#it's 5 am guys it took her over 3 hours to finish

[blueopalsystem]

Good morning everyone!

My girlfriend finished up her part of our collab so now I can post it!

[httpsdana]

do you write for musiala? if so, can you do something like enemies to lovers, they are forced to spend time together because of mutual friends, but they constantly fight, secretly like each other<3 ty

Cupid in Bali~Jamal Musiala

I might start putting pictures like these instead of the gifs cuz they're prettier. also first Jamal fic hope you enjoy <3 long fic ahead.

you can request from my prompt list

this is my master list

players/drivers I write for

All these characters are made up and not real!!!

The Characters: Jason & Leah, Ethan & Serena, Tyler & Emma, Carlos & Abigail, and Jamal & y/n

"I'm on my way. are you done?" Leah said through the phone to y/n.

"I am, I'll be waiting for you" y/n replied, walking her suitcase into the elevator. Her bag was on her back and she was in some comfortable clothes for the very long trip ahead of them.

They were gonna be a group of 10, 5 girls and 5 boys. Funny thing is how all of them were in couples, except for y/n and Jamal. Of course people will say that they go along very well, which was the most inaccurate thing to be said about those two. They were basically enemies.

y/n exited the elevator, and stood outside waiting for her friend that was gonna take her to the airport. It only took 2 minutes for Leah to arrive, but not alone. She had her boyfriend, Jason, in the passenger seat, and Jamal...in the backseat.

y/n rolled her eyes, opening the rear of the car and placing her suitcase and bag there, then opening the backdoor, sitting next to Jamal.

"hey guys" she said as soon as she sat in her seat. Both Leah and Jason greeted her back, while Jamal just rolled his eyes and huffed.

y/n ignored his presence, while the drive to the airport was silent.

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"Okay guys, so as you know we have a very long trip ahead of us. Our first stop will be in the United Arab Emirates. From there, we have to take another plane to Singapore. After landing in Singapore, we will stay in the same plane, and leave for Bali. About 7 hours between Germany and the Emirates, then 7 hours between the Emirates and Singapore, and about an hour and a half between Singapore and Bali" Tyler explained, while everyone listened.

It was going to be a very long trip. Everyone checked in and got in their seats. And lucky for y/n, her seat was on the window.

"you've got to be kidding me" y/n heard, so she looked up, seeing the guy she was planning on avoiding the whole trip so she can have a good time. Jamal.

"what is it now?" she rolled her eyes at him, only for him to sit down next to her.

"your seat is here?" she said, already knowing his answer. He huffed and nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. She let out a sigh, knowing it's gonna be a very long trip.

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The first part of the trip was a bit quiet. Jamal didn't speak much and y/n was just watching a couple of movies she had. When she finished her movies, they still had about 20 minutes to land in the Emirates.

She was getting bored, and started moving a bit in her seat. Jamal, who has been trying to sleep, all the trip looked at her annoyed.

"Can you stop moving " he complained. She let out a sigh, sliding down in her seat

"I'm bored" she mumbled.

"now that you have nothing to do you're complaining? I've been trying to sleep for 6 hours but I didn't say a word." he rolled his eyes, before closing them and trying to fall asleep again.

"we land in a while I don't think it's a good time to sleep" y/n pointed out, making him sigh

"better than hearing your voice till we land" he said rudely. y/n was taken back a bit by his response, but only looked away from him and to the window, where the sun was setting in a beautiful way.

She ignored him for the rest of the time until they landed. After they landed, everyone got their bags and met each other.

Some got food, and others got coffee, until it was time to get on the plane again. Another 6 to 7 hours to Singapore. This time y/n was sat next to one of her friends, Abigail, where they talked for a bit then went to sleep as it was almost midnight.

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When they landed in Bali, it was almost 4 am in the morning, meaning that they were going to sleep more before starting their vacation.

"I'm sorry y/n, but you're gonna have to share a room with Jamal" Tyler said, making y/n sigh. She knew that all the girls wanted to sleep with their boyfriends, but she thought that maybe one of them would sacrifice the sleep with her boyfriend so y/n wouldn't sleep in the same room with Jamal. I guess not.

She let out a sigh, nodding her head. She had no energy to argue with any of them, nor did she have the energy to stay standing. She just wanted some sleep.

Jamal noticed her tired figure, so he took their room key and helped her carry her bags.

"I'll take her to our room, good night everyone" Jamal said, before walking behind y/n with both of their bags.

Everyone looked at each other, confused by Jamal's nice behavior towards y/n, but they were secretly happy that the two might actually get over whatever problems were between them.

Meanwhile, Jamal and y/n had reached their room, and already got in. y/n was almost asleep while walking, unaware of whatever was happening.

"y/n? are you gonna change before sleeping?" Jamal asked her, while she was walking to one of the beds. She dropped on one of them already asleep.

Jamal let out a sigh, walking to her and taking off her shoes. She was wearing comfortable clothes, so he decided to let her be.

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The next day arrived pretty quick as everyone was tired the previous night. The girls went shopping in the day, while the boys hung out together for a while. At night, they all decided to visit a club and party at the beach. At the end of the day, they were in Bali and every night was a party.

"Ready you guys? we are about to have the best first night in Bali!" Serena cheered, making all the girls cheer with her.

They were getting ready in Leah's room, and after they finished, they walked out all dolled up while their boys were waiting for them.

Each of the girls held the hand of her boyfriend, and started walking out of the hotel, leaving Jamal and y/n alone.

He looked her up and down, making her think he was going to comment about how she looks like always.

"you look nice" he said, taking her by surprise. She expected him to speak something mean, but he did the opposite.

"oh thanks" she mumbled, looking down at her sandals that suddenly seemed more interesting.

"well...we have to get going" Jamal said, putting his hand out for her. She looked at his hand suspiciously, making him sigh.

"let's just have a nice trip and not ruin it for anyone" he said, making her sigh but nod too.

"you're right. we should just get over our problems for our friends" She took his hand and walked behind the others, who already reached the party without them.

As soon as they stepped onto the beach where the party was, Jamal was pulled by Carlos who took him to where the boys were, leaving y/n alone. She pushed through the sweaty bodies, until she reached the bar where her friends stood.

"y/n, you took so long, we were just looking for you" Emma said, turning everyone's attention at her. She coughed awkwardly before speaking.

"um me and Jamal just talked for a bit" she said, looking away quickly.

"you two talked? about what exactly" Abigail asked, while everyone else looked at y/n waiting for an answer.

"nothing important, just that we should have fun on the trip" she shrugged, making the girls smile

"finally you two made up, it was about time" Leah said.

They ordered their drinks and started their own party. As the girls were dancing, y/n stood at the bar with her drink, just looking around the dance floor, until her eyes landed on Jamal, except he wasn't alone but with a girl next to him. They were talking and laughing seeming close.

For some reason her heart sank as she watched him laughing with another girl. A mix of jealousy and hurt clouded her thoughts. Despite their constant bickering, seeing him with someone else stirred unexpected emotions within her, making her feel a strange mix of emotions she couldn't quite understand.

She looked away immediately, afraid he might see her watching them and making fun of her. She turned to speak with one of her girls, only to see them all on the dance floor with their boyfriends.

She let out a sigh and turned to the bartender, refilling her drink. She took a huge sip, feeling herself loosen up a bit. Suddenly the music slowed down, and some people left the dance floor as couples started dancing in a slow dance.

y/n always felt lonely as a person who never had someone. But when she's with her friends they always made her feel included. However, this trip was different. The girls wanted to spend time with their boyfriends, and y/n could never blame them. They didn't have to cancel their plans, so she doesn't feel left out.

For some reason, her eyes drifted to where Jamal and that girl were, to see if they were dancing together or not. Instead, she didn't see them. Her eyes started scanning the place in panic, not seeing any of them anywhere.

"y/n" a voice from behind her startled her. She turned around to see Jamal standing there, his charming smile present on his face. He barely smiled at her as they're always arguing.

A small smile found y/n's face without noticing, as she saw the handsome boy standing in front of her.

"Jamal" she said in a low voice, feeling a relief wash over her.

"Would you like to dance with me?" his voice soft and a hint of nervousness in his eyes.

Y/n, touched by his shyness, smiled warmly and replied, "I'd love to dance with you, Jamal."

Jamal then extended his hand to y/n, leading her to the center of the dance floor with a gentle smile. Placing one hand on her waist and holding her other hand in his, they began to move gracefully to the music.

Their bodies swayed in harmony, creating a magical moment between them.

Their dance was delicate, each step was like a silent conversation between their hearts.

Jamal's touch was both reassuring and tender, guiding y/n with a sense of care and understanding.

As they moved across the dance floor, their bodies swayed in perfect harmony, lost in the enchanting melody that filled the air. The warmth of their embrace and the closeness of their dance spoke volumes, expressing more than words ever could.

It was a moment frozen in time, a dance of forgiveness, understanding, and newfound connection.

Their eye contact was intense. None of them daring to break it. As the dance was coming to an end, Jamal decided to speak up.

"I'm sorry for everything I've done and said for the past like 2 years. It was never my intention to make you hate me" he said in a gentle voice, making her smile

"it's okay. I've said some things too and I'm sorry about that. I just eneve understood why you hated me" she chuckled, making him shake his head

"i never hated you y/n. It just bothered me so much back then how you were close to everyone and we never talked. so i figured bickering and arguing with you would be the only way I can talk you because I really like you y/n and just wanted to talk to you in any way. And looking back at it now it wasn't the best way to approach you" he said laughing slightly making y/n laugh too

"obviously it wasn't. I just hope we can move past that because I like you too Jamal" she said, making him smile

"of course y/n. I wouldn't have asked for a dance if I didn't want us to start over" he said

She smiled back at him, leaning her head on his chest as they still swayed to the music. He pressed a small kiss on the top of her head, tightening his grip around her.

Their friends watched them from afar, realizing that their plan of getting them to make up has worked better than they thought it will.

[scmg11]

KATE BISHOP x READER

SEX EDUCATION (PART 3)

A/N: HELLO PEOPLE! I MISSED YOU SO SO MUCH! I am so sorry for disappearing again, but college is so freaking hard!

Since I took a bit of time off studying to relax a bit, I took advantage of it with proofreading a few stories I already finished writing, so here's a new chapter for you!

I want to be honest, I wrote this chapter probably around 5 or 6 months ago and I seriously forgot how long I made it 😂 so I may got carried away a bit, I think?!

Without further ado, ENJOY! ❤️

Sending so much love to all of you patiently waiting for my update, I love you ❤️

[1/3]

-

Summary: Y/N and Kate are in San Francisco on a school trip, but this won't stop for some shenanigans, will it?

Warnings: smut. The fluffiest smut I ever wrote.

Word count: 25293 words.

-

"Okay guys, I know the bus trip here was tiring, so you have around 5 hours to rest a bit before we are meeting back here for dinner."

Y/N waited for all her students to take the elevator and go to their respective rooms before smiling at Kate when they were the only ones left. She pressed the elevator button and waited for it to arrive, the loud ‘ding’ echoing in the oddly quiet lobby a bit later and both walked in, before pressing the button to their floor and waited for the elevator’s doors to close to assess the elephant in the room, "did that really happen or did I lost my mind and imagined Yelena and Cassie here?"

"I wish it was the latter, except you loosing your mind babe of course. Anyway, no, you didn’t imagine them. They are actually here."

"I guess we underestimated their ‘we wish to be there with you guys’ too much." Kate chuckled as she wrapped her head around the absurdity of it while staring at the numbers on the elevator’s display as it ascended to their floor.

"Yeah." Y/N sighed out loud, thinking about everything over into her head and massaging her temples gently to relieve a bit the incoming headache, "I also can’t believe Maria gave them the go-ahead to be here!"

"Well, they could’ve easily just ignored anything she told them and came here on their own."

"I don’t know why but it seems something they would do." Y/N and Kate chuckled at the accurate possibility while shaking their heads fondly at their best friends’ antics.

They both exited the elevator as soon as they heard the loud ‘ding’ and the doors opened and walked towards their designated room, Y/N opening it and moving to the side to let Kate enter it first, smiling fondly at the archer’s ‘thank you’ as she passed by her, before doing the same and closing the door behind her. "Hello lovebirds."

"Holy shit-YELENA!" Kate exclaimed as Y/N and her jumped up in fright at the Russian making her presence known by sliding out of her hiding place in the en-suite with a smug grin on her face, before clenching their fists and got ready to fight their intruder. "Babe, you can relax, it’s just Yelena and Cassie."

"I know, that’s why I didn’t move." Y/N let out through gritted teeth and relaxed only when Yelena laughed heartily at the joke and walked towards her to hug her tightly with her still in her combat position.

"C’mon Y/N Y/L/N I know you want to hug me back. Don’t deny it." Y/N sighed loudly before caving in and relaxing her hands she had been keeping in closed fists between their bodies and slung them around Yelena’s torso to hug her back.

"What about me?" Kate asked with a pout at Yelena after embracing Cassie when she saw Yelena walk past her and sit on their bed with a smug grin on her lips and a totally not innocent glint in her eyes.

"No hugs for you. You tend to cling onto people when you hug them."

"You are making it seem like it’s a bad thing!" Kate countered back with a toothy smile before rushing towards Yelena when she sighed loudly with a fond roll of her eyes as she opened her arms to silently give Kate her permission to hug her.

"Ugh." Yelena groaned loudly when Kate crashed over her body forcefully and made them both tumble back on the mattress, "Kate Bishop, always so gracious." Yelena teased Kate as she caressed her back softly before feeling other two bodies slump onto Kate’s back and consequently crashing down on her body, making her groan a bit at the added weight on herself.

"She loves us." Y/N told Cassie and smirked widely when Yelena groaned at them to get off of her, staying for just a few more seconds still before moving away and sitting on the bed comfortably with her friends and girlfriend. "So, we have to assume you guys are here without Maria knowing, right?"

"It will come out as shocking, but she actually knows we’re here." Cassie answered with a bright smile, lifting her hand up to high-five Yelena and making Y/N and Kate chuckle at their childish behavior, but also smiling fondly at them for finally bonding.

"Yeah, she allowed us to stay here with you guys while you are on this field trip." Yelena explained further as she shrugged nonchalantly, both Y/N and Kate eyeing the two blondes suspiciously.

"That’s it?" Y/N lifted her right eyebrow up in question, meeting Kate’s eyes for a brief second to find the same amount of wariness and doubt in her beautiful ocean eyes before staring Yelena down with an hard gaze and an unamused expression glued on her features. She watched as Yelena met her gaze head on, making Y/N smile warmly and shake her head at her knowing she would never make Yelena cave in and confess her secrets that easily since she was a Black Widow and had to endure a really tough training. But she knew Yelena would never lie, that was one of the many beautiful qualities she had, among being a loyal friend, a literal puppy that needs to be protected despite her ‘I’m a badass that never smiled’ façade and so pure of heart both Y/N and Kate, alongside the other Avengers, found really shocking to witness after all the atrocities both Yelena and Natasha had to endure, but neither of them lost their heart and somehow made it grow ten sizes as they protected it at all costs. "So you are telling me neither of you bugged her that much to the point of her caving in and sending you here?"

"No." Cassie answered right away as she avoided both Y/N’s and Kate’s hard gazes and sighed out loud when Yelena answered Y/N’s question at the same time as her.

"Yes. And it worked perfectly! Can you believe she actually lasted only a full day? I usually need a few days to convince Kate and she is the one that caves easily the most to any kind of request!"

"That’s not true! I only do that with Y/N whenever she ask me something." Kate countered back with a frown before smiling at Y/N lovingly, who awed at her and leaned over Yelena to reach to Kate sat on her left and pecked her lips softly.

"Ohw that was so cute!" Cassie exclaimed with literally heart eyes while Yelena rolled her eyes and pushed the two apart forcefully with her hands on their foreheads.

"Ugh, get a room." Yelena groaned before dodging both Y/N’s and Kate’s punch with a small laugh.

"Well if I remember correctly, we are in our room." Y/N answered with a smug smirk and watched as Yelena rolled her eyes and grunted out as she waved her off before crossing her arms petulantly.

"Wait hold on, speaking of which, how did you manage to book a room together?"

-

"And we’re finally alone!" Y/N groaned and leaned her back on the door after closing it, before humming in appreciation when Kate leaned into her body and cuddled her.

"An entire day without doing this." Kate trailed off to pull her face away from its hiding spot in the crook of Y/N’s neck and laid a small peck on her lips, both girl humming in appreciation when both their bodies warmed instantly as a comforting, loving blanket wrapped over them.

"I missed your beautiful lips." Y/N murmured on Kate’s mouth after pulling away from another loving peck, before leaning right back to kiss Kate slowly and languidly. "You are so beautiful baby."

"Look who’s talking." Kate giggled cutely when Y/N bracketed her face and squished her cheeks, taking a few seconds to admire the adorable view before laying another gentle peck on her lips standing out from Y/N squishing her face. "I love you."

"I love you." Kate parroted with a toothy grin that Y/N was sure was outshining the sun and that was so contagious that she couldn’t help but mirror right away. They had never been so happy.

"Where are Yelena and Cassie?" Kate asked curiously after sharing another cute and loving peck with Y/N, pulling away just a bit to give them the opportunity to talk freely. They stared intently and lovingly into their eyes for a few moments, nuzzling their noses from time to time and smiling sweetly at one another as soft giggles left their lips at how happy they both felt with one another before Kate kept going, "we lost them before dinner with the class. And as much as I love them and I love them staying here, I don’t want them to pop up out of nowhere while I’m spending quality time with my girlfriend. They tend to have a really bad timing and I don’t want to be rude or something like that if they pop out of nowhere. I just want to stay with you alone without any interruption or annoying kids wanting to play stupid games with their favorite teacher."

"Damn, someone is a bit annoyed. Upset. Irritated even." Y/N chuckled as she pushed a strand of black hair behind Kate’s ear when it fell on her face after she jutted her chin out petulantly. Kate then sighed loudly while leaning her cheek on Y/N’s palm, that stood still waiting near her face after pushing her strand of hair back to see if the archer would lean into her touch and smiling brightly as her stomach erupted in wild butterflies when Kate actually did that, before turning her head around and laying a soft kiss on Y/N’s palm’s skin, making both their stomaches flip over themselves at the cute, adorable and loving gesture of her kiss.

"I’m not, I swear."

"Well you just called your classmates annoying when they all love you so so much. Maybe just as much as I love you." Y/N smiled sweetly and tenderly down at Kate and pecked her lips quickly when she saw a bright grin took over the archer’s frown she had been having on since she stated Yelena and Cassie have a really bad timing and that her classmates are annoying, especially for wanting to play with Y/N. Even if it was something not every student would do since they were talking about playing with a teacher, Y/N was their favorite teacher, the whole school’s favorite teacher and despite everyone wanting to spend time with Y/N annoyed her because it takes her away from her alone time with Y/N, it actually warmed her heart, knowing Y/N being so loved by others.

"Ohw babe! Stop I’m blushing!" Kate giggled cutely when Y/N grinned back at her and peppered her face with tender kisses. "And y’know, they’re not annoying. It’s just that we spend very little time together together. Most of the time we have to act like we don’t know each other."

"I know how you feel babe. But we have a job. We just need to put up this act for a bit more. But just like you, I want to cherish every single moment we spend alone because I want to savor every aspect of being your girlfriend, babe."

"Me too, baby." Kate leaned over and kissed Y/N sweetly, her hands bracketing her face gently as she leaned her body more into Y/N’s one, completely pining her onto the door’s wooden surface. "As soon as we complete this mission, I will treat you to a real date. As much as I love our cozy dates in our house, I want to spoil you by taking you to fancy places and laugh at snotty people flaunting their money during my mother’s boring parties. Or stealing- or borrowing, like I like to call it, my mom’s private jet to take you to Paris or Rome and have the most romantic date ever there as we stroll down their streets, hands in hands." Kate explained as her eyes shined brightly with all the love she had for the Y/H/C girl and stared tenderly at her.

"Really?" Y/N felt tears prickle behind her Y/E/C pools, watching as Kate nodded gingerly with a sweet smile before leaning over to kiss her hard on her lips, "fuck- I love you so much."

"Just as much as I love you, baby."

"How about we change into our pajamas and cuddle on the bed?" Y/N suggested with a big smile after sharing another peck with Kate and watched as she mirrored her grin and nodded before laying another sweet and tender kiss on her lips, making both their stomaches erupt in wild butterflies as their heartbeats raced wildly into their ribcages. They enjoyed a bit more of the cozy bubble wrapped around them in their embrace for a bit more, hugging each other closer to just exist together and nuzzling their noses together gently as soft giggles left their kiss swollen lips and their chests filled with a giddy and happy feeling swirling around there. They had never been so happy with someone else and never felt so full and understood by someone else in their lives, "we can catch up on Only Murders In The Building as we just get cozy in that giant bed!"

"Oh yes! I need to know who is the killer! We are just a few episodes in the first season and I’m already completely absorbed in it!"

"Me too! Ugh and can we talk about those three idiots? I want them in my life to entertain me!" Y/N added as she pushed herself off the door when Kate disentangled her body from Y/N’s one and grabbed her hand to lead them towards their suitcases to grab their pajamas and changed in front one another.

"We already have them babe, their names are Yelena, America and Cassie." Kate pulled a joke as she slipped her jeans off and folded them neatly before placing them on the armchair on her left, "well we also have Kamala, Shuri and Peter." Kate snorted at her own joke and lifted her shirt up her body, leaving her in her underwear as she folded her clothes.

"You’re right babe, we are basically surrounded by idiots! Wait- does that makes us idiots too?" Y/N asked as she thought over her question and turned around after taking off her own pants and blouse, before gulping loudly and forgetting everything at once when she was met with the heavenly sight of Kate’s round, full, firm but soft ass in a pair of blue, lacy panties, now sticking out a bit more due to her bending over her suitcase to place her t-shirt on top of it.

"I don’t know, I guess? I mean I like to call us idiots whose care about each other. So yeah, we are idiots too. To some extent, at least." Kate turned around with a giggle as she was finished and gasped gently under her breath when she is met with Y/N’s hungry eyes staring at her ass before taking advantage of her turning around to sweep her them up and down her body and drinking her in slowly.

"You are a piece of art baby. The most beautiful masterpiece existing." Y/N spoke out after a few more seconds of ogling Kate’s body, before meeting her eyes and smiling lovingly at her, "sorry for interrupting you, go on."

"You didn’t interrupt me babe. You just gave me a boost of confidence. Damn!" Kate exclaimed with a wide grin as she walked over Y/N, placed her hands gently on her hips as Y/N circled her own hips and then pecked her lips tenderly. "And y’know, since we are talking about masterpieces, we need to talk about you then. My gorgeous baby." They shared another cute peck before putting their pajamas on and settling comfortably on the bed, Y/N immediately opening her arms and welcoming Kate that immediately slotted into them and cuddled her, both letting out hums of approval at the warmth surrounding them instantly.

"How was spending some time with your classmates?"

"Pretty good. Like I said they are not annoying. They are cool. I wish I had friends like them in high school, we have a lot of fun."

"Why? How were your friends like in high school?"

"Annoying and spoiled rotten." Kate stated plainly as she rolled her eyes, making Y/N laugh softly under her breath at her girlfriend’s gesture, before groaning and grunting loudly as she recalled her time spent with who she used to call ‘friends’ and shivered with a grimace before continuing, "they are like all rich people. They are always thinking about themselves and that’s what they always did and always will do. If you had a problem, they would have faked being interested in your problem for just a few seconds before disregarding you and your problems and start talking about their new highest score in polo or showing off their new ring or t-shirt that costed more than a giant apartment in Manhattan!"

"Uh ew, that’s disgusting!" Y/N grimaced alongside Kate as she shook her head disapprovingly.

"The same went with when talking about important charities where it was imperative donating to help people out. They just laughed me off saying they would have donated 100.000 dollars or so before telling me to shut up about the importance on donating and helping people out."

"Kate that’s awful!" Y/N admitted as she caressed her left cheek tenderly, "how did you put up with them?"

"I didn’t, most of the time. I usually spent my days doing archery or martial arts training. I only hung out with them when my mom forced me to go out and be a teenager." Kate admitted, looking into Y/N’s eyes as she played with a strand of hair and rolled it between her fingers. A few seconds of silence passed by them just exiting quietly before Kate’s gentle laugh stopped it.

"What?" Y/N smiled lovingly at Kate’s giggles and felt her eyes literally shine with love as she stared at the archer’s beautiful features adoringly.

"I was just thinking about them also being homophobic as fuck."

"Really?" Y/N asked with a bit of worry in her tone, not really wanting to know if Kate was bullied for being who she was by her shitty old friends, but listened nonetheless.

"Yeah. A lot of them, along with a lot of old rich people, always thought about being gay was just a phase or something that would not look good in the public eye-."

"Are we still in the 1800s?" Y/N interjected with a scoff as she rolled her eyes annoyingly, making Kate laugh gently before laying a soft peck on her lips and switching her frown back into a small grin, then pulling away and continuing her with train of thoughts.

"That’s what I always thought! Anyway, I was just lucky my mom always accepted me for who I was. I remember the day I came out to her. I was super stressed and I was ready to pass out. She obviously started to worry and when I just blurted out I was gay instead of my prepared speech, she simply smiled tenderly at me and told me ‘oh honey, I already knew that. I’m glad you finally found the courage to tell me.’"

"Oh my god! I love her!"

"I was shocked! I stared at her for like- a solid two minutes as she just smiled at me. Anyway, she always supported me and alway put everyone in their spot when they tried to denigrate gay people. But that’s not the point." Kate shook her head to get back on track on what she was trying to tell Y/N, "like I said, being gay wasn’t well seen by snotty, rich people and although my friends oddly accepted me, I had to endure more times than I could count them making really tacky jokes about gay people."

"Can I know their names so I can hunt them down and punch them in the faces one by one?" Y/N interjected once again with her blood boiling over at those assholes Kate called friends as she hugged Kate closer, making Kate chuckle under her breath at her request.

"Next time my mom will invite me to one of her charity events, we are going to attend it so you can punch them in the face while I will enjoy the show." Kate promised with a sweet tone and a bright smile, making Y/N mirror her grin, then pecking her lips lovingly before pulling away to keep going with her story and train of thoughts. "Anyway, those things never hurt me since the girls that made those bad jokes were the same girls I was fucking in their cars or beds when no one was home."

"Oh my god! Are you kidding?" Y/N widened her eyes in shock and slacked her jaw while opening her mouth in an ‘O’ shape as she wrapped her head around Kate’s statement, before laughing loudly in shocked amusement.

"Nope." Kate stated as she dragged the ‘p’ out with a wide, smug smile and a mischievous wiggle of her eyebrows before continuing, "all the time the boys joked about gays, stating that, and I quote, ‘lesbians didn’t know how to make a girl come’. And while all the girls I fucked laughed nervously with nods, I was just staying in the corner in silence, smirking smugly at them. They would always meet my eyes a brief second before avoiding my gaze distressed as they fidgeted in their spots uncomfortably."

"Babe that’s just hilarious! I would have payed to see their reactions."

"They were priceless, let me tell you. There was one time where one of they guys was bragging about licking a pussy and even if it was his first time, he vaunted he did an amazing job. I was just smiling brightly as I stared at the girl he ‘did an amazing job’ on avoiding my gaze. The same girl that called me as soon as he left and begged me to make her come since he couldn’t do it and just faked cumming." Kate puffed her chest out and tilted her chin up proudly as a wide grin settled on her features, watching Y/N gasp in shock as she slapped her shoulder repeatedly in disbelief.

"Oh my god!"

"Just to clarify those two weren’t together. They just had occasional sex. I do not stand cheating." Kate stated as she nuzzled their noses together, "anyway, the word spread faster than those girl’s legs when they were with me between the girls of the group and I soon found myself fucking them in their cars, in their beds, once even in one of the girl’s dad’s office."

"I didn’t know you were a womanizer Kate Bishop." Y/N teased Kate as she caressed her shoulder gently with her pointer finger and smirked widely when Kate scoffed and rolled her eyes in fake annoyance.

"I’m was not. I was just having fun. I had the opportunity to boost my confidence in my sex skills when they were screaming how good I was making them feel while also relieving some stress from college and competitions with sex. Killing two birds with one stone."

"Hm, now I’m jealous Miss Bishop." Y/N teased as she leaned over and nibbled on Kate’s soft, plump bottom lip before biting down on it gently and taking advantage of Kate’s lips parting to release a small moan at her gesture to slip her tongue past them and lick her mouth’s every nook and cranny.

"It happened like 5 years ago babe. And it was just meaningless sex. You don’t need to worry."

"Well I’m still jealous. I want you all to myself."

