#is fun adding bill into homework and it makes the drawings more fun too

[davidzochi]

hope you brought an umbrella because is pouring today!

found shelter from the rain someplace else?

[yslkook]

BORDERSZ (4)

mind of mine masterlist

summary: jungkook accompanies you on your journey to purchase a brand new car. jimin charms your pants off (or attempts to) and sora has a proposal for you that you don't quite say no to. pairing: “badboy” jk x “shy/reserved” oc warnings: cursing, alc, excessive use of pet names, kinda toxic friendship

It takes about two weeks for Jungkook to understand exactly what kind of car you were looking for- essentially a sturdy vehicle that would get you from point A to point B without fail. Something reliable, would last for years and years, something efficient. Not necessarily anything fancy or luxurious.

But Jungkook had finally got you to shyly confess that you wouldn’t mind having heated seats in your car. After all, it had been something you’d dreamed of ever since you had received your driver’s license-

“Nothing else? Just heated seats?” Jungkook implores curiously as he pours over your meticulous binder for the fifth time. Honestly, you didn’t really need his help. You already knew what you were doing. His presence at the dealership will probably ensure that you’re not getting scammed, if anything. He loves his friends (two of them being his roommates), but he knows the truth about how they make their sales.

Mei and Mina call them sleazy car salesmen for a reason after all.

“It’s not ‘just’ heated seats!” You protest, “We never had the money for cars with heated seats when I was growing up. So that’s what I want.”

“How about leather heated seats?” Jungkook suggests, “Leather seats have better ventilation-”

“Oh, I know,” You say matter-of-factly.

“Of course you do. Smart ass.”

It feels incredibly domestic, walking into Namjoon’s car dealership together with Jungkook. Shoulder to shoulder, hopping off of his motorcycle together. He had taken it upon himself to purchase a second helmet, despite your insistence that you would pay for one.

But he had told you not to get a big head, that the helmet wasn’t for you specifically. That he needed a second helmet anyway, and you joining him on the motorcycle more and more as of recently was just the impetus for him to purchase one.

So you say nothing when it’s clear that he had bought the helmet with you in mind- it’s a sleek, glossy lilac color. A similar shade of lilac as your phone case, your favorite small backpack, and your work notebook.

You say nothing about it, only keeping your small smile to yourself.

Of course it’s Jimin who immediately jumps up to offer you assistance today. He gives Jungkook a Cheshire grin, mischief dancing in his eyes. Not that you would know otherwise.

He knows Jimin won’t let him live this down. At least Taehyung might have a little more tact than Jimin.

“So are you both looking for a vehicle together?” Jimin asks once you’re both seated in the comfortable leather seats in front of his desk, when in fact he knows damn well that you’re not.

“Huh? N-no, I’m looking for a car. Jungkook is helping me out,” You say, your face heating up at the implication. Isn’t Jimin one of his roommates?

Jungkook’s tongue pokes his cheek. You notice.

“I’m here to make sure that you or Taehyung don’t scam her,” Jungkook says, “Where’s Joon? He’s less...annoying than you.”

“Joon can’t even drive a fucking car. He has no business trying to sell them,” Jimin says swiftly.

“Er,” You interrupt softly, “Isn’t he your boss? He owns the entire dealership, doesn’t he?”

Jungkook stifles a laugh at your presumed innocence. You offer a slick smile to Jimin when he scoffs in amusement.

“Yes,” Jimin says, “So tell me. How can I make your dreams come true?”

If Jungkook wasn’t with you, you think you would’ve fallen victim to Jimin’s charms long ago. He’s nice, a little flirty and funny. But helpful. You can see how someone might end up paying more than they’d need to with Jimin being their car salesman.

You listen to every word Jimin says, taking notes in a specific section of your binder with your favorite black ballpoint pen. You need to have all the information at your fingertips before making a big decision, no matter what it is. Jungkook had teased you for it at first, but he’s become accustomed to your thought process.

Jimin has shown you at least five different types of models of cars ranging from sedans to SUVs. In theory, they all fit the bill. But you haven’t really felt the connection with any of them.

Jimin is nothing if not patient, though.

“I’m sorry,” You say, “I know I’m being meticulous. You must be annoyed.”

“It’s my job, sweetheart,” Jimin shrugs, “Besides, you can repay me with your phone number maybe, huh?”

“That doesn’t sound like an ethical business practice,” You say flatly while Jungkook glares at Jimin (who only smirks at him in return), “You already have it. From when I made the appointment.”

“Is that an invitation?”

“You wish,” You roll your eyes, “Does every one of your clients get this treatment or is it just me?”

“Nah, it’s just anyone who catches Jungkookie’s eye,” Jimin winks at you and Jungkook is about to strangle his roommate. Perhaps he should put an ad out for a new roommate, considering he might kill his current one in the next five minutes.

“O-oh,” You falter, cheeks blazing at this point, “Can we look at a few more? I’m gonna use the restroom really quickly. Maybe even grab a coffee.”

“Sure, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Will you fuckin’ stop it? I can’t believe you,” Jungkook hisses, “We’re literally at your workplace and you’re putting the moves on her-”

“Oh, will you relax,” Jimin says breezily, “I’m just seeing if she’ll take the bait.”

“There’s no reason for that shit,” Jungkook says, glaring at his friend, “Cut it out.”

“I like her,” Jimin says, as if he hadn’t spoken, “She’s cute.”

“Back off,” Jungkook says, “And while we’re at it, just for you being an ass. You’re gonna give her heated seats for free.”

Jungkook watches your eyes light up at the car that Jimin is currently telling you about. He can already tell from your wide eyes and soft, excited smile that this is the one. You’re already running the checklist through your head, physically looking at your notes as Jimin easily answers your questions.

“Can I take her for a test drive?” You ask Jimin and he somehow produces a set of keys for the exact model from his pocket.

“I knew this would be the one…” Jimin says as he takes you to the parking lot to grab the test car. Jungkook rolls his eyes in fondness and heads off to find his other roommate, Taehyung. And to say hello to his friend, Namjoon.

“It suits you,” Jimin says once you’d taken the car out for a drive and brought it back safely.

“You think so?” You ask, giving the keys back to him, “I bet you say that to everyone.”

“Only when I mean it, sweetheart,” Jimin winks at you.

“How lucky for me,” You mutter under your breath, “So...what are the next steps?”

“I bring out the contract, you sign it, and you take your new car home,” Jimin says confidently.

“Yeah,” You say dreamily and look outside to the car in longing. You’ve done the homework, done the research. Went through this logically and meticulously. Even if the car does start depreciating the minute you step out of the dealership… You want it. It checks all of the boxes, you know you’ll get your money’s worth from it.

But before you give Jimin the okay to draw up the contracts, you want to tell Jungkook. You spot him talking to Taehyung, his bunny smile on display (which makes you smile in turn) and excuse yourself from Jimin for a minute to go after Jungkook.

“Hi,” You say and introduce yourself to Taehyung, who offers you a wide, boxy smile, “I’m gonna get it. The car, I mean. I love her.”

“She passed the vibe check?” Jungkook asks.

“Yeah. She passed the vibe check.”

When you comb through the hefty contract with sharp eyes, Jungkook is somewhat amused to see the free of charge cost for the heated seats. Jimin only winks at him in response.

You can’t seem to find anywhere else where Jimin may be overcharging you, so you ask Jungkook to review it, too. And surprisingly, Jungkook finds nothing out of the ordinary. He knows how Jimin operates here, trying to gain any extra cent of commission that he can. Not that that’s a terrible thing.

“It’s yours, sweetheart,” Jimin says fifteen minutes later, once you sign your name on the dotted line.

“Really?” You let out an exhilarated laugh, adrenaline suddenly coursing through your veins, “Really, really?”

“Keys are yours, and someone will bring the car out front for you,” Jimin smiles, “Congratulations on your first car. I’m honored that you chose me to help you make this purchase.”

“Wouldn’t have had it any other way, Jimin,” You beam. After a moment of deliberation, “Oh, by the way- have fun on your date with Mina tonight. I heard all about it.”

Mischief dances in your eyes and Jimin’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline as he lets out a surprised laugh. Jungkook looks at you proudly- that’s what Jimin gets for being a menace.

Jungkook wraps an arm around your shoulders and walks you out of the dealership and you slowly wrap a tentative, shy arm around his waist. You both wait shoulder to shoulder for one of the dealership boys to bring your brand new car out front.

In the meantime, you try to pluck up the courage to ask Jungkook to have a drink with you after. To celebrate and to treat your friend for helping you out for the last few weeks. You bite your bottom lip in nervousness and Jungkook notices. He wants nothing more than to gently pull your bottom lip out of your own grip, but refrains from doing so.

But you realize, it’s Jungkook, this is your friend and the comforting, warm scent of laundry that envelopes you gives you a little courage.

“Do you want to grab a drink or something after this?” You ask softly, “I… wanted to treat you. For helping me the last few weeks with the car stuff.”

“C’mon, baby. You know I’ll never say no to a pretty girl buying me a drink,” Jungkook says, lips pulled apart into a sly smirk.

“Oh, that’s all I am to you? A pretty girl?” You roll your eyes and shove his shoulder playfully, despite the heat in your cheeks.

“Not at all,” Jungkook murmurs, tightening his hold around your shoulders and looking at you with sincerity dripping from his big, brown eyes, “You’re my pretty girl.”

If he didn’t have a strong arm around your shoulders, you’re certain you would’ve evaporated into the floor at his words.

The image of Jungkook smoking outside of the bar right under the glowing, purple neon lights is an image you haven’t seen very often. A strand of dark hair falls in front of his face as he lights his cigarette, his eyebrows knitted together in concentration.

Even from this distance, you can see the purse of his lips and the silver glint of rings on his fingers. It shouldn’t send a rush down your spine the way it does, but you won’t deny it. When it comes to Jungkook, you won’t deny your feelings. Or your attraction.

For some reason, a thought crosses your mind- you hadn’t told Sora that you had purchased a new car. Much less that Jungkook had helped you pick one out. But you push her from your mind easily, as if you’ve been doing the last few weeks. It’s been difficult for you to keep Jungkook out of your conversations with Sora- she always has a way of bringing him up more than not.

But it’s not just Jungkook she has a strong, stubborn opinion on. It’s everything these days- you had showed her cars that you were interested in and she had shot every one of them down, she always has something to say about your passion for work (or rather she never pays enough attention about it), and she even had something negative to say when you had timidly brought up that you were maybe thinking about another ear piercing.

You’re growing tired of it. You find yourself getting nervous around her, like you’re walking on eggshells around her. Even when she just texts you, your heart speeds up in anxiety. But at the same time, there is a voice in your head telling you not to upset her.

As if that’s somehow the worst thing that could ever happen. Objectively, you know Sora. You know she’s stubborn and loud in her opinions and always has to get her way. But at the core of it all, you want to believe that she has a good heart. Because if she doesn’t have a good heart… Then what were you doing this to yourself for? What were you surrounding yourself with all of this negativity for?

You can sense Jungkook’s dislike of her, even if he doesn’t outright say it. But you’re no idiot. Mina and Mei have been honest with you on their opinions of her. So has Yoongi and Hobi.

They all think she’s dragging you down and that you’ll spiral in her negativity if you don’t open your eyes. They’ve all had a few choice words for her, but you find yourself uneasy whenever the topic of Sora comes up.

The more you hear it, the more you wonder about your supposed best friend. But you push those sour thoughts away to focus on the man in your field of vision.

Your heart hammers in your chest as you approach him on unsteady feet.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Jungkook mutters with the cigarette in between his lips when you get closer to get a good look at him.

“I’m not looking at you like anything,” You reply, eyes subconsciously wandering to the cigarette. Your nose scrunches at the smell without you even realizing it.

“You look like my mom when she first saw me smoking,” Jungkook says bluntly.

“Your mom? You really wanna compare me to your mother?” You raise an eyebrow, “Don’t know what that says about you, Jungkook.” Jungkook lets out a surprised laugh at that.

“Shut up,” Jungkook rolls his eyes and peels himself off of the brick wall before putting his cigarette out and tossing it in the ashtray next to him, “I think you owe me a drink?”

Jungkook, you decide, is dangerous and warm all at once. The starry glint of his big, doe eyes throws you off more than once, leaving you either stammering over your words or choking on your drink when you try to reply to him.

The bar is quiet and nearly empty, only the sounds of faint music playing in the background to keep you both company. You’re both facing each other at the bar, knees touching ever so slightly.

Even that simple touch makes you feel warm all over.

Jungkook slides your drink towards you, a soft ‘thank you’ pushing itself out of your lips. You suppress a shiver when his ring clad fingers brush over yours, and he notices the way you tense up a little bit with his touch.

He appreciates the way the dim lights shine on your hair and illuminate the planes of your pretty face. He thinks it’s the perfect lighting for a photo of you- the dark colored jacket and your dark wash jeans blending into the colors of the bar around you. Something at the base of your neck glints as you turn to face him.

“Cheers, to your new car,” Jungkook murmurs, tipping his glass towards yours.

“Cheers to you for helping me,” You reply with a smile, clinking your drink with his.

“Pleasure’s all mine, baby,” Jungkook says, “You deserve it.”

“Deserve a vehicle that will have hardly any value in ten to fifteen years?”

“You deserve something for yourself,” Jungkook corrects, looking into your eyes as if he can see right through you. You’d told him how you had grown up with one car amongst a family of five, and how money was tight when you were younger. You were the eldest of three, and now that everyone was older, you had slowly started dipping your toes into the concept of having things for yourself.

You whisper a soft thank you and take a sip of your drink. “My parents were so excited about the car,” You say quietly, “Told them I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Oh? You told your parents about me?”

“Had to tell them about the man who got me heated seats for free,” You reply with a knowing grin, “You think I didn’t catch that?”

“Heated seats were the least Jimin could’ve done,” Jungkook rolls his eyes.

You wave him off, “I like him. I could see why him and Mina are good together. She told me they’ve had this weird on and off thing for, like, a year now? Like c’mon. Get it together.”

“Yeah. Don’t know why they keep denying the inevitable,” He says, voice full of something barely concealed.

“The inevitable?”

“They both have their issues but… They would make it work if they sorted themselves out,” He says softly, a tenderness to his eyes that makes your belly flip. You don’t know if he’s talking about Jimin and Mina or about… something else.

Something else being you and him.

“Maybe one of them is scared,” You whisper.

“They can work through it together,” Jungkook replies instantly. The air in between you both is charged, plush with tension and electricity. You look at him unsurely, with wide eyes, and god, if Jungkook doesn’t want to sweep you off of your feet and pull you in for a kiss.

“Jungkook, I-” You murmur, voice soft and deafening, silky like honey in his ears. The moment is right there, ripe for you, ripe for him...

And then your phone starts ringing, and Jungkook has never heard a worse sound. Your chest drops for a second when you see that it’s Sora calling you, and Jungkook has never felt as frustrated as he does right in this moment. Each significant moment of frustration over the past few months has Sora linked to it. He wonders if she has a radar for interrupting at the worst possible moments.

