyes "you're one of the few men who fullfil their promises"

"Yeah, after everything we had been thru, it's the less I could do" he said with his poker face on "sadly I can't be the one who do the honor of stick that needle in your arm"

"Don't be mean Spencie, I know you will miss our little games" she said in a little girl tone "it's a shame... Maxie didn't end up here, huh? I guess you didn't send her to prison" he clenched his fist and Cat did a noise with her tongue "Spencie, a good FBI agent never pick sides" she smirked.

"I'm not here to talk about Max, I'm here to make sure they say you are gone for good and won't ruin another relationship I might have"

"I will be always in your mind Spencie, as you told me skating" she winked at him as some officer walked in to get her ready for the execution "bye bye Spencie... I had fun with you" she left smirking, thinking their score was 2-1, she lost against him twice in her mind but at the end she felt like she took away his chance to date someone.

Spencer took a deep breath, relaxing his muscles, he felt tense with her, he put back on his wedding ring and kissed it gently like if he was remembering that everything was fine and Max was his forever.

He stood up and walked back to Max. When he arrived she was there with some other members of the team. They wanted to see Cat finally gone for good.

Spencer walked straight to her and kissed her, it was needed, like he was a dying man and her lips were the water he needed to survive.

After it Max asked against his lips "How was it?"

"As annoying as you can imagine" he rubbed her cheeks gently and then they sat with their friends.

Spencer held Max's hand when the officers walked in with Catherine Adams and a priest to gave her some final words to see if she will change.

Max was annoyed to see her again but she decided to go there and witness her dead and to rub on her face that she outsmarted her.

After some words from the priest the execution started. An officer put the tourniquet around her arm, the doctor cleaned the area with a cotton with alcohol and then stick the needle after finding a vein.

They released the tourniquet and Max decided to make her move. She stood up and walked to be in front of the window. Cat's eyes showed the surprise of seeing her there.

Max put her wedding picture with Spencer against the glass with one hand and with the other a message.

"3-0. Perfect score, bitch. The Reid Family"

Cat's eyes were full of hatred and anger that everyone thought the killing liquid flowed faster.

"NOOOO.... I WON... YOU KILLED YOUR BOYFRIEND!!!" Cat screamed out at her.

Max smirked and shook her head. Cat's eyes realized what happened months ago and her face calmed down. You could read in her face that, a woman, a sister in this men's world betrayed her.

Then after several minutes Catherine Adams was declare dead. Spencer and the team hugged with Max. Finally the most dangerous hit woman they ever faced was dead.

After that Spencer felt like he could finally rest, he will stop looking his surrounding because everyone could be working for Cat, he was free and not only him but his wife and their children.

Some weeks later, they have an appointment to know the gender of their babies. They were excited about this. Max already ordered to paint the room. They painted it white and she decided to paint something on the wall.

If they have a boy and a girl, she will paint a train on a wall and a beautiful princess with some flowers on the other wall.

The doctor checked her blood pressure, weight and ran some blood test then they were to the ultrasound room where the doctor checked the babies.

"Ok Max and Spencer. I confirm that you will have twins. I can see them now. And I can tell you the gender of your babies. Do you want to know?" She asked. The couple nodded "ok, baby number one is a boy!" The couple had some tears of joy "and baby number two is a girl!" More tears of joy "congratulations, I will print the result for you. Do you want some copies" the nodded "ok I will get you some of them. You can clean the gel and walked back to my office" the doctor stood up leaving the couple alone.

"I still can't believe we will be parents" said Spencer helping Max sat down and kissed her forehead hugging her.

"Me neither but we are and it's the best feeling ever" she hugged him tight.

The rest of her pregnancy was calm. Her students cried the final day of classes and they gave her some toys they don't use for her kids, something they planned with their teachers.

Her co-workers at the school organized an early baby shower and each gave her a little present for the kids and for her. Max was hormonal all day and cried a lot.

She was thankful for that job and will miss them. They all hug and Spencer picked her up.

They decided to sell Spencer's old car and with that money and some more they saved, buy a bigger and more modern one for the babies.

As promised, Penelope hosted the official baby shower with all the BAU people and Max's family.

Dave and his wife gave them the cribs, one blue and the other pink; the Simmons gave them two baby bags and a first edition copy, signed by all of them plus David, of the "Simmons' Stories for Children"; Luke, Tara and Penelope joined to give them a set of feeding bottle with the engraving "genius babies" on each, three pink and three blue.

Derek and Savannah gave them Hank's first car seat and bought one for the extra baby; Max's family gave them a double baby stroller; Diana promised them some days ago knitted blankets for her grandchildren; Jack and Aaron gave them his collection of favorite books.

"My mom used to read me those" he said with some tears in his eyes "please read it to them" they nodded with tears in their eyes too.

JJ and her family gave them two changing tables for the kids. Ashley, the new team member, gave them some onesies, with different designs that matched Spencer and Max's personalities.

Last but not least, Emily and Andree gave them a rocking chair, Emily told them it was her mother's favorite when she was a child and she wanted to give to her BAU little brother. Spencer hugged her tight with tears in his eyes.

After that, the men helped Spencer moved everything to the babies rooms. The following week Max asked Penelope, her sisters and JJ to help her paint the train and princess with the flowers.

Spencer was teaching that day, they were having a good time with music and some ice tea. It was the third week of November and the babies were expected that week.

When they finished they decided to go to the living room and talk some more when Max showed a painful face. The women panicked but them JJ and Michelle recognized it... "My/Her water just broke" the three women said at the same time.

"Ok Max breath" said JJ with her 'unsub with a gun pointing at her' voice "Penelope go upstairs to get her bag with clothes and Eloise turn on the car" both women nodded and ran to do what she ordered "let's go Michelle, help me" they walked with Max, who was struggling to keep calm and breathing, to the car.

Penelope ran downstairs with the bag and she was calling Spencer but his phone was turned off.

"Damn it... Boy wonder must be in class" she said as they got in the car.

"It's ok. Leave him a message and he will go to the hospital" said JJ as she started to drive.

She drove fast to the hospital. Meanwhile Penelope sent a text to the team 'Houston we have a baby delivery x2' and hit sent.

They arrived to the hospital and immediately took Max to a room where she asked for her husband.

He arrived some minutes later. JJ decided to pick Diana up, her son was about to be a father, she needed to be there.

Michelle called her father to drive to the hospital with her son.

After some more hours waiting, Spencer finally walked out the delivery room with a big but tired smile.

"They are both perfectly fine. A handsome prince and a beautiful princess" he said and each of his friends and family hugged him "it's a small room so first my mom, Max's dad and sisters, JJ and Derek" they all nodded and follow Spencer.

In there were Max holding on of them, and the other was held by a nurse.

The nurse handed the baby to him "hi everyone" he said as if the baby talked "this is Jason Alexander Reid" the BAU members recognized the name of their former friend and co-founder of the unit and Max's family recognized the name of their uncle/ brother.

Spencer passed him to his mother, then Max said "and this is Rachel..." She held a sobb saying her mom's name, and so did her sisters and father "...Diana Reid, mommy's princess" she handed her to her father.

The two babies were sleeping and quiet, Diana had some tears in her eyes "I never thought I would see this day coming... My boy had two children and I couldn't be prouder" she kissed Spencer's cheek and then Jason's forehead.

She handed the boy to JJ and Don did the same to Michelle, each held the babies and left the room except JJ and Derek.

"JJ and Derek, you are like a brother and a sister to me and Max and I thought it could be fair to make you godparents of Jason and Rachel"

"Really?" Said JJ with tears, she held Jason in her arms and whispered "maybe I can call Caltech or Yale but I'm sure will take you to the zoo" she laughed and kissed her new godson and did the same with Rachel.

"Thank you little brother and I promise to spoil them with lot of sports" he laughed and hugged him.

Then the rest of the people walked in to meet the babies. Dave even cried when Spencer said the name of his son. He know Gideon would be proud of his boy.

"Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone; we find it with another." — Thomas Merton.

Fin?

OOooOOooOO

The final chapter! What a journey! Thank you for reading, thank you for commented it, thank you for recommending it. I enjoyed this experience, my first long story in a long time and in English!

I learned so much and made some friends with this. Hope you all read my new story Double Dates (mostly Garvez but with some other couples)

Again, thank you, gracias, danke! To @nerys2 @andiebeaword @dreatine @aperrywilliams @moviequeen51

[miraclealignersv]

Sleeping Problems (Edward “Babe” Heffron x reader)

Ask: I’m about to get reallllll specific, could you write a prompt where the Babe Heffron and y/n move in together but y/n snores and babe kicks in his sleep?

A/n: first off I’d like to apologize for not posting this, it has been sitting in my inbox for the past month. Also I started to work on it and I never quite finished it (I wrote it like five times I never liked the outcome).

+ also after sharing a room with my older brother for what seemed 50 years of my life I know all too well that snoring does indeed drive someone insane. My guy would stop breathing for like ten seconds and I would panic cos I thought he had died. (I’m convinced he did that shit on purpose)

Tag list: @gottapenny @wexhappyxfew @medievalfangirl @bandofmarvels @itisjustmethistime @starryrevelations @snafus-peckuh @etainlord

Y/n loved Edward Heffron with everything she had, he never really asked her to move in per se. It all started by leaving a toothbrush in his bathroom, later upgraded to a set of pajamas until she had completely infiltrated his closet with outfits. Not only that but there were little touches, she would often arrive at his place earlier than he did. She would gush over the new wine glasses she had bought, or even gush over the fancy non-stick pan she had found.

Slowly she started spending more and more time at his place and he didn’t mind it. They would happily get ready for bed, standing side by side near the bathroom sink as they brushed their teeth with the minty toothpaste. Both giggling over something dumb either of them had done or said. Ed watching attentively as she applied the face creams onto her beautiful face, countless times telling her that she didn’t need them.

”Wrinkles my ass”

It was all fine, everything was peachy. Until y/n was pulled into deep slumber, clung onto Ed’s arm like a goddamn koala. He didn’t mind that, no, it was the sounds that came from his lover. The loud snoring keeping him up at late hours of the night. Panicking a few times here and there when she would stay quiet, often scared that the love of his life had stopped breathing. Only for her to gasp loudly and continue to snore. The thing was, y/n only snored sometimes. He loved the woman to death but he prayed to God Almighty every night that he could get a full night of sleep.

As the weeks went on, the snoring continued along with the sleepless nights. Ed finding the only alternative was to sleep for a few hours on the couch and later, before she awoke, would magically reappear by her side. He never said anything, god, he couldn’t imagine her little face when he broke the news to her.

However, y/n also had a problem. Her main problem was when the goofy angel sleeping next to her would kick her in the ribs when she was deep in slumber. The man moved too much, throwing punches here and there. y/n starting to believe that maybe she should take boxing up as a hobby since she had gotten better and better at dodging the slaps and punches her beloved Edward Heffron would occasionally throw as he situated himself comfortably. Again, she didn’t say anything. Only found that a barrier of pillows between him and her was perhaps the best alternative (apart from restraining his arms and legs with the bedsheets).

Both had a problem, and both didn’t say anything. Not until one night y/n had awoken from her deep hibernation, ravenous and in search for something to much on. Making her way into the kitchen as his mouth salivated for the leftover pasta she had cooked up for dinner earlier that night, only to slowly turn around and find George soundly asleep on their new couch.

Slowly chewing the mouthful of pasta she made her way towards the sleeping man, the tuppawear in her hold. Slightly shaking him, just enough for him to jolt awake and find Y/n staring down at him as she fed herself another forkful of pasta.

“Hi honey,” Ed muttered while he rubbed his eyes, y/n only chewed and raised her eyebrows as she brought her hand up to wave at the sleepy man. “Just testing out the new couch, very very sturdy.” He patted the cushion, y/n only swallowed and sighed as she reached over to turn the light in the living room on. Edward wincing, immediately groaning as the bright light shone on his eyes.

“My bullshit detector is going off, babe” y/n slowly spoke, her eyes squinting as she stuck her fork into the plastic container and into her mouth.

“I didn’t know you came with one of those,” Edward teased, y/n trying her hardest not to laugh and give in to whatever he was saying. “I think I sleptwalked or sleepwalked, whatever it’s called” he lied again, y/n raised her eyebrow as she continued to chew. Slowly nodding as she processed the information.

“And you pulled two pillows and a blanket from the hallway closet with you?” She asked, eyebrow raised in question. Ed opened his mouth to speak, trying to come up with a response or some sort of excuse.

“Wow, your bullshit detector is very good” he slowly nodded an impressive chuckle leaving his mouth as y/n cocked her head to the side and smiled at the compliment.

“What’s wrong?” She knew Edward’s tactics all too well. When an argument arose he would try to change the topic by giving her a compliment, it was his way of avoiding any sort of argument or what he called “serious time” between both of them. The question of sending Ed in a spiral, not knowing what to say or do.

He hesitated before finally spitting it out, “You snore very very loud” immediately after the words were out in the open he covered his mouth with both of his hands as he watched y/n process the statement.

“It’s back again, Christ, why didn’t you tell me?” Y/n sighed as Ed lowered his hands, “the nasal strips worked wonders last time, guess I’ll have to pick some of those up at the pharmacy” she placed her hand on her hip, Ed raising his eyebrow this time.

“That’s it, nasal strips are going to solve our problems?” He asked, y/n closed her eyes and turned towards Edward who had the biggest grin on his face.

“On the topic, could you possibly stop kicking me like im a goddamn soccer ball?” She pleaded as she set the container down on the small bookshelf behind her. “I swear, I feel like I could go head to head with Sony Liston and probably win” y/n chuckled, Ed only shook his head before laughing himself.

“Who needs a trainer when you have Babe Heffron” He proudly stated, y/n only shook her head and reached for his hand.

“We’ll figure everything out in the morning, let’s just go back to bed.” She whispered, Edward hummed and leaned in to place a kiss on her forehead.

“My little snoring angel,” he chuckled as he pulled away, y/n rolled her eyes as she picked her pasta up from where she had left it.

“You know, I could always strap your arms and legs. That could be a solution” y/n called as she opened the refrigerator door, Ed chuckled.

“Ooh kinky,” y/n shook her head as a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “You know we could always buy bunk beds, I could get the top bunk and you could get the bottom bunk” he shrugged at his own suggestion, y/n appeared from behind the wall and raised an eyebrow.

“what are you five? We are not getting bunk beds.”

[softjeon]

Mile High Valentine Club

• Pairing: Model!Jimin x Namjoon • Genre: Fluff / Smut  • Words: 17k | Co-Writer: @cassiavioletblue | AO3 • Disclaimer: mentioning of anxiety

↳ Stuck on a seat for fourteen hours is not how Namjoon imagined his Valentines day to go. Though there wasn't really someone waiting for him at home anyways - so maybe being seated next to that cute orange haired model had its favors... 

Standing in the middle of the airport, Jimin peeked over the brim of his sunglasses, watching people pass him by. Some hurrying, some walking relaxed while others were just reading newspapers or seemingly interesting novels. There are people whose faces were beaming with smiles, obviously happy to meet their loved ones. Jimin turned his head a little as he saw tears flowing down a woman’s cheek as she talked to someone on the phone. Biting his lip, he quickly averted his gaze only to come face to face with himself on the cover of a fashion magazine. He chuckled low. Jimin couldn’t even remember when that photoshoot happened. His weeks were always busy and still it was always the same. It was almost like he lived in a bubble. Gym, meetings, photoshoot, interviews, another photoshoot and then gym again. And if he was lucky he could fit in some shopping with Taehyung from time to time.

“Mr. Park? We’re happy to see you traveling with us again,” A young woman bowed and Jimin tore his gaze from observing strangers to the stewardess, smiling and following her quickly further down the airport hallway. He sighed, pushing his sunglasses back up the bridge of his nose, when his gaze wandered over to a man running up to what it seemed like was his girlfriend. A bouquet of flowers in his hands. Jimin scoffed. 

“Isn’t that romantic?” She said, blushing as she realized that she was probably talking too much, when her only job was to get Jimin through the VIP section and onto the right gate making it in time. But Jimin didn’t mind. “It’s valentine's day, you either hate it or love it,” He simply answered, his gaze staying a little too long on the happy couple and only when Jimin got awfully aware of the aching hollowness inside his own heart, he turned away.

