#just gotta keep trucking on ig

[trippygalaxy]

I was curious, you mentioned a deadname. Are you trans? (You totally don’t have to answer this if it’s too personal.)

🫶💕

Okay, this topic might be controversial??

I was assigned female at birth but i have since came out as a demigirl with basically means “someone who was assigned female at birth but does not fully identify with being a woman, socially or mentally.” (But those who werent assigned female at birth can also identify as a demigirl, the first bit just doesn’t apply)

So i use both she/her and they/them pronouns! (I prefer they/them but i most use she/her in public spaces for…safety reasons)

My deadname was overly feminine for me and I just started to hate it, i also connected it with bad memories so I just decided to change it!

ANYWAYS! Demigirls and demiboys are kinda riding the line of being in the trans umbrella if that makes sense? Thankfully i haven’t had any negative experiences, but i have heard of events where people from the trans and cis communities bash both demi girls and boys for their identities…sooo yeah!

[storee-stories]

Road Trip to Nowhere

This is a spiel about my journey through school as a gifted kid turned ‘failure’.

For context, in The Land Down Under (Australia), you need to rack up hours of logged driving to get off your learner’s permit where a person with a full licence must accompany you every time you drive. Whenever I mention “hours”, I mean getting logged time to be able to get to do the driving test!

TW: mentions of car crashes, near misses, etc. Nothing graphic (although there’s one part that was a punch in the face to reread after forgetting about this for 2 years lol)

Unedited, lazy, old work… idk just read it. If it makes sense it makes sense ig whatever

I feel like I’m on a road trip.

Driving through life, changing speeds, turning corners

People I’ve met along the way in the back seats, screaming, laughing, conversing

Enjoying themselves while I keep my eyes on the road

I feel like I’m on a road trip

Making sure everyone in the back seats stay happy and content while I drive

Never taking my eyes off of what’s far in front of me

Looking for all the things my parents taught me when I was learning

“Keep your eyes on the peripherals, just in case something happens”

“Don’t worry, you’re going to have an accident eventually. It won’t be too bad, I’m sure”

“Keep your speed up, you’re doing so well, keep going!”

“Just keep going, we’re almost there, then we’ll all be happy, and you will too!”

I feel like I’m on a road trip

Where every shoulder has glass, providing only a small path that I can go

Where every pothole or piece of debris feels like the end of the world for the car and the people in the back

Where every passing car seems to be heading in the right direction, not my direction

I feel like I’m on a road trip

With my eyes, black dabbed beneath them, slowly starting to close, exhaustion breaking in

“Are you ok?”

“They’re fine! We’re almost there, right? How much further?”

“Only a few more kilometers,” my parents say, “then we turn left for the next leg. You’ll make it, right?”

“Um, I’m not sure… I’m getting tired-”

“But that’s such a large portion of hours wasted! You’ll be fine, you just gotta keep going. We believe in you, you haven’t struggled before!”

The kilometers drag on. Most people have gotten off at different places, now only certain people remain. Usually adults.

I keep pushing through, keeping every yawn, every anxious tear, down as to not make my parents upset.

I’m supposed to be able to get through it, right? They didn’t care when I said I was tired last time, why would they now?

With a white-knuckled grip, and wide eyes, I forced myself to keep driving

I feel like I’m on a road trip

That I’ve been driving on for too long,

My attention beginning to slip, and periods of time go unnoticed and irrecoverable to my mind

I stopped remembering how long I had been driving, like I had logged out

I liked logging out, it made it easier to bear the strain and exhaustion I was carrying

The problem came when I logged back on

“What are you doing, get back in your lane!” My mother screamed

I swerved to avoid a massive truck that narrowly missed us. When had I gone over the line?

“What was that? You can’t let that happen again, you nearly got us hurt, I’m so scared!”

“Sorry…”

“Sorry isn’t good enough, you say it all the time. Just don’t do it again. You usually never do stuff like that, get it together!” My father said

I feel like I’m on a road trip

Seemingly never ending, to get to one destination, and then inevitably come back

It’s really no wonder I feel so tired, and why I’m struggling. Avoiding those potholes and that debris on the road used all my energy in the first part of the journey, and because I’ve had no rest, I’ve lost focus and become more complacent.

But because my parents are constantly hovering over me, expecting me to do my best all the time, and not suspecting something else is causing these lapses, I’m not willing to admit something is wrong and I need to stop.

Because they won’t approve.

I feel like I’m on a road trip

Where all the trees and flowers fly swiftly past

Where the black bitumen stretches for miles

Where my eyes struggle to stay focussed in the dark night

A road trip where I’ve been driving for too long

Ignoring the “Take a Break” signs posted on the sides of the road

Where I’m slowly losing control

Where I’m slowly losing consciousness

“I was on a road trip,” I say, tears constricting my throat.

“And I think I fell asleep. I woke up to the sound of fire crackling and someone screaming for me to get out…”

“Why didn’t you take a break from driving? A learner should know their limits.”

“I wasn’t allowed to.”

“Who said you weren’t allowed to?”

“…my parents.”

“So you didn’t stop to take a much needed rest, just because your parents said you didn’t need to?”

“…yes.” It sounds stupid. So stupid. From an outside perspective, it looks ridiculous. Allowing your parents to put your life and their life on the line for some hours of driving?

“Kid, do you know who was in the other car?”

“Huh?”

“The other car,” said the man, “the one over there?”

He pointed to a wrecked suv, on it’s side, fluids, glass and metal strewn everywhere. Pieces that had been cut laid next to it.

“No…”

“There was a family of 4 in there. A child, a teenager, and two parents.”

I just stared. It didn’t seem real.

“Only 2 survived, a child and the father.”

I just stood there. No tears, no overwhelming fear… I feel tired.

“The child, the teen, and the mother. You know them, correct?”

I feel tired. “Yes.”

“Well, now you don’t”

I turned to him, caught off guard. He had already left, though.

He was walking away, towards the countless lights and sirens bouncing around the road.

I feel like I’m on a road trip

Gone horribly wrong

I looked around.

I feel like I should be searching for something, something important

Nothing comes to mind immediately.

“I wonder how Banjo is right now.”

I don’t know why my mind went to the golden scruff of our dog

Rather than my mother

Or my father

Or my friends

Or the other family

But it did

“He probably misses us.”

He doesn’t know any better

I think that’s why

Why my brain went to him rather than the people I hurt

Because, unlike the people around me

Banjo was the only one that hadn’t hurt someone

He’s the only soul that held absolutely no hate

He had done nothing in his short life to make anyone upset

Happiness following the clinking of his collar and tag

Unlike the people of the other car

And my car

My car had people who had uttered words that forever dented and scratched someone’s soul

Most of those words were towards me

And if not me, people around me

People, who I used my torn skin to stretch, and protect them with

I had even protected them from each other, in some cases

My car was filled with so much hate

Hate and ill will towards anyone

Of course I could assume the other car had hurt carried inside it, too

I knew them, after all

And, while it’s cruel, maybe the crash wasn’t too bad for them after all

I feel like I was on a road trip

Steered by my parents to result in failure

Which I was blamed for

Because I was naive enough,

as a child with adult responsibilities,

To listen to them and not force my boundaries

“I was on a road trip”

I reiterate to the hundredth person

“I was travelling, I fell asleep, we crashed.

“I understand that it was ridiculous of me to continue driving while tired but you have to understand-“

“We understand enough” they say

Their eyes glistened with hatred pointed at me

And sadness pointed within

“We’ll let you get some rest, which you obviously need, and we’ll continue tomorrow”

They treat me like a child

Obviously guilty for something silly

Except that silly thing

Ruined lives

And somehow

It’s my fault

For the failure of my guides

[spookyserenades]

okayyyyyyyy I loooove the chapter (as usual) and I donno where to start or focus @ all asdfghjkl I mean Joon's birthdayy? Jimin's birthdayy? the whole fiasco in the brewery? the old hag being all bark no bite? the tournaments? sweet tae's handy work? and then halloween hit us like a truck and boom gotta say I didn't see that coming I thought they were done with being toddlers (?) different theories r already runnin wild in my mind abt that.. well the most plausible one is I have a feeling they fought about the u no paranormal stuff cuz that's what our joonie & jk bonded over and share a common interest in and our foxy had always been wary abt stuff like that not taking it seriously. And moving on (i hv so much 2 say asdfghjk) for a second I was abt 2 accuse u of being biased for our gothic style elk cuz his birthday got more exposure but then again can't say anything cuz a video camera didn't cost our girlie a fortune I'm ugly crying rgt now VESTAA omg I love horses and I'm soo looking forward to scenes with her and yayyyyyyy finallyyy fucking finallyyy our big bad wolf became sweet ( but now I kinda hv doubts aftr the cliffhanger lol) AND "he won, and the first thing he did was look for her"!!!!!!!!!! YOU DID NOT SAYY THAT OH MY GOD ( insert high pitched squealing) I am down bad for yoongi rgt now and I really love how all their relationships are slowly moving forward you need to win the trophy for best writer in the romantic/horror genre ASAP. Jinnie is a sweetheart and I'm happy his friend is fine and I'm so glad Tae is coming around again. The three note whistle of our foxy seems to hold some significance I'm intrigued but call me petty cuz I'm not gonna dwell on it, Foxy been getting on my bad side these days for some reason. but can't stay mad at Al cuz that's friendship goals right there Y/n has amazing friends. and the tarot interpretations were sooo cooool too. In conclusion lemme jst say the chapter gave me whiplash in the best possible way my love for Trouvaille is ever growing ig luv ya tc I'm already counting days for the nxt 🖤

fhdjakfsh YAY I'M SO HAPPY YOU LOVED IT!!!! There was so much going on in this chapter, and lots to discuss eeee.... Let's start! 🤭

The birthdays... I just love writing them! I can't wait to tackle the other guy's birthdays in the future, too-- (next up is Seokjinnie!!) And the brewery scene was a blast too. I like too add a little bit of tension between Alice, Hoseok, and Y/N, and Seokjin was so excited to eat at a restaurant and try new foods... then you have jealous Tae! And you're right, turns out that old hag is no match for Y/N, Jeongguk, and Namjoon when they join forces. (Luckily for them!)

Halloween... I might write a bonus scene for that closer to when the holiday is upon us! Like them decorating, prepping, more Samhain rituals. That could be fun, no? But the new fight that has been stirred up... they all need to figure out how to argue without it escalating. I suppose with so many male hybrids in the house, conflict is bound to happen, but they could certainly handle it better. I think you're onto something, with Hoseok's skeptical attitude towards the paranormal, he might have joked about something that offended Jeongguk, and Namjoon just happened to back him up... (Hoseok's still a little wary of Namjoon, too, keep in mind).

HEHE with the birthdays; Jeongguk's was quite a bit lengthier and more fleshed out. Since it was the first one to happen in the story, I wanted to demonstrate how Y/N is willing to plan these special days for her boys. While Namjoon and Jimin's birthday scenes are cut shorter, they also got special gifts that suited their personalities (also, if each of their party scenes were as long as Jeongguk's, I feared that they'd become a bit redundant, especially because those three's birthdays are so close).

Horses are so beautiful! I'm so happy that Y/N could reunite Jimin with Vista. Soon, he'll have even more horses to care for once they open up the stable for boarding, so that's something for you to look forward to! Also so heartwarming that Joon is beginning to trust and care for Y/N. As for Yoongi, he's just sooooo.... 🥵 he just wanted Y/N to celebrate his win with him (romantic!!!) Sweet Jin UGH I just wanna snuggle him, he really feels so close to Y/N. Next update, we'll hear more about his friend, Hannah. And thank goodness Tae is recovering from The Incident. 😩

I do get the Hoseok whistle question here and there! He's based off of Mr. Fox in Fantastic Mr. Fox. The whistle tone comes from the movie, you can hear an example of it HERE! Y/N does have some pretty solid friends, and I'm happy you like them too... if Alice knew about Y/N's feelings (she hasn't even decided them for herself, however) she wouldn't openly flirt with Hoseok. The Tarot interpretations were also super fun to research. The deck used in the story is The Wildwood Tarot. It exists IRL, if you're curious!

You're so sweet, and so kind-- thank you for such a wonderful compliment on my writing. I love sharing it with you all! I loved hearing all of your feedback, as well, thank you so much for sending it in. Love to you, and hope to talk to you during the next update! 💜🥰💜🥰💜🥰💜🥰💜

[butgilinsky]

hold this // rc

warning; language, underage drinking, violence, ig it talks about sex? it says pussy like once i think, protective/soft rafe(((: 

summary; a touron hits on the wrong girl at the boneyard one night

word count; 1.6k+

here i go with the ‘mamas’ again. i’m sorry it just sends me

rafe used to swear up, down and backwards that he wasn’t a jealous person. he always said he never had a reason to be jealous. he was the kook prince, he got just about everything he wanted in life. and his girlfriend was no different. 

y/n had seen something in rafe that nobody else took the time to see. it was one of the things he adored about her, and one reason he seemed to freak out every time there was reason for him to believe his relationship was put in jeopardy. 

though, y/n wanted to be with rafe. she wanted rafe as much as rafe wanted her, and that’s one of the reasons the two worked so well together. rafe cameron was no angel, and y/n made it a point to tell him that every time he messed up, though he never seemed to mess up with her. 

everyone on the island knew that y/n was off limits. after the incident at kelce’s house, when patrick mccarthy put his hand a little too low on y/n’s back and rafe had broken his nose, nobody made a pass at the girl. some people were too scared to even talk to her, afraid that rafe would misread the situation. 

but that was a year ago. and no matter how common knowledge their relationship was to every kook and pogue on the island, the information was unknown to tourons. 

she’d seen the boy’s gaze on her all night long, though she tried to ignore it. it made her slightly uncomfortable, her every move under somebody’s eyes, but telling rafe meant starting a scene at the boneyard, and that wasn’t something she wanted to deal with right now. 

for a while she thought he might just keep his distance all night, but that proved to be a wrong assumption when she found herself at the keg, exchanging a few words with john b when the touron popped up over her shoulder. 

“hey gorgeous.” she swallowed the groan that bubbled in her throat and took a large gulp of her beer. 

john b almost laughed at the guy’s oblivion. he wasn’t going to be the one to tell him to back off though, not wanting to insert himself in any situation that was between rafe and one of y/n’s many admirers. 

“hi.” she responded dryly, flashing him a quick smile before waving to john b and walking back towards where she had left rafe not too long ago.

“i’m liam.” she sighed to herself when the boy started following after her, all wishes and hopes of shrugging him off being rudely denied by the universe. 

“y/n.” she raised her cup to her lips, hoping her dry and slightly rude nature would send a message.