"And you have me all to yourself. My heart, my body and my mind are yours baby. All yours." Kate reassured Y/N on her lips before pecking them repeatedly and making Y/N giggle lovingly into her mouth.

"Just like my mind, my body and my heart are yours baby."

-

"Good morning class!"

"Good morning Miss. Williams!" The whole class greeted Y/N in an happy choir and chuckled when Kate just grunted at her in response.

"It seems like Laura isn’t a morning person." Y/N noted out loud, making the whole class laugh heartily at her joke.

"Nope, I hate getting up early. I just want to sleep until noon, is that too much to ask?" The entire class nodded with a few sounds of agreement and Y/N rolled her eyes fondly at them with a small shake of her head.

"You would loose the aquarium if you sleep until noon."

"And we don’t want that, do we Miss Williams?" Y/N closed her eyes when an hand landed forcefully on her shoulder and what she clearly knew was a fake American accent reached her ears.

"No of course not."

"Are you joining us Miss Chloe and Miss Emma?" Amy asked gently as she eyed the two under cover Avengers enthusiastically.

"Oh please we’re not some old, boring teachers like Miss Williams here. You can call us just Chloe and Emma." Yelena told the teens as she stared at them with wide and eager eyes.

"Oh please, you’re more boring than every boring teacher." Y/N scoffed with a roll of her eyes, making everyone else laugh at her gesture as Yelena just smirked at her, "besides not all teachers are boring. I’m not, right guys?"

"Don’t try to corrupt them with that annoying happy face." Yelena place her hand on Y/N’s face and pushed forcefully like she liked to do all the time to mess with her, making her stumble a bit before regarding the teenagers staring at them in amusement with a grin, "it’s okay guys you can tell the truth."

"Stop harassing them and especially me!" Y/N huffed out as she pushed Yelena’s hand away from her face, staring at her down with an hard gaze before a big, bright grin appeared on her features when Yelena quickly placed her hand back on Y/N’s face and pushed her once more to stress Y/N’s words some more and chuckled alongside her, Cassie, Kate and the whole class, minus Mr. Wright that was nowhere to be found, maybe already inside making his own tour without waiting for everyone else, at the two best friends’ banter. Everyone noticed how the two of them seemed so close and that they loved each other truly, something that was really difficult to find nowadays. They shared a really deep, strong bond that everyone, especially the teens looking intently at their banter were really eager to also have in their lives. Kate stared at her girlfriend and her best friend joke around like they were two siblings warmed her heart to no end and smiled at her tenderly when the girl met her gaze after getting rid of Yelena’s hand again and mirrored her grin before dodging Yelena’s hand and pushing her away when she tried to attack her again. The archer really wanted to join their banter and when she noticed Cassie wanted that too, she nodded at her to give a silent permission and to give her a free pass to join the two best friends joking around childishly to make their banter ten times funnier than it already was. So Cassie nodded at Kate back and walked towards them two girls still fooling around before joining Yelena’s side and pushing Y/N on her left shoulder as Yelena pushed Y/N on her right shoulder, making Y/N widen her eyes in shock as she opened her mouth in an ‘O’ shape in bewilderment, making Kate wish ever more to join the banter in that moment. "You. Didn’t."

"Oh I did. And we can all confirm your face was priceless, right guys?" Cassie asked in amusement as she swept her gaze all over the teen’s eyes and watched as mirth dusted over their features as they tried to prevent laughs to leave their mouths.

"Oh no, don’t you guys dare to answer or as soon as we are back home I’ll make you guys write a 100.000 words essay about stimulating a vagina to make a woman reach her orgasm!" Y/N lifted a finger up in warning when she noticed a few guys and girls, Kate among them, opened their mouths to respond to Cassie’s question and although her threat made her students gulp in fear, it also only made Yelena and Cassie cackle loudly.

"I’ve never heard a threat being so funny!" Yelena laughed loudly as she patted Y/N’s back a few times before wiping away a tear that left her left eye.

"Yeah Lizzie, next time try to not include the world vagina in your threats. It makes them completely hilarious."

"Alright, thanks for the advice. Now let’s go or I’m filling out the form to leave you two here as new species in this aquarium." The class laughed loudly at her joke and Y/N smiled triumphantly as she moved to the front of the group of teens, followed by Yelena and Cassie, whose laid a sweet peck on Y/N’s cheeks, Cassie on the left one while Yelena on the right one, before hugging her tightly.

-

"Oh I have a really interesting fact about whales!" Yelena’s features lighted up like a Christmas tree when they were visiting whales’ section, making Y/N groan in frustration out loud.

"Please don’t." Y/N tried unsuccessfully to stop Yelena from speaking but the Russian pointedly ignored her and kept on, talking to the class waiting for her to speak eagerly.

"Did you know male whales have the largest penis in the whole animal kingdom?" Yelena smiled brightly in mischief as she wiggled her eyebrows lewdly, making the entire class laugh while Y/N groaned out again at her declaration.

"Great, now let them hear what the guide is saying."

"Oh please, I would be ten times better than her!" Yelena waved the blonde guide off as she explained facts about whales to the rest of the group they were in and Y/N rolled her eyes fondly at her.

"Oh really?" Y/N lifted her left eyebrow up inquisitively and watched Yelena expectantly and incredulously, "since when did you become an animal expert?"

"I didn’t, I just like to know sexual facts about anything really and to just annoy you with that." Yelena answered Y/N’s question with a nonchalant shrug and smirked widely at Y/N, who sighed out in fond exasperation.

"Great." Y/N smiled widely with a totally too sweet tone as she exclaimed her short, dry statement through her gritted teeth while clapping her hands not too loudly to not disturb the other aquarium’s visitors that were admiring the animals’ exhibition. She stared intently into Yelena’s eyes a bit longer, watching as her smile only grew bigger by the second and decided to let her share her ‘sexual facts’ about animals for hers and the whole class’ entertainment. Mr Wright wasn’t there so why not let Yelena entertain everyone with her witty comments and funny statements? She just wished she could use her real voice and Russian accent to make everything ten times better and funnier, "okay, go on. Enlighten us then."

"Okay, maybe we just want to move a bit further away from everyone else. I don’t want to gather an audience." Yelena just stretched her arms towards the far end on the left side of the room to stand there and turned towards everyone when they reached their designed spot, puffing her chest out a bit to make her look serious and gazing out at the kids staring back at her expectantly with a wide smirk, meeting Kate’s eyes for a brief second and seeing amusement and mirth in her ocean blue eyes, before focusing on someone else to not raise suspicion.

"Chlo she didn’t change at all. She is still so sure of herself." Y/N commented as she bumped her left shoulder on Cassie’s right one and heard the girl laugh loudly as she nodded in agreement.

"Let her be. We love her just as she is."

"I’m perfect just like this, idiots. Now shut up, I’m trying to have a lesson to share my knowledge with these amazing kids." Yelena punched both Y/N’s and Cassie’s shoulders before focusing her attention back on the class and stating right away, "male ducks have corkscrew-shaped penises."

"Fascinating." Y/N commented as she tried to lower her tone as she laughed while listening to Yelena deliver sexual facts about animals.

"Elephants have a prehensile penis that they can essentially use as a fifth leg. Their erected penis can weight as much as 30 kg and if you happen to touch it accidentally, it can twitch and knock you over."

"Okay, our needed break is over. Let’s continue with our visit." Y/N stopped Yelena as she opened her mouth to deliver yet another sexual fact about animals and ushered everyone else to move before smiling widely at Kate when she purposefully walked towards the back of the group to be as close to Y/N as they could be in public.

-

After sneaking into Mr Wright’s room to gain some informations about him and to tap his phone while Yelena and Cassie distracted him down the hall, Y/N and Kate slipped back into their room and collapsed on the bed exhausted with loud sighs. "Ugh, I’m so tired!"

"Me too baby." Y/N agreed as she cuddled into Kate’s arms and hummed in appreciation at the girl’s warmth and perfume wrapping around her like a comfortable blanket, making her feel fuzzy and cozy in an instant, "we’ve been walking around for three entire days for this school trip. I’m so sad tomorrow we’re going back home."

"Same babe. I liked it here and I really enjoyed Yelena and Cassie here too." Kate pouted adorably as she stared into Y/N’s eyes, making her let out an ‘aw’ at the cute sight in front of her before leaning over and pecking her lips tenderly, switching that pout into a big, bright smile that she instantly mirrored as her stomach flipped over itself at the sight of her adorable and cute, but also extremely hot, girlfriend.

"Yeah, me too. They are a pain in the ass most of the time, but we love them nonetheless." Y/N sighed out loud, agreeing with Kate’s words as she nuzzled their noses tenderly before pecking her lips repeatedly, then deepening the kiss with a deep hum when the archer slipped her tongue out to lick the Y/E/C girl’s seam’s lips to ask for entrance, Y/N granting it right after and both whined breathlessly into the kiss when their tongues met halfway and slid over each other greedily. They slowed their kisses down and pecked their lips repeatedly for a few more seconds before pulling reluctantly away from each other and went back to staring into each other’s eyes lovingly while their noses brushed together from time to time. "I really enjoy their company. They’re like family and them leaving to go on their own mission breaks my heart, but I’m positive this won’t be the last time they will join us here, trust me. As much as Maria makes it look like she is a tough badass, she has a big, soft heart and I know no one, not even her, hell I think not even Fury, can resist to Yelena’s pout! Add Cassie’s pout too into the mix and you will do everything they will ask you to do. So even if we will miss them a lot and we have to say goodbye to them tomorrow, I’m positive they will come back here to spend a few more days with us in the near future. I’ll give them less than two weeks and we will have them both here again. I’m betting my favorite leather jacket that America and Kamala will join them next time. And Peter too! Trust me."

"Oh that would be so cool!" Kate smiled brightly as she tapped on Y/N’s forearm excitedly as her eyes shined brightly with enthusiasm under the room’s lights, "I don’t know about you but watching Yelena and America bicker is almost as funny as watching Yelena and Cassie bicker."

"Oh please! Have you seen Yelena sparring with Peter? He gets on her nerves every time he uses his powers to dodge her punches and kicks." Y/N chuckled as she recalled all the times she witnessed that amazing and funny sight and shook her head gently.

"No! Why didn’t you invite me to watch such a wonderful show?!" Kate asked in fake indignation with a deep pout and smiled when Y/N chuckled under her breath and pecked her pouty lips tenderly.

"I’m sorry! As soon as we get back, I’ll prepare a fresh bowl of popcorn and we will enjoy the show together. You have to see the frustrated face and grunts Yelena emits every time Peter uses his powers."

"You are so beautiful my love." Kate spoke up out of nowhere when silence settled around them after Y/N and Kate chuckled some more, her eyes glued on the Y/E/C girl’s features as they took in Y/N’s beauty.

A dark, deep blush appeared on Y/N’s cheeks and neck and instantly detached her eyes from Kate’s mesmerizing ocean blue ones to look down at her hand playing with the archer’s shirt’s collar. "Thank you babe. But I’m not as much beautiful as you are."

"Hm, I don’t think so." Kate let out in a hum on Y/N’s lips before wrapping them on Y/N’s ones in a deep, sensual kiss, full of tongue and teeth, stirring a warmth in both girl’s stomaches as they enjoyed their closeness.

"I’m serious babe. You are beautiful, smart, cute, adorable, witty when necessary but most importantly kind hearted. I just- love you so much baby."

"I love you my beautiful, gorgeous love." Kate smiled tenderly and lovingly at Y/N as she nuzzled their noses cutely together and giggling alongside her at how happy and giddy they both felt in that moment. "Oh and by the way, do you know flattery won’t take you anywhere right?"

Y/N laughed at the knowing smirk Kate sent her way before dusting a lewd one on her own lips as she wiggled her eyebrows seductively and mischievously at the archer while her pointer finger moved down from Kate’s collarbone to her stomach, drawing teasing circles there over the black haired girl’s shirt. "Oh really? Ohw damn, I was hoping it would at least take me between your legs!"

Kate widened her eyes comically and gulped loudly at Y/N’s statement but it seems her brain lost her ability to function in that moment after those words reached her ears and she was able to only murmur out lowly, "oh."

"Too bad." Y/N shrugged as she kept on faking being sad about Kate’s question and sighed out loud dramatically for good measure, moving her hand up again to play around with Kate’s hair gently, "well, moving on-."

"No, wait!" Kate stopped Y/N mid-sentence before clearing her throat in embarrassment at her eagerness. "What were you going to say?"

"Oh no, you said flattery won’t take me anywhere and as much as I love listing your qualities, now I just want to cuddle."

"Y/N/N!" Kate whined in protest at Y/N’s stubbornness and clear teasing and slapped her stomach gently, making the Y/H/C girl laugh heartily at her.

"What?"

"You know what!" Kate stressed her words out and whined in frustration when Y/N’s laugh increased in volume, comically rolling her eyes after she stared pointedly into Y/N’s Y/E/C hues down but it only deepened the Y/H/C girl’s smile tenfold. She grunted out her disappointment and slapped her stomach once again softly, then laying her hand there on her abs and feeling it going up and down with each giggle Y/N emitted. "Keep going please. I want to know what you were going to say. I promise I won’t interrupt you and I will let you say what you wanted to say. I promise I will shut up. Now please continue."

"Are you sure?" Y/N asked in fake uncertainty, furrowing her eyebrows together and making Kate roll her eyes again, making Y/N’s grin spread back on her lips. "I mean, I can always tell you how beautiful you are. Or how hot you look during your early morning workout. But I don’t want to- y’know shift this loving bubble to a more sexual one since we are just cuddling and my words won’t take us anywhere."

"Ugh Y/N/N!" Kate leaned her forehead on the girl’s collarbone and slapped her stomach again, repeatedly this time, eliciting another fit of giggles from Y/N’s lips.

"I will just keep my words PG rating, I promise."

"No please." Kate asked in a rush to Y/N as she played with the collar of her shirt, her short, cut nails scraping the girl’s skin from time to time to tease Y/N a bit, eliciting a few goosebumps in the process and making Kate smile as she noticed she pulled the desired and yearned effect from Y/N, "okay, fine. I know you will keep this on forever if I don’t say it. I was kidding, okay? I was just teasing you a bit. Now please keep going. Especially the part about my early morning workout."

"Good." Y/N smiled and pressed an hard kiss on Kate’s lips before pulling away with a loud ‘pop’ and sneaking a hand behind Kate’s back to adjust themselves on their sides as she flushed their bodies together and entwined their legs, making them both sigh contentedly at their intoxicating proximity. "Okay well, like I was saying- you are always so fucking hot, but you don’t even know how heavenly it feels when you workout early in the morning and I watch you comfortably on the bed. Those wonderful thighs contracting with each squat and consequently giving me a great view of your amazing ass sticking out in those illegal tight yoga pants you wear, your mouthwatering tits wobbling after each small movement in that skimpy sport bra you wear and watching your abs- those fucking, marvelous abs that looks like they had been sculpted from the most precious and finest marble ever existed, contracting deliciously after each of the three thousands crunches you do."

"Fuck." Kate whispered under her breath as she panted heavily onto Y/N’s lips, both gravitating towards each other each passing second as the air thickened between them.

"Or how delicious you look when you change in front of me, especially when you get out of the shower."

"I actually change in front of you on purpose." Kate admitted shyly as she bit on her bottom lip to prevent her smirk to broaden while watching Y/N’s eyes darkening in an instant.

"Oh trust me, I do know that." Y/N admitted with a sultry tone before leaning over and biting on Kate’s bottom lip softly, eliciting a small whine from the archer in the process and setting both their bodies on fire, her own from that heavenly sound coming from her girlfriend while Kate’s body burned from the seductive gesture, "I just stare at you and your wonderful body as I hold myself back from jumping on you and fuck you senseless on every available surface. When you turn around I just pretend I wasn’t daydreaming about me fucking you, you fucking me, us fucking."

"Shit babe. Why do you hold yourself back every time?" Kate fisted Y/N’s shirt greedily and pulled her more into her body as she imperceptibly bucked her hips up to gain some friction on her now pulsating core.

"Because I don’t want to look like an horny teenager that can’t control herself every time. I don’t want to look desperate or just turned on all the time. But that’s just the effect you have on me babe."

"Oh Y/N/N." Kate sighed as she leaned their foreheads together, gripping Y/N’s shirt harder to keep her grounded while her arousal increased quickly between her legs, "you will never look desperate or horny to me. Ever. I pretty much feel just like you. I would spend every second fucking you if I could, but unfortunately we have to be ‘responsible’ and ‘have a job’-." Y/N giggled when Kate let go of her shirt to do quote marks with her hands and rolled her eyes to pretend to be annoyed by their job before settling her hand behind Y/N’s neck and caressed the skin there gently. "-but still, I would spend every single day worshiping you all day long."

"Hm, I wouldn’t be opposed to that." Y/N hummed lowly as her hands started caressing up and down Kate’s strong back steadily, feeling every bump of Kate’s defined muscles and shivering as she felt the muscles there stand up under her touch, "anyway, like I was saying- you look even hotter when you are sparring with someone else that isn’t me and I get to watch your wonderful body move gracefully around as you try to win the sparring session."

"I’m not gonna lie, I always put a lot more effort when I know you are watching me. I like to show off."

"I knew it!" Y/N exclaimed loudly before laughing alongside Kate at the archer’s admission before nuzzling their noses together. "I always had a feeling you were purposefully teasing me because every time I stopped by to watch your sparring session, you always seem ‘sweaty’ and have to pull your top off, leaving you in sports bra that always make my mouth water as I stare at your boobs."

"Oh yeah." Kate smiled mischievously as she recalled all the times she watched Y/N approach her during sparring sessions and tried to seduce her with pulling her shirt off or putting really tight yoga pants just to see her reaction and always reveling in her struggling to focus on the sparring session itself instead of her, "most of the times I wasn’t that sweaty to pull shirt off, but I did just to tease you."

"Hm, I wasn’t opposed to that." Y/N teasingly moved her hands up and under Kate’s shirt and bra to grasp her boobs teasingly, a mischievous grin on her lips.

"Oh." Kate moaned out loud when Y/N started massaging and kneading her boobs greedily without breaking their eye contact and instantly arched her back into Y/N’s wonderful touch.

"I was always daydreaming about touching your boobs while staring at them as you sparred with one of our friends." Y/N admitted as she never stopped her unrelenting movements on Kate’s boobs, pinching both her nipples just a moment when she felt them both stand up under her palms from her touch and basked in the wonderful screech of pleasure leaving Kate’s mouth, "I felt so dirty thinking about touching, licking, biting, sucking these wonderful boobs, thinking how they would feel under my mouth and my hands, if they were firm, if they were soft, if they were a combination of both. You don’t even know how many times I got mocked and teased for literally eye-fucking you in the middle of the Avengers Compound’s gym. Even Maria made fun of me!"

"Oh my god! That’s amazing!" Kate forgot about the incredible pleasure she was experiencing to start laughing heartily at Y/N’s statement, making Y/N stop her movements just a bit to admire how beautiful Kate looked as she laughed care-freely and her face contracted in pure happiness. "So did everyone know about you having feelings for me, except myself?"

"Well- pretty much, yes." Y/N giggled after pulling her hands out from Kate’s shirt and bracketed her face softly. "Like Yelena stated ‘I was too obvious to be subtle with my feelings’."

Kate laughed heartily at Y/N’s attempt to imitate Yelena as best as she could with a fake Russian accent while Y/N stared lovingly up at her as her heartbeat increased, warmth filled her chest and her stomach bursted with wild butterflies flying around. "That’s exactly what she told me many many times." Kate rolled her eyes as she thought over Yelena making fun of her, "she always told me I was stupid for keeping away my crush for you from you. Once, after she told me for the umpteenth time I needed to confess my feelings for you, I told her I didn’t have a crush on you. I enjoyed watching her face contort in confusion and shock for a few seconds before telling her I was in love with you. It was my first time admitting that out loud."

"I would have given anything to see her reacting to that."

"She stared at me like I was crazy for like- two seconds I think, before starting to make fun of me again."

"Oh yeah, that’s totally what Yelena would do."

"Do you want to know the worst part?" Y/N nodded as soon as Kate trailed off to ask her, trying with all herself to hold her smile in to stay serious.

"Yes."

"Hm, c’mere first."

"No, I want to know first."

"Nope, c’mere." Kate leaned over and tried to kiss Y/N once more but the Y/H/C girl teasingly pulled away with a big smirk and wiggled mischievously her eyebrows at her, mirth swirling through her Y/E/C eyes, making Kate sigh out loud desperately, "please, just one kiss. That’s all I ask. Then I will tell you everything you want to know. I just want to kiss you again. Please, please, please. Just one kiss. Please."

"Hm-hm nope." Y/N shook her head amusedly at the pout adorning Kate’s lips and at her adoringly pleading face and leaned a finger on her lips to stop her when she leaned over once again to try to kiss her again with a laugh. "I know how this will go. You just piqued my curiosity but you wanting a kiss will lead us to share more than a kiss and we will forget about this conversation. So tell me first, then you’ll have all the kisses you want."

"Hm, and what if I want more than just kisses?" Kate asked seductively as she hovered her lips teasingly over Y/N’s ones and waited patiently for her answer, that arrived a few moments later after Y/N looked down at her lips hungrily, licked her own lips and panted on Kate's mouth a few seconds without answering Kate’s question.

"Well, it will all depend on what you will tell me and how much more turned on it will make me." Y/N countered back just as seductively with a low, hoarse tone before biting down on Kate’s bottom lip and dragged it back before releasing it, eliciting a wonderful, raspy groan from the black haired girl that looked like she was ready to jump on Y/N and fuck her senselessly - she truly hoped it will happen, she just wanted to hear what Kate had to say first -.

"The worst part was that, that same day, after admitting out loud I was in love with you, she walked in on me masturbating and moaning your name out." Kate admitted after a few seconds of silence and blushed furiously as she remembered that moment.

"Oh my god, are you serious?" Y/N laughed heartily at that and clapped her hands in amusement, while her head leaned back to continue to giggle loudly in entertainment.

"Yeah. She teased me about that to no end, she still do it sometimes."

"Well to make you feel better, she once found a love letter I stupidly wrote for you and teased me about that from that moment on to no end. Every occasion was good enough to tease me about that. Me staring at you, you jokingly flirting with me while I melted on the floor, us sparring, us falling asleep cuddled on the couch after our weekly movie marathon. Every. Single. Occasion."

"Oh my god! It’s not stupid! Can I read that?"

"Yes, of course. It was obviously meant for you but I couldn’t find the courage to slip it under your bedroom door."

"Oh babe, you could’ve done it and we would have been together since then. Fuck, you don’t even know how emotional it makes me feel just knowing you wrote me a love letter. I can’t immagine how I’ll feel when I’ll read it."

"It’s just full of me gushing about you and how much I love you. Nothing you’ve never heard about."

"And fuck, it also made me so turned on." Kate admitted in a low tone after both stayed in silence for a few seconds, feeling her core clench in need for Y/N’s touch.

"Not as much as knowing, again, you touched yourself thinking about me."

"Ugh, which leads us to the fact that we both got teased by Yelena." Kate whined in distress as she thought over Yelena’s teasing, "you got teased for a loving gesture at the least. I had to endure Yelena imitating my moans all the time just because I couldn’t wait for everyone to go to sleep and I had to touch myself because I was too turned on to function."

"Why? What happened that day?"

"It was a Friday night and we were having a small celebrating party after Peter’s and America’s last successful mission. No one else was at the Avengers Compound except for us, Peter, America, Kamala, Shuri, Yelena, Wanda and Natasha. We were all pretty tipsy and at some point Peter suggested to play truth or dare with this new, great app."

"Oh yeah I remember that night."

"Do you also remember the last dare of the night before deciding to call it quits because everyone was just too drunk to keep going?"

"Not really, I was too much intoxicated myself, but I don’t know, I might remember it if you tell me."

"You got dared to give Wanda a one-minute lap dance." Kate simply stated, her eyes darkening as she remembered that moment like it was yesterday.

"Oh shit, now I remember it. We were laughing all the time while Natasha kept repeating ‘watch it Y/L/N’." Y/N tried to imitate Natasha’s voice through her giggles as she remembered that night too.

"Yeah, but you gave her a lap dance anyway. I couldn’t move my eyes away from you and your hips moving rhythmically to the music. As soon as we called it quits I flew to my room, discarded my pants and laid on the bed to touch myself while thinking about you giving me a lap dance. Just when I was about to come, Yelena barges in to ask me about something I clearly can’t exactly remember and watched me come with your name falling out of my mouth."

"Fuck- I would’ve given anything to be in Yelena’s place." Y/N stated dreamily as she felt her center beg for Kate’s attention.

"Just like I would’ve given anything to be in Wanda’s place." Kate admitted shyly as she bit on her bottom lip gently, staring at Y/N lustfully just as Y/N did.

"It can be arranged. As soon as we get back from this school trip, I will give you the best lap dance ever executed. But, on one condition." Y/N trailed off and smiled mischievously at Kate, waiting for her to urge her on continuing and smiling widely when Kate nodded impatiently as she gripped her hips once in pleading, "I get to be in Yelena’s position and watch you come with your fingers."

"Deal." Kate literally moaned out loud instead of answering normally, nodding eagerly at Y/N’s request. "Should we seal or deal with a kiss?" Kate asked mischievously with her eyebrow wiggling seductively after she regained all her cognitive functions, making Y/N laugh heartily at her girlfriend’s behavior.

"Alright, a promise is a promise. I promised you kisses after your story. And we also have to seal a deal. What better way to do that with a kiss? Or more, right?"

"I couldn’t agree more." Kate smiled brightly and moved a bit closer to Y/N, hovering her lips over Y/N’s inviting ones and licked her own instinctively when she felt them dry up from their proximity and for the electricity instantly charging up the air of the silent room and putting their bodies on fire.

"Well, what are we waiting for? C’mere."

"Wait." Kate stopped Y/N before she could close the gap between them by pulling slightly away and suppressed the urge to kiss Y/N’s pout away from her alluring lips by just bracketing her face softly and squeezing her cheeks gently, making Y/N switch her pout to a wonderful, bright smile and mirrored it with a just as happy grin, before moving closer again and nuzzled their noses together cutely, making both their stomaches erupt in wild butterflies flying around like crazy, "do you think we can, y’know, have sex here or do you think it’s too dangerous that someone could walk in on us or maybe hear us? I really want you right now, with our confessions and all of that, but I don’t want to risk our covers to blow up just because I was too much horny for you to think properly about our actions and about our actual jobs here. We are professionals but we are also together and, y’know, we have both needs and- and I really want to touch you right now, I really want to make you come over and over again on my fingers while you moan out my name. Of course we will try to keep it as quiet as we can but y’know what I mean. I want to lick you clean, drink your amazing juices up until you don’t have any other drop of cum into your body. I want to taste those amazing boobs of yours, kiss all over your soft skin while leaving love marks all over you just to tell the world, to anyone who ever wanted you or ever will want you that you are mine. I want to feel you squirm under my hands while I tease you to no end just to hear you whine, pleading me to make you come on my tongue or on my fingers, or both. I want to watch your face contort in pure pleasure as I deliver to you the best orgasm you have ever had, I want to feel your walls squeeze my fingers and your legs wrap around my head. I want to feel your clit pulsate under my lips as I suck on it thoroughly to give it the attentions it needs. I just want you in every possible way. Fuck, I love you Y/N. I love you so much I don’t even know if words can express how much I love you. But I promise you, I will try everyday to express my love for you and make you feel loved as you should. I will try everything in my power to make you feel like the queen that you are. I- hold on- where was I?"

"Babe, that was so touching." Y/N giggled gently at Kate’s question as she felt her eyes sting with tears as they glazed over full of emotions she felt for the archer. "I always thought your ramblings were cute but fuck, hearing you ramble about how you want me, how you want to fuck me, holy shit it made me feel so many things and I am so wet for you. But then you kept rambling about how much you love me and shit, I feel so overwhelmed right now. I just- fuck I love you so much babe. You have no idea."

"C’mere." Kate pecked lovingly Y/N’s lips softly before pulling away to bump their noses together cutely, "can I fuck you now?"

Y/N laughed loudly to cover her hard blush and slapped Kate’s shoulder gently in the process, "such a gentlewoman."

"Sorry, let me rephrase that correctly. Can I fuck you now, please?"

[2/3]

[whimsyfinny]

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Summary: Charlie discovers the Winchester boys to be struggling with keeping the bunker tidy, looking after themselves and being able to do their job simultaneously. Luckily she has a friend who’s from a Hunter family that is in need of work and can help them with research. Or so she thought that’s what her job would be. When Dean sees your more domesticated side, his head won’t stop swimming with all the wrong ideas.