He wasn’t really sure which statement was true for him. Maybe it was just because he was a little bitter that he had yet to receive a card from someone that truly meant something to him. Or maybe it was because of all the love centered photoshoots he’s had to do, pretending to be in love with another model – when in the end he was coming home to an empty apartment and no one there to love or hold him.

His life was scheduled from morning till night. Many adored him, but no one ever really touched him. His heart, nor his body.

It wasn’t like he didn’t receive any gifts on valentine’s day. Indeed, he had gotten send a lot – as far as he could tell from the picture that his manager had send him earlier. But none of them could give him what he really craved for. He had enough designer bags and flowers send by companies that only hoped he would accept their offer for a partnership. Or presents send by so-called friend that only wanted to be seen with him on an instagram picture.

There were always so many hands on him, fumbling around at his clothes, his hair, positioning him the way they wanted him to be. But no one ever held him close. No one was interested in Jimin, just in the persona he portrayed in magazines. Sometimes it drove Jimin completely out of his mind and it was draining him immensely. He probably shouldn’t even be thinking about this, when he definitely had a lot to live for and was so grateful for the life he was living and the opportunities he had.

Jimin was so deeply gone in his own thoughts that the stewardess had noticed, so she coughed, motioning for Jimin to put his shoes and his belt into a grey plastic tray with his overnight bag for the flight. It disappeared inside the x-ray machine, while Jimin waited to be ushered through the metal detector. No beep. The young woman waited for him, then lead the way again. She was fast and Jimin had to quicken his steps to keep up.

“We hope you have a wonderful experience on our flight, Mr. Park!” The young woman looked up at him and Jimin just nodded, his gaze wandering over to the plane while the stewardess was scanning his ticket. He sighed deeply, putting on a faint smile before he walked down the corridor, holding on tightly to the ticket.

It had been a quick decision to fly to New York, since Jimin had gotten a sudden offer from a huge magazine to be on their cover. His manager had tried to get him tickets for the next overnight fly right away, while Jimin was already in the taxi driving off to the airport. He smiled when he read over the letters that spelled ‘VIP First Class’ but it faltered pretty quickly when he noticed it wasn’t all there was.

“What the fuck does ‘couple seat’ mean?” Jimin had ushered into one of the corners of the corridor, watching a few people pass him as they headed off to the same plane, while he was angrily talking into his phone.

“It was the only seat that was left, Jiminie. The woman on the phone said that there had been no one else booking this seat, so you just have more room for yourself!” His manager yawned tiredly as the ruffling of bed sheets could be heard from the other side of the phone. “But what if there is someone still booking it? You didn’t buy the other seat too right?” Jimin raked through his hair in a nervous manner, knowing that Jin was always keen on saving money. Jin said nothing and Jimin leaned his head against the metal wall in defeat, “Great.”

“There won’t be anyone else. Trust me, you’ll be fine! I know you don’t like to fly alone or travel alone for that matter and I’ll be with you in a few days. This is a big opportunity…,” Jin was rambling on and Jimin stopped halfway in with listening, as he bit his lip in thought. He knew his manager was right. Maybe he would just have a bigger section for himself, then. He could definitely live with that. Biting his lip, Jimin tried to take a deep breath. “I’ll talk to you in fourteen hours. It will be okay Jiminie!” Jin’s voice was gone and only the beeping sound of his phone was what he could hear.

Namjoon ran along the aisle like his life depended on it knowing damn well that it put him at even more risk to fall over his own feet. But even though this wasn’t a life or death situation for himself his boss sure had talked as if it was one for the company. And his job was really important to him. He couldn’t imagine how the poor sod must feel who was lying at home in bed right now, battling a bad case of an infection while Namjoon was on his way to New York to get to the meeting in time. He was really nervous about having to negotiate in a foreign city with someone he had never met before. However, he was even more anxious about missing his flight right now because the company had just scheduled his flight, booking as last minute as it was possible - and who knew if the flight attendants had gotten the note or if they had already closed the doors.

His fear was without reason though because when he hurried over the runway and reached the stairs he could see the stewardess wait for him with a lenient smile. He almost stumbled in his haste to reach her and when the door of the airplane finally closed behind him he heaved a deep breath. “Thank goodness!” He had just made it in time.

Jimin had eyed the couple’s section for a bit longer, noticing the little table and flat screen tv on one side. Normally each seat had one to its own, but not this one. It was a couple seat after all. The seats were still the same though, the ones one could lean back to turn into a bed. They were looking very comfortable and just like he liked it. He smiled when touched the soft fabric. Jimin always had difficulties with falling asleep so having a comfortable seat was a plus and as long as he was alone no one would even mind if he stayed up all night watching some movie.

Getting into the cubicle that Jimin called his for the next fourteen hours, he tested out the little automatic door that would close him off to the other people. This way he could stay to himself and only stewardess could come in if needed or have been called by him. He pushed his bag under the first seat and placed his jacket on it, then turned to kneel on the other by the window, observing the airport with interest.

Namjoon was led to the part of the airplane where his seat was in and the stewardess was about to bring him there, when she was called back to the captain. She apologized profusely so Namjoon quickly reassured her that it was fine, and he would find his seat with ease. And then took about five further minutes before he actually managed to get there. He was about to say hello to his neighbor when the boy closed the door, not even sparing him a glance. Well, if that wasn’t a great start.

Namjoon had just caught sight of the other for a second but his brightly orange hair had left quite the impression. He was probably an artist. Hopefully he wouldn’t spill paint on his clothes during the flight or something. A bit unsettled Namjoon waited in front of the door to get himself together before a signal of the captain made it clear that everyone should be at their seats now. So, he tried a friendly smile and then knocked on the door.

Jimin tore his gaze away from the window when the announcement was made and only stopped in his movements when he heard the knock and saw someone in front of the small door. He chuckled, thinking it was a fan or someone asking for an autograph. Pushing the button again, he smiled up at the (handsome) stranger, “Can I help you?”

“Yeah, actually you can.” The orange-haired boy oozed confidence and Namjoon could feel himself get defensive. “If you could just move over a few inches please? I’d like to sit down on my seat. The plane’s going to take off of soon and I’d like to get comfortable till then.” He gave the other a curt smile, hoping that the situation would be sorted and the other would just let him go to his seat. As much as he liked meeting new people, still standing on the hallway while he was supposed to be in his seat and securely belted made him nervous.

“Oh?” Jimin took a step back immediately, blinking his eyes in confusion as he tried to get used to the idea of sharing this space, that he had thought would be all his own only seconds ago, with a complete stranger out of a sudden. Great, fucking, great. This made it a lot more complicated for him.

“I am sorry, I thought that…my mana-, I thought it would be only me,” Jimin quickly sat down on the seat by the door, pulling his knees in and on top to let the other pass. He watched him, nervous about the fact that they would be spending so many hours and a night together now.

The cocky facade crumpled quickly and Namjoon relaxed. the other was just a kid and apparently as surprised as himself about this seat situation. So, they would surely be fine together. “Thank you.” He gave the other a more honest smile and then stretched his body out as unobtrusively as possible. He had been on his feet for a while and a whole office day was behind him. If he had been at home he had already made himself a nice cup of tea, maybe some hot soup while turning on some background music. He couldn’t do that here - but if he waited for a bit longer until they were in the air and the lights had been dimmed then maybe he could manage to get some sleep to be refreshed and woke when he arrived.

Jimin tried to adjust himself to the new situation as much as he could. It was still making him nervous though. First, because he was flying alone for the first time in a long time (usually Jin was with him) and second because he was sharing a couples booth with a stranger…that apparently had no idea who he was. Jimin relaxed a little more, sinking into his seat as he placed the belt across his waist when the stewardess came checking to see if they were ready to set off. It would have gotten awkward if the other knew or asked him too many questions. Jimin took a deep breath.

Only fourteen more hours.

Jimin’s gaze involuntarily wandered over to the window again but instead of watching the airplane rolling onto the runway and taking off, his eyes were stuck on the stranger. He let his gaze wander down his body thinking that someone like him could definitely be a model. He had the legs for it. And the face. At least Jimin thought that he looked pretty handsome. Or maybe it was just because Jimin was weak for any man in a suit – though he had to admit this one looked as if he came right out of a ‘Hugo Boss’ commercial. He giggled to himself softly, feeling a weird fluttering in the pit of the stomach so Jimin leaned back in his seat, hoping they will be steady in the air soon.

When the other looked at him and then chuckled Namjoon started to feel very uncomfortable. Was the other laughing about him? Mocking him for his suit? Or his youth? Although that couldn’t be it cause the boy was definitely a few years younger than him. He eyed him from the side and wished he hadn’t because up close the other looked beautiful. No wonder he was laughing at him. But he wasn’t here to win a beauty pageant. He was on a business trip! Namjoon straightened his shoulders and flattened his tie before leaning back into the seat and closing his eyes. Just… just for a little second. Or maybe... a few more. Just until he didn’t feel so tired anymore...

It wasn’t as bad to share the seat with someone who was falling asleep right away. This way, Jimin could decide which movie he wanted to watch on the flat screen in front of them, happily sipping on the wine he ordered himself. It wasn’t like Jimin was drinking much in general – he was a lightweight after all – but since Jin wasn’t here and he could finally be without someone watching out for everything he did, Jimin thought he could treat himself. Therefore, he ended up ordering himself another plate of food and a chocolate cake right after.

“Screw diets,” Jimin mumbled to himself as he dived into the delicacy. As a model he had to constantly watch his weight and go to the gym regularly and Jimin hated it. He had his issues with his self-esteem enough already and hearing that he needed to diet wasn’t helping in his case. But right now, he was all on his own. One of the perks when Jin wasn’t traveling with him. He could think about diets tomorrow again.

The stewardess came by a few more times asking if his neighbor was awake and wanted something to eat, but Jimin shook his head each time. Not even the few turbulences could apparently wake the handsome man up.

Jimin’s eyes were glued on the movie he was watching as he carefully ripped open a package of his favorite type of treat. He licked his lips in anticipation, remembering how he had bought them at the airport quickly, because Jin would have never allowed him to buy them in the first place. With a smile, he finished the first package easily and fished out a second one. There was another turbulence and Jimin gasped when the signal to put the belt back on was blinking. Jimin was glad that Namjoon still had his one on, or else he would have needed to wake him up and he really didn’t want to do so. This way he had the room all to himself.

Jimin was just about to rip open the second package of his treat, when he got startled by a third turbulence that made him tear the package apart and the chocolate covered crispy balls were falling all over his lap. “Oh, no!” Jimin whined, quickly collecting them and putting them into a plastic cup, when one rolled right off his lap and over to Namjoon.

His eyes glued on the treat like a predator.

Jimin eyes flickered up to the corridor, watching left and right to see if one of the stewardess were around, but everyone was on their seats, either sleeping, watching a movie or waiting until the sign went off again.

“Five second rule,” Jimin mumbled to himself and quietly opened the clasp of the belt. Jimin kept down, halfway kneeling (so none of the stewardess could see him) as he tried to reach through Namjoon’s legs to get to his favorite snack. He knew this was a pretty desperate action, but he was desperate. Jimin hadn’t had those kind of snacks in years! And he told himself it wouldn’t be nice for the stranger to wake up and instantly step on some chocolate, ruining his shoes or the carpet of the airplane. Jimin couldn’t let that happen, right?

But no matter how much he was stretching himself he couldn’t reach the chocolate ball. So, he got up again, looking over to Namjoon who was still fast asleep and Jimin felt a pinch of jealousy for a moment. What would he give to be able to sleep through three hours straight like that guy?

The lights in the airplane were dimmed, so Jimin carefully moved closer to Namjoon hoping that no one would see him. He leaned over his legs, holding onto the wall of the airplane on the other side to steady himself, as he hovered over him, slowly reaching in between Namjoon’s legs. He stuck his tongue out in concentration, his hand almost touching the treat and a smile was forming at his lips – when another turbulence hit the plane and Jimin fell face forward with a broken off yelp.

Namjoon had slept perfectly, the dulled background noises just enough to keep his sleep light and refreshing while having only Jimin as a seat-neighbor had ensured that no annoying sounds like children screaming or someone snoring or talking could steal his rest away from him. That was until a sudden weight in his lap and an undignified yelp kicked him clean out of dreamland.

Out of reflex he took a hold of whatever was on him right now - which happened to be Jimin’s ass. When he realized what he was doing or rather what Jimin was doing there he ripped his hands away as if he’d been burnt.

“What... what the hell are you doing on my seat!” Which was just a slightly better reaction than ‘get your ass of my lap’. Though turning his head it would have been the more polite thing to do Namjoon couldn’t help but stare and to his horror he realized that having Jimin’s round, plump, perfect ass presented to him like this was more enjoyable than it should be. He swallowed hard when Jimin tried to get up on his feet, accidentally bumping against him again before hitting his head in the confined space. “Do you… need help or something?”

Jimin was struggling, trying to somehow get off the other’s legs with pushing himself up, feeling up Namjoon’s thighs in the process. He mentally took a note at how strong and muscular they felt, despite his first thought that Namjoon wasn’t one who would do a lot of sport. “I just… ahhh,” Jimin felt a strong grip on his arm pulling him up and so he let himself fall onto his bottom on the floor right next to Namjoon. Looking up at him with blushed cheeks, Jimin was rubbing the spot where he hit himself on his head a little, trying to come up with a plausible reason why he just hung over a strangers lap. But there was nothing, so Jimin quickly settled for the truth, even though it sounded pretty desperate.

“Hi…ehm…I just…listen,” Jimin started off, blinking up at Namjoon, “I am on this horrible diet and I finally was able to get some of my favorite snacks. You know those chocolate crispy balls? I love those! And then there was a turbulence and they fell all over the place and…,” He took a deep breath as he was talking quiet fast, trying to explain himself, “So one fell between your legs and I just wanted to reach for it because… I really wanted to eat them. You know the five second rule? Anyways…there was another turbulence and I landed on your lap.”

Namjoon looked at him in confusion - and then broke into full blown laughter. This beautiful guy in the high class seat wearing designer clothes had just more or less draped himself over his lap to fish for one single tiny chocolate ball and even mentioned the five second rule that Namjoon had last heard off in kindergarten. “Oh boy, I don’t want to know what you would do for a Belgian chocolate bar then.” The words were out before he realized how suggestive they sounded - especially knowing that he had one of those chocolate bars in his bag. They were his treat for very important work stuff that made him nervous, just as the meeting he was flying to had made his heart beat faster at the beginning of the flight. Though right now the orange haired guy easily beat that meeting with the way he messed with his heartbeat.

Jimin had only blushed more, hiding his face behind the palm of his hands in shame only looking up when he realized that Namjoon wasn’t mad at him. “I…I never had one actually,” Jimin said, still sitting on the floor when a sound appeared, informing the guests they could open their belts again. “But I shouldn’t be thinking about more chocolate. I probably ate way too much already anyways. Jin will be so mad at me,” Jimin mumbled and then pulled himself up by holding onto the strangers leg again. “Hi, I’m Jimin, Park Jimin,” He smiled reaching out his hand for Namjoon to take.

It looked unbearably cute, the way the other blushed and looked up at him from his spot on the floor. Namjoon was glad that Jimin was too busy trying to get up to notice the fond smile on his face. “Oh, then you’re definitely missing out on something.” He took Jimin’s hand and shook it, “Nice to meet you. I’m Kim Namjoon.”

As with Jimin’s comment he kind of had an excuse to check out Jimin’s body he did just that before answering. “I very much doubt Jin would see anything unless you’ll manage to get chocolate on your shirt or downright tell him. You could actually gain a few pounds. Just looking at you makes me feel hungry. What are you, a model?” He was joking actually but Jimin didn’t laugh.

Jimin pursed his lips a little, waiting for Namjoon to realize that he was exactly that. When the other’s facial expression changed as the realization hit him, Jimin chuckled and got over to his seat again, only this time he stayed turned towards Namjoon. He reached for the cup where there were some more of his chocolate treats and offered them to Namjoon. “Maybe you should stop looking at me then if you get hungry from it,” He chuckled and then added quietly, “You really don’t know who I am, do you?”