“you here alone?” she stopped at that, turning to the boy with a heavy sigh. 

“no, i’m not. listen, i don’t mean to be that girl, but i have a boyfriend.” the boy hummed softly, giving her a once over before he smirked widely. 

“not a thing to me if it’s not to you.” he shrugged easily, not finding it much of an issue for him. 

“you’re gonna regret you said that, buddy.” topper’s arm hooked around her shoulder, making her slightly relieved that she might’ve found an escape with the opportunity to avoid a scene. 

“there’s no way you’re her boyfriend.” the guy easily dismissed topper, not buying the act for a second. 

“i’m not, but i have the ability to save you from ever meeting him. i suggest you take the opportunity and run.” y/n clicked her tongue at the threat, knowing that topper would pounce on this guy if he felt the need to. 

“look, i’m just trying to get to know a beautiful lady, no harm no foul.” she felt another hand on her back, turning over her shoulder to find kelce giving her a quick glance before giving the boy across from her a stern look.

“is there a problem here?” the guy glared at kelce, glancing down to y/n for a moment before scoffing the same way he did with topper just a second ago. 

“you seem to have a lot of boys at your side, honey.” she cringed at the pet name, hating the way it dripped from his tongue. “seems like that boyfriend of yours is just a myth, huh?”

“what about her boyfriend?” y/n sighed heavily, head dropping to topper’s shoulder before a hand sneaked its way around to her stomach. 

“jesus christ, how many guys do you juggle princess? seems to me like you have room for one more.” 

y/n’s eyes went wide at the guy’s words, thinking she was going to have to stop all three of them from jumping him at this point. 

“what the fuck did you just say?” she turned quickly to face rafe, the boy not even glancing at her as he glared harshly at the guy behind her. 

“baby, please don’t do this right now.” she mumbled softly, hands pressed firmly to his sides. she squeezed softly in an attempt to have him look at her, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the touron. 

“she’s got an ass on her man, you guys pick ‘em well, i’ve gotta say.” 

“say one more thing about her and i’ll break your jaw.” rafe’s voice was low, and to anybody else on the island it would’ve been the end of the conversation, but this guy couldn’t pick up a hint if it was put in the palm of his hand directly, it seems. 

“c’mon, if you all share her what’s the issue, man?” 

“baby, please.” rafe glanced down at her then, jaw clenched tightly and steam pouring out of his ears. 

“hold this.” he raised his cup to her, waiting for her to grab it but she shook her head. “y/n, hold this or i’m going to throw it in that prick’s face.”

“whatever, man. she seems to have all of you on a tight leash anyway. no pussy’s that good.” 

rafe lost it then. he took the cup in his hand and chucked it over y/n’s head, clocking the guy in the face. he was covered in beer now, and the cup bounced off the side of his face. 

the touron’s face grew red, and though y/n tried to keep rafe away from him, rafe’s quick glance to kelce was loud enough for kelce to wrap an arm around the girl’s waist and lift her out of her spot. 

“tell me about it, man? how’s it feel when she’s on her knees? i bet it’s-” 

he never got to finish his statement, seeing as it’s difficult to talk when someone’s fist collides with your face. y/n winced at the sight, shying into kelce’s chest while rafe unloaded every ounce of frustration into the touron’s face. though, unfortunately for him, seemed to be a lot at the moment. 

the guy didn’t stand a chance. he had fallen onto his back after the second punch, a cracking sound coming after the third or forth. y/n’s pleas for rafe to stop never registered with rafe, ignoring everybody that had gathered to watch the fight. 

the guy was sputtering out apologies, gasping for breath and trying to beg rafe to let up on him, but it was no use until topper pried his best friend off of the boy. topper was yelling that the guy had had enough, and rafe growled under his breath while he shoved topper away from him, clearly not letting out all of his frustration quite yet. 

y/n watched rafe walk away from the spot, fighting the urge to kick sand up at the guy when he stormed off. he pushed past people that were staring up at him with various expressions, not having seen rafe get into a fight like that in a few months. 

y/n ran after him, trying to call out to him but was ultimately ignored as rafe’s anger took over. she followed as quickly as she could, though her shorter legs and the sand around her feet slowed her down a bit. 

“rafe, please!” he finally stopped when he seemed to be miles away from anyone, spinning around and glaring gently at the girl. “rafe.” 

“i don’t need a lecture. i went too far, i get it.” his voice was low and rough, though he wasn’t angry at the girl before him. he was angry at the situation that had just ensued, and the idea of her lecturing him made him want to punch something else. 

“i’m not going to lecture you.” she sighed softly, her shoulders slumping as she stepped forward. 

she wrapped her arms around the boy’s back, leaning her head against his chest and sighing gently. it only took rafe a few seconds for him to wrap his arms back around the girl.

“i’m sorry, he just wouldn’t shut the fuck up and he ticked all of the boxes.” y/n sighed gently, not wanting to forgive him right away, since he knew how much she hated him getting into fights over her, but she couldn’t be angry at the boy. 

“i know. i’m sorry.” rafe moved a hand up to her chin, tilting her head back to force her to look at him. 

“hey, don’t apologize. you didn’t do anything wrong.” his voice lowered to a whisper, the look in his eyes filled with remorse and love for the girl in his arms. he hated upsetting her, but all it took was one wrong word about her to make send him into a trance like that. 

“can we just go home?” rafe smiled softly at her and nodded, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead before letting the hand on her back drop to her ass and squeezing it softly. 

“rafe!” she squealed softly, hearing the boy laugh when she shoved him playfully. 

“sorry, mamas. let’s go.” he kissed her quickly and grabbed her hand, practically dragging her to where his truck was parked. 

[shyvioletcat]

I’d like to place a request for Aelin singing Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars and Rowan overhearing it (you decide if it’s intentional or her singing in the shower or drunk karaoke hehe) in Striking Matches of course 😉 since that hasn’t happened yet

cont: Oops wait I always forget it’s technically by Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ my bad it’s a collab

I went with something different, but let’s be real... Aelin would just about sing this song every chance she gets.

So Timeline wise, this so just after they get together. It’s probably been a month and a half since he busted her door.

Striking Matches Masterlist

~~~~~

The fire alarm ringing through the school gym had the kids in a panic, it even took a few moments for Aelin to get her own feelings under control. But when her kids had flocked to her, their scared faces wide-eyed, she pulled herself together. When she had volunteered to chaperone the Halloween dance this is not what she expected. 

Her and the other teachers ushered the kids outside, not even a trace of smoke to be found but still they got all the kids out to the car park. It was soon apparent that some cheeky troublemaker, probably urged on by their peers, had pulled the alarm and there was no real threat of fire. But they had to follow protocol and that meant the greater portion of the student body from grades 4-6 were huddled in the car park —all in their costumes— waiting for the firefighters to turn up to give the official all clear. The poor things were getting cold in the brisk October air and still nervous after all the drama. Aelin wasn’t feeling particularly warm herself in her Alice in Wonderland costume, the striped tights at least were offering her some protection from the cold. 

So Aelin did the first thing she could think of. 

Turning her phone full volume she led a dance party in the empty spaces of the parking lot. She was dancing to hype the kids up, most likely looking like a dork as she did the sprinkler for the umpteenth just as the fire engine pulled up. The team unloaded from the vehicle very quickly, Lorcan barely gave the excited children a second glance, but Aelin’s students were thrilled to see Rowan again and he gave them a wide smile and a wave. Fenrys directed a thumbs up to her in approval of her dance moves before he waved to the kids as well, giving them some finger guns to top it off.

Another song played through and the whining of the alarm stopped and everyone cheered. Lorcan appeared again and went to clear things with the principal then the others started filing out. Out of nowhere an idea struck Aelin, a song that seemed too perfect to pass up in the moment. So she unlocked her phone, scrolling through until she found the song she wanted. 

The poppy vocalising at the intro of the song started and she made sure to keep at least one eye of Rowan as everyone started dancing. She saw the twins share a look and then they were laughing. Gavriel was just shaking his head. 

This hit, that ice cold

Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold

This one for them hood girls

Them good girls straight masterpieces

Aelin sang along and somewhere she heard Lysandra cackling. 

Stylin', wilin', livin' it up in the city

Got Chucks on with Saint Laurent

Gotta kiss myself, I'm so pretty

I'm too hot –– hot damn

Aelin pointed at Rowan who was trying his damndest not to smile. He was failing. 

Called a police and a fireman

I'm too hot –– hot damn

Make a dragon wanna retire man

I'm too hot –– hot damn

Say my name you know who I am

I'm too hot –– hot damn

And my band 'bout that money, break it down

Aelin wiggling her shoulders ridiculously at him had him breaking and he laughed. By then Rowan had reached and took her by the hand, spinning her a few times –– her apron and skirts fanning out. The kids, meanwhile, were going insane. 

When Rowan stopped the spinning Aelin’s hands landed on his shoulders. 

“Don’t you think this song is a little inappropriate for the little ones?” He said. 

“I suppose.” Aelin sighed and changed the song, a chorus of disappointed protests sounding. “But I just couldn’t resist.”

A terse Whitethorn came from the direction of the fire engine, making both Aelin and Rowan look over. The rest of the team was loaded back up ready to head back to the station. Aelin linked her arm with Rowan and handed her phone off to Lysandra so she could keep the party going while the executives decided what to do next. 

“Will you come by for breakfast tomorrow? I bought a fresh box of toaster waffles,” Aelin asked, leaning close to leech his warmth. 

“Those things taste like cardboard,” Rowan complained. 

Aelin just she rolled her eyes. “Fine, come for the company then.” 

“I think I’d rather eat the cardboard,” Rowan replied, the corners of his mouth betraying him as they quirked upwards. 

“Remind me again why I agreed to make us a thing?” Aelin said as she let go him and Rowan put one foot on the step of the turck then leaned in closer to her. 

“How about I remind you tomorrow morning,” he said, his voice little more than a purr. “And I’ll pick something up from a bakery on the way home.”

Rowan pulled himself up into the cab before Aelin could reply, but she was smiling as he rolled down the window. Then she stepped up onto the step as Rowan leaned out the window. 

“I like that sound of that.”

They were both smiling when their lips met but they managed. They broke apart when Fenrys’ wolf whistle startled them both, Aelin managed to refrain from flipping him of for the sake of the students and the reprimands it would get her if any of her superiors saw. 

“See you in the morning,” Rowan said, Aelin’s reply was a two fingers salute as the truck drove away.

Aelin watched it go until it had turned and she couldn’t see Rowan anymore. When she went to go back to the impromptu dance party she noticed one of her students, Benjamin, standing on the outskirts watching her, his mouth hanging open in surprise. 

“You okay there, Benjamin?” Aelin asked.

It took him a moment to answer and he looked past her to where the fire engine had been parked, then he beckoned her closer. Aelin rested her hands on her knees so she was just about level with him. 

“Miss G, did you just kiss Fireman Whitethorn?” He whispered. 

Aelin nodded. “I did.”

“But…” Benjamin’s brow furrowed. “You’re only supposed to kiss people who are you boyfriend or girlfriend. Is Mr Whitethorn your boyfriend?” 

The boy was so excited and perplexed he’d completely forgotten about the fireman bit. 

“He is,” she said simply. 

Aelin couldn’t wait to tell Rowan about the look of sheer delight that spread over Benjamin’s face when she told him. He spun around, no doubt to spread this new revelation amongst his classmates, she could practically see the ripple of excitement move through the crowd. Aelin just laughed and kept dancing until the parents started to arrive to pick up their kids.

~~~~~

I say it every time but... I miss these two.

Tags: 

@tangledraysofsunshine // @nalgenewhore // @highqueenofelfhame // @galyxsy // @fucking-winchester-trash // @literary-licorice // @http-itsrebecca // @highladyofthesith // @aelinfire-bringer // @soup-that-is-too-hawt // @sleep-and-books // @3am-reading // @but-she-was-aelin-galathynius // @rowaelinforeverworld // @alifletcher2012 // @westofmoon // @tswaney17 // @mydarlingfireheart // @rowansfirebringer // @chocolate-eating-bitch-queen // @vanilla28 // @fireheart-of-your-dreams // @enquires-state-building // @im-not-rare-im-rarr // @your-high-lady // @mariamuses // @ttakeitbacknoww // @vi0let-femmes // @kindofawalkingpoem // @sleeping-and-books // @armixers-unite // @velarian-trash // @queenofxhearts // @princess-galathynius // @heroesofterrasen // @highladyofstoriesandmusic // @unassumingsodalovesherbooks // @empire-of-wildfire // @brittneym15 // @camerooonchiu // @worldoffae // @mybbyfeyre // @crackedship // @lowhangingtreebranches // @over300books // @yourwhisperingshadows // @thesirenwashere // @pilesofriles // @chemicha // @keshavomit // @sarahbringsoutmygay13 // @wifeofchrishemsworth // @impossiblescissorspeachpaper // @cat5313 // @judelovescardan // @illyrian-velaris // @flowerspringsea // @whitethorn15 // @whiskeybusiness1776 // @notaddictedtoanything // @thereaderandfangirl // @mynewdreamwasyou // @tintinnabulary // @the-regal-warrior // @searchingforbellarke // @queen-of-wings-and-fire // @court-of-fuck-me-daddy // @officialasianbitch // @burningbookz // @viajandosinalas // @chaoticskyy // @fanfictrash3000 // @blueeyes425 // @starseternalnighttriumphant // @bamchickawowow // @thehuntressofmoon // @giorgia-the-trashpanda // @flora-and-fae // @thereaderandfangirl // @illyrian-bookworm // @meltalgel-ig // @gay-book-nerd // @that-odd-puzzle-piece // @i-love-all-books // @in-love-with-caramel-macchiato // @girl-who-reads-the-books // @hizqueen4life // @the-third-me // @queen-of-glass // @belamoonbeam // @bestmelle // @cursebreaker29 // @b00kworm // @superspiritfestival // @aesthetics-11 // @maastrash // @mynewdreamwasyou // @the-last-apprentice // @charincharge // @aelin-queen-of-terrasen // @scarznstars // @absolute-dissapointment // @thesurielships // @df3ndyr // @trinitybailey2003 // @littleboxofthunder // @ladywitchling // @booknerdproblems // @rowaelin-cressworth // @acourtofbookworms // @rolltide7 // @scandinavianromantic // @tillyrubes10 // @starwarsslytherin // @minaidss // @paytin77 // @jesstargaryenqueen // @anntheintrovert // @starborn-faerie-queen // @loudphantomdragon // @alyx801 // @amandaswallowtail // @louiseleblancdiggory // @abookishfreak

[betweenlands]

life stuff under cut. kinda heavy ig?

gh. money situation keeps on getting tighter and we, like, still do not have car hell fully sorted. rn it’s like. gotta sell the truck so we’ve got enough money to make sure our car’s in working order so we can apply for a job? and i’ve gotta say. I Do Not Enjoy This rn. this sucks

i have some idea of some places i can look to in order to, like, do employment things. but it’s gonna take time and i’m getting worried that i don’t have a lot of that anymore, bc money keeps getting bad rn and just. heeeughgh.

