#kinda wanna not think about me hardly being able to see him properly cause some fuckin tREE man was in front of me

[seokjinsonlyone]

this is how i think it’d go if you went to visit bts at work and gave them a little peck on the lips

namjoon:

you’d probably walk into his studio and he’d be at his desk headphones in playing back some beat or revising some lyrics

you’d come up behind him and wrap your arms around his neck effectively stealing his attention away from the track

and that’s when you’d place a nice little peck on his lips

but that wouldn’t be enough for him so before you could even fully break apart he’d already be chasing your lips

he’d roll his chair around to properly face you placing one hand at the back of your neck bringing you back to him immediately slipping his tongue in your mouth

what once was a cute little greeting turned into a sensual experience as he gently massaged your tongue with his

and when he felt like he had his fill of you for the time being he pulled back, smiling, dimples on full display and said “hey, baby.”

the depth of his voice would send shivers down your spine and you would settle into his lap wrapping your arms around his neck picking up where he left off just bc he was done didn’t mean you were

seokjin:

you’d probably end up at hybe headquarters after seokjin called you when he was done with his day to get dinner together

you’d call him to let him know you’re outside and within a minute he’d be in your car

you’d lean over the center console to give him a peck to which he’d immediately complain

“woooowww i’ve been at work all day and that’s all i get”

you’d swallow down the urge to tell him that he not the only one that work in favor of rolling your eyes and pressing your lips to his again for a little longer

that wouldn’t be enough for him though “just one more,” he’d request.

“one more.”

“one more.”

he knew that asking for a kiss from you was a dangerous game

could feel it in the way he melted against you

could tell by the way he seriously thought about giving you one of his rolex watches you jokingly said you’d steal and sell

or one of his cars you said you’d steal and sell

thought about giving you the world just for one more kiss

yoongi:

with yoongi you’d probably enter his studio (he’s always in the studio) with the code he gave you

which the fact that you were the only one other than himself that had the code did inexplicable things to your heart you couldn’t really delve into without feeling like you were gonna explode

anyway you’d walk in the room and he already knew it was you like you said you were the only other one who could freely enter and he’d be at his monitor doing whatever producers do

“hey just gimme one sec”

and you knew how that one went sometimes it was actually just a few seconds sometimes it was a few hours until you had his attention but you didn’t mind you ain’t have anything else to do just wanted some company

you didn’t wanna disturb him too much but you couldn’t help yourself so you walked to him turned his head to face you and quickly kissed him before recoiling to the couch a few feet away

10-15 minutes later he was summoning you over to him, pulling you into his lap, and using his thumb and index finger to trap your chin bringing your lips back to his for a proper kiss

you sighed contentedly afterwards laying your head on top of his as he wrapped his arms around your waist, showing you what he was working on

hoseok:

hobi was usually a super organized person liked for everything to have a place and everything to be in that place

but you were his little chaos and organization was definitely not his top priority when he was with you taking second place to soaking up every ounce of your presence in whichever way you would allow him

so really it was no surprise when he texted you asking if you’d seen his little notebook where he wrote his lyrics and whatever other ideas or thoughts popped into his head

it took a bit of searching to find but you had it and he was very fortunate you liked him it was the only reason you were willing to drop it off before work

you made sure to let him know he was the reason you looked ugly today the trip to his office severely cutting your usual routine and he made sure to let you know that a) you were beautiful no matter what and b) he would make it up to you

it was only your second time at the new building your first time was when he invited you along for their first look at the hybe insight museum so it was safe to say you had absolutely no idea where you were going despite the detailed instructions one of the staff gave you upon entry if you hadn’t run into taehyun you probably would’ve been running around that building for another hour

you were thoroughly unamused with the situation but hobi looked so cute and sheepish when you entered the practice room wrapping his arms around you immediately alternating between expressing his gratitude and regretfulness that you couldn’t help but press a small kiss to his mouth

an action you instantly regretted bc a) it caused him to start pressing kisses all over your face in return b) it caused an eruption of various forms of shouting from the six other boys you failed to notice upon entry

you pushed at his chest as heat flooded your body from embarrassment preparing to leave you were going to be late for work “be good” you told him personally before shouting “have fun!” at the other members

jimin:

your days off hardly coincided with jimin’s days off mostly bc he never really had days off always had to go in for one thing or another