“Oh, damn, I’m sorry.” Now it was Namjoon’s turn to be embarrassed. He tried not to judge people but even he sometimes judged People by their looks. He hesitated before taking one single chocolate ball from Jimin because he didn’t want to steal the boy his treats if this was one of the few occasions he could eat them without being scolded. “No, I’m sorry. Should I know you? Honestly, I’m not that much into expensive brands and designer fashion so that might be why I haven’t seen your…walks? Or ads?”

“Then you’re really blind, huh? Ever thought about getting some glasses?” Jimin laughed and pointed down at the stack of magazines that was on Namjoon’s side, ready to be read by the various of people that were flying with this airline. “But no, it’s fine, really. I like it better this way,” Jimin smiled at Namjoon honestly, “You’re cute. Though you should definitely see my walk one day. It’s a shame you haven’t. It’s pretty hot.” The younger winked at him, giggling softly and only when he realized that he was flirting with a complete stranger that he had fallen on only seconds ago, he quickly stuffed his face with the rest of the chocolate.

Namjoon’s eyes widened when one of the magazines actually had a picture of Jimin on the cover, not with his orange hair (he would have seen that immediately) but in a soft wine color instead. It made him look more sophisticated and elegant than youthful and fresh, but it suited him just as well. “Wow, I guess you didn’t lie then with being famous.” He nodded in acknowledgement. “I might have seen you and just not recognized you. You can bet I’m going to recognize you from now on, on every magazine cover and chocolate advertisement,” He teased him slightly and then added, “And I don’t need to see your walk to know that your hot. I might need glasses, but I can see that.” He smiled back at him daringly, with the same flirtatious energy than Jimin’s wink.

“Oh, thank you,” Jimin answered sweetly. He was so used to hearing compliments like that all the time, so it wasn’t really something new when Namjoon complimented him on his looks, only the flirtatious smile let his own heart beat a little faster. “I hope you remember me now that you had me on your lap. I usually only do things like that after a few dates,” Jimin just kept on flirting, liking how comfortable it felt talking to Namjoon. “Why are you headed off to New York, Namjoon? If you don’t like designer and anything else rich and famous…then why are you in a first class seat? It must have been a quick decision, when Jin called he said I would have this space to myself since no one else booked it.”

“Well we might have crossed a time zone on our way so if it makes you feel better you already knew me for two days before using me as a seat. Jin is your manager then I guess?“ He had thought he was a friend on a health trip at first because who else would be mad at you for eating chocolate but with his model background it made more sense now. “It’s work related - and yeah. it was pretty much last minute, I’m just filling in for a colleague who got sick and I actually had to run to reach the flight. I didn’t know it would be like this but five minutes later and I would have missed the pleasure of getting my thighs groped for a chocolate ball.”

Jimin bit his lip, averting his gaze a little when he felt his cheeks heating up again. How was it possible for Namjoon to make him so easily flustered?

An hour later, Jimin still had no answer for that question but a lot of anecdotes and stories about Namjoon’s office and co-workers. He knew about a guy named Jungkook, who was apparently trying to get Namjoon’s validation for every presentation even though that kid was doing amazing work. When Jimin had tried to subtly tell Namjoon that the other might be in love with him he only waved him off. He also knew about a guy named Yoongi now, who always showed up too late at work and Namjoon had to cover for, but he did it over and over again, because he was his best friend after all. Jimin loved those sweet stories, listening attentively as he imagined Namjoon’s life. It sounded so full of love, great friendships and happiness that Jimin envied him a little. Namjoon had loosened his tie while talking and Jimin’s gaze wandered over his chest for a moment, sipping on his drink quietly while he was only half-way listening about why Namjoon was so nervous about that presentation in New York.

Namjoon wasn’t the type to spill his heart easily but with Jimin it was different. Maybe it was the flight situation with sitting next to someone for countless hours in a confined space knowing you’d never see that person again or maybe it was that Jimin had started being open to him first, telling him about his diet and Jin and his last photoshoot that had been about love and eternal emotions apparently for Valentine’s day which meant it would come out today. Namjoon wondered if the longing and the hint of sadness in Jimin’s eyes had really been there or if he had just imagined it. He knew what it felt like to be around people, and he had people he loved and that loved him; his family, his friends… still it was different to have a ‘special someone’ by your side that you could fully share your heart with.

Jimin yawned, stretching himself on his seat, only noticing now how quiet the airplane had gotten. There was only the sound of the engine audible with a few whispers of some passengers. He dreaded the moment everyone was about to go to sleep and if Namjoon hadn’t been in here with him, he maybe would have tried to just stay awake all night – but him being there made it difficult. There was no way he could watch TV without waking Namjoon or play games on his phone all night.

He excused himself to the bathroom for a moment, washing himself up and brushing his teeth, trying to think about how the hell he should get himself to sleep. Jimin was tired. Hell, he was so fucking tired. When he washed off the concealer under his eyes, one could see it pretty clearly. But it wasn’t always so easy with falling asleep, when you hated being alone, feeling cold and getting sucked into your own thoughts every god damn night. Jimin shook himself, splashing some more water into his face to keep himself out of panicking. He would just lay down and chill. That’s all. When he came back, Jimin smiled at Namjoon, closing the door behind him. He got out his bag from under his seat and then simply started undressing and putting on his pajamas (which consisted only of a t-shirt and boxers).

When Jimin came back from the bathroom he looked different to Namjoon. He had obviously lost the makeup which made him look just as beautiful but a little more tired, a little younger, a little softer around the edges. He looked sleepy. And as soon as he sat down he was starting to change into his pajamas, stripping right in front of Namjoon without a single care.

“Uhm, Jimin, wait.. would you mind… to let me out maybe? I should go to the bathroom as well.” Honestly although Jimin didn’t mind showing off, Namjoon was pretty certain he would keep staring at the younger’s beautiful skin - and flirting was one thing but drooling over someone while he undressed in front of you knowing that it meant absolutely nothing to Jimin would have made the entire situation feel pretty uncomfortable. So, he hurriedly took his stuff and tried to sneak past Jimin without looking too closely at his naked chest.

“Oh? Oh!” Jimin mentally slapped himself for his carelessness. He was so used to getting undressed and dressed again in front of strangers that he hadn’t even cared to ask beforehand. “I’m sorry. I’m just so…used to it,” He apologized again and pulled his legs in so Namjoon could pass him easily. The younger cursed himself when Namjoon was gone, quickly putting on his clothes and finishing getting ready for bed before he could do more embarrassing stuff. He laid down on his side, reaching for one of the magazines as he waited for Namjoon to come back. He read through some gossip, ignoring the ads with his face on it, when his eyes fell onto his name on one of the gossip pages. He only read a few lines, tossing the magazine away from him in anger and back onto the table. His heart beating a little faster, making him feel anxious.

Namjoon came back with a clean face and brushed teeth, but he hadn’t been able to change in the small cabinet, because there had been people waiting outside already and he also hit his elbow even trying to move in there. He was way too tall and lanky. So, when he came back he felt a little stupid to ask Jimin to turn the lights off for him to be able to undress but it was either that or sinking through the ground in shame while trying to do it as quickly as possible while hoping Jimin wouldn’t look. Not that he thought he was ugly, but he still couldn’t compare even slightly to Jimin’s model physique. “Uhm, would you mind if I turned off the light for a second? Just to change clothes.”

Jimin cocked up an eyebrow at Namjoon but shrugged his shoulders, nonetheless. Of course, he wouldn’t mind, but he also wouldn’t mind taking a peak at Namjoon’s body. “Sure,” Jimin turned a little away from the other, so he could comfortably change in the dark but when he heard him curse and a dull sound, sounding like some bone hitting the wall was audible Jimin couldn’t help but laugh. “Do you need help over there?”

“Yes, thank you, why don’t you show me how to slip out of my clothes as gracefully as you did so that I can…,” What started as a snarky remark ended in a breathless yelp when he actually felt Jimin’s hand on his upper arm, reaching for where he was still clothed in the dimmed light and touching a lot of naked skin in the process. Namjoon held his breath, glad that the light was out or else Jimin would have seen his surprised (and heated face). So instead of turning the light back on to end this and make it easier he kept it dark, curious as to how far Jimin would go.

“You’re just stuck, Namjoon,” Jimin giggled softly, feeling up Namjoon’s arms and then his chest to see where the problem was. Jimin should probably feel strange touching Namjoon like that, but it felt good to him. His skin was warm, and he radiated so much heat that Jimin had to keep himself from leaning in and just hugging him tightly. He would have loved to just feel how it was like to be hugged by him and Jimin wondered if his embrace would feel as safe as he imagined it to be. But instead of that, he pulled the fabric of his dress shirt down again to open up the buttons that Namjoon had forgotten, letting go off him right after. “There you go,” He whispered, feeling a bit breathless when he realized that Namjoon’s chest was naked now. No tank top. Nothing. Jimin gulped heavily.

“Thank you.” His voice came out a little too soft and breathy and he hurried to pull the long sleeve shirt over his head and the simple black sweatpants up his hips. Only then did he turn on the light again. He felt a sense of pride when he checked his shirt and saw that he did not step in every sand trap available: His shirt was neither inside out nor back to front. He looked over to Jimin who only wore a shirt and where his blanket had come up a little he could see his bare legs sticking out, so he must wear shorts to sleep. “Won’t you get cold at night?” He asked carefully.

“Hm?” Jimin looked down at his leg and pulled it in and under the blanket again, “I always get cold, no matter what I wear. I got my blanket and if I need more I just ask one of the stewardess.” He smiled up at Namjoon, before he got out his tablet, yawning in the process. “You can switch off the light anytime you want,” Jimin said, opening his emails to check to see if there was anything new, “You seemed pretty tired before, so don’t worry about me.”

Namjoon swallowed down his comment that with as little body fat as Jimin had it was no wonder that he was cold - and he also refrained from suggesting to keep him warm instead of asking for a second blanket. It felt really tempting to reach out for Jimin and pull his petite body close to him. He could probably curl perfectly around him like the bigger spoon and have Jimin feel warm and safe and cared for instead of just leaving him cold and checking his emails.  He had seen the shadows under Jimin’s eyes, so he wondered why the younger didn’t just use the time during the flight to nap a little. “Only if you join me,” He answered instead, with a little smile in an attempt to talk Jimin into sleeping as well.

“J-join you?” Jimin blinked up at Namjoon, confusion written all over his face. “Oh, you mean…that I should sleep as well…,” He quickly realized his own mistake of misinterpreting his words, blushing again. For a second Jimin had thought that Namjoon had meant to come over and sleep next to him and with how desperate he was, Jimin probably would have said yes. He knew how pathetic it sounded, but it was what he needed: someone to hold him until he falls asleep safe and sound.

Jimin was always a person who needed the affection of other people and as much as he loved his job, it was also making things complicated. Friendships weren’t deep and one had always had to be careful who you could trust. Dating wasn’t really something that Jimin liked to do anymore. People only wanted to be with him, because of who he portrayed and not for who he really was. He had been taken advantage of one too many times. His body wasn’t even really his anymore. Other people decided how he should look most of the times, though the orange hair was a bit of a rebel against Jin – but it turned out the exact opposite when the other loved the look advertising it to their social medias and potential offerors. There were fans, photographers, stylists touching you all day but at the end of it, he was still alone. When he came back into his apartment, it was cold and empty and there was no one waiting for him. It was just him. No one really held him and at night it got the best of him. It had gotten worse lately. Sometimes he was better and Jimin could work with his anxiety and other days, he was crying himself to sleep until the exhaustion was just stronger than everything else. Taehyung was his only friend and to his luck, he was really clingy himself – so Jimin enjoyed it when he was there, and he could finally have someone that genuinely held him and hugged him tight. But his best friend was a model, too and so he was gone a lot, leaving Jimin alone again. Nonetheless, he was grateful for the life he lived – he really was - for the opportunities he had, the security, the things he owned, but in the end, his life was shallow, and it was draining him. And this stupid valentine’s day didn’t make it any better for him. It made it only worse.

And just as he had expected, Jimin was tossing himself back and forth. He had tried to just lay still, look up at the ceiling, listening to the monotone sound of the engine and the snores of the people around – but it didn’t help, he was still wide awake. It was always the same. The tossing and turning, the thoughts that pulled him under and without someone by his side that knew what Jimin needed, it was even worse. He had thought it wouldn’t get too bad, but with Namjoon next to him, someone who really needed the sleep, Jimin tried his best to act normal. To suppress every anxious emotion that fought its way up, trying to choke him. So, Jimin had searched for his earphones in his bag to listen to an audiobook on his phone, trying to be as quiet as possible but he must have forgotten them at home. He turned again, taking the cushion from under his head to hold onto it tightly – but now it annoyed him that there was nothing soft that he could lay his head on. Jimin reached for his phone again, blinding himself with the light of his screen for a second only to sigh again when he saw nothing that interested him. Just one message of Jin that reminded him of the address where he needed to go as soon as they landed and the time ticking – that only was mocking him for still being awake. Jimin could feel the familiar feel of something constricting his airways, so he closed his eyes taking a few deep breaths just as he had learned it, counting down from ten in between each deep breath.

At first Namjoon had dozed off but with all the tossing and turning Jimin did he quickly came awake again. And it just didn‘t stop! The other was so restless that he couldn‘t hold still for one single minute. Namjoon was half amused when he opened his eyes and saw that Jimin didn‘t simply turn from left to right, no, he was busy doing one thing after another, hugging his cushion, searching for something in his bag, checking his phone, returning the cushion to its original place… either Jimin didn‘t even want to sleep, or he had way too much restless energy in his system.

When he spoke, the amusement was clear in his voice, mixing with the sleepiness that weighed him down. “Are you always like this? Restless as a windup toy, aren‘t you. There are special blankets for this, with weighted filling all over. It feels a little like someone is holding you down – the nice way. Maybe you should try that?“

Jimin jerked violently when Namjoon’s started talking to him out of a sudden and then he groaned, feeling ashamed that he had woken up the other for the second time today. “I’m sorry,” He mumbled, turning on his side so he could look at Namjoon. The airplane was completely quiet, but the sound of the engines. “I didn’t want to wake you up again,” He sighed, rubbing his hands over his face and then through his hair, “I’ll try and keep quiet and just stay still. I’m just not...very good with falling asleep because of various reasons...but you don’t want to hear about that.” A faint smile appeared on his lips and Jimin pulled the blanket a little more over his shoulders, shivering from the cold. “Just go to sleep, Namjoon. Don’t worry about me, I’ll stay silent. You need rest and save up your energy for tomorrow.” He mumbled sleepily, yawning in between words but despite his tiredness, his eyes stayed wide open.

“Don‘t be. I‘ll fall asleep easily again if you keep calm this time,” He answered, “Also I‘d say you‘ve got just as many reasons to rest than I do. So why don‘t you tell me what‘s wrong? Who says I don‘t want to hear about those mysterious reasons anyway? Maybe I can help?“ When Jimin didn‘t answer he gently pushed a little further trying to lighten the younger‘s consciousness with a little bit of humor. “I don‘t have a great singing voice so lullabies are probably not an option and it would be pretty difficult to get you warm milk with cinnamon and honey on this flight but I‘m open to any other suggestions.“ It was pretty obvious that Jimin was embarrassed about not being able to sleep but Namjoon couldn‘t see anything embarrassing about it. He was friends with Yoongi after all who kind of constantly lived with insomnia and as long as Jimin‘s sleeplessness didn‘t come from too much partying or sleep suppressants then nothing spoke against offering his help.

“It’s embarrassing, Joonie,“ The nickname slipped from his lips so easily, when Jimin cuddled a little tighter with the cushion, trying to keep his voice down so there wasn’t anyone eavesdropping. Namjoon held his breath in surprise when Jimin called him that nickname. No one had called him that in a long time, not even Yoongi did it. He had no idea if Jimin knew someone with that nickname or if he’s just had a lucky guess, nonetheless it hit him right in the heart. Was there anything more intimate than being called by a beloved name? At least nothing that didn’t involve touch…

“It’s just…,” Jimin sighed deeply and bit his lip, contemplated whether to tell Namjoon or not. It felt like he had already spilled so much about himself in the past hours to the other, who he should still think of as a stranger – but he didn’t. Namjoon felt so much closer to him than some of the people he called his friends. So, Jimin decided to just tell him. They would never see each other again anyways, so why not risk baring his heart a little, maybe it could lift the heaviness and he could take a deep breath after, sinking back into his cushion. “I can’t sleep when I’m alone.” Jimin whispered.