You give him an apologetic glance before answering the phone. She only calls if it’s important or if she needs you so you won’t risk it.

“H-hello-”

“You’ll never guess what I just did,” Comes Sora’s excited voice through the receiver. It’s too sugary, too sweet. You wince.

“What’s that?” You mumble, shoulders drooping.

“Got you a date for this Friday, you remember Yunho right?” She exclaims. If your heart wasn’t on the floor already, it certainly was by now. “He wants to take you out- he’s the lawyer, remember?”

“Y-yeah, I remember,” You say weakly, “But-”

Jungkook’s eyes flash at your suddenly dejected frown. That’s what Sora does- she takes you and she turns your happiness into something sad. It’s like she can’t stand to see you happy about something that doesn’t align with her “vision”.

“You can thank me later, babe,” Sora says cheerily. This time, you visibly cringe as you try to protest. Try to tell her that you don’t want a date with this man, that you only want a date with the man in front of you. But you can’t get the words out, she won’t listen and she hangs up on you before you can get a word in edgewise.

“Sorry about that,” You mutter.

“Why? She’s your friend. Not mine,” Jungkook says brusquely and you bristle at his bluntness.

You’re distracted for the rest of the evening, mind on another wavelength. He knows you’re upset, but he doesn’t push. He gets you to smile and laugh a few times, only for your eyes to turn sad right after.

Jungkook only wishes that you’d be able to see what was right in front of you.

TAGS: @kookdbean

MoM tags: @tiemeuptogoldenchains @boymeetsparadise @jungkooksseuphoria @kaepjjangiya @drumsofheaven @ppeachyttae @tae-bebe @yiyi4657 @mygscafe

[official-weasley]

The Irreplaceable Charlie Weasley: Pt. 2, Ch. 5

PART 2: THE YEAR OF MISCHIEF AND SNEAKING AROUND Chapter 5 - The Plan of Mischief

Charlie

The day after mine and Nova's detention it was Saturday which meant we had the whole weekend to plan how to get into the Forest again. Feeding the Giant Squid was one thing, but it was nothing compared to how much fun I had yesterday.

At first, I was a little scared, I am not afraid to admit it but the deeper into the Forest we went, the more soothing it was. And besides, as I said yesterday to Bill, I knew Hagrid would've protected us if anything ought to happen.

I was a bit disappointed that Hagrid wanted to break his promise to take us into the Forest. Nova later said that she just cares too much about us and doesn't want to see us get hurt. I guess, but then he shouldn't have made such a promise, should he?

I woke up rather late that morning as there was barely anyone still at breakfast when I got to the Great Hall. My wish of avoiding Bill as much as possible also came true as he was nowhere to be seen at the Gryffindor Table. On the other hand, neither was Nova or the girls.

I decided to check if she was perhaps drawing in the Courtyard, but nobody that I knew was there either. I concluded that the best and easiest way to reach her would be by owl so I headed to the Owlery. I sat down on the floor and started writing.

Dear Nova,

I couldn't find you in the Great Hall or the Courtyard. Meet me by the Black Lake, today at 2 o'clock.

Love,

Charlie

I rolled the parchment and gave it to one of the school owls. Since I had quite some time on my hands until 2 o'clock, I decided to go back to my Common Room and do some homework.

Not even an hour later, an owl knocked on the window of the Gryffindor Common Room with her beak. I opened the window and let her in. She had a piece of parchment tied to her foot and I gently took it away from her.

I unrolled it and recognized Nova's handwriting at once.

Dear Charlie,

please come to the Library as soon as possible.

Love,

Nova

I rolled the parchment back, thanked the owl, placed my books in my bag, and hurried to the Library.

I found the girls immediately as they were sticking their heads together at the same table as we did last year when we were planning to ask Penny to help us with our Potions studies.

“Sorry to interrupt you, ladies, what did I miss?” I sat down next to Tulip.

“Oh Charlie, you have to listen to this!” Nova said, chuckling. “Tulip, Penny, and Tonks are planning to get back at Filch as Tulip still can't feel her fingertips from rubbing those trophies so hard!”

“So, here's the plan: I have 2 more Dungbombs, thankfully they are still in one piece.” Started Tonks. “Penny you look the most innocent,” Penny blushed at her comment, “so you will go to Filch and tell him that Peeves is making a mess on the Second Floor. Meanwhile, Tulip will go and find Peeves and ask him if he could do something really bad there.” Tonks was speaking faster and faster. “Just mention Filch to him, as he is Peeves' favorite person to prank and he will go do something.” She continued.

“Then you will hurry down to Filch's Office to guard the door as I sneak inside and place a Dungbomb on his table.” Tonks beamed proudly.

“Tonks, don't you think Filch knows how a Dungbomb looks like and will get rid of it?” I asked puzzled.

“Oh, don't you worry my little Weasley, I'm not done with the plan.” She grinned.

“While inside, I will place the bomb into a nicely packaged box, so it will look like a gift. And I'll make it that the Dungbomb goes off when he opens the box!” She exclaimed.

“That's bloody brilliant.” Nova chuckled, while Tulip, Penny, and I clapped very quietly so that Madam Pince wouldn't throw us out again.

“Penny,” I turned to her, “I can't believe you're up for this. You were always so against breaking the rules.”

“Oh, who cares about rules, look at my hands, Charlie!” She showed me her fingers, revealing 3 broken nails and quite a lot of blisters.

“Shhh!” We heard Madam Pince somewhere in the background.

“I want to get back at that bloody mean old man.” She lowered her voice. “You have no idea what methods he uses to scrub those trophies, who by the way don't need polishing at all since they seem to stay in a dusty little room.” Penny frowned.

“He made us use some kind of a potion to rub the trophies with. It had a foul smell and it burned our skin.” Added Tulip. “More of a poison if you ask me.”

They went over the plan a couple of more times. Tonks made them repeat the whole thing, then their individual tasks and the plan again and again until she deemed them ready.

“When are you executing your brilliant plan?” Nova asked.

“Yeah, we better be as far away from Filch's Office as possible.” I added.

“We are doing it tomorrow after we grab an early breakfast. That should give us enough of an alibi. We can say we were still in bed as we were studying all night.” Penny laughed at Tonks' last sentence as she knew very well that Filch might just be the only person to believe that Tonks was studying on a Saturday.

“Now, then, let's get ready. Penny you will help me make the package while Tulip,” Tonks turned from Penny to Tulip, “you should go find Peeves and give him a little heads up about our plan tomorrow.” Then she looked at me and Nova. “I'm sorry to leave you out of this plan, lads.”

“That's quite alright. Charlie wanted us to go to the Lake anyway, right Char?” Nova smiled at me.

“That's right.” We started to get up and leave the Library quietly. I couldn't believe we managed to create a whole plan of mischief without being thrown out by Madam Pince. I guess Tonks was getting better at whispering.

As we were making our way from the Library, Nova suddenly stopped in front of the Great Hall as if she forgot something.

“Char, shouldn't we get some cereal to give to Helga?” She could hardly keep up a serious face. I rolled my eyes.

“Haha, very funny.” Ever since I told them that I have been feeding the Squid, she wouldn't stop teasing me about it and as much as I liked when she laughed and had a great time, I didn't like being made fun of by my best friend.

We finally made it down to the Lake and it looked like we wouldn't have a lot of time as dark-looking clouds were heading our way.

“Alright, so when are we sneaking into the Forest?” Nova asked as soon as we sat down.

“How did you know that's what I want to talk about?” I looked surprised.

“Oh, c'mon Char, I know you can't stop thinking about it as much as I can't!” She grinned at me. It was true, I kept thinking of the best ways to sneak into the Forest unnoticed.

“So, here's what I've been thinking.” I leaned towards her so that I was almost talking in her ear. I wanted to make sure nobody overheard our conversation. “Going at night is way too risky as we could get caught by a teacher patrolling the hallways at night.” Nova nodded, her eyes focused.

“We can't skip our lessons as we would probably get caught and I think we both know that asking Hagrid again would just be a waste of time.”

“Yeah, I really think he won't accompany us again.” Nova agreed.

“So I was thinking,” I said slowly, “that we would do it during the Feast on Christmas Eve.” Nova gasped. “Nobody remembers who stays at Hogwarts for Christmas and given the fact that the tables will be half empty anyway, nobody would miss us.” She clapped excitedly.

“Charlie, that's brilliant!” She ruffled my hair. “But I thought you're going to spend the Christmas at the Burrow?” She frowned.

“I'll have to convince mum to let me stay here.”

“But that means that she would make Bill stay as well and I think that would make him mad enough to follow your every move.” She continued.

I couldn't help to admit that she was right. I couldn't believe that there was a flaw in my plan.

“Unless,” Nova scratched her chin, thinking, “I know that Penny is staying at Hogwarts this Christmas. She could distract Bill by talking about potions, long enough for us to sneak from the Great Hall.” She said proudly.

“That's not a bad idea.” I gave it a thought.

By debating it further we came up with a brilliant plan. I would convince my mum to let me stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, saying that I want to spend it with Nova, Tonks, Tulip, Penny, and Jae. Knowing she would agree since she has a soft spot for me and Bill making friends, she would make Bill stay as well to keep an eye on me.

I knew that Bill would be angry about that since we spent our last Christmas at Hogwarts as well and he was quite sad not to see our family, but this was the price I was willing to pay. If any of our friends ought to go home for Christmas, we would just tell Bill that their parents didn't allow them to stay.

We would then tell Penny the plan and ask her to bug Bill about potions so that we could slip past Bill from the feast. We would then go down to the Forest as fast as we could as we know the feast usually lasts around 3 hours. That wouldn't give us as much time as we would've wanted but it was better than nothing.

We would time ourselves so that we would know when we would have to be back and return to the feast before it's over. If Bill would ask us where we have gone, I would have told him that I accompanied Nova to the bathroom and hope that he buys it.

Nevertheless, if we make it out of the Forest, it doesn't matter how angry Bill gets after that. It was perfect and we couldn't help but feel proud of it. With a mastermind plan like ours, what could go wrong?

[withyounct]

What’s wrong kid?

Reader x Single dad!Jaehyun

Genre: Fluff

Words: 2.7k

Prompt: You notice a child crying at a school playground. You decide to see what’s up and meet an extremely stressed/extremely handsome father.

Next

A/n: This is my first long story on this site. It’ll be in parts. Please let me know what you think of it. ^~^

“If I have to look at another PowerPoint slide, I’m going to fucking scream.” You groaned banging your head on the table, hoping if you hit hard enough, you’ll pass out. You were on the fifth bang in when you felt a hand stop you.

“I don’t want to carry your dead body anywhere, so please stop.” Lucas pleaded while he gently pushed you to a sitting position. Looking up at your group of friends you saw a range of expressions, but the most prominent one was ‘done’. So, you take one last look at your laptop screen and decide you weren’t even retaining anything at that point. You shut your laptop and began to pack up, which caused eyes to trail your way.

“Where are you going?” Renjun asked looking up from his textbook for the first time that hour.

“Home. You guys have fun, I’ll happily take this F I'm about to get on my quiz.” You declared. You were graced with a variety of side eyes given the fact you’ve never failed anything regardless if you’ve studied or not. After sending a flurry of kisses, you left the library and started your walk home. The university was a good 20-minute walk from your place, but you enjoyed it. You had a car, but there was something calming about walking through the streets and parks especially after a long day like this. The music you were playing suddenly stopped and you realized that you accidentally pulled out the headphone jack. That’s when you noticed the crying.

Across the street you were on was an elementary school. There was a little girl sitting on one of the school park benches crying her little heart out. You scan the area and couldn’t spot any teachers. Biting your lip, you across the street and up to the girl.

“Hey. Are you okay?” You asked softly as you slowly sat by her. She looked up and pouted. Your heart swelled; she was a real cute kid. She took some time wiping her tears and nodded.

“My dad is late again.” She whispered looking down at the little pink watch on her wrist. You look back at the school and figured the teachers assumed she was already picked up since it was so late in the day.

“My name is Y/n. What’s yours?”

“Hyunjin.” She extended a handshake. You chuckle at how cute the gesture was.

“What a pretty name.” You smile. “Okay Hyunjin if you want, I can wait with you until your dad gets here.” You offered shaking her hand. Hyunjin smiled and nodded her head vigorously. She began to tell you all about school, her friends, her dad, and her really funny uncles. You found yourself laughing at her stories and how animated she was when she told them. You asked her about her dad, and she told you that he works in a really big building and he draws other buildings. You figured he was an architect of some sort. You noticed that she never brought up her mom, so you decide not too either. About an hour and a half, you noticed her start to fall asleep and at this point she was completely leaning on you. The sun started to set and no sign of her father. You pondered on if you should ask her where she lives, but you also thought that would be a bit weird since you’re a stranger.

You were about to wake her up when a car pulled up and out popped out a man who looked not much older than you. He quickly made his way over and your first two thoughts were Man he's handsome and Holy fuck he looks stressed.

“Hyunjin.” He called out when he got close enough. The said child, who was now laying her head on your lap, woke up and dashed into her father’s arms. He scooped her up and apologized for being so late. She told him at it was okay because she met a new friend and she stayed with her. You got up, dusting off your jeans and smiled at the duo. The man placed Hyunjin down and the two walked over to you.

“I’m so sorry for all this. Works been so hectic, and I’ve been trying to make it to pick Hyunjin on time and then I got stuck in traffic. I haven’t even introduced myself yet. What am I doing? I'm Jung Jaehyun, Hyunjin’s father. Thank you so much for staying with my daughter.” He spilled in one breath while extending a hand. You laughed at his frantic manner and shook his hand.

“Y/n. It’s fine, really. She’s the cutest thing on this planet, and we had a lot of fun talking.” You confessed and Hyunjin was all smiles. “I hope this doesn’t sound weird, but if you want, I wouldn’t mind watching her until you get off work. My classes are finished before Hyunjin gets out of school.”

Hyunjin’s excited shriek could have been heard on the next street over. She grabbed her father’s hand and nodded vigorously. Jaehyun on the other hand pondered on the idea.

“I'm not sure. I’ll have to think about it” He said with uncertainty. Hyunjin’s face immediately fell.

“I totally understand. I’m a stranger after all.” You reassured.

You both exchange numbers and Hyunjin gave you a goodbye hug, which melted your heart. Jaehyun thanked you once more and the father-daughter pair drove off. You smile at how weird all that was and continued your walk home. When you entered your apartment, you were immediately berated by your roommates.

“So, where have you been?” Ten asked from his place on the sofa.

“Out.” You replied simply.

“I made dinner for everyone tonight. Your share is in the microwave.” Kun added. You looked up at the heavens and thanked every deity out there for giving you amazing roommates.

“I love you both. I'm gonna eat and pass out. Goodnight.”

“Love you too.” Ten chimed.

“Sleep well.” Kun smiled.

The next day was normal. You went to class and passed your quiz, much to Yangyang’s dismay.

“Dude. I studied all night and failed, and you barely studied for an hour and passed. Give me your brain.” He whined as the both of you walked to the café that your friend group hung out at for lunch.