but his days weren’t always jam packed some days like today he had a meeting in the morning and a meeting in the evening and not much else to do besides that

and he was the absolute worst at entertaining himself always needed to find someone else’s business to get into and as the object of his affection you were always his first choice

he tried not to bother you too much when you were busy though no matter how clingy he was and he was awfully clingy

if you two weren’t able to be joined at the hip in your free time you were definitely on the phone and if he wasn’t the object of your affection as well you would’ve started ignoring him a long time ago as it stands he was the best company

anyway he knew you were off today and had no plans other than finding a new anime to start so naturally when he found himself bored out of his mind he was in your ear purring down the line for you to come to him

it didn’t take too much convincing your attention span wasn’t on your side so you couldn’t really get into anything and even though you literally saw jimin yesterday you missed him :\

it’s why you didn’t hesitate to land a peck on his lips upon meeting him again and latching onto his arm firmly as he led you to one of the small practice rooms they had

“so tell me about your day”

you looked him over suspiciously he had that mischievous glint in his eye so you knew he was up to something

and you were right you weren’t more than two sentences in to your answer before he was pressing his lips to yours in a long lingering kiss

“i’m sorry continue”

“um...” your attention span really wasn’t with you and it was hard to retrace your train of thought with your lips tingling and the hairs on the back of your neck raised

you eventually found your mental footing and continued speaking about your day which had more or less turned into you ranting about haikyuu when again mid sentence he captured your lips between his own one hand tracing up and down your spine while the other held your head into place so he could lick into your mouth just the way he liked

“go on” he panted slightly breathless once you finally broke apart

“jimin...” you whined

he giggled at his own antics loved riling you up found it so cute how you couldn’t even try to keep the dreamy look off your face “you like me so much don’t you?” he asked with a self assured grin etched onto his face

you did

taehyung:

sometimes he felt so sorry to you hated cancelling on you because something came up or another thing ran over time

you were always cool with it tho never made a huge fuss of it which he was forever grateful for bc he really did love his job

but he really loved you too

he had to cancel three separate times just this week alone and he was missing you something bad

and even though he really wanted to take you out and do something nice for you like you deserved at this point he just wanted to see you

missed seeing you in person and having you in his arms

that’s how you found yourself on a bench tucked into a quiet corner of the upper garden at a table chairs side by side his hands toying with yours as you caught him up on your week so far

he was kinda obsessed with you and you loved it because having his undivided attention felt so so good

so you couldn’t help but close the gap, briefly pressing your lips to his

the slight blush that took over his cheeks had an insane amount of serotonin flooding your brain you loved him so much

even more so when he surpassed his bout of shyness and unabashedly brought you closer to him and attempted to make up for a week’s worth of lost kisses

jungkook:

sometimes life got busy for the both of you and even though you meant to meet up it just didn’t happen

but once you finished your work week you made it your mission to see him as soon as possible

you’d texted him when you got off and he told you he was finishing vocal practice then going to workout which left you with enough time to stop home and freshen up before he was done

as expected his trainer told you he was in the shower when you popped up so you decided to wait in the hallway for him to come out

“heeeeey what are you doing here”

you looked up from your phone to see your slightly damp very buff boyfriend grinning down at you

almost instantly you were hugging him arms wrapped around his waist before pulling back slightly pecking him on the lips

which set something off inside jungkook a shock ran down his body just from the feeling of your lips pressed against his

“let’s hang out” you agreed immediately “i just need to grab something from my studio first”

he laced your hands together dragging you alongside him and as soon as you entered the room he had you pinned against the door hands on your hips kissing you with far greater ferocity than you could have anticipated

and it’s like jungkook knew he missed you but he didn’t realize just how much until he had you in his arms your lips on his

kissing you felt like home and his introverted self never wanted to leave the house couldn’t even help the groan that escaped the back of his throat as you took control of the kiss and made a mental note to remember to never deprive himself of this pleasure again

one of his hands slid down your thigh lifting your leg until you got the hint to wrap both of them around his waist allowing him to show off his strength and grope you at the same time

“jk,” you said breathlessly, breaking the kiss

his lips were chasing yours the second you broke contact he didn’t care about breathing when a fire was spreading through his body

you indulged him for a few more seconds before breaking apart again

this time his lips traveled down your neck kissing and sucking until you were making the prettiest sounds for him

you felt like you were going to explode his hands were squeezing your butt and his lips were on your neck and you were going to explode

“jk...” you whined again tugging lightly at the hair on the nape of his neck

he made his way back up your neck pressing a hard kiss on your cheek before gently nudging your nose with his “hmmm?”

and suddenly you were staring directly into his eyes big and pretty and filled with stars shining just for you

you were going to explode “let’s get out of here”

[happyselves]

Wrong Number { Lando Norris x reader one shot }

WARNING !!! EXPLICIT !!!