(is this where we do the starving artist thing and say “oh we have a ko.fi” or)

[fmdchunhwaarchive]

i just spent so long writing this jfc. anyway under the cut i have the stuff my muses are going to be doing for the event and i think i offered a nice range of opportunities?? just like this post and i’ll message you here (or on discord if you prefer, no problem)!!!! also just to mention i miiiight still reply to the non event related threads bc sometimes i get event burn out lmao but yea i’ll try to focus more on the event ones tho!!

chunhwa: okay so overall mood here is trying to enjoy it/have as much fun as she possibly can while ignoring lucid has a comeback immediately when they land in seoul, she's literally going to pretend love whisper doesn't exist. she's staying in villa c and at the moment she doesn't have a romie!

specific activities:

chunhwa is participating in the fashion show which... i mean she's 169cm tall and she looks like that so ofc she's going to be doing that!!! dimensions gotta push her for those looks ig!!!!

lucid is being forced to perform at the newbies showcase so she has to do that too!!! hwa vc: at least it's not love whisper

she's also teaching one of the classes on june 10, probably going to be cranky af bc of the early morning schedule, but yeah she's trying to teach kids how to sing

other than that you can most definitely find her at the food truck festival! she's gonna wanna eat as much as she's allowed to

def is attending the idol league game to not so subtly root for andy's team (sorry jaein)

is going to attend the private pool party but like demi said, she's going to be attached to weed, alcohol and andy, but running into her is a possibility!

she's going to be a fucking wreeeeeck on the 12th, probably is only going to wake up in time to shower before the soundcheck and is going to be extra moody because of the hangover that might have her a lil faint on stage (fun!)

inyeong: overall mood is would rather be literally anywhere else, is going to be micromanaging all the chroma members to the best of her ability, still gonna turn up her charm to the highest level esp around industry ppl. she's staying in villa a and also does not have a romie!

specific activities:

private showcase for the newbies. you're likely to catch her at her most professional and attempting to play the nicest here bc of the Important ppl around

dance class since the river video was a bit of a big deal and bc wants her to showcase her dancing more! also her at a fairly professional level ngl

idol league softball game is like............ you're gonna see inyeong lose her shit. she's super competitive and she's very good at sports so she's gonna take it to herself to be the pitcher and she IS going to yell at you if you're in her team and not putting in the effort!!

probably going to attend the secret fantasy concert to watch bc you know nothing better to do

inyeong does Not consider going to the pool party bc she can't imagine a worse place to be than around a bunch of drunk and rowdy young adults HOWEVER considering she IS going to be micromanaging the chroma members and keeping her eyes on them she might end up showing up to drag any chroma member that goes to the party back home before they do something stupid that might end up being filmed!!! she's a spoilsport!!!

sunghee: overall mood is High. just high. going to get high as soon as they arrive in california and hopefully will only stop being high when they get back to seoul (and even then how long is that going to last??). okay but no for real, as someone who does enjoy weed a lot esp with how it helps sunghee's thoughts settle, they are going to take advantage of the legality of it in california. which basically means they are their most approachable mood most of the time here!! they are sharing the bungalow with gyu and andy aka they are playing peacemaker most of the time but also this means...... they have a room for themselves...... which means they do want to get laid so . just saying !

specific activities:

photography class!!! sunghee loves photography!!! they are most definitely doing that just bc they enjoy it

acoustic open mic night. i wanted sunghee to perform at one of the available slots and thought that their music fits an acoustic open mic night more than anywhere else? it's also a slightly more ~intimate setting so it doesn't stress sunghee as much

definitely going to check out the food truck festival and watch the softball game bc why not right?

they... will consider not going to the pool party but they might be convinced otherwise? they will probably avoid the more crowded areas but you can find them willing to either share a joint with you or roll one up for you

sunghee is going to chill a lot they are not planning on being optimistic about the opportunity even if they really didn't want to travel across the world just for a festival

[finnyboywolfhard]

Song That The Morning Brings (Chapter Twenty One)

Steve Harrington x Henderson!Reader

catch up here

summary: They are wandering through the tunnels after escaping the elevator, Steve gets in a fight and Erica is a nerd. 

warnings: cursing, violence, angst, spoilers ig 

word count: 4.3k 

The entire group clamors up to atop the elevator and impatiently waits for whatever is to come next. Loud beeping and clunky footsteps break the silence as the doors smoothly open up. Two large men walk into the elevator and begin grabbing boxes. The one man begins aggressively sniffing, before speaking a sentence in Russian that none of them could understand. The two have a small conversation while pulling the boxes down and taking them to somewhere outside of the elevator. Steve is laying down against the grate, eyes sealed to watching the room. Steve looks around the group, signaling to be quiet, stopping his eyes on Erica who is still holding a tube of the goo.

The door starts closing, the group waits until the Russians are out of ear shot from the elevator to jump down and begin piling out. Steve falls down to the ground and shoves the tube in between the elevator door and the floor, giving them a passage space to crawl through to get out.

“Let’s go.” Erica tosses Steve her backpack which he shoves underneath the door. He begins shuffling them all through the door, chanting “go” repetitively as the crawl under. First Erica, then Dustin, then Robin and then Y/N. They all shuffle through and stand up briskly once they reach the other side. Steve starts to climb out just as the tube begins to crack, nearly shattering.

“Stevie! Come on!” Y/N yells out to him. He slides out and away from the door just as the tube shatters, the goo burning a hole into the ground surrounding its shatter sight.

“Jesus Christ!” Steve huffs out as he stands beside the group.

“You still want to drink that?” Robin says to Erica with a twinge of superiority.

“Holy mother of God.” Slips out of Dustin’s mouth as the rest of the group turns to look at what he was seeing. The expanse of the hallway went out so far they couldn’t even fathom of seeing the end. The cool blue lights reflected off of the floor, though seemingly getting darker and darker as it stretches farther down.

“Well, hope you guys are in good shape. Looking at you, roast beef.” Steve said pushing his way to the front of the group tapping Dustin on the chest after his last remark.

“Stevie, that was mean.” Y/N said shuffling a little to catch up with Steve. The rest of the group joining slightly after Steve says, “Let’s go, come on.”

Y/N’s feet began to ache after a while, no clue how far they had walked at that point, but it didn’t seem like they were ending anytime soon. She was looking down at her feet walking in as straight of a line as she could before she felt an elbow nudge her slightly, she looked up to see Steve’s brown eyes peering down to her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah Stevie, I’m okay. I just want to get the hell out of here.”

“Don’t we all.” She heard Robin quip from the other side of Steve. The group kept talking in small segments before Dustin started a whole other conversation.

“I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive.” His voice echoed around the tunnel.

“What are you talking about? It’s a total fire hazard.” Steve remarks back to Dustin. “There’s no stairs, there’s no exit, there’s just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell.”

“They’re commies.” Erica replies to Steve. “You don’t pay people, they cut corners.”

“To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don’t think tunnel was designed for walking.”

“They were clearly on something that took them to the elevator. We just don’t know what. And I mean think about it, they have developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo.” Y/N said in response to Robin, completing her thought.

“It all comes into the mall like any old delivery.” Dustin said, before Robin replied.

“And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody’s the wiser.”

“You think they build this whole mall just so they could transport that green poison?” Steve asked the three discussing the genius feat of the Russians.

“I mean, I don’t think it’s that simple.” Y/N replied.

“I doubt it’s that boring, just poison. It’s gotta be much more valuable like promethium or something.”

“What the hell is Promethium?” Steve quickly asked.

“It’s what Victor Stone’s dad used to make Cyborg’s bionic and cybernetic components.” Robin responded.

“You’re all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill.” Erica said, nearly gagging at the end of her sentence.

“No, no, no! Don’t lump me in with them. I’m not a nerd, alright?” Steve exclaimed towards the little girls insult.

“Why so sensitive Harrington?” Robin asked.

“Yeah, Stevie, is your ego crushed by someone calling you a nerd? Are you afraid of losing cool points to a ten year old child?” Y/N said with a slight, breathy laugh.

“No, I’m just saying I don’t know jack shit about Prometheus.”

“Promethium. Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure, but whatever. All I’m saying is it’s probably being used to make something.” Steve was corrected by Dustin

“Or power something.”

“Like a nuclear weapon.”

“Totally.”

“Walking towards a nuclear weapon. That’s great. That’d be great.” Steve said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“But, if they’re building something, why here?” Robin said. “ I mean, Hawkins…seriously. Of all places.” Robin kept rambling on about the obscurity of it happening in Hawkins while Y/N felt her body grow cold, as she stopped dead in her tracks. The gate was here. All of the problems from the past two years, were here. They could be trying to use whatever the hell is in Hawkins for this. Steve and Dustin both stood back and the three kept locking eyes. Y/N could feel herself going paler and paler until it was even hard to breathe. But she couldn’t make it that obvious that she was worried, especially because she wasn’t exactly sure what she was worried about.

“You think the Russians know?” Dustin asked the two standing beside him.

“About the-“ Steve was cut off by Y/N.

“They could.”

“So, it’s connected?” Steve asks the Henderson siblings.

“Maybe.” Dustin replied only to be asked another question by his sister.

“But how?”

“I don’t know but it’s…”

“Possible.” They all finished Dustin’s sentence in unison.

They all stand looking at each other. Y/N began nervously fiddling with her own hands before slowly linking her arm with Steve’s to steady herself for a second.

“I’m sorry, is there something you’d like to share with the class.” Robin yelled, cutting through the tense moment the three were experiencing. The three just keep looking from each other to Erica and Robin. The looks are put to rest when Dustin’s Supercom hisses alive as the Russian message pours through it’s speaker. They all surround it and listen intently, before Robin begins speaking along with it.

“It’s the code.”

“Wherever that broadcast is coming from-“

“It’s close.” Y/N interrupts her brother. “And if there’s one thing we know about that signal…”

“It can reach the surface.”

“Let’s go.” Robin says, pulling herself up from the floor. The entire group keeps walking along the halls, getting ready to reach the surface thanks to the walkie.

Eventually, the group reached a point of entrance in whatever this place really was. The entire group had to keep ducking and hiding behind walls and objects. Steve took the lead of the group. They had begun hiding behind a wall as multiple of the weird car like carts were passing through. They all waited a moment behind the wall before Steve kept moving.  He leaned passed the wall and whispered to the group.

“Okay, clear. Clear, come on, let’s go.” The entire group rounded the corner before Robin abruptly said.

“That was close.”

“Too close!” Dustin said with an angry tone.

“Dusty, calm down.” Y/N said with Steve following closely after.

“Relax, All right? Relax. Nobody saw…” He was cut off as he entered a large room full of Russian men. They were in every nook and cranny. There was loud announcements over a speaker, that none of them could understand. The men were hustling and bustling all around, and talking to each other in strong tones. No one wasn’t moving.

The group stood staring in fear at what they had become witness to.

“Oh fuck.” Y/N said under her breath from besides Steve.  They kept looking around at all of the differently uniformed people. There were ones dressed in military garb and others dressed in lab coats. Some were in business attire and others looked like average citizens. Their staring was interrupted when they almost got caught.

“Shit.” Steve whispered as he threw himself to the ground in attempts to hide, the rest of them falling in line with Steve. “Oh Jesus!”

“Red dawn.” Dustin said in a breathy voice, clearly showing he was in shock a bit.”

“What are we even looking for?” Y/N said finally asking the sacred question.

“I saw it!” Erika replied. “First floor, northwest.”

“Saw what?” Steve asked her, Y/N inevitably agreeing with his question.

“The comms room!” She whisper shouted at him

“You saw the comms room?” Steve and Y/N said in unison.

“Correct!”

“Are you sure?” Steve asked again.

“Positive. The door was open for a second, and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there.” She replied, as if it was a stupid question.

“That could be a hundred different things.” Dustin snapped reality to everyone.

“I’ll take those odds.” Robin said turning towards Steve and Y/N. Y/N looked into Steve’s eyes. Without any words, she could tell he was asking her what she thought. Somehow, she showed to him that she would do it but she was scared. He shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh. He leaned out from behind the large box they were behind, the group following suit. He leans back and they had all turned to him.

“Alright, we’re gonna move fast, we’re gonna stay low. Okay?”

“Okay.” The group all responded to him. They beginning crouching and running with quick steps from behind the box. They move to behind another large object, they were almost like grates. Y/N wrapped her hands around one of the cold metal bars in order to ground herself. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts rang through her head. Steve tapped her hand that was resting on the bar and shooed her forward, along with everyone else. They moved once again, now they were extremely close to the door to the comms room. A man walked out, and the door started to close slowly.

“Let’s go!” Steve said rushing them all to the door. They all get through the door, Steve whispering “come on” to the group as they shuffle inside. All of them facing towards the door, watching one another. They all get inside, and Steve turns around only to notice that there is still a man sitting at the control desk. He removes his headphones and turns to look at the rag tag group that just walked in. The man gives them a scared yet angry look, and all the group can do is stare back at him. He reaches for a weapon from his hip, and Robin blurts out a part of the code, reaching her hand toward him to show that she isn’t a threat. However, all this does is confuse the man who is still reaching for his weapon. He begins speaking in Russian which none of them could understand. Robin continues saying parts of the code, regardless of if they make sense or not. This cycle repeats itself a few more times before he actually starts working to get his weapon out. The scared silence is broken by Steve screaming and running straight towards him. He slams his body into the mans, shoving him back against the desk. The man immediately throws Steve over to the other desk, causing Steve to stammer a bit. He goes to throw a punch at Steve but he misses after Steve falls backwards. The man grabs Steve by the collar and throws him over to the side once more full force. Steve’s stomach hits the desk, the man grabs his neckline to turn Steve around and just as he does so, Steve’s elbow flies straight into his stomach. The man stumbles back a little bit, giving Steve just enough time to grab a hold of a wired phone in order to turn around and hit the man in the head with it. The man falls to the floor with a grown, passing out immediately. Steve stands straight up and runs his hand through his hair in efforts to actually catch his breath. Y/N couldn’t believe her eyes on what just happened.

“Dude!” Dustin yelled, causing Steve and everyone else to turn towards him. “You did it! You won a fight!” Steve glances down at the man on the floor and Y/N started giggling immediately.

