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annakie · 2 months

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Let's Spend Lots of Money!

Back in June I posted about how after a huge storm rolled through, I was without power for over five days and then talked about all the insurance and stuff going on.

Well, things have progressed since then!

Would you like to read/see pictures of exterior home renovation? This is the post for you! Warning: It's really long! And the story isn't done yet!

Here's a cut for extreme length!

PART ONE: The To-Do List

When it was over, at the end of my post, I posted some To-Do's:

Call Plumber - Done, and I thought the problem would be solved for another year or more.

Get garage door serviced. Done. The guy I called was clearly trying to rip me off. He told me immediately that I needed new springs, and when I pushed back and pointed out how shiny and new my garage springs were, because they were less than five years old, and they just needed to be tightened, he tried telling me that it's not possible to tighten garage door springs, something I knew for a fact was bullshit. I pushed back on him and was about to tell him to just leave when instead he had me sign a thing saying that he couldn't promise that fixing the springs would fix the problem and if I called them out again it would be another service call fix instead of guaranteed work. In the end, I got what I wanted but paid too much and marked that company in my phone as "never call again." The work they did do was fine, but screw them.

Get Handyman to take care of the fallen tree - Check, a day or two after power came back. I tipped him extra for it, too, because he always takes care of me. My insurance lady told me what I paid was quite inexpensive for the job.

Work with Insurance - Yep! We'll get to that.

Talk to my neighbors about the fact that I’m going to get a wood fence put up to replace our chain link one. YEP. We'll get to that, too.

Get the electrician back to wire up the house for a generator. Nope. Not yet. But someday.

Buy a generator Not yet, but again, someday.

Clean out the garage, for real. Maybe when it's not 100 degrees out every day again. But yeah, on the list, for multiple reasons.

So yeah... the last six weeks or so have been a trip.

PART TWO: Getting Money

One of the things I did when I didn't have power was see that we could file a claim with FEMA for disaster assistance. I figured... why not. A day or two after I got power back, a FEMA inspector lady called and then came to the house. I pointed out all of the things. I ended up getting a little bit from FEMA. Not a ton, but honestly, I was grateful. Anything helped.

Later that week, or maybe the next, my insurance sent an adjuster. Crazily she was flown down from another part of the country, she was living in the exact town that I grew up in. Like it is not a huge town. Not "small" but also just not somewhere you'd expect to meet someone from on the reg. So we had a good time chatting about the city when she came to inspect the house.

Insurance gave me an OK amount. My roof was old so they only paid out 40% of the replacement cost. And yeah, that's about what I got from them them with the final price when it was all said and done.

PART THREE: Finding Help

My roofer initially seemed great. I was excited to work with him. When the insurance came, instead of him coming, he sent an "assistant" who didn't really seem like he knew much of what he was doing or was very helpful. But hey, you know what? right after a storm like that, they're gonna be busy.

Several times over the next couple of weeks I texted him asking how things were progressing on just getting me a quote. He sent a whole other guy over like two weeks later for the fence quote. He barely seemed interested to be there. Um, okay. He also wouldn't even give me a ballpark at the time. Whatever.

Two weeks after that I hear from the roofer that he's almost done with my quote. By then it was the weekend before July 4th.

I'd gotten the money from the insurance. I'd sent the documentation of their payout to the roofer and made it clear I had a sum of cash above that (not exactly how much) to come out of pocket, and a priority list for the work to be done. My best guess is that he figured my business wasn't worth as much time as other people's, so I kept getting shuffled to the bottom of the stack. OK. His prerogative. Fair. But I was at the limit of my waiting, considering how bad my roof was.

My across the street neighbor had told me that she had her roof redone a year or two ago who she said did a good job, and he'd come to see how her roof fared from the storm and told her to give me his number if I wanted him to look at it. So when I didn't hear from my roofer after July 4th week, I went and asked her for the number, then texted Joel, the new roofer.

Anyway, Joel came out the next day. I showed him all the work I'd been approved for. He and I negotiated a price and materials for the roof. A price was set that was right about what I thought it should be.

Still had some money leftover in the budget so I asked about a fence, specifically an 8' Cedar fence. His quote was $1k more than I was hoping it would be, but honestly, still what I thought was a good deal.

He also mentioned a price for the patio roof. I was at my hoped-for spend limit and would get back to him about the patio roof.

In the end, I pulled a little more money together and told him to go for it.

That was Tuesday and Wednesday.

Original Builder sent me my quotes on Wednesday. How nice. Too late. Also they were like 30% higher than what I settled on with Joel. He just emailed them, didn't even bother to follow up with a text.

I had a polite response planned out in my head if he'd texted or called. But he didn't. Oops, I guess I didn't see that email.

PART FOUR: The Survey Drama

Thursday, Joel and his main builder came out, tore out the chain link fence and started putting up 10' poles for the 8' fence (2' of which is buried in concrete in the ground.)

Joel also told me that he needed a copy of my land survey for the build permit, which I should have from when I bought the house.

I spent a good hour searching through every document I had from when I bought my house in 2003 looking for it. And I felt I'd pretty much kept everything. I had my bids on houses I didn't win in there. I had notes that I took back then.

I did not have a survey. Well... shit.

So, I started by looking at the city website online. The city does not keep copies of surveys.

So I tried calling my mortgage company. Except oops they went out of business in like 2010.

Getting real panicked, I threw a hail mary and went to look up my Title company. They'd been bought out in like, 2007. But there were a couple of people working under franchise names of that company still. A total longshot, but I called the person nearest me.

That very nice man said he couldn't help me BUT I should call the home office. He gave me the name and number of a lady named Kim.

So I called Kim, and she was very very sweet. And extremely doubtful she had anything on file, but she would get with the records department and look.

A half hour later she called back. THEY'D FOUND IT. Holy crap. Even she was astonished.

I thanked her profusely and asked her to thank the records department. A few minutes later, the survey was in my email. And hey, it had my signature from 2003 on it! I sent that over to Joel and we got the permit. WHEW. Work continued.

I printed out three copies of the survey and emailed it to myself at two other email addresses.

PART FIVE: Communication

I texted my neighbor on the side where the fence would be built (the other neighbor had built their fence, also an 8' cedar fence, like 20 years ago, so hey, at least I only had to pay for two full sides and two fronts.

Technically I text with their daughter, as her parents don't speak English. They knew that this was coming and were cool with it. They knew the fencer would need to do some work in their yard and that there would be no fence for a little while. I asked Joel to please help minimize the time there was no fence for their dog (a pitbull, she's very sweet) to be penned in by.

Just want to say my neighbors are saints. They were very cool with everything, though I sent them many apologies. It was especially frustrating because we took the fence separating our yards down on Friday and there was no full fence put back up all weekend. It couldn't be avoided, though. Just wish the days had gone by faster. They could only let the dog our on the leash for those days. I asked (daughter) several times what I could do to say I'm sorry and thank you and they were really just kind and chill about it anyway. I am still thinking of something I could do for them, though, once this is all over. My initial thought is a small basket of dog toys and treats for the pupper.

I also started discussing paint stain colors for the fence with Joel, and let my neighbors help me make a decision, since they'd have to look at it, too. In the end, we decided to go with the same brown color that the fence on my other side already was. I kinda wanted to go with maybe a dark grey, which would also match the neighbors house well, but that's what they wanted and having a color match was my other main choice, and probably the right one, even if it doesn't match with our houses.

Mostly I'm glad my good relationship with my neighbors is intact.

PART SIX: CONSTRUCTION BEGINS!

Okay yeah so Thursday some poles got put up. Friday the rest of them got put up. Joel is mostly coordinating everything, the main builders are Jose and his wife Maria. Neither of them speak English and my High School and College Spanish were uh, 30 years ago but I retained a decent amount. Mostly though, we communicate through whatever sentences I can piece together and a lot of Google Translate. We have had entire conversations through Google Translate. It's great.

Saturday the work on the poles were finished and Sunday no work got done... I mean... it's Sunday. It was only annoying because of my neighbors having to take care of the dog and I felt bad about it.

Over the weekend I also picked out roof shingles. I got an architectural single, which is a nicer shingle. I wanted a medium-grey color -- I never liked the light grey my old roof was, I didn't pick it out, though I know lighter is probably cooler. I picked what I thought was a nice compromise.

PART SEVEN: Roof Day One

AKA my new Skylight.

Monday I woke up stupid early for no reason. But it was fine that I did because at 6:30am the doorbell rang. The roofers were here. And they got started right away.

It... was loud. I knew it would be but I don't think I was quite prepared for how loud.

But I had little to do after welcoming them, so I mean, when it was time for me to work (my job is 100% WFH still, yay!) I just got to work, doing my best to ignore the noise and hoping they wouldn't fall in on me. The cats were terrified and hiding, curled up together under my recliner in the living room, their normal safe place. I put food, water and their litter box in there, closed the door 90% of the way, and let them be.

Anyway, here I was, working away in my office and at about 10:15 am, there was a bright light and a foot in my ceiling.

First and most importantly, he is fine! He slipped and his leg fell through. It wasn't the end of the world, and MOST important, he CRAZILY fell through right above my very tall bookcase, the tallest piece of furniture I own. Instead of falling completely through the ceiling, he "stepped" two feet down, and his foot caught on the bookcase, and he pulled it right back up. If this had happened ANYWHERE else, it might have been a LOT worse.

Joel and Jose came in and assessed the situation and Jose said no problem. For about three hours the hole remained, until Joel came back from Home Depot with some drywall, and I had a funny story to tell all my friends, co-workers and family. That angle in that pic up there is literally an angle from where I sit while I work all day. Lots of fun comments about my new skylight and terrible puns from my brother.

It currently looks like this:

You can see the scuffs on the wall from the guy who fell's shoe!

Jose came in and got the drywall on and the spackle in. There was a crack already from the window to the ceiling, from the house settling, so he just went ahead and spackled that, too.

I actually have the paint can for that paint in my garage, so I handed that over to them to paint match.

Honestly, aside from being glad the worker is OK, I do not get upset over stuff like this as long as it gets fixed, and it well, so it's fine!

There's a similar hole in my garage ceiling, too, which still needs fixing.

The roof workers worked from 6:30am until 9pm. It was 100 outside that day. They were amazing.

This was taken Mid-day when they were eating lunch.

I not only was getting new shingles, but new decking (aka the wood that the shingles rest on that is connected to the rafters. I know they didn't redo the decking in 2003 when I bought the house and they put the cheapest roof possible on it before selling it to me. Joel confirmed that there were several rotting places in the decking and I saw a few pieces myself. And under in the attic the decking they installed a Thermal layer for more insulation that wasn't there before.

I did have good insulation installed pretty early, like 2005, so at least when the power has gone out since it's stayed nicely warm/cool depending on the season.

I had some old whirly type vents coming out of the house. Several of them were either broken or uh... very squeaky. Especially when it was cold, one of them had a definite squeak that you could hear outside and it was mortifying if my neighbors could hear it. That one, or maybe another one, rattled really badly when it was windy, too. TBH I would just put in my headphones to sleep sometimes because of roof noise the last year or two during very cold or windy nights.

Well, the roofers got rid of all of those. In place, they put a ridge vent, which basically means a tiny gap along the entire top ridge of the house, covered up by a special shingle. I learned all about it when I watched a Youtube about it the next morning after looking at it and going "WTF is that little bump?" Anyway, no more loud squeaky/rattling vents for me. My house is modern now. :D

So anyway, Monday night they finished getting roofing over the entire house, but the garage still wasn't done.

This was taken early Tuesday morning, there'd been tarps over the garage that night. There was no rain forecast, so everything was cool.

PART SEVEN POINT FIVE: No Internets (Part 1)

This is part 7.5 because I had to come back and add it in later when I forgot to add it until I was almost done writing, and I don't feel like correcting all the section titles, but it is absolutely part of the story.

Monday early evening as they were hurrying to finish getting roofing over at least the house part of the roof they got some of the garage done. Around 7pm there was a blip where my internet went out, but it came back.

And then at like 8:15 as they were finishing, it went out and DIDN'T come back.