“How about I give you my notes instead?” You offered leading Yangyang into the café. Your other friends Lucas, Haechan, Jeno, Renjun, and Jaemin were already seated talking over various foods and drinks.

“Where’s Mark?” You asked, sliding into the seat next to Haechan.

“Probably dead under a piled of music theory textbooks somewhere.” He replied amused.

“Damn rip.”

Normal college talks ensued about hating everything and how inconveniencing Mark was for probably dying before they could as well. A small food fight was about to break out when Jaemin mentioned a party that was going to happen the following week.

“Y/n I'm requesting your presence at the party.”

“Request denied.” You answered stealing one of Jeno’s fries. A chorus of complaints emerged from the group, but you didn’t care. Just when you were about to steal another fry, you felt your phone vibrate. You looked down and Jaehyun’s name was displayed. You got up and was greeted with screams of ‘You can’t run away’.

“Shut up, I’ll be right back.” You yelled walking out of ear shot.

“Hello?”

“Y/n. I'm really sorry to ask this last minute, but can you please pick up Hyunjin for me? I'm stuck in a meeting and I completely forgot I have another scheduled after this one.” He pleaded and you could hear the desperation in his voice.

“Yeah. Of course.” You heard him let out a sigh of relief.

“God you're a saint. I’ll text you the address and notify the school.” He explained. He thanked you again and hung up. You walked back over to your friends and packed up your stuff.

“Alright bitches I gotta go.” You threw down your part of the bill and hightailed it out before anyone could ask you anything.

You walked back over to the university science building where your car was parked and drove over to Hyunjin’s school. You arrived a bit early, so you were scrolling through the messages in your group chat. You were laughing at the number of confused memes your friends where sending you when you heard the school bell rang. Kids were running out of the double door and you spotted Hyunjin. You exited the car and walked onto the playground. She was busy talking to another girl, so you just watched her for a bit. You noticed she looked a lot like her father and wondered what her mother looked like.

“You must be Y/n?” An older lady asked, taking you out of your daze. You nodded and she told you that she was informed that you were here to pick Hyunjin up. You both talk about her for a second and agree that she is indeed the cutest five-year-old ever. Hyunjin saw her teacher talking to you and screamed your name. She quickly said bye to her friends and ran to hug you.

“We get to hang out today!” You half-yelled trying to match her excited disposition. You both said bye to her teacher and hopped in your car. On the drive she told you all about her day and how she’s sad because her dad will come home late, but she's happy to see you again.

You pulled up at the given address and gawked at how nice the house was. It had a modern and contemporary feel to it and that was just from the outside. While you were dumbly staring, Hyunjin got out the car and opened your door for you. She bounced enthusiastically saying how excited she was to show you around. You hurriedly grabbed your bag and was dragged into the house.

The inside was even more impressive. The kitchen was the size of your living room and was filled with the latest appliances. The living room was huge and there was even a beautiful garden that Hyunjin said she and her dad had worked on from time to time. As Hyunjin pulled you around you found yourself wondering why she didn’t have a babysitter. Jaehyun was obviously well-off.

Hyunjin asked if you could help her with her homework, so she can get it out the way and you guys could play. You commented on how mature that was and that you would be honored to help.

After an hour of homework, you both were free to play. Hyunjin told you about how one of her friends taught her how to braid. You offered up your hair and she gleefully braided it all the while telling you more about her amazing uncles.

“From what you're tell me Johnny is hilarious.” You laughed. She agrees and asks you not to tell anyone because she loves all her uncles, but Taeyong is her favorite because he’s sweet and acts like a kid sometimes.

You guys play for a while and decide to make dinner together.

“Okay Chef Hyunjin what are we having tonight?” You asked carrying her to the kitchen.

“Umm… chicken pasta!” She yelled after giving it some thought. You compliment her choice and began to prepare dinner. You had to admit she was the cutest help you could have ever asked for. She knew where exactly everything was and was great at setting the table. After dinner you helped her bathe and dried her hair when she was done. It was getting late, so you decided it was bedtime. She took it like a trooper and passed out after you read some of her favorite stories.

You wandered back into the living room after making sure she was asleep. Pulling out your laptop, you worked on a few assignments. You sent a message to both Ten and Kun telling them that you would be coming home later than usual and to not send a search party. Their replies hadn’t come yet when you heard the front door open and close.

Jaehyun walked into the living room looking like the handsome version of the walking dead.

“Y/n. How are you? How was Hyunjin?” He asked undoing his tie and tossing his keys in a bowl.

“Great. Hyunjin was an angel.” You informed with only smiles. You both reconvened in the kitchen and you recounted the day you’ve spent with his daughter.

“Then she made this braid, which is pretty impressive for her age. Dinner was fun. I didn’t know if you’ve eaten or not, but I made a plate for you as well.” You said. His face lit up and it reminded you of how Hyunjin’s face did the same when she’s happy.

“I haven’t. Thank you, you goddess.” He rushed over to the conventional oven where his plate was and smiled. “Chicken pasta?”

“Yeah Hyunjin said it’s one of your favorites.” You both decide to get to know each other. He learned that you were a sophomore in college majoring in Biology.

“That just sounds terrifying. Science was never my strong suit.” He shuddered as he placed a cup of coffee in front of you. You learned that he was indeed an architect and was a really successful one at that. He owned his own company and the ‘uncles’ Hyunjin referred to were his friends and partners. You also learned that he was only 26.

“I aspire to be that successful at 26.” You stated jokingly. “So that means you had Hyunjin when you were only 21. That must have been stressful on you and her mom.”

As soon as the words left your mouth you cringed. Hyunjin, who was a child, never talked about her mother and it was in your opinion a little tactless to bring her up with Jaehyun. You were about to apologize for being rude and nosy when Jaehyun spoke.

“It was.” He smiled at you, calming your panic heart. “But Hyunjin was the light of our lives. Her mom decided to put college on hold and stay at home while I finished. She died three years ago, car accident. Hyunjin was in the car and survived.” He finished sadly.

“Oh god. Jaehyun I'm so sorry.”

“It’s okay. I have Hyunjin.” He smiled and you noticed his dimples. A smile made its way on your face as well. “You know you’re the first person that Hyunjin has taking a liking to other than her uncles. All the babysitter I’ve hired she hated them.”

“You mean to tell me that angel has the capacity to hate!?” You yelled a bit louder than you meant to. Jaehyun busted out a laugh and you shushed each other, not wanting to wake Hyunjin up.

“Yes. It seems so.” Jaehyun said coming down from his laughing high. You looked down at your watch and decided it was time to leave.

“I should get going and you need to get to bed. No offense, but you look like you’re about to die from sleep deprivation.” You walked over and placed your mug in the sink. You turned back around and saw him go into his pocket.

“Here let m-”

“No. Your daughter is the cutest thing on this planet and I gladly did this for free.” You stated.

“I recall you saying that yesterday.” He laughed. “But please I would feel a lot better if I pay you.” You both went back in forth for a few minutes and then he pouted. This grown man pouted and you gave in.

“Fine. You win.” You murmured childishly. You heard him call you cute as you passed him, money in hand.

“Would you be interested in sitting Hyunjin? I'm working a huge project right now and I would be less stressed and worried if someone like you were watching her.” He confessed to your back as you packed up your things. You smiled and turned around.

“Jaehyun, your daughter is the cutes-”

“the cutest thing on this planet, is that a yes?” He bit his lip worriedly.

“I would love to.” You watched him raise a fist in victory and laughed. He walked you to your car and stood there waving until you were out of sight.

[bates--boy]

After being whisked away from the humdrum of post-performance celebration, Peter and his mentor and co-actor took a drive. He took the time to try to center himself, draw in the feeling of bliss and lift. He couldn't tone down the elation, but at least his hands stopped shaking and the tingling in his fingers and toes had cease. It helped to babble at 150 miles per hour how incredible he felt, how Naseem was right, how the gum trick really helped; bless Naseem for his patient ear and even his reciprocated joy.

          They arrived to a tucked-away diner, approaching a large table just as the occupants were finishing up the minimalistic (cheap) party decoration. Red and blue crepe streamers looped in a swirl and taped to the edges of the table and draped on the backs of the chairs; a plastic gold ice bucket, dotted with clear rhinestones and containing ice and a bottle of wine, sitting in the center, and gold and silver balloons tied to the corners of the chairs. And they must have, somehow, convinced or bribed the diner owner to let them hang from the ceiling a shimmering golden banner that said in swoops of black lettering: “Grattis till samlag”, crossing out “samlag” with “musikalisk”. Naseem’s belly-deep laugh after spotting the banner drew the attention of the partiers and everyone at the table paused in their decorating to clap and cheer. 

          One of the attendees leapt into Naseem’s arms, throwing her arms around his neck, careful to keep the single rose in her hand from tangling in his locs. Peter looked away with an awkward grin, rubbing his neck as the two shared a deep kiss right next to him. 

           “Congratulations, Naz! You were wonderful,” the woman said with a soft exuberance.

          :”Thank you, baby,” Naseem replied with the same loving softness. Then, patting Peter’s shoulder, Naseem said to everyone at the table, “Everyone, this is my co-actor and rapping student, Peter. Peter, this is my wife, Ashira, and my friends, Tarsha, Adel, and --”

          “Oh, my god!” Peter clapped and then pointed. “Oh, my god, oh, my go, you’re friends with Mic Droppa!” 

            Mickey Mic Droppa, who Peter struggled to recognize for a full minute without the dimmed lights of the boxing ring and the blinding shine of the boxing boots, gave a one-shoulder shrug and awkward grin. “Eh, I usually go by Mike off the stage. But, ah, nice to meetcha.”

          “It’s so cool to meet you!” Peter practically flew to Mike, taking the man’s hand and shaking vigorously. “Ever since Naseem took me to one of the rap battles, I’ve been listening to all of your music! You’re incredible, man!”

          Mike’s smile stretched even wider, under his increasingly reddened face. Peter could hear Ashira coo behind him, “Awww, Mike’s got his own fanboy from hell.”

          “With stars in his eyes, too,” Tarsha giggled.

          “Okay, Peter, let’s chill,” Naseem said as he patted Peter’s back and had him take a seat. Everyone else followed suit once the decorations were set, and Adel set to opening the wine. He passed out the filled glasses, and Naseem raised his. “To you guys, for coming to see us. For all of this, really. If it weren’t for your support throughout, I wouldn’t have pursued this.”

          “We wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Ashira said, snuggling in Naseem’s arm and taking a sip from the glass. 

         Naseem looked at her with a cocked brow. “All that aside: should you be drinking that?”

           Ashira nestled her head in the crook of Naseem’s neck. “Don’t worry, I pumped before I left.” She looked past Naseem’s neck to Peter. “Hey, Peter, right? You order whatever you want. We’ll foot the bill.”

          Peter blinked, broken out of his concentration of trying to stargazing at Mike from over the wine glass without being too obvious. “Really? Ah...” He put the glass down on the table with a small shake of his head. “Naaah, that’s okay, I can pay for myself. Heck, you guys did so much already, I can pay for you!”

          “Oh, shut up and order something so we can pay,” Naseem scoffed humorously. He gave Peter’s ankle a swift nudge with his foot. “And order an actual meal, not something that’s basically sugar.”

          “Why are you trying to restrict a grown ass man’s diet?” Ashira teased. 

          “You have not seen how this boy can pack away half a cake,” Naseem replied, picking up his menu.

          “It was not half a cake!” Peter protested. “It was a quarter, at the most, and I missed lunch that day!”

          Naseem gaped at him. “A quarter of a sheet cake.”

         Peter pouted and picked up his menu. “Shut up,” he grumbled, his chuckling afterwards muffled as he buried his face in the laminated menu.

          Their server came over to their table, taking everyone’s orders and switching out the empty wine bottle for a full one, though Ashira ordered a sparkling raspberry water. Adel was already at work popping the cork off that one, while they caught up with each other with Peter nursing his water and listening. Tarsha’s finally breaking even with her graphic design freelance and getting cheapskate clients to pay up, and Adel’s dissertation on Sámi and West African literature being published in an academic journal of literary studies. (Peter wanted to chirp in how his father reads the journal that Adel will be featured in, but he was too engrossed in these personal lives to bother). And Mike, who did not look like the type of person to work as a librarian, surprised Peter when he shared that he was offered a director position for two branches.

          “Why wouldn’t you take it?” Ashira asked after a brief pause. “This is exactly what you need to get your crazy-ass ex off your back, right?”

          “Yeah, but...” Mike shrugged. He lazed back in his chair and watched his dark wine lap around the inside as he swirled his glass. “It isn’t really something I see myself doing for a long time, you know?”

          “And I guess,” Ashira replied, taking on an edge to her tone that had Naseem clearing his throat and even Peter busying himself with rubbing his thumb along the rim of his glass, “your long-term career is building up your music channel career?”

          Mike looked right into Ashira’s eyes and said a simple, “Yep.” And upon seeing whatever brimmed beneath Ashira’s cool façade, Mike quickly turned his attention to their guest, fixing Peter with an easy and inquisitive smile. “So, Peter, Naseem said you’re his rapping student. How’re the lessons going for you?”

        “Oh, they’re going really well!” Peter said. “He’s been helping me with my delivery and technique and pretty much everything. Guy’s even giving me homework, if you’d believe it!”

         Mike nodded. “Yeeeeah, that sound about right.”

        “But they’re working though,” Naseem added in. 

         “True,” Peter agreed. He took a sip of his water and clinked the remaining ice around. “And they’re fun. Even if there’s a big possibility I won’t get Josef’s role.”

          “Awww,” Adel said. 

         Peter bobbed a shoulder and stared into the glass, half his mind hoping that the tiny black fleck he saw stuck to an ice cube wasn’t a fly. “Eh, it’s fine. The guy playing Josef, Oda, he does the role and songs really well.”

          “That he does,” Mike said. “But I still would like to see what you’ve learned so far.” He fell silent, still watching his drink swirl about, eyebrows knitting together as he turned a thought over and over in his mind. “...Hm, you know what? If you don’t get to play Josef, then maybe you can show what you got at a battle.”

          The server returned once more with their food. The rich aroma of Peter’s cheesy potato scampi bake danced under Peter’s nose, but the man did not register the scent as he gawked at Mike. “What... You serious?”

         Mike nodded. “Yeah, I mean, the tournament itself is almost over this term, but you can still sign up as a guest performer, get your name out there and show us what you got.”

          “Wow...” Peter stared stunned at the table. He looked toward his mentor, whom had already began splitting the hamburger platter and salad with his wife, and asked with a smirk that did nothing to hide his overload of hopefulness, and asked, “Do you think I’m ready for that?”

         Naseem gave the question some thought. “...Probably. We did need to start working on your writing, and maybe having you come up with stuff on the spot can be good training.”

        As Peter waved his fist in total, starry-eyed glee, Mike offered, “And if you end up not being ready after all, you can still hang out with us.”

          “We try to get together and indulge in our love for hip hop at least once a week,” Adel added. “You know, talk music, follow artists, spit bars. All of that good stuff.”

           “Wait!” Peter gasped. He looked everyone in the eye, his mouth still hanging open. “All of you are rappers?!”