“Jeez.” Steve said with a soft and breathy chuckle. Dustin runs up to the man on the floor and snags his key card from his belt.

“What are you doing?” Y/N asks her little brother, who was doing something that could potentially be very dangerous.

“Getting us our ticket out of here.”

“You want to walk all the way back?” Erica harshly replied.

“Well, we can hang out for a little bit, relax, have a picnic maybe.” Dustin said sarcastically. The two bicker a bit as Y/N goes up to Steve.

“That was stupid, but I’m proud of you. Thank you for essentially saving us.”

“Anything for you, my damsel in distress.” He makes a mocking joke, which hit Y/N in a weird way. It made her feel special, and like Steve did it exclusively for her.

“Yeah, yeah. Are you gonna brag about that now? How you won a fight against a Russian soldier?”

“Hell yeah I am! I lost to Billy and Jonathan! That’s embarrassing.”

“Oh, so you’re finally admitting to losing to J, huh?”

“Oh, shut up, no need to point it out.” She smiled at him before looking back at the group.

“Shit, where’s Robin?” As if on cue, Robin entered once again.

“Guys, there’s something up there.” She said in a worried tone, pointing to the top of the steps. As Y/N glanced up, she happened to notice the glowing and flickering light. The group ran up the steps and through the door to see what Robin was talking about. Dustin, Y/N and Steve all look forward into the space in front of them. It was the gate. Glowing and open once again, even though El had closed it less than a year ago. Y/N instinctively moved closer to Steve, pressing their bodies together gently. It made her feel slightly safer that she was with Steve, but she was still terrified.

“Holy shit.” Dustin let out with a breath. The three of them looked at one another before muttering “the gate” and continued to stare ahead at it. Y/N almost felt bad for the two other girls with them. They had no idea what this was, hell they had no idea that this even existed. She also felt concerned that it didn’t necessarily shock her that this is why they were in Hawkins. Y/N ripped herself away from the group and out of the door. Steve signaled to the other girls that it was time to go and they all ran after Y/N.

“I don’t understand, you’ve seen this before?” Robin asked, confused as to why they were rushing aware from this brand new discovery.

“Not exactly.” Steve replied.

“Then what, exactly?” Robin asked in response.

“All you need to know is it’s bad.” Dustin said, trying to catch up with his sister.

“It’s really bad.” Steve agreed.

“Like end of the human race as we know it kind of bad.” Y/N finally spoke up again after storming out.

“And you know about this how?” Robin asked the three of them, only to be distracted by Erica.

“um Steve? Where’s your Russian friend?” They all get snapped from the trance they were in and look to the floor where they had just left the soldier. Just as they do, an alarm starts blaring.

“Oh shit!” Steve starts running around , peering out the door to see that every one of the Russians are teaming up with one another to find whoever these intruders were. Except, they saw him looking. Steve slammed the door and shuffled everyone out of the room they were in. They rush from one room to another trying to find somewhere to hide. They run into the control room for the gate, and instantly run back out, trying desperately to escape the armed men. They run out onto the platform next to the laser, only to realize that it’s a dead end. Dustin begins shrieking “holy shit” over and over again, which doesn’t really help their situation. Steve looks to find an exit, and when he does he yells out to the group which way to go. They run down a set of metal steps, almost being caught by guards meeting them at the bottom. Steve pushes a few metal barrels towards them, throwing them off their track. They hurry into another room trying desperately to shut themselves inside. Steve pushes his body weight against the door.

“Help me! Help me!” Steve yells, causing Robin to rush to the door and propel herself onto it as well. Erica discovers a vent that she can climb into, yelling for Dustin and everyone else to join her. Y/N looks back to Steve to see what he wants her to do. Dustin yells out to Steve .

“Come on!”

“Go! Just get out of here! Y/N go with them! Keep them safe!” Steve yells to them as they begin piling into the vent. Right before she ducks into the vent and the Russians break through the door Y/N yells out to Steve.

“Don’t break your promise. I can’t lose you.” As soon as the vent is shut, she lets out a breath and shoos the kids along. They get a bit farther away, just enough so they can no longer hear yelling men.

“Fucking hell.” Y/N lets out, stopping the group for a moment.

“Are you okay?” Dustin asks his sister.

“Dustin, what do you think? No. Fuck me. Oh my god.” She continues to let out a string of curses while trying to figure out what they hell they should do. Her mom wandered every thought possible, but the only thing they could do was keep moving, find Steve and Robin and get the hell out. “Okay, well, we can’t stop moving or else we will die and so will Steve and Robin. So just keep crawling until we find something, someone or somewhere.”

“I don’t think that’s gonna work as well as you think it will.” Erica said from behind the girl.

“Oh really Erica? You have better ideas? Because the last time I checked, all you have been doing is giving everyone else grief. Now pipe down and let’s get moving.”

The three started to crawl through the vents until they hit fans that were cooling down the vents.

“We have to get them to stop spinning, that way we can get through. Do you have tools in your backpack?” Dustin said once they arrived at the first one.

“I have a few.” The two younger kids rummaged through the bag before taking the initiative to stop them.

“Be careful Dusty, don’t electrocute yourself.” Y/N said keeping a watchful eye over her brother. He stops the first vent after about a minute of fumbling and continues to crawl through.

“Could y’all tell me how you know this shit is bad? You got all freaked out and left.” Erica posed the question in a harsh, almost accusatory tone.

The two siblings recounted the woes of the past two years to the young girl. From the very beginning all the way up till now. They told their own sides of the stories in connection to one another. Y/N sharing about fighting off a Demogorgon and going face to face with one. She shared about fighting the Demodogs first hand and she told her perspective of the tunnels. Dusty told of the day they met Eleven and when they discovered Will wasn’t dead. He shared about his connection to Dart and then he told his stories of the night it all went down. They didn’t spare a single detail of who was there, what happened, when it happened and why it seemed to happen. Erica responded asking for it to be broken down quickly once again, leaving Y/N to run through it all.

“When we set fire to the hub, we drew the Demodogs away so El could close the gate. But now, for some insane reason, the Russians appear to be trying to reopen it, which just destroys everything we all risked our lives for.”

“By ‘we’, you’re including Lucas?”

“Yes, of course.” Dustin said from in front of the fan.

“So, all that shit you told me, Lucas was there?” Dustin and Y/N both affirmed that question before Erica continued, “My brother, Lucas Charles Sinclair?”

“Yes!” Dustin lowkey shouted.

“I don’t believe you.”

“So you’re telling me that you believe everything about El, the gate, the Demodogs, the mind flayer, me coming face to face with a liter monster but-“ Y/N said, getting cut off by Dustin.

“But you don’t believe your brothers involvement?”  

“That’s correct.”

“Yeah, that makes total sense.” Y/N sarcastically said. She watched as Dustin continued to fiddle with the screwdriver, trying desperately to crack open the casing for this set of wires.

“You need help with that?” Erica asked, getting a negative response from Dustin. “Well, I mean, it’s taking a while so-“

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock.”

“All right, so if we don’t find a more efficient method to stop these fans, we’re not gonna find help and your boyfriend and little ice cream buddy are screwed.”

“He’s not my-“

“With that attitude they are, Jesus.”

“I’m just being realistic. I mean, we’ve made it about point three miles in nine hours. Then we had to walk three hours down that tunnel, so I’d estimate ten miles back to the elevator, which should take us approximately twelve and a half days.” Erica rambled off in response to the siblings.

“Did you just do all of that in your head?” Dustin asked, noticing the same thing as his sister.

“I’m good with numbers.”

“Holy shit! Erica, you’re a nerd!” Y/N said with glee looking unto the smaller girl.

“Come again?”Erica asked, denying the accusation.

“You. Are. A. Nerd.” Dustin said, word by word, demanding her attention to them.

“Okay, you better take that back nerd!”

“Can’t put the truth back in the box!” Y/N said for her brother.

“But it’s not the truth.”

“Hmm, Dusty, you wanna take this one?” Y/N asked, egging her brother on.

“Let’s examine the facts, shall we? Fact one: you’re a math whiz apparently.”

“That was a pretty straightforward equation.”

“Fact number two: you’re a political junkie.”

“Just because I don’t agree with Communism as an ideology-“ Erica was cut off once again by Dustin. Y/N had to admit, it was extremely funny watching Erica try to convince them she wasn’t a nerd. She was pulling excuses out of excuses.

“Fact number three: you love My Little Pony.” Dustin hit Erica where it hurt.

“And what does My Little Pony have to do with this?”

“Ah, let’s recall the ponies’ latest adventure shall we? The evil centaur team and Tirek turns Applejack into a dragon at Midnight Castle, and then Megan and the other ponies have to use Moochick’s magic to defeat his rainbow of darkness, saving them from a lifetime of enslavement. All the pink in the world can’t disguise the irrefutable fact that centaurs and castles and dragons and magic are all standard nerd tropes. Ergo, My Little Pony is nerdy. Ergo, you, Erica, are a nerd.” Dustin finished off his argument strongly. Y/N couldn’t help but chuckle a bit to herself. Erica’s eyes were widening, her jaw a little bit slack.  This is why Y/N feared Dustin’s intelligence a bit. He just shut Erica down in three sentences. Erica regained her confidence to ask another question.

“And how do you know so much about My Little Pony?”

“Because, I’m a nerd.” Dustin pronounced as he pulled the wiring from this casing, turning the fan off. The three kept wandering through the vents. The conversation that just happened replayed through Y/N’s head over and over and over again.

“Steve isn’t my boyfriend by the way Erica.”

“That’s a lie.”

“No it’s not. We’re not dating.”

“Could have fooled me. The way you’re both always looking at each other is gross, plus you never stop flirting.”

“What are you talking about?” Y/N said trying to understand where this is coming from.

“She means that whenever you two talk to one another, you’re always sickly sweet to each other or you’re protective in ways only couples are. Besides, you’re both in love with each other; you just haven’t done anything about it.”

“You guys haven’t done anything? Nothing at all?” Erica asked, dumbfounded by the revelation at hand.

“We kissed once, but never talked about it after.”

“You’ve kissed?!” Dustin asked, grabbing his sister’s arm. “And you didn’t tell me about it?”

“Dusty, it’s not a big deal.”

“When? When did you guys kiss?”

“After graduation.” She felt like she was being drilled by a drill sergeant. They kept bombarding her with questions about Steve over and over again. It was tiring but they were curious. She walked them through their entire friendship and everything in between. The two kids exhausted their questions and remarks about the two, just as Y/N noticed a glowing vent about them. She pressed against the vent and it popped right open.

taglist: @mochminnie @queen1054 @prettysbliss @voidnarnia

[daddystevee]

Crashing Down

(steve harrington x hopper!reader)

Guys, I'm super emotional… this- is the last part to the fic. But more importantly this chapter is what the whole fic was written around. It's insane. Well more so like the very ending of it. But I'm so happy that this happened and I finally wrote my first fic ever. I just can't believe it. Thank you to everyone who read this and continued to support me through this. A special thanks to @harringtown who literally always has my back and was helping me out with this. I think i might write another fic one day but in all honesty who knows. It's freakin hard idk how Brooke spits these suckers out almost every day??? But who knows maybe i'll be more original next time and not have a full fledged slow burn fic.. Anyways love you guys! Xx ps its finally (steve x reader) !!!!

catch up here

Warnings: cursing, death, fluff, angst, super hella sadness, all the good stuff. And season 3 spoilers ig

Part 9/9

Word count: 3.7k (THIS IS INSANE??)

Summary: Sometimes things just don’t go as planned and your world just comes crashing down, but it’s a good thing that you have people in your life to be there to catch you when you fall. 

><

You squirmed out of Steve’s arms and ran to your dad, El limping close behind you pulled him into a big hug. Even though the last time you saw him was a few days ago, now was not the time for full fledged reunions you had to figure out what you guys were going to do to beat this thing.

As everyone was explaining their part of what had been going on over the last couple of days, you took your place under Steve’s arm. You watched as Jim gave Eleven the extra care she needed in that moment, making your lips curl up at the corners. 

“But instead of, like, screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon with melted people.” Steve said trying to make sense of everything he was being told

“Yeah, and it was fucking terrifying.” you say remembering what happened at the hospital yesterday.

“Yeah, okay I’m just makin’ sure”

><

Hopping up on the counter next to Steve, you watched everyone scramble around trying to make last minute preparations before, Joyce, Murray and your dad headed down into the Russian bunker. You look at Steve’s face and how messed up it is and then look back at your father, hoping nothing too bad would happen to him down there. 

Steve notice how deep in thought you were,

“Don’t hurt yourself, thinking to hard over there Hop.” he said trying to make light of a situation

You laughed slightly, still letting your mind wander in and out of focus.

“You okay?” he asked moving across the counter to be a little closer to you

“Yeah just thinking. A lot of things could go wrong, just nervous I guess.” 

He nods his head in agreement, “But this is your dad we're talking about, he’ll be just fine.”

You overhear Dustin telling Hopper that they need a head start and a car to get to the highest point in Hawkins. He turns and waves Steve over, Steve gives you a pat on the knee before jumping off the counter and heading over to him. After telling Steve what he needed to do, he hollered out your name meaning you were needed. 

Steve met you in the middle causing you to stop, he pulled you into a hug while telling you that he was in charge of taking Dustin and Erica to some radio tower. 

“For the love of God, please be safe. It’s bad enough you’ve already been fucked up by the Russians, I really need you back in one piece.” you say to him pulling him just a little closer

“Oh you don’t have to worry about me, it’s you I'm worried about.”

You took a deep breath in before pulling away. You looked up into Steve’s eyes and placed a hand on his face, stroking his cheek with your thumb before walking over to your dad. 

“I was summoned.” you say marching up to and standing next to your dad

“C’mere,” he said, pulling you into his side, “I need you to keep a really close eye on El for me, okay?”

“Of course dad.”

“This thing is after her, so you guys are going to Murray’s house, so you guys can stay safe, protected and off the radar until this is all over.”

“Alright.” is all you can muster out before he pulls you into a lung crushing hug.

><

You climb into the backseat of the Wheeler’s family car before Will and Lucas, leaving El, Mike and Max in the very back of the car. Nancy tries cranking the car but the engine just won’t start. Jonathan gets out to look, and says that there's a part missing, and it doesn’t make any sense. But all thoughts are put aside when you hear the sound of a very loud and familiar engine revving up.

“Get out, get out the car now” you say rather loudly nudging at Lucas’s side. 

You all get out of the car and head back into the mall where you would be a little bit safer.