You were the new PR assistant of Mclaren F1 Team and you end up adapting pretty quickly even starting to have some friends in the team and you were actually at grand prix for the weekend, working on the social media stuff. Obviously for your work you had to have the driver's phone number, but you haven't had the need to use it yet.

You were chilling in your bed, in that gorgeous hotel room, writing some new plans and ideas of videos for the next day where you will have to film a video of the drivers for the youtube of the team. Your phone was lost in your bed sheet and you were on it. Usually you aren't staying up this late but grand prix's weekends were a lot of work.

Indeed you were focused, glasses on almost done with your work. As soon as you finish, content with what you did, you close your computer and put it down next to bed, searching your phone everywhere to turn it off but you saw the little notification and decided to click on it.

Your eyes went wide as you saw the picture of a penis in erection, you double checked the name ... " Lando Norris " . What was happening was that he ... you didn't know how to react before seeing the three little points telling you that he was writing to you.

" OMG I'm so so sorry that wasn't meant for you, omg omg I'm so so sorry really Oh my god "

Obviously you were still shocked, I mean it was Lando Norris, the driver you work with ... You are supposed to see him tomorrow, how are you both going to be able to move on from this. Of course he does what he wants to do in his personal time. That's not your business to tell but a dick pic ? Why were you feeling so hot right now ? Was it because of the embarrassment or was it something else ? Because your stomach makes you feel a weird sensation that extends below between your legs. You took so long to respond that the three dots appeared again.

" I understand if you don't want to answer but know that I'm deeply sorry sincerely, I don't know what to do, if I could delete it and go back like 20 minutes ago I would, I'm not like that .. I'm not someone dirty ... doing that to someone... that's not who i am at all... "

You read and another message appeared.

" I had a bet with my friends, it's so dumb I feel so bad now, please say something I don't want this to change your work environnment ... "

How could you respond to him, staying professional ? Or admitting that you were so turned on by this picture and him, that you were imagining him touching you, one hand inside your underwear and the second one holding your phone, watching this picture again and again. He was large and the perfect size like how you like it. It was too late for your brain to function properly when you already had a press to send a message your thumbs wrote on it's own.

" You turned me on "

Shit ... that's all you had written ? The realisation hit you, what did you just do ... Why were you feeling so dirty right now but you were so excited to see his response, to see how he will react, that was a bit perverted of you but it felt so good to let yourself go lose like this. Too bad it was with basically one of your bosses ... The dots appeared so quick on the screen ... that's it you went too far and you are about to get kicked out of that team.

" Turn you on ? "

...

...

...

" Ohhhh ... "

" OH "

He was freaking out, of course he was freaking out. You were about to write something when the next text came at your surprise.

" You like it ? "

Oh god, he is entering a dangerous game now, first him sending you a pic and then you lose yourself that you respond something completely out of character and now he is playing along with it and you want more, so much more.

" Yeah ... a lot ... don't feel sorry and don't feel ashamed of it "

The anticipation of his next message was burning your inner self.

" I feel proud ... I don't really know what to say actually "

You knew what to do and you did it. You took a picture of your hand down your underwears touching yourself and send him accompanied with a little description " Now we are even "

His response didn't wait long before it came.

" Stop it [YN] are you doing that because of me ? "

You giggle and the vibration of your laugh made you moan somehow, you were feeling so hot right now and your hand was moving slowly to massage you. You were trying your best to not go too fast cause you wanted the pleasure to last, but it was hard writing with only one hand so you pressed the button to dial him. You didn't know if he would pick up but you needed to finish what you started. It rang 3 times before he picked up, both of you went quiet for a moment before you talked with a small almost whispering voice.