          “Oh, shit, there’s that look in his eye, again,” Tarsha murmured before taking a bite of her chorizo. 

          “Yep,” Adel said. “We’re mostly hobbyists, but we fell in love with the scene. Got married to the game.”

          “Minus me,” Ashira said. “But I think my husband serves as an excellent proxy to the hip hop underground. He shoots the best videos.”

          “You’re so sweet,” Naseem joked. 

          “Yeah, let’s cut down on the lovey-dovey stuff before you make me lose my dinner,” Mike cut in. “When you’re up for it, I can help you get set up at the gym. Just hit me or Naseem up and we’ll talk to our guy, right?”

          Naseem grinned at Peter with cheeks puffed up with food. Peter looked at everyone around the table. That sensation he felt backstage, when he was linked hand-in-hand in the circle with his co-actors, it bubbled up in him tenfold, warmth alighting in his chest at Mike’s friendly grin and nod.

         “I... I would love that!” Peter chuckled.

[max-is-really-okay]

Ink On Skin Chapter Two

Closing up, Ethan saw that Lex and Hannah had already gone home. He shrugged it off and locked up, glad that it had gotten a little warmer. He shrugged off the flannel and wrapped it around his waist.

A few people still walking eyed him suspiciously, not trusting him. Some women clutched their purses a little tighter, and some had their hands ready to grab something from their pocket. He hated that they saw him as a threat, he hated that they had to see everyone as a threat at night.

The only people who acknowledged him with an emotion other than fear were the hookers that liked to stay outside of his building. A woman called Tiffany and a man who went by Richard. Ethan knew that they were lovely people, so he always made sure to say hello.

Ethan got home around twenty minutes later, happy to see Greg screaming at his food bowl. As he fed Greg, he noticed that Greg was running low on food. He sighed, that meant that he would have to go to the store the next day.

Ethan hated going to the store. The store meant that he had to leave work early and go to a place where he would be surrounded by people he didn’t know just so that he could empty his wallet of anything that wasn’t already going to bills. But Greg needed to eat.

He looked at the ever growing grocery list taped onto the fridge and added cat food to the list. The front and back of the list was filled, so Ethan supposed that it was around time to go to the store. It would be nice to drink milk without a sour aftertaste and maybe have some real food to come home to.

He kicked off his boots once he was finished doing chores. He was exhausted as hell. He went to his room and changed into his pajama bottoms and decided to just go shirtless. He laid down on the couch and grabbed a red sharpie from the floor.

‘Hey.’ He sent his soulmate. He wasn’t sure if they would respond because of how late it was. He wondered what time it was in California. He was shocked when he felt the slight tingle of a message being written back.

‘You’re up late.’ It said. Ethan smiled down at it, closing his eyes and imagining who it could be. Was it the guy at the movie theater who took the late shift? The girl who lived down the street? An actress in L.A having the time of her life at a Hollywood party? There was no way for him to know.

‘You are as well, you know. I just had to work late. What’s your excuse?’ He smiled down as there was a frowny face drawn next to the comment about working late.

‘No fun. And I’m just settling down for the night. I just made dinner a little while ago.’

‘Oh. What did you have?’ Ethan asked.

‘Just pasta. It’s the only thing I really know how to make.’ They admitted, ‘What about you?’ they asked.

‘I didn’t have dinner’

‘Why not?’

He paused. There was more to the answer he thought of than he wanted to write down.

‘Don’t have much food. Shopping tomarrow’

‘Okay. Get some sleep weirdo.’

‘You too’ He drew a little smiley face next to his last comment.

Ethan grinned to himself as he tried to fall asleep. He always felt better when he talked to his soulmate. Something about them caring about him, even a bit, made him feel all warm and fuzzy in his chest. It was a feeling he wished he could hold onto forever.

It was gone when he was thrust into another one of his nightmares. This time it was more of a memory, which made it all the worse.

He was ten when it had happened. He had forgotten his homework. His teacher didn’t tell him that she had called home. He came home with a big smile on his face, proud of his loose tooth. He walked inside, and suddenly all of the air was taken from his lungs.

His mom and dad stood, waiting for him. His mom had her hands on her hips and his dad’s arms were crossed. Ethan had only been in trouble a few times before that, but he knew what those looks meant. He wasn’t getting dinner, at best.

“We got an interesting call from the school today. Can you guess what it was about?” His mother had asked him. Before he could respond, she kept talking. “Apparently our son couldn’t get off of his lazy ass and do his homework. So he might start failing.” She spat.

“Go to your room. If we see you before tomorrow morning on the way to school, you’ll regret it.” His dad threatened.

Apparently he didn’t move quickly enough, since his mom pushed him. He fell onto the bannister next to the stairs. He ran upstairs with blood running down his face. He looked in the mirror to see that his nose was bleeding. And his tooth was missing.

Ethan woke up, Greg clawing his way as he fell off of his chest. It was just enough to draw blood. He made sure his cat was okay before getting up and going to the bathroom to clean himself up.

He felt the tingle of a message and looked at his hand, ‘Are you okay?’ was written in sloppy letters.

‘I’m fine. Cat just scratched me while I was sleeping.’ He wrote back with an eyeliner pencil he had in his bathroom as he slowly applied rubbing alcohol to the wound. He groaned and then bandaged it.

He didn’t get a response, so he assumed that his soulmate had just fallen back asleep. Ethan looked at himself in the mirror and flipped himself off before going back to his bed and crawling back under the covers.

He didn’t sleep well, and woke up feeling like shit. He didn’t feel like doing anything, but Greg was on his last can of food, so Ethan got himself dressed.

He didn’t even attempt to look presentable. He knew he wouldn’t be going into work that day, which made things a little easier. He just needed to go to the store and come back. There wasn’t much that could go wrong. That’s what he kept telling himself.

Ethan pulled on a green muscle shirt and put deodorant on before slipping on some slippers. He ordered an uber to drive him to the store, glad he had put away money for when he couldn’t walk somewhere.

He climbed into the back, not bothering to say anything but a simple ‘hello’ to the driver. When he got out of the car, he made sure to give the driver five stars for driving his living corpse around.

He walked into the grocery store and grabbed a basket. He made a habit of stocking up when at the store so he wouldn’t have to go back until later. Even though it took more of a chunk out of his balance than he would like, it was worth it.

He felt like a zombie walking around. He got some cereal for himself first. Off brand lucky charms. Just as much magic for a fraction of the price. As well as some apples and bananas. If anything, they were easy to grab.

He continued to take items, even getting a box full of cat food. Ethan was glad to report that on Wednesday morning, Walmart wasn’t very full. He also wasn’t the worst dressed out of everyone there.

He used the self checkout, making sure he ignored the candy beside the area, not wanting to give into temptation. It took all he had.

He got another ride and sat down at a bench to wait until they got there. There was a Subway inside of the Walmart, so he got himself a drink and waited. He was half asleep on the table when he saw them.

Ethan suddenly felt even more sick and had to swallow bile that rose in his throat. He wished he had brought his jacket, so he had some way to hide himself. Walking into the store were his parents.

He felt sick as they walked by, praying that they would pass him. He thought that he had gotten unreasonably lucky when they walked by, but then his dad stopped, turned around, and walked over.

“Well well well.” He had a fake smile plastered on.

“Hey dad.” Ethan could hit himself for how weak he sounded.

“Look at that. You still don’t even know how to dress yourself.” His mother sneered down at him.

Ethan hated that he was shaking. He could easily get up and leave. He had been through everything, if he was in his normal condition he could easily take down both of them with no problem. Who ever said that nothing good came from fighting? Now he knew how to throw a punch.

The issue was that he couldn’t move. His stomach felt odd and any time he tried to move he couldn’t breathe. He was about to hyperventilate when they finally left, realizing that he couldn't interact with them. He didn’t miss them calling him stupid once again before they left.

It was then that he got the notification that his uber had arrived. He grabbed all of his reusable bags and walked outside. The man in the car waved him down. Ethan all but collapsed into the seat with his ten bags and box of cat food next to him.

The driver tried to make small talk, but Ethan couldn’t really process anything. He took the water that was offered and gave five stars when the drive was finished. As soon as he got back up to his apartment, he threw up.

He had just barely made it to the toilet, and he collapsed next to it. Throw up had even gotten on his shirt. He only moved when his phone started buzzing and an unknown number was shown. He picked it up anyway.

“Hello?” His voice sounded like he had cut his vocal chords with a cheese grater.

“Jesus Christ, what happened to you?” Lex’s voice asked.

“Sick.”

“I can tell. What’s your address?” She asked.

“What?” He mumbled, half asleep.

“What is your address? I can’t have you dying on me, we just started hanging out.”

“How did you get my number…?”

“Business card babe. Now stop avoiding the question.” Lex’s voice was stern, so he told her. She hung up after telling him not to die before she got there.

Ethan didn’t want to smell more like vomit than he had to, so on the bathroom floor he lazily took the sleeveless shirt he had on and put on a long sleeved shirt that was already on the floor. Wrinkled, but less smelly.

He closed his eyes for just a moment, leaning on the cool tile of the bathtub, then woke up to someone poking his face. He brushed whatever it was away, thinking that it was just Greg. He opened his eyes to see Lex leaned down looking down at him.

“Your door was unlocked. I put your groceries away.” She told him bluntly. Ethan was barely sure that she was speaking English.

She helped him up and walked him into his room, saying something about how light he was. He tried to mumble something defensive, but she didn’t even flinch.

“You stay in here. I’m going to get you something to eat and maybe something to drink.” She told him. Ethan didn’t respond until she walked out.

He blinked slowly, feeling as his body begged him to go to sleep. This was the worst he had felt in ages, since he had lived with his parents. His tired mind finally put together that he had had a panic attack, one directly after another. No wonder he felt like shit.

Lex walked back inside with a glass of orange juice he had bought since it was on sale and toast next to some soup. She handed him the juice and he took a long drink.

He looked back up at Lex, she was still kind of out of focus, “Why are you helping me?” He asked.

“Because I was worried about you. Hannah was too, and I couldn’t say no to her. By the way, she’s in the front room playing with your cat.”

“His name is Greg.” Ethan told her unhelpfully. Lex nodded thoughtfully.

“I’ll tell Hannah when you’re done eating. Now, what do we want to try first? Chicken soup or lightly buttered toast?”

“I didn’t buy soup…?” Ethan tilted his head, which made the pounding pain worse.

“I picked some up from Panera. And that means soup.” Lex told him, smiling as she opened the lid. Ethan had to admit, it smelled really good.

He moved his hand to take the spoon, but it was shaking so badly that he couldn’t get a good hold on it. Lex took the spoon and fed him the soup. If Ethan was any more lucid, he would be embarrassed. If Ethan was any more lucid, he could probably feed himself.

That’s why Lex didn’t think about it as she started humming as she fed him. It was something she did for Hannah when she had a breakdown or panic attack, and something her adoptive dad did for her during a depressive episode.

Ethan relaxed slightly and soon his stomach was full again. He didn’t really think about it as Lex ran her fingers through his hair in a soothing manner as he slowly fell asleep. It was the type of affection he craved at all times.

When Lex was sure that he was asleep, she slowly stood up from the bed. Ethan had looked worse for wear since she had started talking to him. It couldn’t have been the beginning of the issues, since he was so light. He shouldn’t have been that easy to carry.

She smiled when she saw Hannah playing with Greg the cat. Hannah had taken really well to Ethan, faster than Lex had ever seen her warm up to someone. It made her a little more comfortable coming over when he wasn’t at work.

She couldn’t tell what exactly was wrong. From what Hannah had told her, he had seemed fine the day before, if maybe a little tired. Lex only got the way he seemed during a bad depressive episode or after a bad panic attack.

“What do we do now Banana?” Lex asked her sister, who looked up to acknowledge that she was listening. “Do we stay here until he needs something or to feed his cat? Is that weird?”

Hannah shook her head. “We should stay.” She told her older sister. Lex nodded.

That’s how the two of them found themselves lounging around Ethan’s apartment. Hannah continued to play with the cat while Lex put her feet up on the table and turned on the television to watch a shitty lifetime movie about a pregnant teenager.

She laughed at some of the poorly acted moments and soon found herself fully relaxing. The small apartment was cozy and warm, and Ethan had bought enough groceries to last through the next month.

She messaged her soulmate a few hours to see how they were doing. ‘How are you doing?’

It took maybe thirty minutes, but they responded. ‘Honestly? Not amazing. I’m sick from a panik attack and I just woke up from another nightmare. And it had started out so nice…’

Lex frowned softly, sympathy blooming in her chest. ‘I’m sorry to hear. My friend is sick too. I think he’s going through the same thing as you.’

‘That’s rough’

‘I know. I’m at his house right now taking care of him.’

‘Well he’s a lucky duck.’

‘Eh. I just bought him soup.’

‘Weird. A friend did that for me.’

‘That is weird. Now we both know we have good friends.’

‘Maybe they’re soulmates too.’

‘Maybe.’

Lex smiled down at that.

Ethan smiled down at his wrist. He felt slightly better knowing how his soulmate was at least as nice as Lex. And that was more than he could believe he deserved. Ethan took a moment to calm fully down before deciding that he needed to feed Greg.

He climbed out of bed and thanked god that the world now felt still under his feet. He walked into the front room to see Lex napping on his couch and Hannah with a purring cat in her lap.

“Hey Hannah, do you want to feed Greg?” He asked, and Hannah lit up, nodding so violently that her braids jumped up and down.

Ethan showed her how, and soon Greg was eating while Hannah had this proud grin on her face. Ethan smiled. “Are you allowed to have sugar?” He asked her. She nodded, and he got out the fixings for ice cream sundays.

He made Hannah a banana split upon her request, and made himself a sunday covered in chocolate sauce and cherries. He poured them both big glasses of chocolate milk.

They sat in his front room eating their ice cream while Lex snored away. “I’m going to wake your sister up so she can make her own.”

“Lexi is always grumpy when you wake her up.” Hannah smiled.

“Oh is she?” Ethan smiled back. Hannah just nodded and Ethan laughed. He still stood up and walked over, gently shaking Lex to get her to wake up. She did with a groan.

Instead of making her own sunday, Lex grabbed a spoon and took turns stealing from both Ethan and Hannah’s ice cream. While Ethan pretended to be offended, he still let her without much struggle.

Hannah fell asleep on his couch once they finished their dinner, and Lex looked at her little sister fondly. “I think that means that we should get going.” Lex told Ethan.

“Right. Um, thank you for helping. You didn’t need to come over, and I know that you closed up early, and that was real fuckin’ cool of ‘ya.” Ethan told her.

“I think you’re a really cool person. And If Hannah wants to keep having lunch with you, you can’t be dead. That wouldn’t work.”

“You’re so right. So we’re even?” Ethan joked. Lex laughed and nodded. He wanted to hear her laugh forever.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” She asked, scooping up her sister.

“Are you walking?” He asked.

“No, my friend Deb is giving us a ride.” Lex reassured.

Ethan nodded and watched as she left. He grabbed a pen from the table.

‘I know that you are my soulmate, but until I meet you, do you think that I could date someone else?’

About twenty minutes later, he got a response.