After you get inside Mike instantly pulls out his walkie and starts sending out a code for ‘Scoops Troop’. You're standing next to El with your arm wrapped around her shoulder rubbing up and down her arm in an attempt to keep her calm. 

You see Jonathan, Nancy, Will and Max all walk over to the car that El had flipped over onto the Russian’s earlier that evening. You call Mike and follow in pursuit, climbing over the counter and behind the car to try and flip it over. You even let Eleven try to slip it over with her powers but it’s no use, but suddenly a bell goes off in your head. The same bell apparently goes off in Mike’s head because almost as if you were reading each others minds.

“Physics.” you both say in unison.

You flip the car over with the use of leverage and Jonathan begins his search for the ignition cable. 

Max was the one to notice El digging through the trash, you were the first to walk over to her and Mike was the one to call out to her. You were asking if she was okay and telling her that she needed to save her energy when none other than the Mind Flayer comes crashing down into the mall. 

“Fucking hell..”

You grab hold of Eleven’s hand and pull her away and out of sight. 

The four of you are hidden behind some sort of stand in the middle of the mall when Dustin comes over the walkie talkie telling you all to confirm your safety, but the Mind Flayer wasn’t having any of it. It let out one of the loudest screeches you had ever heard, you hadn’t been that close to it before. Tears formed in your eyes from the pain and from fear.

“We’ve gotta move.” you whisper to Mike

“There’s a way to get out, through The Gap.” El whispers back

Mike peeks his head up to see where the Mind Flayer is and is looking,

“Okay, okay. Now.” he said, grabbing El’s hand making a break for it, but of course not without making some fort of ruckus making the Mind Flayer turn and charge. Luckily you push them behind a clothing display just before it makes it to where the items had fallen,

You put your index finger to your lips signaling for them to be extremely quiet before you covered your mouth with your entire hand, attempting to silence your heave breathing. Looking at the three teens you motioned for them to crawl over behind the checkout counter in case it was just playing games, not wanting to risk anything. Though moving to this new spot didn’t help too much because you heard to your left the nasty sound of what you could only imagine was the flesh moving around.

As you turned and looked to your left you could confirm what you had heard, seeing the flesh like claw coming around the corner to snap at you. There was a loud popping noise, that sounded a lot like a balloon that caused a distraction making the claw retreat now redirecting its attention to the new sound.

“Go, go go.”  you said to the kids and you got up making a mad dash towards the exit.

You run out the back door and towards the gate that allows delivery trucks in and out trying to catch up with Nancy and the others. But as you make it just outside the gate you see Flayed Billy standing behind his car. You make the kids turn around and go back inside the mall in hopes that Billy didn’t see you, but you wouldn't go unnoticed especially since you had to go back and press the close gate button a second time because it didn’t work the first time. 

You run down a few different hallways trying to find another way out, whether that be up or down. So you pulled off into a side room where an elevator was, and mike pressed the button a few times. You really thought you had lost Billy at this point so you were good to take a little breather, until you heard the opening and shutting of a heavy metal door. 

Max was the one to round the corner and see who it was,

“Billy. Billy, you don’t have to do this. Billy. Your name is Billy, Billy Hargrove, you live on 4819 Cherry Lane. Billy please, I’m Max, I’m your-” was all you heard before the monster backhanded her out of consciousness. Mike was the first to lunge at him, but instantly got thrown against the wall and was also knocked unconscious. That left you and El, you take your stand in front of your sister and attempt to throw a punch at him, You successfully hit him in the jaw,

“You’re gonna regret that you little bitch” he says as he grabs you by the arm and twists until you’re facing away from him and he slams your head into the wall, everything goes black

><

You wake up, what seems to be like hours later, seeing both Max and Mike still unconscious on the ground. You sit up, head pounding and your wrist and shoulder in excruciating pain. You crawl over to Max and get her to wake up, and when she does, she yells at Mike to get up.

“Are you guys okay?” you ask them. The both shake their heads, but then begin looking around the small room.

“Where’s El?” Mike asks.

The three of you run around in a panicked state of mind calling out for her hoping she had fucked Billy up and ran for help, but the more you looked the less hopeful you felt. You ran back down what you thought were the same hallways from earlier, but with your new concussion you weren’t so sure anymore. 

You looked down to the ground and saw drops of blood and some sort of black stuff.

“Guys, look.” you say pointing down the hallway where the trail of blood led.

After some time you finally manage to make your way to the main part of the mall. You pulled yourself to a complete stop, sticking your arm out to stop Mike and Max from continuing on any further. El was on the floor talking to Billy. 

You watched with wide eyes as Billy stood up in a protective stance over El. He stood there and stared at his creator, the thing that had destroyed him. Millions of memories flashed before his eyes as the fleshy tentacle that was supposed to kill your sister, shot out towards him. He stuck his arms out to stop it, to sacrifice himself. 

You watched in pure shock as tentacles pierced into his sides and back, grabbing hold of him, hoisting him up. It all happened in slow motion, as if the universe was trying to torture you in some way. You watched as that thing took your Billy Hargrove and pierced into his chest.

“Billy!” you and Max screamed one after another

You choked up a sob as you took off running over to him, Max close behind. You slammed your knees into the ground as you grabbed Billy’s shoulders and shook them trying to keep him awake. 

“Billy, Billy. Stay with me. Billy?”

His eyes fluttered open for a split second, this was the last time that he’d see your beautiful face.

“Hey, hey, hey, I need you to stay with me. Baby I can’t lose you. Please, baby please.”

He somehow managed to get an ‘I’m sorry’ out but you didn’t care he didn’t need to be apologizing right now, but that was the only thing he said before his whole body went limp. You continued to shake his shoulders, in disbelief that this was happening and that if you kept him awake long enough he would be okay.

“Billy, no please, Billy.” it suddenly feels like you can’t breath but the only thing you can do is yell. You’re choking out sobs as you strain your voice yelling out his name. 

Steve makes it down to the second floor as quickly as he can and is behind you in seconds. He puts his hands on your shoulders in an attempt to pull you away and into his arms but you turn and yell at him.

“No! Stop it! Don’t let them touch him! Billy! Billy!” Each phrase is spoken with more sobs. You finally collapse into Steve’s arms, shaking violently with each cry. 

All you can seem to say at this point was Billy’s name. Steve leads you to a paramedic and says that he’ll meet you outside, turning around and running back inside. You along with all of the others are checked over and are cleared to go home after sitting in ambulances for a while.

After Steve is checked, he walks over to you, Max and El and takes a seat next to you. The two are in a very tight hug, your sister is doing her best at comforting Max in this time of loss. You sit in silence, not having enough energy or emotion to talk. Steve wraps his arms around you with his blanket and pulls you into a tight embrace. You mellow out your breathing until you realize that you haven’t seen Murray, Joyce or your dad anywhere.

In a panic you release from Steve’s grip and grab your sister’s hand leading her to stand up. The two of you spend a few minutes looking around for them with no luck, suddenly you spot Joyce. No sign of Hopper, you notice that El see’s her too and looks to you confused as to why dad wasn't with her. But then she realizes, you know it too, dad didn’t make it.

Eleven turns into your arms and lets all of her tears out, and just when you think you don’t have any tears left to cry, all of your tears fall on top of her head. She lets out one scream and that’s it, the rest are sobs. You cradle her head, holding onto her and not letting go.

Both Joyce and Steve offer to take both you and El in for the night, seeing as how the cabin had been destroyed earlier that night and Hop wasn’t there to take you in for some extra loving. Of course you spent the next couple of weeks staying the night at the Byers’ house. But after a while it started to get a little too cramped so while El stayed with Joyce while you stayed with Steve. Most days were the same, super hard and emotional. But other days, you would be taking a few steps forward to recovery. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn't ever going to get easier, but you at least had the right people in your life to help you out.

>3 months later<

Over the last three months things have gotten better, you spent lots of time with Max and Eleven. Making sure that they’re both okay and that they know that they are both very loved. Your dad always told Joyce that if anything were to ever happen to him, that if she was up for it, to take care of El. It wasn’t that he didn't trust you to take care of her, he just knew that it would be a lot for you at such a young age.

Joyce took her in with open arms, and even offered a room to you when she mentioned that they would be moving to Maine. You declined, only because Steve couldn't handle all the kids by himself. Steve’s mom even offered to let you stay in their guest room until you and Steve could get your own place, you had only been talking about it since you were 11. The two of you still planned on doing that, but with being unemployed at the moment it was kinda hard to have money to pay rent.

Today was the final day of packing up the Byers house. You had planned on being there but got pulled into a last minute job interview at Family Video with Robin and Steve. But as soon as you were done there, you were heading over to say your goodbyes. It was a hard day and you were trying not to think about it. 

Good news: the three of you start work on Monday. Bad news: it was time for the Byers to leave.

As you and Steve pulled up it looked like they had just put the last box in the moving truck. You hopped out of the car and jogged up to the door right as Joyce was coming out with a box for you to take home.

“What’s this?” you ask, taking the box from her

“Just a couple of Hop’s things, I thought you'd might want them.”

You sat the box down on the front porch and pulled her in for a hug, “Thank you, for everything. For the stuff and for basically being my mom and for taking El in. It means a lot to me.” A few tears escaped from your eyes.

As everyone was saying their final goodbyes you pulled El in for one final hug. 

“You don’t have to go, you know..” you say in a half joking manner. “you could stay here with me, get our own place or fix up the cabin. He did it before.”

All she does is chuckle lightly and buries her face deeper into your chest.

“I'm really gonna miss you, kid” you say quoting something your dad would say, “but I’ll see you soon. I think we’re all coming up for Thanksgiving next month and then Christmas is right after that.”

“I know” she said quietly, “I love you, Y/N” 

“I love you too El.” you pulled away from the hug and locked pinkies with her and kissed your own hands. Giving each other a small smile before moving on to the others. 

“You have Steve’s number right?” you asked before pulling her into one last hug. She nodded her head as she pulled you closer for one last squeeze before climbing into the passenger seat of the moving truck. You shut the door behind her patted the door and just like that they were gone. The kids all ride their bikes back to their designated homes and you and Steve climbed back into his car to head home too. 

><

As Steve puts his car into park he shifts a little in his seat, you don’t notice because you're looking down at your hands with tears rolling down your cheeks.

“I know today’s kind of a hard day for you, but I have something that might make you feel a little bit better.” he says running a hand through his hair.

He reached behind you into the back seat and pulled out a flat velvet box, you give him a curious look,

“Max and I, we talked about this for a really long time and she really wanted you to have this.” he says handing you the box.

You open it and your eyes fill with more tears as your hands drop to your lap and your head hung forward. Inside the box was Billy’s Virgin Mary necklace. It had been polished and shined and cleaned and it looked better than ever. You set the box to the side and you wrap your arms around Steve and give him a hug. After you pull away you pick up the box again and look down at it. 

“I miss him Steve,” you say resting your head on his shoulder.

“I know you do.” he said as he wraps his arm around you 

You sit up and look at him and he's looking back at you with nothing but love in his eyes, you think it’s time you told him.

“Steve there’s something I need to tell you.” your heart is beating so hard you’d be surprised if he couldn’t hear it. “These last 3 months have been some of the hardest months of my life, not only because I lost so much but because I’ve realized a lot of things. I learned my self worth, it’s been a while since I’ve truly been happy. And I found that I’m only truly happy when I’m with you. I also know that Billy would’ve wanted me to move on at some point, and as much as he said he hated you Harrington, he wouldn’t want me to be with anyone but you.”

He looked at you like if he blinked everything would fade away and none of this would be real. You reach out and place a hand on his face, looking over where wounds had once been and were now turning into scars. 

“ I love you Steve.” You finally say 

He doesn’t say anything back he just leans in and presses his soft lips against yours. The kiss held so much love and emotion. It felt just like the movies, like the moment when these things always happened. Time seemed to have slowed down, allowing you take it all in and cherish it.

“I’ll take that as the feeling’s mutual?” You say with a giggle. 

Steve brushes his nose against yours before kissing you again, only this time with more force. You took this as his way of saying yes. His mouth hot on yours as his hands grabbed your waist awkwardly from the place he was sitting and pulled you as close as he could. You both only pulled away to catch a breath. 

This would be a moment you would remember for the rest of your life. It wasn’t your first kiss, wasn’t even your second, or hundredth, but it was your first kiss as lovers, but it definitely would not be your last. The world would throw crazy things at you, especially when you aren’t ready for it, but you don’t have to deal with it alone anymore. 

You just always have to know that sometimes things just don’t go as planned and your world might come crashing down and it’ll fall apart, but always remember that you’ll have people in your life to be there to catch you when you fall.

Taglist:

@ughhhitsfan @eleventhdoctorsangel @chloe-skywalker  

[louhooo]

Hello My Old Heart | Chap. 12

Chapter Summary: Sam has a big mouth and hearts break some more

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x Reader [AU]

Warnings: Swearing, angst, bad timing

A/N: This is a flashback set about a year ago

All feedback is welcomed! 💘

“So, guess what I heard down at Peg’s?” 

Bucky didn’t respond, focusing more on keeping a steady pace. That didn’t stopped Sam. “Fine. I’ll tell ya anyways.” Bucky rolled his eyes. “Dot Williams is askin’ ‘bout you.” Bucky’s face twisted and he looked at Sam.

“Why?” Sam rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“Why do ya think?” Bucky shook his head and looked back at the road.

“Not interested.” Sam caught Bucky’s arm, slowing them both down until they stopped in front of Coach Philip’s house.

“Buck–” Bucky held up his hand.

“Don’t. The only reason I agreed to run with you is ‘cause you don’t talk about this shit like Steve does.”

“Well, tough, I already talked to Steve.” Bucky rolled his eyes. 

“Isn’t it shitty to talk about your friend behind their back?” Sam gave a deadpanned look to man standing in front of him.

“Man, shut the fuck up. You know we weren’t talking about you behind your back, especially since we’ll tell ya everything we said directly to your face.” Sam got side-eyed as Bucky stretched his quads. Sam sighed, “I mean, I feel like if Y/N can–”

Bucky’s head snapped towards Sam. “What? W-W-What’re you talking about?”

“I didn’t say anything.” Fuck! Sam and his big, fucking mouth! Sam started running again, trying to get distance between him and Bucky. Bucky blinked until his feet and brain caught up and he started to run after Sam.

“Sam! Come back here!” Sam took a sharp left, running towards Steve’s house, hoping that he was fast enough to get there and lock the door before Bucky showed up. 

He wasn’t.

Just as Sam opened the door, Bucky dove, both men crashing into Steve’s coffee table. Steve laid on the couch, still trying to process what was happening.

“What do you know?!” Steve scrambled up and tried pulling Bucky off Sam.