After Jimin’s confession he was even more confused. Softly Namjoon answered, “But you’re not alone right now. I’m right next to you. Or does it have to be someone you know? Someone you trust?” Maybe Jimin couldn’t sleep because he was afraid to let himself be vulnerable in front of a stranger? So, he hurriedly continued, “I’d never take advantage of you in your sleep! You can trust me on that Jimin. And I wouldn’t take pictures either!” As a well-known model the younger was probably really cautious about what kind of pictures got public. Maybe some paparazzi had taken unflattering pictures before?

“No, that’s not it. I’m not afraid of you…it’s…don’t get me wrong, I really love what I do,” Jimin hid his face, blushing a little as he kept on explaining, “There are just so many people around me all the time, but I can’t help but feel lonely. They always touch me, push me, pull me everywhere but no one holds me. Like, really, actually, holds me tight. I know it is stupid and I shouldn’t be so whiny, but it has gotten worse lately. The anxiety…I just…need someone,” He chuckled low to himself, “It’s pathetic, really. Taehyung…he’s my best friend. He always stays over at my apartment, so he can hold me while I sleep or else…I just can’t. My thoughts keep on spiraling. But he is a model, too. Therefore, he is working a lot, so I’m still by myself and then… oh god, this is so embarrassing.” He peaked through his hands and then looked at Namjoon, “Do you know what a professional cuddler is?” Fumbling around with the blanket nervously, Jimin averted his gaze, “You pay someone to hold you, cuddle you. Jin had the idea…so…that’s what helps me sleep. And I usually don’t travel alone, so Jin plays with my hair or I can sleep with my head on his lap when he is around…oh god, I am so whiny, I am so sorry, Joonie.”

Namjoon definitely hadn’t expected that explanation but it made sense now why Jimin was tossing and turning so wildly; there was nothing to lean against, the sets had free spaces all around them and to Jimin it must feel like the opposite of what he wanted.

Namjoon looked at the other, contemplating his next words very carefully. Maybe Jimin had just shared this with him because he hadn’t let it go and offering to help after knowing how intimate his issue was would make him feel even more uncomfortable. On the other hand, going so far as to pay another person to hold you meant that Jimin didn’t shy away from unusual concepts so maybe he should offer and then simply wait how the other reacted? His motive might not be entirely selfless but if it helped Jimin sleep then they both got something from it, right? Namjoon sat up a little more so that he could look at Jimin properly before asking, “Would it be inappropriate of me to still offer my help in this?” It was vague enough for Jimin to decline without Namjoon losing his face with it.  

Jimin’s eyes widened at Namjoon’s offer, looking at him with big, hopeful eyes. “Y-you want to cuddle me?” He asked a bit confused and wary – but also he was freaking internally because if Namjoon really was offering his help then he would get to be close to him. Very close. It made his heart skip several beats. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I can just…I don’t know ask for an extra cushion or something,” Jimin said, his heart beating a little faster at the thought of Namjoon cuddling him – or maybe it was just his anxiety. It couldn’t be that a stranger he had only met a few hours ago could do that to him already, right?

“I’m actually offended that you think you could make up for my excellent cuddle-techniques with a simply extra cushion.” Jimin didn’t seem to be taken aback by his offer, quite the opposite, “Or are you may be afraid you’d like it too much and have to tell Tae that you’ve found a better cuddle-buddy?” His easy talk masked a little that he wasn’t quite as casual about this as he let on; his heart had picked up speed and his palms had started to get a little sweaty, so he quickly wiped them on his blanket before reaching out for Jimin. “Come on, what do you have to lose? If it feels bad you can just go back to pirouetting in your seat.”

Only my heart, Jimin thought to himself and bit his lip to keep from smiling.

He got up from his seat and reached for Namjoon’s hand, who pulled him in slowly and onto his seat. He kneeled carefully onto the soft cushion, looking down at Namjoon, feeling a tad breathless. “You know if someone walks by now that it will look quite…daring,” Jimin giggled quietly, looking over his shoulder to see if someone was passing by – but there was nothing but soft snoring from the people around, while the booth was shutting them out from everyone else. Jimin let his hands wander up to Namjoon’s shoulders, steadying himself a little, “H-how do you want to…like…do it?”

“Don’t worry, even if someone sneaks a peak over the door into our private section then this person clearly has an issue about boundaries and personal space - and how should anyone know how long we’ve known each other? I didn’t see any signs that prohibited cuddling, did you?” He laughed soft and airy. “You make it sound like we’re up to something really foreign and complicated. I’m just going to hug you. Just arrange my arms to make it comfortable for you, the way you would do it with Tae, if he was here.” Namjoon tried to be as malleable as possible to make this easy for Jimin.

“O-okay,” He breathed out softly, Jimin’s hand caressing down Namjoon’s right arm to put it around his waist. He carefully pushed Namjoon to lay down and then settled in next to him. Jimin instantly felt more relaxed, as he arranged himself a little more. The warmth that Namjoon was radiating seeped through him, making him feel so soft, making him feel something that he hadn’t felt in a long time. This way, he was lying face to face with Namjoon, his arms around him while he could rest his head on his arm. “Can…can you pull me in a little closer?” He asked quietly, gazing up at him, “Only if you’re comfortable with it though.”

Jimin’s breath fanned warm against his neck and collarbones and Namjoon suppressed a pleasant shudder. “Of course.” It was easy to be close to Jimin. As shy and awkward as the younger had acted before now he simply found his space against Namjoon’s body as if it was completely natural to him and they had done this countless times before. Or maybe Jimin was just used to fitting his body shape to different people if he hired one or possibly different professional cuddlers in different cities. Namjoon couldn’t imagine how dependent the other must feel knowing that he could only sleep if someone was close to him. He pulled Jimin further into his embrace, the grip around the younger’s small waist tightening while Jimin curled further up against his chest. Like this he could perfectly kiss Jimin’s temple if he wanted to. It was funny how the physical closeness made it so easy to feel an emotional connection as well.

Namjoon blamed their sleepiness.

“Y-you feel so warm, no one feels so warm,” Jimin mumbled after a while, nuzzling his face against Namjoon’s chest. The younger closed his eyes for a moment, his hands caressing up Namjoon’s back, while he felt like he could fall asleep right away. It felt so good, so familiar – as if he belonged in Namjoon’s embrace who’s hold was strong and secure. Jimin felt like free falling. “Thank you,” He said quietly, turning his face a little so he could look at the other again, “Really…it means a lot to me. You don’t know me and still…,” Jimin paused, his heart skipping a beat, “It doesn’t feel like it, right? Like that we didn’t know each other before? You feel so…” The younger averted his gaze down to Namjoon’s chest while his hand was wandering down further his back, carefully slipping under Namjoon’s shirt to catch more of the warm skin.

“I think I really do like this a little too much.”

Namjoon’s heart skipped a beat when Jimin’s fingers carefully slipped under his shirt, skimming his bare skin. He was too breathless to answer right away so he simply nodded instead, hoping Jimin would know that he agreed. He kept awfully still, trying to breathe evenly because he felt like it would otherwise be obvious that his breathing had become faster the moment Jimin had started to lower his voice, whispering against his neck. This was to help Jimin sleep and if he didn’t get his body under control then he would get himself into trouble. Thankfully there was still a bit of Jimin’s blanket between their hips and Namjoon would make sure that it stayed that way.

Jimin’s hand was only feeling up more of his soft skin, pulling himself closer. “Is this okay?” He asked carefully, feeling a little out of breath himself, “Normally…with a professional cuddler you have some kind of contract…about…boundaries and stuff.” Jimin licked over his lips slowly, resting his head on Namjoon’s chest again, drawing little patterns into his skin as he yawned cutely. Though he still was sleepy and Namjoon’s hold calmed him, his heart was beating so fast that he didn’t feel tired anymore. Right now, he wanted everything else but sleep. He wanted Namjoon. Closer. So close. When Jimin looked up like this, his lips were almost touching Namjoon’s – both only a few inches apart and Jimin couldn’t tear his gaze away from the other. “Just tell me if you…,” The way Jimin’s hand was all up to Namjoon’s shoulder blades now was making his shirt rise a little and Jimin could feel the soft skin of Namjoon’s stomach, “…want me to stop.”

Shit, shit, shit! When he had offered to hold Jimin to help him sleep he really had wanted to make it easier for the other to relax, maybe enjoy being close to someone nice as well. But right now, he was so far from sleeping - or maybe not far enough. It was still pretty much dark because they had kept the lights out of course and they could only see each other vaguely because their eyes had gotten used to it and there were a few symbols still lighted, like the emergency exit. It also made it a lot easier to feel comfortable enough to consider crossing a line or two - which wasn’t what this was supposed to be. Jimin had gifted him his trust, giving into his desire and kissing him would be a really selfish, reckless move that was so far from offering the other sleep-support that he should be ashamed of himself for even thinking it! Still the wish had manifested in his mind and seemed impossible to block out.

“I can’t sleep right now,” Jimin breathed out as he propped himself up on one elbow to look at Namjoon more closely, “Not because you don’t feel good…but because, you really, really feel good. Too good.” He probably was stupid for what he was about to do next, but if he interpreted the signs right and if he trusted his own heart in this, Namjoon wouldn’t push him away. Jimin could hear Namjoon’s heartbeat against him, the way he had leaned into his touch and blushed, he had felt his heated skin. Leaning in slowly, Jimin watched Namjoon’s reaction carefully as he placed a soft kiss on his neck. When the other didn’t push him away, nor screamed at him to get off him, he placed another a bit further up. Then one right below Namjoon’s ear. Jimin smiled, when Namjoon’s hold tightened around his waist – so he placed another kiss on his jaw.

Namjoon must be dreaming. Maybe he had fallen asleep after all and this was what his desperate mind produced. Though he could never come up with how good Jimin’s kisses felt on his skin. His lips were warm and soft and just plush enough to feel gentle and daring at the same time. “Don’t.. don’t do this if you don’t want me to react to it,” He warned him quietly, voice low and tense. He was still holding onto his self-control although it was dwindling rapidly. His grip around Jimin’s waist had tightened and he knew that if he just pushed a little against the others shoulder he would be able to turn Jimin onto his back to lean over him and taste his sweet, talented mouth…

Namjoon swallowed down the sound that threatened to spill when Jimin ignored his words and just kissed his neck again, right below the pulse point where Namjoon could feel the touch so intensely it had him shuddering under Jimin’s mouth.

“I want you to,” Jimin whispered softly against his skin, his hand caressing down Namjoon’s back until he was right at the hem of his pants. He followed it, then slipped his hand under his shirt again only this time he was caressing up Namjoon’s stomach, feeling his abs twitch under his touch. “Please,” Jimin bit his lip, waiting for Namjoon’s reaction, while his hand slowly found its way back down.

But Jimin didn’t have to ask him twice if he could barely hold himself back. Just like he had imagined Jimin gave away easily when Namjoon nudged him backwards and then Jimin looked up at him with dark, wide eyes, as if he couldn’t believe it himself what they were doing here. His lips were parted just slightly, and he wetted his lips, just once, and if it was teasing or just a nervous habit Namjoon was gone for it. He delved down and swallowed Jimin’s soft gasp down while he kissed him, heated and demanding. He licked at the seam of Jimin’s lips to beg for entrance and when Jimin let him he deepened the kiss immediately. Jimin tasted sweet, it could be the chocolate he had eaten or just his own taste and a little like mint from when he had brushed his teeth. It was better than Namjoon had imagined it and he didn’t want to stop plundering Jimin’s mouth. Jimin was gone for Namjoon the second he kissed him so deeply and he desperately pulled the other onto him, pushing his hands down Namjoon’s shirt. Never had someone kissed him like this and Jimin almost forgot that they were in an airplane where a stewardess could check up on them any time. But he didn’t care, instead it was pretty easy to lose himself in the way Namjoon was devouring him. He spread his legs a little further and as much as he could to let Namjoon in between them, while his kisses went down Jimin’s neck. He arched his back on instinct, a shiver running down his spine and a soft little whine escaping his lips that he couldn’t stop. Jimin quickly pressed his hand onto his mouth, eyes wide and heart beating fast in fear that someone might have heard him.

“Don’t.” Namjoon took Jimin’s hand away from his mouth, intertwining their fingers so that Jimin couldn’t put it back but also had something to hold onto. “I want to hear you. Cause you sound beautiful like this. Almost... desperate.” His smile turned into a smirk, promising, a little wicked before he leaned back down to kiss the spot over Jimin’s collarbone that had teased the sinful sound out of him the first time.  While at first he had felt like Jimin might wear too little to sleep now he was absolutely convinced that he wore too much - and that losing Jimin’s shirt might be what both of them needed. The sleep shirt was loose enough for Namjoon to push it all the way up to Jimin’s shoulders and he was amazed by all the flawless, creamy skin it bared for him. Jimin must care well for his body. There wasn’t even one single rough spot on him, nor were there any bruises discoloration his skin. “Beautiful…,” He knew Jimin must be used to being complimented but the praise came over his lips anyways.

The model blushed nonetheless, hiding his face in the crook of Namjoon’s neck. “You’re handsome, too. I thought so right away…I even felt up your thighs when I was on your lap,” Jimin giggled, feeling carefree and happy. He kissed Namjoon again and each time a soft gasp or whine escaped his lips, the other just held onto his hand, smiling at him. It was so endearing, the way Jimin confessed to having felt him up, torn between showing off his cheeky side and hiding at his neck in embarrassment - as if Namjoon was his safe spot to hide.

“Namjoon but there are other people,” Jimin whispered, another gasp falling from his lips when Namjoon only teased him further. “We…we can’t, right? We shouldn’t…we…,” Jimin’s hands were doing anything but what he was saying, but exploring Namjoon’s body further, moving down to his thighs, so close to where he needed it the most but not daring to touch him there, yet even if he could feel how much it affected Namjoon just as much as he was affected by it all. “I don’t think it’s allowed if we…,” Jimin stopped, looking over to his seat and then back to Namjoon before he confessed bluntly, “I think I have lube in my bag…” He had to bite his lip hard to keep from grinning, his cheeks blushing in a deep red, while he was holding onto Namjoon’s shirt tightly, not sure how the other would react.

Namjoon felt perfectly content with this, making out heavily with Jimin until they were both breathless and flushed and the more they kissed, the more flustered Jimin seemed to get, talking about how they weren’t allowed to do this and probably shouldn’t risk it and...

Namjoon’s arms almost gave out when the other continued and he realized that he had completely misinterpreted Jimin’s words. The younger hadn’t been talking about their make out session. He had been talking about airplane sex!  

“You… you have… you want me to... what?” Namjoon blinked in confusion, staring at Jimin with wide eyes in surprise. Why one earth would Jimin be prepared like that on a plane? Namjoon knew that some people had ‘sex over the clouds’ on their wish list however Jimin was right and it wasn’t without risk. Leaving aside that a one night stand could always be more complicated than planned and end up being awkward especially if you were sharing a couples seat for at least a few more hours. Unfortunately, his morals and his drive weren’t on the same page here. He would have never thought that Jimin would let him have him and now that it was an option the thought alone was enough to have the desire stir awake low in his gut. “You… you would let me have you? Just like that?”

Jimin was nervous, moving a little under Namjoon so that he could reach in between them. “I mean…,” He bit his lip, “You can’t just kiss me like that without expecting a response, do you? The way you move against me?” Jimin arched his back a little, one hand slipping down further between them. He leaned up kissing Namjoon on his cheek and whispered, “Don’t you want it too? We just have to be quiet...close together, under the blanket...” Jimin caressed down Namjoon’s stomach until he came to a halt at the hem of his pants, the thin fabric had already made Jimin feel the arousal coming from him. “Of course, I want to! That wasn’t my point. I just couldn’t believe that you’d trust me so easily after you got shy when I offered to help you sleep. I meant it like that, you know. When I offered I didn’t mean anything else by it. Just... comfort. But I am definitely not complaining.” It was hard to keep calm while Jimin felt him up like that and he was glad that he was lying or else his knees might have buckled when Jimin started the dirty talk without warning, bluntly telling him things that that made him get harder just by listening to him.