I did all the normal troubleshooting things, put in a ticket with my provider, and called tech support.

Eventually I got someone on the line who asked me to make sure everything was plugged in, what, like I'm some kind of idiot? I work in IT! I know what I'm doing! But, I humored her. And she reminded me that there's not only the box on the outside of my house, but also the one in the garage, could I please check to make sure that was plugged in?

OK Sure. Constructions been going on, I'll humor her.

So anyway, I had forgotten the the box in the garage was plugged into an outlet in the ceiling that had been put there for my garage door. It had come completely out in all the banging from the roofers.

OK no problem, right? I'll just plug it back in, and voila! Internet!

Um except the plug is right above my car, like dead center.

OK sure, just gotta move my car!!!

...except there was a dumpster in my driveway, riiiight behind my car. I couldn't move my car more than a foot if I tried.

I spent like 10 minutes trying to reach it with my stepladder (nope not even close) or maneuver it back in with a broom handle (lol noooo chance) and gave up.

I took this pic just now for illustrative purposes. The plug is now plugged back in. But yeah, I had to cancel my Monday night PF2e game from last of Internets.

In the morning, I overslept, and they rang the doorbell to let me know they were there. I saw Joel and waved to him, and one minute later I went back outside to tell him about the internet problem. He was gone. I texted him, didn't hear back. It was getting close to work time, so I called him and he'd left as soon as he saw I was home and ready for the workers to work. I didn't realize he was so far away already, but he still turned around, came back in, and figured out a way to plug the plug back in without standing on my car. I was a half hour or so late to logging into work but it all worked out. Just a little bump in the road. I felt bad that he had come come back from wherever he went, too. I swear I looked for him a MINUTE after I saw him that morning!

Part EIGHT: Fencing!

While the roofers roofed, Jose and Maria were busy with the fence. And by the end of the day Monday, they had most of the neighboring fence with the dog put up.

In the picture in part 7 above, on the left is the fence that's been there 20 years. You can see that those neighbors put the "ugly" part of the fence with the poles and boards on my side.

Honestly I've been mad about it for the 20 or so years it's been up. Not like super mad, I never talked to them about it, but I just thought it was really shitty of them to do that. I've always tried hard to be as kind and thoughtful to my neighbors as I could be and wouldn't have dreamed of doing that if I had put the fence up first.

In the alley and the other side of their house, the pretty side is the outside and the ugly side is inside. But on THAT ONE SIDE, they gave me the ugly side. Never talked to me about it, never consulted me about the fence, it just went up one day and I was left to deal with it.

I've always even since been kind about granting them access to fix their fence and am on good terms with the wife of the couple of who lives there. And when my house was broken into in 2011 the husband heard it happen and called the police and gave a statement, which I thought was very good of them, the police were able to get my house sealed back up somewhat so when I came home a few hours later the damage as minimized.

So yeah, I'm not sure why I got the ugly side of the fence from them. Also like, it seems way easier to climb that side of the fence so all they did was make their own yard less secure? I didn't want that! A big part of wanting an 8' fence was more security!

Anyway, it was important to me to not make my other neighbors look at the ugly side of the fence. Also, I just figured why not have it look the same all the way around? And again, the security issue.

But also... like two or three years ago the neighbors on that side put up sheds on their property... and backed them right up to the property line. Again, no discussion with me, they just did it, and by the time I saw it, happened it was too late to change anything.

I wasn't super happy with it because of this scenario right here.

Sunday Joel and I had a long conversation about what to do about it, and I was still committed to wanting the ugly side on the inside. But they literally couldn't hammer back there to get the fence up behind the sheds.

In the end, we went with an, admittedly weird, compromise.

Note that that side of the fence goes that far back so that both of the windows on that side of the house are inside the fence. Again, security.

So yeah, the fence swaps facing mid-way for just the part where their sheds are. I still have mixed feelings about it but honestly, it's fine. I wish it could look completely the same all the way around, but, it works OK this way. Maybe I should have made the neighbors look at the ugly side the entire way, but the security issue was important in my mind... even though tbh anyone who really wanted to could just climb up on my neighbors sheds and hop over. It's a little weird and I guess technically I gave up a few inches of unusable property there, but it's a compromise I can live with any whoever buys the house after me can live with it, too.

Honestly at this point, can't wait for them to finish the fence all-around because I feel like I can barely sleep knowing all this expensive STUFF is just laying around my wide-open yard.

It's also real dumb because my 4' chain link fence kept no one past five years old out of my yard, it wasn't even padlocked, and yet I feel less secure with no fence.

This is what the back of the fence looks like right now (Thursday morning) and has since... I think Monday or maybe Tuesday. Joel's had problems sourcing more of the right boards. The gap on the left is, of course, where the back gate will be. I do feel better having it like, two-thirds done at least. there's also no gate on the front yard yet, either, which will just be flush with the end of the fence there.

PART NINE: The Patio Begins!

The roofers were done with their parts Wednesday afternoon. And I love the roof so much, but I'm going to hold off on posting pictures of that quite yet!

The patio roof before, if I had to guess, was built in the 1980s. The roof itself was just a big piece of corrugated metal, held up by some OK-built wood beams and ironwork pillars in the front. It was fine, it was functional. You can see in this pic from last month pretty well the construction and also how it was getting holes in it.

The wood was also really starting to rot. There were a couple of places where it barely still connected because of wood rot. I'd guess within 5 years it would have been falling down. It was definitely time for a new one, and the price Joel gave me I thought was really fair for a patio roof of the same quality.

Well, I was wrong about the quality.

When Jose ran out of wood for the fence, he and Maria got started on the patio. First, they demo'd it.

Oh hey, also first look at the new roof color.

That's how my patio looked all Tuesday night to Wednesday morning. You can clearly see in that second picture some of the wood rot. Here's some more of it.

That piece on the upper left I'm pretty sure was the part right over my patio door that I had to look at basically like, all the time. It was disintegrating.

So yeah, I was so glad to see that go.

A couple of years ago, when the big tree near my house was still there, it hadn't gotten trimmed recently and there was an ice storm. The tree branches swung low and the icy branch ends were smacking against that metal roof in the wind. It was loud and spooky. I had to go sleep in the living room that night from the sound. I really didn't like that metal roof.

I'm never going to have that problem again, since no tree there (for now...) but also the construction of the new patio roof is very different.

We'll get back to that.

PART TEN: Crazy Wednesday

Wednesday morning began with me realizing that all the banging and knocked one of the lights off of my bathroom ceiling. No problem, Let Joel know, it'll get fixed.

Jose and Maria finished up the demo of the patio roof (chunks of it are still in my yard).

I honestly had no idea what they were planning to do to replace it. Joel just told me to trust him, it's going to be great. OK!

The next thing I knew they're cutting into my house. WTF? Trust me, Joel said, it's gonna be great. OK!

Tuesday the sewer had started backing up again. God damnit, it JUST HAD backed up and I had it cleaned a month and a half ago when I got power back. So I called the plumbers, they were scheduled to come out that afternoon.

Just another thing I didn't need, but whatevs. I had a very productive morning for once this week while working, at least.

In the early afternoon, they had started to demolish more of the patio than I expected. They cut through some of the eaves, and took some of the facing off of the house where I wasn't expecting.

The plumber also arrived and was doing his thing. He then told me that my entire sewer was fine, I didn't have a stoppage. He took me out in the alley, though, and showed me that there WAS a stoppage outside the property line in the alley, and told me to put in a ticket with the city.

Kinda hate that it cost me $350 to find that out, but mostly it was a bit of a relief that it wasn't actually my problem.

I went back inside, put in a ticket with the water department, and got back to work.

Then, weirdly, my internet went down again a half hour or so later.

I checked all of the connections, then got a sinking feeling. I went outside and saw more stuff cut down and in that stuff was... a wire. I looked inside that wire and yeah... that's an internet cable.

That's a terrible picture but you can see some of the facing it came out of, lol.

Literally as I was taking that picture, a guy from the water department walked up to me and told me that there was indeed a stoppage in the alley. Because some kid had unplugged the cleanout line behind my house and dropped a baseball down there. The baseball was probably stopping up the entire block.

They couldn't get it out, so they were putting in an emergency ticket to dig up the line, and pull it out. I wouldn't have sewer for a day or so.

I think the "How SCREWED AM I with all of this going on!?" look on my face (though I was very polite and not upset with him obviously) paired with the state of my yard and the work being done gave me some sympathy -- he assured me I didn't have to pay for it, and he'd let me know when things would stop.

Ooooohkay.

It also started to drizzle a little at that point, but it never actually rained and work didn't have to stop, thankfully! Instead, Jose and Maria had a lovely overcast day in the 80's to work in. I had been worried about them the last couple of days and had supplied them with a big box of water (From a water delivery service) and big cups of ice to make sure they were well hydrated.

I went back in my house, laid down on the couch, and tried putting in a ticket with my internet company. The chatbot wouldn't let me do it, so I called and sat on hold for 45 minutes just staring at the wall. This was A Lot.

I also let my boss and Eric, my friend/co-worker who lives nearby know. Eric was up at the office today, but told me he was about to come back home and would bring me a hotspot, so I'd have SOME internet.

While I was laying on the couch, the doorbell rang. It was the water guy, and with a big smile on his face he told me that his coworker was able to use some tool to get the baseball out! There'd be no sewer work needed and things were flowing freely.

Fiiiinally, a break.

Eventually got to talk to a real person on the phone with the internet company, and not long after Eric arrived with the hotspot. I showed him around the mess a bit. After over an hour "break", I got back to work.

And as of Thursday morning, I'm still on the hotspot. But this one is pretty fast, and it has a network jack, so I even got to run my Wednesday night D&D game off my PC last night. What a relief.

Internet company should be here this afternoon to fix stuff. I'm probably going to have to pay for that, though.

The other great news is that somehow i didn't even notice that the gutter contractor had been here, done his job and left!! I don't even know when he was there/did his job, and my office is the front of the house! Maybe he did it when I was laying on the couch in the living room!? It was FAST, though. Joel just called to tell me to go outside to look, and WOW. He'd said they might do black gutters. I was unconvinced but trusted him.

He was so very, very right.

Anyway, finally, here's a pic of the front of the house, with the new roof and black gutters.

Holy crap, what a difference. My house almost looks fancy now. Almost. The shingles are so gorgeous.

You can see that ridge vent pretty well there. And that's with the old white gutters obviously. The black gutters give the house a really striking and defining line that really pops.

Here's a quick comparison with the old roof and gutters:

A truly amazing difference. And yeah I need to paint the garage door. Going to actually get to that now.

PART ELEVEN: The Patio Continued.

SO! They got so much done, and although there's a lot to do, I am already so well pleased.

The reason they were cutting into it so much was because they'd determined that the best course of action was to have hte patio become a part of the roof, and it would be built on a similar slant instead of just a flat piece of metal. Instead, it would just be a full roof anyway.

The posts are huge, thick wooden posts, which Joel tells me will be covered when they're done.

The roof is literally... the thermal barrier, decking and will be the same siding as the roof I already have.

This is what it looks like as of last night...

They did accidentally also break the light cover over my porch light so that'll need to be replaced, but it's small potatoes.

I still don't have a full picture of what it's going to look like, and I'm so excited for it. It's going to look so nice. I've loved the work Joel and Jose/Maria have done so far and honestly trust them completely with whatever now. The quality is fantastic and despite the little hiccups, things are actually, honestly going well.

I'm going to post this now and report back in a couple of days when it's done! I'd planned on holding off until it was ALL done, But this is post is already long enough!

This has been one of the biggest money commits I've ever done, after buying my home and buying cars, but honestly, totally worth it.

Gonna suck if I end up selling the house to gtfo of Texas in the next couple of years, but at least it'll sell for more if it looks this good!

#personal post tag thingy #home renovation #new roof #i hope you enjoyed

10 notes · View notes

star-quill · 1 year

Note

hate fucking + age gap 😵‍💫

mmhm yeah mmhm yep yep yeah

he's nice at first, your parents are away for the weekend and you decide now you want to rearrange your room. so you ask peter for help, although he does most of the work. you just lay on your bed, scrolling through your phone while he's pushing your desk over to the window.