Slow burn, enemies to lovers, smut

Warnings: provocative dancing, slight Sam x Reader, jealous Dean

Chapter Word Count: 4211

—-MDNI—-

A/N: So I had to post this chapter in 2 parts because of how long it was and the formatting was weird otherwise. So here we are, and 2 part chapter! But yeah same as always pls let me know of any errors as I am the only one who proof reads this shit.

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Please read the below first:

Prologue Chapter 1

Chapter 2 Chapter 3

Chapter 4 Chapter 5

Chapter 6 Chapter 7

Chapter 8 pt. 1

I’m Not Your F*cking Maid

Chapter 8 - Part 2

Charlie eventually left after a few hours of convincing Sam and Dean that I would be absolutely fine infiltrating the club without them. At least at first. Some negotiations took place and after a while we all came to an agreement - I’d go in, scope the place out and unlock every door before leaving and letting the boys take over, handing over the intel on who everyone was and where they were stationed. This would make the kills less messy and reduce civilian casualties. Once this decision was made, we ate dinner before the guys went back upstairs to get as much information on the strip club as possible, whilst I went to finish the laundry from earlier.

I’d dropped Sam’s clothes off in his room before I headed Deans room to deposit his. Upon arriving, I twisted the handle and let myself in, breathing in the intoxicating scent of him before placing the neat stacks of clothing on his bed. Patting the top on the piles to ensure they wouldn’t topple over, I was turning to leave when something caught my eye. It was a pile of napkins and receipts crumpled up and tossed in the bin by the door - the same ones that made me feel so deflated earlier today. I smiled, feeling some semblance of relief course through me as I made my way upstairs again. As I walked I pondered; the Winchesters unknowing of the fact that I’d spent a short amount of time taking exotic dance classes. My ex boyfriend had paid for them so I could give him a ‘private show’ in cheap lingerie, and not to toot my own horn but I was pretty good at what I did back then so this should be a breeze. The only thing was that now I had a point to prove, and boy was I going to prove it.

I strode into the room where the boys were - Deans head in his hands and Sam’s face pressed to the inside of a book that was open on the table. He could have been asleep, if it wasn't for the fact that his eyes opened when I walked in. Without saying a word I grabbed an empty chair and set it in the middle of the room away from the desks and bookcases, making both men flinch at the abruptness.

“What are you doing?” Dean quizzed, lifting his head from his hands.

“Proving to you that I’m perfect for this case.”

Dean raised an eyebrow and I was unsure if he was catching on. I grabbed his phone from the table, unlocking it and finding the perfect song to play, settling on ‘Apocalyptic’ by Halestorm. At the start of the music he seemed to realise what was going on and he sat up eagerly, watching me intently as I undid my hair from its ponytail. I ruffled it up close to the roots, putting some volume in there as he went to stand up. I placed my fingertips on his chest and pushed gently, making him sit back down in his chair. I shook my head.

“Not you.”

He looked at me, puzzled; however his jaw dropped when I took Sam’s hand and urged him to stand. Sam had been paying minimal attention and just about knew what was going on when I gently pushed on his toned stomach, moving him backwards towards the chair in the middle of the room. I felt my heart do a small flip at the sheer size of the younger Winchester, this being my first time standing so close to him. And he smelt softer than Dean - less leather and gunpowder and more mint and fresh linens. I looked up at Sam through my lashes, watching his chest rise and fall more rapidly than before as he scanned my face. I smiled.

“Just relax, Sam. I Promise I don’t bite - at least not unless you want me to,” as the words left my lips I heard a SNAP and looked over at Dean, who’d now crushed the pencil he was using into splinters. I couldn’t help but smirk, starting to enjoy this perhaps a little more than I should. I pushed on Sam’s hips, urging him to sit, now in perfect view of his older brother. I stood in between Sam’s thighs and looked down at him, watching how his big eyes followed my hands as I slid them down over his shoulders and chest before running them back up again, tracing a single finger up over his Adam’s apple and tilting his chin up to look at me. The moment his eyes met mine his lips parted slightly and I leaned in close, so close that I could almost taste him. He let out the quietest groan and I whispered over his lips:

“I’ll try to make this enjoyable.”

I was bending over slightly, feeling my already very short skirt ride up. I sashayed around Sam, swaying my hips to the music and trailing my hands over his body with feather-light touches. Every time I did I felt him tense up or let out a small noise, especially when I crouched down behind the chair and slid myself underneath it, appearing between his legs and pushing myself up, my own legs straight and spread wide as I leant forwards. I now faced Dean, making eye contact with him as he watched me slide my hands up Sam’s thighs as I perched myself in his lap, swaying my hips as I pressed into him. I heard him suck in a breath at the contact, his manhood twitching in his jeans beneath the softness of my ass. I brought my knees and ankles together in a ladylike fashion before spreading them wide again, my legs pressing hard into the inside of Sam’s thighs. Deans knuckles went white as I ran my hands over my body and through my hair, biting my bottom lip sensually. Feeling Sam’s hands graze my knees, they slowly started to trail up my thighs as he snuck touches in where he could. My heart fluttered in my chest - his hands were already treating me far more gently than Deans did. I let him touch me for a few moments before I smacked his hands away and stood up. Spinning to face him I flipped my hair back, and slowly - oh so slowly - traced my hands down my own figure. As I outlined every curve I lowered myself so I was kneeling right before him - right between his legs that were spread wide like my own as my bare knees rested on the cold floor. I ghosted my hands up the inside of his thighs as he let out a shaky breath. I smiled up at him, but it seemed he was past the niceties as I noticed how dark his eyes had gone. I drew my hands back and spun around so I was now facing Dean whilst still nestled between Sam’s thighs. The older brother had pulled his chair out for a better view as his elbows rested on his knees as his large palms came together - as though in prayer - in front of his plump, kissable lips. He stared at me, unmoving and barely blinking, as though he were in a trance. Still on my knees, I threw Dean a coy grin before I placed my hands on the floor and walked them forwards, my ass now completely on show to Sam as my denim skirt did nothing to keep me covered. My back dipped in a feline manner as my chest came into contact with the floor, and I couldn’t help but think to myself that I would put money down that Dean loves this position for rough, pleasure-seeking sex. I hummed to myself at the thought of him fucking me into his mattress like this; one large, rough hand on my hip and the other propping himself up over me as he would moan my name and I would lose myself in his bedsheets.

I tore myself away from my daydream by sliding my hands forward so I was laying on my front before rolling onto my back, tilting my head back so I was looking at Dean upside down, my hair pooling around me. I gnawed on my bottom lip again as I planted both feet on the floor so my knees were bent and touching, before lifting one leg as gracefully as I could into the air and pointing my toes. Reaching my arms up, I gently touched my ankle and trailed my fingers over my leg, up my thigh - catching on my skirt and lifting it higher - along the soft skin of my exposed torso and over my breasts. I then dragged my fingers through my hair and over my scalp, my outstretched arms lifting my tank top a little - flashing Sam some braless underboob. I heard him moan and shuffle in his chair, however my eyes were still locked with Deans, and I watched as the older brother leant back and spread his legs a little wider, adjusting himself in his jeans as he laced his fingers together over his abdomen. Without missing a beat, I flipped myself back over onto my stomach and played the previous motions in reverse - sliding upwards so I was on all fours and then back to being just on my knees. I turned so I was facing Sam again, grinning at his hooded eyes and slack jaw as I placed my hands on his knees and pushed myself up to standing. I stepped around him slowly, my hands running down his broad shoulders as I moved to stand behind him. I leant down and whispered into his ear, his head dipping to the side slightly as my breath fanned out over his hot skin:

“Admit it, I’m perfect for the case.”

I watched his eyes flutter closed as he replied in a breathy voice.

“Yes… you’re perfect…” he paused, like he’d forgotten to finish his sentence, “…perfect for the case, I mean.”

I smiled as I stood up straight, catching Deans piercing gaze again.

“I’m going to bed - it’s been a long day. You boys should too,” my voice came out perhaps a little more sultry than I expected.

They both nodded, humming in response as I turned away, walking to my bedroom and leaving behind me at least one testosterone-field time bomb.

I’ll probably regret that whole ordeal in the morning

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Up Next:

Chapter 9

[loveswrites]

Is love enough? Poly Joe x Love x reader

Poly! Joe Goldberg x reader x Love Quinn

Time it took me: 5 hours spread out a few days

Word count: 1058

I asked you guys on a poll if you guys would like a poly xreader with Joe and love and you guys definitely did! So Let me know how you guys like it! The closer I got to the end I was thinking about making this one into a mini series! As I could do a lot more with this one! Tell me if you'd like a part two!

When you finish reading tell me. Do you think love is enough?

Love <3

"Depression makes you do crazy shit Joe!"

"That doesn't make sense, Love! just accept the fact that you killed her for no reason but the fact that you can't control yourself!" Joe yelled at love with wide eyes. 

"I can't control myself? I can't control myself?! You were the one obsessing over yet another woman! What did you expect me to do?! We have a family!" Love yelled back at Joe with tears in her eyes. But they weren't tears of sadness.

"Babes? What's with all the yelling what's going-... on.." You questioned coming down the stairs but paused seeing exactly what the yelling was all about.

"What happened?.." You whispered. On the ground all you saw was blood and the body of some blonde. 

"What are you doing here!?" Love and Joe yelled in unison.

"You told me to come pick up Henry so you could finish on some things- What happened!" You yelled, snapping out of your explanation of your presence.

"I- I she fell-" Love attempted to say but you quickly cut her off.

"Into an Ax!?" You yelled.

"It was an accident!" Love tried defending herself.

"What the fuck! What the actual fuck? I- Where is Henry?!" You yelled out looking around the dark basement for the child you came to pick up.

"He's over there he is fine!" Love gestured to Henry who was literally a baby in a corner.

You watched as Joe paced the floors as you could only assume he was thinking about what to do about this.. situation that lies in front of you three.. and a half. 

You Joe and Love were in a relationship together. It was a loving happy relationship you felt secure in some aspects of it. Besides that fact that you never knew if the police would show up at your front door and arrest you was all. It was one of the things that made the loving happy relationship feel a little less secure. Also with love's impulsive behavior and Joe's constant need to have a new fixation every other month put a damper on the relationship at times. But none of that stopped you from loving them both. And them loving you. 

"You said no more. No more killing. No more death. A fresh start and a New beginning. And Joe you no more.. obsession plus the killing also." You whispered shifting your eyes between you two lovers. 

"How can neither of you keep your promise?" 

"I haven't killed anybody!" Joe yelled.

"But you stalk! And you creep! And you lie and cheat on both me and Love! Why?! Why are we not enough for you? I keep your secrets, I'm there when you're scared! When you're scared that you might do another bad thing! And you Love I'm there for you every sleepless night when Joe is gone! We were all supposed to be happy here! But since we're all killing and lying, I'm going to tell the truth I hate it here! I hate the suburbs I'm a fucking city girl I don't belong here yet I am trying to adapt for you for you both because I love you! You both ripped me apart from a city that I loved so much to lie in a house with two people that I thought loved me more than I loved that city just to feel like some neglected piece of trash! I hope to God Henry never feels like this- Oh wait he probably already does since he's facing a corner chilling in a room with a dead body!" You screamed with so much pent up aggression you snatched up the baby carrier that held Henry.

"Pleas-" Joe started but you cut him off without turning to face them.

"Don't call me, don't text me. Fix your mess then maybe me and Henry will come back." You said causing panic to rush through both of their veins.

"Maybe?!" Love yelled her eyes widening. 

"What do you mean maybe?! I love you, there is nothing that I wouldn't do to make you stay!" Joe yelled.

"Shut up." You said, shaking your head as you walked up the stairs leaving the bakery. 

When you've been in a relationship with basically two insane people you learn when their threats mean you harm or not. In that case Joe threatened you out of fear. Not anger. He was never angry at you much. He got mad at Love more than he would you. Him and Love fought more than you, him and love ever did combined. Which you couldn’t lie was understandable because seeing that their habits could land us all in jail. You’ve never killed anybody but that still doesn’t make you a good person. 

You’ve lied for them. Threaten people for them. Even though Joe and Love do their best to keep their dirty habits away from home, it’s inevitable that one of those habits will come knocking on your front door. You’ve helped with the..bodies. So no matter how sick it makes you or how bad you feel about it you are and will forever be an accomplice to their crimes for no other reason than the fact love makes you do crazy things. 

When you got to your car you went to buckle Henry into his car seat. He was crying. You almost missed that.. How could you miss a screaming baby? As you tried to zone yourself out of your deep thoughts about your two loves you tried calming the only love that mattered right now. You found it hard to do this as tears rolled down your own face. Who was going to calm you down with their love? As you shhh henry to calm down rocking him in your arms on the side corner of the bakery you started to think what if this was all?

What if this was it? 

What if all your life now consisted of was lying, hiding, running, crying, screaming, fighting, shovels, dirt and muddy midnights. But at least you had your two lovers by your side, That’s all that matters right? Could the love between three people be enough to grow into a happy family?

Getting into the driver's seat you started the car. And as you drove away from the bakery you couldn’t help but think, is love enough?

[blueskylinesx]

Tomato Red - Chapter Two

Parings: Jesse Cash x Female Reader

Warnings/Triggers: Language, talks about relationship traumas/abuse, mother/father relationships, mentions of cheating, anxiety, nervousness/panicky behavior, self doubt, fluff, sexual tension.

Summary: The local cafe/bookstore down the street was Jesse's usual hang out spot where he spent hours reading books and working on music. Until one day when he meets a new barista working the bookstore cafe. Suddenly, Jesse's reasons for visiting the bookstore down the road were no longer just for reading and work... but were suddenly meant for much more.

Author's Note: This GIF took me forever to get right.. Tumblr gave me the hardest time BUT I was determined to make it work. I feel like it really captures Jesse's fidgetiness and anxiety that I tried to portray in this chapter. This one was a super fun one to write and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do. The story is just beginning ya'll, buckle in! Please feel free to share your thoughts! :)

The orange scones were heavily inspired by @thefallennightmare 's story "Just Pretend." IF you somehow haven't read it yet, do yourself the favor and exit out of this and go read it right now. Seriously. Thank you SO much again Tina for giving me the okay to add Jesse's fruit addiction to Tomato Red. You're the sweetest ever and I'm honored to have a little piece of Just Pretend be apart of this story.

I'm also trying to work on putting together a little master list so that all these chapters will be in one place that's easier to navigate for everyone. Thank you all for baring with me while I fought to get this chapter up. <3

Tags: @thefallennightmare @thatchickwiththecamera @xxkittenkissesxx @arkiliastuff @lma1986 @cncohshit @collidewiththesav

If you would like to be added to the tags list please let me know! I would be happy to do so! Thank you all for your support and for reading these. <3

READER

I rolled over on my side to shut off the alarm that loudly echoed from my phone which sat on my bedside nightstand. Pulling the charger cord out and letting it fall onto the floor, I dismissed the alarm and let out a long sigh. 5:00 am right on the dot.

I had to be at the cafe early this morning to help Kate bake the first few rounds of pastries for the front display case. Normally Kate could handle the morning bake load by herself. But, with it being so busy lately she asked me to start coming in a few times a week to help out since having to increase the morning bake amount.

I brushed the messy strands of hair away from my face and pulled the covers off of me to fully sit up in bed. I let out a long yawn and rubbed my eyes before finally stepping out into the cold air of my bedroom. 

Kate always kept the AC in the apartment on the temperature of Alaska and although I’ve lived with her for a little over a year, my Floridian blood still wasn’t used to it. Goosebumps lined both my arms and legs and I quickly rushed over to my dresser to remove the oversized shirt I had slept in. I then threw on a pair of black leggings followed by a pair of gray high socks, my white bra, and an oversized dark green sweatshirt.

I then made my way over to my bathroom within a few steps and ran my hand along the wall to find the light switch. With a loud click from flipping the switch up, the sudden brightness filled the room and caused my eyes to squint.

Taking a second for my eyes to adjust, I reached over to the side mirror on the wall and pulled out my toothbrush and toothpaste. With my toothbrush pushed to the side of my mouth I lazily threw my hair up in a messy bun. Not having the energy to put in the effort to do anything cute with it, other than potentially seeing the cutie from last night, and then finishing it off with a few sprays of dry shampoo, just in case.

Shaking the thought from my mind, I finished brushing my teeth with a quick gargle of mouthwash and then made my way back into my room to throw on my pair of black high top converse and sprayed myself with my usual coconut vanilla body mist.

I grabbed my purse off of the hook that hung on the back of my bedroom door, closing it behind me, and finally made my way out of the long hallway and into the front room of mine and Kate’s apartment. 

Stopping right before the front door to grab my car keys from the small side table and double checking to make sure I had my phone and cafe key on me. With everything in place, I reached for the front door handle and stepped out into the gray, dim, overcast LA weather. Feeling the breeze blow around the loose strands of my bun while I turned to lock the door behind me.

Taking in the fresh cool air as it swept across my nose I headed down the two flights of stairs, making my way to the parking lot, and finally into my car. Before inserting my key into the ignition I lifted my butt slightly above my seat to pull my phone out from my back pocket. Sitting back down and unlocking the screen to search for Kate and mine’s thread of text messages.

I quickly typed out, “Hey, currently in the car and on my way now. I made sure to leave a few minutes early today so you wouldn’t put me in a chokehold the second I walked through the door if I was late again. See you soon. Love you.” and then clicked send before starting my car and finally heading out of the parking lot. 

READER

I pulled into the back parking lot of the cafe and parked next to Kate’s blue Mini Cooper, which was the only other car in the lot. The cafe didn’t open until seven and since it was still pretty early the rest of the cafe crew hadn’t shown up yet. 

I shut the car off and reached over to the passenger seat to grab my purse and the rest of my belongings before stepping out of the car. I then headed towards the back door of the cafe and clicked the lock button on my car remote twice as the two car beeps echoed through the parking lot back to me. 

Inserting my cafe key into the lock and using a little bit of force to push the old wooden door open I was greeted by the warm heat that filled the air from the ovens and the sweet aroma of the fresh baked pastries Kate had been working on all morning.

“About time you showed up, I was wondering if you may have hit your snooze button a few extra times this morning.” I heard Kate call out from over by the bakers table.

Glancing down at my phone to check the time that now showed 5:47am, “What do you mean about time? I literally rushed out of the house so fast this morning you would have been proud. Plus you said to get here around six and I’m exactly thirteen minutes early, thank you very much”. I responded back while making my way over to her.

Flour, bowls of mixed pastry batter, baking utensils both clean and coated in all kinds of different pastry mix, and baking pans all covered the table before me. Kate had been here since four and it definitely showed from the mess that also coated her apron. She even managed to get some flour in the ends of her ponytail and on her face.

“Had a little accident this morning, did we?” I asked while swiping my finger across her cheek to scoop up some of the loose flower from her face.

“This mixer is crazy! I don’t know if it’s acting out in retaliation from the use and abuse I’ve been putting this thing through lately… but here I was rolling cinnamon rolls and when I had walked over to check the next batch of dough, the bowl about flew off the stand and threw flower all over the place, as you can clearly see.” Kate said while huffing her hair out of her face with a forceful sigh.

“Well I’ve come to your rescue! Where would you like me to start boss?” I replied with a snicker while pulling my apron strings into a tight knot around my waist.

“First and most importantly, can you bring me my iced coffee and hold it up to me so I can get a sip? I am in desperate need of rejuvenation.”  Kate asked while continuing to roll out the cinnamon rolls before her. “Then if you could start on the orange scones I would be forever in your debt.”

“Wow the orange scones huh? Normally those are your babies, are you suuure you want me to be making the tried and true orange scones? Afterall, I mean I know how particular you are -” 

“Oh shut up and just bring me my iced coffee you brat.” Kate said with a playful laugh.

I held the cup of iced coffee up to Kate’s mouth and she eagerly started sipping away at the half melted liquid inside. I went to set the cup back down on the table after she pulled away but not before noticing the strange look that she was suddenly giving me.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re oddly cheery this morning, normally when you come in you’re quiet and a little grumpy. But today you’re talkative and even have a sort of glow to you. You even texted me before you left home... Did I miss something somewhere from when I last saw you after yesterday’s crazy morning rush?” Kate replied while tapping her finger to her chin.

I could feel my cheeks suddenly getting warm and a rush of nervousness suddenly hit the inside of my stomach like a tsunami. Did Kristina say something to her about last night? I wondered.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m just saying as your sister, I know when something is different about you. I even got a whiff of your dry shampoo while you were standing next to me with my coffee. Which for you to put dry shampoo in your hair at five in the morning… is a pretty big deal.”

Rolling my eyes and shifting in my shoes I adjusted my apron and smoothed it down over my waist and legs. I was hesitant to respond to Kate’s assumptions. Not because she was wrong or because she’s always had an annoyingly accurate attention to detail. But because I was scared of the reaction I might get from her.

Kate was older than me by five years and she always sort of took on a motherly role even when we were kids. Our mom was hardly present while we were growing up. Her and our father divorced and separated shortly after our dad started going out of town for months at a time for work. He was in the military and was constantly having to leave and would sometimes be gone for almost an entire year. Our mom did the best she could but couldn’t handle the stress of being the one to handle it all by herself while our dad was away. 

When he was home, they were constantly fighting and my sister was always trying to pick up the pieces. Not only for both of our parents but for me as well. When our parents finally decided to divorce and our father moved to North Carolina, our mother quickly grew lonely and would often try to desperately fill the void of our father in whatever man she could at the time. 

This resulted in her constantly bringing multiple men back to the house all throughout our childhood and her focus became more on whatever boyfriend she had for that short period of time, until something would happen and she’d be forced to move on to the next one. Which is probably why now both mine and Kate’s opinions on love is so fucked up.

…And is also probably why I stayed in my previous relationship for three years with my toxic ex boyfriend back in Florida. From the first month we were together, Kate picked up on all of Jake’s red flags while I was too mesmerized by the first boy that treated me with the bare minimum of what I thought was love.

The three years we lasted together Kate begged me throughout the entire relationship to cut things off but I was too scared of losing something that I thought I’d never find again. Regardless of how horrible it made me feel. It didn’t matter because I was young, dumb, and so blinded by the extremely little good moments me and Jake shared. Which casted such dark shadows over the actual reality of the entire relationship. 

When Kate first moved to California to start college, I moved in with Jake shortly after graduating high school so I wouldn’t have to deal with living with our mother by myself. But it only lasted for about a year before I caught Jake cheating on me with some girl he worked with. Which resulted in a loud screaming fight and me kicking all his shit out of the apartment. 

That same night after everything happened I broke down and called Kate and without zero hesitation she was on a plane to Florida the next day to help me pack my stuff to come move in with her in LA. Something that I’ll forever be grateful for, and the fact that she was always there to help me pick up the pieces when I couldn’t do it by myself.

But I knew if I mentioned my encounter with Jesse from last night, Kate would most likely give me shit for it. Which is why I was so nervous to mention it to her. I also knew that I couldn’t avoid her forever, especially when she was already picking up suspicions and I had just met the man last night. 

But, deep down I was eager to share my excitement about meeting him and wanted to get a second opinion on the conversation we had.

Fuck it.

I let out a deep sigh and tucked the few pieces of loose stray hairs that clung to the side of my face behind my ear. “I hate how you always know everything. I swear you’re a witch or something.” I said nervously while clearing a space on the baking table so I could begin prepping the orange scones.

“I’m your sister and we’ve lived together for basically our entire lives Y/N. I know when something is up or when you’re acting differently. That’s how I knew it was always you who would drink my capri suns, even though you would always blame mom. It was all over your face and you’ve always been bad at hiding shit.” Kate replied with a light chuckle.

“Promise me you won’t be mad?”

Suddenly halting in place, Kate immediately turned her head in my direction. “Please tell me you’re not talking with Jake again.”

“Oh God no, definitely not.”

Letting out a long sigh of relief, Kate turned back down to finish icing the rest of the cinnamon rolls on the tray in front of her before grabbing another rack to work on. 

“Thank the Heavens, you about gave me a damn heart attack. If it has nothing to do with that idiot, moron, piece of garbage, then I can’t think of a reason as to why I would be mad Y/N.” 

“Okay soooo,” I started with a long pause. “A really, really, really cute guy came into the cafe last night while me and Kristina were closing. I probably wouldn’t have even known he was there if it wasn’t for Kristina calling me up to the register to help show her how to cash out a card transaction.”

I glanced over at Kate in an attempt to read her body language. She wasn’t giving off any signs that raised any flags yet so I continued to describe my interaction from last night.

“Well anyways, I had also seen him earlier in the day during our morning rush when I had to go out and refill the cinnamon rolls…”

“Was it the same guy who I caught checking out your ass when you walked past him by chance?” Kate suddenly interrupted. 

Feeling the heat suddenly returning to my cheeks I glanced back over at Kate with wide eyes. 

“Wait, you caught him staring at my ass?”

“Uh yeah, he wasn’t exactly discreet about it. Pretty sure he knew I busted him because when he came up to the register he was all fidgety and nervous. Handed me his debit card with shaky hands too.”

For some reason Kate telling me how she picked up on Jesse’s nervousness suddenly made me feel a bit more at ease. I was so nervous and embarrassed yesterday after he had mentioned my name tag being upside down that I spent the entire drive back home thinking of ways to permanently attach my nametag to my apron so that it always stays upright.  

“Are you sure he was staring at my ass or are you just assuming he was because your big sister was showing?” 

Either way, I wasn’t complaining.

“Y/N, he was staring at your ass, trust me. But anyways, continue about last night.” Kate said while waving me off.

“Oh yeah so anyways, we made some small talk. I may have been a tad bit flirty to which I think he may have been flirty back?”

“I wouldn’t doubt it.” Kate mumbled under her breath.

Ignoring her comment I continued on with my description of last night, “Well, to keep a long story short I ended up asking him his name and he told me it was Jesse. We made some more flirty conversation and then I ended up telling him my name.”

I left the part out about me giving him the name tag. I knew Kate would have grown three gray hairs had I told her I was giving out name tags, especially after she went off on a tangent yesterday morning about how everyone keeps stealing all the backup name tags from her drawer up front.

“I unfortunately didn’t get much further than that with our conversation though. I still had a lot to show Kristina for the closing shift and wanted to make sure she was picking up on everything. So, I told him that I had hoped to see him around and that was pretty much that.” I said while grabbing a few metal baking pans from under the baking table so I could begin scooping the dough of the orange scones onto them.

Kate was finishing arranging the few plates of pastries she had finished baking earlier onto the plates for the pastry case. I tried to read her facial expression from the side to see if I could attempt to understand any of what she might be thinking. But, my detective skills weren’t nearly as up to par as hers.

“Well, just promise me you’ll take it slow. I know you’re older now and I’m trying hard not to mom you all the time. But, I just worry about you and the guys here in LA aren’t exactly much better than back home. If anything, I’d say they’re worse.” 

Kate actually took it a lot better than I thought she would and I definitely understood her reasons for being concerned. It felt good to finally be getting a weight off of my shoulders and to have told her about Jesse. 

“But despite me being your protective older sister it is nice to see you so glowy and happy, especially this early in the morning. Maybe I should thank Jesse myself if I see him again.” Kate  said while making her way towards the silver door with a few plates of pastries in her hands.

Rolling my eyes I then motioned towards the trays of orange scones before me, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Before you head up front, come check these scones to see if they’re to your liking before I put them in the oven.”

Glancing over to the trays on the table a smile spread across Kate’s face.

“I taught you well. Now get started on the chocolate chip muffins while I start setting up out front. If your little crush comes in before you’re finished back here I’ll make sure to sound an alarm or something.” She said before finally stepping out from the back kitchen and making her way out to the cafe to begin setting up for the day.

JESSE

I sat on the kitchen countertop while swaying both my legs to the side as I was finishing up a bowl of oatmeal. I had spent the morning working on some more music for my band ERRA and also helping my roommates with some of their bands music as well.

I lived with my three best friends Michael, Noah, and Jolly ever since I moved from Nashville to California. Noah and Jolly were in a band called Bad Omens together and Michael was in a separate band called Chief. It was nice to live with three other musicians because we could always bounce back and forth ideas to one another.

Also if I ever needed advice or a second opinion on something, all I had to do was just take a few steps out into the hallway and I could knock on one of their bedroom doors regardless of whatever time it was. 

With us all being in touring bands it also worked out because we were usually on opposite touring schedules. So even though it was four of us in one house, I was still able to have some time away for myself when I needed it.  

“Would anyone know why the Crunchyroll login won’t work when I try to use it?” Noah’s voice suddenly echoing out from the front room.

“I don’t know man, I don’t watch those cartoons or whatever you guys call it. Maybe try logging in to the PBS Kids channel. You might have better luck.” Jolly responded back.