‘Oh thank fuck. I was about to ask the same thing.’

[fueledbysprite]

Up Too Late

@lotus-duckies came up with this genius idea, and I, of course, went all-out and turned it into literal crack. Enjoy!

“I’m never coloring another leaf again,” Marinette announced, halfway through shading another one of the countless spring buds that decorated the piece of board. “If it wasn’t for the fact that this is Mylene’s first performance live, on-stage, I’d probably have just given up and gotten Manon and Alya’s little sisters to color the rest in.” She sighed, putting down the pencil and massaging her wrist.

“Yeah, well, we did promise we’d help,” Nathaniel reminded her from his place near the roots. “And trees take a lot of detail; you can’t just fill them in, you have to shade them.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re only drawing the outline. Meanwhile I’m the one tiring my arms out making sure every shadow is at the right angle,” she grumbled. “Why is this taking so long?!”

“Good question,” the redhead agreed. “Actually, what time is it, even? We’ve been working for, what, hours?”

Marinette clicked on her phone and the digits 21:52 filled the illuminated screen.

“Nine o’clock?!” she screeched.

“Have we really been doing this for that long?” Nathaniel asked, looking up at her in shock.

“Ughhh, you know what? Screw this tonight, we’ll do more tomorrow. It is way too late to be doing this,” Marinette decided, putting her pencil down with finality.

Nathaniel put his things away too, yawning and stretching his arms.

“It’s too late to go home, now, though,” he pointed out.

“Don’t worry, you can just stay over for the night,” Marinette assured him. He stopped and blinked at her for a few moments.

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked, shaking his head.

“A sleepover, silly!” she giggled, tossing a pillow at his head. “Don’t tell me that working this long has tired out your basic comprehension skills.”

“Right, well, see, I don’t have my clothes, and I’m sure your parents wouldn’t want to be bothered with-”

“Relax. They’ll be fine, Alya’s slept over lots of times when we were working on projects that took too long.”

“Yeah, but that’s Alya-”

“So? Same thing; now help me put this stuff away. I think I’ll get sick if I look at another blank leaf tonight.”

Nathaniel sighed and assisted her in moving the board against the wall so they could get back to it later, and collecting all the pencil crayons from their sprawled places.

“I don’t have my pajamas, though...” he mentioned, leaning under the chaise to pick up a sky blue.

“That’s fine, you can just wear some of my clothes,” Marinette said. “I’m sure they’d fit you. I hope you don’t mind that they’re all pink.”

“No, it’s fine,” he agreed, standing up and dusting off his pants. Marinette stood up too, and went to her closet to find him some clothes. He took them and disappeared into the bathroom to change.

A moment later, he came back out in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, both a light shade of pink that mirrored the light blush on his cheeks.

“You look fine!” Marinette smiled encouragingly.

“At least nobody else can see me like this,” he mumbled quietly. “Now what?”

“Hm..” Marinette thought. “I’m not really feeling like sleeping just yet. Maybe we could play a video game,” she suggested.

“Mm, I’ll pass,” Nathaniel replied. “You’d beat me on every level no sweat.”

“I’m sure you’re not bad,” she assured him.

“Yeah? You obviously haven’t seen me, then. I can barely figure the controls out, let alone use them.”

“Your choice,” she shrugged. “Hm, how about board games then. “Why don’t we play Monopoly, but it’s a race to see who can go bankrupt first.”

“Sure, why not?” he agreed, and so, a few minutes later, they sat before a board set-up and ready to play.

***

“What, no! That’s not fair! You landed on my house on purpose, dang it! At this rate I’ll have so much money I could buy the whole board and still have cash left over,” Marinette complained. Meanwhile, Nathaniel was rather smugly diminishing his cash stock to a few 5M bills.

“Well, it’s your fault for buying houses instead of hotels because you make less profit off of them,” he said.

“Well you don’t have to be so conceited about it,” Marinette objected, picking up her playing piece and tossing it at him playfully.

He responded by adding five extra bills to her stack. She raised an eyebrow.

“Dang it, I knew the game was rigged! I should have known you would cheat when I made you the banker!” she glared, picking up the entire game board and folding it in half. All the cards and pieces and houses fell to the floor.

“Whoa, sore loser much?” Nathaniel asked her, eyes widening. “I didn’t realize you’d take it so personally!”

“And I didn’t realize you’d play so dirty, so this game is void,” she replied, sticking out her tongue. He rolled his eyes, but they both knew that neither of them were particularly serious.

“Whatever, let’s just play something else. Monopoly takes forever to win, anyways,” the redhead suggested.

“Hm, how about ‘Never Have I Ever’?”

Nathaniel paled slightly.

“Don’t worry, there won’t be anything super personal. If you don’t want to answer, it’s okay,” Marinette quickly assured him.

“O-okay, sure,” he shrugged.

“Alright, then, I’ll start. Hmm, never have I ever...watched a horror movie alone at night,” she finally decided.

“That makes two of us,” he shuddered. “I can barely stand horror movies even if I’m not alone in broad daylight.”

“Would you watch one if I was with you?”

“Hmm...probably not.”

Marinette pouted.

“And what if I was close enough that I could hug you during the scary parts?”

Nathaniel thought it over.

“Mm…...maybe...” he relented. “Not this late at night, though,” he added quickly.

“Works for me,” she said. “Your turn.”

“Let me think, uh….never have I ever dreamt of kissing a marshmallow,” he finally came up with.

Marinette choked on air.

“What kind of confession is that?!” she asked.

“Well, it’s true. Rose told me that she had a dream once where she had to pick between marrying a unicorn or a marshmallow.” he shrugged. “Couldn’t think of anything else.”

“Well, uh, neither have I...” Marinette answered. “Or any kind of edible for that matter.”

The redhead chuckled.

“Well I did dream about blueberries once, but that was a long time ago,” he admitted.

“That’s so weird,” Marinette giggled, oblivious to the odd look he sent her way.

He shrugged.

“I dream weird things sometimes...” he told her. “What’s the weirdest dream you’ve ever had?”

Marinette frowned, thinking.

“Well, I don’t usually manage to dream most nights because I end up staying up super late doing homework or sewing or something, but, uh...the weirdest dream I had? I think this one time I had a dream where Chat Noir was telling me he was in love with me and then he started chasing me and I was running away, but then he stopped and turned into Adrien and I felt so bad because why on Earth would I ever run away from Adrien?” she sighed dreamily. “But anyways, I was so confused and scared that he wouldn’t like me anymore that I woke up, and thank goodness it was only a dream...” she froze, clapping a hand over her mouth.

“I said too much, didn’t I?” she asked embarrassedly, lowering her hand.

Nathaniel laughed lightly.

“It’s okay, I already knew,” he confessed. When she looked confused, he went on.

“I mean, not to sound creepy or anything, but since no one usually talks to me, I just end up watching people. You seem kind of awkward around him, so I figured...” he trailed off.

“Am I that obvious?” she asked softly.

“No no no, not at all!” he assured her quickly. “I’m pretty sure I’m like the only one. Adrien’s too oblivious to notice anything, and I wouldn’t tell anyone,” he promised.

“It probably doesn’t even matter, anyways,” she sighed sadly. “He’s never going to see me the way...”

“Don’t say that, Marinette, he’ll have to figure it out some way or other. Once he discovers how lucky he really is, there’s no way he could turn you down!”

Marinette looked up.

“You really think?”

“I know for a fact. You’re an amazing person, he just hasn’t realized just how amazing you really are yet,” he said.

“That’s so sweet of you, Nathaniel,” the bluenette told him.

“Anytime,” he smiled. For once he found himself able to smile at her genuinely, and, despite the little pain that still throbbed in his chest, he realized that if he could have her even as a friend, that would be good enough for him.

“Okay, enough of this. I wanna do something,” Marinette decided suddenly, a mischevious glint in her eyes.

“O-kay...?” Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. “Any reason for that not-at-all suspicious expression on your face right now?”

“Oh you’ll see,” she grinned evilly, producing her cell phone out of thin air. “We’re going to have some fun.”

“Um..okay...but I don’t know if this is a good ide-”

“Shush,” she cut him off with a finger on his lips as she dialled a number and waited for someone to pick up.

“At least dial *67 first!” he said, staring at the screen.

“Oh? Why?” she asked.

“The caller ID shows up otherwise!” he screeched. “Have you never prank-called before?!”

Marinette blinked.

“You’ve prank-called before?” she asked disbelievingly. “I’d never have imagined you...but anyways, I’m using an internet calling service so it’ll just show up as an unavailable number,” she explained.

“Okay, phew,” he sighed in relief. “Let’s just hope we don’t get caught. Don’t do anything extreme.”

“Relax, I got this.”

Marinette hummed softly until the person on the other end finally picked up. Nathaniel moved closer to hear what they were saying, and she put the call on speaker.

“Chloe Bourgeois; who dares to disturb me at this time of the night?!” Marinette flinched and held the phone away from their faces, stifling a giggle all the same.

“You got the stuff?” Marinette spoke, voice ridiculously exaggerated since she had pinched her nose to disguise it. She had apparently been attempting some variation of a gangster voice, but was failing miserably at it. “I’ll be waiting in the back alley. Be there at midnight, or else.”

“Who the hell is this? Are you threatening me? Oh, just you wait until my father hears about this. You’ll be sorry you ever-”

Marinette calmly cut the line. Nathaniel sighed.

“You are honestly such an amateur,” he told her, shaking his head. She rolled her eyes.

“It wasn’t that bad,” she said. “It’s not like you could do any better.”

“Oh, really?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “Try me.”

Marinette looked at him, surprised.

“Fine,” she decided. “Show me what you got.”

“Oh I will,” he assured her. “You can pick the number, by the way.”

“I’ll do that,” she murmured, scanning the local directory and finally choosing one at random. She passed him the phone once it had started dialling.

“Allo?”

The voice sounded like it belonged to a high school girl. Marinette wondered if Nathaniel would be able to handle this one, but one look at his remarkably relaxed posture and the easy smile on his face told her he’d be just fine. What?

“Hey babe, I was wondering when I’d get to hear that sweet, sweet voice of yours again...” Nathaniel’s voice took on a completely unprecedented smoothness, and Marinette was left staring in surprise. ...wHAT???

“I’m sorry, who is this?” the girl on the other end sounded very confused and a bit embarrassed, from what Marinette could tell.

“It doesn’t matter,” he whispered, voice low and even smoother than it was before. “All that matters is me and you tonight.”

Marinette’s brain was short-circuiting; what the hell happened to the shy, sweet guy who was sitting there just a few minutes ago???

“Oh, um, okay? Er, what do want to do, then?” Marinette very much pitied the flustered receiver.

“That’s really up to you, honey. What do you wanna do tonight?”

“Well, uh, my parents aren’t home, do you maybe wanna…?”

Nathaniel suddenly choked on air, dropping the phone. Marinette hurried to pick it up before it hit the floor, quickly closing the call while Nathaniel launched into a coughing fit.

“Well that backfired,” the aspiring fashion designer remarked.

“She must have been a high schooler,” the redhead managed between coughs. “I wasn’t expecting her to go that far!”

Marinette couldn’t help but giggle.

“We’re lucky she didn’t go to Françoise Dupont, at least,” she said. “I never knew you could talk like that.”

“I don’t usually,” he admitted. “But Alix loves prank calls and I basically ended up practicing in anonymity. I also watch a lot of movies, so there’s that...”

“Hmm..that gives me another idea...” Marinette said slowly.

“Do share.”

“I wonder if you could pull the same thing off with someone who we actually know in real life...” she said, half to herself. Nathaniel paled.

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough.”

***

“How many times are we going to have to pause this?” Nino asked, exasperated, at the sixth time the phone must have rung this evening alone. “Your sisters wouldn’t leave us alone for two hours, and now that they’re asleep, we get another phone call every five minutes.”

“I hope it isn’t Chloe this time. Why does she think you’re trying to deal drugs with her?”

Nino shrugged.

“Beats me. Just answer it so we can get on with the movie already.”

“It’s from Marinette,” Alya frowned, tapping the screen.

They were met with a high scream that would’ve woken Alya’s sisters if her phone had been on speaker.

“Marinette?! What happened?” she asked worriedly. No response. The brunette anxiously held the phone closer to her ear to pick up some kind of hint.

“AHHHHHHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahahaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh...”

“Marinette? What the heck is going on-”

“I’m not letting go until you say it!”

“Nathaniel?! The heck are you doing at-”

“Ah-ah-ah-ahahahahahah-I-can’t-I just-ahhhhahahahah...”

“...are you okay?”

“Say it...”

“NOOOOO-ahahahahahahhhh..”

Nino looked up at Alya, expressing mirroring hers.

‘What the actual hell is going on?’ he mouthed at her. She shook her head in bafflement.

“Say my name and I’ll let you go..”

“Na-agh-ahah-stop-nath-I-ohmi-ahahaha-NATHANI-AHAHAHAHAHAH”

“Come on, say it…..”

“Ahhhahahahah-nath-aha-natha-ack-NATHANIEL-aghh-now let me GO, goddammit!”

Alya turned to her boyfriend, wide-eyed.

“You don’t think they’re...”

“But from what it sounds like they’re doing...” He shook his head quickly.

“No. it can’t be.”

“But then again...” she gestured at the phone, which was currently transmitting sounds of rather heavy breathing. They both stared at it for a few long moments.

“You know what, I think I’d rather just continue the movie.”

“Yeah, definitely.”

***

“Aw, she hung up on us,” Nathaniel complained, moving so Marinette had space to catch her breath.

“Damn, Nathan, who knew you’d get so aggressive in a tickle fight?!” she said between pants. Her face was as red as his hair as this point.

“Need some water?”

She nodded vigorously and he poured her a glass from the jug on her vanity. When she’d finally gathered herself, she put the glass down and looked at him.

“I guess that’s enough for one night, yeah?”

“Mhmm...” he yawned. “Where are we sleeping?”

“I’m sure you can fit onto my chaise lounge,” she told him. “Unless you want the bed, but after what just happened on the phone, I think that might bring up some questionable stuff,” she noted.

“No kidding, I’ll take the chaise. I might be up for a little while later, though. I have trouble falling asleep, especially in unfamiliar places.”

Marinette nodded.

“I guess I’ll just keep you company until I fall asleep. I’m not really in a mood to get down to bed just yet, either.”

“You sure?” Nathaniel asked, glancing at her drooping eyelids and slouching posture.

“Mmmhm,” she responded in assurance.

“Yeah, no.”

“Mmmm..” she mumbled, resting her head against the chaise. They sat like that in silence for some time, before he spoke up.

“Marinette?”

She didn’t respond.

He shrugged and, with some effort, picked her up and lay her down on the chaise. Then he curled up beside the piece of furniture, and, before even realizing it, he, too, had fallen fast asleep.

[therapist-solarist]

Be Someone Other Then Yourself ==>

A Homestuck fan-fic I posted a long time ago on my archive account.