"you gonna help at some point or?"

"i can't push any of that stuff, that's why i got you to help.."

"so what are you doing then?"

"i'm just here to look pretty.."

it was at that point you bent your leg up, your skirt falling down slightly to expose your underwear. he knew you had done it on purpose, but he just had to ignore it.

"y'know.. you're what? mid-twenties? aren't you gonna move out soon? what's the point of changing all this around?"

"well, i've still got two years left of college.. so this is just for when i come back for the summer.."

"right.. right.."

"you gonna miss me?"

"i might.."

"i think you should give me a little going away present, don't you think?"

it was this that made him turn around, his eyes immediately drawn to your hand that was between your legs. he adjusted himself in his pants and you just smiled, throwing your head back onto your pillow. you closed your eyes and the next thing you heard was your bedroom door slam shut. you sat up immediately and noticed peter was gone, so you got up, searched the house to find him in your kitchen.

"did you not like my little show?"

"this isn't going to happen, ok? i'm not gonna fuck you."

"you need to get laid.. and it's fine if you hate me, my tight little pussy can take it.."

he stepped towards you now, grabbing your chin to force you to look up at him and spoke with a low growl.

"do you think i'd give in that easily? do you think just because you got a tight pussy that i'll give in? and besides, why are you coming onto me, thought you hated me too.."

"i asked you over here, figured you'd be the only one to be able to help me.."

"so, you still hate me?"

"well, of course i do.. for starters, you're being an asshole about helping me and then you're not fucking me.. so yeah.."

"if you wanna get laid so badly, go find someone your own age.. not me.."

"but i want a man.. someone who knows what they're doing.."

you brushed your hand over his crotch, smiling up at him so sweetly. he couldn't just give in, he needed to have the upper hand. but even if he did, he was still giving in.

"you want fucked? fine. go get on your bed, i want you face down, ass up.. and i'm going my own pace.."

you ran off to your room, leaving peter in the kitchen to contemplate his actions. one one hand, he could just leave, but then you'd hate him even more and he's slightly worried you'd start some crazy rumour about this whole thing. on the other, he could fuck you, maybe you'd hate him less and he could finally get properly laid.

he chose the latter option, coming up stairs to find you just how he wanted you.

"wet already? you're so easy.."

you just whimpered, feeling his fingers rub through your folds, before plunging two of them inside you. his other hand was on your hip, keeping you steady and upright.

"you just keep making those pretty noises, baby.."

"mmf.. use me.. please.."

"oh don't worry, honey.. i will.."

he fingerfucked you so gently, pulling you so close to your release before he pulled his fingers out. you slumped onto the bed, squeezing your legs together, trying to make yourself come.

"if you wanna come.. you gotta ask for it.."

"and if i don't want to?"

"then i'll leave you here.. but it won't feel as good compared to me.."

you quickly shifted yourself onto your knees, hands fumbling with his zipper and begging him to let you come on his dick. he just tilted his head, wanting you to beg more, and more. eventually he gave in, motioning for you to turn around again before he pulled his dick out and pulled you back onto him. he was practically splitting you in half, stretching you out and filling you up.

"you feel that, honey? feel better than your fingers, doesn't it?"

"mmhm.."

"mmhm.. that's right.."

the way he was mixing slow grinds with hard snaps of his hips was sending you over the edge, making you come once, then twice before he's grunting and pulling out to come over your ass. his hands are gripping tight on your waist as he exhales, sighing out deeply.

"can we do this again?"

"you already want more?"

"please.."

you had stood up on shaky feet in front of him now, hands grabbing at his t-shirt. he gripped your chin with one hand and the other was round the back of your neck.

"you got yourself addicted, baby.."

"mmhm.. but so did you.."

"still hate me?"

"maybe.. a little.."

he just smirked, letting go of your chin to shove himself back inside his pants. he just continued with moving your room around while you lay on your stomach on your bed. when he was finally done, you knelt up on your bed while he stood in front of you.

"once more before i go back home?"

you just wrapped your arms around his neck and let him lift your legs up and around his waist. you can both act like you hate each other, but when the sex is this good, you might just end up hating him a little less than before.

#its currently half eleven in the morning..........#peter got me down bad all the time fr #peter quill #peter quill drabble #peter quill x reader #peter quill smut #guardians of the galaxy #gotg #✎ peter quill #answered #anon

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coldgoldlazarus · 5 months

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I got a message and I might finally get my Metroid Prime remaster game soon!! I'm curious though and i wanted to ask. What do you think is the best time of the day to play Metroid Prime 1 ?

I remember when i talked about playing Metroid Fusion at night you said that it was the best way to play it and same for Metroid Prime : Echoes. So what about Metroid Prime I ? Is it better to play it at day or night? (also on the big screen or little screen? Probably on the big screen but since I'm on the switch and i don't have access to the tv for my switch this weekend idk if I'll be able to play it on the big screen and i dun wanna wait any longer T__T )

Oh, sweet! :D

Prime 1, hmm. There's an intro section that's definitely best at night, as with a very lategame area. But on the whole, the rest of the time it's pretty good during the day. ^.^

Big screen is definitely recommended if and when available, especially on the remaster, but it's still pretty enjoyable in handheld mode (or tabletop with the kickstand, depending on the control scheme you use) too.

On that note, a couple other things maybe worth knowing going in, though I'll put them under a readmore so you can take or leave them as you wish:

The Remaster version specifically has four different control scheme options you can try out, depending on what you're going for. (And a bunch of adjustable settings within those, not quite full button remapping but still close.) One that's close to the gamecube original, one that uses gyro to emulate the Wii Trilogy release's motion controls, one that uses standard first-person-shooter dual-stick, and one that somehow hybridizes the latter two in some way I'll admit I'm not entirely clear on?

The gamecube option is probably best for an authentic-ish feel for how it played in 2002, but is also kinda limited. I personally swear by the Trilogy controls, and while the gyro is slightly clunkier, (needs frequent manual recentering due to the lack of an IR sensor to do that automatically, and due to the detatched joycons needs a table to set up at) I've still been having a really good time playing through using that. But I know a lot of people are used to the twin-stick setup, so if you don't vibe with motion controls, that might be your best bet?

Similarly, the game has a hint system (sorta like Fusion's waypoint markers where it tells you where to go without saying how to get there, just as a pop-up from the suit instead) but while it is on by default, it is optional in Prime, and can be turned off and on in the menu. It is very handy for if you get lost, but I at least find that it tends to pop up pre-emptively well before that point, so even back during my first-time playthrough on Trilogy I turned it off after a while, and only temporarily turned it back on once or twice for a clue when I was genuinely not sure where to go. Once again up to you either way, but I figured I'd let you know first so you can make an informed decision of whether you want it or not.

Finally, unlike the 2D games this one doesn't have any rewards tied to completion time, so there's no need to rush yourself here. Unless you want to anyway, I guess. XD But it does show an extra after-credits scene if you get 100% item completion, so that's something to keep in mind later, if you want to go for that.

#not a reblog #asks #metroid #metroid prime

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deputygonebye · 2 months

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@florrentine asked: my brother gave it to me. he shouldn't have.

Pride and Prejudice (2005) Prompts.

Porch steps turned into seats, a space for audiences before them to take sight of the view, together did Shane and Emilia take comfort in a day without work. A weekend unlike any other, when time all together didn't blur into one, married and joined completely. It was akin to the days of old. When King County was more than a grave come to life; diner lights bright with their neon, music playing from the small clubs on the corner, football stadium packed to its limits with fans cheering on the high school team. A memory that felt more dreamlike than once-real, the resentment in Shane for the happiness of the thought was sour and cruel. Another stab to heart; the blade twisted and yanked, the reminder of all that the outbreak had caused him to lose. His sanity, his loved ones, his home and sense of peace; the frown on his lips was quick to rid itself once reality pushed forward, the wind upon his reddened cheeks, the color to his neck.

Scene set and to be directed, he was the role of a deputy. Survivor no more, a man who carried his pride on his sleave, his convictions on the glisten of his badge. A player that could master the costume to perfection, it was almost gross in how good he could do so. Natural - for it was once to Shane - as if it were always meant to be, what was supposed to be. Emilia part of the plot, her own part not yet cast, their relationship was on the foundations of friendly. Not close to be more than, not so distant or tension filled, but comfortable in the presence of one another. Able to speak free and without restraint, able to see one another, perhaps, deeper than was truly meant to. Shane's leg touching hers, his uniform to her more common garb, he watched as she worked something within her hands. Unseen, unable to be identified from shape alone, a mystery as great as she. Shane desperate to figure out the clues, he adjusted is posture, stared at the street in front of them, allowed his mind to contemplate and consider.

"Never knew you had one." Shane said, interested and attentive, browns glanced in Emilia's direction, the movement of her hands. "Mind if I ask what exactly he gave you? Ain't never had no sister myself, but if I did, I know just what I'd gift her. Probably one of them bastards with eight legs and thirty eyeballs, hairy all over."

Hand gone between his shirt collar and skin, a silver chain was pulled out and shown. Dazzling in the Georgia sun - more precious than true gemstone - a charm of #22 dressed in wear and time but nonetheless beautiful. Shane's most prized possession.

"My grandma gave me this when I joined the football team in high school." Shane shared, smile on his lips fast to be drawn, an honest and true one. "She was so proud of me, said I always looked like a football player. Real wide in the shoulders, thick in the legs. Probably a little dense in the head, too, now that I think about it. I used to wear it under my uniform. Always had it on for all my games. Never took it off, it was my good luck charm. Only nice piece of jewelry I ever had. My grandma Jean and I, we didn't have a lot of money growin' up. Was never poor or starvin', but life wasn't always easy. Sure did give that woman a hard time, sometimes. But God, did I adore her somethin' awful. She always took care of me. Made me feel loved. Guess that's why I still wear her necklace. She's always with me."

Shane added, tucking his chain back into place below his clothes, "truthfully, Emilia, I'm glad she ain't here to see the world turn to hell like this. Cancer got her. Took that poor woman down before she could even put up a fight. I used to be so pissed off about that, but now, now I'm a little glad for it. She would've been so brokenhearted to see what happened here. It would've crushed her."

#florrentine #Judge and Executioner || Post Apocalypse Era #Verse || Alternative Universe #Location || Alexandria #// If you can't bond over family who can you bond over? <3

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desertfangs · 1 year

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WIP Wednesday!

It's Wednesday! (I keep thinking it's Friday and I am going to be sorely disappointed when 5 pm rolls around and it's not the weekend.) I'm currently juggling like four WIPs because I am a mess and work is eating my brain so I'm not making a lot of progress on any of them very quickly.

But I wanted to share a snippet from what will be Part 3 of The City Never Sleeps, taking place directly after Leave Your Mark, which explores Lestat, Armand, and Daniel figuring out how the three of them work together, while driving each other up a wall (affectionately). They are talking about Lestat here, in case that's not clear.

------

“It was hot, seeing you with him,” Daniel said.

Armand’s grip tightened around him. “It didn’t bother you?”

“No,” Daniel said. “But I’ve gotten used to seeing you with someone else.”

Armand went silent for a moment, his hand languidly stroking Daniel’s back.

“You two could have fun together if you’d allow yourselves to,” Daniel said. “I told him the same thing.”

Armand shifted. Daniel looked up at him again. He was staring up at the ceiling. “I don’t dare ask what led to you telling him such a thing.”

Daniel snorted. He shifted, rolling onto his back and scooting up so his head was on the pillow next to Armand’s. “Why do you think he came here?”

“How should I know why he does anything?” Armand asked. Armand did look baffled by the idea and Daniel laughed softly at his expression, before stifling a yawn. Armand turned to him and met his eyes. “Have you really not tasted Lestat's blood?”

Daniel shook his head. “You warned me not to.”

“Daniel, that was in 1985.”

Daniel smiled at him. “See? And you say I never listen to you.”

Back in the 80s, after Daniel had been turned, he’d been a little overwhelmed by his new vampire senses. It wasn’t unusual for a new vampire, but Daniel had also been turned in the midst of chaos for their kind, and he’d had a difficult time adjusting to the changes, notably the noise in his head.