 Jimin closed his eyes, leaning his head back as a quiet moan spilled from his lips just because of the thought of feeling Namjoon even closer. So, he caressed over him,  feeling up his length through the thin fabric and Jimin snapped his eyes back open. “Fuck, you’re so big,” Jimin licked his lips slowly, looking up at a very breathless Namjoon, “I will feel you for days...oh, please.”

“You would like that? To feel that you’ve let me have you?” Namjoon still couldn’t believe his luck that someone like Jimin would let him in like that after they had only just met. Biting his lip seductively, Jimin nodded, arching his back a little more into Namjoon’s embrace so he could feel him closer. He easily let a hand slip past his pants, thankful for the pajama pants that gave him easy access and grabbed Namjoon for real. With a soft push, he motioned for Namjoon to lay on his back more, so Jimin could lay beside him as close as possible. Jimin pulled the blanket up a little more, while with the other hand he was feeling Namjoons length up and down, gripping him tightly before he started to jerk him off. “I know you did and fuck it, we can do the holding and comfort part after, okay?” Jimin giggled, leaning in to kiss Namjoon breathless.

Jimin was really going for it and Namjoon was fighting to get back his breath. He almost choked on nothing when he tried to stop Jimin with words, so he took his wrist to pull him off. “Wait, Jimin, wait! Are you sure you’ve got what’s necessary in your bag? And do you have a condom? Cause I won’t fuck you without any of that.” His blush deepened when he confessed, “Also can you please slow down a little. I’m not used to. ..situations like this so I’m pretty...riled up already. It won’t work if I can’t keep myself … you know.” God, Jimin probably thought he was some inexperienced idiot just getting off on a simple touch.

“You’re cute, Joonie,” Jimin giggled softly and then got out from under the blanket, quickly covering Namjoon again to not reveal his half naked state to anyone else. Although the little door to their booth was closed, if people were tall enough they could still see over it and stewardess can come in anytime. Jimin quietly reached for his bag, searching for the lube and some condoms. “It’s actually quite good for dry skin,” Jimin said quietly when he got back onto the bed and gave the items over to Namjoon. “The condoms aren’t really mine I guess…but Taehyungs. But I’ll just buy him new ones. I haven’t had…,” Jimin blushed a little, “Anyone in my life for a while now…”

It didn’t matter if Jimin had said this to make him feel at ease or if it was actually true it still counted as an attempt to not make it awkward between them and Namjoon found it endearing. It also helped with not feeling so out of his depth. “I’ll better prep you well then,” He promised, reaching out for Jimin to pull the other back in and under the cover, kissing him slow and sweet before taking the small packages from him. He quickly checked the expiration date - better safe than sorry - before opening the first one. “How do you want to do this? Do you want to lie down? You could close your eyes and just let me do what might be nice for you and if you’d prefer something different you can tell me or just guide my hand. How’s that sound?” He wanted to make sure that Jimin knew that this wasn’t some quick celebrity fuck for him but that he actually cared for him.

The space they had was pretty confined, so Jimin wasn’t sure, yet how they would make it work without getting caught – they for sure couldn’t do anything extravagant or too loud. He didn’t want that anyways.

“I want to be close to you,” Jimin whispered, his eyes never leaving Namjoon as he slowly got rid of his boxers under the blanket. It only heightened the arousal to not really see anything – but more likely to feel it when Jimin shifted closer, hooking his leg up Namjoon’s waist, his own boxers half way down from when Jimin jerked him off. This way they could kiss all they want, and it was comfortable enough for him to prepare Jimin, while the younger could hold onto him.

“Then we’ll make it close.” Namjoon kissed Jimin’s neck, caressed over the warm, soft skin. Jimin’s body felt as beautiful as it had looked, all lean muscles and smooth expanse of skin. they were so close to each other that he could feel Jimin’s breath hitch more than he heard it when he smoothed his hand all the way up Jimin’s strong thigh and in between his legs. Jimin was obviously as aroused as he was and Namjoon took his time to get a feel for Jimin’s cock, stroking it slow and intense until Jimin was shuddering on his lap. It had been such a long time since someone had touched him, but himself, honestly. And Jimin almost felt pathetic for reacting just as easily as Namjoon did before, losing himself in the pleasure. His hold tightened a little around Namjoon’s shoulders, while his hot breath fanned against his neck. “Ah,” Jimin moaned, hiding his face against his chest, kissing Namjoon’s exposed collarbone in a weak attempt to distract himself a little.

Namjoon gave Jimin a quick kiss on his cheekbone, a kiss you would give a friend or a partner, too sweet for an airplane hookup while jerking someone off. Still he kept going, teasing Jimin until those sweet breathy sounds Jimin made became too much for him to concentrate and so he changed his tactic a little. “Tell me if you want me to do something differently,” The lube had warmed up by now and so he could easily tease a finger against Jimin’s rim without startling the other. Still Jimin twitched a little, either because he was nervous or because he was sensitive. Namjoon hoped the latter - for various reasons.

Jimin moved his hips a little, urging Namjoon on to give him even more. He shivered from the anticipation and when he could finally feel him push in, Jimin gasped, stiffening up for a second before he could relax. He was used to playing with himself, or using toys, but now that Namjoon was stretching him, teasing his entrance so good, he was slowly losing his mind in pleasure. “Mh-more,” He whispered, his lips searching for Namjoon’s to kiss him heatedly, pressing his body against his. The pleasure was rippling through him, making him feel hot and sweaty. A breathy wine fell from his lips as soon as the other pushed in a second finger and Jimin hid in the crook of Namjoon’s neck. “I don’t think I can keep quiet if you…if you, oh god,” Jimin looked up at him, whispering quietly, “How am I not supposed to scream if you fuck me open with your big cock, Namjoon? Will you shut me up?”

Namjoon bit his tongue to keep from moaning at that before kissing the answer back into Jimin’s skin. “Yes, baby. I’ll kiss the sounds right out of your mouth and if you still can’t keep quiet then you can push your face down into the cushions or hide in your arms. You can be quiet for me, can you? Be as good as you should?” He was taking his time with opening Jimin up, rubbing the pads of his fingers against Jimin’s wall, a constant teasing that kept the younger on edge.

Jimin whined quietly, his hand finding their way under Namjoon’s shirt again to feel more of his soft, warm skin again. “I’ll…I’ll be good,” Jimin smiled up at him, feeling a bit dazed from the pleasure already, moving his hips sensually against Namjoon’s fingers. He bit down his lip to keep from moaning, when Namjoon settled on a rhythm, pushing in and out of him. He moved back against him, chasing the feeling of lust and only stopped when Namjoon pushed in another one. “Oh fuck,” Jimin held onto Namjoon tight, trying to relax and let him in. His nails were digging into Namjoon’s back, scratching down his soft skin in the process. “I need you, please, Namjoon,” He mumbled against Namjoon’s shirt, feeling breathless as he laid his head on his chest, jerking with each stroke of pleasure. Jimin was sensitive - and it made it incredibly easy and enjoyable to play with him. If Namjoon hadn’t been filled to the brim with want and desire for him he would have loved to thoroughly take him apart just with his hands. But this wasn’t the time or the place to do this - and he was starting to ache himself.

“Just a little more patience, beautiful…,” He promised before slipping out of Jimin to roll on the condom. He was so concentrated on the task at hand that it hit him like a punch in the gut when he looked up again; Jimin was quite the sight, his eyes were illuminated by the few emergency lights in the dark and the sweat on his skin gave it a gentle glow. “Damn, you’re beautiful.” He whispering, knowing that Jimin might not see it the same way, not as something remarkable or special. But to Namjoon he was. Special.

“Hm?” Jimin’s eyes were big and glistening from the arousal and he only chuckled softly when Namjoon gave him a compliment. “Not as beautiful as you,” He whispered against Namjoon’s lips, meaning every word. To him Namjoon was the most handsome man he had ever seen. Jin might argue with him about that – but he didn’t care.

Jimin leaned over to take the other condom to prepare himself with it and when Namjoon looked at him a bit confused he simply whispered, “Do you want to clean the seats? Thought so.” Jimin laid back down comfortably, his heart beating fast as he realized that he was about to have sex on an airplane on valentine’s day with a stranger. But the moment he looked up, his eyes meeting Namjoons, his worries were all gone again.

“Good point.” He gave Jimin one last kiss before spreading his thighs, pulling Jimin even closer. “Relax…,” He rubbed a soothing hand over Jimin’s hip up to his side until the younger’s breath deepened a little and Namjoon felt like he was ready. He entered him slow and steady, a gasp leaving his lips when Jimin’s body let him in and there was so much delicious heat and tightness around him. “God...,” He groaned low in his throat, “I guess we both have to get creative about how to stay silent in this. You feel…fucking amazing!”

Their bodies were intertwined so tightly into one another and Jimin had hid in Namjoon’s neck to not scream out in pleasure when the other entered him, instead he kissed him on his neck. “Your lips shouldn’t leave mine then,” Jimin cupped Namjoon’s cheek and pulled him in for a kiss, while he could feel the other’s hold tighten around his waist. Namjoon adjusted Jimin a little closer to him, hooking his leg up a little more over his waist so he could thrust up into him, leaving both breathless and gasping. “You stretch me out so good, ‘m so good,” Jimin moaned quietly into Namjoon’s ear, kissing down his neck. They shouldn’t be too rough to better hide what they were doing but Namjoon enjoyed to take it slow anyway. He was savoring it, every minute that he was able to spent so close to Jimin, rolling his hips into him sensual and deep. He could feel it, every time he brushed against Jimin’s sweet spot because the younger tightened up around him for a second making it hard for them to catch their breaths before he pulled back out. It was maddeningly intense and Namjoon was sweating under the blanket.

Jimin on the other hand, was dwelling in the attention, soaking everything up like a sponge and as if he had been starving from affection – which he kind of had. Namjoon was giving him so much more than just closeness right now but a feel of security with the way he held onto him, making sure Jimin felt the pleasure just as much and kissing him sweetly and with a smile on his lips. Jimin couldn’t remember anyone who ever was so sweet and soft with him. It was so easy to lose himself in the pleasure, in the heat and in the way Namjoon cared for him.

Jimin mouthed along his shoulder and neck, leaving kisses everywhere, feeling like he wanted to give him something back only to be thrown back by a thrust that had the pleasure flow through him so hot that it made him throw his head back. His hand caressed up Namjoon’s chest, soothing over his heated skin. “I wish I could feel more of you,” Jimin mumbled, not really sure if Namjoon even heard him or not. He moaned out, quickly hiding his face in the cushion to keep from crying out when Namjoon had found the right spot, teasing it spot on. Namjoon got lost in it, the heat, the rhythm, Jimin’s voice when he whispered against his neck or the way his breath shuddered when Namjoon moved just right. They had tried to be as quiet as possible but Namjoon wasn’t sure if they were doing a very good job, honestly right now it didn’t matter to him. He was caught in pleasure, in Jimin, in everything they shared, chasing for completion.

Jimin could feel how Namjoon was trying to chase his high and at the same time to keep quiet, so he pushed against him, meeting him with every thrust as subtle as he could. “I can’t…oh,” Jimin gasped when Namjoon had gripped his waist tight, pulling him down to meet his slow, but deep thrust. “It feels too good, please don’t stop,” His voice was barely a whisper, his hand wandering down to squeeze Namjoon’s bottom, caressing over his waist and up his back again. He just wanted to feel as much as he could of him. When Namjoon’s thrusts were faltering a little, Jimin leaned in, holding onto him tight, spreading his legs a little more for him. “Kiss me, please,” He whispered against his cheek, searching for Namjoon’s lips almost desperately, while the moan threatened to spill from his lips from the pleasure. His abs were twitching and Jimin could feel himself tightening around Namjoon’s cock. He complied immediately instead of an answer, trying to drag it out a little but they were both too close. It was too good, a little too exciting and fueled by pure longing for each other’s closeness to last very long.  Their kisses turned messy and desperate while Namjoon held the younger in place, abusing his sweet spot mercilessly now that he was about to come. He wanted to take Jimin with him, push him over the edge right before taking the fall himself. “You’re perfect, baby. So good for me.” His broken whispers barely made sense to him, but he spoke them against Jimin’s open mouth, nonetheless, praising him, kissing him, taking him as best as he could.

Jimin smiled against his lips, not really noticing how the tears threatened to spill over with how much he felt cared for. He couldn’t process the emotions he was feeling, and the pleasure made him blissfully unaware of anything else but that. He shuddered, his grip tightening on Namjoon’s arm while he was panting, tightening around Namjoon deliciously. He felt the heat rushing through his veins, shaking him to the core as it exploded right in the pit of his stomach and Jimin had to bite into Namjoon’s shoulder lightly to keep from crying out as he came hard.

Jimin shaking apart under him pulled him right along and Namjoon came shortly after with a low groan that he tried (and failed) to muffle against Jimin’s neck. Then he just laid there, enjoying the aftershocks that ran through him like pleasant waves, catching his breath, listening to their wildly beating heart. Only when he had collected himself enough to make conscious decisions he brushed Jimin’s sweaty hair out of his face and kissed along his cheek bone. “You good?” He felt too exhausted to say more, though it was the good kind of exhausted, the pleasurable buzz still fresh enough in his mind and body to comfortable bask in it.

“More than good,” Jimin whispered, his eyes falling shut from the exhaustion that finally pulled him under. He felt warm, sated, cared for and protected – the perfect combination for him to just fall asleep right away. He sleepily whined a little when Namjoon pulled out and only turned to get rid of his own condom to throw it into the bin. Namjoon was doing the same and Jimin just tiredly wrapped his arms around his waist while Namjoon was still moving around, pulling his pants back up – or whatever, because Jimin didn’t see. He rubbed his eyes, keeping them shut as he was yawning cutely, slowly falling asleep, his hold only tightening around Namjoon. He didn’t care about his boxers right now. He only wanted to sleep in Namjoon’s arm and not think about what tomorrow might be.

Namjoon reached out for a bottle of water and took a sip before addressing Jimin, “Do you want some too?” He was greeted with a muffled sleepy sound - and nothing more. “Jimin?” The younger had fallen asleep on him in record time, he hadn’t even bothered to put on his clothes. “You really are something, hu?” Namjoon chuckled and made sure to wrap Jimin extra secure into the blanket before laying back down next to him. “Thank you,” He whispered even though he knew Jimin couldn’t hear him before taking the younger back into his embrace like before, making sure that both of them were nice and cozy.

Jimin had never fallen asleep so quickly and slept all through the night so deeply that not even the voices around him could wake him up. Not even with Taehyung. Jimin hadn’t loosened his hold all night, instead only had cuddled closer to Namjoon, intertwining their bodies easily as if they were made for each other.

Namjoon’s slumber had been short but relaxing and he woke up slowly and comfortably when the first sounds of breakfast were audible. It reminded him how very non-soundproof the airplane was, and he really hoped that they hadn’t shocked any of the stewardesses with their little encounter last night. If they had however then none of them let anything show when they served them breakfast. Namjoon’s cheeks were aflame while he tried to entangle himself from Jimin a little, but he couldn’t even properly try before the girls had vanished again. All the fuss woke Jimin as well and because Namjoon wanted to make the most of the time that he still had he gently brushed his fingers through Jimin’s hair to indulge himself a little and feel the soft strands between his fingers. “It’s so fluffy.” He chuckled and Jimin’s sleepy mumble, kissing the younger’s temple without a second thought. “Mh don’t s’op,” He mumbled sleepily.

The younger only smiled at the feel of Namjoon’s lips, blinking his eyes open when he slowly came face to face with the situation and the reality of what had happened. “Oh,” Jimin jerked awake when he could feel his naked thighs rubbing against Namjoon’s body, “my…god.” He gulped heavily, looking at the other with big eyes and a very evident, deep red blush on his cheeks. “We had sex,” Jimin whispered, “On an airplane…on valentine’s day and…oh, thank you. I just use some good conditioner I can send you some for free. I have a brand deal.” He smiled brightly, holding on to the blanket to keep himself still covered. “Do…do you know where my pants are?”