TAGS / WARNINGS:  Character Death, Immortality, godtier!alpha, kidsgodtier!beta kids, Depression, Anxiety, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Death from Old Age, Early Death, Death, Abuse, Past Abuse, Bullying, I got depressed for a few months and made this masterpiece, Sadstuck, implied anorexia, Anorexia, lowkey john / roxy not really mentioned till Jade's part, even then its like 3 lines

Summary: How the world before and after the game effects it players and none of the time in between. This is sadstuck and there is 4 major character deaths. Read at your own self depressing risk.

==》 Be John Egbert

Your name is John Egbert and you are about to enter your first class of a Monday morning freshly from homeroom. It’s your English class. You really do enjoy the talks about 1800’s literature and novels of the time. The masters such as Shakespeare and H.P Lovecraft and many others always draw your interest and make your day better even if you get tripped and beaten up every other day or as of lately everyday. The bill rings shrill and you bolt out of the room and step into the hallway sticking to the lockers like glue and weave your way through the growing crowds avoiding most people's eyes. Trying to avoid being beat up before first period and risk missing your favorite class over some more bruises on your ribs or the teasing that had been wearing away at your mind slowly. You still wore your shorts and shirt. Only difference was now days you had switched to bring a pair of spare clothing in the case you were beat up and got blood on your white shirt. You still avoid telling your father.

Your about 10 steps away when a voice calls out loud and clear to you, it’s obvious it's directed at you once the old nickname has left the mouth of your childhood tormentors. 

"Hey Beaver teeth, how's the dam going?”

A group of boys laughter rings through the hall as they advance behind you. You keep your head down and avoid everyone's gazes as they surround you in a semi-circle backing you into a locker. You still refused to look up not giving them the satisfaction of seeing the fear in your eyes.

"Hey Beaver teeth. I know you heard me. I know you hear me~" 

The boy keeps calling out to you trying to draw your head up. To make you look him in the eye. His friends are all laughing and joining in chanting the long overused nickname. The boys voices mix to others in the hall that want to see you with a bruise on your face. Girls and boys, from freshman to seniors are chanting now. Trying to get you to snap. To look up at the boy. Your sure a few teachers are watching. You're also sure none of them care. You close your eyes as the first punch flies to your gut.<p>

When it's all said and done you've been hit 17 times. You have 13 bruises and a cut on your hand and a bloody lip that is swelling by the minute.

After all that you still missed English class. 

When you get home you tell your dad you tripped on the stairs today and that in your misfortune you scraped your hand on a pair of haphazardly placed scissors on top of someone's backpack.

You're surprised he still buys the lies.

You know he knows that something is wrong. 

You head upstairs and the first thing you notice is a pesterchum message. You drop your bag on the floor and grab a sweatshirt, heading to the bathroom ignoring the messages for the moment. You walk into the room and close the door and lock it behind you. The mirror on the wall is good enough to check your body for the bruises and make sure it was only 13 this time. That it wasn't all 17 of the fists that left a mark on your now always purple stained skin. 

You were right the first time. Only 13. This is good news to you seeing as any more then 13 and you'd start to wonder if your brain was damaged and could explain why you're failing math. You find that the pain from moving now days hurts you more mentally than physically. You decide to stop your train of thoughts there as not to dwell any more. That’s what 3 am exhaustion is for. 

You throw your shirt to the side and just slip the sweatshirt over your head, enjoying the breathing room. You're sure one of these days you're going to get a broken rib from all the strifes you're involved in. 

You leave the bathroom and make your way slowly into your bedroom. You notice your pesterlog has new messages in a memo that jade set out for everyone a while back. 

You open it. 

GardenGnostic [GG] opened memo [GG] hey! How was school :D EctoBiologist [EB] answered memo TentacleTherapist [TT] answered memo TurntechGodhead  [TG] answered memo  [EB] lots of fun [TT] Uneventful [TG] boring as hell [GG] aww! I wish I could go to public school with other kids!

You stop and stare at your computer. Just one more person you have added into your Web of lies about school. You're not sorry for doing it though, rather save everyone the pain of knowing and doing something stupid and ending you up in a world more of pain. Hoping that jade never goes to school and has this happen to her, hoping that Rose won't go into a protective mother like / psychiatrist mode on you fussing over your bruises and hurt body telling you it's not okay. And Dave trying to teach you threw skype how to fight. 

You know they mean well but it wouldn't do you any good it would only cause your friends more stress. And you know that but you let it go anyway. You are also sure if you didn't accept those lessons from dave he would sneak down to Washington and beat the shit out of them. Not that you haven't thought about asking him too but you know you don't want that. They'll just come back and hit twice as hard once he’s gone. 

You really hope no one notices.

Jade catches you shirtless in your room on the ship in the first few days when she went looking for you to come to talk to and get up to date with.She knows they aren't from fighting monsters. God tiers heal fast. She can't understand what they are from. You don't tell her despite her pleas to know. 

When you acceded, you did not want the bruises to fade and kept them covering your body to remind you of your life before the game. 

She still doesn't understand even after a half-drunk confession at 3 am on your next birthday. You tell her every lie you had told her, Rose, Dave and your dad. She still can't understand how people could be so cruel and why you hid it.

You never get the chance to tell Dave or Rose in the new universe.

They never knew and never would.

==》 Be Rose Lalonde

Your name is Rose Lalonde. You’re walking through the school hall between classes. Students part and move at least a foot away as you pass them. None of them dare to touch you. It’s a lonely existence but you don’t mind too much as they don’t understand most of the things you say to begin with. You keep your head down as you pass them. Pretending to read a book that is opened up on the binders you carry with you. You are all too aware of there eyes on you as you walk.

You spot someone sticking their foot out in a vain attempt to trip you but still trying to keep with the at least a foot away status quo. They wish to trip you. You know they are immature enough to try more then that  you side step their foot anyway. You cause a low gasp and flow of murmurs to fill the hallway. A loud voice pierced the hall after a moment of hesitation. 

“Better watch out or the big bad goth will put a spell on you!”

You ignore the voice keeping your head down as laughter erupted from the people around you. You cringe. You hate the sound of their laughter. You much prefer John’s stifled snorting laugh or Jade’s purely joyful giggle or dave's stoic smile / snort that cracks under a funny enough joke. The bell rings and people rush around you yet still, no one dares touches you after the little show you just put on for them.

In a weird way, you wish they would. A push, a shove, anything really. And if you're being honest with yourself you don't remember the last time someone even touched you or hugged you. You try not to think about it as you walk to math.

When you arrive home later that day you have little to no homework so you immediately head for your computer to talk to Jade, Dave, and John. You pull your laptop from your desk and dodge piles of clothing as you flop on your bed and sprawl out and click the small power button. 

As you await your computer’s startup you fiddle with a half-finished knitting project for John and his upcoming birthday. You are thinking of scrapping the idea and buying him something instead. 

You haven't decided yet. 

Your computer pins about 5 minutes later letting you know that your friends are online. You pull up pesterchum and relax into the familiar rhythm of typing and chatting with your friends. 

GardenGnostic [GG] opened memo

[GG] hey! How was school :D EctoBiologist [EB] answered memo TentacleTherapist [TT] answered memo TurntechGodhead  [TG] answered memo [EB] lots of fun [TT] Uneventful [TG] boring as hell [GG] aww! I wish I could go to public school with other kids!

The first time someone touches you that you now remember is when you enter the game. When you go grimdark and die John kisses you back to life. When you came to, the touch was forgotten except for a light hold on your arm making sure you were okay.

The feeling is still exceptionally foreign to you, even now.

The next time someone touches you it is Dave. He hugs you after you both attain god tier. You do so privately in your room. 

You both held on much longer than required.

The third time you are touched is by Kanaya. She holds your hand for the first time and this time the touch does not seem so scary. 

When the game ends you sit down and explain to Kanaya why you sometimes still shy away from her touch after almost falling off a couch rather Ungracefully as she went to touch your shoulder.

She does not push you to hold hands or even kiss. You are thankful for her but you are sure she still does not grasp how big and drastic the change of no physical contact to small touched and brushes of the shoulder are to you. You hope she never has to understand that feeling in her lifetime. Or that you will one day have to go back to a time without those small reassuring touches. You never want to see that day.

You never do.

==》Be Dave Strider

Your name is now Dave Strider. You're sitting in your room desperately searching for a clean long sleeve shirt before your Bro walks in and drags you off to school. 

The elastic of your jeans are painfully digging into your very boney hips and abdomen as your lean down and search your closet floor one more time before standing again and sighting as you grab yesterday's shirt and start to slip it over your head as your Bro walks in. 

You yelp and jump behind your door. 

“Knock next time!” 

You think he shakes his head before leaving.

You're glad you grabbed that shirt in time or your day would not be spent at school. 

You may have preferred it that way with the day you are about to experience. 

You arrive at school 3 minutes before the first bell for class is meant to ring. You sprint to homeroom and your teacher begrudgingly marks you as here on the attendance sheet. Your shoulders sag and relax for all of 30 seconds before you mentally prepared yourself for the rest of the day as the bell rings for the first period of the day. 

It’s 20 minutes into first period before the first of the whispers start to spread there the room. Soon after the first pieces of paper are thrown at the back of your head. You don't even flinch as they whiz past your head.

You know your teacher sees it.

When that class finally ends you scurry out of the room half sprinting across the building to your next class trying to act as if you're not running from the group of three boys on the school’s football team. You pass your locker and decide to skip your daily visit in exchange of getting to class early to be in the safe zone of not getting into a fight. You know bro will want to fight later today anyway and you don't need the extra bruises. 

You make it through the growing crowds avoiding most people's outstretched elbows and feet meant to trip or nail you in the ribs before making it to the transition hallway. This one is much quieter and empty. Not the ideal place to be headed with now a 4th football player on your trail.

You attempt to sprint down the hallway and make it halfway before one boy pulls you back by your collar half choking you. 

They drop you at there feet and the boy who pulled you back is laughing along with his cronies. 

You wheeze for a few seconds before speaking. 

“The fuck you want Andrew?”

He stops laughing and looks down at you. 

“You know Dave, you aren't fooling anyone with those lame ass shades you freak.“

One of Andrew's cronies cackles with laughter and joins in. 

“Yeah let's see those eyes of yours. Mabey even crush those retarded glasses while we're at it. “

You scramble back a few feet. ‘shit.’ has become a mantra in your head as you see the boys advance. You can not let your shades come off or get sent to the nurse's office. Neither would fare particularly well for you. 

“Can we continue this after school? Wouldn't want to be stuck in another detention with Mr.Soyer. The guy smells like a walking drug shop. Am I the only one that feels that way?” 

You scramble backwards a little more before getting far enough that you can stand. You watch as the small crowd of 4 boys look at one another and have a half-whispered conversation on what to do with you.

”Fine kid.” The venom in his voice is if nothing but a cold warning to stay away.   “Afterschool. 4 VS 1. You're not out back by the old playground down the street were gonna make sure you regret it. Now scram.”

At the end of the day you receive 20 bruises, 3 cuts, and what you think is another broken rib after the beating. At least you got to class on time earlier.

When you enter the house you make a beeline for the bathroom and instantly start your patch up of your skin and start to layer up. You know as soon as you leave the bathroom the note will be sitting on the fridge held up by a flimsy magnet. You can already see the message in your head. 

An hour later and you were not wrong. The note read what it always had and most likely always would.

“Bro. Roof. Now.” 

You had gone.

And come back. 

Only with more bruises on top of the previously earned ones.

You wondered if you needed to go to the hospital with all the damage you’ve taken today. Instead of saying anything and walking the 3 miles to the hospital you log onto your computer and open the pesterchum app client.

There all there waiting for you once you’ve logged in. GardenGnostic [GG] opened memo [GG] hey! How was school :D EctoBiologist [EB] answered memo TentacleTherapist [TT] answered memo TurntechGodhead  [TG] answered memo  [EB] lots of fun [TT] Uneventful [TG] boring as hell [GG] aww! I wish I could go to public school with other kids!

In the game there is a day where you and Karkat decided to lay in your bed together and cuddle. You were hot and absently decided to put on a tee shirt. The moment Karkat sees your arms and back he whispers your name and stands to hug you. 

You are a god tier but becoming one didn't take the scars away. You think maybe the game doesn't remove self inflicted wounds. Or maybe somewhere in your head you still believe you deserved every scar that lays bare on your hips and wrists.

You never realized how much damage all those beatings did to your mental health as well as physical. Karkat and Rose show you this. 

When the day came that you and Karkat had to part, you didn't. You stole your own infinite youth to be next to him. 

You are still scared in death that Rose did the same. 

==》Be Jade Harley

You wake up in the middle of your empty house in your room. Although you suppose the entire house is yours now day’s. 

It's completely silent and you wish maybe you'd wake to the loud gunshots of target practice, or the clanging noise of pots in the kitchen. It's been years and you're not sure you remember ever hearing any of that in your own home or if they were just wishful thinking.

You go through the motions of the day, feeding Bec, making yourself food for breakfast and lunch, sleeping, going on Internet searches that lead you to earn new facts about the world and tending your garden. You do it all listening to music. There is never a second after you wake that you want to hear silence. 

So you don't. 

Then it's the time your friends get home from school and you log onto pesterchum and start a new memo just like every day. 

GardenGnostic [GG] opened memo [GG] hey! How was school :D EctoBiologist [EB] answered memo TentacleTherapist [TT] answered memo TurntechGodhead  [TG] answered memo  [EB] lots of fun [TT] Uneventful [TG] boring as hell [GG] aww! I wish I could go to public school with other kids!

You frown. You're too bubbly and optimistic even for yourself. But you also frown because it's true. They have the privilege to go to a place with noise and real people and not be isolated. You wish you had that. 

The first voice you hear once the game starts is Rose. It's still not enough. 

The first person you see and talk to face to face in years is John. He pulls you close and hugs you. You pretend not to notice how he winces when you press closer to him and wrap your arms around his waist.

You're only 13.

You're 16 when you hug Dave and Rose for the first time.

You're 53 when you hug Dave and Karkat last. Dave kisses your head and says goodbye in the most broken voice you had ever heard before and you close your eyes as he leaves to die. It's silent again as he floating-years time going far far away from their reality.

Your only 189 years old when Kanaya last hugs you and 190 when Rose leaves as well. Rose died of a broken heart and drunk herself to death before she decided it was too much. It was silent the next morning as you all gathered to bury her body next to the now one-year dead troll.

She never said goodbye. 

John and the others slowly lose interest in living over time and you can't say you disagree. At the 912th anniversary of Dave and Karkat's deaths, Dirk and Jake leave as well. Jake hugs you and says “goodbye grandma” as he kisses you on the cheek. Dirk hugs you stiffly. He was never good at human contact as it was but even now almost a 1000 years later nothing changed there.

There buried next to one another. The cemetery is silent as you, Jane, John, Roxy and a small child clutched between the arms of the two stand there and watch the cold graves.

It's another 500 years before you're left with another uncontrollable silence.  You wake up sprawled across the floor to see Jane and Roxy dead, next to you. John is standing shell-shocked with a devastated child at his side.

At 2413 John and your niece leave too. You're left with underwhelming silence all the time now.