“Hey! What’s goin’ on?!” Sam tried pulling himself out of Bucky’s grip, but it was pointless.

“I can’t tell you if you kill me!” Bucky let Steve pull him off of Sam, and he held his hands up in surrender. Sam rolled away, trying to catch his breath and put enough space between him and Bucky. “What the fuck, man?”

“What do you know about Y/N?” Steve’s eyes shot to Sam’s.

“You told him?!” Sam crossed his eyes.

“Jesus, Steve… no! Why do you think I was running away from him?” Bucky shrugged Steve’s hand from his back and turned to face the blond man who had been lying to him, too.

“Tell. Me.” Steve and Sam shifted anxiously, sharing glances, silently trying to decide what they should do. Bucky made a step towards Steve and Sam and both of their hands shot up in defense and they took a steady step back.

“Okay, okay, I’ll tell ya… but you gotta relax, Buck.” Bucky closed his eyes and inhaled through his nose. Once Sam felt Bucky’s breathing had calmed, he lowered his hands. “She... texted me a while back, and I found out where she is.” Bucky’s eyes shot open and he stared at his friends.

“Whe-H-H-How...?” Bucky’s thoughts were racing.

“She called me late one night and... man, she sounded so upset... I couldn’t hang up on her. I might’ve,” Sam shrugged noncommittally, “looked up her information at work.” Bucky blinked.

“Is she seeing anyone?” Sam and Steve’s reticence said it all. The silence was deafening to the other men, but to Bucky? The internal noise was worse.

“Buck…?” Bucky blinked and looked at Steve, who wore an apprehensive grimace. “You okay?”

Okay? He should be; okay. He should be happily moved on from you, living his best life. But that wasn’t going to ever happen. Not now. Not when he realized you weren’t lost forever, and he had a way of finding you. Finding you and groveling and begging and pleading until you came back. Came back to him.

“What’s the address?”

How was it you were only this far away from home? Three hours. That’s how long it took him and Steve to get to the town you lived in. Sam refused to come with, saying that Bucky and Steve were “just askin’ for it” when Sharon found out.

But Sharon wasn’t going to find out. Unless it worked in Bucky’s favor, but he wasn’t worried. She would be too happy to have her best friend back to care.

Bucky combed his hair how you liked it, and wore the navy shirt you got him the last Christmas you spent together. You always liked him in blue, said it made his eyes brighter.

“You still sure about this?”

“Steve, I… I should have never let her leave in the first place. I gotta at least try an’ talk to her. I know her. I know she’ll listen to me, and let me explain my side.” Steve sighed and parked the truck on a side street. He turned to his friend and slapped his hand onto his shoulder.

“Go get your girl.” Bucky grinned and got out of the truck, checking his hair one more time in the mirror. He heard your laugh and he froze, his eyes searching for you. He thought he was going to collapse once you finally appeared in his line of sight across the street. A smile subconsciously made its way to his face.

You were wearing faded jeans and an olive green sweater, and a blinding smile. A smile he only dreamed about now. He made a step towards you, and his smile fell. He stood and watched as you and another guy walked up to your door step, arms brushing, smiles on both of your faces. 

He stayed hidden behind the truck as you turned to face the other guy, standing on your steps so you were eye level with him. You spoke to each other, a bashful grin never leaving your face. The guy kissed your cheek and said a few more things before walking away, a swagger in his step that Bucky didn’t like. Bucky clenched his jaw, his eyes burning from the unshed tears and got back into the truck.

“Drive.” Steve stared warily at Bucky, but as soon as he opened his mouth to say something, Bucky shot him a look, effectively shutting him up. Steve glanced at you once more and slowly pulled out of park and drove away.

You looked happy. 

Bucky had been prepared to see you angry or sad… but happy? He never imagined you’d laugh like that for anyone but just him. He never thought anyone else would see you smile like that. That anyone else would put their lips on you.

You moved on, so he should, too. Even if had to pretend for a while, he would move on.

They had been driving for an hour when Bucky asked what Steve thought about Dot Williams. Encouraging anecdotes about “open hearts” and “fresh starts” spilled from his friend’s mouth. Bucky mulled it over and over in his head, and when they got back into town, he got her number from Sam, and called her to ask her on a date. Dot’s enthusiasm was something he was sure he could get used to.

You touched your cheek and grinned before going inside. As soon as the lock clicked, your face fell.

Peter’s cologne was the same as the one you bought for Bucky your second Christmas together, and you could still smell the memory of it on your shirt. As soon as Peter picked you up, the scent hit you like a train, and you spent the whole date thinking about Bucky.

It wasn’t like it was that unusual for you to think about him. He seemed to be the only thing you could think about on your dates.

Did he go on dates, too? Were they as pathetic as yours? Probably not. He was too charming and sweet for any girl to not fall head over heels for him.

Bucky was too enchanting to not find someone again.

“I don’t know if you knew this… but I had, like, the biggest crush on you in school.” Of course he knew. The whole town knew. It wasn’t like she was exactly quiet about the infatuation. 

Bucky grinned and shook his head.

“Ya know, I don’t think I did. Musta been good at hiding it.” She giggled and nodded, her hand landing on his forearm. He’s funny, but he wasn’t that funny. Her cackling subsided and a coy grin stayed on her lips, her body moving closer to his. Bucky felt the muscles in his back tense, but he didn’t move.

He watched her bat her lashes, and felt her thumb rub against his skin, a knot forming in his stomach.

“You’re cute, James Barnes.” Suddenly, any appetite he thought he had, disappeared with his resolve. His name didn’t sound right coming from her. Not when she said it like that. 

Not when she wasn’t you.

He cleared his throat and game a tight grin to Dot, “Ya know what? I just realized I didn’t wash my hands yet, and Shar said the flu’s really bad right now, so, just to be safe, I’m gonna go do that.” Dot blinked, a look of surprise passing her face. She removed her hand and sat up.

“Oh. Uh, that’s a, that’s a good idea. I should do that, too.”

“Yeah, you should.” Bucky rose from his chair and waited for her to follow in the direction of the restrooms. They each went into their corresponding rooms, and Bucky didn’t wait for the door to shut completely before he pulled out his phone.

Buck: 911

Steve: On it.

Bucky went back out, and sat at the table, Dot rejoining a minute later. She smiled.

“So, do you–” Bucky’s phone started ringing in his pocket and he grimaced.

“I am so sorry,” he reached into his phone, and acted surprised to see that it was Steve. He glanced at Dot, “Is it alright if I take this? It’s Steve.” She waved him on, and he slid to answer, holding his phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“That bad, huh?”

“Oh, Jesus! That’s terrible! How many injuries?”

“I’ve got a pretty bad papercut, if that counts.”

“Okay, okay! I’m on my way!” Bucky hung up and displayed his best look of displeasure. “I’m so sorry, Dot, but I’ve gotta go. There was an accident, and I’m on-call.”

“Oh! Um, oh! Okay! Yeah, you go! Just, just call me when you get a chance and we can reschedule!” He grinned and stood up, the legs of the chair squeaking against the floor. Other patrons glanced at him but he ignored their stares.

“Okay. Bye, Dot. Thanks for understanding.” Bucky laid a ten on the table for their drinks and booked it out of the restaurant, sliding behind the wheel of his truck. He let out a breath and put the keys in the ignition and took off for home.

He sat in front of the house, staring at the front door from the driver’s seat in silence.

How was he going to move on? 

How was he just supposed to forget you?

Was he just supposed to stop loving you?

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Previous // Next

––––––––––––––––––––––––

THANKS FOR BEARING WITH ME GETTING THIS PART OUT!!!

[sikereviewdotcom]

undercover brother (2002) review

sup been a while but didnt forget about yall and your eager butts to dive head first right in the flooding words coming out of my mouth today gonna rev "undercover brother" (2002), its gonna be solid guys

so we start with an introduction where we talk about how black culture was losing its flavour after the 70s, progress was slowed down n all as we reached 2000 but dont be fooled, its all cause of a buncha events orchastred by "the man"... a big racist mf ig whos also the kkk equivalent of the team rocket boss, sitting in a ig chair, never see his face in the flashbacks or like the bad guy in inspector gadget, more like him ig since we actually see the team R boss face quite often nonetheless, theres a form of mystery folding this whole business... THE MAN acts in the shadows and he hates to see how dark those are, he wants things to be like it used to be back in slavery times good oltime for him but.. not for the fam

ofc then here is introduced THE REAL MAN OF MEN => undercover brother, our hero and damn he has the style of a whole pack of elephants trampling around in pink disco suits every ladies wanna a piece of that sweet fro he is packing up on his head, funky

ngl, the whole way this mov is filmed n edited is sike asf, dope guys especially considerin its actually made in 2002, loving it anyway then were also introduced to the other secondary protags who are from an organisation here to stop The Mans evil doings and careful: undercover bro was actually a solo act until now cause now they gonna collaborate all throughout da mov: its the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D, with conspiracy brother (tbh a fav here, guys wack like the whole plot guy thinks computer comes from a story involving peanut and idk guys he keeps rambling bout bs which makes him a+ character) smart brother, chief and sister girl (original name/10)

so btw the organization is on a mission rn at the beginning to destroy The Man (lets call him tm for the rest of this rev) financial infrastructure aka funds to stop him better or smthg and it gets spicy as they get caught but ofc undercover bro barges in from nowhere wow big disguise as an old man no one noticed him so like slash bawow boom vlam, bad guys ko and he squeedaddle out of there like twas breeze gg man, he also get fed a nice editing of xrays battle like with a side of kungfu n whatnot, undercover bro knows his stuff

nice sounds effects ah yes btw romantic intrigue with sister girl begins here, its the zinc of the flinch as ub (undercover brother) notices her big wink wink nudge nudge, btw later she is asked to go enlist him in the corps so he can help stop the man with them n shit and he trynna get her in his bed cause thats we this brother is used to, getting laid as soon as he meets a chick, who can resist this dude?

he gots moves, fro, style, skills and also at times he is a pussy but k, not everyones perf sometimes you just simp for a white blond blue eyed woman (spoiler) and crawls on all four looking like a big preppy nerd btw in this review im trynna not spoil the whole plot cause guys, this movie gotta be on yo watch list kay? im not here to ruin this experience in yo life itd be pretty uncool of me so im just gonna state the big lines then its up to you to swoop the tiny ones out of the watch, knot your own breds n stuff

back on the whooper slapping: intro credits roll, we get some nice back story for our hero, making sure we can understand his cause in saving the black peeps from TMs assholery might truth n justice be your guide

so what the big plot then? well yknow how a big antag cant do shit on his own cause hes too busy sticking brooms up his ass in his private quarters? yea well same goes here so there this gay guy who will be twerking later on btw, a scene to behold, rumps to ogle at, so hes a bad guy and gay n gonna do most of the dirty work for TM, whats new? idk what to think of it yknow its a stereotype in movs so ig ok still uncool but ill see it as all in good spirit cause theres bad n good im not excepting this to be the best watch of my life, nah it wasnt either, but i had a good laugh kay? makes up for it cause unlike some here i got no shit up my ass alley its clean scrubbed up n down so i can smoothly take a chillax up n a shit out without a night tormented by constipation, nah its all sliding where it should no pain no sweat

so the big lines is that a war hero whos a black man is gonna become president and wtf no is the only react racist mf could have which is what they have, bad guys gonna stop it from happening at once and the brotherhood aint letting it happens cause obvs something is wrong as every black peeps gonna turn into a stereotype like waddup in this mad world? its all because of the poisonous fried chicken brand TM will get around ty to another poison to make our war hero delusional n so on were also introduced to white evil she-ra later btw, just dropping this in cause undercover brother really wants to make oreos with her n sister girl (his words) ig shes the second love interest, im not too invested in this romantic intrigue it was just necessary not like twas very developped anyway its even more of a bedroom intrigue when it comes the the white blue eyed blond chick, sister girl before hoes yo

whats it in conclusion about this movie? first, the plot: hilarious biznasty worthy a+ bs especially how its turned yknow, the clichés were turned upside down n if not theyre just turned into a big satire of themselves editing + music ? yknow its actually good, and funky asf im digging it, a travel in time nostalgia of times i lived acting is pretty neat its not an ironically good movie cause its hilariously ridiculous in the making way its all about the plot here, plot twists and characters, the whole universe ig like its superior to big mamma sorta plot or maybe im dropping this comparison cause its been a while since i saw big maam, for sure twas under estimated while over brought when this here? it got freshness packed in

the spoiling was light and this is cause this movie got a 69/10 rating jk 8/10 if were gonna be serious, im gonna list wats unwoke n uncool here: 1 gay villain stereot, gotta be honest here its not that big of a deal tme seeing when it was made and how i still laughed yknow idc this much but some could go apeshit over it 2 not enough conspiracy brother content: this is all i ask for 3 had no snacks while watching the movie, too bad id dig a aj or grape soda right about now n then 4 more lines for car wash chicks jk this last one idc about, but car wash representation is lacking once again in american movies, i cant believe how looked over it is, as if they didnt need smore rep in the medias its not an easy job washing car all day long, standin in those ghost buster lookin suit while staring at the hot guys in hot wheelys, whos gonna pay you a drink when youre just an old carwash lady? thought finally a hero would step up in this movie but there it goes thrown out da window, the potential was real until it got blown away sure sister girl was a solid character but give the washers some credits cut them a slack of free time n have a lil date together there on top of a truck to keep it native

nonetheless this is a top rec for anyone who feels like slipping into some conspiracy slippers

tg, out

[anunvalidcritic]

TITANS: sn2 ~ ep8

(DISCLAIMER: MY OPINION IS MY OWN AND CAN BE DEEMED INVALID TO THOSE WHO DON’T CARE FOR IT.)

Idk wth is going on with me my dudes... Happy late Halloween though...

                                                   Jericho

What street is JERICHO walking on?

?? He sounds like a fuckin’ bird makin’ that noise.

Aww at least DAWN understands him. 

“This is the only way.” - DICK 

There’s always another way to do things my dude smh

I have to see HANK doing the macarena

SLADE WILSON

Was in a special unit in the military

Killing machine

Enjoys apples

Tired to be a good father

“It kept me safe during battle. Now it’ll protect you.” - DEATHSTROKE

Well clearly tf not because he’s dead!

EDIT: he took off the bracelet...

I don’t see how some people can just tell their business to people they barely know....

Wow. these people really just rolled up into this man’s house like they really thought they were going to do something to this man!

OH SHIT JERICHO!!

Damn, I would’ve left too if that shit happened to my son! I’m sure he did it to keep his son safe. 