One night when he was about to go give Lestat a tour of Night Island, Armand had pulled him aside and warned him against drinking Lestat’s blood, which was infused with the blood of Akasha and might make it harder for him to rein in his senses. Daniel had laughed it off at the time: the idea that Lestat would offer him blood or that they’d be in a position for it come up had felt highly unlikely.

But over the years, the two of them had hung out more and more and they did make out more than once. Lestat drank from him, but he never drank from Lestat. And Lestat never suggested it or offered, which made Daniel think Armand had given him similar warnings. Perhaps that was even part of what Armand had threatened him about over the phone the other night.

----

Tagging: Everyone & no one. If you want to share, consider yourself tagged. Feel free to tag me if you post, I'd love to see what people are working on!

#wip wednesday #wip #my fic #daniel molloy #armand #lestat de lioncourt #armand/daniel #armand/lestat/daniel #the best OT3 #i just love them together it's such hilarious chaos #vc #vc fanfic #vampire chronicles

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bluejaysandblackbats · 6 months

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Titans Academy

Fandom: DC Comics, Titans, Arrowfam

Summary: Grant struggles to accept his new reality when Roy takes him in and enrolls him in Titans Academy. He must adjust to life at a boarding school and life with his new foster family (Roy and Lian). Can he learn to trust the people who claim to care about him? Or will he shut himself off from love altogether?

Chapters: 5/?

Characters: Grant Emerson, Roy Harper, Bart Allen, Toni Monetti, Cody Driscoll, Lian Harper, Jade Nguyen, Audrey Spears, Tommy Blake Jr.

Additional Tags: Father-Son Relationship, Boarding School AU, No Powers AU, Found Family, Second Chances, Roy Harper is a Legal Guardian, Roy Harper is a Father, POV First Person, Grant Emerson POV, Autistic Bart Allen

Chapter Five: Home Economics

No school has ever made Friday feel more like Friday than this one. You could feel the anxious energy in every room. Even the teachers had a childlike excitement for the end of the day. I met Bart after school at the pigpen, but I stopped at the stables afterward. A dark and white horse caught my eye, and I stopped to stare at him. The wild yellow-green eyes were what captured me, though. I wondered who the horse could've belonged to. He was the first horse I'd ever seen that close-up. Our English teacher assigned a personal essay that'd be due next Friday, and I broke away to go home and work on my homework. I figured there'd be tons of weekend activities, so it wouldn't be a big deal if I missed out on one Friday. I let myself in and sat at the coffee table in silence. The front door opened a few minutes after I started working, and I met eyes with a woman with dark hair and two small children. "You're Grant, right?" she asked as she set the little girl down.

"Uh-huh, does uhhh—." I cleared my throat. "Does Roy know you're here?" I asked. And yeah, she did make me nervous. She was gorgeous. The little girl joined me at the coffee table and opened the drawer to get a coloring book and crayons. "Mommy, is he a stranger?" the little girl questioned. "No, he's Grant. Grant, I'm Jade... And this is Roy and I's daughter Lian... And this is my son, Tommy. I usually don't sneak in like this, but it's Roy's birthday tomorrow... Can you watch the kids for two seconds while I run back to the car?" Jade asked. I nodded, and she passed Tommy to me. He didn't weigh much, but I'd never held a baby before. "Here, look. Support his head like this." She leaned over and fixed my arms. "I'll be a second. Lian, I'll be right back, sweetie." "Okay, Mommy," Lian whispered. When Jade left, Lian looked at me. "Are you friends with my daddy?" I nodded. "Kind of... I live here now," I replied. "Okay... Can we play a game when you're done?" Lian asked. I nodded. Tommy opened his eyes and stretched. He was so tiny that I didn't know what to do with him. It scared me. "Whatcha coloring?" I asked. "Kitties. Don't be scared of Tommy," Lian replied. I blinked hard. "Huh?" I asked. Roy came in, carrying a folded-up playpen and a duffel bag. "Why didn't you tell me you were going to D.C. a week early? I would've picked the kids—." "It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I forgot Lian's green boots. I can bring them by tomorrow before my flight," Jade offered. Roy glanced at me, and his eyes went wide. "You left him with the baby?" Roy asked. "Grant, I'm so sorry." He took Tommy from me, and I relaxed. "It's no problem," I replied. Lian climbed on the couch and pressed a kiss to Roy's cheek. I returned to my homework while Roy and Jade argued in soft voices in the background. Jade set up the playpen, and Roy made faces at the baby. "It isn't going to kill Lian to wear her plain rainboots instead of the froggy ones," Roy whispered to Jade. "Don't be difficult. I know Lian has the yellow rainboots, but the froggy ones have the handles, so she can put them on herself," Jade explained. Roy stopped in his tracks and nodded. "You're trying to make it easier for me... Now I feel like a jerk," Roy replied as he rubbed the back of his neck. The way Roy held Tommy looked so natural and comfortable. He even managed to scoop Lian up and hold her on his hip. "Thanks, Jade. You can bring 'em by in the morning." Jade smiled at him and nodded. "Don't worry about it," Jade replied. Roy let Jade kiss the kids and promised they'd be fine. I don't think Jade was worried about his ability to parent, though. "See you tomorrow, Lian and Tommy. I love you very much." Jade waved goodbye to me, and I waved back. "Thanks for watching our kids for me," Roy smiled awkwardly. I smiled back.

I finished my homework while he put the baby down for a nap, and Lian came back around. Lian had her stickers with her and asked me to lie back on the couch. I figured out what the sticker game was the hard way. She placed the stickers on my cheeks and forehead, and eyelids. I felt saturated with gluey taped pictures. "You okay?" Roy asked. He chuckled, but I couldn't open my eyes to see his face. "Mhm," I answered with closed lips so I wouldn't laugh and upset the sticker placements. They made me feel like I belonged, and for a little while, I forgot I didn't. It felt nice in an unfamiliar way. I must've fallen asleep on the couch because I woke up to Lian pulling stickers off my face. They didn't hurt as bad as I thought they would. "Hey, hey, be gentle, Lian," Roy warned. "It's what I get for being a man of my word," I joked. "Daddy, Grant's not hurt. See," Lian reassured him. "Did you ask Grant how he felt?" Roy asked gently. Lian gasped. "Does it hurt, Grant?" Lian asked. "Not bad," I replied, "Some of 'em just sting a little." Lian patted my cheek with her palm. "Here, let me help take some of them off." I took the ones off my eyelids to see what was going on. I was relieved she didn't put them over my eyelids. "Hey, Roy? Who owns that big grey and white horse in the stables?" I asked. Roy's lips curved up into a half-smile. "The dapple grey Andalusian's mine. His name's Moonshine. He's a rescue from an old farmer that died down the way. He was just a colt when the old man died," Roy replied, "Maybe I'll teach you how to ride someday." I grinned, and Lian pulled a sticker off my neck. That one took a little bit of my hair with it. "Ouch," I mumbled as I rubbed the back of my neck. "I'm sorry," Lian apologized. "It's okay... Are you gonna learn how to ride a horse when you get big?" I asked her.

"Magic's in the stables," Lian replied. I looked at Roy, and he nodded. "I've been teaching her since her last birthday," Roy replied. A toddler on a horse... That, I'd have to see.

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eorzea80 · 9 months

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"coming out of my cage and i’ve been doing not great going back to my cage and now i’m in my cage" - Tom Lin, X (twitter, it's twitter guys my god) We've entered a new condition with my Dad, after a two month upswing. He was doing really well as we adjusted care for his new diagnosis. I'd even go so far as to say he'd improved from "baseline." He was talking, singing, even writing again. Whelp, he crashed after the holidays and has spent most of the weekend in bed. We're not really sure what to do, because unless it is an acute crisis, there's not a lot of support available, especially at this time of year. So while we watchfully waited; waitfully watch-ed...I hecked off to another venue party. *shame* I always find the creativity in housing spaces to be so inspiring and comforting. Before I was immersed enough in the game and the culture to really partake, I heard about shopping malls, fast food joints, caterers, night clubs, haunted houses. Heck, somebody is out there delivering electronic pizzas to electronic people! I love museums. I like making my WoL look fancy for a night. I also used to be a musician, before my world became very small. When EMMA (The Eorzean Metropolitan Museum of Art) started advertising a masquerade and live concert by Aria Cadenza Violin, I was like "YES THIS EVENT IS CUSTOM MADE FOR ME." I hassled each and every one of my retainers for old gowns and dyes and frippery to craft as gilt and as glamourous a costume as I could muster. And then I embarked on the long, cross DC trek to the Museum.

The results are visible above. The atmosphere and costuming were top notch. I do think there was a bit of culture disconnect, simply because I can't (or haven't figured out how to) make custom modpaks work on my strange Mac setup. But it was nice to have something to do while we watchfully/waffley waited for news. And Yania (Bunny) took my picture! I love when I can snag a venue picture from someone who knows how to gpose! Their pic is the last in the set. When festivity has been in short supply, this game has provided a season of small victories. Happy New Year to all and stay safe!

#ffxiv #eorzea80 #around eorzea in 80 days #eorzea80edits #ffxiv: a realm reborn #ffxiv: heavensward #ffxiv: shadowbringers #ffxiv: endwalker #ffxiv: stormblood #eorzean metropolitan museum of art #aria cadenza violin #yania bunny #pryne #pryne irl #pryne jenova #emma

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wool-and-wanderlust · 1 year

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July 30: Woke up today to the news that someone smashed the wing mirror on my rental car overnight. It was parked on the road, and someone hit it...didn't leave a note, so now I'm left to pay for the damage. Some people...

Was going to run some errands today, but can't really do that without the drivers side mirror, so I went shopping with Cathy instead. Was hoping to get a dress and/or shoes for Brian's daughter's wedding next weekend, but just ended up with a cardigan. Thought I might start on the new farm tomorrow, but it turns out the timing isn't great for that farmer, so I've got the day off tomorrow...time to try to get my car fixed.

July 31: Called the car rental place today to tell them I needed to report some damage, and the first thing the guy said was "Right — what have you done?" I'm sure he assumed the young-ish American woman who can't drive a standard would damage the car, but SHOCKINGLY it wasn't me. 🙄 Anyway, they told me I could just pop the mirror back in place since it's shattered but still in the frame, and I can drive it like that until I return the car. So I decided to go on another shoe shopping hunt. Went to a nearby town and finally had success. Then went grocery shopping and made tea. Seems like the new farm this week isn't working out quite yet, so I'm back to the original farm tomorrow. I guess I shouldn't have said such a dramatic goodbye already!

August 1: The fields at Brian's and Tom's farm needed rolling, so that's what I focused on today. They needed to roll the fields to press any stones back into the ground so that the stones don't damage the machine that bales the silage. So I had a quick refresher on how to drive the tractor, and then went for it! The perfectionist in me was annoyed because it took me a very long time to get the lines straight without any gaps between them, but I eventually got there. I was listening to the radio while driving, and when a certain song came on the radio I had to make this video. Then in the afternoon, we did some sheep work. I got to drive the quad bike around the field gathering the sheep which is one of my favorite things, and then we sprayed them with Dysect (which treats blowfly strike and prevents lice and ticks). It was nice being back on the farm...

August 2: Back on the original farm again today for more field rolling. I really shouldn't have said goodbye yet 😅 I got promoted to doing 2 fields instead of one today, so had my work cut out for me. I felt more confident in the tractor which meant I could drive a bit faster, so I was able to cover a lot more ground. My only bad moment was when I had to drive the tractor around a tree, and I thought the branches would just flexibly go *whoosh* around the tractor, but they hit it with more of a *thunk*. 😳 One of the big side mirrors got pushed in, so I tried to get out of the tractor to reposition it, but it had actually been pushed in so far that it trapped me inside the tractor. I was totally stuck and had to decide whether to call for help or climb out the back window of the tractor. I climbed out the back, fixed the mirror, and got back in! I also noticed the mirror on the other side needed adjusting, so I went to fix that one but realized the metal arm holding the mirror was actually broken😩 Wasn't sure if I'd done it or not, but figured I should probably let someone know. Had such a pit in my stomach about telling them! Thankfully, they told me it was already like that...phew. After lunch, I helped put up a small marquee for this weekend's wedding. We went inside for a drink in the afternoon, and when we came back outside less than an hour later, it had blown down and broken :( So they will have to hire a new one for the wedding. Such a sad moment! Should be leaving the farm for real now, as tomorrow I really do start at the new farm...Here's a video I made of my last few weeks with the Longmynd Commoners.