At 4013 years old you decide it's finally time to leave too

[fanatic-writers]

New Kid in Town: Welcome to Hell

A/n: So I got this request awhile back, and I adore it, so I decided to make a series based on it. I’ve seen High school AUs done and since I am an official high school student, I thought it’d be fun. I have no idea how long this will be or how regularly I’ll update it, but in honor of my first fic coming out around Thanksgiving, I thoughtI’d double post. (Don’t get used to it) -G

Request:  Loki, Thor, Frigga, Odin, a family story about Loki's first school day! They live on earth, they are mortals not gods, Loki's best friend could be one of the Avengers!

(I’ll get to the other Avengers and friends as the series goes on)

Pairing: as of rn all pairings are platonic, but that is likely to change. 

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He hated it here, granted he had only been here for a few weeks, but he already wanted to go back home. He supposed this was his home now, but he didn’t think it would ever feel that way. It had taken him awhile to make friends of his own back home, and here he figured he’d be stuck in the same l pace as he used to be. Friends with people who were idiots because his brother was friends with them.

“Loki,” his mother called “you’re going to be late and how would that look? Late on your first day,” she trailed off

The boy pulled on a green jumper and made his way to the kitchen quickly grabbing a piece of toast and heading out the door, his brother was already waiting and as always socializing with some girl.

“Wait, so your name is Thor?” she held in a laugh “I’m sorry I shouldn’t be laughing.”

“It’s fine it gets weirder,” Loki heard his brother say

“Our mother’s name is Frigga, and our father is named Odin,” Thor informed her

“And you control thunder and hit things with hammers?” she asked, “Also, our?”

“Ready to go Thor?” Loki piped up joining the two despite not wanting to

“Let me guess your name is Baldr?” the girl said turning to Loki

“No,” he replied, annoyed by this new girl

“His name is Loki,” Thor said

“Well I’m Y/n, it’s nice to meet you.” she informed him “You two want a ride? I usually stop for coffee, and I wouldn’t mind getting you something as a welcome to the neighborhood thing.”

Loki looked over to see his brother with a wide grin and rolled his eyes, he’d much rather freeze on the walk to school than go and get coffee with their neighbor. She walked them over to her car which to Loki’s surprise looked like shit. She looked like the kind of girl whose parents would buy her whatever she wanted but instead she had an older car marked with a few dents. As she opened her door, she climbed across the seat to unlock the other door and slip up the front seat to let Loki in.

“It looks a bit cramped, but I have short legs so. Oh, and if there's any garbage back there you can just… throw it somewhere. Sorry, it's kind of a shit hole, but it wasn’t too expensive, and my parents made me buy my own car after I accidentally hit one of theirs while trying to park my other car.”

“It’s alright,” Thor replied sliding into his seat.

Loki tucked his legs to his chest in anticipation of having his feet crushed but was surprised when the seat only slip back half as far as Thor’s was.

Y/n turned around and smiled at him “Told you, short legs.” and with that, they were off.

After hearing about the story of how she got her car and seeing the dents on the side, Loki had to admit he was a little afraid for his life but, for the most part, the drive was boring and safe. The girl pulled up to the drive-thru for their coffee and despite the large bill paid for the three of them. The only complaint was the lack of cupholders. They even arrived at school 15 minutes early which was great because the brothers had to meet their ambassadors aka an over glorified student that probably didn’t even want to show them around.

“You guys need help finding lockers or anything?” she asked when they got into the school. Loki immediately darted off hoping that was enough of an answer. After a few minutes to get his bearings he made his way to the office and was face to face with the girl that had brought him here.

“You’re in luck,” she smiled as she showed him a slip of paper with his name on it “I give the best tours.”

Loki rolled his eyes but followed her around the school as he was told.

“So you probably got the run down the other day like most transfers, so I’m basically going to tell you who to avoid and what classes are the worse, which is all of them let's be honest. You’re in math and chem with Tony so if you have trouble you can always copy his work, he also does homework for kids but he charges, and it’s not worth it. And you have English with Nat and me so that should be fun, Wanda is in our class I think you’ll like her.” she lead him from class to class, and as much as Loki tried to not like her it was reasonably hard considering they were more alike than he initially thought.

“Question,” she stopped in the hallway “do you hate this place? And be honest.”

He hesitated slightly “yes.”

‘Good,” she smiled “you’ll fit right in.”

His first class wasn’t so bad he had to take a mandatory art class and their was a quieter girl that he sat next to, despite not being able to draw at all he couldn’t help but try when sitting next to someone who seemed so naturally good at it. Per her duties Y/n was waiting for him after every class, they had English together right before lunch.

“You’ve got a few options,” she told him “sit with me and my friends which I can almost guarantee you’ll hate considering my friends are ass holes, sit with the other transfers or go and talk to Wanda and sit with her and her friends. I know it sounds like I’m pushing you out but she is actually one of the most interesting people I’ve met she’s from Sokovia, her accent is beautiful, and she is honestly the smartest girl I’ve ever met.” Y/n pointed out the girl that was in Loki’s art class, and he nodded.

“Thanks,” he muttered as he walked over to the girl “mind if I join you?”

She was nose deep in a book “go ahead,”

“We have art together, you’re an amazing painter,” he commented trying to break the ice, but it seemed Wanda was more interested in her book than him. He looked over to see Y/n and her friends laughing, he should’ve sat with them, there was still one open seat he could still infiltrate their group. He sighed and moved to the seat which was taken by Thor just before he got to it.

“Brother,” Thor smiled “I didn’t realize you were going to sit with Y/n.”

“I didn’t realize he was either,” A redhead piped up

“Oh shut it, Nat,” Y/n said, “you were a transfer once too, and the only reason we’re friends is because Wanda introduced us when you moved here.”

“Yeah well, I was a cool transfer,” Nat smirked “He’s from England,” Y/n countered

Loki rolled his eyes “I could just go sit with Wanda,”

“Oh please that’s social suicide,” Nat said

“Clint sits with him, and that doesn’t stop you from liking him,” another boy came up to the table and sat in his seat.

“I don’t like Clint,” she said “It’s common knowledge, and the new kid is going to have to figure it out.” the boy replied

Y/n sighed as the conversation carried on and moved to stand beside Loki. “What do you want to do because I can pull up a chair or I can introduce you to Wanda or Clint or whoever else you want to sit with.”

“You run this school doesn't you?” Loki asked

“No that would be Skye and Maria,” the girl said pointing to a table filled with more jocks and cheerleaders “my group is full of the outcasts, the jock that is a senior but didn’t make team captain or varsity, the girl that’s good at art but not good enough, the math nerd who’s loaded and is entitled af, and the musician who isn’t going to pick up a violin after she graduates.”

“And Wanda’s group?”

“They’re the artists, the nerds that are actually nice, and the people who actually have talent.” she informed him “They know the way this school works better than anyone else because they’re able to watch everything from the sidelines. Some see joining their group as social suicide but really if you want to fit in with a group theirs is the place to be, not ours.”

Loki nodded and walked back over to the table which had a few more people sitting at it now.

“If it isn’t richy-rich,” one of the boys at the table chimed in

“I’m just here to introduce one of the new students,” Y/n said visibly tensing at the nick-name

“Not good enough for you like the rest of us?” the same boy said

“Clint,” Wanda muttered, “not now.”

“This is Loki, he’s from England. I figured he’d prefer your group to mine.” the girl said like nothing was wrong and left, Loki could still feel the tension as he took a seat. “It’s nice to meet you,” the other boy said “I’m Bruce, and that’s Wanda, and if you hadn’t figured out, he’s Clint. Scott should be here soon.”

“Nice to meet you as well,” Loki said

“It’s really not, don’t pretend it is,” Clint said

“Clint,” Wanda said again

“What, we all know he’s only here cause Y/n doesn’t want to ruin her perfect group. They’re the ‘cool’ outcasts, and we’re the other ones, the leftovers. The ones who don’t have enough money or street cred to be with her and her friends.”

“She seemed nice,” Loki muttered

“She is,” Wanda spoke up “she just has funny ways of showing it. I wouldn’t tell you to avoid her but,” she sighed “like she said you’re probably better off here.”

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A/n: I hope you guys like this series idea, I have no idea where it’s going so if you have suggestions let me know! -G

tag list: @17marvelousfreak  @error-404-found @r-alexandra01

(If you’d like to be added let me know!

[clickwish2-blog]

Currently: August 2018

Currently August 2018:

Goodbye August, Hello September.

August was a doozy.  August always is if you have a child out of school for the summer. There’s this pull of trying to savor all the time with your child while working and then sometimes wanting to go back to school just because you love a routine and rhythm. Summer seems to end the second school starts.

And here we are in September already.

Here’s what August 2017 &  August 2016  looked like btw. I love reading some of my old entries.

The weird thing about living in the Bay Area (where I have lived most of my life), is that this is the time of year where the leaves start changing and we get hints of Autumn cues like leaves falling but then we are BLASTED with heat. It’s very confusing for the mind. Especially when you just want to settle into sweater weather and start getting cozy.

August was my birthday month. I turned 39. This is the last year of my 40s. This was also the first birthday I had without my Mom. We were up in Tahoe for it. It’s such a weird thing to go on a yearly vacation without her. Trips are more mellow and quiet. At least this trip I got to stay up late talking with my friend Eileen til 2 AM. My mom would have been proud.

For every birthday, my parents would call me first thing in the morning. They’d have the phone on speaker phone. Their singing was a little off tune. My mom lead the way. This was the first time it didn’t happen.  We were in Tahoe and my Dad had a major head cold. New normals.

I did receive:

a birthday card that sang me “CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES” (the kind of card my mom would have sent me)

a birthday package from a friend who was glad I was born

a birthday bracelet from my boys that looks like the veins of a tree.

a birthday voxer from a friend who imitated Marilyn Monroe’s voice

a double date night in Tahoe with lots of drinks, food and a dairy queen cone with my bro & sis

at least a dozen birthday cards in my PO BOX (THANK YOU)

Birthdays are a trip when you get older. I am just so glad that people are still thoughtful. THANK YOU.

This month was also big because my 6-page spread in Better Homes & Gardens on Meal Prepping came out!

It was so awesome to see so many people tag me in their photos of the magazine in their Instagram stories. It felt so fun and special knowing that a lot of you are cooking from the story.

The assignment came at a particularly tough time during my grief process and knowing that it would have made my mom so proud kept me going. Thank you so much to Nancy & team!  Thank you for believing in me and thank you for lighting a fire under my butt to get my work together to show. It was just what I needed at the time.

Inspired By:

Slowing down. Libraries. Real Life.

Go outside. Seriously.

Get off your phone.

Look at the world. Try not to stress out.

Sometimes when you pay attention hard enough, you’ll see some real goodness around you.

I was rocking out to a song on the treadmill. There’s a guy next to me watching Queer Eye on his phone and all of a sudden my phone fell and he saw me catch it. Like almost falling on the treadmill but VICTORY.  I looked over, and he mouthed “Nice catch!”  I laughed and we smiled.

Pay attention to little things like that.

They will make you feel a million times happier than any like from someone online.

Promise.

Watching:

We have been watching a few things on TV this month. Better Call Saul has been fun. I like adding New Mexico-ish vibes to my dreamscape before bed. I also just really love the fact that you can have a TV show that goes back in time in a series (Breaking Bad). It makes me believe in time travel somehow.

We started watching Lodge 49. I love Wyatt Russell. I look at his face and think “LOVE CHILD OF GOLDIE HAWN & KURT RUSSELL!!!” the show reminds me a bit of  The Big Lebowski.  Funny because he goes by Dud in the show. Dud for Dudley. The dude abides. His father dies in the show and he’s left with his twin sister so in some ways I key into the grief aspect. I like it. It’s weird. It’s kinda kooky too.

We finished Orange is the New Black. I dunno if I liked the season but I’m interested in seeing what happens now that the season is over. Not spoiling. Almost did.

Reading:

I’ve oscillated (love that word) between two books this month.

I haven’t finished either one of them. My life is getting in the way.

How to Break Up with Your Phone

This book should be required reading. It will make you think hard about the time you put into life online.

You’re on an Airplane

A fun one to read by Parker Posey (love her!)

Casey also read all of these books while we were on vacation.

It makes me happy when he is taking time out from his programming brain (he designs smart home systems) and fills it with words. It’s really important to reset your brain.

Miracle in the Andes

The Accidental Billionaires

The Blind Side

Thinking About:

The new school year mostly. Cooper is in 4th grade. He will have a lot more homework this year. He’s using PEN!! There will be sports this year and lots of school stuff.  I am hoping to get into a good routine with my health- both mentally and physically. That way I can help support him during this year when he becomes a 10-year-old! TEN. TEN YEARS OLD. I mean…where does the time go???

Listening To:

I’m currently working on a few playlists. One that’s good for treadmill use. Stuff with a good beat.

I’m only like 4 songs in so I’ll wait until there’s something cohesive in there.

We also listened to a few podcasts in the car on the way up to Tahoe:

The Way I Heard it With Mike Rowe

I used to know Mike Rowe in another life… when I helped manage a recording studio in the city. He’s an amazing human being with a gift for storytelling. His podcasts are really short. I really like this format.

Dream Life:

I had a dream that my mom gave me a cough drop. She found it behind the stone of our old house in Tahoe.

Also dreaming mostly in a different time era. 1970s-1980s.

The coloring of places in my dreams is super retro.

Must be all of the nostalgic animated gifs I’ve been looking at on my phone.

Haven’t been getting enough sleep (watching tv before bed!) so hopefully, September will bring more sleep. We shall see.

Eating/Drinking:

Eating and drinking all kinds of things this August.

We had a lot of Homemade Dried Fruit batches in our kitchen this Summer.

I drank a lot of Manhattans in Tahoe.

My dad got me into his favorite cereal- Heritage Flakes

. It’s really good if you add raisins and bananas.

He orders it through Amazon

(he’s got a subscription!).

It made me happy to see him use technology to make life easier for himself.

YAY DAD.

Birthday cone with my brother. Being in Dairy Queen with him makes me feel like we are still young.

Cooper started to like peanut butter this month so that makes me beyond happy.

YAY MORE FOOD OPTIONS.

Your crisp is on my list.

This month I did a lot of photography for One Potato.

It meant some of my own work had to be put aside. Gotta pay the bills, yo!

I am excited to see that they’re doing so well! It makes me happy to know that my photography is helping people easily cook with their families.

A lot of pancakes were consumed this month. Everyday Pancakes for the win!

Does Summer food get any better?

This month I shared:

My current favorite pens! Did you see?

Also, you can see how we get ready for the new school year at my house.

Altar this Month:

Manifesting some family love!

Self Portrait for August:

Drawing:

Let’s Check in!

How was your August? What are you looking forward to in September??!

Source: http://www.shutterbean.com/2018/currently-august-2018/

[davidcdelreal]

15 Ways to Make Money in College

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Memories of college include eating beef ramen noodles by the case in order to save a few bucks. Here are some great saving money tips that can help, other than filling up on noodles!

I was fortunate that the Army National Guard paid for most of my tuition plus my mall job of selling vitamins and protein powders at GNC helped with my bills, yes I had debt, but just like me, you can pay your debt off too!