“Fuck off, they’re not cartoons man. The new Attack On Titan dropped and I was trying to watch it before my session with Ash. But for some reason all of a sudden I mysteriously can’t log in to my own account.” Noah said in an aggravated tone. 

…“Ah, the TV disconnected from the wifi and that’s why it won’t let me log in.” 

Hopping off the counter I brought my empty bowl over to the sink and rinsed it out before placing it in the dishwasher. I turned to head towards the front room where Jolly and Noah were sitting on the couch together.

“Aw, are my two boys over here having a little spiffle?” I asked as I entered the front room and then plopped down on the couch between them.

“Noah is just dumb and doesn’t know how to work a TV apparently.” Jolly responded in a joking tone.

“I know how to work a TV alright. It’s not my fault the wifi is faulty.”

“The wifi is faulty.” I repeated while laughing.

“I think it’s just user error.” Jolly retorted back.

Noah rolled his eyes and let out a long aggravated sigh. “Enough about the wifi. Where the hell were you last night? I came over to your room to see if you wanted to go grab something for dinner and when I knocked you weren’t in there. Michael had said you’d been gone all day?”

“Oh yeah, I got caught up at the cafe down the road working on some of the new ERRA songs.” I answered.

“All the way past 10:30?” Noah asked with a raised brow.

“Well I ended up having some friendly conversation with one of the girls who works at the cafe. So, I got a bit caught up and lost track of the time.”

Jolly and Noah both turned to each other. Both of them now having raised eyebrows as they returned their sight back to me.

“You got a bit caught up and lost track of the time? As in lost track of time with the girl from the cafe, if ya know what I’m sayin?” Jolly responded with a sly smirk while raising both his brows.

Noah now chiming back in, “Oh shit dude, is that why you were out so late? Good for you man.” 

“No, no, no. You guys are getting way too ahead of yourselves. Plus you both know better than anyone that I’m not the kind of guy to just be going out on lust filled adventures especially with someone I just met.” I responded while nervously running my hands over the tan pants that hugged my thighs.

Oh shit man, I didn’t mean to throw out accusations. I just thought maybe you were finally starting to open up and explore the dating world again, especially after the whole situation with what's her name.” Noah replied while patting the back of my shoulder.

I felt my shoulders tense up from his response. I tried to push that whole situation to the back of my mind as far as possible. So when someone would occasionally bring it back up, the bad taste that lingered on my tongue for so long would overtake all my taste buds. Leaving me with a burning taste of despair and disappointment that I desperately fought so long to be rid of.

“Uh -” I started with a hard swallow. “Not that I’m exploring the dating world per say. But more like she definitely caught my attention and I couldn’t help myself from wanting to talk to her.”

“Well man, don’t be shy. Share the details!” Jolly excitedly responded while sitting further up on the couch. 

Feeling a little more at ease with this new excitement about sharing my encounter with the beautiful girl from last night, I began sharing our interaction with my two friends.

“It actually all happened pretty suddenly. I went to the cafe like normal just to work on some shit for the band. Had myself a coffee and a croissant, yadda, yadda, yadda. When I went to go take my empty plate back up and to get another refill, that’s when I first saw her. She was putting a new plate of pastries in the little case thing up front and the sunlight that casted off her hair caught the corner of my eye.”

“Oh this sounds like some Titanic lovey dovey romance type shit.” Jolly said.

“Dude, did you even watch the movie? Did you see how it ended?” Noah responded with a click of his tongue.

“Uh yeah of course I’ve seen the movie, who hasn’t? That redhead girl and the blonde dude were smashing and then he drew that photo of her with her all naked on the chair and shit. Pretty romantic lovey dovey if you ask me.” 

“Jesus.” Noah said while rubbing both his eyes. “Jesse, please continue before this idiot continues talking.”

Turning my gaze away from Jolly I began explaining mine and Y/N’s encounter again.

“Yeah, so anyways…” Trying to regain my focus after Jolly’s Titanic comment. “I saw her standing there and I just couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. She was the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. I honestly think I stood there in my own disbelief because I couldn’t comprehend how she was real. She was so effortlessly beautiful in the way she did something as simple as putting some baked goods behind a glass container. Then when she walked past me and I caught the vanilla coconut scent coming off of her and I was put into an even bigger trance.”

I looked back up and over at Noah, who was sitting beside me silently listening to what I had been saying with his arm stretched over the back of the couch. My friend looked back at me with friendly yet concerned eyes, and I enterlocked my hands together before continuing further.

Taking in a deep breath I went to begin again but Jolly had interrupted once again.

“But were you staring at the booty though? Be honest!” 

My cheeks suddenly became hot and I could feel the saliva in my throat start to quickly dry. 

Fuck. Even I couldn’t deny to myself that I maybe caught a glance or two of her lower half from underneath her apron strings.

Noah suddenly broke out with laughter, “The silence is very telling. My man, you just got busted and by Jolly at all costs.”

“Okay, whatever. So I may have glanced at her ass once or twice. Sue me.” I said as I threw my hands up. “But that wasn’t the reason for why she caught my attention. Something about this girl had me weak in the knees from just the first sight of her.”

“You’re fucked Jesse.” Jolly stated while crossing his arms over his chest. 

“I hate to admit it, but I gotta agree with Jolly on this one. The way you’re describing this girl it sounds like you may be in love at first sight.” Noah added.

I also hated to admit it, but even I couldn’t help but agree with their statements. I was fucked. This girl had me hooked from just the first sight of her.

“Well, did you talk to her or what?” Noah asked while flipping up his hand.

“Later on in the night I did. I’m pretty sure she caught me staring at her while I was standing in line and I had to go work out my embarrassment before even thinking about facing her again. But once I calmed my nerves, I used wanting to get a refill on coffee as an excuse to try to talk to her again.” 

“And? Did it work?” Jolly asked eagerly. 

A smile now spread across my face and my heart began to pick up pace. “Yeah actually, it did. We exchanged some flirty banter and I think she was into me? It’s hard to tell though since it was just one conversation and she was working, so she may have just been being friendly. But we exchanged names and then I made a comment about her nametag being upside down and then she ended up making me my own upside down name tag. It was probably the cutest thing a girl has ever done for me.” I admitted.

“Is that what I saw this morning sitting on the counter by the coffee machine?” Michael asked, suddenly appearing out from the kitchen holding his leftover chipotle bowl.

“Wait, it's in the kitchen? Dude bring it in here so we can see it!” Jolly excitedly exclaimed.

Michael appeared back into the front room holding the name tag that Y/N had made for me last night and handed it over to Noah first.

“Dude, she’s definitely into you. No girl would take the time to do some shit like this if she was just being friendly.” Noah stated while holding the name tag in between his fingers.

“Oh definitely and look, she even added a little smiley face right next to his name”. Michael said with a mumbled tone from the chipotle he had shoved in his mouth.

Jolly now leaned over me so he could grab the name tag from Noah’s hand. “Oh fuck man, yeah she’s definitely feeling you. She took her time with this, look how much detail she added to the little frame around your name.”

I slunk back down into the couch, “You guys are embarrassing me.”

Ignoring my statement, “I think the real question now is, when are you going back to the cafe?” Noah turned to ask me.

I had been thinking about going back to the cafe the second I stepped out the front door of the cafe last night, from the entire drive back home, and up until this moment. That’s all I had been thinking about. 

“I say we all go to the cafe now so we can see who’s got our boy all flustered like this.” Michael said with a grin.

“Hey I’m down. I don’t have to meet up with Ash until a few hours from now. Plus, I could use some caffeine before my session anyways.” Noah replied while pushing his hands off his knees to stand up from the couch.

“Do I have a say in any of this?” I asked with nerves suddenly building up in my stomach.

“Nope.” The three of them all responded back at the same time.

“Quit being a pussy and go put your shoes on. We’re just going to grab some coffee and potentially force you to get her number.” Michael said while walking back over to the kitchen to throw out his now empty chipotle bowl. 

Fuck me.

KATE

This was the first time all morning that I was able to catch my breath. From the moment the cafe doors opened we were slammed back to back. We had a line that stretched almost all the way down to the bookstore registers.

Thankfully I staffed today’s shift with our strongest employees so everything went smoothly for the most part. Other than Kristina spilling an entire pot of hot coffee all over the floor. But, it could have gone worse I suppose. Plus, the floors were probably in need of a good scrubbing anyways.

I walked towards the silver door that separated the back of house from the front cafe and pushed it open to make my way back over towards the sink area to check on Y/N. With this being the first break we’ve had all morning she offered to go catch up on all the dishes from this morning's pastry bake.

Bringing Y/N to work at the cafe with me was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Even though we also lived together, me and Y/N very rarely ever got into arguments. Even as children, we would bicker and then we would always be able to patch it up right then and there. So I was so thankful when she finally agreed to come work with me after months of desperately begging every day. 

Despite being my sister, Y/N was reliable and I could count on her. Plus she was a hard worker and I never had to worry if she would show up for her shifts or not.

Finally making my way to the sink I came up beside Y/N and put my hand on the back of her shoulder. “Thank you for coming in this morning to help me and for knocking out these dishes. I know I say it a lot but, I really am grateful you decided to come work here with me.”

Turning her head to meet my gaze, “You’re sucking up, what do you want?” 

“Nothing.” I replied back with a laugh. “I just want you to know that I’m thankful and I’m happy to have you here is all. But, don’t let it go to your head. You still owe me a matcha latte for being late yesterday. Don’t think I forgot!”

“Ah, so it was a matcha latte you wanted.” Y/N replied back with a grin across her face. “Give me a few seconds to get cleaned up and I’ll be out there to make it for you, brat.”

“Did I ever mention that you’re the best sister ever?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, suuuuure.” Y/N responded while waving me off.

I turned to make my way back towards the cafe. Pushing the silver door open and checking the times on the pots of coffee. I bent down to the cabinet underneath the coffee pots and scooped out two cups of coffee beans and poured them into the grinder. 

Once they were all grinded up I lined the coffee pot trays with coffee filters and then poured the ground coffee grinds inside and began brewing fresh pots of coffee for the afternoon. When I went to turn back around there was a gentleman standing at the register. 

Holy mother of God.

This man was absolutely beautiful. His short brown hair framed his face perfectly and he was covered from neck to toe with tattoos. Not to mention the fact that he practically towered over the register, and those arms… Jesus those arms.

I took in a deep breath and tried to find my footing again before finally making my way over to the register. I licked my lips and had to do a double take to make sure I wasn’t drooling down my apron.

“Good afternoon, did you have any questions about the menu?” I asked.

“Oh no, I was just reading over everything you guys have here. I’m actually waiting for the rest of my friends to come up but they went to grab a table over in the book store first.”

Mmm, I’d like to grab something myself.

“Okay no worries, take your time and whenever you’re ready to order just holler.” 

“Will do.” He responded back with a friendly smile while tucking his hands into his pockets.

I walked back over to the coffee pots to make it seem like I was doing something while peeking out from behind the coffee grinder so I could continue to stare at the man up at the register.

He was wearing a white shirt that appeared to have an image of Jesus playing basketball with Satan and a pair of black shorts that hugged his thighs perfectly. He had paired them with a pair of high white socks and all white vans.

Suddenly another man appeared beside him. He had long brown hair and was also covered in tattoos. He wore a black tee shirt paired with black sweatpants and had them tucked into a pair of yellow high top shoes. 

What was in the air today? My God. These two men were gorgeous.

“Jesse’s being a pussy so Michael stayed back to try to work up his confidence.” The second man said to the short haired man.

He had an accent that I couldn’t exactly place my finger on. But whatever it was, it sounded beautiful and I wished he would whisper sweet nothings into my ears forever after hearing it.

“Uh Kate, what are you doing?” 

Almost slamming face first into the coffee grinder I whipped my head around to see Jasmine standing at the food counter staring at me with a wild expression on her face.

“Oh, um, I was just listening to the grinder. It has been making a weird sound all morning and I just wanted to make sure the motor wasn’t going bad or anything.” I said with a shaky breath.

“Riiiiiiiight.” She responded with a sly smirk and then glanced over to the register. “Must really be making some concerning sounds then.”

Rolling my eyes at her comment I then brushed my hair back down with my hands and flattened out my apron double checking to make sure I didn’t have any food or coffee gunk on me.

Two more men suddenly appeared behind the two tall gentlemen who had been standing up at the register. One of them caught my attention immediately. I recognized the gray hat he was wearing that had a white flower embroidered on the front. He hung towards the back with his arms nervously crossed over his chest. 

The man with the long brown hair turned over in my direction, “Excuse me ma'am, we are ready to order whenever you’re ready.” He called out with a smile.

Oh shit. I quickly turned over to Jasmine, “Hey can you do me a favor really quick? Can you go in the back and have Y/N come up front please. Tell her it’s urgent. I’m gonna need her to help me knock out these next orders of drinks.” 

“Sure thing!” She responded and turned to head towards the silver door. But before she could place her hands on it to push it open it already began to push forward from the back. Y/N now stepping out into the cafe.

“Hey sorry I took so long, I ended up getting water all over the front of my apron so I had to go search for a new one.” 

“No, it’s okay.” I quickly replied back. “You came at the perfect time. I’m going to need you at the register to help me take these four guys' orders, especially the one in the back.” Then winked my right eye at her.

Y/N quickly looked up and her eyes suddenly grew wide. I could see the pink starting to flush into her cheeks. 

“I’m also going to need you to hold me upright while I have to talk to these two tall ones in the front.” I said while urging Y/N back towards the register with me.

JESSE

“I hate all of you.” I let out with a nervous sigh as I stood behind Noah, Michael, and Jesse in line.

“Oh stop being such a wuss. We are gonna keep conversation with the brunette girl because she clearly can’t keep her eyes off of Noah, and then you can slide on over and try to catch a conversation with your little crush.” Michael replied.

Jolly turned to look back at me, “I do see what you mean though Jesse, she is pretty cute.” 

If you think she’s cute from this far back just wait until you're up close to her. She’s breathtaking. I thought.

“Oh shit dude, they’re walking over this way. Jesse get your ass up here.” Noah then turned to place his giant ass hand on my shoulder and pushed me up to the front between him and Jolly.

There she was, standing right before me once again. Her hair tied up in a messy bun while the loose strands hugged around her face. Her dark green sweater hugged her slender frame and her cheeks were flushed pink, highlighting the beautiful paleness of her skin.

“Alrighty, what can we get started for you guys?” Kate asked while Y/N stood still at her side.

“Do you guys know what you want?” Noah turned around to ask us all.

“Uhhh, let me just get a white mocha please.” Jolly responded.

“Okay, one white mocha. Anything else?”

“Oh it’s all gonna be together, todays a special occasion.” Noah answered back while bumping his shoulder into mine.

Just end me now please.

Y/N glanced up and I immediately made eye contact with her. I gave her a small smile to which she had returned.

Michael leaned over to whisper in my ear, “Now’s your chance man get your ass over there and go ask her for her number.”

Ignoring his comment and letting out a deep breath I inched a little bit closer to the side of the counter where Y/N stood.

“Can I have an iced sugar free vanilla latte with oat milk please.” Noah asked and then shifted over to let Michael come up between us to order next.

“Okay an iced sugar free vanilla latte for you and did you want anything else?” Kate asked with a shaky tone to her voice.

“Nah, he's gotta drink just his fancy little sugar free beverage because he’s gotta go get swole after this.” Michael blurted out with a chuckle.

“Man shut up.” Noah replied back with a long sigh.

“You do order like a girl”, Jolly chimed in with a playful smack to Noah’s arm.

“I’m sick of your guys shit. When we get back home I’m turning the AC down to 62.” 

Kate and Y/N both let out a laugh at Noah’s comment. That was the first time I heard her laugh. It was just as beautiful as she was. Everything about this girl set my soul on fire. Every time I was near her my fingertips tingled with nerves and it was so hard to think straight. 

I knew soon I was going to have to step out of my comfort zone before one of these idiots made a scene and embarrassed me even further. So, I took in a deep breath and came up close to the counter where Y/N was standing to be directly right in front of her.

Her eyes last night were tired and glossy but today, they shined brightly with the sunlight that shone in from the windows. I could probably stand here forever just getting lost in them.

“Hey you.” Y/N’s voice suddenly broke me from getting lost any further in thought.

“Hey yourself.” I replied back with a grin.

“What can I get started for you?” She asked, her smile now growing a little wider to show her teeth.

“I’m feeling adventurous and kind of want to stray away from my usual hot coffee order. What do you recommend?”

“Hmmm” she replied while tapping her fingers to her chin. “It depends, are you looking for something sweet or are you looking for something to wake you up?”

“How about both?”

“I think I can do that.” Y/N responded while reaching over to grab one of the white cups from out of the holder. 

“Just the coffee then?” Kate asked.

Staring intently at the pastry case to the side, I caught sight of a plate that was filled with a stack of orange scones. My stomach suddenly growled and my mouth watered at the sight of the white icing and pieces of orange zest that lined the top of them.

“Can I also get one of those orange scones? I have a sweet spot for anything sweet and fruity.” I turned to look back over at Kate.

“Good choice. My sister actually made those fresh this morning.” She replied back while motioning over to Y/N who was working on making mine and the guys drinks.

Kate walked over to the pastry case and put on a pair of plastic gloves. She opened the door to the back of the case and grabbed the orange scone that rested on the top of the stack and then placed it inside of a brown pastry bag.

“I’d offer to warm it up for you but the icing melts and gets all hard on the top when we do.”

“Oh it’s no worries, I’m sure it will be delicious either way.” I responded back to her.

She handed me the bag that held the orange scone inside. I grabbed it from her and then turned around to face my three friends again. “Are you guys finished ordering?” I asked.

“Yeah I think so.” Jolly answered back.

I set the bag down on the counter and reached into my back pocket to pull my wallet out. But before I could finish pulling my debit card out of its slot Noah came up beside me and handed his debit card over to Kate.

“Hey man, what are you doing?” I asked.

“I told you, it’s a special day. So it’s my treat.”

“Noah, you didn’t have to do that, seriously.” 

Retrieving his card from Kate, he then slid it into the holder he had on the back of his phone, and then shoved his phone back into his pocket. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. We put you through enough hell today so it’s the least I can do.” He replied quietly while patting my back.

“Thanks Noah, I appreciate it.” I grabbed the bag off the counter and looked back over to Y/N who had her back turned towards my direction. She was still working on finishing up our drinks. Noah and the rest of the guys turned to go head back over to the table they found earlier.

I knew this was their attempt at leaving me alone so I could talk with Y/N.

“You don’t have to stand and wait. I’ll have Y/N bring your drinks over if you want to go take a seat.” Kate said while motioning over to Noah, Jolly, and Michael. 

“Oh, are you sure? I don’t mind waiting.”

“I’m sure Y/N wouldn’t mind at all.” She replied back with a wink.

READER

I really, really hope he likes this. I thought to myself while placing the lid on top of the drink I made for Jesse.

“What did you decide on?” Kate asked while leaning over my shoulder to look down at the drinks before me.

“You’re favorite, a vanilla matcha latte. I also made one for you, it’s the cup over there by the espresso machine. I didn’t forget about it.” I said while nudging her arm with my elbow.

“Good choice, after he takes one sip of that he’ll probably get down on one knee.” Kate eagerly turned to grab her matcha latte off the counter and brought it up to take a sip. “I told him to go take a seat while they waited for their drinks. I may have also told him that you’d personally bring it out to him.”

I slowly turned my head to her and shot her a look, “You what?”

“I figured you’d want some time to talk to him more one on one without having to worry about other people being around. I can handle the front by myself for now, plus Jasmine is still here so if we get a little pop we will be okay. Now go, before the coffee and your feet both get cold.” 

I grabbed the tray that held the four coffees. My hands shook with nerves and I tried to focus my breathing before making my way around the counter. Trying to clear my thoughts so by the time I approached the table where he was sitting with his friends I would appear more confident than what I actually was. 

Shifting in my shoes I quickly turned around to smile back at Kate, “Thank you, sis.” I said before finally turning around and walking over towards the corner table of the bookstore where the four guys all sat around exchanging smiles and laughter.

I took in a deep breath as I slowly made my way closer to them. Still trying to focus on my breathing and doing the best to shake out the nerves. I could pick up the smell from the coffees I was holding as I continued walking forward and as I appeared at the table Jesse immediately looked up to greet me with a smile. 

“Okay I have all four coffees here and ready” I reached down to pull the first coffee out of the top left corner of the drink holder, picking it up and reading the description label and name Kate had written on the side. “Alright, I’ve got one white mocha for Jolly?.” I asked while holding up the beverage.

The man with long brown hair sitting furthest in the corner facing me lifted up a finger, “Ah yes, that would be mine.” 

I reached across the table, Jesse now right at my side. I could feel his warm breath fan across the side of my arm and it gave me goosebumps. Trying not to focus too hard over it I reached out to hand Jolly, who sat directly next to Jesse, his beverage.

“Thank you so much.” He responded.

“You’re very welcome” I replied back with a smile. Now reaching over to grab the next drink, I lifted the clear cold cup out of the holder and turned it to the side to read the name and description. “Alright next up, I’ve got an iced sugar free vanilla latte with oat milk for Noah.” I said while holding out the cup.

The man sitting in the chair across from Jesse lifted his head up to look at me and with a soft smile he reached over to take the cup from me, “Yep, that's me. Thank you!” He kindly replied back.

“You’re also very welcome.” I answered back with a light chuckle. I reached back down to grab the next drink, making sure to save Jesse’s for last. I wrote something special on his cup so I knew which cup was his from before I walked over here. 

“Okay next up, I’ve got a strawberry banana smoothie for Michael.” The man who sat next to Noah and across from Jolly raised his hand. “That one is for me” he said while dragging out the e playfully.

“You came to a bookstore coffee shop and ordered a smoothie?” Noah asked him with a sigh.

“Oh sorry, we can’t all be sugar free, oat milk, fancy getting swole, coffee drinkers like you Noah.” He responded back while taking the drink from me. Michael then looked back up from Noah, who was rolling his eyes, to thank me for handing him his beverage.

“Alright, last but certainly not least, I have a vanilla matcha latte for Jesse.” I said while pulling the last cup out of the holder and handing it to the man who was sitting directly next to me. He reached out to take it from me and his fingers brushed against mine. His hands were warm and a little rough. But I still shivered from his touch.

“Wow that’s fancy, probably the fanciest coffee I’ll ever drink in my life.” Jesse replied back with a laugh. “Thank you very much, Y/N. For not only making all of our drinks but for also bringing them over here to us. I told your sister I think it was? That I didn’t mind waiting for them but she insisted that you wouldn’t mind bringing them out.” His gaze continued to linger on me.

I could feel all four of them staring at me now and I knew my cheeks were probably putting my nervousness right on display. I placed my hand on the back of my neck and with a hard swallow I replied back, “Yeah it's no problem at all, my sister Kate likes everyone to be able to relax and grab a book while they wait. That’s her inner manager coming out.” 

“Oh shit, she’s your sister and your manager? Do you guys ever duke it out back there?” Jolly asked while taking a sip of his coffee.

“Surprisingly no, me and Kate actually get along really well together, for the most part. When she isn’t keeping our apartment in the temperatures of Alaska.” I responded back with a chuckle.

“Well, your sister and Noah have something in common.” Jesse said while motioning towards Noah.

“Do you guys all live together?” I asked. 

“Unfortunately.” Noah responded in a joking tone.

“He doesn’t mean that. I know your ass misses me when I’m gone.” Jesse replied while giving Noah a light kick under the table.

I laughed in response to their interaction. I could tell just from the few moments standing here conversing with them that they were all very close. It reminded me a lot of mine and Kate’s relationship and it made me feel safe to be around in their presence. Something that was very rare, especially around a group of guys in LA. 

“Did you want to sit down? If you’re not busy that is.” Jesse asked while tapping at the chair next to him. 

Suddenly all of my focus was on Jesse and I turned back over to make direct eye contact with him. His eyes were a beautiful golden brown. They were sweet and shined like honey from the sunlight that laid across his face which casted in from the windows. 

His voice was soft and kind and his lips were a warm shade of pink from which his teeth peaked out from behind. I traced his face down to his neck that met at his off white tee shirt, then down his tattoo covered arm, and finally over to his hand which was covered with a red mandala tattoo that was tapping against the seat.

I would have rather taken a seat right on his lap but for now, the chair will have to do.

He scooched over the orange scone that was sitting on the table on top of one of the brown bags from the cafe. There were two bites taken out of it and crumbs lined the top of the bag. I made my way over to the chair next to him and sat down right beside him.

I glanced back up to meet his face, and my eyes lingered on his lips. They looked soft and warm and I found myself thinking about what they would taste like. Possibly from the vanilla matcha latte that lingered on his breath, or the hints of orange scone he had eaten from earlier.

Jesse shifted a bit closer to me and now our thighs were touching. I could feel my heart beat pick up and I opened my mouth slightly to breathe in some air to prevent myself from getting light headed. My leg brushed up against his and I could feel him lean into the touch.

He sat up and leaned in closer to me putting his elbow on the table, “By the way your sister told me you had baked the orange scones and I must say they’re quite delicious. I have a sweet spot for all things fruit flavored but especially anything citrusy.” His warm breath fanned across my face.

I was so dazed by this man that I forgot there were three other people sitting at the same table with us. If they weren’t sitting here I probably would have leaned in to taste his lips by now.

I leaned in closer to him, our lips just a few inches apart now. “Well now that I know you enjoy them so much I’ll be sure to always keep a few extra in the back just for you.” 

“Is that an attempt to keep me coming back?” He asked with a raised brow.

“If it was, would you say it was working?” I asked him back.

“If I’m being honest, the orange scones wouldn’t be the reason to keep me coming back. Although they are quite tasty, It would be the girl who made them that would keep bringing me back.”

Holy hell. Holy shit. Holy fuck.

I laid my arm down on the table and brought my hand closer to his elbow. I let my finger rest up against the side of his arm and Jesse brought his arm down to place his hand on top of mine. 

“If it’s alright with you and if I’m not coming off too strong, I am experiencing a wave of confidence I normally don’t carry. So I would really like to take advantage of it and ask you for your number.”

A wide smile spread across my face and I looked down at the table to hide my bright red cheeks. I felt like a little girl in a candy store with the way this man flooded my heart and my stomach with butterflies. 

He took his finger and gently placed it under my chin to lift my face back up to him. Our eyes greeted and it took everything in me to hold restraint and not kiss him. I knew Kate was probably watching and if she caught me sucking face with this guy at work and in my work uniform I would never hear the end of it.

I reached over to his now empty cup and picked it up, “I had already written a little message on here for you earlier but since you asked so nicely..” I took out one of the sharpies from my apron, using my teeth to take the lid off, and began writing my phone number onto the cup. 

I placed the cup back in front of him, “I went ahead and added my number here on the bottom.” I spun the cup around where the message I had written earlier and my phone number was now facing Jesse.

With a giant smile spreading across his face he picked it up and I could see his cheeks begin to lightly flush pink. “I’m a very happy boy right now.” He responded while setting the cup back down on the table before us.

[piratefishmama]

Crossing the Line | Part 3

“So, what’s the plan of attack then, I’m assuming you have a plan?” Clink went the champagne glasses high above the clouds, two best friends flying first class across the country toward Indianapolis airport.

“So, his journalist friend wouldn’t give me much, which y’know what, I have to respect, bro’s before hoes an all that, but she did tell me he was in a band, that if we really wanted to find him and confront him we should at least pay to see him.”

“Find him? I thought you said you’d found him?”

“I narrowed us down to Indianapolis, we could still be in your apartment deafening ourselves and Ms dookie-ditcher with Diddy Kong racing and Starfox theme songs, should be thanking me.” She rolled her eyes before sitting back in her seat “Listen, I got his bands name—”

“Robin I know his bands name, I found that out within an hour, he talks about them non-stop.”

“Okay Mr super-sleuth, and did you do anything with that information?”

“What exactly am I supposed to be—”

“Dude google is your friend, find his next gig? They have a website!” It was a pretty bargain basement website, full of god awful ‘graphics are my passion’ level gifs, transparent images surrounded by fuzzy white pixels that hadn't been cleaned up properly, and transition animations, but it was a website, it had information, dates, photos, how Steve hadn’t found it yet, she didn’t know. Or maybe she did “or were you too busy having a gay meltdown over his videogame discography to go anywhere but youtube?”

“I think you mean spiritual awakening.” Steve took a sip, he still had no idea what either of those two game titles had been, but he wasn’t about to ask and make himself look stupid. He was a slow learner, but he learned.

“No, I mean gay meltdown. Did you look at the bands website?” No, no he did not. He’d caught the name, nestled it into plush cushions in the back of his mind to be perused later, then got lost in something called Gerudo Valley just vibing on his living room floor. The silence was awfully telling. Robin snorted into her glass “good thing I did, sherlock. They have a gig on Tuesday.”