“Maybe you guys have forgotten what his father did?!” - DONNA

Bro you gotta chill you barely had any feelings towards GARTH before he died smdh

DANNG GARTH!!!

Stepped in front of that bullet just to protect JILLIAN.

What kind of fucking powers does JERICHO have?!?

ICONIC DIALOGUE

“Guys, I have great news.” - DICK

“What that your rejoining the circus?” - HANK

LOL I would’ve picked HANK too

Aye HANK’s not that bad of a dancer 

How could this dude just jump to the conclusion to get his bat out of his truck to fuck SLADE up???

DEATHSTROKE lookin’ like wtf did my son just do?

Dang, DICK is just droppin’ all this shit onto JERICHO

Well, Ig it’s a good thing because now he knows the truth about his father. 

Ok now I know he’s upset with his mother for not telling the truth but if that was my mother she would’ve already put me in a coffin. 

SIDE NOTE: how tf does ROSE fit into the picture??

“Sorry I don’t read sign language.” - WINTERGREEN

Titans Previous Opponent: ZEUS

Match: LOSS

DICK know I think we all know that you can’t be BATMAN (well, at least in this version.Because BATMAN would’ve already finished this shit.)

Ofc DEATHSTROKE got JILLIAN’s ass.

DONNA is all by herself in this building.

OOOO THAT FACE SHE MADE!! THIS WOMAN IS READY TO FIGHT!!

FIGHT SCENE: DEATHSTROKE vs WONDER GIRL

DEATHSTROKE PULLED AN ARYA!!!!!!!!!

He really went right for her shoulderblade. YIKES

“The Titans act like heroes but they’re hypocrites.” - DEATHSTROKE

JERICHO is really just gonna stand there watching these two dudes go at?! I would’ve already left the fucking building!

“Murder is far more honorable than betrayal.” - DEATHSTROKE

Idl about y’all but whenever I see the Ti

WTF JERICHO!!!!!!!

__________

I’m slacking and I honestly don’t know why. I think I might be losing my mojo but do not fear I will get my shit together! Remember everyone’s a critic when their opinion matters the least.

[themanicgalaxy]

SPN 1X22 Devil’s Trap

LET’S DO THIS SEASON 1 FINALE LET’S GO

Wow Dean is really this close to a breakdown isn’t he, he’s acting more manic and angry-scared than I’ve seen before

retreats and gets a plan, wow very responsible

Dean is desperately clinging onto keeping everyone alive

“We need help” BOBBY? IS THIS GONNA BE WHERE I MEET BOBBY SINGER???

The jarring rock music does not match the scene, there was music that fit the aesthetic that would have been more thematically appropriate 

BOBBYBOBBYBOBBY

“last time I saw you you were threatening to fill my dad full of buckshot” “yeah he has that effect on people” I LOVE HIM

and makes a joke to get Sam smiling

there’s so much less tension in this scene than ones with John

Also the fact that Bobby’s just plugged into the hunter network, that’s so cool

Sam jumps in front of Bobby aw

Ok, Meg is acting like Angry but still composed, FINALLY, halfway decent lines

yes it’s still ridiculous but it’s much more believable 

oh great she’s back to the weird flirting damn it all

EYY they planned to get her trapped eyyy

ok so angry Dean is TERRIFYING NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE F E AR 

“there’s a human inside trapped by a demon can’t you tell

how did Bobby know that’s SO COOL?? I LOVE BOBBY

Ah yes exorcism vs tell us where our dad is, this is smart

seriously SO MUCH MORE got done with Bobby 

“I will march into hell myself and slaughter each and every one of you” is this foreshadowing? this feels like foreshadowing

seriously, are we entirely sure Sam is the main character? because he has a lot more beef with Meg right now than Sam does

Sam come on please finish the exorcism

OHHH wait now’s the plot point where demons don’t really care about their vessels

Ah so here’s Sam’s Main Character Struggle of whether to kill the girl in Meg or not, and Dean acting like a reckless idiot

Ok so they do exorcise her, despite the wishes of Bobby, the only voice of goddamn reason

oh jesus that whole thing sucks, how she couldn’t move herself and was trapped in his own body

“is our dad still alive” DEAN

“what demon” SAM

GUYS COME ON SHE’S DYING

oh wow realistic portrayal of dying, where she just stops moving

of course, she dies and it zooms in on Dean because we all know who the story’s really about, not the death of a girl who’s just regained her autonomy after a year, but the guy’s reaction to making that call

The moral value goes out the instant his family is in trouble

Dean probably feels like the odd man out here

again no dead love interest, Cas get in here

“they know exactly what we look like” you people wear the same thing everywhere, it’s not that hard

the demons sitting at the table in a loose approximation of people is just so funny to me

THEY STEAL A FUCKING FIREMAN OUTFIT

“always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up” “you never told me that” : ( ( ( 

EAT HOLY WATER B I T C H 

that is a giant-ass canister of salt

reminds me of twitter

I say this as if I have a twitter, lmao

also speaking of, I like the lore element that anyone can make holy water if they bless it

THE HATCHET

HEEEEREEEE’SSS JOHNYYYYY

it’s shot almost the exact same way, this had to be on purpose

DEAN JUST FUCKING SHOT THE DEMON

Ohhh Dean’s angsting about the fact that he killed an innocent person because now he knows how demonic possession works

ah yes the age-old who decides who lives or dies, to which america responds: straight white christian man

oh that is a nasty black eye, jesus sam

Sam: Dean I’m trying to thank you

Dean: *quip* *somersaults away from his feelings*

yOu dIdN’T haVe a CHoiCe DeAN 

ohhh Dean’s scared of how easy it is for him to kill for his family

JOHN DON’T YOU DARE FRAME THIS AS A GOOD THING ACTION VS CONSEQUENCE IS A THING

JOHN HE LEARNED THIS FROM YOU WHY DID YOU DO THIS

DEAN SHOULDN’T HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO LOOK OUT FOR EVERYONE GODDAMN YOU

Oh my fucking god, he is possessed,

“he’d be furious I wasted a bullet” OH MY GOD

there is one benefit to being the rock of the family and that is people tend to trust you John

Of fucking Course Dean only figures it out because he was praised JOHN GO TO H E L L 

Him being in heaven at the end just RUBS SALT IN IT

ah the eyes, of course the eyes

This guy is so much more charismatic as a demon, my god

Really, just the character of John Winchester irks me SO HARD

the weird coloration on John so only his eyes pop? yes good, well shot I like that

Hey look Demons have Families too

WHY DO THEY STICK THESE PLOT POINTS IN THE WORST POSSIBLE PLACES

THE GLOWY EYE EFFECT IS SO GOOD

“in the way of my plans” gotta kill Jess Ig 

“you need them more than they need you” : ( ( (

“Sam’s John’s favorite...even when they fight it’s more control than he shows you,” AH F U CK I’M TEARING UP POOR DEAN

IS THIS WHERE THE POSSIBLE ABUSE COMES UP? IAHFPIFP

and then Sam NEVER TALKED ABOUT IT AGAIN

John snapped out of it for Dean! at least he did SOMETHING for his fucking kids, no matter how much John fucked him up

Aw Sam adopted some amount of value of human life(even if it’s just his family) from Dean :) 

OH F UCK THE TRUCK

don’t...don’t they need Sam alive

The rock music as it pans to them all bleeding out is a nice touch though

ok wrap-up: 

1. the whole dynamic between Dean, Sam and John is PAINFUL. SERIOUSLY EVEN THE DEMON HAS BETTER PARENTING TECHNIQUES THAN JOHN(assuming he assumed that’s what he would do for his own kids)

2. was I correct in theories: I was right about Jess being orchestrated by demon man, but she stays very dead, Stanford was like...barely mentioned, John is...ambiguously still alive, so I was wrong there. Also Dean got topsy turvy in when I liked him or not, but in the end, I resonated with him way too damn much

3. I love Bobby Singer he deserves the world

4. While some of the dialogue is a Mess, the visuals and vibe are Really top notch these last two episodes

5. I am feeling Emotions watching these, this hurts

listen the characters I project onto to feel emotions are MY business and MY business only(and whoever ends up reading this hot garbage.

ok well...that’s a wrap on season 1! I gotta wait like four days to see what happened fh;asifa;s

[flatstarcarcosa]

talked about all those headcanons but didn't mention how you met norman huh

I MEAN, honestly back when i was rabid for him I didn’t know selfshipping was in fact a thing many people did and i don’t even think there /was/ a community for it. we’re talking like 2012-2014 peak shipping w him hours. 

so anyway i never really had a timeline like that like i got for my boys now but ig if i did a new one (the milk is gonna age im telling you and i hate it) it’d probably be similiar to reesebane in the sense of i duck outta SC as soon as i turn eighteen and spend a lot of time bouncing from place to place and living outta my truck. 

probably end up in NYC living w a friend for a while before she moves (”why are you going south, you shouldn’t willingly go south” “bold words from a redneck” “thats different i was born there”). i can see this timeline being v similar to my irl life where i get hired at a “retail pharmacy” on a Corner and just start jumping on as many promotions as i can manage. 

i get savings and pto and health insurance and start getting on my feet, and after a few years when i have all the certs and licenses i need, i start looking to jump ship to anything that doesn’t have retail in front of it. 

get hired in whatever medical research division oscorp has by bullshitting a lot of things and cramming any knowledge i said i had and didn’t in between shifts. 

and being the egotist and grandstander he is i can see norman stopping by the labs sometimes to harass the senior researchers and make the junior ones star struck. 

we probably meet in passing and there’s something that has him take a second glance at me, and he peruses my work file and immediately pegs down that i bullshit my way into my position. 

initially he’s fucking annoyed that his HR are incompetent, but then he realizes i’ve been employed long enough that if i really was out of place, it would have been caught. it’s not easy doing whatever work i’m doing, and even though my pharm tech background gives me a good jumping off point and the work is similar, it’s probably still more akin to what pharmacists do, not techs. 

which makes him slink around the labs even more, because he wants to know how long i can keep up the act. 

also me being shit with names and faces for people, the first time we meet i literally dont know who he is. (”i’m the one who has his name on this building” “fantastic, that tells me nothing” “...i own the company.” “which means i’m doing twice the work you are for pennies on the dollar, now can you get out of my way?”) 

i also definitely forget who he is between every meeting. definitely get my wires crossed and remember the norman part for a while, and despite the company being oscorp, call him bates on his last name. (he doesn’t find it funny. it becomes mildly funny when it gets turned into an inside joke later down the road.) 

similar to eddie he probably asks me out quite a few times and me saying no just makes him pursue me more. (eddie is better from the jump at giving me my space, though.) our first ‘date’ probably ends up being him coming up with an excuse for something he wants my opinion on or ‘needs’ to discuss with me and me insisting i don’t have time. he only gives us an hour lunch break and the building is so big i barely have time to walk to the cafeteria, wait in line, eat, and then back outside to smoke, so he just follows me. 

ends up being funny in that he’s never tasted his own cafeteria food before and he’s absolutely disgusted and insists that’s going to be changed and redone entirely by the end of the week. 

“i’m going to fire the entire kitchen staff,” he says, tipping a fork and watching the shoddy excuse for mashed potatoes drip back onto his tray. 

meanwhile i’m just shoveling it in because my issues w food insecurity ain’t never goin’ away, and i will always eat free food if it’s presented. 

“you don’t need to fire all of them, just the line lead,” i say casually. “your quote unquote head chef is an idiot. the rest of them are fine but they’re beholden to his cheap ass.” 

“how do you know that?” 

i just blink at him while making that annoying slurping/rattling ice noise of trying to get more soda out of an empty cup. wordlessly, he slides his untouched coke over to me. 

“because i talk to them, like humans. also i’ve watched enough kitchen nightmares to know what’s up.” 

anyway

it’s probably definitely a slow burn. eddie and i are a slow burn but i think it’s pretty quick seeming compared to what norman and i would be. 

also, my dog liked eddie. rufus warmed up to him within a few hours, but he takes a LOT longer to warm up to norman, and i take his opinion very seriously. norman takes a long time to warm up to the dog, too on account of rufus growling every time he walked into a room and frequently refusing to let him near me. 

“he doesn’t like me” “he doesn’t like men”  “unfortunate that you do, i suppose”  “i say that every goddamned day” 

we find out later rufus disliking norman has a lot to do with his (norman’s) own mental state. the more he’s unravelling and leaning towards the goblin, the more rufus dislikes him. there’s many periods where norman’s doing really well and there isn’t an issue with him. 

it’s me that notices that first, and it takes a while for norman to believe that i’m onto something. eventually we kind of end up using the dog as an early warning system for him once the pattern is noticeable of 

norman’s fine --> dog enjoys his company, will interact with him, and listen to commands.  norman goes on a business trip or spends too much time locked in a lab or workshop and/or begins dipping into obsessiveness, thus stressing him out and causing him to neglect his mental health --> rufus proceeds to growl every time he walks into a room, will not listen, stays away from him, and also refuses to let him within a few feet of me. 

in a way we end up kinda pavloving norman into paying attention to himself since he dislikes it when the dog doesn’t vibe with him. he’s never been big on pets but he knows how much the dog means to me, so. 

anyway 

this also got long and i derailed from the initial meeting scenario and i gotta go to work a nine hour tomorrow so. 

y’all smell spoiling milk?? 

[writemywalks]

Letters to the piece of my heart: Ushuaia

After last year events I haven’t flashbacked much, in fact, they cured me of all the drama-related crap and now I barely whine or regret about trying new things like  i rarely feel that out-of-nowhere sadness. Sometimes true sad things set life priorities for you and you just chill the hell down.

Ergo, with that mindest I left home (aka new home/grandma house) a day after Christmas to the airport with a clenched butt, since my budget for the actual trip was very low and I had no credit card to back me up. But in spite of it, with a whatever comes attitude, me and my friend took off and myself finally enjoyed a flight for the first time, since the last two i did, I had a bad time being suspended on air in a locked-up plane.

For the first time in my life, I made this trip with zero expectations, like I wasn’t daydreaming or creating likely scenarios in my head. The only thing that was at the back of my brain was that, this Plan B was going to be made in honor of what Plan A should have been about. Even though our flight was delayed for almost three hours, everything was fine and we made it safe and sound.

Outside the airport while looking for a taxi, we came to realize that it was very windy and that in fact, there wasn’t a drop of the heat we left back in Buenos Aires. We were kind of insecure about the hostel we booked, since it looked too good to be true, but at this point we were already free falling. Once we checked-in and settled in our rooms, we saw that, in fact, everything was just like in the booking page pictures, and we had a plus: our shared bedroom had a dreamy view with mountains that seemed to be 5′ away. 