" I didn't know if you would pick up "

Lando POV :

What was happening to me, out of everything the person I sent a pic to… it has to be her, the new girl in the team, the actually pretty sexy new girl ... whyyyy ? But I was so surprised to see that she wasn't freaking out, quite the opposite actually, she wasn't as shy and innocent as she makes us all believe and I liked that. I liked that I might be the only one to see the little demon waking up behind that angelic figure. She put me in shock when she wrote that I turned her on, she didn't have much to do and the mystery of this got me so curious and then she sent me a picture of her touching herself, saying we are even ? She was playing a dangerous game here and if I'm not careful I might become addicted to it. She threw me off one more time by calling me, I didn't know what to do and I almost missed the call before picking up. What can I say to her? I hardly speak to her during work time and I don't even know if I would remember her voice.

And then she spoke with the most innocent angelic voice yet kinda out of breath, I wanted to moan just by listening to her but I bit my lips very hard for the sound to not come out of my mouth.

" well I wasn't sure if I could to "

She giggled and I swear I felt a twitch in my pants.

" I'm glad you did "

Her voice was erratic now, and I could bet she was pleasuring herself. Dangerous, mysterious, a little dirty and slightly perverted but in a good way. Knowing that you switch that button in her brain that turns on her just by sending a picture was so exciting to me and made me want her even more. I saw her so many times, the McLaren's team outfit wasn't doing her justice but I could see her pretty curve, she was giving the body of a goddess. She was everything I was attracted to, physically and now knowing this dark side of her, mentally too. I want more, so much more again and I was imagining her touching herself just for me and my mouth opened on it's own, letting sound escaping it have my eyes closed. It took me time before I realised that I was on the phone with her again.

Lando: shittt, [ YN ] what are we doing ?

You : I don't know but I can't stop, not now it's too late

Lando : What are you doing ?

You : You know what I am doing don't you ? And that's on you ..

Damn if I could leave my room right now and meet her in her and take her I would !

Lando : I need you to tell me what you are doing cause I'm going crazy here ..

She paused before talking again.

You : I'm touching myself thinking of you, your hand on me, how warm you would feel on me, how the veins in your arms would pop up...

I bet her fingers were moving rather fast than slow right now cause she whimpered from time to time. For real this woman that I barely know is driving me crazy and knowing that she is just a couple meters away from me. I love it so much because it feels like she is a forbidden fruit, a delicious one that I can't touch but desperately want and need now that I almost had the taste of it.

You : And you, what are you doing ?

You POV

You were far from the edge but you felt the tingling spike between your legs, he could go quick or slow, the orgasm was preparing itself, sending you electricity randomly.

Lando : I'm slowly caressing myself down to go and take myself thinking of you, your hair tingling my skin, how your hands feel on my naked torso and so far you look absolutely gorgeous.

You bit your lips so hard at how he pictured perfectly what was going on in your mind, you were in symbiosis. There was a question burning your lips for so long already and you really wanted to ask him so you dare so.

You : Do you wanna come into my room ?

Lando : Are you sure ? I'm pretty sure there are some rules that we can't cross.

You : They don't need to know and even if they know if you take the responsibility they can't do anything.

Lando : Oh trust me I will take the responsibilities for it.

You : Then come to room 155, and be quick and quiet cause there are other people on the team in the next rooms.

You hung up the phone and quickly went to the bathroom, you didn't know what was going on in your head to be so bold but you needed it so much, you needed him so much. You check yourself in the mirror, you were supposed to sleep in a big oversize mclaren tee shirt with just a pj short that we could barely see because of the shirt.

Lando soon knocks on the door twice and you jump off the bed to go and open it. As soona so do so you bring him by the shirt and crash your lips into his. He pushes you inside the room and closes the door behind you, pinning you against the wall. He was kissing you with so much passion, literally eating your lips, tasting all of you like you were something rare that he will never taste again. His hands went under your shirt and he was surprised to see that you didn't have a bra. His palms found themself at home on each side of your breast lifting you before holding you from your thighs. You were mesmerized to see such a young shy man like him being so confident right now and that turns you on even more. Your legs were now crossed around him not letting him now that you had him, hands in his curls playing with them. He was like a puppy when you pulled them a little bit, breaking the kiss, closing his eyes and moaning into your ears, what a beautiful melody it was. He kissed your jaw mufflying something as soon as he met your neck.