“It’s Sunday, Robin, the hell are we supposed to do in Indy for two days?”

“See if we can hunt him down without having to pay for shitty dive bar gig tickets? Neither of us listen to that genre Steve, I don’t wanna pay to have my eardrums assaulted so you can get rejected by the worlds snobbiest wet cat.”

“He’s not a wet cat!” In all fairness, he could have been a wet cat, Steve didn’t actually know.

“Have you seen his face?”

“…He didn’t show his face in the videos.” So, it wasn’t his fault. Robin finished off her champagne in one large gulp.

“You haven’t even seen his face? Steve… Steven, my sister in Christ, please tell me you didn’t fall for a guy based ENTIRELY on his hands?”

“… Listen—” his voice was nice too!

“Steve!” Thank god they were the only two people in first class.

Part 5

[timeya]

Chapter 1

M

Devin, New Jersey

Early November

“Mina?” I heard kaylina call out. I was in the back room changing for tonight. “Here you are Mina! I’ve been looking for you.” She said with an upset voice.

“Sorry girl but I have to get dress and then help Ryan set up the bar for tonight. It is bad enough I was late.” I said walking to my locker for my hair tie. Kaylina came up behind me and helped me put my hair in a ponytail. “What happened! Normally I am the late one but today is you. Is everything alright.” She finished putting my hair back and took a step back. I closed my locked and took a deep breath.

I turned around I nodded my head and walked to the door after checking myself out. Once we walked out I seen Ryan cleaning glasses. I walked over there while Kaylina walked to other side. “Ugh! I need a drink. Ryan! give me my normal.” Kaylina said waving her hand back and forth. Ryan rolled her eyes and gave her a sweet tea out the mini fridge. Kaylin’s rolled her eyes taking the drink and walking away.

When I looked to see where she was going i seen Emerald walked over after saying something to one of the dancers. She came over to the side of the bar and gave me a hug a small kiss on the forehead “Hey Mymy. Why didn’t you text me to come get you.”She smiled softly looking down at me. “Sorry Emmy. I just had a lot to do and Zy wouldn’t go to sleep unless I was there with him. So I was late and had to uber. Sorry I didn’t call you but weren’t you in a meeting anyway.” I said restocking the liquor on the shelves. “That didn’t matter Mymy! It’s late at night and you ubering is not safe! Don’t make me hurt you girl. I know you’re smarter than that!”

Emmy took my hand a smacked it like I was a child. I took my hand out of hers, rolled my eyes and walked to the back of the bar where we keep the liquor. Today was Friday and we are mostly busy over the weekend so I wanted to make sure we had enough liquor in the front for tonight.

A little later

“Girl my feet hurt. Those heels are not for the weak. Aren’t you glad you aren’t a stripper Mina.” Kaylina said seating down behind the bar. We have been open for about 2 hours at the club is busy.I’ve been running around trying to make sure i get everyone’s drink orders. “Yeah, I am but my feet hurt too from running around. Im kinda upset that I didn’t get to see you perform.” I said grabbing drinks and putting them on my tray. I didn’t even get to her what she said before I walked away to give this table of girls their shots. “Here you guys go sorry about the wait ladies.” I said smiling at the group of girls. It was someone birthday so they get free shots on the house.

“Oh my gosh! thank you so much. Guys we have to tip her good!” They drunk birthday girl said. She was on her 5 drink and I don’t even know what shot number she was on but drunk was a understatement for what she was. Walking away from the group I made it back to the bar and took a sit.

I went to messages and seen my brother texted me a picture of Zylus still sleep. I hearted the picture and put my phone in my pocket when I heard someone call my name. “Mina! I need you to be the bottle girl for the VIP room tonight. Mia called out so it just Layla but she didn’t want to do it. Ryan said looking at the tablet in her hand. She been stressing all night because people keep calling out so it’s just 3 of us tonight.

“Um, sure i guess it’s like i have a choice” I said getting up and walking to where she was. She handed me a tray with dark liquor and a tray with light liquor. “ Ok it’s the VIP room on the third floor so you can use the elevator and the cart to help you. Just swipe your card and the elevator should work if not here is mines. Once’s you get up there knock 4 times before entering so they can know you are coming in.” She said handing me her id card and the cart. Once’s I put the trays on the cart i walked over to the back of the club and used her id card to get in.

S

“I’m telling y’all she wants me.She just playing with me.” Nawi said passing the blunt to Emerald. She telling us about this girl that she met who is playing hard to get. I don’t know why she thinks we give a fuck but we really don’t care.

“I don’t think she play Nawi.Its been about 2 months now.If she was playing hard to get she would have been told you now.” Izgoie said with a smirk on her face.

After she says said that we hear 4 knocks at the door. “Come in” i said looking down at my phone. “Sorry to interrupt but I am Mina your bottle girl for today.” I hear this sweet smooth voice say. When I looked up I seen who was talking. She looks new because i’ve never seen her before. She looks about 5’5, with the softest brown skin. As she walks in and puts the bottles on the table I look over to Izgoie and she looks her up and down with this subtle expression.

“Mina! you not no bottle girl you’re a bartender. What you doing up here. Emerald said getting up. I looked at her confused.How the fuck she know her. Emerald grabs the girl “Mina” hand and walks to the corner of the room. I look back over to Izgoie and she looks at me “She beautiful. How come i’ve never seen her before.” she said looking at me than back at her

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen her before either.” I said looking at her fully. She had the prettiest curly hair with baby hairs out into swoops. Her eyes were 2 different colors, light brown and hazel.

And man let’s not forget her body. I can tell she had a little pug but it didn’t look bad on her.

“you know i don’t like you coming up here mina” Emerald said with an attitude.

They talked for a while before mina looked around and looked at me. We held eye contact before she looked at Izgoie.She smiled at her before putting thebottles in her hand on the table, hugged Emerald and walk out..

THE END

[wildemaven]

A Cut Above

Pairing: Frankie Morales x Hairstylist!Reader

WC: 2680

Warnings: T; Mentions of food, divorce, lots of pining and fluff otherwise.

A/N: I wanted to write a Hairstylist!Reader story a few years ago, but l wasn’t feeling super confident about my writing and just never got around to it. In the last few months I’ve had this urge to get back behind the chair again, which is what sparked this fic. Still haven’t decided if I will get back into doing hair as of yet, but I can enjoy writing about it. This is not beta’d and hope it reads well cause I’ve been run low sleep. Enjoy!!

Masterlist / Series Masterlist / Next

“You done for the day?”

The question pulls you from your thinking. It’s an organized chaos of mental notes streaming through your subconscious.

“I wish. I have one more then I’m done. It’s a new client too. So I’ll be a bit longer.”

“Color?”

“No, thank god! I don’t think my feet can take another 2 to 3 hours more.” The day was filled with back to back clients— a typical Saturday in the salon. Your clients who worked long hours, were always filling up your Saturdays. “Just a cut. Benny made the appointment for him, said his friend was in need of a change— very vague about it”

“Mmm.. Benny.”

“Earth to Hannah!! Gonna need you to touch back down girlie.” Hannah was the salon receptionist, and Benny Miller’s secret admirer.

“Huh? Oh sorry, got a bit distracted.”

“You don’t say? You know, you could just ask him out, would probably be way more exciting than sitting there and daydreaming about him 24/7.”

“I do not daydream about him 24/7–“ She tries convincing you, but you know her far too well. You shoot her a pointed look— you’re not buying it. “Okay! Alright, I do think about him— a lot! But I can’t help it, he’s so…”

“Pretty?” You finish her thought.

“Yeah. He’s so pretty.”

“Well, I have it on good authority that said Pretty Man Child Benny, might have an itty bitty crush on a cute little receptionist. So, put your big girl panties on and make a move.”

Benjamin Miller— Benny, was a long time client of yours, turned friend. He was in your chair every 5 weeks maintaining that gorgeous head of hair. Gotta look good for the ladies when I’m in the ring— his words.

As the years went on, you found you were collecting Benny’s friends and family as clients. His older brother Will, Will’s wife Nicole, his close friend Pope (still haven’t heard his real name), as well as Mom and Dad Miller. Benny kept your chair busy and you were grateful for that.

He’d text you on Monday saying he’d had a friend who was needing a cut, something about a fresh start. He was in luck because you had one spot open, so you scheduled some guy named “Fish” as your last client for the week.

“Wait really?! He knows who I am?!” Shock was written all over Hannah’s face.

“Hannah, you greet him every appointment— of course he knows who you are.”

“I think I black out the minute he walks through the door.”

“That would explain the drool every time.” You can’t help but laugh at her expense.

She rolls her eyes back at you as she gathers her things from the front desk. “Alright, I’m going to leave before you decide to carry on with this onslaught of nonsense. Going to go home and pour myself a glass of wine in celebration!”

“Celebration?? For what?”

“Benny Miller knows who I am! And he has a crush on me!!” You let her bask in her glory, as she all but floats to the front door.

“Hannah…” You catch her attention before she’s exits. “Text him! Preferably before the wine.”

“Yes mom!” She mocks back at you before the door swings shut.

*

You had 15 minutes until your appointment would be showing up, so you took the time to clean your station up a bit and set up for his hair cut.

Your shears, combs and clippers laid out on your hair cutting tray, clean cape folding on top of your station.

As you were checking over your schedule for next week, making a list of colors you needed to pick up from the beauty supply, the front door opened welcoming your client— your very handsome client.

He looks nearly 6 feet tall, and so broad. His hair is dark chestnut from what you can see peeking out from under his hat. There’s a casualness to him in the way he carries himself— a shy confidence.

“Hi! You must be Fish.” You give him your name as you make your way up to him, extending your hand out in greeting. His rather large hand gripping yours, firm but a gentleness to it.

“Did he really tell you my name is Fish?! Fuckin’ Benny.” He shakes his head, as if to fain off embarrassment. Shoving his hands in his pockets he starts laughing about it. “Yeah, he did. I am assuming that’s not actually your name though. Although, not judging if it is.”

“No, my name is Francisco Morales, but you can call me Frankie.” You notice the flush creeping up his neck— you make a mental note at how gorgeous he is before you get caught staring.

“Okay then, Frankie. You can come on back and have a seat here at my chair. Feel free to put your hat on my shelf there.” Helping him get situated.

“Let me go grab a clean towel and then we can chat about what you are wanting.”

Frankie sits himself down and starts to take in the space. You seem very tidy and organized as he glances over at your tray of cutting tools. He right away decides he likes that about you. Benny didn’t mention how beautiful you were when making him this appointment. He said you were pretty but he wasn’t expecting to be overwhelmed by how stunning you were— he knows he has to try his best to be cool and not ramble on.

He sees you making your way back to him in the mirror, his eyes locked on yours like magnets— he notices you catching him staring, but then you give him a smile that lights up your face. There’s that butterfly sensation tickling his insides, he hasn’t had that happen in a long time, but he welcomes it.

*

Arriving back to your station you take the small towel and place it on his shoulders before securing the cutting cape around his neck.

“So what are we thinking?” You ask as you begin to run your fingers through his hair, taking in the texture, density and the shape of the cut he has now.

“Uhh, I umm… I don’t know. I’m open to your professional opinion.” He didn’t realize he needed to come in with a style in mind. His usual barber usually says “Hi” then starts hacking at it.

“That’s okay.” You look at him in your mirror, his eyes already fixed on you and you feel your breath catch in your throat.

You hadn’t noticed his dimple earlier, and you can’t seem to keep your eyes off of it when he smiles. You steady your thoughts and continue to comb your fingers through his hair making note of how it lays and it’s natural growth pattern.

“You have a nice wave going on. If we work with it and bring your sides and the back in a little tighter the top will lay nicely.”

He’s captivated by everything you’re saying, and yet he doesn’t understand a single word of it. You could tell him he needed to shave his head and he’d willingly let you, no questions asked.

“How does that sound Frankie??”

“Honestly— I have no idea what any of what you just said means, but I trust you.”

“Well, I appreciate your honesty.” You find his nervousness charming. “You won’t be losing much length overall, it will be more shaping and connecting the sides to the top.” Your hands moving around his head as you try to explain your process.

“Again— no clue what you just said.”

“Got it! Enough hair jargon then. Let’s get you back and washed up first.”

The warm water hides the sweat that’s formed on your palms as you begin washing his hair. He’s settled into the shampoo bowl, eyes closed and arms crossed over his chest in such a kicked back manner.

Your fingers work diligently as you begin to scrub the soapy liquid through his wet locks. As you spend ample time working over his scalp, you catch the sound of a faint moan. You don’t think he meant for it to sound so erotic, but it’s stirring a warm feeling with in you.

“Feel good?”

“Mmmhmmm..” It’s all he’s able to manage, your movements awakening him in so many ways, his spine vibrating with an indescribable desire.

Suds throughly rinsed, leave in conditioner combed through, you both get situated back at your station.

He seems way more relaxed, more chatty and asking questions as you go section by section, meticulously trimming away the unwanted ends.

His questions alternated between your professional life and personal— where you grew up, favorite food and what made you decide to become a hairstylist. In a different circumstance, it might have felt invasive— but there was an ease to Frankie that had you spilling your life story to him so freely.

In return you asked him for more about himself. He shared about his life in Delta Force, where he had met Benny, Will and Pope, who you now know as Santiago.

His life as a helicopter pilot keeping him busy most of the time. He even felt brave enough to mention his semi recent divorce. You didn’t feel like you needed to delve deeper into his failed marriage, especially for only just meeting him.

You shared the same sentiment in working long hours and how it had you feeling overwhelmed at times, like you had less free time for yourself— mentioning you were working on trying to have more fun and go out. You shared how your former partners were always annoyed with you for being so consumed with work, the main reason you hadn’t been dating as much.

Checking and cross checking the length, you’re happy with how it’s shaping up.

“How do you normally style your hair? What are your go to products?”

He looks at you with the most sincere and confused expression, nervous to share his routine with you.

“Normally it’s just straight out of the shower, quick rubbing of the towel over it so it’s not dripping, then toss the hat on.” Pointing to the battered hat he’d worn in.

“Frankie! If there’s only one piece of advice you leave here with, please let it be that you never aggressively rub a towel over your hair again!”

He thinks he should feel embarrassed but there’s a sweetness in the way you share your knowledge with him— he will make a conscientious effort to gently pat his hair dry from now on.

“Since you mentioned you are usually throwing on your hat, it’s probably safe to assume there’s not much actual styling going on?”

“Uh, yeah… Not much styling. The least amount of steps possible is my go to method.”

“While the hat vibe is cute, I would not be doing my job if I sent you out of here wearing—”

“You think I’m cute?” He cuts you off. That dimple again making an appearance, his grin slightly laced in flirtation.

“Umm, yes.” Your face feels hot, the blow-dryer not helping much, as you try to remain calm and collected.

“Hm!”

Grabbing some product and applying a small amount to your palm, you begin to distribute it throughout his hair. .

“But I think without the hat is cute too. Easier to see all of your,” You gulp at your next admission. “Attractive features.” You giggle as you finish styling his freshly trimmed hair, each strand manipulated with such precision— the new length really does add to his handsomeness.

“You think I’m attractive too?” He says shifting in the chair, his gaze still steady on you.

“Oh wow, I’m really just letting my internal monologue run my mouth aren’t I?”

He shrugs with the slightest cock of his eyebrows in response.

“And now would be a good time for the ground to just swallow me up!” You groan, hands covering your face as you attempt to hide your embarrassment.

“You’re cute when you get all flustered.”

“So you think I’m cute now? We just going to spend the rest of the night confessing our new found feelings having only just met?”

“Well, I wouldn’t be opposed to it.” He states so casually.

The rest of his appointment is filled with more flirtatious banter, a connection that you’re both very much aware of— yet neither of you stating the obvious

“Thank you again.” Frankie says holding a bag of products he insisted he leave with, wanting to branch out from his usual “hat vibe”’as you called it— said hat’s bill tucked into the back pocket of his already snug blue jeans.

“So… Do you want to set something up for next time?” Pulling out your schedule, hoping that Frankie likes his cut, and you, enough to return regularly. “I think 5 to 6 weeks would be a good amount of time to see you again.”

“Actually— I was hoping I could see you sooner than that.”

“Oh! Okay. When are you thinking?” Slightly confused, you start scanning over the openings you have in the coming weeks.

“Tonight.”

“Tonight?? I’m not follow— Oh! Ooooh!”

“Yeah….” There’s a budding nervous energy about him as you realize what he’s asking. “There’s this sports bar around the corner— the guys and I hang out there from time to time. Anyways, they have some great appetizers and craft beer on tap… If you’re open to it, we could, um go… Unless you have other plans…”

“Yes! I’d love to Frankie.”

“Yeah?!” His face instantly beaming with excitement.

“Yeah! Just let me clean and lock up real quick, then we can head out.”

*

Drinks and appetizers flowed into a moonlit walk back to your car— both of you stalling out your goodbyes.

“So, I’ll call you tomorrow.” Frankie says as his hand cups your cheek, his warm gaze fixed on yours. “I hope this isn’t too soon, but would it be okay if I kissed you?”

“Yeah.. I’d like that.” Leaning into him to close the gap, fingers carding through the nape of his silky waves.

Frankie’s lips all but crash into yours, the intensity growing from your own, eager for more of him. He nips at the plumpness of your lower lip, encouraging them to part for him. His tongue slipping inside your mouth and you can taste the bitterness from his beer still lingering.

A grip is established on your hip, his hand slowly moving around to your backside eliciting a breathy moan from deep with in you as the heated kiss escalates.

Laughter from a rowdy group of bystanders reminds you both of your surroundings.

“Sorry, I got a little carried away there.” Frankie rests his forehead on yours as he tries to regain his composure, his breath fanning across your cheeks— they’re no longer cold from the frigid air.

“Well, I most certainly wasn’t complaining. In fact, I look forward to you doing it again sometime.”

He places a kiss to your forehead, before exchanging goodbyes. He promises again to call tomorrow, and you’re already breathlessly excited for it.

Heater cranked up in your car, willing your body to adjust to the heat. You grab for your phone in your purse, pulling open your message app so you can send a quick text before putting the car in drive.

-Hey Benny, just wanted to thank you for setting that appointment up for Frankie. He’s a great guy! Super funny and hella charming.

-You sure we’re talking about the same Frankie?? 😉

-Funny! Anyways, I appreciate it and I’m looking forward to seeing him again!

-Oh! Hannah called, we’ve got a date next week!

-You be good to her Benny!

-Of course! No problem! Make sure you and Frankie thank me in your wedding toast 🍾🍾 Night!!

You roll your eyes at his last text before tossing your phone in to the passenger seat. The entire drive home you can’t get Frankie out of your head, wondering if he’d find you too eager to call him when you got home.

The decision made for you by the buzzing of your phone— Frankie’s name flashing on the screen.

Next

[jklpopcorn]

*crawls out of the in stars and time timeloop, visibly disheveled and exhausted after spending 33 hours playing + Another 2 hours mass reblogging with friend* WE MADE IT TO THE END, OH LORD, WHO SAID THAT THE GAME WAS ONLY 21 HOURS LONG

Hiii! This is an update on my last ask pertaining to finishing Start Again and starting ISAT. It tooked another session to completed SAAPAand then over ten 3 hour sessions over the course of a month to beat but we did it!

Thank you for bring this game on my dashboard! Truly, one of the games of all time

Some highlights of those 33 hours of stars and timing.

Both of us just STARING at isat Siffrin during acts 1 and 2 because holy shit, they're so joyous and filled with whimsy and the timeloop horrors hasn't hit them yet. <--- used to saapfrin's depression

The two of us experiencing the dawning horror that is all the callbacks to Start Again in act 3+4

LOOP HANGOUT IMPLICATIONS THAT SIFFRIN HELD THE PARTY BACK BC THE PARTY WAS ABLE TO MAKE TO THE KING ON THIER OWN DESPITE HOW THERES SO MANY POTENTIAL SOFTLOCKS

I (person who knew that saapfrin is loop since the beginning and that loop is a Siffrin) had to desperately gaslight the streamer friend when they randomly joked that there could be multiple Siffrins across different timelines in act 2 (they didnt remember saying that when we were chatting at the end credits)

Destroying Odile's old women kidneys via making her drink 8+ bowls of salty broth whenever we fought the king

Yelling HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING??? When odile froze Siffrin in time at the 5th act finale like Ma'am using timecraft even for a second is said to cause the user to turn to dust?? And you're like 80

Heartbreaks during the 'Odile stands in front of the party after Siffrin disposing of sadness too excitedly" '"We cannot trust Siffrin" clocktower act 5' and 'Odile uses papercraft against big Siffrin' because she's the oldest and logical one and she must protect everyone/make sure everyone is prepared to fight the king even if her actions seem too extreme

Got a beautiful moment at the secret loop bossfight when the streamer friend learned loop is a siffrin and I no longer had duct tape over my mouth and could finally tell them that loop is our saapfrin (been talking about what happened to saapfrin in general during the playthrough)

SBXUXBUDHXUDHCUCCU I am SO glad you enjoyed the game :DDDDD

I also thought the game would normally take 21 hours but I was prepared for it to take longer since I love to investigate more 😭😭 yeah it did take longer, 41 hours in 4 days to be more precise, twice as long 😭😭 loved every second of it 😭😭

I can imagine seeing act 1 and 2 siffrin would be such a whiplash! When I learned that sasasap may contain spoilers and reused scenes i went straight to isat so I first got used to the whimsy of the act 1 and 2 siffrin and then saw the slow descent into the poor meow meow in act 4 😭 i was actually surpised when i played sasasap that the little guy skipped all of that and is lowkey worse off than isat siffrin 😭 Loop truly did make a difference when it comes to sif's sanity (and like... actually helping him get out of the loop too ^^)

I was actually surprised they went into an actual breakdown in act 4 and 5. Didn't expect the creator to explore how a person would feel after dying and looping a hundred or so times! I was fully expecting for sif to go "well that happened :)" with no consequences like some games/movies like to do... But within the first 5 minutes of playing I could bet that the creator was a tumblr user so I had hope that our little fella could go a little feral later on <3 i was not disappointed <3 (but honestly, the game reeks of tumblr at times /pos /pos /pos <3)

I suppose that without Sif during the Loop hangout the party got both super lucky and searched even more thoroughly for keys and such since their main guy was out! Not that it really helped them in the end...

I guess it's just canon that that old woman's immortal. Speed and running are her only weaknesses 😔 and mommy issues 😔

Also her truly wanting the best for the party and also taking the least shit from siffrin the moment they could be a danger to her family 😭 violence is not always the answer odile you saw what happened to siffrin 😭

Loop..... nooooo......

[filthyjoetini]

Love is in the Air(BnB)

a/n: Here we are guys. The epilogue. The real end. It’s done. Thank you, my loves, again for reading, I honestly never anticipated that this little story of mine would get so big. And the feedback! Ugh! Love it (keep it coming eheh) As always, the biggest thank you goes to @barfightzanddiscolightz​ she’s honestly the MVP here. Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am right now. I love you very much.

warnings: mentions of sexual acts, a little bit of drama, panic attack, we are scared for someone’s life but only briefly...fluff!

wordcount: 2.9k

part 1 - Friday night - part 2 - Saturday - part 3 - Sunday - part 4 - Monday - part 5 - Tuesday - part 6 - Wednesday - part 7 - Thursday

Epilogue

As promised, you immediately let him know that you had landed when you disembarked the plane. You opted for a quick WhatsApp message since you didn’t want to call him while walking to the baggage claim area of the airport. Just as you were about to pocket your phone again, it started to ring. It was an incoming FaceTime call from Joe. You had debated to just let it ring, but you were sure this would have started a disastrous chain of events such as him calling the airport and demanding a search party be formed to come look for you. Sighing, you eventually answered the call and were greeted by his huge, infectious smile which you returned with a grin of your own and a slight blush on your cheeks. You stayed on the phone with him until you arrived at the door to your flat. Since you were too tired now and needed to lie down for a bit, you promised to call him again later to show him around your place. After a short protest from Joe, he begrudgingly let you end the call.

Over the past few months, Joe and you had been in contact daily either through WhatsApp or, as you quickly discovered, his favourite mode of digital communication — FaceTime.

At the end of each workday, like clockwork, you would let him know that you were free to talk. Whenever he had been available, he would immediately call you. Sometimes he had sent you a short message that he was in the middle of a meeting, an interview, or whatever else he had scheduled that day. You would talk for hours until one of you had fallen asleep. Usually, it had been you, and Joe would always stay on the call a bit longer to admire your sleeping face. Some evenings it would even get a little steamy and you would have non-conventional phone sex. At first you had found it to be very weird, doing it with your cameras on. The whole “What are you wearing?”- conversation had become redundant and seeing each other totally naked had left nothing to the imagination. After the second time, you had told Joe how uncomfortable you felt doing it through a video call and that you needed a better solution because “phone sex is about listening and imagining”. At first, Joe had laughed at you, but he had noticed rather quickly that you were serious about it. After some trial and error, you had both come up with a way that made you feel better about it and him still be able to see you. It had involved a blindfold on your end.

Sometimes, you had little dinner dates over the phone which consisted of you both cooking the same dish and then eating it together. On your first FaceTime-Dinner-Date, Wesley had walked in, called you both crazy, and completely took over the conversation by stealing Joe’s phone. Joe had tried to pry the phone out of his best mate’s fingers but to no avail. He had quickly given up and ate his dinner alone in the kitchen whilst Wesley chatted away, making you giggle throughout the whole conversation. Wes had even ended the call before handing the phone back to Joe, who instantly called you back again and apologised profusely. You had just kept on giggling and told him it was alright.

Other times, you had both continued watching Stranger Things together and managed to finish the whole series within three weeks of arriving back home. Sometime during the fourth season, you had changed Joe’s contact icon in your phone to a picture of Eddie, causing you to loudly giggle at the screen every time he had called you. After the third call, he had asked you what was going on, so you sent a screenshot of his contact information to him, earning you an eyeroll and groan. You still hadn’t changed it back to a normal picture of him to this day, and you didn’t plan on doing it for a long time. Eddie would stay.

As May had ended, the month of June heralded a lineup of conventions for Joe in the United States. He had almost missed his first appearance in Philadelphia because there had been an issue with his passport. He had been live-informing you through WhatsApp about what was happening and it honestly was the most nerve-wracking ordeal you passively had gone through. You were glad that he had still managed to attend even though it had only been for one out of the three days. That day, he had called you from the backstage area and showed you around, even introducing you to a couple of other guests along with one of his Stranger Things co-stars who had also been in attendance.

A week later he had attended the same convention except this time in Dallas, where he spent three wonderful but very hectic days. He hadn’t really had time to call you during the day but on his last night there, he facetimed you, sporting a happy but very exhausted face. Because of the time difference you had almost been ready to get your day started but you noticed that something had been bothering him. You had asked him if he was alright to which he just shrugged. Your elongated “Jooooooe…” had made him chuckle lightly and he eventually revealed to you that his time in the US would be cut short because he had to start filming Gladiator 2 very soon and therefore couldn’t go the convention in Denver. Joe had told you that he felt like the most horrible person on earth because he hated letting his fans down, but his main job was acting and filming was a priority. You had assured him, that his fans would understand, and he agreed, telling you he just wanted everyone to be happy.

As June had faded away, the beginning of the new month meant that Joe would be shipped off to Malta to commence filming Gladiator 2. You had mentally prepared yourself for his long workdays and sparse interactions. Your daily video calls had been reduced to quick WhatsApp voice messages or even just short text messages that read: “I hope you slept well.” – “I did, I hope you did too.” to “I miss you.” – “I miss you more.” to “Sleep well.” – “You too.”

Every now and then he had sent a picture of himself dressed in Roman Emperor attire or silly selfies with his co-stars. The latter had always brightened your days and you had decided to print them out and make a little scrapbook of his time on set. You couldn’t wait to gift it to him when you got to see him again, which you had hoped would happen sooner rather than later.

Filming had concluded in August and September already had its first foot in the door. You would have been lying if you said that those two months passed by in a flash. It had been the exact opposite. The days had seemed to never end and your work being a total pain in your arse hadn’t helped either. You had longed for the day Joe would finally call you and tell you that filming was over and that you could resume your daily FaceTime calls.

---

As the familiar ringtone pierced through the silence, you were over the moon. You instantly took the call, thrilled to see his very tired yet undeniably handsome face.

“Hey, darling.”

“Oh, finally. Hi, baby!”, you greeted him, almost over-enthusiastically. “I missed your face so much.”

He chuckled softly, scratching his jaw lightly.

“I missed yours too. Babe…listen, I’m about to board the plane. I’ll call you when I’ve landed. OK?”, he explained, and you nodded, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. He giggled softly at your expression and puckered his lips, making a kissy face at you. You returned his gesture before he ended the call.