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sleepinglionhearts · 2 years

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guess who has.... a job interview set up for next week

it’ll only be my second interview ever tho so i am VERY nervous

#it's just a county job doing admin assistant/clerical stuff #and it will be MUCH closer to home #pay will be a little better and it's a full time position #not super excited about the concept of losing having days off during the week bc tbh that makes appointments so much easier #and going places is nice too bc it is usually less crowded during the weekdays #i'd have to adjust to having my weekends off and figuring out what to do with that #girlfriend and i might not be off on the same days as often either #but... i do need more monies and i do like the idea of not spending a ton on gas bc of my commute #yet still.... aaaaaaaaa #anyway wish me luck i've been researching interview stuff all day jshjdhsjdh

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shurisneakers · 3 years

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if you're taking ideas for harmless drabbles, i'd love to see one of bucky on one of those dates he mentioned and reader's shenanigans. if you aren't, feel free to ignore this!

a/n: are we really going to let a word limit define what a drabble is? is the vibe and spirit not enough? i say this bc this is 5.7k words long im so sorry. also hey thank you to everyone who piped in with their knowledge of violent geese and how apartment security works in new york!! also thanks to my bby @spiderrpcrker for reading this and telling me to publish this bc i wasnt going to fkjghfkj

warning: swearing, bad luck, dates, frustrated bucky, anxiety, mentions of gore but like only a sentence

here’s my ko-fi if you’d like to support my writing <333

Catch up with the rest of the series here: Harmless Masterlist

Bucky returns only two weeks later. His mission lasted longer than expected and all he wants is to lie down and sleep for forty eight hours straight.

“FRIDAY?” he mumbles, kicking off his shoes. His jacket had already been discarded by his bedroom door when he walked in.

“Yes, Sergeant Barnes?”

“How are ya?” He doesn’t miss a beat in asking, even though he’s exhausted.

“As good as ever. Did you have a successful mission?”

“If by successful you mean one sprained limb instead of two, then yeah.” He wasn’t really cribbing. His ankle was already starting to heal anyway and it was worth the roundhouse kick to a Nazi's face. “Do I have anything scheduled for this weekend?”

“You have a meeting on your calendar scheduled for this Saturday.”

“Could you send a text to Y/N and ask if we can push it to the next day?” His muscles feel sore and God, he could definitely use a hot shower but all of that becomes secondary the minute he feels the sheets under him.

“Would you like me to reschedule the other one as well?”

“What’s that?” He opens one eye in confusion. “There’s another one?”

“It’s on Sunday. You’ve labelled it ‘date’.”

Ah, fuck.

“Would you like me to change it?” FRIDAY never sounds like she’s judging him, which is nice. It also reminds him about how she, as an AI, can’t judge him, which is a rude wake-up call to how he doesn’t have friends.

“No,” his voice is muffled against the pillow, “no, let it be. Where is it again?”

“You’ve only specified diner, Sergeant Barnes.”

Public space, daytime, plenty of escape routes. Good on his less delirious self for selecting a diner.

“Thanks, FRIDAY.” Now that he’s a little more relaxed, he can feel himself slip in and out of consciousness.

“One last thing," her automated voice commands his attention again. "Y/N replied. She says sure and to take care.”

“Yay.” Not even a second later he’s out like a light.

____

“Did you bring me any souvenirs?” Is the first thing he hears as he marches into your lair.

“What could I possibly get you?”

“A postcard, a t-shirt.” You don’t look up from your tinkering.

“Decapitated finger, used bullets,” he continues, “cement blocks.”

“Ew.” You snap the lid shut on the thing you’re working on, spinning around on your chair. "That's not nearly romantic enough."

“That’s all you’re going to get from a Russian underground bunker.” He does a mini jog up the stairs of the platform to where you are.

“Does the finger have a ring at lea- oh hello?” You raise an eyebrow at the sight of him. “You look different.”

He peers down. The outfit was still all black. As always.

“Not your clothes, dummy,” you interrupt, making him look back at you. “Your face. What’d you do?”

He unconsciously raises a hand to his cheek.

“Did you wash your face? Is that it?” you squint at him. “Has it been a few months since the last time?”

“Wow, you’re so funny,” he drawls sarcastically. “Top tier comedian right there.”

“No wait, it’s the beard.” You snap your fingers in realisation, completely ignoring his comment. “You trimmed it.”

“So what if I did?” He leans on your table.

“You going somewhere?” you ask, elastic snapping against your hands as you remove your gloves.

“It’s none of your busi-”

“Hold on a second.” A sly smile begins to make its way onto your face. “Are you going on a date, Bucky Barnes?”

His comeback dies down in his throat. That didn’t take you very long for you to figure out.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” You look smug, to say the least.

“Shut up.” A ray of light glistening distracts him. He traces it to the thing you were working on earlier.

“Where are you guys going?” You cross your arm across your chest, a small smirk on your face.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” It’s a silver box, engraved intricately with swirls that, when he observes carefully, looks like a skull. Wow, terrifying.

“I’m literally asking you.”

“What are those?” He shifts the conversation towards a more productive angle instead.

“Evil in a box and some other stuff.” You shrug offhandedly. “Is it a lunch date or just coffee?”

“Like Pandora’s Box?”

“A discount version, sure,” you confirmed impatiently. “Stop changing the topic, listen to me.”

He tilts his head, waiting for you to continue.

“Do you need a chaperone?” The sincerity in your voice for such a bullshit question has him scoffing.

“Good God- no, I do not need a chaperone. I’m 106 years old, I can go out unsupervised.” He reaches over and plucks the box off your table.

“Sir, you’re a geriatric."

“What are those?” He points to a few ray odd ray guns.

“Minor stuff you don’t have to worry about right now.”

He shakes the box in his hand. “What’s gonna happen if I open this?”

“Very bad things,” you whispered ominously before your volume returns to normal. “How’d you meet this person? Online?”

“She’s Natasha’s friend.” He turns the box over, seeing a small latch at the side. “What bad things?”

“Bad luck and misery. Don’t play with it, it’s dangerous.” You pull the box away from him. “Aw, is it a blind date?”

“Why do you care so much?” he shoots back, tugging the box back towards him.

“Just lookin’ out for you, Bucko,” you huff, adjusting your grip on your device. “Need to keep my favourite senior citizen safe.”

“I have a vibranium arm.” Whose force he could use to grab the box once and for all, but wasn’t. “I think I’ll be fine.”

“What if she has one too, huh? Then what?”

“She doesn’t.” As far as he knows, he’s the only one alive with a metal appendage made out of the strongest metal in the world. That could very well change by tomorrow but he's keeping the title for now.

“But what if she does? I swear to- stop trying to take the box!” You pull a little more forcefully, but he doesn’t relent.

“I want this to get over before this evening.”

“What time’s your date?”

“Why do you care?” He’s sure anyone who saw the dumb tug-of-war you both were playing would just automatically assume he was an absolute manchild, not an Avenger.

“Because.” You don’t explain further. “Tell me what time your date is, you weirdo.”

“Five o’clock, now let go.”

“Fine,” you say, suddenly loosening your grip. Clearly, it doesn't make much of a difference since he isn't struggling to keep his balance from the sudden loss of force.

“Fine.” He clears his throat, straightening up.

You don’t say anything. He doesn’t either.

A putrid smell creeps into his nose, one all too similar to spoiled milk and decaying seaweed. He has to physically stop himself from gagging.

“Have a good day.” You smile and lean far back. Too far. It looks like you're almost going to fall out of the chair.

Through the tears that are threatening to line his eyelids, he looks down at the box whose latch you somehow managed to lift, leaving the box open.

“What the fuck is this?” He coughs, swatting at the air in front of him to clear it.

“I told you; bad luck in a box.”

“You can’t scientifically create bad luck, that’s bullshit.” He tosses the box back onto your table. You watch it slide past you, not making any effort to stop it. “What is it really?”

“I’m not lying.” You pull open a drawer, brandishing a small table fan that you set down beside you. “If you open it, you’re going to have terrible luck for the day.”

He glowers at you when you turn the fan on, forcing the fumes back towards him.

“Besides, that’s all I was doing today.” You kick your feet up. “So you can leave now.”

He doesn’t care if you’re lying about not having anything else to do today. You could burn down the world if you wanted to but he needs to take a stupid shower. Again.

“You’re the fuckin’ worst.” He tries airing out his shirt, hoping that the smell would dissipate as soon as possible.

“Have fun on your date, sarge!” you encourage him as he stalks out of the lair. “Remember to wrap it befo-”

He turns it into a sprint before you can finish.

____

Six hours later and he’s absolutely convinced he fucked up.

He isn’t used to having his weekends free.

He realises that this is the first time in months that he’s actually stepped out of the Tower for something that wasn’t directly mission-related. He should probably get some air. Touch some grass. See the sun.

His shirt thankfully manages to rid itself of the odour from the dumb box so he didn’t have to go take a shower. With nothing much planned and a few hours to spare, he heads to the coffee shop instead.

It’s a small place, bustling and alive with a crowd of people. They have a little bookshelf that usually is full of books donated by patrons, free for anyone to read.

The barista smiles at him. The coffee costs more than his high school education. He awkwardly smiles back.

He’s not a regular, but they’ve seen him enough times to know that he usually asks for black coffee in a to-go cup, later adding a sugar or two according to his own taste. They're nice to him, occasionally throwing in a cookie or something on the house. He can't tell if it's because of the Avenger status or the sizeable tip he leaves.

He picks up a random book from the shelf, fully intending not to read it but to just sit there and think. The book acted as a shield for his resting bitch face, resting murder face and his resting rage face. More often than not, a good combination of the three.

He sets the coffee down at the corner table he manages to nab in a quick second, along with the two sachets of sugar.

“Is this seat taken?” Someone asks from beside him. He earnestly shakes his head in a ‘no’, gesturing for them to take it.

They give him a quick thanks and drag the chair away from his table.

He does a quick overlook of the book he picked up.

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot.

Well, now he’s too anxious to put it back. YA fiction it is.

He reaches for the sugar while glossing over the summary. He reaches a little further when it doesn’t come to his hand immediately, blindly running his fingers across the table.

Bucky peeks over the book, eyebrows knitting together when he notices that they’re missing.

He was sure he picked it up.

He looks underneath the table. It wasn’t there, neither under his seat. Strange, but okay. He picks up the book and the cup, walking back to the station to grab two sugars.

This time he makes sure to tuck it into his pocket, double-checking before going back to his table.

Which was now occupied. He wanted to groan.

His mind automatically reverts back to the box from that morning.

“Come on,” he scoffs quietly to himself. It was a coincidence. “Get yourself together.”

“A seat at the counter just cleared up,” the barista from earlier offers when she sees him standing in the middle of the store.

See? Good luck.

He shoots her a grateful look, venturing over to the barstool to take his place. It’s not the most comfortable, but then again, he wasn’t planning to stay there for very long.

He empties the sugar into the coffee, stirring slowly before opening a random page in the book.

He takes a long sip, ignoring how hot the drink was.

He chokes immediately. Because either he was losing his mind or his order had somehow got switched from ‘no sugar’ to ‘diabetes in a cup’.

He takes another small sip and his face immediately twists in disgust. Definitely too sweet. The sweetener he added only made it worse.

He catches the eye of the barista. She looks on in concern.

“Is everything okay?”

Fuck.

He’s not one to make a scene. He just wants to live as imperceptibly as he could.

“Yep.” The sweetness sticks to the back of his throat. “All good.”

He just closes his eyes and downs the rest of it without thinking twice, trying to hide the grimace in his face. He gives her a weak thumbs up. She doesn't look convinced.