Namjoon almost got whiplash from how quickly Jimin hopped through the topics. He stiffened when it first looked as if Jimin would have a full blown case of ‘the morning after-regret’, getting ready to pretend to be fine if they acted as if nothing happened - just for the younger to talk about his conditioner. He couldn’t help it, he broke into laughter, loud and freeing. “Th…thank you that’s very kind. But I actually care more about your hair being soft than mine.” His eyes sparkled with amusement. “And I think the last time I saw your pants was somewhere on the right. I’m sorry it doesn’t get more specific than that.”

Jimin just nodded, eyeing the breakfast warily, his eyes growing big as the plates, as he searched for his pants at the same time, realizing the stewardess must have been in their booth already. “Oh my god, do you think they heard us? Joonie….what if oh my god…I’ve never done this…god I never do these kind of things, what are you doing to me?” Jimin reached for his boxers and quickly pulled them on. He stood up to get dressed completely, brushing through his hair with his hand a smirk secured on his lips. “Either way it was damn worth it. I don’t want to know how you would have…you know…If we would have had more room,” He looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was nearby before he turned to look at Namjoon again. “Thank you though,” Jimin smiled sheepishly, “I think I never fell asleep that quickly.” The more Jimin started to flail the more Namjoon had to try to not burst into laughter again. The boy was too cute. “Yeah, well.. they might have.” The nickname made warmth bloom in his chest and he wanted to pull Jimin in again and kiss him again - but he didn’t. Their little adventure was over. They would land soon. “I really enjoyed myself. You are pretty damn amazing. And I’m not just talking about your body.” He winked at him. “Anytime, baby.”

Jimin almost grew weak in the knees right away again, fighting the urge to just sit on Namjoon’s lap to kiss him. “If you call me baby again I might just jump right out of the airplane because…,” Jimin made a squealing sound that he couldn’t contain, blushing even more. To distract from himself a little, Jimin pointed at the plates of food on their table. It was a couple booth after all, just one small table for two. “Want to join me for breakfast?” Jimin had to bite his lip to keep from smiling. He couldn’t believe Namjoon was still flirting with him, even more openly so now.

“Pity. I like calling you that.” He liked it, how comfortable they were with each other. There was no trace of awkwardness or shame and even though Jimin had freaked for a second he seemed completely fine with it and relaxed around him. It was nice. Dangerously so. Because Namjoon felt like he could get used to this - if only they had the time. “Sure. It’s nice to get breakfast - with a full course meal.” He winked again, hinting that with the ‘full course meal’ he rather meant Jimin but the food.

It wasn’t the last time Jimin was blushing at Namjoons compliments or laughing at his clumsiness. He was just adorable, and he couldn’t take his eyes off him. That was until the sound for them to put on the belts was lighting up again and the pilot was announcing their arrival. Jimin’s eyes were focused on the little window, watching how they got closer to the ground, as he listened to Namjoon talking about some random facts about New York. They let all of the passengers pass them until the airplane was almost completely empty and Jimin had his bag all zipped up. He smiled up at Namjoon who stood behind him in the aisle, fighting the pull to just lean in, kiss and hold Namjoon tight again. They were walking quietly down the corridor, neither saying anything until they walked over to where they were waiting for their suitcases. Namjoon bit his lip, contemplating how to properly say goodbye without ruining the mood. It would be strange to give Jimin his number, right? Jimin would be busy shooting stuff and walking on shows and giving interviews. He would have all the attention he wanted, why care for some random business man he had just met? They had a nice night and a cute morning after - he should leave it at that and not force Jimin to let him down gently.

“Mr. Park?” A voice behind Jimin announced himself and the model turned around greeting the man kindly, who was pushing a cart with a bunch of suitcases on them. When he looked at Namjoon, Jimin chuckled at his expression and how his gaze went back and forth between his one suitcase and Jimin’s many.

“I couldn’t decide, okay? I had all night to pack,” He shrugged his shoulders and placed his hand bag on top. While the driver was ready to keep going, Jimin still hesitated. “Wait…,” Jimin reached into his bag, fishing out a pen before he turned on his heel quickly and grabbed a hold of Namjoon’s arm. He rolled up his sleeve and then stepped closer. With his mouth he opened the top and wrote down his number on his skin. “I figured you’d probably lose a tiny piece of paper and… I didn’t want you to lose this.” Jimin looked up at the other with big, hopeful eyes, “You will call me?” He knew he sounded pretty whiny and pleadingly, but he really hoped Namjoon would and Jimin couldn’t help but feel sad at the thought of not seeing him again. Something about him was special and it wasn’t just the way he was holding him. It took Namjoon by surprise; both Jimin slipping back into his model person effortlessly in front of the guy and him giving Namjoon his number. There was a smile on his face, so big that he could practically feel his dimples showing. “Of course. I’ll call.” He leaned in and gave Jimin a peck on the cheek, fleeting, friendly, nothing that could get Jimin or his image into trouble if anyone saw.

Jimin thought about his encounter on the plane throughout the whole drive to the hotel, caressing over the spot on his cheek repeatedly where Namjoon’s lips had touched him last. He laughed at himself for being so giggly and like a love-drunk schoolboy – but Jimin just couldn’t control himself. He didn’t even care about the scenery, no matter how much he actually liked New York. He wondered which hotel Namjoon was in, if they would see each other again if they were back in Seoul – or if Namjoon decided someone like Jimin wasn’t worth more than a one night stand. He could understand it, there was still the media and press only hungrily waiting for a dating scandal. But despite it all, he wanted to see Namjoon again. He just needed to. It was almost like he could feel his arms still wrapped around his body tightly, holding him and keeping him safe.

Jimin jerked when the door opened and the driver smiled at him. “We’re here, Mr. Park,” He announced and Jimin sighed, trying to push the thought about Namjoon aside and put his work persona on. He needed to get ready for a meeting with the magazine before they would do the photoshoot tomorrow. And then Jimin would be alone in his room. Alone again. He sighed and looked up at the hotel sign, a smile forming at his lips. He loved the suites in this hotel. So, he thanked Jin in his mind (though the other had probably booked it because he would come only a day later staying at the same hotel and Jin never saved money when it came to himself) and followed his driver inside, dreading the moment the night would come again, while he tried to focus on the now.  

It had taken Namjoon a little while to get a taxi, there were no chauffeurs ready for people like him. It might have also been hindering that he was still smiling like an idiot about Jimin giving him his number, checking every five minutes if it was still there. He saved it in his phone the second he sat in a car. He had given the driver the address without knowing anything about the hotel because just like the flight it had been a last minute arrangement made for him (and he had been too busy on the flight to check then) and when they arrived he had to do a double take cause it looked so expensive. He thanked the driver and quickly payed before getting out, his one suitcase firm in hand. There were so many people in the hall that he had to do some slalom lines before being able to check in. His room was on the second floor and Namjoon was glad when he could close the door behind him. He didn’t wish for anyone to be around him, but one person and he didn’t know where Jimin even was right now, so he rather stayed in his room, unpacking, taking a shower, reading through his files again. He would maybe go down into the hotel bar just because, in case he got too nervous or to take a look at its fancy scenery, order himself a single drink and then go to sleep early.

That night, Jimin was tiredly walking through the hotel, yawning from the exhaustion that had sunk deep into his bones. The meeting had turned from a few hours into a whole day of preparations and fittings and then the stylists wanted to check up on him, pulling at him, his hair and trying out different kind of looks to be really sure for the photoshoot tomorrow. He was tired, but back in his suite, Jimin had only tossed himself back and forth while he was zapping through various of tv shows. So, he had gotten up and out of his room to walk around the hotel a little. Jimin hoped it would tire him out, but he hadn’t come far before he dropped down onto one of the luxurious sofas that were placed in the corners of the hallways. He was contemplating about maybe getting a ‘good night’ drink at the bar downstairs, while he was looking out of the window trying to figure out on which floor he was now (he hadn’t kept close attention while he was wandering around).

With the numbers and accounts of the files still in mind Namjoon had wandered down to the bar, taking the stairs to appreciate the soft, lush carpet on each and every step of it. He wasn't sure what drink he would order but he felt adventurous, like something was in the air, promising, enticing…

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw something orange and he smiled because it reminded him of Jimin, so he got closer, see who the tuft of fluffy orange belonged to, just like a bee was drawn to a flower. He startled when he recognized the familiar figure even though Jimin had his eyes closed, looking exhausted and sleepy.

“Jimin?!”

Jimin jerked up the second the familiar sound of voice reached him, and he turned to look at…

“Namjoon?”

The confused expression quickly turned into a happy smile and Jimin wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t let his happiness just guide him. So, he jumped up, giggling while he walked up to Namjoon, embracing the other in a hug right away, squeezing him tight. “What are you doing here?”

It was actually him!

And the moment Jimin hugged him it felt as if the world had come back into focus again, as if Jimin brought a balance that Namjoon hadn’t realized he was missing. It just felt...right. “I was checking out the bar - I’ve got a room here, on the second floor. Are you here with someone or… are you getting a room here too?” He almost didn’t dare to hope, unconsciously holding his breath while waiting for Jimin’s answer.

“Really?” Jimin stayed in Namjoon’s embrace, while the other had wrapped his arms around his waist as if it was perfectly normal for them to do so – as if they had done it many times before. “I…I have the suite up on the fifth floor,” Jimin let his hands wander up Namjoon’s chest subconsciously, noticing the casual outfit the other was wearing. It was way more comfortable and lose, not as tight as fitting as the suit but Namjoon was just as handsome looking. “I had a pretty long day and I couldn’t sleep so I decided to wander around, sometimes it helps to tire me out, you know…,” Jimin mumbled, playing with the collar of Namjoon’s shirt.

“The suite... of course, you have.” He chuckled, low and pleasant. “Couldn’t sleep, hm? I guess it’s good that I know something that will work wonders in helping you sleep. It worked before so... want to try if it works again? With a little more space and a little less having to be quiet I’m sure it’ll make for a nice pre-sleep activity.” Jimin fit into his embrace as if he belonged there. And Namjoon didn’t plan on going against that. Jimin let out a groan, leaning his head against Namjoon’s shoulder.

“I really wanted to ask you out on a date first,” Jimin giggled, wrapping his arms around Namjoon’s waist to feel more of his body against him, not caring that a few people were passing by with their suitcases looking at them quite confused. “But considering I thought we’d be back in Seoul…I guess it doesn’t count, right?” Letting go of Namjoon, he let his hand fall down his arm and to his hand, intertwining them as he pulled the other along all the way to the elevator. Pushing the button, Jimin bit his lip, trying to keep from grinning too much, while his heart was beating into overdrive.

A...date. Namjoon’s heart fluttered. Jimin had wanted to ask him out on a date! 

Namjoon followed Jimin towards the elevator, never letting go of his hand. “Let’s just deal with the more pressing matters now - and start the proper dating back in Seoul. I’d like to make an appointment though, to make sure that you’ll have room in your calendar and no excuse not to let me take you out and show you off and kiss you breathless.” Jimin stepped into the elevator backwards, not breaking eye contact and as soon as the door closed Namjoon was on it. “Though how about we practice the kissing thing a little on our way up? So, you know what you’ll be up for.” Jimin’s cheeks turned a rose color, his heart beating fast at the thought of Namjoon actually wanting to go out with him, too. This could only be a dream, right? He took Jimin’s face in his hand, thumb stroking over his soft cheek before leaning in. “You won’t have a problem anymore with finding someone to hold you at night. I’ll gladly apply for that job from now on.” Then Namjoon sealed his promise with a kiss.

PS: Here’s an extra gif of Minjoon flying back to Seoul together. Jimin probably died his hair again in New York ;)

A/N: HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE! We hope you liked our little or not so little story! Leave us a comment down below and who knows ....maybe next valentine there will be a sequel? ;) ❤

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[joaquinbumblebee24]

Onslaught 3/11

A week and a half later, June 23, House packed his bag with Wilson’s help. They had been packing all day yesterday; their backpacks were brought to the brim.  Wilson overpacked; he wanted to make House comfortable. He and House had wanted to treat this trip as a vacation. While away for five weeks in the Philippines,  one week they would spend in the city of Clark in the province of Pampanga, two hours drive from the capital Manila. Then after the conference, the plan was to go backpacking across Luzon, one of the three main islands of the country.  

After the incident with his birthday House told Cameron that he was on the spectrum. The woman was on a hissy, half pitying and half freak out. She had almost blurted to a patient's father that Dr. House was autistic. Chase just removed her from the potential disaster on time.  

House was furious, and stress out. He finagled a five-week vacation from Cuddy. He told her about an offer for a research position at UCLA, and he was ready to take it. Wilson was willing to go with him. Cuddy was taken aback; she gave in without any fuss.

They took an Uber to the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. As soon as they were there, House’s nerves were shot to hell. He had taken his Luvox, which he only takes when extremely anxious.

“Greg, You okay?” Wilson asked while they walked to their gate. House put a hand on his ears, even though he has his noise-canceling headphones on. The airport was busy;  people were rubbing against him. House was on the brink of a meltdown. “Okay, Greg,” Wilson said dragging him to go to a bathroom.

As soon as the bathroom open House went inside a cubicle. Wilson followed him in; his partner was rocking back and forth. The oncologist slid down next to House and hugged him. The noise overwhelmed him, and too many people. Wilson knew this; He just stayed in the bathroom for thirty minutes. Luckily for them, they were an hour early.

After the meltdown ended, House felt humiliated. Wilson sensed this. “Hey?” Wilson said. “You don’t need to feel embarrassed, Greg. I love you.”

House huffed; he lost his words. As a child, whenever he had a meltdown, his Oma would know how to coax him, hugging him tightly.  “Jimmy, I’m fine,” House said, regaining his barrings.

Wilson blinked and handed House the cane.  He used a cane whenever they would walk far. His legs were easily fatigued due to hypotonia, which was related to the  Autism. They walked hand and hand; Wilson kept House’s guitar bag, it was the Martin LX1.

The next hurdle of this trip was the pat-down search. House past thru a metal detector fine; an agent stopped him. “Mister, where do you think you’re going?” The TSA agent asked.

House; oblivious to the sarcasm said. “To a medical conference in the Philippines, I’m a doctor.”

Wilson frowned. “Sir, please forgive him, he has Autism,” He said. The glare from House didn’t stop him. “He doesn’t understand sarcasm.” The statement was half correct. House could understand sarcasm when he knew the person speaking.

The TSA agent, a man asked. Are you his brother?”

Wilson glowered at him. “He's my husband.”

The TSA agent looked at House with disgust. Wilson sighed. “Where the hell is your supervisor? Because I won’t let you harass us for being gay. Being gay is not a crime.  I don’t know what you saw on him, but you are looking at the wrong person here. As he said, he is a doctor, not a terrorist. “ The agent looked humiliated.  

Wilson led House out to their gates. They sat at a frequent flyer lounge, Wilson and House were both frequent flyers. They flew at least once a month to go visit House’s 86-year-old Oma in Portland. While his parents settled in Eugine.

“Greg? You doing okay?” Wilson asked while they drink coffee.

House looked at him. "What do you think? You called me autistic in front of a bear;  I have no choice but to give a speech." He said, and his voice was bitter.

Wilson knew House. His spouse didn’t like it when people questioned their relationship, saying that because he had autism he didn’t know how to Love, romantically. “I’m sorry, I just need to get him off your back.”

House sighed. “I don’t want you to tell people I’m on the spectrum, James. It’s my business. “ He knew that House was upset when he uses his first name, not his nickname, ninety-nine percent of the time he was Jimmy to House or (Wilson at work.)

He knew not to argue with him; he was right. “Okay, I am sorry again.”

The overhead speakers announced their flight. They both got their backpacks, Wilson took the guitar, while House took his cane. They boarded the flight without any difficulties.

As they sat at first-class, House opened his laptop sleeve and got his MacBook Pro;  and began editing the speech, that Wilson wrote. While Wilson got to sleep.