Flights from Malta to London usually took around three and a half hours, but after you hadn’t heard from Joe in four hours, you were slowly but surely starting to freak out. You checked if the flight number he had texted you had landed — It had. You tried to message him on WhatsApp, but it only showed you one tick, which meant it didn’t go through. You tried to FaceTime him but the message that it was currently unavailable popped up on your screen. Lastly, you tried to call him on the phone, but it went straight to voicemail.

Dropping your phone onto the sofa, your breathing started to become shallow, and you felt tears pricking in the corners of your eyes. Something very bad happened to Joe, you were sure of it. He would never forget to call or even just text you. He knew how much you worried all the time. He knew how easily things like that triggered you.

Slowly, you sank down onto your sofa, preparing yourself for the panic attack that threatened its way through your body. Your mind became all foggy and your heart was racing so you had to lie down on your back because the lack of oxygen in your blood was causing spots in your vision. Swallowing hard, you tried to even out your breathing with the exercises your therapist had shown you. After about five minutes of slow, deep, and gentle breaths in through your nose and out of your mouth, your panic attack dwindled to silent tears steadily flowing down the sides of your face and onto the cushions of your sofa.

With trembling fingers, you picked up your abandoned phone to check if Joe had in some way gotten back to you. He hadn’t. Your shaky fingers scrolled through your contacts and found Wesley, quickly pressing the call button. He answered after the second ring.

“Hello, love. Long time no see...or hear...or...whatever.”, he greeted you in an overly chipper tone.

“Wes.”, you choked out, “Have you heard from Joe? He should be home by now. Please tell me you’ve seen him!”

“Whoa, what is going on?”, Wesley asked in a surprised tone. “Love, are you alright?”

“No! I’m not alright.”, you sobbed into your phone, getting it all wet with your salty tears. “Joe told me he would call me as soon as he has landed, and he hasn’t.”

“What? Joe’s flight has not landed yet. He’s still in the air. What are you talking about?”, Wesley responded, chuckling lightly.

“No, it has landed. I checked the flight number he gave me.”, you replied, slowly pushing yourself up in a sitting position, growing more irritated by the minute.

“Hold on. Let me check.”, Wesley said, and you heard him shuffling around. When he spoke again, he sounded a bit further away, indicating that he had set his phone on speaker mode. “Alright, I just checked again, and it says that the flight is still en route. That means, it’s still in the air.”

“I know what that means, Wesley.”, you replied in a rather snappy tone whilst wiping away the last of your tears with your free hand. Wesley couldn’t help but laugh at your sudden change of attitude.

“I think you got the wrong flight number there, love.”, he pointed out the obvious and you let out a deep sigh, allowing yourself to fall back onto the sofa.

“Yeah, I guess.”, you mumbled, running your hand down your face.

“Yeah. Also, we both know Joe would never not call you. He’d commit murder and other heinous crimes before deliberately hurting you like that.”

Wesley’s exaggeration elicited a low chuckle from you, and you let out another deep sigh. You were just about to ask him if he could give you the correct flight number when he suddenly spoke again.

“Listen, love. I gotta go. Don’t worry too much. He will call you. I miss you! Bye!”

“Wes! Wai–“

Before you could even form your sentence, Wesley had already ended the call. Groaning, you placed your phone back next to you on the sofa, inwardly scolding yourself for freaking out like this and making a fool of yourself. You just really hoped that Joe’s flight would land soon and that your most anticipated phone call of the day would finally be made to your phone.

You were moping around in your living room for a full five minutes when instead of your phone, your doorbell rang. Reluctantly, you pushed yourself up to your feet and slowly trudged over to your flat’s entrance door, cursing out whoever had decided to disturb you in your current state of distress.

Opening the door, you muttered your well-rehearsed phrase for whatever salesperson was standing in front of it.

“Hey. I’m sorry. I’m not interes–“, you stopped short when you saw who was standing there in front of you. “JOE?!”

“Hey, babe.”, he greeted you with a huge grin on his face. You stared at him in awe. He was standing there, dressed in a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and Adidas “Superstars” on his feet. His hair was in a dishevelled mess and his eyes appeared weary and tired. Behind him stood a huge suitcase and he was holding a small pot with pink peonies in his arm.

You blinked slowly before your face grew irritated. You took a step forward, lifted both of your arms and placed them on his lower arms before pushing hardly, making him lose his footing and stumble backwards a little.

“Whoa! What are you doing?”, Joe asked surprised, managing to regain his balance.

“I…”, you started, sputtering with anger. “How dare you not tell me! How dare you give me the wrong fucking flight number! Wesley knew, didn’t he?! How dare you not call me! I was worried sick, Joseph!”

Joe chuckled lightly and took a step toward you, bending down to put the potted flowers on the floor. When he stood straight again, he extended his arms and engulfed your anger-shaken form in his arms.

“Darling, if I had told you, it would’ve ruined my surprise…so… surprise!”, he explained softly, placing a tender kiss to your temple. When his lips left your skin, you leaned back a little to look up at him. That utter idiot was grinning down at you.

“You’re really here.”, you stated breathlessly, slowly wrapping your arms around his middle, and placing your head on his chest. He was here, in the flesh. You could hear his heart beating in your ear. He was here. Here in the stairwell of your residential building. Here on the doorstep of your flat. He. Was. Here. Letting out a deep breath, you hugged him closer to you.

“I am, yes. And I’m not leaving…for at least a month.”

His revelation made you slowly lean back and look up at him again. Your eyes found his dark caramel ones. His head dipped closer to yours and you slowly pushed yourself up on your toes to close the distance between the two of you. After three long months, your lips finally captured his in a tender kiss again. Both of you let out a sigh of relief and Joe deepened the kiss gradually.

Far too soon, you ran out of breath, releasing his now well kissed lips from yours.

“A month?”, you whispered against his mouth.

“At least, yes.”, he confirmed his previous statement, running his hand up and down your spine.

You nodded and suddenly, tears started to roll down your cheeks and drip off your chin onto Joe’s t-shirt.

“Noooo, baby, why are you crying?”

“I missed you so much.”, you replied, trying to suppress a hiccough. “These are happy tears.”, you clarified instantly, and Joe only nodded, placing another soft peck to your lips.

“I missed you too, so much.”, he hummed and pressed his lips from the corner of your mouth to your cheek in a series of sweet butterfly kisses.

“I’m still angry with you for not telling me that you were coming. You’re an idiot, do you know that? You’re lucky I love you.”

Joe abruptly stalled his actions. It was now his turn to lean back, his eyes searching your face in response to your seemingly casual love confession.

“You love me?”

“Duh!”

“Good, because I love you too.”, he confessed, chuckling softly before planting a big wet kiss to your lips. You rolled your eyes and giggled gently.

“Please come inside now.”, you invited him in, “I don’t want Gertrude to get a stroke from all the PDA we’re treating her to.”

You had been referring to your elderly neighbour who was well known for being the building’s resident spy and gossip spreader. Joe took a step back and bent down to retrieve the potted peonies before he made his way into your flat and spoke again.

“Can I meet Gertrude?”

“No, you can’t.”, you replied chuckling, following him inside, “Wait, babe, your suitcase!”

“Oh, right.”, he quickly turned around, grabbed its handle, and pulled it inside, “Why can’t I meet her?”

“Joe. No… if you go over there and introduce yourself, I’ll make you sleep on my sofa for the entire month.”, you threatened him idly, walking back to your flat’s entrance door just as Joe had entered your flat.

“Fine. I won’t.”, he promised you, bending down once more and placing down the potted plant in your hallway. When he stood up again, he grabbed the suitcase and walked by you - but of course, not without gently slapping your bum and giggling like a little child.

“...very thin ice, Joe.”, you chuckled as you closed the door behind you...

THE END END

Taglist: @ohmeg​ @daleyeahson​ @lma1986​ @palomahasenteredthechat​ @mandyjo8719​ @aysheashea​ @eddiebaemunson​ @xlilithb @freakymunson​ @sidthedollface2​ @i-wont-run-this-time​ @plk-18 @miserybeans​ @kylakins88​ @deadspellz @thehillzhaveeyez​ @kayleeelena97 @foreverjosephquinn​ @punctualhowell​ @icallhimjoey​ @ghostinthebackofyourhead​ @siriuslysmoking​ @hollster88​ @cancankiki​ @definitionwanderlust​ @eriancrow @1paire2vans​ @theonewiththecrackedmind​ @fromasgardandback​ @captainonaboat​ 

crossed out = cannot tag

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Who Made Me a Villain (6)

[Masterlist] [Ao3]

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)(Part 5) This is a Halloween special as a treat. ------

Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter, was drinking his coffee. Just like any other average Joe while editing Lois Lane’s latest scoop so there were no spelling mistakes and grammar errors.

Then, his super hearing picked up Lois’s heartbeat speedup. There was an ear-piercing scream that had him jumping out of his seat.

“Woah, Kent, what’s wrong?” A concerned colleague asked.

“Indigestion. Bathroom. Real quick.” Clark threw out the first excuse that came to mind before speeding down to the nearest bathroom. Being careful to keep it to human speed.

He had just finished changing into Superman when his phone rang, the caller ID showing Lois’s name.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Superman demanded.

“Name’s Rebel. And don’t worry your darling, I need her alive to do something I want.”

The voice sounded young and female. Superman went through his mental list of supervillains, trying to figure out who took Lois.

“Rebel…” Superman repeated, trying to put a face to the name. Then, he remembered Batman grumbling about Robin sending a picture of him covered in neon green paint and feathers to the Young Justice unofficial group chat who all were happy to show their mentors. It took everything for Superman not to burst out laughing when Kon had shown him the picture. The one responsible for Batman’s misfortune had been no other than Rebel.

“Aren’t you supposed to be Gotham, Rebel?” Superman asked as he flew towards where he knew Lois was.

“Ah. So the great Captain America has heard of me.”

Superman stopped in mid-air, purely due to confusion because Rebel sounded so confident that it was his name.

“Excuse me what?”

The French accent didn’t really help but make Clark think of those terrible Hollywood bad guys.

“You are excused. As I was saying, Captain, your beloved love is fine. I just need her to do this one little thing for me. Then, she’ll be free to go.”

“What do you want from me?” Superman asked again.

“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Captain America, the world does not revolve around you. You aren’t the high and mighty god everyone thinks you are. I just need Mrs. Lane’s help in releasing a certain truth.”

“You will let her go right now!” Superman said.

He was narrowing on his wife’s location.

“I just told you that I will do that after I am done.” Rebel replied.

Superman arrived at the location but,

“This can’t be right.”

Rebel giggled over the phone. “Plot twist! Gotta love them.”

Superman was currently floating above Stryker's Island Penitentiary where the worst offenders of Metropolis were kept.

He scanned the buildings but couldn’t locate Lois.

“What did you do to her?”

“Chill, Captain. She’s fine. I just did something so you went after a fake heartbeat while I hid Lois.”

The fact that she tricked him using a complicated method that sounded like something Bruce would come up with had Superman raising his guard up. She was not an opponent to be underestimated.

“I am not going to repeat myself. What did you do to her?”

“Urgh. Can’t you overlook this little thing just this once?” Rebel complained, not concerned about the fact that she was provoking a man who could bend metal like it was rubber. “I am just stealing her for a few hours and then you can have her back. I even swear that she will be in the condition you last saw her in.”

“No. Give Lois back. Now.”

Rebel huffed. “You aren’t going to make this easy, huh? Then… beep.”

Superman was confused for a second when she made that sound with her voice.

Then, an explosion rocked the island below Superman. Instantly, the place was swarming with freed prisoners and guards trying to put them back.

“That should keep you busy. After all, the people of Metropolis need to be kept safe from the vicious criminals. Lois and I would probably be done with our girls’ day out by the time you are done. Au revoir.”

The phone hung up.

Trapped between the decision to save his wife and his city, Superman went to save the day.

—

“Man, your husband was a pain to deal with.” Rebel said after she hung up on Superman.

She turned back to Lois who was sitting unbound on a sofa with her recorder, notepad and pencil out. In front of her was a delicious spread of cakes, pastries and cookies with a mouth-watering scent which Lois tried her best to ignore.

“You kidnapped me and blew up a prison. I don’t think he would be happy to see you.” Lois pointed out. “This isn’t about him.” Rebel dismissed. “This is about you, helping me expose one of the biggest cover ups in history.”

“What makes you think I would help you?”

“What if I told you that four years ago. There was a supervillain in Paris that used negative emotions to turn people into monsters and the mayor had made sure news of it never got out.”

Lois snorted. “I don’t write fantasy, kid. I only write the truth.”

Rebel slapped down a bunch of newspapers dated from four years ago to the most recent one and a lot of documents.

“Here’s evidence. I promise that they aren’t faked. You can even use your phone to search all of this up if you still don’t believe me.”

Lois grabbed the one that was oldest and the front page talked about some stone golems wrecking the city. She read through it. Then, she looked at another paper dated a week later and read the front page talking about evil butterflies.

Fifteen minutes later and some google searches, Lois put down her phone and the newspapers.

She gave Rebel a professional smile. “Now… about that scoop you were going to give me.”

She watched Rebel’s eyes lit up.

—

Hours later…

Superman landed on the roof of the Daily Planet where Lois stood safe and sound. He scanned her with his x-ray vision and felt relieved to see that she was fine.

“Lois, are you okay?” Clark asked with worry as he hugged her.

“I’m fine. Honestly, it was the best kidnapping I've ever been in.” Lois replied, hugging back.

“Thanks for the compliment, Ms. Lane.” The unwanted spectator to their reunion said.

Rebel cheerfully waved from where she was on her bike as Superman glared at her.

“I am going to-”

“That’s my cue to leave.” Rebel cut off his threat as she took out a lead box. “Really lucky I stole this off the Big Bat the other day.”

Superman immediately backed away when the box was opened, revealing a glowing green rock.

“Bye, Captain America.”

Rebel tossed it onto the ground and sped off on her bike.

It took a moment for Superman to remember that they were on a roof and that Rebel was insane.

He watched Rebel drop down as gravity took hold. Superman immediately flew after her, only to find that she had disappeared in between the seconds his eyes were off her.

His brain finally caught up and Superman realised that he wasn’t feeling any effect of Kryptonite.

He turned around to see that the box was still open. Cautiously, Lois picked it up and closed it.

“You okay, Clark?” She asked.

“Can you give me the box, Lois?”

She nodded with confusion and slowly handed it over.

Clark slowly opened the lead box and laughed in disbelief. Inside was just some clear plastic crystals with a glowing green light underneath.

—

“Batman.”

“Superman.” Batman nodded in acknowledgement. “Why are you here?”

“I need you to run some tests on Lois’s blood. She had a run in with one of your Rogues. She said that she feels fine. But I want to be sure.” Superman answered. He handed Batman the vial of blood. He accepted it and put it in his pocket.

“I will do that as soon as I get back to the Cave. Who was it that she encountered?”

“Rebel.”

Batman stiffened at the mention of her name. “I see. What did she do to Lois?”

“Gave an interview I suppose. Lois was immediately on research binge about something that happened in France afterwards. She also had a few of the food Rebel laid out because she was hungry and I quote ‘they were the most delicious pastries ever’. She insisted that she was fine but I wanted to be sure.”

Batman’s frown deepened at that answer.

“Is something wrong?” Superman asked anxiously. This was the mother of his child and the love of his life that was in danger here.

“Lois is most probably fine but I will still run the test to ease your mind. I know Rebel won’t do something to the food unless it was for a prank. Even then, it’s nothing toxic or lethal.” Batman answered.

The answer didn’t reassure Superman.

“She blew up Stryker's Island, Batman.”

He couldn’t understand why Batman seemed so unbothered that such a dangerous villain was running around freely and causing chaos wherever she went.

“She regularly does it to Arkham.”

“Bruce. She lured me into a trap with a fake heartbeat of Lois. She fooled me into thinking she had kryptonite. She rode off the roof of the Daily Planet on her bike and disappeared into thin air. And Rao knows why she keeps calling me Captain America!” Superman ranted.

He took a deep breath to calm down before asking his question. “Rebel is clearly dangerous so why aren’t you taking her as a serious threat?”

Batman stared at him. Clark knew that this was his decision making face.

“You said that Lois was looking into something that happened in France.”

Superman nodded. “Yeah. Is Rebel related to it?”

Batman sighed. It was filled with regret and shame.

Superman knew that this was not good news.

“I was going to bring this up at the next League meeting but Rebel appeared to be getting impatient.” Batman started.

“What happened in France?”

“We, as the League, had made a huge oversight. There was a major problem in Paris for many years. A villain who could turn people into monsters had the city hostage. Rebel intends on making sure that we rectify our mistake.” Batman started.

He told Superman everything. About how Rebel brought the issue to his attention. What her plans were. Her past.

“Bruce, are you sure? She could be lying.” Superman said.

“I did my research. It’s all true. There is too much evidence to be faked. Some parts are still being investigated but it is largely the truth.”

Superman looked solemn. He couldn’t understand how something like this never fell on his radar. Batman had to rely on reports and technology to get his information. He was just a man after all. It would be easy for something like this to slip past his radar, especially how tightly controlled the information was.

Clark had super-hearing and this news about Paris had completely blindsided him.

“How could we have missed something so big for so long?” He muttered.

“Too many factors prevented news about it from reaching us. The past is done. What we can do is prepare so nothing like won’t ever happen again.” Batman said firmly.

Superman agreed. They had to do better.

“First, we have to catch a moth.”

It wasn’t the threat of Rebel unleashing her plans on the world that had him motivated to capture Hawkmoth. It was the determination to atone for his ignorance while a city suffered hell on a daily basis.

—

October 30th, Halloween Eve…

Spoiler looked through the binoculars to spy on the group of men moving a crate gently into a warehouse. Plastered in stickers that said ‘Fragile’, the crate was an object of interest for the vigilantes. 

“I got eyes on the target, O.” Spoiler reported. “They are moving it into warehouse number 32. East side of the Gotham Docks.”

“Hear that, Robin?” Oracle asked.

“Got it.” Robin replied as he ran towards the location.

“Oh. I see you, Robin.” Spoiler said.

“Eyes on the target, Spoiler.” Oracle admonished her.

“Sorry, O.”

“Hey. Can you tell me what you Bats are doing here?” A mechanical voice came from Spoiler’s left. 

It was lucky that Spoiler didn’t immediately scream and instead tried to punch the new arrival. He caught her attack easily with his one hand.

“Red Hood.” Spoiler greeted once she recognised who it was.

“I am asking again. What are you Bats doing here?”

“Spoiler, you okay?” Robin’s worried voice came over the comms.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just Red Hood.” Spoiler replied.

Looking back at Red Hood, she said, “I will tell you if you tell me what you are doing here.”

“I think we are both after the same thing.” Red Hood said, tilting his head in the direction of the warehouse.

“Black Mask’s mysterious package.” Spoiler nodded.

“It’s actually Rebel’s.” Red Hood explained. “Black Mask’s men intercepted the delivery and she asked for my help to get it back.”

“Do you know what’s inside?”

“She said it was supposed to be a fun Halloween surprise.”

“So it’s harmless.”

Red Hood shrugged. “All I know is that I should not be within a mile of it when the clock strikes midnight tonight.”

“We have five hours then.” Oracle’s voice came through Spoiler’s comms and inside Red Hood’s helmet.

“Jesus, don’t just hack into people’s helmets.” Jason complained.

“Well, we don’t have extra comms on hand.” she retorted.

“Hood, did Rebel tell you anything else about the package?” Robin asked.

“Just that it’s set to be unleashed the minute it is Halloween. Oh and don’t open it. I think it’s some kind of special bomb.”

“You didn’t ask?” “It’s Rebel. What harm can she do? It’s probably some kind of high quality glitter bomb.” Red Hood replied casually.

“You have no idea how destructive she has gotten lately.” Oracle said. “Last month, she blew up Stryker's Island. That was after she had kidnapped Lois.”

“Is she trying to go after Superman?”

“She wanted Lois to spread her ‘take down Hawkmoth’ agenda.”

“Hawkmoth? Never heard of him. Who the hell is that?” Red Hood asked.

“Rebel’s personal vendetta.” Spoiler answered.

“Sorry to cut this short, guys but Black Mask is coming.” Robin said. “We can fill you in on what happened later”

“Truce?” Red Hood offered. “I still owe Roman a beating.”

“No killing, Hood.” Oracle set as her condition.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

Red Hood loaded his guns and jumped into the fray with Spoiler in her purple glory following.

—

“Crap.”

Robin spotted Black Mask running into the warehouse. He slammed the goon he was fighting against the ground as hard as he could. 

“Somebody go and stop Black Mask! He’s going into the warehouse.” Robin said to everyone before he picked up his dropped staff and went back to fighting.

They were outnumbered and a few of the goons were trained from what Robin could tell.

“Oracle, what’s the ETA on back up?”

“Hang in there, Robin. Batman and Batgirl’s ETA is under one minute.”

“Good. Let’s hope that someone can stop Black Mask before we find out what Rebel’s Pandora box holds.”

—

Red Hood ran towards the warehouse as soon as he heard the report from Robin.

He had a score to settle with the other crime lord.

“Sionis, where are you?” Red Hood bellowed into the warehouse.

His helmet picked up the sound of someone running and Red Hood sprinted in the direction of the sound.

It became a chase and a gunfight with the two crime lords exchanging gunfire and one trying to lose the other in the maze that was the warehouse. Black Mask used every trick he had to throw Red Hood off his track.

However, it was fruitless as Red Hood continued to chase him like a bloodhound.

As desperation seized him, Black Mask picked up a crowbar that was lying around and ran towards the box he had stolen from that upstart Rebel.

Rumour has it that it is a weapon she had made for the Bats. Intended to drive them mad.

Red Hood rounded around the corner, just in time to see Black Mask pry the box open.

“NO!”

The lid was off. 

—

Last Month in Metropolis. A day before Lois’s kidnapping…

A young woman sauntered through the hallways of Stryker's Island Penitentiary. Then, she stopped in front of the cell she was looking for.

“Hello, Toyman.”

“Rebel.” Toyman greeted back. “What a pleasure to see you again.”

“I would like to contract you to make a few things for me.” Rebel went straight to the point.

Toyman gave her an interested look. “What would be in it for me?”

“Would getting you out of this place give me a discount?” Rebel asked.

Toyman smiled. “I suppose that might be possible. I’m a generous man after all. But that still doesn’t answer what you want me to make.”

Rebel chuckled. “It’s September. It’s practically nearly Halloween. And I really really want to make it a memorable one. Especially for the heroes in my city. I would like to commission a few toys. Here’s a list.”

She handed it to him.

Toyman hummed as he read it over. This could be a good deal. He would get his freedom and just make a few dolls with a bit of profit.

“How many would you like to make?”

“As much as you can before the deadline which is a few days before Halloween. Say the twenty-eight? Would that be possible? I would pay a set price for each one you can finish.” Rebel said.

“Can you back it up? I am not saying that you are not trustworthy but...” Toyman didn’t manage to finish before Rebel took out a wad of cash, all in hundred dollar bills.

She took half of it and handed it to Toyman through the bars.

“This is for the materials. Once I get you out of here, we are going to make a legal contract to discuss the finer details.”

“It is going to be an honour to work with you.” Toyman said.

Rebel grinned under her mask. “It’s nice doing business with you, Toyman.”

“So when do I get started?”

“Tomorrow afternoon-ish. That’s when something would happen and you escape in the chaos.” 

“How would I know it happened?”

“You will know. And try not to get caught by the guy who wears the ‘S’. A second breakout might not be easy to plan.”

After she left, Toyman felt giddy at the taste of freedom and to make so many new toys.

—

“WHAT?!”

Black Mask reached into the box and took its content out.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?” Black Mask said in angry disbelief as he held a doll in his hands.

Red Hood took that opportunity to tackle the man and handcuff him.

In his curiosity, Red Hood glanced into the box and saw that the box just contained dolls.

There was your typical Raggedy Ann, clowns, ventriloquist dummies, string puppets, those collector’s dolls with the pretty frilled dresses, a few Barbie dolls and some plushies that resembled some of the Bat vigilantes.

“Hood. Come in, Hood.” Batman’s voice came from his comms.

“Cool your jets, Batman. I got Black Mask. He managed to open the box but it’s just dolls inside. Rebel probably tried to scare us into not opening the box because they’re for a prank and it would ruin the surprise.”

“Good to hear.” Batman said with a hint of relief.

—

Tim curiously picked up the Robin plushie and inspected it.

The Bats had taken the box of dolls with them to the Batcave to later give back to Rebel.

“The quality is so good. The details are amazing and so accurate. Wonder who made it.” Tim wondered curiously before he discovered initials stitched in the inner lining of the cape of the toy.

“W.S.J” Tim read out as he traced the letters. There was a niggling thought at the back of his head that he should look into who the mysterious toymaker was.

Meanwhile, Steph was tentatively holding the Raggedy Ann doll and telling Jason about the true story behind the Annabelle movies.

“Did you know that the real Annabelle doesn’t actually look like the doll in the movies?” Steph said as she held up the Raggedy Ann to Jason, “It was actually a Raggedy Ann doll that looked just like this one.”

Jason frowned as he gave the doll a slightly wary look. “It doesn’t look creepy at all.”

“That’s what makes it so unsettling. Something innocent hiding its sinister nature.” Steph explained.

Damain frowned as he picked up one of the collector’s dolls. “I don’t see what is creepy about some toys.”

“It’s the terror of something that should be lifeless moving around. Something that should be harmless becomes something dangerous.” Jason mused.

“But why dolls? I don’t think a piece of porcelain dressed in lace could scare anyone. I would be sc…alarmed if Father’s dinosaur came to life but not these.” Damian said as he held up one of the dolls.

“You should try watching some horror movies.” Jason told Damian.

Cass picked up a ballerina string puppet she had found and showed it to Bruce with a questioning look.

“It’s a string puppet. Have you seen Pinocchio yet?”

“No.” Cass replied as she shook her head.

“Remind me at our next movie night. So the strings make the puppet move. Here look.” Bruce took the puppet from Cass and expertly manipulated the strings so the ballerina waved and walked a bit before breaking out a few ballet moves. Cass clapped with wonder at the end of his performance.

“Teach me?” Cass asked.

“Sure.” Bruce promised.

Next, Cass took out the ventriloquist dummy and inspected it.

“Scarface?” She asked.

“Yes. It’s a ventriloquist dummy just like Scarface. How it works is that the ventriloquist holds the dummy and throws his voice so it looks like it is the dummy that’s talking instead of the ventriloquist.”

“Show me.”

Bruce obliged as he slipped his hand into the dummy and the dummy started to move its mouth.

“Hello, Cass, nice to meet you.” said the Dummy as it held out its hand.

Cass shook its hand. “Hello.”

She asked Bruce, “Can I try?”

“Of course.” Bruce said as he gave her back the dummy.

Cass breathed in and out a few times and then raised the dummy up.

“Hello. Nice to meet you.” Cass’s voice came from the dummy this time.

Bruce smiled as he ruffled her hair. “You’re good at this.”

“Thank you.” said the Dummy.

“If you are all done playing, it’s time you all went to bed.” Alfred said as he brought in his famous after patrol snacks; cucumber sandwiches. “After a shower.”

Jason put the Raggedy Ann doll back into the box.

“Well, it’s late and I need to get back home.” Jason said as he walked towards his bike.

“You can stay the night, Master Jason.” Alfred said. “I have taken the liberty of cleaning your room.”

“Thank you, Alfred but…” Jason trailed off, not knowing how to convey that he didn’t want to stay in the Manor despite his truce tonight with Bruce but also not wanting to offend the butler/grandfather-figure.

“I understand, Master Jason. Perhaps another time.” Alfred said in his wise way.

“Thank you, Alfred.” This time, there was a look of gratitude in Jason’s eyes.

—-

The morning after was a busy and bustling day but there was something not right in the Wayne Manor.

Tim woke up from having fallen asleep while working on trying to find the maker of the dolls. His laptop had turned itself off sometime during the night. He stretched and yawned.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he spied the Robin plushie sitting on his bed.

“That’s strange. I could have sworn that I left you in the box last night.” Tim said, scratching his head. He picked the plushie up and examined it again in the morning light.

It was more accurate than Tim had initially found. In fact, it was like it was an exact likeness of him. Which was a very scary thought. He wondered how Toyman knew that he had a mole on his arm near his elbow and the birthmark on the side of his hips. Tim theorised that Rebel must be a very good stalker.

He put the plushie back on bed and headed down for breakfast. Tim didn’t see the plushie morphed its uniform into the outfit that Tim was wearing.

—-

Tim walked down to the kitchen and sat down.

He thanked Alfred who set down a delicious plate of pancakes in front of him.