Despite this I always felt broke. Scratch that, I was broke! I was always looking for ways to make extra money in college. Oh how I wish articles like this existed back then!

Even if you have your finances carefully planned in advance, sooner or later you’re going to find yourself needing ways to make money fast to get you through college.

I’m going to recommend some money making methods that are more entrepreneurial than job-related.

15 Ideas for Making Money while in College

Drive for Uber

Tutor

Babysitting

Freelance Writing

Create Videos for YouTube

Do What You’re Good At

Becoming a Sports Referee

Mow Lawns

Housesitting

Be a Virtual Assistant

Blog!

Bartending/Serving in a High End Restaurant or Club

Become a Handyman

Help Out at the College

Take Online Surveys

The problem with holding a job in college is that they typically pay no better than minimum wage, which forces you to work long hours that cut into your study time.

I’m also not going to recommend some of the standard make-money-in-college ideas, like donating blood or selling on eBay. There are so many more creative ideas to choose from than those.

Instead, I’m going to make recommendations that can play into your natural talents, provide you with a flexible schedule, and hold the potential to earn a lot more money than a minimum-wage job. And some of them even have the potential to grow into businesses that you can continue after graduation.

Good deal? Check these out…

1. Drive for Uber

Have a nice car? Put it to good use and drive for Uber.

Uber is a company that connects riders with drivers – and drivers with riders! Uber allows riders to request a ride from their smartphone. That’s when you, the driver, get a notification letting you know there’s someone that needs a ride.

You can track how much you earn as a driver through the Uber app, and best yet, you can set your own schedule. So, if you’re in college and meet Uber’s qualifications, this is a great opportunity for you. Learn more about how to become an Uber driver by visiting our post.

You might also want to try driving for Lyft, a similar company.

Either way, you can make quite a bit of money as a driver for these services. Just make sure to check your local regulations to ensure you can operate as a driver in your area.

2. Tutor

Being a tutor can be especially lucrative in a college community. This is because you will be able to provide your services not only to college students but also to local high school and elementary school students. In many markets, you can earn at least $30 per hour.

Another advantage is that the subject areas you can cover are pretty broad. The greatest demand is usually for math and science, but you can also tutor in writing and reading, as well as history and soft sciences. If you’re bilingual, you may even be able to tutor in languages, or with English as a second language.

Tutors don’t typically require any kind of special education or licensing. You can market your services through the various departments around the campus, as well as local high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools. A simple flyer showing your subject areas, geographic range and a personal description can do the job. You can also include your hourly fee, but that can work for or against you, depending on how competitive your fee is compared to what others are offering.

In addition to high pay, you can have control over your work schedule, as well as where it is you will commute to (services are generally provided at the student’s home, but you can also arrange to do it in school or at an agreed-upon neutral site). Still another advantage is that the work runs with the school year, so you’ll be free over summer vacation.

Tiffany Alexy of DivvyInvestments.com tutored while in college. In fact, she tutored two kids in Spanish and three brothers in Chinese! How much did she make? $15-$35 per hour. Not bad it all! It pays to use your skills (in this case, knowing multiple languages) to tutor others.

Pauline Paquin of ReachFinancialIndependence.com also tutored while in college, teaching Spanish and English and earned around $30 per hour. Pauline also put her musical abilities to good use and taught piano for $40 per hour. $40 per hour!

3. Babysitting

As ordinary as this sounds, it can actually work quite well for college students. This is because babysitting often involves long periods of low- or no-activity, such as when the kids you are sitting are doing homework or have gone off the bed. The benefit is that this downtime will give you time to do your own homework. In can seem as if you’re getting paid to do your homework, which is no small advantage.

Pay is generally in the $10 and $12 an hour range, but you can get more for special occasions, and sometimes even collect tips over and above regular pay. And since babysitting gigs usually happen on an as-needed basis, you won’t have a grueling schedule to keep. That can make the work easy to blend with your school schedule.

There are many ways to get babysitting gigs. One place to start is care.com – a site that helps connect families with caregivers, which can include childcare as well as elderly care. 

4. Freelance Writing

There are tens of thousands of blogs and websites on the Internet, and many of them need content on a regular basis. If you like to write, have good writing skills, and have command of one or more topic areas, you can earn money writing articles on the web.

How much you can earn will depend upon how much time you put into the venture, as well as the types of sites that you write for. On the blogging side, you can earn anywhere from $30 to well over $100 per article. Business websites may pay even more, particularly for writing on technical topics or creating marketing copy.

You can sometimes find work writing for agencies, but the pay per article is much lower than the numbers quoted above. The best way to find clients, particularly those who pay a decent amount, is to approach those clients and websites directly. This will also provide you with the ability to choose the specific sites and topic areas that you want to write about.

5. Create Videos for YouTube

This can be excellent venture if you are creative and have a flair for capturing what’s unusual, interesting and fun. If you can, you may be able to create videos that can generate a steady flow of views, and earn advertising revenue as a result.

This isn’t anything like a job or even providing a service, but more like a business. You create videos, put them on YouTube, set them up with Google AdSense (much as you would with a blog), then earn income as people view your video, and click on the ads displayed.

Should your videos draw thousands of viewers, the income can be steady, providing you with a regular monthly income from the ads. This will require that you produce multiple videos, since some may be popular, while others may go nowhere. But if one or more of your videos goes viral and draws hundreds of thousands of views, ad revenue can be substantial.

The disadvantage is that you may need to produce several videos before you generate a steady income. You will also need to create fresh videos as existing ones fade. But an unexpected bonus is that success in this venture could translate into a profitable business both now and after graduation.

6. Do What You’re Good At

We’re talking mostly about the Internet here. College students are often more savvy in navigating and using the web than most of the rest of the population. For example, along the way you may have become quite accomplished in regard to social media, graphic design, creating websites, or creating videos. Any one of these skills could be sold to both businesses and individuals with the potential to produce a large income.

Pick your specialization, see what others are charging the same services, then set your fees a little bit lower. Many businesses and individuals are looking for someone to handle special projects for them, and being able to do that at a low fee can often get you business.

Once you get a few projects going, and you are getting repeat customers, you can look into increasing your fees. But your primary purpose at the beginning will be get some paying clients. This is another business venture that could mushroom into something more serious after graduation.

7. Becoming a Sports Referee

Virtually every community has a network of recreational athletic leagues, and they all need referees for their games. If you played any sports when you were growing up, you could be a referee for any of them at the local level. And since sports are seasonal, it will be to your advantage to be prepared to referee for sports that cover different seasons. For example, you might referee basketball in winter, baseball in spring and summer, and soccer or football in the fall. That will keep you busy year-round.

Referees are typically paid a flat fee per game. You might earn anywhere from $20-$50 to referee a single game. The lower age groups that play shorter games (maybe 40 to 60 minutes) will be on the lower end of the pay scale, while the higher earnings will come on longer and more competitive games played by older kids. It may even be possible to eventually work your way up to where you are refereeing for high school games at higher rates of pay.

Since so few people want to be referees in amateur sports leagues, there are usually plenty of openings. No formal qualifications are usually required, other than your own knowledge of- and experience with- the sport, though some leagues may require completion of a first aid course of some sort.

Once you sign up to be a referee in a league, you are added to the rotation. Games will be assigned based on your availability, and will generally take place on weekends. If you love a sport or two, becoming a referee is a way of turning your passion for it into a source of income.

8. Mow Lawns

If you’re in college and have access to a truck, a lawn mower, and an edger, make use of those tools and mow lawns!

This is a fantastic business for college students living in sunny areas where the grass grows quickly. And, because grass grows faster during the summertime than any other season, you’ll be able to run your yard maintenance business while you don’t have any classes.

At this job, you’re going to have to be fast and skilled. There is a lot of competition out there, so make sure you do a great job for your clients, be polite, and throw in some extras like weeding or blowing off the walkways.

You’re probably not going to need a business license for mowing lawns, but be sure to check with your local government to see if you do.

You might be able to get $100 per month for weekly service. Let’s say that you do. If you mow a residential lawn and it takes you an hour, that means you’re making $25 per hour – not including preparation or driving time. That’s not bad at all.

Try mowing lawns to make money in college. It’s worth giving it a shot.

9. Housesitting

Summertime is also a great season to do some housesitting for folks vacationing at the beach (or wherever else they are). There are a few reasons why people want someone to housesit. Let’s explore them.

First, many people want someone to watch their house because they actually want them to watch their pets! Many pets don’t go on vacation (like cats), so they’ll need their litter box cleaned, water dish filled, and food dish filled on a regular basis. Sometimes this means coming at least once per day.

Second, some people like the idea of having someone they trust monitor the house for security purposes. While they probably won’t expect you to bust out your ninja moves on intruders, they will expect you to call them, the police, or the fire department should something suspicious or dangerous happen.

Some homeowners simply want someone to take care of the pets and monitor the home. If they’re cool with it, you can even do some studying for classes while you’re housesitting.

This job probably won’t pay very well if you look at it from the perspective of an hourly rate, but remember, you’re probably not doing very much while you’re there anyway.

Let people know you’re available to housesit by posting about it on bulletin boards at community centers and tell your friends and family.

10. Be a Virtual Assistant

Virtual assistants help business owners get more stuff done. What makes a great virtual assistant? Here’s what you need to know.

Great virtual assistants are fantastic at organization. They live and breathe it every day. Just about aspect of their lives are organized, and believe it or not, many successful entrepreneurs need the help of virtual assistants to keep everything going in the right direction.

The tasks a virtual assistant might help with might include but aren’t limited to:

Organizing a business owner’s calendar.

Managing virtual employees or freelancers.

Maintaining a business task list.

Orchestrating speaking engagements, meetings, or events.

Completing research on behalf of the business owner.

Reminding the business owner of their schedule to keep them on task.

These are just some of the main ways a virtual assistant can help. But there are others.

Virtual assistants are often skilled writers, designers, or tech experts. Sometimes they help lend their skills to build something online for the business owner.

Truly, how you define yourself as a virtual assistant matters. Seek out your very best skills, advertise them, and see what happens.

11. Blog!

Yes, you can make money blogging. If you would have asked me years ago if you could, I would have probably said no way. But today? Yeah, I would believe you.

That’s because I’ve found tremendous success with blogging. I believe you can make money blogging, and while it may take you several months or years to see results, it’s a fun and rewarding experience.

If you can write, and you’re passionate about a topic, you can blog. WordPress is a popular blogging platform you can use to create a free blog. If you want to host the website yourself, you’re probably going to have to pay a few bucks, but it’s worth it.

If you’re going to make money blogging, you have to have great content. Whatever you do, don’t write just for the sake of writing or earning money. Produce content that you can be proud of and will help other people.

It helps to get the advice of some other bloggers before you start. Study their tactics and discover what worked well for them. The most important tip I can give you is to never stop learning. Search engines are continually updating their search algorithms which in turn affects your website traffic. And, your website traffic affects your ability to earn money.

The other great thing about blogging? You can do it anytime, day or night. Many jobs require you to be at a certain place at a certain time. As a blogger, you can be anywhere there’s an internet connection and write anytime. It’s one of the most flexible jobs available.

So, if you aren’t pressed to make a lot of immediate income, and you like the idea of being free to work whenever it fits with your schedule, then blogging might be the ticket.

By the way, if you’re into finance and you want to blog about it, I encourage you to attend the Financial Blogger Conference. There, you’ll learn from top bloggers and financial experts about the topics that interest you. Why take the long road when you can attend a conference and learn from the best?

12. Bartending/Serving in a High End Restaurant or Club

You probably have a good idea as to what bartenders and servers do, so I won’t spend any time on that. However, the type of establishment you work in will have a huge impact on how much money you earn. High-end establishments typically come with much higher tip income, while those on the lower end could be no better than minimum wage.

Bartending and serving can also be a good way of blending your social life, at least if you work at establishments that your friends frequent. It also has the benefit of paying daily (or more likely, nightly), since most of your pay comes in cash tips.

The downside is that you may find yourself working when everyone else is out relaxing or playing. For example, dinner shifts tend to be the best for servers, and weekends are generally better paying for bartenders. The work can be tough, but you can probably make more money working two or three shifts per week than you could working for five days a week in a minimum-wage job.

Bartending may require that you complete a bartending course, though there generally are no formal requirements for a server.

13. Become a Handyman

Are your friends always calling you up asking you how to fix this or that? Do you have more tools than your local hardware store? You just might be a handyman – why not put your skills to good use?

You can do all kinds of jobs as a handyman, including but not limited to: plumbing jobs, construction jobs, woodworking, and much more. Some of these jobs you might need to be licensed for, so be sure to check with your local government.

Just imagine the possibilities. You might have yourself two career paths to choose from by the time you’re done with college: to continue your handyman business or to follow the career related to your major. The choice will be yours! The more doors you have available to walk through in your career, the better.</p

14. Help Out at the College

Colleges love hiring students to do all kinds of tasks around campus. For example, you might help out with some of the janitorial duties or serve as a secretary or receptionist. You might enjoy overseeing a dormitory or providing security for the college. Make sure to ask your college about the opportunities that are available to you.

Professors also sometimes need help with some of the technical aspects of their jobs. Ask them to see if there’s anything they might need help with. You might help them with preparing slideshow presentations or creating homework documents.

The great thing about working at a college is that they understand you take classes and can’t be in two places at once. You might find the work programs are available after classes and/or on the weekends – exactly what you’re after!

Todd Tresidder of FinancialMentor.com worked a number of jobs for a university to help pay his living expenses. He cooked dinners for a fraternity, spent summertime digging steam trenches, and did other manual labor jobs and major maintenance projects. He used the cash to pay for his books and other expenses. He said working for the university was a fast way to make money because he could live for almost for free during the summer while housing prices were low.

Rachel of AdventuresinMobileHomes.com was hired by her school to take notes in class. These notes would then be repackaged and sold to students. What an excellent idea! Many students aren’t great notetakers, so why not see if your college would be interested in doing this for their students?

If you need to make money in college, don’t be so quick to take a minimum-wage job at a local big-box or fast food joint. Instead, think about what you can do – and what you like to do – and how you can turn that into an income source. That will enable you to both earn higher income, and have greater control of your time.

15. Take Online Surveys

Who wouldn’t want to make some money while you’re sitting on your couch watching Netflix? Sounds like a dream, right? Well, now that dream can be reality. Thanks to the Internet, there are dozens and dozens of ways that you can make money from behind your computer, and working with a survey site is a great way to do that.

There are dozens and dozens of different survey panels on the Internet that you can join. The idea behind these websites is simple. All that you have to do is create an account, and then wait for your invites. You’ll get an invite, you complete a survey, you get paid. Every website is different on how they will pay you and how much you’re going to make for each completed survey. Some sites are going to give you straight cash for every survey, while others are going to offer you points.

You can use those points to redeem for gift cards to transfer them into cash. Each site has different advantages and disadvantages to their program. Instead of wasting hours and hours researching different websites and creating accounts, I’ve done all of that dirty work for you. I’ve reviewed several of the most popular online survey websites and have outlined the pros and cons of each of them.

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