Lando : I want you so much

You thought you misheard it and your heart went crazy like it wanted to escape your chest. He pushed both of you on the bed, making you bounce on the mattress and unlock yourself from him, you whined a bit missing his contact already and he laughed before pausing, watching you sit on your elbow.

You : What

Lando : You are so hot in that McLaren tee shirt but you would look even more perfect in one of my shirts.

You : Then next time you will give me one or I will still have one of yours but for now just come here.

And you bring him once more by the aim of his shirt, taking it off in the process of kissing again. Your tongues were shyly meeting a first contact with each other before finding their pace and dancing together. How could they fit so well with each other ? You both felt something like you never felt before and it caught you both off guard that you moaned in harmony before looking at each other.

You : I don't think I can wait that long, I need you now Lando.

Lando POV :

The way she says my name, man, I will always remember this moment, her under me looking like a greek goddess, the way her eyes were on me, eating me alive ... Like the dude I don't remember who said I now understand what it is to burn for someone cause I was burning of desire for her. I don't think I could ever get tired of her eyes begging me to touch her, her breath itching as I touch a sensitive spot. The way her body moves as I take off her shirt throwing on the ground. How she giggled when my head got stuck in my own shirt as she tried to pull it off me. I don't know what angels sound like but I'm pretty sure it's close to her voice.

When I kissed her on her neck, going down to her chest. Her skin reacts giving her shivers that she digs her nails in my back, lifting her chin in pure pleasure.

All the imagination I had of her like this became reality and it was better than what I had ever dreamt of. She was the definition of warm and erotistic and she was so vulnerable in front of me gladly giving me her approval to take advantage of her.

You POV :

You were both almost naked only your bottom part was still on but not for long, you graciously took off your shorts putting it down with your feet before you turned your focus on his grey pants showing already how big his bulge was. You didn't need to imagine how he must be because you've already seen it and you couldn't wait to see it for real. Lando stands on his knees letting you pull down the jogging letting his member finally free from any fabric. As he goes down again to attack you on your lips he takes the rest of his pants off. It was so intimate to both be naked like this, your skin feeling his, connecting like two wires cable sending each other electricity. There was something real happening between you too, there were the physic attraction yes but it was so much more than sex and you weren't even at that part yet. He was taking his time with you, testing your patience, how much of a self control he had cause you just wanted to have him inside of you, but he decided overwise, instead he went down between your legs kissing them and licking them before blowing on it which made you arch your back.

You : Stop it already I can't take it anymore ...

Lando : Shut up ... I know you enjoyed it

Oh my god, you never knew you had kink for that, him being dominante like that, his voice vibrating down your legs was extremely disturbing for you cause that made you inner self react on his own, twisting inside and making moaning louder than usual. Oh that was dangerous, you felt like he could make you cum without actually touching you and now he knows it and will use it as an advantage. His tongue was running on you, coming way too close to your inner thigh. He paused, tilting his head a bit to look at you in the eyes before connecting his lips to you. That was the hottest thing you ever experienced and now feeling his wet tongue there, eating you like you were his favorite dessert, you didn't know how long you could last. You were arching your back one more time, your breath going erratically quick. You couldn't keep your eyes open for more than 10 seconds to look at him and your hands end up finding their place in his hair, messing his curly locks, holding on to whatever you could to not cum right away. His tongue was playing with your entrance and your clitoris.

After playing for so long he tongue was becoming numb but that didn't matter to you cause you came to the edge , grooming so loud, your hands still his hair, pulling him to you to kiss him and testing yourself by the same occasion. That was the first time a man ever made you cum just with his mouth like that, usually they stay there a bit and wanted to be inside you as quick as possible but Lando was different, he was here for your pleasure, only focussing on you, putting him in second place and you heart was melting at that thought. You kiss him gently, slowly with every feeling that you could pass him on. You both needed to take a break to breathe but you wanted more again. You wanted to make him feel how he made you feel, so you pinned him down, his back finally finding the mattress and you rode him, sitting on his knees to have access to his penis. He was so ready for you that you could see precum on his tip. He was looking at you carefully with anticipation because he knew what was coming, he pushed your hair to the side to see your face already redden from the orgasm and all the heat you've just had. His hand stayed accidently a little longer than attended to your check and you lean on it closing your eyes.