“Morning, Steph.” Tim said to the blonde who was dressed in a purple cowgirl outfit and a white Stetson hat.

“Morning, Tim.”

“Who are you supposed to be anyways?” He asked.

“Barbie but with the Stephanie twist.” She replied.

“Ah. Gotcha.” Tim said after he finished his mouthful of pancake. “You look so realistic by the way.”

Bruce entered the kitchen and sat down with a groan, his hand massaging his neck.

“You okay, B?” “Just feeling a bit stiff. I’m not as young as I used to be.” Bruce replied with a grimace.

Slowly, the other occupants of the house trickled in and the kitchen was filled with the Waynes and Steph dug into their breakfast.

Dick came all the way from Bludhaven to help out on what is annually one of the worst nights of the year in Gotham. At least one Rouge would have plans for Halloween.

To break this peaceful moment would be one Jason Tood who angrily stomped into the kitchen, clutching a Raggedy Ann doll.

“Didn’t we agree on leaving me alone? That includes not finding out where my safehouses are.” Jason said.

He held up the doll and asked, “Which one of you left this at my place this morning as a prank?”

Several confused faces stared back at him.

“Was it you?” Jason pointed at Steph and demanded.

She put her hands up in surrender. “It wasn’t me. I was busy studying for the test I have today. Ask Bruce. He can tell you that he helped me with flashcards.”

“Then, was it you, Tim?”

Tim blinked at Jason. His mind took a few seconds to answer because Tim was not a morning person.

He shook his head.

“No. I was looking into who made these dolls.” Tim answered.

“Why?”

“The dolls all have the initial W.S.J. and they were all incredibly detailed. I also wanted to know why Rebel would need them. The maker turned out to be no one other than…” Tim dramatically paused: “Toyman.”

“Suddenly, I feel like we should have burned that box when we could.” Steph said to break the silence.

They should have.

—

“So how bad is it?” Dick asked Zatanna, anxious about what curse had befallen his family.

They had gone down to the Batcave to get rid of the box. Only to find it empty. It led to hours of searching for them. Except Tim never came back from his room to retrieve the Robin plushie.

Dick went to check on Tim only to find that he had turned into the plushie.

Imagine finding your brother missing and suddenly the mini plushie replica of your brother started moving and talking. It immediately went onto the top ten weirdest and scariest list of things Dick had experienced.

Then, the next to go was Steph who slowly became plastic. Her face was stuck in a smile while her skin hardened into shiny plastic. She was in class when it happened and they had to go pick her up.

Cass found the dummy but it got attached to her hand and started to speak on its own in Cass’s voice. Cass herself was unable to utter a word.

The stiffness that Bruce had complained about was the fact that he was slowly turning into wood and almost invisible strings controlling his every move.

The final terror was the Raggedy Ann doll that suddenly gained life and proceeded to hunt Jason down for sport. No matter how far Jason managed to get away from the doll and Dick’s best efforts to keep the doll contained, it still managed to escape to go after Jason.

Somehow, Dick, Alfred and Damian were the only ones unaffected by the ‘curse’. They managed to figure out why when Babara told them that Black Mask and his men were attacked by the missing dolls and some of them were experiencing the same things as the Bats and about Jason’s warning from Rebel before everything went down.

Desperate, Dick asked Superman to track down Toyman and asked him how to reverse the effect only to find out that he only made the dolls. The curse was someone else's doing. 

Which was why they had called Zatanna to see if she could reverse it.

“Well, there’s the good news and the bad news.” she announced. “Good news is that it is reversible and the curse only lasts for a day. I recommend to just wait it out because the reversing would take longer than the deadline. The curse is too complicated to simply undo.”

“So that’s the bad news?” “No. The bad news is that I recognised a bit of the spellwork. It is a bit similar to how my father would do it so chances are that whoever did this is a student of my father. The thing is I know most of my father’s students and what is bad is that I don’t recognise the magical signature of who put this curse on the dolls.”

Puppet Bruce jerked his head at the information that Zatanna had given them. Dick noticed.

“B?”

“Paris.” Bruce managed to get past with his wooden lips.

“Paris? Are you talking about the Miraculous?”

“Hero.”

“Wait, you think one of the Miraculous heroes is involved in this?”

Zatanna gasped. “I remember Batman telling me that Ladybug was a student of my father. I looked into his old journals and he mentioned a student named Marinette during his stay in Paris.”

“Marinette. Marinette. Why does it sound so familiar?” Dick tried to recall where he had heard that name before.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Damian answered for him. “It’s Rebel’s legal name.”

Just like that, pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

“Rebel used to be Ladybug.”

The revelation felt bitter on Dick’s tongue. He had seen the videos of Ladybug in action. He would say that she was inexperienced but she was compassionate and willing to lend a hand to anyone in need. He thought that it was nice of her to forgive her enemy instead of causing pain on the man who had caused her so much grief.

He couldn’t believe he saw the similarities between the two girls sooner.

Rebel was cunning and sharp enough to always stay a step ahead of them. Her planning and paranoia on par with the Batman himself. Useful skills to have as a hero.

Then again, Rebel couldn’t be more different from Ladybug. She was more cynical and petty. Rebel caused chaos wherever she goes instead of cleaning up the mess. She saw everything as a game and never took anything seriously. 

Dick wondered what it was that pushed Rebel over the edge. The line drawn between heroism and villainy. Then he remembered how Rebel was sent to Gotham in the first place.

“Damn. Rebel has really good valid reason to fuck that Hawkmoth guy up.” Jason said. “In fact, I am surprised she hasn’t razed Paris to ashes yet.”

“Can you imagine?” Zatanna said, having been briefed a bit on the Paris situation and had heard about Rebel’s kidnapping of Lois, “The city you gave so much to save, branding you as a criminal and sending you to one of the worst places on Earth.”

“People have turned to crime for less.” Damian pointed out.

“But Rebel used to be a hero. One of us essentially. It’s just sad that we had to meet her as people on opposite sides.” Dick said.

“It only shows her lack of will.” Damian said.

“I think Rebel had reached her breaking point and honestly, I might too if I face it all alone like she did.”

The Cave was in a sombre silence for the hero that once was Ladybug. Dick remembered something Bruce once said about Two-Face and Harvey Dent.

‘You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain.’

—

The next day, just as Zatanna said, the spell wore off and everyone was human again and able to freely talk again. Other than some nightmares about the experience for a month or so, they were fine.

The Batfamily had a meeting about the new revelation that they had discovered last night.

“Bruce, tell us the truth. Did you know from the beginning?” Tim asked. “I only had suspicions but Zatanna confirmed them with her father’s journal.” Bruce answered. “This changes nothing.”

“It does, Bruce. You failed another young hero.” Jason said, his tone sharp and accusing. “Not even one of the ‘sidekicks’. You turned your back on the One Main Hero who had been there since the beginning and saw through it to the end. She didn’t get the happy ending she deserved. Instead, she was rewarded for her sacrifices by being sent to fucking Arkam Asylum in one of the most dangerous city in the world.”

“Todd, stop projecting. The way I see it, Rebel had seen the errors of her way and intended to fix her mistake regarding Hawkmoth. She should have locked him up when she had her chance.” Damian shot back.

“Boys, settle down. The fact of the matter is that whether Rebel used to be Ladybug or not, Hawkmoth needs to be arrested before Rebel does something more sinister than what she did yesterday.”

“Wasn’t it an accident?” Steph asked.

“According to Toyman, we had always been the intended recipients of that particular gift.” Dick answered. “It was dumb luck that Black Mask opened it while most of you were in the area.”

“After this latest incident, the League and I have decided that Rebel must be contained.” Bruce announced.

Jason jumped out of his seat. “Bruce, she’s just a kid!”

“But she’s a formidable threat. Who knows what else she might do if she is left unchecked and she doesn’t like the progress on the Hawkmoth investigation.”

Jason growled and then left.

Bruce told everyone that they should catch Rebel if they saw her before he ended the meeting.

—

Rebel stood in front of a half-finished mural, a spray can in hand.

“So we finally met, my dear daughter.” The voice belonged to the man who starred in Gotham’s nightmare.

Rebel didn’t bother to turn around and simply looked at him from over her shoulder.

“Which one are you?” She asked.

“I’m sorry?”

Rebel went back to spray-painting as she explained, “I know that there are at least three of you running around Gotham. I want to know which one you are.”

Joker laughed. A genuine laugh instead of the mad one he usually makes.

“You really do live up to your reputation, Rebel. I can tell that you are a real wildcard.” Joker said excitedly.

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Very well then. I am the Joker. The original one. Not the copycats I made because I was bored. And Rebel, I am your father.”

----- (Part 7)

Taglist:  @toodaloo-kangaroo, @iloontjeboontje, @buginetye, @angelwreckedd, @anoires-blog, @ever-since-i-was-young, @shutupandactuallylisten, @its-maemain, @vel-vee, @kashlyn, @officiallydarkgeek, @jayjayspixiepop, @cmouse, @transheso, @thecrazyfantrolls, @just-a-random-girl-loves-anime, @maddiesupdates, @the-dumber-scaramouche,

[jell0buss-37]

hiiiii i am absolutely in LOOOVEEEE with your fics<3333

i wanted to request something for peter b parker x fem!reader where it’s just a day in their life (domestic fic basically :3) like the reader owns a flower shop so she gets dressed in the morning so she can open it all while peter is watching her from the bed and talking about all the plans she has for today (and maybe telling her why she can’t stay for awhile in bed with him🤭🤭) then maybe once she’s at the shop, peter stops by to talk to her and leaves her lunch so she isn’t hungry :33

AND maybe possibly peter helping an old lady pick out some flowers and reader being surprised he knows what flowers go with what LMAO

i hope this makes sense and i would love to see what you do with this<33333

have an amazing day/night 🤍

This is so cute 🥺 and thank you!! I hope you like it. I got to use my flower language!

A day with Peter B!

He's most likely coming in from a long night of being spiderman, slipping out of his suit and under the covers next to you around 6 in the morning

You usually wake up around that same time, and aren't usually in bed at the same time as him, usually just walking out as he walks in

But it's a Sunday

And so you both cuddle in the early hours of the day, quiet mumbles passed between you two

Because it was Sunday, you opened your flower shop at 10 instead of 7 in the morning

You had sat up in bed at about 8, his arms around your waist and his head nestled into your stomach, your legs on either side of him, running your fingers through his hair, as he sighs in content

These were his favorite moments

He's dozing off, completely at peace, when you have to get up and start getting ready

He tightens his arms around you, a sound of protest leaving his lips

"Gimme like... 5 more days." "Pete, I have to make breakfast at least."

You end up having to get a muffin at a coffee shop near your flower shop

By around 12:30, he stops by to do his daily visit

"You never gave me my goodbye kiss :(" "Petie, you had your head under the pillows. I had to kiss your shoulder." "It's not the same :((("

He brings you some of his brownies that he had made at around 11 when he woke up that day before heading to see you

You two sit in the back office as he tells you about how his night went

He also brought the leftovers from last night that you had set aside for him

"This was my third plate. Your lasagna always hits the spot honey!"

In turn you tell him about your day so far, and he listens intently. No matter how wild his life as a hero is, he always finds your life interesting

You guys actually met when he was stopping these robbers from breaking into your store. You had been in the back, a baseball bat by your side, shaking

You almost hit him, but he dodged it and helped calm you down

He thought you were really headstrong, and stopped by the next day

He actually was too scared to talk to you, his confidence leaving him every time you'd smile

It took him a week to properly start talking to you

And you've been inseparable since

You guys finish your little lunch at around 1:30

On his way out, he quickly picks out a bouquet and hands it to what looked like a new couple

"Get her some red tulips and red roses. It means I love you newly in flower talk."

He absolutely loves whenever you'd ramble on about different flowers and what they meant

You were always so passionate whenever you spoke about them

And it made you blush whenever you catch him staring at you with such a lovesick look in his eyes

And so you couldn't help but smile whenever he'd help out your customers

He leaned over the counter, planting a big ol kiss to your lips, grabbing your face between his hands

"Big Smooch!" He'd say before doing it

"There's more where that came from ;)"

It always left you flustered, even after he'd flash that goofy grin and flutter his eyelashes at you, almost skipping out the door and on his way back to your guys' apartment

He usually goes back to take his evening nap before you came home to wake him up and have dinner with him before he went to work as the vigilante on Sundays

But when you get off of work at 7:00, you're surprised to see him waiting outside your door, wearing a suit and holding one of your favorite dresses, along with some of your shoes and some of your makeup

"Get ready, doll face. I'm taking you out tonight, and taking the night off to romance your ass."

You roll your eyes, before getting changed in your office, dressing up nicely for him

"Okay pretty lady, hang on tight!"

He swings you two over to a nice restaurant

You guys enjoy a night of laughter and good food, drinking wine and having a lovely date at 8:30

By 9:30 or 10, it didn't really matter, you guys were back in your living room, dancing to a song neither of you cared to learn the name of

You'd start out fast dancing, honestly just stumbling and shuffling around eachother

Then eventually he'd hold you in his arms, your head on his shoulder, his hand holding yours over his heart, the other wrapped safely around your waist. Ever the gentleman

Eventually you'd doze off, and he'd carry you to bed and watch you as you rest peacefully, his heart racing as he watches you

By 11:30, you both are out like a light, in each other's arms and dreaming of more days like this

[dailyrimuru]

Day 18 - Oops.. (Rambling time about the Tensura game that released yesterday. If you didn't know Tensura had a new game, it wouldn't surprise me) Anyways, been playing the new Tensura game, it's good for what it is. There are many aspects of the game that are VERY similar to parts of the mobile game (not in bad ways, mind you) such as the city-building (which is slightly less customizable but since construction is instant its a bearable tradeoff), the skill upgrades (which have an actual tree this time rather than a weird circle), and the party system with 3 people going out with a supporter giving buffs and whatnot. I'm sure very few of this is original to just Tensura's games, but you can tell that they either took heavy inspiration from the elements of Isekai Memories, or Isekai Memories was a proto version of this game. Don't worry though, there are no gacha elements and no in-game purchases besides the future DLCs. At least not that I'm aware of. As for the story of the game, a lot of it follows canon but it does seem to spend more time in its own original story than Isekai Memories often did. However since I have yet to get to the Orc Lord yet (played it for 4+ hours, the added unique story is long) I don't know much of the full story. I don't even know how far into the game I am and I don't really wanna spoil myself either. While it does sometimes copy/paste screenshots from the anime like the mobile game does (c'mon guys), it does also sometimes reanimate some of the more important scenes which can actually look quite nice. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE OUT-OF-CUTSCENE TALKING SPRITES LOOK LIKE THAT. I WOULD'VE PREFERRED IT IF YOU JUST MADE THEM STILL IMAGES, WHY DID YOU MAKE THEIR MOUTHS MOVE LIKE ITS AN AI-LIPSYNCH?! HELL, IT MIGHT EVEN BE AI, I GENUINELY CAN'T TELL. I spam caps, but it's not that big of an issue once you learn to ignore it. It's just... why? Why did you even bother? Just make it still sprites at that point. As for the original characters, I do not care for this goblin, please stop making me fight him 5 times in a row I wanna learn about the otherworlder and build my McRimuru's. The game's unique otherworlder (or at least one of them as there seems to be two, in this case I'm talking about the girl) seems to have some interesting things going on, though it seems she's only now beginning to get her attention in the story, so I'm interested to see where it goes. The goblin, or bugbear as he technically is, is fine... I guess? His reasoning is kind of annoying... "To get revenge on the direwolves for killing goblins, I will kill everyone in this town... Which is made up of mostly goblins." Eventually it starts to make more sense as his goal becomes less getting revenge and more to just actually beat Rimuru after he gets his ass handed to him 5 times in a row (I'm not joking, you fight him like around five times with only one or two quests between each fight. To give the fights some credit, they've been some of the harder fights of the game, so I do appreciate the challenge. Just wish it was more spread out so I came to dread those infrequent but difficult fights instead of being like "Am I fighting him again? I'm fighting him again... alright, here we go."). Still though, I'm more interested in this otherworlder and this new nation they introduced than this goblin, though so far in the story the goblin has gotten most of the attention. Ofc the story is far from over, I've not finished the game yet, and from what I've seen before I got off for the night it seems the story is heading into an arc more focused on the Otherworlder and MAYBE this other nation, so I'm excited to see where they go with it.

[bloatedandalone04]

The Break Up - Part 5

Series Masterlist

PSA: strongly suggested to read the warnings before proceeding.

+Tommy’s birthday is completely made up by yours truly as it was never mentioned.

Part Five <3 | Previous Part

June 20th 1985

10:48 AM

Things had gotten worse. You slipped even further behind in your schooling, resulting in you having to take a few weeks of summer to finish up all the past due assignments you had. It was that or they fail you, and that was completely off the table.

  In all honesty, you were embarrassed at yourself for getting too comfortable and not taking your schooling as seriously as you should’ve been. A good education was close to impossible to have in a town like Shadyside, and you were ashamed at the fact that you took it for granted for even a second.

  On top of getting caught up on your school work, you were also putting in more hours at the hospital. Eve had told you that if you were to keep up the hard work you’d been putting in, she’d offer you a job there after you were done with school, as well as pay you for the hours you’ve already worked.

  Your volunteer position became an actual job before you even knew what was happening and it only added to the overbearing weight that was currently on your shoulders. You were grateful, but you were also exhausted.

  It didn’t help that your and Nick’s relationship was on the rocks and having Beth constantly being in your ear about ending it. You loved him more than anything, and you knew that you wanted to be with him for the rest of your life, but you were also young. Maybe you had gone too fast, maybe you were rushing into things. 

  It was a Saturday morning and usually you’d be hanging out with Beth and Emma, but you were stuck doing assignments instead. Beth hadn’t been wanting to do anything other than get drunk as of recently, something to do with her and John fighting more often lately, so you hadn’t seen her in a few days. 

  The break from your sometimes overbearing best friend was something you never knew you needed. She had always been the bossy type, but recently she had become extremely controlling as well.

  You sat across from Emma in the food court at the Shadyside Mall, your eyes scanning over the words in front of you but not actually reading them. Emma leaned back in her chair, admiring her freshly painted red nail polish before she looked at her engagement ring and wedding band, her lips turning upwards into a smile.

  Unbeknownst to her, you watched the whole thing and for a split second felt envious of her. She had found someone in this hellhole of a town who loved her more than anything in the world, and her relationship wasn’t judged or frowned upon, like yours. She was one of the lucky ones. “Hey, Em?” You ask and she looks up at her, the smile still gracing her face as she hummed. You paused for a second, trying to figure out the right words. “How…did you know that Steven was the one? Was there something he did? Like a gesture or something?”

  Emma looked caught off guard by your questions and leaned over, folding her hands on the table. “You know Steven, he’s not much of a romantic guy,” she started. “So, no, there was no big gesture or anything like that.”

  “Then what was it?” You asked, your attention now completely taken away from your study book in front of you. 

  “It was more like…a feeling,” she answered, spinning the band around her finger. “There’s this one look that he gives you and you know that you want to be looked at like that for the rest of your life. At least that’s how it was for me. There was this one night where we had planned out everything perfectly, and then when everything ended up completely falling apart, he just looked over at me as if everything would be okay. That’s when I knew that I wanted him forever. Our night had been ruined, but we were so happy anyway.”

  You nodded, your eyes glancing down at her rings. 

  “Why? You’re thinking Nick’s not the one?” Her question made your eyes shoot up to meet hers, your brows furrowed. “Sorry, but I’ve noticed how distant you’ve been lately. That kinda thing can hurt a relationship more than you think.”

  “No, it’s not that,” you trail off, looking around the food court. Nick was across the room, standing in line for the drink stand. You make eye contact for a split second before you’re looking away. “Whenever Nick looks at me, I feel the same way about him that you do with Steven. I get all nervous around him and my heart races every time he enters the room. I know he’s the one for me, but I don’t know if it’s the right time.”

  “Uh oh,” Emma said. “Did Beth get to you, too?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, did Beth give you the whole ‘you’re too young to know what you want’ speech?” Emma asked. “Because she did the exact same thing to me on the ride home from dinner back in February, right after I told you all about my engagement.”

  “Really?” You weren’t all that surprised. Beth was never one to mind her own business. “She gave me a speech, just not that one.”

  “Don’t let her get to your head, okay? It’s your life, not hers,”

  You shake your head and sigh, playing with your fingers. “It’s not like that. I’ve been falling behind in class and with this position at the hospital, it’s been even harder to keep up and I’m just…” you trail off, looking at the scattered papers that littered the small table. “I’m just stressed.”

  “Try not to worry so much,” Emma said, reaching over to place her hand on your wrist. “Everything is going to be fine.”

  You smile at her, though her words did very little to put you at ease. 

  “Man,” she said, looking over at Nick. “That is one frustrated looking boyfriend.”

  You follow her eyes and look at Nick. He was normally good at hiding his emotions, especially in public, but he wasn’t doing the best job at hiding his annoyance at the moment. “Yeah….I’ve been kinda avoiding him,”

  At this Emma’s eyes widen, taking her hand off you. “You what?”

  “Yeah,” you sigh again. “I feel bad, but whenever he’s over at my place, I never get any work done and he’s always asking me if I’m okay. Recently he’s been annoyed that I’m always at the hospital and not with him… it’s just too much for me right now.”

  “I get that, I really do, but don’t push him away just because he cares,” Emma tells you. “He’s a good guy, Y/n. You know that.”

  “I know,” you say, sitting up once you see Nick walking over to the table, a tray of drinks in his hand. “I just wish he understood how stressed I am. I mean, he’s Nick Goode. He’s never had to work this hard for anything. I feel like he doesn’t understand how hard things can be for people who aren’t him.”

  “Have you told him that?”

  “I don’t want to hurt his feelings,”

  Emma sighed. “You can’t keep things bottled up like this, Y/n. It’ll break you beyond repair,”

  “Yeah, I know,” you said quietly. “We’re meeting up later this week. I’m gonna talk to him about it then.”

  “Good. And, hey, if all fails, you still have me,” Emma smiled at you just as Nick reached the table, handing her a pink colored drink. “Thank you.”

  He nodded at her and sat down next to you, sliding you your drink. “Thanks, baby,” you say and grab the side of his face as you kiss his cheek quickly. You tried to ignore the fact that you hadn’t been affectionate to him much recently and the quick peck showed that. 

  He smiled at you before you went back to reading your notes, missing the look he gave Emma and the comforting shrug she gave back to him.

-

June 24th, 1985

12:53 PM

Nick had never been more annoyed and pissed off in his entire life.

  Things were going great, and now it’s as if he was dating a ghost. How did things go so wrong? He tried to think back to when he could’ve possibly fucked up so bad to the point of you feeling the need to avoid him like you were currently doing, but came up with nothing. What had gone wrong?

  He remembered the exact moment he noticed a change in you. It was the night of Emma’s wedding. Things were going fine, until Beth decided to set you up with Luke just to get on his nerves. It didn’t work out in the end, because it was Nick who took you home, after all.

  It was definitely when Beth took you away for a talk that you had drastically changed in so little time. 

  He rolled his eyes. Of course Beth had something to do with it. And just when he thought he couldn’t hate her any more than he already did.

  Nick hadn’t spoken to her since the night at your apartment where she ripped into him as if she knew him better than you did. He had nothing nice to say to her after that night and he swore to himself that he’d keep his thoughts about her to himself, for your sake, but this was ridiculous. Beth was a massive threat to his relationship with you, and he has had more than enough of her games.

  You had told him to come over and help you finish up some assignments, but how could he do that when it seems as if you weren’t home? He gave up on knocking and went to leave when he paused at the top of the stairs, his eyes on the door next to yours. 

  307. Beth Roberts. 

  He walked over to the paint-chipped door and knocked loudly, waiting for your best friend to open it. She did, and when she saw who it was, her expression turned hostile and her eyes squinted. “What do you want?”

  “What do I want?” He repeated the question, looking down at her. She was a lot shorter than him, much like you, and he could tell that his height intimidated her, but she didn’t let it show. “I want you to tell me what you said to her.”

  He didn’t have to say your name for her to know who he was talking about. Her smirk proved that point quite well. “Said to who?”

  “You know who,” his voice was deep and told her that he was in no mood to put up with her bullshit. 

  “I can’t say I do,” she hummed, leaning against the door frame. 

  “Beth, I am not going to do this with you right now,” he said, his voice dripping with masked anger. She opened her mouth to speak but he cut her off by slamming his hand roughly on the frame, just inches from the top of her head. He wished he could take joy in seeing her jump slightly, but he was beyond pissed off. “What the fuck did you say to her?”

  The question was asked loudly and Beth looked around to make sure no one peeked their heads out of their doors to see what was going on. “Would you keep your voice down?” She muttered, her confidence leaving her by the second. “I don’t know what you’re talking about and I don’t have a damn thing to prove to you. Maybe Y/n’s finally realising that you’re not good enough for her.”

  Nick stared at her, his face void of any emotion. He leaned down so his face was mere centimetres from hers, making Beth hold back her want to cower away from him. “I swear,” he said. “If I find out that you said anything to her about me and our relationship, I’ll find you and I’ll make you wish you never even met her.”

  Beth’s eyes widened at the threat and she stepped away from him and into her apartment. 

  Nick gave her one last look before he turned around and walked down the stairs without another word. 

  Beth stood there for a few seconds, her heart beating wildly as she tried to calm herself down. She closed the door and locked it, grabbing her half empty bottle of wine and picking up her phone, dialing your number. 

-

6:46 PM

You sighed as you entered your apartment, tossing your keys onto the counter and throwing your jacket over the chair. 

  While you were in the middle of taking notes from Eve at the hospital, you were paged to the front desk where you were told that someone had called and asked for you. 

  It was Beth with some rather interesting news about your boyfriend. She sounded drunk and completely out of it, so you weren’t sure how much of it was actually true. She rambled on about how your home phone went to voicemail so she just had to call you at work. 

  It was embarrassing, to say the least. She had called you at work to complain about Nick when she could’ve waited until you got home. You could only imagine how unprofessional it looked to see you comforting your best friend over the phone instead of paying attention to what Eve was saying. 

  You changed into a pair of grey sweatpants and a black tank top, sitting down at the table to go over the notes you took today. Just as you began reading, the sound of knocks were heard. “It’s open,” you call out without looking up from your book. The door opened and your boyfriend walked in, his eyes meeting yours almost instantly. You furrowed your brows, not knowing who you were expecting, but definitely not it being him. “I told you I’d see you later this week.”

  “I can’t wait that long,” he said, walking over to you and leaning down slightly to place his hands on the back of the chair across from yours. “I missed you.”

  You sigh as you place your hand on your forehead. “Why didn’t you try to use the key I gave you?”

  “I didn’t know if you were home,” he replied. “I stopped by earlier and waited for a bit. I didn’t know you had a shift today.” He sounded bitter and it fueled something inside of you.

  “So I heard,” you say and watch as he gives you a confused face. “Beth called me at work and told me you went and saw her today. Said you threatened her?”

  “I’d hardly say I threatened her,” Nick said and shrugged the situation off. He sounded so nonchalant that you were beginning to believe that Beth made things sound worse than it was. “Scared her, maybe.”

  “Really,” you squint your eyes at him, looking back down at your notes.

  “Baby, you know I’m not like that,” he said, reaching over to grab your hand. “She’s lying.”

  Before his hand could make contact with yours, you pull away and sit up. “Okay, I can’t do this right now,” you look up at him. “I have to go over these notes so I don’t lose my job.”

  “Will you put the book down for two seconds?” Nick asked, frustration seeping from his words as he tugged at his hair. “I feel like I haven't seen you in forever.”

  Maybe you were acting irrational, but you couldn’t help it. You were running on very little sleep and the call from Beth had made you angrier than you thought you’d be. “So you go to Beth?”

  Nick looked at you with an expression you’ve seen many times on him, but not when it was directed at you. He looked livid. “I have to get updates on you somehow,” he muttered, dropping his head so you couldn’t see his face. “You don’t give me any.”

   “I need space, Nick,” you say, your brain not catching up to the words quick enough. “I’ve been so busy and stressed lately.”

  “How would I know that?” He asked, his eyes angry as he stared at you. “You don’t tell me anything anymore.”

  “Nick, please,” you said quietly, putting your elbows on the table and tangling your fingers in your hair out of frustration. “Just give me a little time to figure things out.”

  Nick’s ears were beginning to burn as he felt his chest tighten with anger. “Figure things out?” He mumbled. “Or figure us out?”

  “Nick,” you pleaded, having a bad feeling about where this conversation was going. “Please, let’s talk about this another time.”

  He stood straight up. “No, we’re talking about this right now,” he said. “I don’t see you for days and the one time I do actually see you, you want space? How the fuck am I supposed to be okay with this?”