He leaves the shop soon after, hands shoved in his pocket. Maybe he could go sit by the lake at Central Park, watch the clouds. It reminded Bucky of the lake in front of his hut in Wakanda and the hours he'd sit in front of it, feet dipped into the water as his goats fed. He misses it.

He makes a sharp turn at a corner, still thinking about his options when his ankle abruptly twists under him.

He stumbles rather ungracefully, almost hitting the ground, but manages to save himself through the newly built up immunity he has towards falling thanks to all his encounters with you.

His gaze lands on his hardcore combat boots. Their laces had come undone.

Now he just knew that was horseshit. He always double knots them; they had never loosened in the past before.

The box.

He shoves the thought out of his head, crouching down to tie them again. He tugs on them to make sure they’re secure before standing up again.

Central Park is a few blocks away but he’s glad he didn’t bring his bike. The weather was rather nice and the wind in his hair felt good.

He wanders around the park for a while, looking for the lake. He pauses at a board with a map of the park on it, assessing how far it was.

Once he's ascertained which path to go towards, he turns on his heel to go.

He fucking trips again.

“Are you serious?” he says furiously under his breath. “Cut it out.”

He’s half-convinced that he should tie it around his ankle like a sexy lace-up set of heels. He ties a triple knot this time, glares at it until he’s sure it’s fine and checks to see if anyone saw him humiliate himself.

Only a person on a nearby bench who looked like they were passed out drunk, given that their hoodie and sunglasses clad self was slumped over.

No witnesses. No 'You won't BELIEVE what the Winter Soldier did! Critics say it's his biggest blunder yet!' articles the next day on social media.

He manages to make it to the lake in one piece and no more falls, partly because he keeps his eyes fixed on his shoes to ensure no fuckery occurs.

There are a few people rowing and plenty of others lining the bank at scattered locations. There’s a mom and her kid at the place he ends up. She sends him a small smile in greeting and he returns the favour.

There’s a secluded bench that he takes a place on, letting out a small sigh. If he ignores the traffic and the skateboarders and the people in general, it’s actually kind of peaceful.

There are geese and their little goslings swimming around the water close to the shore. Maybe he should have brought some birdseed. Or kale.

The kid beside him is busy fashioning something out of leaves, only occasionally erupting into giggles when it doesn't pan out. His mom watches him fondly, pointing at twigs he could use. Everything seems kind of picture-perfect and his body automatically relaxes, easing further into the seat and closing his eyes for a second.

Until there's a large splash and loud distressed honking. He whips his head around to find the same kid staring straight ahead at the goose with a wide grin. His mother curses quietly, picking herself up off the ground and grabbing his hand, half chastising him for throwing something at an animal and half urging him to walk faster.

The goose turns to Bucky. With no one else to blame for the sudden attack, it logically launches itself at him. His smile drops.

He gets up in a rush. The dumb bird nearly comes for his head, but he deflects with his metal arm.

“I didn’t even do anything.” He swats at it swiftly, trying not to cause any real damage. The goose, understandably, does not speak English.

He flinches when one of them bites at his knee. He can punt it to the sun but he doesn’t want to.

“Stop that.” He sticks his hand out to shove the stupid thing away, retreating back to the road. “Jesus, why are you so aggressive?”

Among the barrage of feathers showering on him, he prays his damn shoelace doesn’t unravel as he shields his head with one arm, the other fending himself while he moves hurriedly away.

The goose honks angrily at him. He scowls at it, not exactly pleased with the reminder that these fucking overgrown ducks were constantly bloodthirsty.

It doesn’t leave him alone till he’s significantly away from where he was sitting. He wants to call it profanity but that’d probably piss it off more.

The box and its effects were definitely starting to feel real.

Fuck it, no more day out for him. The best plan he can think of is to just go to the diner he’s supposed to meet his date at.

The waiter greets him with a courteous nod, which Bucky can only imagine was the best he could muster when a dishevelled 200-pound man walks in covered in goose feathers and irritation.

He won't admit that he’s too scared to eat lunch at this point because he can’t rule out food poisoning. He spends the next two hours on his phone playing Fruit Ninja and plucking feathers that accented his all-black outfit.

Several glasses of water later and a second before he’s about to beat his high score, someone taps on his shoulder, breaking him out of his concentration.

Motherfu-

He clenches his eye shut, inhaling deeply before turning around.

“James?”

“Hey, yeah, that’s me.” Bucky almost falls over the table with how fast he stands up, clearly underestimating his size. “Leah?”

“Hi.” She smiles and he finds himself smiling nervously along with her.

“Hi.” He steps out to pull out her chair for her and she laughs. "Nice to meet you."

“How long have you been waiting here?” she asks while setting down her bag.

“Around ten minutes.” He clears his throat to hopefully hide the fact that he was lying through his teeth.

“Just give me a second, I need to tell my friend I reached,” Leah pulls out her phone and he nods.

“Another glass of water for you?” The waiter seems less enthusiastic about Bucky’s 8th refill.

“Yes,” he answers, hoping he doesn’t call him out on it, “please.”

“You must be really dehydrated."

Bucky turns to look at him slowly. “I like the taste.”

He can’t really blame the guy. Bucky’s been there for hours without ordering anything solid, just leaching off their free water and complimentary bread basket.

“So, James.” She tosses her phone back into her bag, leaning forward on her palms easily. “Tell me about yourself.”

He had rehearsed this a million times. He could do this.

“I, uh,-”

“Menu?” Okay, so someone clearly had a vendetta against him.

“Thank you.” She takes it with a smile.

His morning debacle with the coffee flashes through his mind. Suddenly the idea of a diner didn’t seem so smart.

However, she’s already placed her order and George is standing beside him expectantly, daring him to ask for another glass of water, so he places his usual order and hopes that your stupid bad luck thing wore off.

He quickly learns that his date is laid back, and it isn’t hard to fall into a rhythm with her even though she’s the one asking most of the questions.

“How’d you meet Nat?” Is his attempt at one.

“She used to come in for lunch every week at the place I work.” Leah leans back in her chair. “She can really handle her alcohol.”

He’d be worried about Nat day drinking if he didn’t know about her complete inability to get drunk. She might as well have been downing glasses of lemonade.

“Yeah, she’s-” Intimidating, scary, cool “-really something.”

“She mentioned that you like movies.” He definitely spends a lot of time watching them. “You got any recommendations?”

It’s easier to figure out how different things are or how much he missed out over the years through them. He’s glad he sat out the early 2000s, judging by their fashion sense and hairstyles.

He's watched several movies over the past few months, a few of them critically acclaimed and others who were just there for the cult following.

But now everything goes blank and the only thing that he can remember are the biopics made about Steve that were somehow hilarious for gifting him the mental image of Freddie Prinze Jr. dressed in the stars and stripes, and highly distressing for the number of historical inaccuracies. Contrary to popular belief, Stevie did not, in fact, consider running for president after he took up the shield, nor did he start his own bar chain.

He can’t name Oh Captain, My Captain starring Channing Tatum as his favourite movie on his first date and hope to make a good first impression.

“Despicable Me was kinda fun.” He wants to kill himself. “I mean, it’s the last one I saw.”

Her face twists in mild disgust, but he can tell it isn't ill-intentioned. “It's a good movie, but God, that just gave me some intense flashbacks to my aunt’s Facebook page. Don’t think I can look at a minion ever again.”

He sniggers with her. He doesn’t know what the context is.

He’s a little awkward, and he can definitely tell he isn’t the most open book but she laughs at some of his attempts at jokes. There’s a distinct discomfort he has lingering at the back of his mind prodding at him, telling him over and over again that he isn’t ready for something like this. A warning bell, asking him to leave as soon as possible because he was in a dangerous situation.

He remembers what his therapist told him about breathing and remembering that the resources he had available were greater than his anxiety and he tries to get out of his head. It takes a few minutes of acting like he's fine but he manages to do it.

Other than the one time he scalds his tongue on the coffee but played it off with a pained smile, shoving down thoughts of your stupid invention, things actually went okay.

It was nice, even though they decided by the end that it was better if they both gelled together better as friends. It lifts the strange fear he feels and he can hear Dr. Mendoza say she's proud of him for taking this step before spending three hours psychoanalysing why they decided to stay platonic.

Bucky promises to visit her sushi shop with Nat soon and she says a bottle of sake awaits him for a drinking game. He doesn’t have the heart to tell her that Nat and he share the same tolerance for alcohol.

He makes sure to leave George a tip. A big one. It’s the first time he sees the guy smile the entire evening.

He’s waving goodbye to Leah outside and he thinks that maybe it was a good end to the day and that things actually turned out fine.

Until he turns around to leave, only to have someone walk straight into him with an iced tea.

The cold comes as a bit of a shock, making him jump slightly. He stares at his shirt, using his fingertips to pull it away from his body.

The person melts into a series of apologies immediately, offering to dry clean his shirt but Bucky just forces a shake of his head and says it’s okay even though he can feel the sugar making the shirt stick to his chest. Goose feathers and iced tea. Was there anything else that would like to attach itself to him?

His fists clench and his teeth grit and he has to physically control himself from sprinting to your lair because God knows what else is in store for him and he didn't want to add in any way.

The door to the lair is locked. Fuckin’ brilliant.

When no one answers after minutes worth of waiting, he fishes for his phone and realises that maybe two hours of Fruit Ninja was not the best idea, especially on a phone known for having shitty battery life.

There’s roughly 2 percent left. By the time he opens his app to give you a call, his phone screen goes black.

He groans. He’s desperate at this point and under any other normal circumstances, he would have never, ever considered doing this.

But ten minutes later he’s outside your apartment building. You’re aware that he has your address; no doubt that it was in the SHIELD file he had gotten, and he knows that you know but it was still weird.

The buzzer has your last name listed next to it. He’s sure that he’ll break it if he keeps pressing it at this rate but he really needs you to let him in.

“Who the fu-” your voice comes through the intercom.

“I’m sorry for showing up like this, my phone died and I couldn’t reach you,” He breathes out as soon as he hears you. “But I need you to fix this.”

When he doesn’t hear a reply, he wonders if the thing actually worked. He’s about to start pressing it again-

“Bucky?” You sound a little surprised to hear him. “You’re at my house. Why are you at my house?”

“I need you to fix whatever this is.”

“What are you- fine, I’m buzzing you in,” your voice, initially confused soon trails off into something more dismissive.

There’s a soft click from the door, allowing him to push it open. The elevator is already on the same floor as him so he just uses that.

The elevator goes up a floor or two. His feet tap restlessly against the carpeted floor.

The lights turn off and everything comes to a standstill. His foot stops tapping.

He should have known. He should have fucking known.

Thirty seconds pass. He’s still in pitch darkness with the elevator showing no signs of moving.

In fact, he’s resigned to his fate. He sits down on the ground, only one step away from completely laying down and hoping someone finds his body here someday.

It’s six minutes of plain silence. He might as well get comfortable if he’s going to get stuck here for the rest of his life. Did he change his will? Does he even have a will?

There’s finally a whir. He thinks that maybe he’s going to plummet to his doom as the perfect end to this day, but then the light switches on and it starts moving upward.

It stops at the floor with a ding. He doesn’t get off the ground, only eyes the door wearily. With his luck, it wouldn’t open.

But it does and within a second he’s on his feet, scrambling to get out before it changes its mind.

He remembers your door number, basically charging down the hall to get to it.

The door is white and the paint is starting to chip off it. The handle itself is dented in a few places and he wonders if it was your fault or someone else's.

His knocks are rapid, agitated even. He doesn’t stop until he hears your loud shouts telling him to cut it out.

“What the hell were you doing, trying to break down my door?” It swings open, revealing you in your pajamas. “Haven’t you done that already? And where were you, I’ve been waiting for like, ten minutes.”

He honestly feels bad for showing up uninvited and highly flustered. He can’t imagine it’s a pretty sight either. "This bad luck shit- fix it. My whole day’s been fucked up.”

“What are you-” Your eyebrows knit together in confusion, taking in his appearance.

It takes you a second to realise what he’s talking about but when you do, your face settles.