Gotta say I love having anecdotes of roomates farting in the middle of the night, or people having smelly feet that make you almost pass out, you really hate it when you’re there but I look back laughing now.

I think our first tour was “The end of the world” train that is basically a comfortable train with big windows indeed that takes you throughout dreamy landscapes while you’re being told the old prisoners stories that used to work in the mines located there.

It was a nice ride and bet my life that must be a whole dream on winter, with all those mountains and landscapes full of snow. There were some waterfalls, little lakes, and some good scenery that a movie would do.

On the same day we also booked a tour to the “Canal Beagle”, a channel where there’s the iconic “end of the world lighthouse”, sea lions and pinguins. This was the tour which worth every penny we payed. When we took our sits inside the catamaran, the view from the window of the city from afar looked similar to the Niek Engelschmanbrug buildings in Amsterdam. Once the city landscape was out of sight, we decided to approach the bow of the boat and there are no words to express how much freedom, feeling like singing and all that carefree crap i felt right there. I was like, living in the present is the moto one should live with.

After our first tour we went back to the hostel and spent the following two days boring the hell out of us. Me neither my friend are what we would call antisocial but we are really laid back people, so we weren’t having much sucesss regarding making new friends in the hostel, so we spent the time drinking mate, laying down in the sofa listening to music and scrolling down IG (and with our friend scolding us from her own beach vacation through FaceTime for being lazy asses).

The following day we woke up very early since we had to go to Laguna Esmeralda, a 2 hour and a half trekking to a Lake with a emerald color with white-peaked mountains as far as eye could see. I must have lost almost four pounds walking up and down those muddy paths where I baptized half leg after my friend pulled me down when she almost slipped herself.

Even though you stop to take some pictures, none of them does justice to what your retinas and brain keep for the rest of your life. The most I remember was being eager to reach the lake, the wind against my face, feeling so small in front of those enormous and even more majestic mountains, Indeed some things that a snapshoot would never show.

The first thing we did when we arrived to the lake was devouring our ham and cheese sandwiches, we were starving like mad after such long walk. Then well-fed and full, we decided to take a 5′ nap in front of this movie set-like place. I tried FaceTiming my family but we were so far from everything that we didn’t have any signal at all. I remember trying to capture a lot of videos of my camera and there’s some pictures on my cellphone with my ass laying near the lake trying to capture some good shoots from below. Some other people were icing their beer amongs the rocks since the water was quite cold and there were people gather here and there chatting and with the same wide-eyed gaze we probably had.

When we had enought rest, we walked beside the lake and tried to find some another view closer to the white-peaked mountains. Whatever we looked, it looked dreamy and sadly, we only had 40 minutes to record that in our minds before the truck came to take us to the city again. Our way back to the entrance seemed to take hours, since we were completely out of air and our legs were already giving up. 

Since my budget was low, I just knew these were about to be the only three tours and experiences I would have in the whole trip. They weren’t THAT expensive but I didn’t have much to spend around and we still had to buy our New Year’s Eve dinner. 

On December 31th, me and my friend woke up with the idea to just walk around the city since even walking the streets was a dream. Don’t ask us how but we ended up taking another tour since I remembered I had the hostel deposit left, I made my last bet and we made our way to Glaciar Martial.

The way to the Glaciar was non-stop uphill, we would stop once in a while to catch some air because contrary to the Lake, the path never went downhill. But as we got closer to the peak of the mountain the air was not only more fresh but we saw from afar people playing in the peak of the mountain full of snow?

Let me tell you, my experience with snow is ZERO, I never had a winter holiday and I never seen it falling down and played like in a Christmas movie. I remember watching some vlogs of people playing with snow before I left for the trip but I knew it wasn’t winter season so there was no chance of seeing snow. I remember reaching the summit with my friend and walking over it with my trainers and since we had left with the idea of just walking around the city, my boots were sleeping in the hostel room and I told my friend “I feel I’m walking over my freezer” and my friend who already went to the South in winter said behind me “girl, this is what snow feels like” and I remember sliding down the hill and sincerely having the time of my life. 

And again, a picture never captures your ass freezing, the back of your mind singing that new song you just listened to and feeling the world is so full of wonder and a lot yet to be seen. The view from the top was outstanding. On our way back down, turning to the entrance some grief came out of nowhere and I started tearing up again. That’s how it works, I guess.

.While we were walking down, we were talking with my friend how much of a dream the ski center must be on winter, since there were some chairlifts hanging there and a winter place off service and my longing to see snow falling increased a bit more. Someday.

My wet ass and my friend came back the hostel and some guests were just chilling so we decided to call our Chilean friend we had made two days earlier and fetch some dinner, since the supermarkets closed at 6 pm.

Wish I could tell how much fun I had that night. Meeting a group of Russians, making Italians taste some Argentinian homemade beverages, eating different Chinese dishes made by a guy from Hong Kong who talked in a spotless british accent, laughing with the tall German guy who suggested picture poses and laughed everytime. I bet he barely spoke spanish or english but we understood each other. And ending up dancing with all this people. Duuuude, it’s so odd seeing foreign people dancing to local music but we laughed and man, the beer made in the South, let me tell you, it’s the best I’ve tasted in a while.

The countdown was such a thrill, that’s when I knew I wanted to spend every NYE ahead at places I haven’t seen yet. The rest of the night we spent it, chillin with the only people awake in the hostel: the Argentinians. Everyone else were already sleep by 2 am. Extremely odd for our culture.

I wish I could tell how much I learned from this trip, how people who traveled on their own encourage us to do it, how safe I felt walking around the city at night with the friends we made there, that if you’re open enough, chances can be infinite.

I’m looking forward to more adventures like that.

It’s never too late to wake up to life.

[archer-wolfe-blog]

Who: Ivy, Flip, Archer, Fletcher and the rest of The Company. What: Ivy finally has her baby. Where: On the road, in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.  

It was going to happen eventually. Ivy had long since come to terms with the inevitability of having her baby outside of safety. But she never truly could have been prepared.

Ankles swollen and sore, the blonde had her eyes closed as the truck bounced along, trying to get what little sleep the squirming ball inside her would let her have. She was starting to doze, thoughts of warm showers and beds, when suddenly her eyes shot open from a tacky warmth between her legs. "No...no no, fuck." She moreso huffed ro herself as she looked down at the maternity jeans she'd been living in since Flip looted them for her, the stained front now a darker color than the rest of the fabric. And wet.

"F-Flip...?"

--

Flip had been almost asleep himself, head against the window and Ivy's hand tight in his grip. It felt like they had been going and going and going for forever and they were never going to get there. But they would. They would get there and they would have the baby there and everything would be safe. The sound of Ivy's voice pulled him out of his daze, and his eyes widened in something akin to shock mixed with fear as he observed the situation. "Ar-Archer?!" he nearly shouted, tapping the seat in front of him where he knew Dan was sitting. "What is happening?!" His eyes frantically darted from his girlfriend to the man driving the truck.

--

The moment he heard Ivy's exclamation the veteran cursed inwardly. Damnit. He had hoped that they would at least get to some form of safety before one of them had their baby... But it sounded like that was just wishful thinking. As per usual in this world. "Stay calm, Philip. You ain't gonna be any used to me if you freak out more than her, alright?" He asked the boy in the mirror as he pulled off to the side of the road. After watching the boy swallow and nod he parked, flipped on the hazards and turned around in his seat, reaching behind Sadie who sat next to him to reach out for Ivy's hand. "Just like we practiced, darlin', alright?" he asked with a reassuring nod.

--

"Is it happening?" Fletcher was at Archer's half rolled window immediately, and one quick nod from the Texan had the former construction worker opening the back door and practically yanking Ivy out of the backseat. "Open the door!" he shouted toward the BMW he had come from, and quickly the back door lifted and he set her it it among various pillows and blankets. The backseats were pushed down in seconds, providing optimal room for the task at hand.

--

Archer was climbing into the back of the vehicle just as Fletcher was climbing out, Flip and Sadie not far behind the former navy seal. Before the door was pushed down, Archer grabbed Ig by the cloth of his shoulder and pulled him in closer. "Anything comes near us I don't want to know about it, y'hear? You handle it." The door shut and he helped Sadie adjust the gloves she had helped him put on while he looked over Ivy. "This is gonna be mighty embarassin, but these are gonna have to go," he joked as he took a knife to her jeans. Archer had never been good at jokes in stressful situations, but boy did he try.

--

It was a blur to Ivy, and she mostly thanked the pain that suddenly set in as she foubd herself being removed from the car; Archer's words on repeat. /'Just like we practiced.'/ Gritted teeth, Ivy found herself balling up tightly into Fletcher until she was put down, face turning into the pillows. This wasn't how it was supposed to go down. One hand reached out as she tried to feel around for Flip to hold onto; although she managed a weak attempt of a laugh as she felt the fabric of her jeans separate. Archer wasn't funny but right now she was just thankful he was who he was.

--

Sadie took no time helping, sittibg herself beside Ivy and nezt to Archer as she gently rubbed the girl's forearm with one hand, the other discarding the fabric of her jeans. "You're gonna be okay, it'll be over before you know it." They both knew that was a lie but Sadie could see it comforted the other blonde a little.

--

Outside of the car, Ig handed guns around, checking each one to make sure it was loaded. "No shouting. No screaming. Just shoot it, alright?" It wasn't really a question

--

Archer handed a small bag to Sadie; inside a few syringes filled with pain medication just in case. "After the baby's out, just like I showed you." He had no doubt Sadie would be able to do it - she was so determined for such a little thing. He rubbed comforting circles into Ivy's thighs as he observed what he was working with. There didn't seem to be any push yet, but it would come. He made eye contact with her. "Breathe through the contractions, let 'em happen, just like we talked about."

--

Flip was at a loss for what to do. He held onto Ivy's hand tightly, his other hand in her hair as he bent down closer to her face. "You're doing great honey, it's going to be okay." With the tremor in his voice, even he didn't believe himself - but he had to keep himself together for her.

--

Ivy kept herself as calm as possible, teeth gritting as another contraction rolled around. She felt sick, and found herself squeezing at Flip's hand harder than she had meant. Words weren't easy for her to find, but she eventually spoke a string of curses in a whimpered voice before trying to catch her breath as her contractions settled for a moment. Only to start up again a few minutes later but even stronger.

--

Sadie paid attention, keeping the bag close she flinched slightly at the echo of a silenced gunshot from outside but relaxed when nothing else followed.

--

"God damnit, kid, I told you to breathe through it. Nothin' is gonna happen unless you breathe," he barked, reaching forward and feeling for anything he could find. Feeling the top of the head, he pulled his hand back. "Alright, s'comin, so this time you gotta push when it comes, y'hear? As hard as you can." Ivy was strong. She could do this easily if she put her mind to it.

--

Flip was panicking on the inside, but this wasn't about him. There wasn't anything that he could do but hold her hand and try to help her breathe. "You can do it, honey, I know you can," he murmured softly at her.

--

A shaking whimper came from the oldet blonde but it was cut short as another wave of pain ran through her. Her body tensed up as she began to focus on pushing just like she had been told. She trusted Archer, trusted Sadie and of course the man at her side. But none of that seemed to make it easier as the pain was worse than anything she had encountered so far. Another string of curses, another big push and Ivy felt her body already getting exhausted. She glanced up at Flip for only a moment as she tried to catch her breath before it started all over again.

--

Archer breathed with her, showing her how as another contraction rolled through her. "Good, good! That's good!" Archer encouraged her. He didn't know how long they did that for. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. Back and forth. Push. Breathe. Push. Breathe. And then finally- "It's crowning! C'mon, I, you're doin' so good. Just a couple more big ones."

--

It went on like this for an immeasurable amount of time, Ivy's body doing as she willed it despite how much pain she was in and how exhausted she was getting. Another few big pushes followed and Sadie was gently rubbing her thigh  telling her how amazingly well she was doing. Two or three more. That's all she needed.

--

Archer wasn't exactly the most experienced person when it came to delivering babies. Sure, he had helped once or twice - but it wasn't really commonplace for someone to be going into labor mid battle. So when he saw that head pop out, he couldn't help but practically holler for joy. "That's it! C'mon, darlin', one more big one for the shoulders and you got it."

--

It didn't take much more once the hardest part was over. Ivy gave anither big push and she felt her body shiver from the inside before it relaced again. A big shaky inwards breath and she barely was able to register Sadie telling her it was all over. "You did so well, you can relax now sweetpea."

--

As soon as the shoulders were through Archer helped the newborn the rest of the way out with a quick tug, smacking him on the back a few times to get him crying and he let out a breathy chuckle of disbelief as he wrapped the little one in a blanket. "S'a boy," he said softly, reaching out to Flip and setting his arm on his shoulder. "Father's honors," he said with a gesture toward his knife next to him, holding out the umbilical cord for him.

--

The moment he heard the scream, Flip became an entirely new person. He became a father. The desperate, soft wail from the infant as he watched Archer wrap him up in a blanket was almost surreal, and when the other man spoke he felt a few tears fall from his eyes that he didn't know were there before. "A b-boy?" he stammered out, gripping Ivy's hand. When Archer spoke again, he reached down for the knife without hesitation and cut the cord, pulling away from his girlfriend only for a second to grab the baby that was being held out to him. Immediately he bounced him a few times, pure disbelief and wonder shining in his eyes as he leaned down toward Ivy. "He's.... he's perfect."

--

Ivy barely registered anything, only noting Sadie giving her some painkillers for the discomfort she felt all tgrough her. But then Archer spoke and Flip repeated it and tgere was a fuzzy feeling rushing over her. A boy. She had wanted a boy.

She managed to look over, her knuckles white from previously being clenched as she ran her fingers over the infant's swollen little cheeks as he cried softly. "He really is. He's so little and perfect."

--

As the infant calmed down and softly started to coo, Flip relinquished his hold on him and pushed him toward his girlfriend. "Here," he murmured, reaching out and pressing one finger into his son's tiny palm, his miniature looking fingers wrapping around the digit. "He looks like me," he whispered quietly.

--

Archer smiled at the two as he pulled the gloves he was wearing off and draped a blanket over Ivy. He finished scooping the after birth and placenta into the bucket they'd prepared and was about to ask the two what they were going to name him when multiple gunshots fired. Now alert to what was going on outside, he squeezed Ivy's thigh. "You're safe now. We gotta head out." Without another word, he slipped out one of the side doors and almost immediately threw a walker back off of himself, nodding at Fletcher as he took care of it. "Back to the cars! Let's get out of here!" He didn't know how many there were, but he wasn't sticking around to find out. Jogging back to the truck he was driving, he waited until everyone had piled into a vehicle before pulling out.