  His tone was somehow making you stress out more and you shakily sighed, trying to calm yourself down to be able to think rationally. “Nick,” you say quietly. “I think we need to spend some time apart. Just until I get caught up on things.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “No,” you weren’t sure where this was going, but you pushed past your nervousness and sat up straighter, refusing to back down now.  “Please, just go.”

  “Fine,” he muttered, making no move to leave. “Can I see you sometime this week, then?”

  “Yeah, maybe,”

  “Maybe?” He wasn’t getting the hint and you were growing more frustrated by the second. “Come the fuck on.”

  “Jesus Christ, Nick,” you said, your voice raising slightly. “I can’t do this anymore. I need a break.”

  “From what?”

  “From everything,” you were quiet again. “From you.”

  “You’re breaking up with me?” He asks angrily, backing away from you.  “Because I want to actually see my girlfriend every once in a while?”

  “You don’t get it,” was all you could mutter as you refused to make eye contact with him. 

  “Enlighten me, then,”

  At your silence, Nick got his answer. You didn’t want him anymore. 

  “Fine,” he said, pushing aside any rational thoughts as he finally let his frustration out. He always had been too stubborn for his own good. “Fucking, fine. That’s great. First, you tell me you need space and now you’re telling me you want a break less than two seconds after?”

  “It’s not like that,” you tried to reach out to him and make him stay so you could properly talk about it. 

  “Whatever,” he mumbled, pulling away from you and walking towards the door. “Good luck with your school work. I hope you do fucking fantastic.”

  “Nick-”

  “No,” he cut you off, opening the door and turning one last time to look at you. “Like you’ve been wanting to say since I got here, we’re done.”

  At that, you shoot up from the chair, your brows furrowing. “Nick, that’s not-” you shake your head, beginning to walk over to him. “Nick, wait, that’s not what I meant.”

  Before you could reach him, he turned around and slammed the door shut behind him. You stood there for a few seconds, trying to wrap your mind around exactly what just happened. At the realisation that your relationship was over, tears immediately formed in your eyes and began to fall as you dropped to your knees. Your hand came up to cover your mouth as you sobbed, all the stress and weight of the past few weeks finally becoming too much for you to handle.

-

April 16th, 1985

5:32 PM

“Okay, Beth, calm down,” you say, rubbing your forehead with your hand as you listen to her ramble over the phone. 

  “I can’t!” She said then went quiet for a few seconds. “You know…I’d feel better if you came over and hung out with me for a bit.”

  “Beth,” you sighed. “Nick and I have plans tonight. You know that.”

  Just as you said that, Nick walked into your apartment, takeout bag in one hand and the spare key you gave him in the other. You gave him a quick wave then held up a finger, signaling that you’d be done in a second. 

  He just nodded and placed the bag on the counter, beginning to empty it.

  “I know, it’s too much to ask,” Beth mumbled. “I get it. I’ll be fine.”

  “No, wait,” you say, stopping her from hanging up. You look over at Nick, giving him an apologetic smile while he gives you a confused look. “Why don’t you join us?”

  Nick’s eyes widened as he opened his mouth to protest. 

  “Really? Are you sure?”

  “Why not?” You say, hiding your disappointment that she actually agreed, but also knowing that she needed a friend right now. “Come over in a few.”

  “Okay! See you soon,”

  You hang up and help Nick take out the food, setting it up on the counter. The whole time, you felt his eyes on you, no doubt ticked off at the intrusion of your date night. “What?” You ask and he just shakes his head. “Beth and John had another fight and she doesn’t want to be alone right now.”

  “You shouldn’t let Beth walk all over you,” he said casually, grabbing the plates. You were caught off guard at what he said, his nonchalant tone not being what you expected. 

  “She doesn’t walk all over me,” you tried to defend Beth and yourself, but who were you trying to kid? Nick knew you better than you knew yourself. 

  “She does, baby,” he replied. “And you let her.”

  You shake your head. “She’ll only stay for a bit, then I’ll send her on her way,” you reach over and wrap your arms around his middle, kissing his shoulder through the material of his t-shirt. “After that, it’s just you and me.”

  Well that was a lie. Beth stayed the night and slept on your couch, successfully ruining Nick’s night with you and proving his point of her walking all over you. You tried to get her to go home but she whined and said she didn’t want to be alone, thus resulting in her spending the rest of the night by your side, making Nick sit across the room from you. 

  It was frustrating, for you and Nick, but what could you do? She was your best friend and she needed you.

  You’d have the rest of your life to have date nights with Nick, anyway. 

-

July 2nd, 1985

4:56 PM

An old, sappy romance movie played on the TV as you wrapped the blanket around your body tighter, leaving no room for any air to touch below your shoulders. 

  You knew you should get up and be productive, but you wallowed in self pity instead. 

  Fuck, you missed him. 

  Why hadn’t you fought harder to get him to stay? Why did you push him away in the first place? Why were you such an idiot sometimes?

  You could only continue to lie on the couch for a few more minutes before you had to go to the hospital, and that thought alone filled you with dread. You quickly realised that Nick really was one of the few beacons of light in your life. He’d been out of your life for less than two weeks and you felt as though you lost a part of yourself. 

  How tragic that story turned out to be.

  A few more minutes pass before you finally get up and change into dark blue scrubs, tying your hair into a low bun as you look for your keys. 

  Three knocks were heard against your door before it opened and in walked Beth.

  You hadn’t talked to her much since she called you at work, something you were still ticked off about. “Hi, Y/n/n,” she said as she made herself comfortable on the couch. “So, John and I had another fight. Can you believe it? Do you want to come get drunk with me at Marley’s?”

  You stopped looking for your keys to glare at her, gesturing to your current attire. “Does it look like I can do that right now?” You muttered, grabbing your bag and slinging the strap over your shoulder. 

  “Jesus,” Beth held her hands up in defense. “What’s wrong with you?”

  A shaky sigh leaves your lips as you close your eyes. “Nick and I broke up,” you hadn’t told her yet and the poorly hidden smirk on her face was the exact reason why.

  “Awh, honey, I’m so sorry-”

  “Don’t bother, okay?” you cut her off, spotting your keys on the kitchen chair. “I know you hated him and were just waiting for the day he broke my heart. Well, that day was a week and a half ago, and it was my own fault.”

  You walk over to the door and swing it open, not bothering to shut it behind you as you knew Beth would follow you. “Oh, don’t say that,” she said, following you out into the hall. “You weren’t meant to be. That’s not your fault.”

  You stopped walking and turned to face her. “I actually think we were, but I fucked up and pushed him away,” you muttered. “All thanks to you.”

  She grabbed your arm as you turned away. “Excuse me?” She roughly let go of you, crossing her arms over her chest. “How is any of that because of me?”

  You rolled your eyes. “Come on, Beth. You had it out for him from the second you saw him,” you say and this time Beth rolls her eyes. “You never gave him a chance! You were constantly in my ear, telling me to break up with him every four minutes.”

  “Please,” she scoffed. “It’s not my fault your taste in men sucks. He was the one who was never truthful. He was manipulating you the entire time! I can’t believe I thought you were smart enough to realise that.”

  That made any and all words die in your throat. So this is what she thinks of you? She thinks you’re stupid and clueless. 

  This was the last time you let her walk over you. Fuck, you should’ve listened to Nick. “You’re right, Beth,” you start. “I’m stupid and that’s why I got into college while you sit at home all day and get drunk. I’m stupid and that’s why I got offered a full time job at the hospital after I finish school. And I am so stupid for not realising soon enough how stuck up and opinionated you are.”

  Beth opens her mouth in shock, but no words come out, and steps away from you as if your words physically hurt her.

  “But the thing I was most stupid for was letting go of a great boyfriend and an even better guy,” you finish and turn around, walking down the stairs and ending the conversation there. 

  Beth watches you go, anger, guilt and sadness running through her body. 

  Finally, you were beginning to stand up for yourself. Finally you told Beth that she doesn’t have a say on everything in your life. Finally you were relieved of the pressure that came with being her best friend.

  Was this repairable? You didn’t know. But at the moment, you didn’t care. It was time you stopped letting people walk all over you.

-

July 4th, 1985

6:43 PM

The cemetery was surprisingly peaceful in the evening. This is where the dead go to rest, after all. 

  You walk through the seemingly endless rows of headstones until you find his, the stone marked red with graffiti. 

  Thomas Slater. 

  March 17th, 1960 - July 19th, 1978

  Son. Brother. Friend. 

  You reach out and run your fingers over the word brother before putting your palm flat against the stone, closing your eyes for a few seconds. 

  He’s probably so disappointed in you. It had been months since you last visited him, and to be honest, you were just as disappointed in yourself. 

  You hold a single tulip in your free hand, admiring the pretty flower as you think over your words. What do you say to someone who might not even be listening? 

  With a heavy sigh, you place the tulip onto the dirt beneath you, knowing that it would soon, too, be among the dead. “I don’t know if you can hear me,” you start, looking over the headstone. “Tommy…..things are bad again.”

  The last time you visited your brother was back in April, when you first started falling behind in class. You realised that you only ever came to talk to him when something bad was happening or was going to happen. Like now, with both your schooling and now Beth. It was a habit you needed to change. 

  “I know it’s been a while since I last came to visit you. I wish I had an excuse, but I don’t,” you shakily sigh, reaching up to quickly wipe away the few tears that had fallen. “I feel like I’m failing. I feel like I’m letting everyone down. Mom, dad, you. You were always so proud of your little sister.” 

  Your hand held onto the necklace that he had given you days before he left for camp, knowing that he’d miss your actual birthday. The last thing he had ever given you.  

  “I sometimes forget that I’m older than you now. But I’ll always be your little sister. Always,” you don’t bother to wipe away the tears at this point. The cemetery was abandoned, leaving you alone with hundreds of dead people, so no one (alive) would see you cry. It was oddly comforting. “My birthday is in a few days. I’ll be twenty one….you’d been twenty five.”

  You reach over and attempt to wipe away the red spray paint, hardly being successful. 

  “I’m gonna make things right. I’m gonna do better,” you wipe the red paint onto your jeans. “I want you to still be proud of me.”

  After a failed attempt at wiping away the paint, you read the simple word that hurt your heart more than anything. 

  Monster.

  “You weren’t a monster, Tommy. You were the best brother anyone could ever have, and I was lucky to have had you in my life. I’d do anything to have you here again,” your voice broke at the end, and you could only imagine how broken you looked in general. 

  You read the headstone once more, your eyes lingering on the date of his death. 

  “I miss you, Tommy. I love you,” you stand up, brushing the dirt off from your knees. You step forward and rest your hand on the top of the grave. “I’ll visit again soon, I promise.”

  With that, you turn around and walk away, not being able to bring yourself to glance back as you exit the cemetery. 

[spaghettificationandpretzels]

A Voice Through the Nothingness Part 12

I'm sorry this took me so long, life has been crazy and I haven't had the brain space for this. Please remember to comment, it really helps me.

Series Masterlist

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11

Contains: This is still a slow burn, fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, descriptions of past domestic violence, protective Billy.

4.0K words

Comment if you want to be tagged or follow #a voice through the nothingness.

“The real world is where the monsters are.”― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief.

Hazel flattened her skirt again and nervously chewed her lower lip. The man at the front desk smiled when he saw her and stood up."Hello Ma'am, I'm Gunner, I'm assuming your Hazel?"

She nodded, "I am, you're here late, I thought you guys finished at five thirty?"

He shook his head. "We have people here at night, I'm usually somewhere else but Billy wanted me to wait here to take you to his loft."

She smiled. "That was nice of him, are you too friends?"

"Yes Ma'am." He stood up and gestured toward a set of doors, "When you're done for the night, Billy will buzz me and I'll take you back to your car."

She shook her head as she followed him through the courtyard. "Thank you Gunner but I'm sure I can find my own way back."

He sighed. "Alright, Billy just wants you to be safe."

She smiled. "I know, thank you for getting me here, and please, call me Hazel."

He swiped his card on the elevator and smiled. "Sure Hazel, this will take you right up to Billy's loft. I'll be back to take you to your car when you're ready to go home."

She chuckled. "I see there's no dissuading you. Next time I come, I'll bring you some cookies to say thank you."

"I'd love that Hazel." He walked away and the elevator doors closed. After a short trip, the doors reopened, and Billy's loft greeted Hazel with all its black furniture and exposed concrete walls.

He was in the kitchen fussing over a pot, his suit swapped for henley, a simple pair of jeans and a t-towel thrown over his shoulder. He looked up from the stove with a smile and walked over with his arms open. Hazel wrapped her arms around his body and relaxed his embrace as Billy's warmth surrounded her.

He was so happy to see her. "Did you get up here alright?"

She nodded. "I did, Gunner was a big help."

They parted and She took a deep breath. "Whatever you're cooking smells amazing."

He smiled. "Roast duck breast with polenta and Morell mushrooms and a garden salad, dessert is a surprise. I wanted to go all out like you did but I didn't want to do too much and screw it up."

She grinned. "What are you talking about, that sounds amazing. Do you need any help?"

He shook his head and walked her to the kitchen counter. "It will be done in half an hour. I would have had a drink ready for you but you're early."

He pulled out a chair, and she sat down with a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry, I wanted to be punctual but I went a bit too far."

"It doesn't worry me." He headed to the fridge and pulled out a judge, "Since I know how much you like strawberries I thought we could continue with our fresh juice trend?"

She nodded, "Yes please." He poured the pink liquid into a glass and placed it in from of her, "How's work been?"

"Since I saw you two days ago and talked to you yesterday? Work's been great. Thank you for sending over that modified questionnaire, you didn't have to do it so soon." He figured she did it to keep herself busy, and judging by how tired she looked, she still wasn't getting much sleep.

She shook her head, "It's alright. Was it helpful?"

Billy nodded and returned to the stove, "Hell yeah, we're going to hand them out on Monday. What about you, anything crazy happen yesterday?"

"No, it was an easy day on the ward. I got some good news, though," He raised his eyebrows, "I'm doing so well in the triage course that they think I'll be done a month sooner."

"That's amazing Hazel. I looked into that course, it's very hard to get into." He knew she was far smarter than she led on, he just wondered why she was so reserved about it.

She was grateful he was looking elsewhere because she was sure the shyness would be all over her face. "I just study hard, there's no great skill about it."

He huffed, "You should be proud of yourself, studying hard or not, they don't accept many people."

There was a pause before she responded. "I'll be happy when it's done and I can help more people." He felt a tang in his heart at her tone, he knew it well, she didn't think she was good enough.

He turned enough to meet her eye, "Well I'm proud of you." She smiled at him and he turned back to the pot and with a few more stirs, it was done. "Dinner will be ready in a minute if you want to wash your hands."

She was up and heading towards the sink. "Do you need help setting the table?"

He shook his head, "Nope, take your drink and get comfortable, I'll be there with the food in before you know it." Sure enough, the moment she was settled, he came over with two plates in his hand. He placed one in front of her before sitting in front of his own. "Please, dig in."

The duck skin cracked like glass and the meat cut like butter. She was barely able to hold back the moan as she took a bite, the buttery polenta and the earthy mushrooms complementing the duck perfectly. "This is so good."

He smiled. "Thank you, it's not as good as yours though."

She shook her head. "No, this is great. You're a very good cook, I can't wait to see what you made for…"

BANG

She jumped out of her skin while he barely flinched. "What was that?"

He could see the panic on her face. "It was just a car backfiring, it happens all the time here."

She placed a hand on her chest to slow her racing heart. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to overreact."

He reached out and grabbed her hand. "You didn't, don't worry."

She sighed. "I'm sorry, I feel like I've ruined the night."

He ran his thumb over the back of her hand and shook his head. "No, you didn't. I don't blame you for being on edge, you have nothing to be sorry for."

"Thank you." She took a deep breath, "Good work on the salad, by the way, it's lovely."

He smiled. "Good, I think if I failed at a salad, I should never be allowed in the kitchen again."

She chuckled. "I would have to agree with you on that one."

He looked over her face, underneath the weight of her worry, there was such affection in her eyes. "I made an apple pie for dessert, I know I said it was a surprise but I can't wait."

Hazel smiled. "I love apple pie."

The night rushed by and he found himself using all his self control not to ask her to stay a little while longer. It's not like she had to take the subway, he could drive her home but she would have insisted and he didn't want her taking the subway late at night.

She leaned against the wall next to the elevator with a slice of pie in a box. "Thank you so much for tonight, it's been so long since someone other than Lizzy has cooked for me."

He smiled, "You're a delight to cook for, I've never had someone complement my food so much."

****

Hazel was surprised at how ready she was as the IT man set up the courtroom feed. Tammy, the head of her department, stood there with a soft smile on her face and placed her hand on Hazel's shoulder. "If you want to go home after this you can, we all understand."

Lizzy nodded. "I'll take you too, we can eat some ice cream and binge watch animal planet."

Hazel shook her head. "No, this man isn't going to take another second away from me. I can do this."

Tammy smiled. "Yes, you can."

Billy, Frank, Karen and Curt arrived soon after in their best attire, Billy didn't even have a hair out of place.

Tammy shot Hazel one last smile. "I'm over in the next room. We're here for you no matter what happens."

She smiled. "Thank you." She sat at the table with everyone next to her and waited for the feed to light up, her heart rate rising with every passing second. Billy's hand landed on hers and rubbed soothingly when her legs started to bob and before she knew it, the courtroom was filling the screen.

She took a deep breath as the board read the proceedings and then it was Hazel's turn to talk. "Theodore Parker once said 'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.' I stopped believing that a long time ago. Mr Cambell should have been gone to prison than a lot longer than he got but seven to nine and I tried to put him out of my mind, I hoped that he would be a different person when he came out."

She took another deep breath and stilled her shaking hands. "He has not been in prison long enough to change and we all know he hasn't done any programs. We all know why he's coming up for parole, he's turned on someone. I just wished someone stopped to ask me what I wanted, and if the man who tried to kill me should even be given the chance to get out so early."

Billy could hear the rage coming from her voice. "I'm asking you to make the right choice and say no today, I'm asking you to acknowledge that something horrible was done to me and that I deserve justice."

Resolve came over her face as she met eyes with each member. "Please don't let his one self serving deed undo him trying to kill me. Thank you for your time."

She muted the mic and sat back down, and Billy's hand returned to hers. "You did really well."

She shook her head. "You saw the looks on their faces, he's giving them a big fish, they're not going to listen to me."

Karen cast a glance at Frank who nodded. "I have an idea if you're up for it?" She nodded. "There's no way they can legally let him out, I asked Mat. He turned state's evidence to the point to negate such a serious charge he should end up in witsec. If he gets out, do you want me to do some digging? The Bulletin would love a story about something like this."

"Yes, I would. If he gets out, people need to know so he doesn't get away with it." She couldn't think of anything better, being marked as a rat would ruin his life more than any conviction.

"Done." She was comforted by Karen's surety, somehow she knew that Karen would get the real story out there.

The feed lit up soon after and everyone turned their attention back to the screen. "Miss Moreau, we will be deliberating for quite a while. You should go back to work."

She sighed. "Thank you."

The feed went black and she took a deep breath. "I'm going back to work. There's is no point in worrying about what might or might not happen and the ER needs me."

She expected pushback from at least one person but she never got it, and Billy stood up with a smile. "Do you and Lizzy wanna come over and watch the fight with us tonight?"

Lizzy smiled. "Curt already invited me, I said yes."

Hazel smiled. "I would love to come."

Frank grinned. "That settles it then. We'll see you ladies tonight."

****

Hazel felt a weight lift off her chest as she got into Billy's car at the end of her day. "He's not out yet, you don't need to fuss."

He shook his head. "I'm not fussing. You've had a long day, you shouldn't have to take the subway."

She sighed and relaxed into the seat, "Thank you."

He noticed how she chewed on her lip as the ride went on. "Has someone called yet?"

She shook her head. "No, I would have told every…" Right on time, her phone rang. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear, or call as it were."

She put the phone on speaker without thinking and she knew by the DA's sigh what his next words were going to be. "I'm sorry Hazel, he's out. He's not allowed out of his state and he has to wear an electronic bracelet so he won't be coming into New York."

"Why?" She didn't mean to sound so upset.

"He turned on someone." There was a pause and the DA took a breath, "He turned on the AB, the danger he was in and how much he gave was the reason they let him out."

Billy huffed. "The fucking Aryan Brotherhood, just when I thought he couldn't get any worse. We'll all know he wouldn't have info if he wasn't up their asses in the first place."

"You must be Willam." The DA sighed, "I can assure both of you that Mr Cambell will not cause you any trouble and if he does, he will go back inside for breaking a restraining order that was filed on your behalf when he was paroled. If he contacts you in any way, please let us know."

She nodded. "Sure, thanks anyway." She hung up without letting him get in another word.

"You good?" He knew she wasn't but it didn't hurt to ask, he wasn't going to push her.

She shook her head. "I'm upset but if he cuts that bracelet off, I'll have enough warning to do what I need to do.

He smiled softly. "You're really brave, you know that?"

She shrugged, "I don't feel brave right now."

He could hear the shake in her voice. "That makes you even braver." He took one hand off the wheel and linked his fingers with hers, "I'll stay with you until you're ready to come to my place. I want to feed Barry again anyway."

She nodded. "That would be nice, thank you."

****

Billy smiled as Barry munched in the clams. "They're making my tank now, I can't wait until I can put all the plants in. I've had a lot of fun sketching the layout."

Hazel shook her head. "I can't believe you're a fish person."

He tilted his head. "Really, what kind of person do you think I am."

"Cats, I feel like you and a cat would get along great." She paused like she was shaking off more emotions. "I love cats, but I can't fit one in here. I figure I'll get one when I finally get a home of my own."

"You know, I think you might be right." He huffed to himself, "I'm gonna do some research."

"I knew it." She sighed. "Just let me hop in the shower and change into something that I can lounge around in a. and then we'll go. I've got some snacks in the freezer, should I bring them?"

He nodded. "Hell yeah, we always get pizza but I'm not turning down free food, especially if it's yours."

"Ok." She took a deep breath. "Tell me everything is going to be ok."

He closed the gap between them and grabbed her hand. "Everything is going to be fine, I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

****

"These pre shows are so full of bullshit, why do they need to puff their chests out so much."

Hazel sighed. "Because Lizzy, they need to hype up the crowd. It's why they're so mean to each other during press too."

Billy chuckled. "We're about to get a contact with a fighter, you might even see us at the next game."

Lizzy glared at him. "So we're not invited?"

"Don't listen to him, Billy's just being an ass." Frank said it with all the affection in the world.

Billy huffed. "Of course you guys are invited if they give us tickets."

Hazel stretched out and her thigh ended up getting inadvertently pushed against Billy's but he made no room to move away. Curt glanced over briefly from his shared loveseat with Lizzy but didn't say anything, rather, he nodded towards Frank, who slung his arm over Karen's shoulder to pull her close.

It seemed Billy and Hazel enjoyed the contact because Billy mirrored Frank's action and threw his arm over the back of the couch. "Who do you think will win tonight?"

Hazel shrugged. "Montana. Baker is too slow for his hands and he's ground and pound is shit."

"Yeah Bill, I got to agree, Baker isn't going to get far." Hazel appreciated Frank's support.

Billy grumbled. "Montana is a heel, but yeah, he's going to win."

The TV started to flash and the lights in Billy's loft went from dimmed to totally off. "Wow, and I thought to TV coming out of the wall was cool."

Lizzy chuckled. "You are so easy to impress Hazelnut."

"Am not." She took a piece of popcorn and lobbed it at Lizzy's head. "It is cool."

Lizzy shook her head. "Real mature, throwing food in someone else's home."

Billy smiled. "Nah, plenty of popcorn gets thrown around here, you should see Frank when he watches baseball."

Curt huffed. "Can you all shut up. It's starting."

Hazel pressed her lips together to stop herself from smiling. "Sorry Curt."

Everyone turned their attention back to the TV as the fighters came out and after their introductions and the ref shouting the rules, the flight started. It wasn't over as quick as everyone thought it would be and as it went on, Hazel drew closer to Billy until they were cuddling while fists hit faces.

Hazel tapped Billy's chest excitedly as the fight neared its third round. "Wow, it looks like Baker might win."

Billy fought the urge to peck her temple. "I think you might be right."

Sure enough, just as the fight entered its third round, Baker scored a knockout and the crowd went wild. "Good for him, you can tell he worked hard to get there."

Billy always admired how Hazel always acknowledged someone's hard work. "We'll see who he fights next, after this it's anyone's guess."

Frank sighed a slapped his legs. "Well ladies and gents, it's pretty late so Karen and I are going to head home."

Lizzy rolled her shoulders with a groan, "I should do the same." She turned to Curt. "You wanna come with and stay the night?"

Curt smiled. "You bet I do."

An awkward silence filled the space as everyone started to get ready to go and Billy took a deep breath before addressing Hazel. "Maybe you should stay the night, with everything that happened today and all. I have a guest room."

"Yeah, alright." Billy was shocked she didn't give him more pushback. "It will be good to know someone is just around the corner."

He smiled. "I'll show you where you gotta go."

No one said anything as everyone said their goodbyes but Lizzy made sure to thank Billy for his kindness as he wished her well at the door.

****

Hazel settled into bed wearing one of Billy's old PT shirts that he had so kindly lent to her. She looked around the guest room, it was almost as big as her whole apartment and it wasn't lost on her how much safer she felt as she rested back on the pillows. 

Knock knock

"Come in."

He popped his head through the door and walked a few steps into the room. "I'm right next door so wake me up if you need anything." 

She nodded. "Thank you Billy." 

"You think you'll be able to get any sleep?" He knew the answer already. 

She sighed. "I'm not sure but this mattress is very comfortable so we'll see."

His fingers itched to get closer. "I hope you get some rest but like I said, if you can't I'm right next door." 

She smiled. "Thanks Billy. Goodnight, sleep well." 

"Goodnight Hazel." 

****

It was strange, Hazel was wide awake but all she wanted to do was fall into the sleep that was scratching at her brain. There was no dripping tap, no fights outside her window, just a soft, soothing sound of the wind rustling the trees in the courtyard outside her window.

There was no light coming from under her door, no matter how hard she strained her eyes, she couldn't see anything which didn't help because she had no reason to go and see if Billy was still awake so she could have company in her insomnia.

She flipped over again and huffed, she didn't know how she could be so tired and so awake at the same time, and then she heard it, a soft whimper coming under her door. She listened and it came again and before she could stop herself, she was out of bed and rushing towards Billy's room.

She pushed open the door softly and peered in as the nightlight in the hall flicked on and drifted into Billy's room. He was fast asleep but his face was fixed into a grimace.

Hazel waited there watching him, unsure if she should wake him but he let out something that sounded more like a scream and she made her choice. She walked over to him, sat at the end of the bed and placed a hand on his calf before saying his name softly until his eyes shot open and his chest heaved.

"Billy, you're alright, you were having a nightmare." His eyes locked on her and he relaxed. "You're ok."

"Thank you. I'm sorry if I woke you." He sounded so regretful.

She shook her head, "No, I couldn't sleep anyway."

"Shit, I'm sorry. You wanna come and sit with me for a bit?" He knew he shouldn't be asking but he couldn't help himself.

"Alright, I think we could both use it." She climbed into bed next to him and pulled the covers over her legs, "What were you dreaming about?"

He swallowed. "Getting hurt. It wasn't a bomb this time. I swear sometimes the dreams are worse than the real thing."

She reached out and placed her hand on top of his. "You wanna tell me more about it?"

He blinked and stared into space for a moment before responding. "I can't remember it. It was there one minute and now it's gone." He sighed, "Dr C said that was normal."

She nodded, "Yeah, it is."

"My face hurts." He hadn't meant to say it but she responded anyway and he felt her hand brush the scar on his cheek.

"It's just phantom pain." The warmth of her hand chased away the strings of agony and he felt his eyes grow heavy.

"Thank you." His tired brain couldn't fight the urge to nuzzle into her palm and she smiled as the tension left his body.

She took a deep breath as a wave of exhaustion hit her. "We're both really tired, how about I spend the rest of the night here?"

He forced his eyes open and looked over her face in the barely there light from the hallway, there was no hesitation on her face. "Ok."

He got up and closed the door before hopping back in bed and fluffing the pillow behind her. "Thank you."

He smiled. "It's alright. Are you sure about this?"

She nodded. "Positive. The way I see it, we're friends and we're close, this doesn't have to mean anything more than that unless we want it to."

"Yeah, yeah I think that sounds about right." She went down first, lying on her side facing him as he did the same. "Is this alright?"

She reached out and took his hand. "This is great. Goodnight, again."

He chuckled softly as sleep came over him. "Goodnight again Hazel."

Part 13