“How was your date?” You lean against the door frame, arms crossed over your chest.

“Really,” He glowered at you, “that’s what you care about?”

“Yes.” You nod. “Did you have fun?”

He hesitates. “I guess?”

“Was she nice?”

“Yeah.” Where was this going.

“Good, I’m happy for you.” The smile on your face is genuine. “Look at you go, Casanova.”

“We agreed to be just friends, but that’s not the point here. Y/N,” he whines. “I have a mission next week, I can’t afford to fuck up. My whole day was off and I don’t want it to carry over.”

“Your whole day?” you questioned, standing up instead of leaning against the wall. “Buck-”

“Just fix it.”

“Okay.” You lift your hand up, extending it towards his face.

He waits for you to do something.

You flick him on the forehead.

“There,” you declare, going back to your previous position. “you’re cured.”

What.

He says exactly what he’s thinking.

You laugh. “Dude. I was fucking with you.”

Huh?

“Well, actually maybe just like, three things and then I got bored.”

He’s confused.

“You know,” you begin when he doesn’t reply, “taking the sugar packets, switching your coffee order when you were looking under the table, took your place when you left, the shoelaces.”

“The shoelaces?”

“Yeah.” You nod. “That’s the other ray gun you saw this morning. Unties your shoelaces. I stopped after that because I thought you figured it out.”

His face scrunches in puzzlement.

“I mean, you looked right at me and told me to cut it out.”

He racks his brain about what you could possibly be talking about before it hits him. The hungover person on the goddamn bench in the park.

“You were the one in the hoodie and sunglasses.”

“I just followed the Avengers’ code of disguise.” You shrug. “Turns out it kinda works. Also teleportation. So helpful.”

He forgot about the teleportation. That's why you could do all of it so fast without him noticing you were even there.

“What about the fucking geese?”

You pause for a second. “The geese?”

“And the elevator.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” The confusion on your face is apparent. “What geese and elevator? I have no idea what you’re saying right now.”

“Everything’s been a mess today,” he grumbles. “I don’t know what’s real or not.”

“I swear I had nothing to do with it other than what I mentioned.” There’s indignation on your features that quickly gives way to delight. “Holy shit, did I just accidentally invent portable bad luck?”

“Okay-” his palm finds its way to his forehead in exasperation, “-then what the hell was the smell?”

“What smell- oh, the one from the box?”

He nods briskly.

“Secretions Magnifique.” You snorted. “It’s a perfume. The worst rated one I could find.”

“Perfume?”

“With notes of milk, seaweed and sandalwood.”

“It wasn’t an inator?”

“No, it wasn- did you get vibe checked by a goose at the park?” You stifle a laugh when you notice a stray feather on his thigh.

“What does that even mean?” he asks in despair.

“I can see why it attacked you. You got bad juju.” You raise an eyebrow. “Maybe if you stop staring so much-”

“So I just have shit luck.” Is that a fucking relief or even worse?

“Well,” you begin but decide not to continue.

Even with all the irritability masking it, you could see that he genuinely was just not having a good time.

“Wait here a second.”

You leave him at the door. He shifts his balance and sighs, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. He still had to walk back to the Tower. Maybe he could grab a slice of pizza along the way since he skipped lunch.

“Okay, here.” You return with a large glass of water. He only looks at it. “It’s just water, I promise. You look like you ran a marathon."

He takes it from you sceptically, pushing away the urge to sniff at it. It’s gone within a few gulps.

You wait until he’s finished to point at his arm. He draws his eyebrows together, but you only curl your index finger and beckon for him to give you his hand.

He reluctantly extends it towards you.

“Don’t laugh,” you warn him, taking his metal arm. “This usually helps me.”

You tie a small bracelet around his wrist. It has a few beads, which he realises represent the colours of the solar system.

“Keep that for good luck.” You pat it gently after securing it. “I think you just had a bad day; those don’t last very long. Do you want to charge your phone before you leave?”

“Uh-” The bracelet’s pretty, the colours shine against the dark vibranium. “-no, I’m good. I’ll just leave.”

“Okay. Anything else I can help you with or will you be fine?”

He narrows his eyes. “You’re being suspiciously nice.”

“I’m not evil all the time.” You huff. “My hours are in the morning.”

“Okay.”

“Okay,” he says again. “I’m gonna go then.”

“See you next week.” You give him a little wave. “I’d say break a leg on your mission but knowing your situation...”

He scoffs. “Thanks.”

You make a move to close the door when starts walking down the hallway towards the exit.

He adjusts the beads slightly so he can see them better. The Earth one has glitter in it. He thinks it’s cute.

“Bucky.”

He turns around.

There’s a hint of a smile on your face.

“Take the stairs.”

He doesn’t have to be told twice.

Next part

#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #mcu fic #bucky fic #bucky barnes fic #bucky fluff #bucky barnes fluff #bucky angst #bucky barnes angst #harmless fic #winter soldier x reader #Winter Soldier #bucky barnes #bucky

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mysticpetals · 3 years

Text

Supermarket runs

Pairing: Jake × mc (Syianne)

Genre: fluff, humor

Words: 2.5k

Summary: Three times Jake ran into Syianne and one time he actually made plans.

Anonymous asked: Hello. If you do still requests, can you do 27 and 40, with Jake and MC from Duskwood from fluff? Sorry I forgot to add that.

Prompts: 27. "Are you blushing?" 40. "Why are you so afraid of loving?"

Notes: here it is! A cute meet up fic with Jake's point of view. I hope you like this one because it's going to be the last thing I'll be posting for a while 😬

Jake had reached his new hideout just a few hours ago.

After evading yet another capture from the government and planting false trails in his wake, he had escaped to a small town, renting an apartment for the time being.

Opening the door to his new house for a few days, he put his cat down, opened his cage and let him explore. Glitch immediately disappeared and Jake put his bags down, sighing tiredly.

He needed to make a quick run to the store nearby, getting some food and other essential items since it was clear that they didn't stock it in the room.

Before he could change his mind, Jake picked up his wallet, locking the door and walked to the store he came across on his way over to the apartment.

It was a medium sized store, probably the one of the few in this small town. Jake browsed the shelves picking up the things he needed along the way. He avoided eye contact with everyone, putting his hood up.

When he was done, he quietly put the few cup noodles and microwaveable dinners on the counter and waited for the cashier to scan his items. Just as he went to pick up the first item, the cashier's phone rang and he glanced at the screen, eyes widening in surprise before his face settled into panic.

"Oh shit, oh shit, I completely forgot," he mumbled to himself frantically and giving Jake an apologetic glance, ran towards the back room.

Well then, it wasn't like he was in any hurry either. He didn't want to go back so soon anyway. He rocked back on his heels, adjusting his mask so that it still covered the lower half of his face and looked around in boredom.

From the backroom, he could hear two voices arguing, one male and other female and just when he thought that maybe it was going to take a while, the cashier ran out of the room, hefting a jacket over his shoulders and looked back.

"I owe you one, Syianne! Thank you so much!"

Jake tilted his head on hearing the familiar name, memories of conversations with his Syianne creeping up.

"You really do, Percy! I better have a three day weekend after this!" The girl shouted back and Jake smiled behind his mask. She even sounded like her.

The cashier yelled back something but he was already out the door to hear properly. The girl came out from the back, wearing her uniform jacket and grumbling about having to do two shifts, but Jake had frozen.

"Sorry about that. My coworker forgot about the date with his girlfriend and had to bolt. Between you and me, she's pretty scary so I'd be running too," she said, already ringing up his few items but Jake couldn't reply. He kept staring at her familiar face, which he had accidentally accessed when going through her chats before.

This was his Syianne.

She glanced at him, probably wondering why he didn't say anything before looking back on the screen. He broke out of his stupor when she told him the total and held up a bag with his items.

His fingers brushed against her and it felt like a lifetime, blood rushing to his cheeks and heart pacing.

"Thank you," he said and got a smile in return.

"You're welcome! Sorry about the delay earlier."

He shook his head rapidly, telling her that it was no trouble and he completely understood. That made her smile widen, her eyes crinkling with happiness.

"Come again soon!"

Oh, he'd be coming back very soon, indeed.

The first thing he did after reaching home was to power on his laptop and search for Syianne's location. Glitch hissed angrily at him for disturbing his slumber atop the chair he was now sitting in but Jake's eyes were fixed on the screen.

The results baffled him, as it showed her living in a completely different country from when he had searched her before, when he had just gotten her number. And then, realisation dawned on him that she might be using a VPN.

He banged his head on the table in frustration but also a little impressed that Syianne had thought of doing something like this to protect her identity.

He was supposed to stay away from all of them, to prevent pulling people into his messes but now one of the most important people in his life literally worked a walk away from his hiding place. He couldn't change places so frequently as it hadn't even been a day and he had to give some time to the police to cool off, before he got on the move again.

He sighed, too wound up to make anything but cup noodles, he got up and went into the kitchen. Glitch trailed behind him, sniping at his heels for his own food and Jake emptied the last can of cat food into Glitch's bowl.

With a jolt, he realised that he would have to go to the supermarket tomorrow again and it brought him equal parts of excitement as well as anxiety at the thought of seeing Syianne again.

———

The next evening, he put the cans of cat food on the counter and was disappointed to find that the guy from yesterday – Percy, if he recalled right – was going to scan his items.

Jake shifted the mask on his face and looked around to see if Syianne was somewhere but to no avail. If Percy noticed him looking around, he didn't say anything. When he grabbed the bag from him, the employee room opened and Syianne came out wearing casual clothes, a bag slung over her shoulder.

"See you tomorrow, Percy!"

She came out from behind the counter and her eyes widened in surprise as they fell on him.

"Oh hi! You're the one from yesterday."

Jake cleared his throat and let out a hesitant, "Y-yeah."

Percy snickered, throwing a knowing look at Jake before turning to Syianne.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow, idiot. Bring some coffee with you." He handed Jake his bag as he scrambled to bring out his wallet to pay and gave him a wide smile.

"Syianne here works the morning shifts." He winked and Jake was mortified to hear the amusement in his voice, knowing that he had been caught.

"I'm not bringing you anything until I get my three-day weekend. Anyway, nice to see you again…." She trailed off when she turned to Jake and his mind went into overdrive as he thought about whether he should tell her his real name or not.

"Phil." He blurted out, "My name's Phil."

She tilted her head, no doubt thinking about that bartender from Duskwood who was currently locked up in jail.

"Funny, I know a guy named Phil. Not from around here though." She glanced at the door giving him a final smile.

"Because all the customers come in the evening." Percy complained and Syianne only rolled her eyes at his antics.

"Well, come by in the morning if you want to chat. It's pretty chill that time."

"Deal with it. Anyway, see you tomorrow." She waved one last time and walked out, Jake's eyes following her figure until she disappeared around the corner.

"She's sweet and a little too trustful. I better not hear any complaints about you from her Phil or I won't hesitate to throw a punch or two." Percy threatened and Jake flushed before muttering a hasty excuse and practically running out of the store.

She actually talked to him today and hearing her voice, her words just made it harder for him to stay away. But it was okay if he didn't tell her who he was, right? She won't be in any danger then, right?

These thoughts chased him as he walked back to his temporary home, almost tripping over Glitch when he entered and found a disgruntled cat, waiting for his food.

———

The next morning, Jake worked in his room, occasionally shooing away Glitch who was determined to get his daily dose of affection.

"Just a minute, Glitch." He muttered, typing rapidly, his eyes scanning the screen with an eerie quickness.

A loud, disgruntled meow from his cat breaks the silence again and Jake heaved a frustrated sigh, pushing his laptop away and glaring at the culprit.

"Fine, you little devil! I'll give you breakfast first."

He walked out of the room, Glitch trailing behind him, purring in appreciation and hopped on to a chair while Jake took out the instant pancake mixture that he had recently bought. And that reminded him of the fact that Syianne was here, so close and whether he should tell her or not.

Making the pancakes in a daze, he put a plate in front of Glitch who immediately started gobbling it up. Jake huffed out a laugh and made his own plate, sitting across from his cat. The syrup was towards Glitch and when he leaned forward to take it, he was met by Glitch's paw swatting at his hand.