Lando POV :

She tested so sweet and I felt like I've been intoxicated by her, she was driving me insane and she was responding to every touch I had on her, even right now with my hand on her cheek she was so adorable with her dark eyes, her sex face. I never felt so drowned to someone like that. I was so glad that I accidently sent her this picture, cause I never would have dreamed to have her naked on top of me where all I could think about for the past month she entered the family was her. I couldn't stop looking at me and I was relieved to see that her eyes were closed so she couldn't see how much I was falling in love with her. I don't think my eyes would be able to hide my affection for her.

You POV :

You opened your eyes again, leaving a kiss on his palm before taking two of his fingers in your mouth, locking your eyes with his. This mouvement came naturally to you as you were feeling so relaxed with him and his eyes said it all. He was so into this kind of foreplay and he bites his lips so much that the blood wasn't circulating properly on them anymore. That was the signal you needed to finally lay your hand on his stomach, caressing him until you approached his member. His lips closed so fast to not groan out loud but you could still hear him and you saw his part twitching on its own. The fact that he was reacting to every touch you made on him the same way that you were for him and you smiled too bright and confirmed to you that it was so right, you two together.

You start rubbing his tips with your thumb and his head almost hits the bedhead, his hands rubbing your thighs. You stroke him a couple times before leaning your mouth on him, licking the precum that was escaping from him before slowly taking him, your lips closing themself on him putting pressure on his edge. You were looking at him like he did with you earlier but you didn't break eye contact, going up and down and flicking your tongue from time to time, drawing the popping veins of his dick. He felt so warm in you but you didn't know if you took him deeper in your throat, you tried slowly but ended up having gag reflex so you had to pull him out. He got so concerned at the sound you just made.

Lando : Please don't if you can't, I don't need it, having you already like that enough for me ...

He paused, taking a breath of air before continuing.

Lando : You have no idea how much I'm controlling myself right now, not cuming in your mouth cause I want to feel you.

You didn't know if this man under you had any experience with women before but if he didn't, well he was so good at talking during it or maybe it was because you were so aroused right now that he could have said anything to you and you would still lose it for him.

Lando : Come here, love, I don't want you to hurt your throat, that's not part of the plan, I want to make you feel good and only good.

He took your hands, making you lay on him, your hand intertwined on top of his head, testing himself a bit as he caught your lips. He let go of your hand to grab you on the side of your hip and reverse your position, taking back things under his control. You got a surprise and a giggle escaped your mouth which made him smile so bright. You kiss the smile away pulling him again by the next with a bit of violence. Both of you were fighting for dominance at this point, your make out session proving the point, teeth ... tongue, biting each other's lips until one of you bleed. You were both tearing each other apart when you felt his tips already at your entrance, his hand positioning himself at the right place, teasing you in the process of it before pushing himself a bit in you, waiting for you to tell him the next move. You adjust yourself before nodding so he could enter deeper, but he stops again when you bite your lips and makes a painful face.

Lando : Take your time love, tell me when you are ready

He was so careful, how could you resist him and on top of that it's the second time he is calling you love ? You wished he actually could call you babe or baby, it was already intimate but you wanted to be even more on the mind level. After seconds you finally felt the pain being replaced by that nice pleasure when he adjusted himself on top of you to be more comfortable, the movement of his penis in your making you moan. He took that as a signal and fully entered you. Despite being large and long, you were so ready for him that he didn't have to stretch your walls and you weren't feeling tight for him. He felt amazing in you, you were full of him, of his passion and his desire for you.

Lando : You okay ?

You : mmh mhhh you can move

And he did start, going back and forth taking the time to appreciate every friction, every sensation, every stimulation it was providing you both. You loved how his head rested on your neck, having him breath on your skin, kissing it as he kept thrusting in you with one arm holding you back to make you more comfortable, the second arm holding both of your hands over your head. He was being soft but still so dominant and you liked it so much, you were starting to develop a serious feeling for him by each minute you were spending with him. Both of you were a mix of moan, yelp, whimps cry and groan ... you were both a mess but you were in harmony. Every deep thrust he had made you arch your back even more for him, giving him more access to you. He went down kissing and playing with your breast making you lose control due to the erogenous spot.