The fifteen-hour flight was a success.

During the flight,  House played on his phone and iPad. While awake, Wilson researched  LGBT issues in the Philippines. Although there are no laws on the criminalization of homosexuality;  the country has no protection for being a gay man. According to his source, a nurse back in Princeton; "The Philippines is like the US in the ’90s. People in the country were more tolerant and accepting, though."

The plane touched down at Clark-Diosdado Macapagal International Airport. This was Wilson’s first time here in Asia; He and House had vacationed in Europe a bit.  They had avoided Asia and Africa for safety reasons.

“Jimmy, welcome to my home for five years.” Said House as he ordered a (Grab car) an Uber-like service in the country.

The Grab CAr arrived. As soon as they were in the got inside the car, House slumped in a seat. “Mabuhay, Welcome to the Philippines, My name is Carlos.”

Wilson looked at his partner for cultural guidance. “People in the country understands English pretty well, they had been learning it for years since Pre-School,” House told Wilson while slumping next to him in exhaustion.

“Okay, Carlos,” Wilson said. “What are the best places for food?”

The driver smiled. “There is the mall;  you can eat at some of our restaurants. First timer?”

Wilson smiled despite his exhaustion. “Yes, but my partner lived here when he was a teenager.”  

The driver’s smile was never faltered. “Where are you from?”

“We are from New Jersey.”

They arrived at their hotel. “If you want a ride, call me,” Carlos told Wilson in parting, giving him his personal number.  

Wilson booked a suite; at the Clark Marriott hotel. As soon as House saw their bed, he removed his blue Hershel & Co backpack and slumped to sleep. Wilson followed after a quick shower.

GH/JW

Hours later, It was ten in the morning they had arrived at 4AM. House woke up.  They needed to buy OTC medications.  They didn’t usually bring so many things, because he and that conveyor belt don’t mix. “Jimmy? You awake?” House asked, shaking Wilson. “Am hungry.”

Wilson  mumbled, “Greg, what time is it?”

House looked at the alarm clock. “ten-thirty. I‘m hungry.”

Wilson stood up and got his jeans from underneath the bed.

“Can we call for room service instead of going outside?” House asked,  getting his laptop from his bag.

Wilson most defiantly wanted to say no; Let's go outside and mingle in with the locals at the mall, but no, House needed to rest, for lunch, he would urge. “Okay." Wilson got the hotel phone. Then he asked as though forgotten. “What kinds of Filipino food do you eat when you were younger?”

House remembered the taste of one of the handfuls of mushy food he would eat, Kaldereta. Kaldereta was made of goat or sometimes beef with liver paste and tomato sauce. He’d love the beef version. “Kal- De- Re- Ta. Kaldereta.” When Wilson gave him a questioning look. “or Adobo.” He said the words with the correct accent.

“You call them yourself,” Wilson suggested. House looked at Wilson as if Wilson killed his puppy. Right, social anxiety, he thought. House swallowed nervously. “I won’t let you call them, okay?” Wilson was reminded; how House was in many ways a kid.

He dialed the number, “Do you have, Kaldereta or Adobo?” The staff on the other line answered an affirmative, “An order of adobo and kaldereta, please,  Rice?" House gave a big nod, he ordered rice too. “So what are we going to do today?” Wilson asked; when the phone call ended.

“Do some touristy things with you?” House said, peering from playing on his iPad.

They have watched CNN Philippines on the hotel’s flat-screen TV. It was an English channel but was geared towards Filipinos and what was happening in the country. “There is a freaking Typhoon,” House commented as he saw what was on the TV screen.

“Where is it headed?” Wilson asked.

“We don’t know yet,” House said, as he peered towards a half-opened window. Meteorology had been one of his obsessions growing up.

Their food arrived fifteen minutes later. House looked at his food, and the Kaldereta looked and smelled lovely. House tasted it; as soon as he tasted his food. He was brought back almost 30 years ago; in the same town, that was previously a military base.

Wilson was delighted to see him eat; House regularly didn’t eat, he didn’t like the texture, or the smell or its high caloric. His partner was closed to being too thin. “Greg, you really love it here?” He asked as he took a bit off his chicken adobo; it was really good.

House looked at everything, but not at Wilson. He is gearing up for a speech. “When I was eight, I was homeschooled because of autism. I was bullied. I was with Oma Abbigail in California, while mom joined father somewhere in South America. I didn’t come; it's too dangerous. When I got here, in Clark, knowing a few words of Tagalog.  I started in the third grade. They just put me on the fourth grade a month into it, After that school year I was entering the sixth grade.”

“Where I went to school was an international school, but 80 percent are Filipinos. Kids didn’t bully me, unlike that back in the states. They liked me, Here I was a Kano-puti or white American.” House said, touching the keyboard of his laptop repetitively.

Wilson didn’t know what to say. “I am sorry you went through that, babe.”

“Don’t be,” House said, making eye contact for the first time since the question started.

End of Chapter 3

[takealottodragmeawayfromreddie]

If Reddie and the rest of the Losers (as adults) were on a sitcom/dramatic comedy

Season 1, episode 1

Richie and Eddie prepare to move away from the Losers appartament to their first house as a couple. After finding out Eddie is exaggerately anxious about the moving process, Richie insists for him to rest, claiming he can do it all on his own. But even the best house can't be perfect and, when he notices, it's too late. There's only one man who can help him now: Ben Hanscom.

Meanwhile, Eddie tries to have a relaxing day at the spa with Beverly, but he can't help but wanting to check out on Richie at every moment.

Season 1, episode 2

Georgie goes to college and a fraternity takes interest in him, but if he wants to get in, he will have to do some reckless and even cruel thjngs. Worried, Bill decides to have a heart-to-heart talk about peer pressure with him.

Meanwhile, the Reddie house situation gets worse and it's time for Stan and Mike to step in. Beverly's attempt to distract Eddie from it by taking him to a baking class gets literally out of hand when he loses his promise ring after taking it off and forgetting about it.

Season 1, episode 3

Eddie finally visits his future house. However, Richie is full of surprises, even if he didn't contribute to make them happen at all.

Meanwhile, Mike deals with a difficult costumer at the library and is dertemined to find the perfect book for them, and Beverly and Stan have a very intense Mario Kart race, calling Ben as a referee to make sure all is fair game.

Season 1, episode 4

Bill is struggling with his new book and his editor is growing impacient, so Mike suggests they go in a little road trip, like his characters do, in order to find inspiration. It doesn't go as well as expected.

Meanwhile, Richie and Eddie move out together, but convivence without the rest of their friends is a bit changelling, and Stan makes the huge mistake of offering to help them out every time they have an argument.

Season 1, episode 5

The Losers go to the beach. Even though Ben's overweight days are far behind him, he can't help but feel insecure with all these good-looking people in swimsuits around, especially his beautiful girlfriend. Luckily, Beverly is there to let him know that, even if he was still fat, she would love him all the same.

Meanwhile, a group of weight-lifting jocks make fun of Eddie's skinny complexion, and he's determined to destroy them. Mike and Stan try their new metal detector, Richie gets sunburned and Bill desperately tries to hide the fact that he can't swim.

Season 1, episode 6

Richie and Bev are preparing for a rock n roll dance contest and Eddie's insecurities and internalized biphobia kick in when he sees how close it has brought them.

Meanwhile, Mike is starting to get homesick, especially over Mr. Chips, his dog, and Stan, Bill and Ben try to cheer him by finding a new pet for their little family, even though their ideas about the perfect one couldn't be more different.

Season 1, episode 7

The holidays are here and the Losers Club couldn't be more excited about it. All of them except for Stan, who, unable to visit his family, feels alone and out of the party.

Refusing to see any of them sad in such a special time of the year, his friends make a decision: they're going to bring Hannukah to him.

Season 1, episode 8

Due to Spring Break, Georgie visits the Losers house and plans to spend his small vacation with his brother, and Meredith, his new girlfriend, who is also coming with him. Meredith is a trans woman and, even though Bill likes her and he doesn't have a problem with that, he can't help but being always afraid of saying the wrong thing and making her uncomfortable, which is, ultimately, making everyone uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, Eddie buys an old, rusty car, and even when it's not worth fixing, his mechanic pride won't let him give up on it.

Season 1, episode 9

The Losers Club return to Derry for a small classmates reunion, which means they'll have to face all the rumors, jokes and reject they suffered back in high school again.

Will they be capable of standing all this humiliation again? Or could the ultimate prank make the whole classroom regret it?

Season 1, episode 10

An innocent truth or dare game reveal some forgotten high school secrets and all the Losers end up mad at each other except Mike and Ben. It's up to them to save the club.

Season 1, episode 11

Bill's book is finally published and the reviews couldn't be better. Well, except for that one. What does it say? It's hard to tell behind all those asterisks. Who wrote it? Nobody knows, and no matter how many times Mike tells him he shouldn't take it seriously, he has to find that reader and find out what they meant.

Meanwhile, Richie and Eddie try to have a romantic date, but of course it can't go that well.

Season 1, episode 12

Richie has a new routine which, out of pure oversight, includes one of his oldest and most infamous impressions. Even though Mike doesn't actively call him out on it, he can tell his friend is upset, and he has no idea about how to fix it.

Meanwhile, Bill gets a very young and particulary devoted fan.

Season 1, episode 13

Eddie's mother is in the hospital and, after years of silence, he has to face her. Sadly, Sonia doesn't seem so happy about his decision of moving away and getting a boyfriend. Will he be able to resist the pressure?

Meanwhile, Richie meets his own family again and, desperated for showing his parents that he has grown up, he pretends to be the son he thinks they always wanted.

Season 1, episode 14

Stan and Ben realize that, even though they have close friendships with the rest of the club, they don't hang around on their own a lot, and after being told they're too safe and predictable, they decide to do something exciting.

Meanwhile, Richie and Beverly pretend to be a couple so they can attend to the wedding of two complete strangers. A party is a party.

Season 1, episode 15

A producer contacts Bill to turn his novel into a musical play. Scared of the director completely changing his story, he offers to adapt it himself. Maybe not his best idea.

Meanwhile, one of Eddie's co-workers makes a comment about the right way of "being a normal gay guy", and Eddie starts to question if he's the right kind of gay.

Season 1, episode 16

Ridiculous videos of Richie jerking off and talking dirty get leaked by a resentful ex-girlfriend, and even though he tries to take it easy and tells a lot of jokes about it, Beverly is determined to make him understand that he has every right to feel hurt and betrayed.

Meanwhile, Ben helps Bill with his play and Stan and Mike watch a movie together.

Season 1, episode 18

Mike starts dating Rita, one of his co-workers, and even though everyone seems to like her, she just doesn't look good in Stan's eyes.

Meanwhile, Richie keeps dealing with the consequences of his private video getting leaked and so does Eddie. No matter how hard it becomes, they're together in this.

Season 1, episode 19

When Eddie's mother calls him to give him a new lecture about how she knew Richie wasn't good and how he should leave him, Eddie finally cuts her out of his life completely.

Meanwhile, Stan and Mike talk about their feelings.

Season 1, episode 20

Beverly learns she's pregnant. Since she wants it to be a surprise, she asks Richie to keep it a secret.

Meanwhile, Ben confesses Eddie he wants to ask Bev to marry him, and asks him to keep it a secret, too.

Richie and Eddie prove to be the worst at keeping secrets when the whole club, except Ben and Beverly, find out.

Season 1, episode 21.

Ben, Mike, Stan, Bill and Eddie share their ideas for the best proposal ever, but none of them seem to click.

Meanwhile, Richie and Bev have fun visiting baby articles stores, pretending to be a couple again, asking for the most ridiculous stuff and coming up with the weirdest names ever. Richie has a hard time not spoiling the proposal situation.

Season 1, episode 22

Bill's play debuts and it's the perfect occasion to ask the big question. What could possibly go wrong?

Season 1, episode 23

After the failed attempt to propose at the theater, Ben decides to go simple and just say it. As long as Beverly doesn't say it first.

Meanwhile, weird things happen at the Reddie house and a few of Stan's jokes about it are enough to make Richie and Eddie think there's something supernatural behind it.

Season 1, episode 24

Ben and Beverly start planning rheir wedding, but some creative differences might get in the way.

Meanwhile, Stan's dad visits to meet Mike and, even though he isn't openly against their relationship, he clearly isn't okay with it, either. And Richie has fun introducing Bill to the horrors of fanfiction about his book.

Season 1, episode 25

With Ben's wedding right around the corner, Richie decides to give his friend a bachelor party he won't forget, with a little help from Bill and Stan. At first it's great, but when they wake up to find they lost the groom, they conclude that maybe they got carried away.

Meanwhile, Eddie and Mike try to give Beverly a nice and tamed bridal shower, but she won't settled for less than the ultimate night out.

Season 1, episode 26

It's wedding time! Time to have fun and celebrate love. Of course Beverly is kind of sad when she remembers that she was supposed to walk down the aisle with her father, and she wishes she could have someone to actually call "dad", but she won't let that feeling put her down. At the end of the day, Ben and her will say "I do"'

Meanwhile, the way both Richie and Eddie catch the bridal bouquet seems to indicate they're saying "I will"

[thehomesafetydot-blog]

What Every Body Is Saying About Best Carbon Monoxide Detectors Is Dead Wrong and Why

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When you're likely to use a mix of both detectors, it's advisable to get a battery backup for the plug-in ones. When deciding on a house security system for your home, remember that there are lots of choices out there, and thus do your homework. There are a couple of things to bear in mind when purchasing and using one properly. A tiny time and money invested in a professional review of your ideas can enable you to prevent expensive surprises later on. You may also choose whether to link one to the remainder of the detectors installed throughout your house in case one goes off in another portion of your house.

To locate a very good CO detectors for your home there are some things you have to look at. Make sure everyone inside the house is accounted for. When you're prepared to sell your house, you will need to get it inspected by a professional home inspector. When you know what things to try to find, it makes choosing the perfect one for your house much simpler. Moreover, by renovating your house to include things like an unaffiliated suite, you will make your house more marketable. New homes are needed to have carbon monoxide detectors when they're built and pre-existing homes are needed to have them installed should they haven't been already. Your home is a cozy place to live on account of the systems that are constructed into it.

[liulingsims-blog]

TS5?

Just hoping that my feedback message will be heard and read for what I would like to see in TS5. Here is what I wrote to them:

In case the Sims 5 is still in its beginning phase there are a few suggestions that I have to make gaming smoother for those playing on the pc.

I have been playing the sims since its infancy with The Sims. I have seen a lot of differences and some good and some bad.

What I miss:

being able to put the foundation inside of the house (from TS2) to make a taller platform. For example: in the living room if you want to add the dining room but make it a higher than the living room....you would put the foundation in and then add the stairs...it adds height, depth and dimension to the room/build

L-shaped, spiral, and U-shaped stairs. Doing work-arounds can be very nerve grinding ridiculousness for a builder...it doesn't help..it hurts.

TS3 store had some great items for the game...not having them in TS4 was a real bummer Chun Co. Teppanyaki Grill - what a marvelous invention.

Sizzle Baby Pro Deep Fryer - I so miss being able to deep fry food.

World of Wonder Carousel Collection Everything in here is worth having again

Last Venue of Amore - the gondola was amazing

The Boardwalk - the roller coaster

bakers station - not only having the station but adding more baking goods to create

it's business time industrial oven - double ovens....please!

playpen and toddler walker - so cute for the babies and also the baby swings

canning station - same as the baking station...being able to can more fruits and veggies

dragons - duh!

dbl sliding bookcases

tileable bookcases - really cool and great feature for libraries

water wheel - loved that feature from the brunch at the old mill

the tea set from brunch at the old mill

being able to have all harvestables from TS2, TS3 and TS4 combined in TS5 as well as nuts of every kind

fowl and feathers chicken coop

Milkin' It Dairy Corral

Aims Co. Choc-O-Falls Fountain

Setting up a store for TS5 just like TS3. Extra stuff sets and misc items available for purchase with simpoints....I love this idea. It is actually cheaper for those paying for a whole pack. Not everyone can afford a whole pack and this added "new" items without breaking the bank.