"What the hell? You ate already! Let me eat too!"

Glitch's paw rested on the syrup bottle and edged it towards the end of the table.

Jake froze.

"Glitch, no. Give me the syrup."

The bottle shifted a bit more.

"No, Glitch. Stop that."

The cat looked at him and stopped and Jake gave a sigh of relief, only to throw back his head in exasperation at the next moment as the bottle was finally pushed off the table.

"You little devil! I'm going to—"

The cat sprang up and ran into the other room, leaving Jake in the kitchen alone.

"Why is it always me?"

———

After cleaning up the kitchen and eating pancakes without any syrup, Jake found himself in the supermarket once again, embarrassed about being there everyday for the last three or so days.

When he put his items on the counter, including a syrup in a plastic bottle this time, he found himself facing Syianne who gave her an amused look.

"Having a good day, Phil?"

It took a moment for Jake to understand that she was talking to him and he flushed when he met her gaze.

"Not really. My cat decided to be an asshole today."

Syianne laughed and if Jake could have heard it everyday, he would. When she scanned his bandaids, she raised an eyebrow, and Jake gave her a sheepish smile, showing her his poorly wrapped hand.

"Oh no, that looks bad," she said but Jake only shook his head.

"It's better than it looks, I promise. I'm just bad at wrapping things up."

She didn't smile but only looked behind him. Seeing no more customers, she gestured for him to come to her side of the counter. Confused, he did as she asked and understanding dawned on him when he saw her opening the packet of gauze he had just bought.

"Oh, no, no. It's okay. I can do it at home." He rushed but she didn't listen, silently asking for him to hold his hand forward. When he realised that Syianne wasn't going to take no for an answer, he sighed and put his hand forward, face heating up and he regretted forgetting to wear a face mask that day.

"Are you blushing?" She asked teasingly and his flush only worsened.

"I-I'm not used to other people caring for me."

She hummed.

"That must be lonely."

She carefully unwrapped his hand, winching at the sight of blood and cleaned it with antiseptic wipes, before wrapping a bandage around the cut. Her hands were gentle but firm, as if she knew what she was doing and had done it a hundred times before. Jake was suddenly hit with a weird nostalgia, a feeling of wanting to know who she was, how many siblings she had, what her goals were.

He didn't realise when she had stopped, staring at him, as he was looking at her and only after several minutes had passed, did Syianne dropped her hands, letting him know that she was done.

The thought struck him like lightning and he quickly grabbed his bags, muttering another thank you and getting a simple smile in return. Before he knew, he was out on the streets and on the way to his house, his thoughts a raging turmoil.

"Thank you very much." He spoke softly, quietly, overwhelmed by such a gesture from her. He was essentially a stranger and she had still helped him, not knowing who he was.

She didn't know who he was.

What was he doing? Going to see her like that, finding excuses to go to the supermarket in hopes of seeing her? What did he want to accomplish?

He released a shaky sigh, running his hands through his hair, when he reached the place. Glitch, knowing that it wasn't the time for his shenanigans, only gave a welcoming meow from his place on the couch.

Maybe it was time he started searching again.

Jake opened his laptop but the ping from his phone made him look for it, heart quickening when he saw her name on it.

Syianne [5:00 pm]

Hey Jake!

How are you doing? I hope you're safe

I patched up a guy today who came in at work. He had a cat too!

Anyway, I don't know why I'm still writing but I hope you're safe and nobody got to you

Why are you so afraid of loving?

Sorry, insensitive question. Ignore that

Waiting for when you come back

...I'm still looking forward to that date

Jake's lips quirked at her messages, warmed by her concern. She had messaged him everyday ever since he went into hiding again. He hadn't replied then, being busy because of his relocation, but now….

In a bold move, very uncharacteristic for him, he messaged her back.

Jake [5:03 pm]

What if I told you that the guy you patched up was me?

Syianne [5:04 pm]

What?

His name was Phil

Jake waited as she typed and erased, all of it going on for two minutes before she stopped. Jake had a sudden, terrible feeling that perhaps he had made a mistake but soon enough, she replied.

Syianne [5:06 pm]

You're cute in real life as well <3

Jake laughed, amused by her flirty response and decided that perhaps he'd stay there for a few more days.

Syianne [5:06 pm]

What about that date at the Chinese restaurant you promised me?

Jake [5:07 pm]

Does tomorrow work for you? ;)

#duskwood #duskwood jake #everbyte duskwood #duskwood game #everbyte #jake × mc #duskwood jake × mc #jake × player #duskwood fanfic #duskwood fanfiction #duskwood mc #duskwood phil

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kuroos-babie · 4 years

Text

Falling in Love With a Single Mom HCs

Osamu x fem!Reader | Atsumu x fem!Reader

[ Headcanons/MiniFics ]

Request: Idk if anyone’s requested it already but your head canons are just giving me a bunch of baby fever so can I request some with the Osamu and Atsumu 🥺🥺 —anonymous

a/n: thank u for absolutely tolerating my perpetual baby fever 🥺🥺 i had so much fun writing these, i might even do oneshots god i loved atsumu's part so much pls do tell me what you think!!

❀ it was almost closing time for Onigiri Miya, people already filing out the restaurant after having their fill of good food

❀ but there you were, in your corporate uniform sitting in front of two 7 month old little boys

❀ osamu looks at you fondly from the counter, cheek resting on his hand with his elbow propped

❀ you always drop by when the shop is about to close, too tired to fix up dinner for the three of you— or so he assumed

❀ you let your boys gobble on their own onigiri's, occasionally turning and patting at the other's cheek

"They seem to like the new stuff", he commented as he walked over to your table with the excuse of clearing up the plates you were done with, "Are you done with these?"

"Oh yes, thank you. Yeah they've always had big appetites, I figured I'd let them try something new this time"

Just when Osamu was about to take the empty katsu plate, one of the twins whined in protest, clumsily swatting at his hand, "Eung! Nuh!"

"Oh? Not yet?", he chuckled as he let go of the plate, letting the younger twin pick at the crumbs

❀ you laughed at each other— him noting the way your eyes drooped slightly in exhaustion and he couldn't help but empathize with you

❀ he knows how stressful it is to raise twins, and twin boys? even more so

❀ he grabbed a nearby chair and took a seat

"Is it alright if I crash your dinner for tonight?" he asked before you could even react, "I'd even throw in two orders of tempura and some sake for you"

You yield with smile, only shaking your head since you have no idea how to even reject his offer— not when he has the sweetest smile on his face

❀ since then, he would join you for dinner and let the twins try new onigiris he made

❀ he always has a fond expression on his face when looking at your children, especially when they're stuffing each other's face with the food he made

❀ you two grew closer over sharing food and fawning over the twins

"So you take the both of them to work? And then come here for dinner before going straight home?"

"Sounds about right, yeah"

"No husband?" "Nope" "Boyfriends?" "I don't have time for any", you chuckle

It was a Friday evening and you two chatted over a bottle of sake, each having a twin snoozing on your laps

"What do you say we change things up a bit? Let me take you out tomorrow"

He was now reaching for your hand which was wrapped around your sake cup, the heat that was rising from your chest certainly not coming from the alcohol

❀ Miya Osamu was never one to dawdle, ever the straightforward gentleman

❀ that's why he didn't waste time telling you how he adored you and your boys— and wanted to be a part of your family as soon as you would permit him

❀ he definitely changed up your weekday routine— instead of coming home with the twins after dinner at Onigiri Miya, you found yourself coming home to him and your kids cuddled up on the couch, the smell of food wafting throughout the house

❀ you take turns taking the twins to work and always made time to eat dinner together, bonding over food and the twin's milestones for the day that the other couldn't witness

❀ your hands were full with the boys starting to walk and run but your heart was definitely fuller at the sight of the grey-haired man they're always running to, toppling over him as they giggle in delight and you just can't help running into his arms as well, giving him a kiss as a silent thanks for finding you three

❀ you were a fan of the black jackals and have been pestering your high school friend to let you meet the team for the longest time

❀ hinata did his best to slip you in between their busy training schedules and whatnot, finally introducing you to the team one weekend after their practice

❀ well, introducing your daughter first

❀ you handed her over to hinata before excusing yourself for the bathroom real quick

❀ he waltz in the locker room and i kid you not, bokuto and atsumu were all up in their faces the moment they laid eyes on her

❀ the 16 month old girl in pink wasn't too impressed

"Gimme her, I'm really good with kids" Bokuto insists while making grabby hands but your daughter only turned away and laid her head on Hinata's shoulder

"Move over, Bokkun, lemme try"

❀ you bet bokuto was dejected for the rest of the day

❀ Hinata lowered the little girl to the floor, keeping her steady as she tries to gain balance

❀ Atsumu sat on the bench near her, calling out to her with a wide grin but she only whined and turned back to Hinata to be picked up again

"Banana! D'you like bananas?" was his last resort, grabbing one from his lunch bag which Samu prepared

Her ears pricked up at the word, turning to look at him with hopeful eyes, "Pana na!"

Atsumu leaned back to the bench, his hand propped behind him as he watches her waddle over to him "Ahh she's so cute"

"Yeah, makes me want one of my own", Meian chuckled, watching the scene unfold

Your daughter reached him, patting at his thighs as she chants "Pana pana na" when she hits his pockets and a crinkling noise caught her attention

"Oh you want this instead?" he asks her, taking a piece of chocolate from his pocket

"Uhn!"

❀ he watched as your daughter's eyes light up in delight at her first taste of chocolate, drool dribbling down her chin which he quickly wiped with a tissue

❀ the team watched as the 16 month old little girl climbed up to Atsumu to settle on his thigh, happily munching on a mini snickers bar

❀ the look you had when you entered the locker room wasn't as delighted though

"Sorry I took so long, I couldn't find th— what's that in her mouth?"

"Oh, Y/N!" it was Hinata who greeted you before turning to the setter, "Atsumu-san gave her chocolate"

"You gave her WHAT?"

You could only rub your face with your hands and exhale in frustration, "Why would you give a 16 month old some chocolates? Oh my god"

❀ you explained to the team that you were avoiding giving her sugary treats so as not to get her used to it, only feeding her fruits and yogurt for snacks

❀ they all apologized in Atsumu's stead who only had a pout in his face as he murmured "I didn't know, I'm sorry" again and again

❀ you relent and tried to get your daughter from the setter, to which she whined, chocolate-covered fingers gripping at Atsumu's shirt

"She likes me" he beamed at you as if he wasn't looking as dejected as Bokuto a few moments ago

"You bribed her with sweets" you deadpanned, making Atsumu pout at you

❀ your daughter didn't want to let go of him, squealing and whining when you tried to pry her off him so you just let her cling to the faux blonde setter for the rest of your stay

"Come on, baby, it's time to go home"

You tried getting her for the nth time but she just grunted and nuzzled against Atsumu's neck

"My arms are kinda numb"

"Do you want to take Atsumu-san home?" Hinata suggests, effectively sending a wave of heat to yours and the setter's cheeks

"Uhn! Mumu-tan!" he could only chuckle nervously as she patted and squished at his flushed cheeks

❀ you decided, albeit with a drawn out sigh, to take Atsumu home with you, knowing your daughter will get fussy when she starts to feel a bit sleepy

❀ Atsumu spent the rest of the day over at your house, bouncing and playing around with the little girl as you tried to get chores done, preparing dinner for them while you're at it

❀ after eating, you went to do the dishes, noting the eerie quiet as you had your back towards the living room

❀ you spot him completely knocked out on the couch with your daughter, head dangling on the backrest as he had a hand on your daughter's back, soft snores coming from the both of them

❀ you couldn't help but smile at them, quietly sitting and leaning back beside the two as you let the peaceful quiet lull you half asleep

❀ atsumu awoke with your face in front of him and he could just trace the exhaustion from your dovish sleeping expression

"Ahh she's cute" he whispered to himself in a smile before adjusting his position, shuffling closer and pulling your head over to lean on his shoulder as he tried to continue his nap

"You two're the absolute cutest" he sighed as he nuzzled against your daughter's head, squeezing her even tighter

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