Suddenly he came out of you and you were missing the sensation already, he wanted to switch position cause his legs were about to give up for him. So he sits on the bed and you sit on him, positioning yourself to go down on him. He was finally back in you after a deep push that surprised you and made you cry out loud his name, but it felt weird so suddenly and you looked at each other agreeing on that weird connection you just had. It felt like he was home ... like you and him were made for each other, your body completing each other perfectly. It was again so natural between you, you kept riding him switching between a slow pace and a quick one. Your head was starting to spin as you felt your second orgasm of the night coming. He was close to the edge as well but you beat him to it as you quicken the pace, him holding you so tight as he bites your neck making you wimps. You came in a big moan, whispering his name in his ear.

Lando POV :

As she came under me she was whispering my name and it was the most sexiest and beautiful thing I ever heard. Hearing my name be said like this gives me some weird feeling in my stomach. I was addicted to this girl and I lost myself because she was mine in this instant and I was hers. I want her today, tomorrow and every day that the world wants to give us together. I felt her shaking from her release and that tense my length. I was so close but I wanted this feeling to last forever and it was starting to be painful for me . The overstimulation wasn't helping her and she was completely wrecked by me at every push I was infliging on her but I couldn't stop until she found the courage to take my face with both of her hands forcing me to look at the darkness in her eyes. She sweetly kisses me, peeking my lips multiple times before holding my jaw and turning it on the side to give herself enough space to play in my neck and under my ears. She was a rare diamond, this one for real, how in hell did I find her ? She was always finding new ways to put me in a place where sanity wasn't possible. She was playing with my ears until I heard her low voice.

You : Please Lando, I need you to cum for me baby.

As soon as the word baby left her lips I was gone, in a last thrust I released myself in her, wimping like never before. The weight that left my body right now, indescriptible, incredible. She was smiling so much and now looking at me with soft eyes. I am in love with her.

You POV :

After so long he finally came in you and the spirkes you felt in you were breathtaking, You couldn't believe that you just had this ... the best sex in your entire life. You couldn't help yourself and had to look at him with so much love after that. " Say it again " he said to you almost inaudibly for you to understand.

You : What ?

Lando : Call me baby again

And you did again, kissing him, mouth opened. It took a long time for you to finally detach yourself from him. You were both exhausted but the mutual feeling of satisfaction like you were on a cloud right now, high from all the endorphins you released with your orgasms. You could barely walk to the bathroom and you both used each other for support. How can sex can be so draining, you were going to be in trouble tomorrow but you didn't care, if you could do it again, you would one hundred percent. Despite the fact he was as tired as you, Lando took care of you and helped you clean yourself before searching his tee shirt on the ground and giving it to you. You gladly accepted it and put it on before going back to bed. You looked at him, he didn't know what to do now, becoming the shy man you first met a couple weeks ago, desperate in the look like something was really bugging him.

You : What's happening ?

Lando : I have to go back to my room

You : No

There is no way that after that you will be separated so quickly, you open your cover for him to join you.

You : You aren't going anyway mister, bring back your sexy ass next to me right now.

Relief could be felt on his face as he jogged to come and snuggle in bed with you before you both fell asleep in each other's arms, completely glued to each other. You didn't know what was going to happen in the morning when they were going to search him everywhere and find out he disappeared from his room but you didn't care at this moment, you were ready to face any consequences because after all you weren't the wrong number anymore.

Masterlist

[nastybuckybarnes]

Bad Dream  -  Eight

Pairing: Dark!Steve X Reader

Summary: A year after wiping your memory and keeping you for himself, Steve Rogers is happy. Happier than he’s ever been. With you and your daughter, life couldn’t be any better. The only problem? You’re starting to remember things.

Warnings: Angst, Language

Word Count: 1.5K

A/n: I might be posting this a little less (I hardly post it as it is) just cause it’s such a hard mindset to be in while writing this. So for my mental health I’m gonna be taking some breaks from my dark fics and finishing up my other wips

!!!THIS IS A DARK FIC WITH SEXUAL AND TRIGGERING CONTENT!!!!

MADNESS MASTERLIST EDITED POORLY! BAD DREAM MASTERLIST

~*~

"This isn’t right, Buck. You know it’s not right. The way he’s been treating her... we have to do something.” The brunet shakes his head, sighing heavily. “He treated her well before she started remembering. I think we just need to wipe her again.”

Natasha groans, glaring at her partner. “And how often are we supposed to wipe her?! Is it gonna become an annual thing? Kinda like a birthday party? No! That’s expensive, it takes time, and it’s damaging. Every time you go in there and erase her memories, you’re fucking with parts of her brain that you don’t understand. You have no business doing that.” Bucky shakes his head again and stands up, heading down the stairs and opening the door.