I know the franchise wants to make money, but keeping in mind that there are low income consumers would be very beneficial for the franchise as well. Some of us only live on $800/mo due to having disabilities, but are still able to function enough to play a game like the sims...it can develop certain brain skills that they did not have before and it can also help with creating brain pathways on some levels. Such as seeing what cause and effect does and being able to take that into real life. If my sim starts a fire while cooking and gets burned and dies and the fire consumes the house because there wasn't a smoke detector to get the fire dept to come, this too can happen in real life...on a certain level...Some people are concrete and this helps with that because they can see it.

Having all of these packs is not helpful. There are a few that could have been lumped together. Also, when there is a pack or a set coming out, including all of the cas and build/buy mode items images for that set or pack is very beneficial to those who are buying the pack. I know I like to see what I am getting before I get it. I may not want everything in the pack, and I won't buy if there is only one thing in there that I want. I know there are more consumers out there like me.

Having more valentine day stuff would be great as well as some more christmas items...st patrick day stuff, Asian holiday items, India and other cultural holiday stuff would be great too.

CREATE-A-STYLE really does need to come back. Most of the items in TS4 just do not have enough swatches let alone some....I just would not put together.

Having different animal sculptures for creating a zoo or just making those animals or having a set or a pack that deal with just a zoo...that would be awesome!

Books and bookcases --- major overhaul

I am putting together a library right now. And am discovering some things going on with the bookcases. If I remove all books from a bookcase, then set it up to have only the LEVEL 1 skill books, the bookcase goes back to "normal" if I upload it with a lot for the person downloading the lot. I have to make the bookcase a deco piece before I can upload it with a lot. So, being able to make bookcases to where they are similar to an actual bookcase library would be very helpful and beneficial for those of us creating a library for our sims. Also, the bookstore-spa, bookstore-diner combos....that was a wonderful idea in TS3.

CARS, CARS, CARS...did I mention cars!

Some of the items in Into the Future were pretty amazing. The holograms was a brilliant idea.

Please keep in mind that the graphics for console games and pcs are actually different; therefore, camera controls should be set up differently for the two. I do not like the camera controls in TS4 even with the option of the TS3 camera control. And seeing the world through the eyes of the current sim in play, is not beneficial either; the sims is just not a battlefield game...that was not a good idea.

I know my ideas and the items and stuff I have mentioned may not be worth reading doing anything about, but I do feel that I have the right to state my opinion. I do believe that every company should listen very closely to their consumers remarks....even the bad ones because the company does not deal with the end result 24/7...the consumer does. We need to be heard, we need to be understood, and we need to be happy. When we are happy, you make money.

[didanawisgi]

Perhaps everything that ever happens is stored in permanent “Akashic records” — the memory of the universe. Nobody is linking the various spacetime memory effects that physics is unveiling to this ancient intuition, so I’ll do it.

Passing gravitational waves, for example from black hole fusion events detected by LIGO, stretch and squeeze the fabric of spacetime. After the passage of a gravitational wave, spacetime doesn’t return to exactly the previous geometry, but remains permanently stretched or squeezed by a small amount.

In 2016 I speculated on this gravitational wave memory: “Is this a case of permanent cosmic memory that future scientists could exploit to reconstruct the past and resurrect the dead? Yes, a black hole fusion event releases a little bit more energy than you or I, but perhaps gravitational wave memory is a good place to start.”

See also my book [*], Chapter 11 — “Exotic space, mysterious time, magic quantum.”

Mentioning the A word in a scientific paper would be career suicide for a professional scientist in today’s academic and “cultural” climate, so it’s up to mad, irrational scientists like me to make the connection.

Permanent memory effects have a solid and growing place in modern physics. The current reference textbook is “Lectures on the Infrared Structure of Gravity and Gauge Theory” (2018), by Andrew Strominger. A free preprint of the book is on arXiv, and the videos of Strominger’s lectures are on YouTube.

Strominger realized that spacetime “will retain an almost homeopathic imprint of what passes through it,” notes science writer George Musser in a 2019 review article titled “Gravity’s Residue.”

Recent theoretical work by Strominger and others, including the late Stephen Hawking, links memory effects to “soft” (zero energy) particles and the unexpectedly complex structure of spacetime far away from radiating sources. Hawking explains:

“Back in the 1960s, Hermann Bondi, A. W. Kenneth Metzner, M. G. J. van der Burg and Rainer Sachs made the truly remarkable discovery that space–time far away from any matter has an infinite collection of symmetries known as supertranslations…”

A supertranslation, Strominger says (as reported by Musser), adds soft particles to spacetime.

“This realisation, in turn, provides a clearer picture of how a seemingly empty spacetime that is far from any gravitating bodies can retain a residue of gravity’s effects. Plop a soft particle into a vacuum and, though it adds no energy, it does contribute its angular momentum and other properties, thereby bumping the vacuum to a new version of itself. Strominger realised that if the vacuum can assume multiple forms, it will retain an almost homeopathic imprint of what passes through it.”

Supertranslations “are not as easy to visualize as taking three steps to the right,” notes Musser, “and for decades resisted simple explanation.” The closest I get to visualizing these things is by imagining a soft graviton, with zero frequency and infinite wavelength, as a static, permanent deformation of spacetime.

Hawking continues:

“What was remarkable about the discovery of supertranslations is that there are an infinite number of conserved quantities far from a black hole. [In 2016], together with my collaborators Malcolm Perry and Andy Strominger, I was working on using these new results with their associated conserved quantities to find a possible resolution to the [information paradox]… This supertranslation hair might encode some of the information about what is inside the black hole.”

In his last paper, co-authored with Strominger, Perry, and Sasha Haco and Malcolm Perry, Hawking made further advances related to the information paradox.

A 2016 paper suggests that advanced LIGO interferometers could detect gravitational wave memory. Analogous memory effects are theoretically predicted for electromagnetism and QCD as well, and could be within reach of next-generation detectors in the lab. Musser continues:

“[Physicists] are on the hunt for evidence of an observable ‘memory effect’ left behind by gravity that could soon be picked up in a lab. Other experimentalists plan to look for the analogous memory effects for electromagnetic and nuclear forces.”

See for example “An electromagnetic analogue of gravitational wave memory” (arXiv), “Color Memory: A Yang-Mills Analog of Gravitational Wave Memory” (arXiv), “Measuring color memory in a color glass condensate at electron–ion colliders” (arXiv).

Writing in New York Times about Hawking’s last paper, Dennis Overbye noted:

“Cleansed of its abstract mathematics, the paper is an ode to memory, loss and the oldest of human yearnings, the desire for transcendence… Few of us, including Dr. Hawking, ever harbored the hope that solving the information paradox would bring back our parents…”

But why not? Let’s recap.

Our best physical theories, Einstein’s general relativity, Maxwell’s electromagnetism, quantum electrodynamics and chromodynamics, predict permanent memory effects. These memory effects are likely to be found in the lab with sufficiently powerful detectors, which could be developed soon.

If so we’ll have to conclude that, according to current consensus physics, everything that ever happens leaves a measurable and permanent trace in the fabric of reality. In other words, there are Akashic records, and future scientists equipped with sufficiently powerful technology will be able to read them.

Of course, this is a huge extrapolation from today’s theories and tomorrow’s first measurements in the lab. But I take today’s theories as promising hints, and I am persuaded that future physics will unveil more and more memory effects and means to detect them.

So, give future generations time to develop better theories and technologies. Give them a few thousand years and, perhaps, they will be able to use Akashic technologies to bring back our fathers.

[*] My book “Tales of the Turing Church: Hacking religion, enlightening science, awakening technology” is available for readers to buy on Amazon (Kindle and paperback editions).

Please buy my book, and/or donate to support other Turing Church projects.

Cover image from ESO/Wikimedia Commons.

[ronyxfic]

Educating the Victim - Act VI, Chapter XVI

Pairing: -

Rating: Mature

Warnings/Tags: Alcohol.

Read it on AO3! - Support us on Patreon!

Educating the Victim Masterpost

(Previous chapter) (Next chapter)

CHAPTER 16: Departing

 Rose had somehow managed to be at the airport at exactly 4:30pm. She dragged her pink suitcase to Departures; Azure had said she'd meet them there.

 Marigold was already there, waiting with Azure. They spotted Rose just as Marigold was getting ready to complain about the time. Marigold looked more confident in her new suit. "You made it. Goodness, you look rough."

   "Please don't make me think about it," Rose said. "Where are we going?"

"The private part in the airport," Azure said. "You're taking my private plane. This way."

 "I'm rather excited." Marigold appeared rather jubilant as she looked for a direction. "Hm. There's no signs for it."

 “Is that a surprise to you? None of the rich people want randomers wandering into their part of the airport,” Azure said. “Myself included. Follow me.”

 "Ah, makes... sense." Marigold shot a look at Rose. "I take it we're not going to get time to hang out in departures. Shame. I love browsing through off duty."

 “You can if you want to. There’s access to the regular part of the airport. And we do have some time, since the tower won’t let you leave until about six.”

“Then why are we here so early?” Rose asked.

“Policy,” Azure said simply. “I am supposed to make sure all of the people flying on my plane are security checked and fully briefed, and apparently waiting around at airports is something rich people have to do as well.”

 "Huh." Marigold nodded, and then nudged Rose. "I'm up for it if one of you wants to come with me."

 “Absolutely,” Rose said immediately. “Azure?”

“I’ll wait for you. Hold your horses, though. We need to go through security – it’s not quite as hectic as regular airport security, but it’s a must. You don’t have anything dangerous on you, do you? – Not that they’ll care if you do, I tip them enough.”

 "I mean... you did say you might give us a gun, too." Marigold swallowed.

 “Keep that quiet while we’re still amongst the public, yeah?” Azure reached a door which had a grumpy-looking security guard posted by it. He recognised Azure and opened the door for them. “Here we go.”

 Marigold moved past and fond herself in a miniature private  baggage check. There didn't appear to be any guidelines. "Oh. I take it we can take bottles of water through, then."

 “Yes, the law is different for private planes. Still, you can do some damage if you hijack one of those, so a minimum of security is still necessary.”

Rose was silent, going through the motions. Took off her light jacket, put her keys into the tray.

 Marigold did the same and breezed through the detectors. No alarms.

"So, are you going to just stay in England, Azure?"

 Azure shot her a look. “I cancelled on the biggest gaming convention in the world because of health concerns. I’m not going to go on a wild goose chase in Italy. As much as I’d like to, this isn’t my battle to fight.”

  So, like usual, you're sending someone else to do your dirty work.

Marigold swallowed at the intrusive thought. No. She'd agreed to this. "You mentioned we'd be making a stop before we get to the destination."

 “You’ll get to the airport between nine and ten, local time, and you’ll be tired given how early I dragged you out of bed today. You have a room at the hotel there, and you can get whatever food or drink you want there. In the morning, you’ll get a rental and drive to your actual destination.”

 "Oh, that sounds pleasant! I haven't been in a hotel for years, goodness. Is it a travel lodge kind of thing, or?"

 “Oh, please.” Azure snorted. “It’s the Hilton.”

 "Oh!" Marigold gaped. "Goodness... I. Didn't expect you to go all out."

 “Marigold, darling, have you met me? As if I’d make you stay in a Travelodge wearing that new suit of yours.”

 "I just... like their breakfast buffet." Marigold looked awkward.

 “Oh, Mari, you are precious. The Hilton has a breakfast buffet. And it’s far superior.”

 "Good. That's all I care about, honestly." Marigold appeared satisfied. They passed into a quiet and stylish looking lounge. "Oh! Are we able to go for that quick shop?"

 “Please,” Rose said.

“Oh, sure. I’ll wait for you here.”

 "Alright!" Marigold beamed, putting her luggage down. "We'll see you in a bit!"

 Rose marched towards the shop, directly to the aisle with the alcohol. She didn’t look at Marigold as she selected three bottles of cheap spirits.

   Marigold shot a small glance as she picked up a foot long toblerone. "I also like to come here to buy things for friends."

 Rose snorted. “Friends. Yeah.” She eyed up the toblerone. “Chocolate. Good point.”

 "It's just so cheap here. " Marigold looked around. "I honestly enjoy browsing more than anything."

 “Huh. Are you getting anything?” Rose’s gaze drifted over the wines, the perfumes. She grabbed a huge bag of M&Ms. “Is there a pharmacy or something? Gonna need some painkillers.”

 "Not in here but I think there's an overpriced one on the second floor."

 “Alright. You can stay here, if you want, I’ll pay for these and go grab some.”

 "Alright." Marigold nodded, spraying some tester perfume. "Not quite done browsing, myself."

 --

 An hour later, they were about to get on the plane. Azure came on with them.

“Alright, all the safety stuff is the same as with regular flights,” she said, “oxygen masks, life jackets, yada yada, there will be a little video playing when you take off. Help yourself to drinks, if you want, I don’t employ attendants – the only ones here with you are my pilot and co-pilot.”

 "Oh, goodness. So it'll be incredibly private. Oh, thank you so much, Azure!" Marigold clapped her hands and tentatively extended them, looking around the room before offering a hug. "I know we're going out for you, but... All of this is just wonderful."

 “It’s no trouble at all. You are going there largely on my behalf, after all. It’s the least I can do.” Azure came in to give Marigold a gentle hug. “Be safe, now. There’s Interpol agents waiting for you on the other side. They’re not there to supervise you, only to ensure nobody interferes. You’ll be fine once you get out of the airport.”

She turned to Rose, who was still very quiet, a bag of duty free alcohol in her hands.

“You’ll be okay, Rose?”

Rose gave a wry smile. “Sure. It’s not like I have much of a choice.”

 "Oh, come on, girl." Marigold tired to give an encouraging look. "We'll be fine once we land and find our hotel rooms. You can probably get some kip early."

 Rose shot her an unreadable look, then went on board. “Fancy,” she muttered, seeing the inside of the plane before sitting down and putting on her seat belt.

“I’ll be off, then. Be safe, and please keep in touch.” Azure waved and stepped outside just as the plane’s engines started running.

 Marigold watched her back away from the plane as the engines began to overwhelm her hearing. She then turned back to look at Rose, a giddy look across her features.

 Rose avoided her gaze. “Azure said she had drinks in here?”

She spied the minibar and got up. “One sec. I bet she has some really nice stuff in there.”

 "Shouldn't you stay put until the seatbelt sign turns off?" Marigold sounded like a teacher on a school trip.

 Rose ignored her, opening the fridge and having a gander. “Oh, fancy. I thought so.” She pulled out a bottle and then got back in her seat. “Don’t be so stuck up, Principal Diamond. It’s like we’re going on holiday.” The grim sarcasm was obvious as Rose opened the bottle and took a swig. “To think I spent money on cheap airport alcohol.”

   Marigold frowned.

The edge in Rose's voice as she downed champagne was all too familiar.

She was escaping.

"What are you running from, Rose?"

 Rose gave her a cold look, unsmiling.

“Don’t.”

She took another gulp, and another. Before the plane had even started moving, the bottle was half empty.

 "Okay. Oh! I best put my phone onto airplane mode!" Marigold smiled forcefully. Her hand came to find it, but she then paused. She had neglected to look at it all day.

Her gaze widened. It was already in airplane mode. She remembered setting it so before seeing Azure to avoid being called.

In the second she turned it off she received several instant notifications that silenced when she tapped it back.

(3) Missed calls from Aurora.

She slumped back in her seat as she realised she’d received a novel of worried texts.

Oh.

 < align="center"p>

 Rose was too busy drinking to notice anything off about Marigold. “Want any?” she said, offering the bottle.

 Marigold was almost tempted for a brief second. "No, thank you."

 “More for me.” Rose finished the bottle. “I’m going to have a nap.”

The speakers rustled, and a cheerful voice could be heard.

“Good evening, ladies! This is Bob, your captain for this flight. We’re about to take off, so please put your phones in airplane mode and make sure your seat belts are securely fastened. I’ll give you more infos as we approach Florence, but for now, have a nice flight!”

 Marigold watched the plane take off, the houses and streets of London turning toy sized, and then perhaps ant sized. She wondered what it would be like to be this big, this tall, and decided for a brief second that perhaps she'd like it.

She found herself a cosy position and tried to rest. Perhaps it would all be over soon.