You’re curled up in a ball on your side, eyes terrified and hopeless, Steve sits across from you, Sarah in his arms.

“Steve.” The brunet nods to the stairs and his friend sighs, standing up and following him out of the room, leaving you alone on the ground again.

“Pal, I think you and I need to have a talk, a real long talk. You know what I went through, how Fury... got me someone to help ground me. It wasn’t good but it worked. This? This isn’t good and it’s not working. We need to talk about this.” He hands Sarah to Natasha and follows his friend out of the cabin to give themselves some privacy.

Sarah starts fussing quickly, squirming around in Nat’s grip. Rather than go and disturb Bucky and Steve, she heads downstairs to where you are.

You look up when the redhead comes down, pushing yourself into a seated position when she brings Sarah over to you.

“She was getting fussy,” Nat explains softly, handing the baby to you. You hold her tightly in your arms, rocking her back and forth as she whines.

“She gets like that... sometimes. She just wants to feel loved.” You press kisses all over her face, cooing to her until she settles down then holding her close to your chest.

“What Steve’s doing... is wrong. You don’t deserve to be treated the way he’s treating you.” You furrow your brows at her words.

“Aren’t you his friend? Are you just testing my obedience?” She feels her heart hurt at the idea. “No. I mean, yeah, I’m his friend, but no I’m not testing your obedience. I realize that what he’s doing is wrong and I want to stop him. Or at least make it better somehow.”

You don’t trust her. How can you? This is the same woman who let Steve use you and defile you.

“I’m not sure what he plans on doing with you,” she admits softly, fingers hovering over Sarah’s cheek.

“But I know that if it comes down to it, I’ll fight to protect you.” You’re confused and she must be able to read it on your face because she sits down in front of you and sighs.

“I know what it’s like, to be held captive. To have no control over what happens to you. Granted, not to this extent, but I know enough to know that this is so wrong. You deserve so much better than this.”

You keep your eyes on your daughter, your voice quivering slightly as you speak. “If you only do one thing, could you... take Sarah to my father? He’ll know where to go and what to do. Just please, I don’t want her to be with... him. God only knows what he’ll do to her.”

Natasha knows that Steve would never hurt Sarah but it’s the only thing you’ve asked of her so she nods, agreeing and making a mental vow to do everything in her power to keep that baby safe.

~*~

“You can’t keep beating her the way you are. You’re taking this way too far. She’s a person, Steve. Not a punching bag.” Steve shakes his head and glares at his friend. “You don’t get it, Bucky. You don’t get it. She was so good before. So perfect. And now she’s just... misbehaving and pissing me off. I look at her and I see red. She makes me so angry.” Bucky scoffs and stares at his friend as if he’s grown a second head.

“Do you think that’ll stop just because you wipe her memory? No. You’re gonna feel the same damn thing every time you look at her. There’s nothing we can really do about that.”

Steve has a dark look in his eyes and Bucky actually laughs. “We’re not gonna fucking kill the girl, Steve. That’s extreme. Think about it this way: she’s the mother of your daughter. She can give you a family, a home. Everything you’ve ever wanted. She can be the normal that you need in your life. You’ve gotta get past your anger. Go hunting. Go fucking fishing. Just don’t take your anger out on her. You wanna put another baby in her? Go right the fuck ahead. You wanna have six kids and have her take care of all of them? Sure! Just don’t fucking hit her anymore. Stop associating her with anger because it’s only gonna end up badly.”

Steve’s silent for a minute, thinking about everything that his best friend has just said before breaking the silence with two words that make the whole situation change.

“She’s pregnant.”

Bucky sucks in a sharp breath of air and stares at Steve. “Again? You’re sure?”

Steve shrugs, “pretty sure. But she... she fell down the stairs the other day. I swear she fell, I didn’t push her, and... she hasn’t eaten anything...” he trails off, fear for his growing wild filling his heart.

“You care about the kid. The fetus inside her. You want her to give you another baby. You need to get back to your normal cycle. You can’t keep hurting her. If you want any chance at having a family then you’ll let me fix her. She can be the good little wife you want,” Bucky pleads, not wanting to see you or Steve get hurt any worse than you already have.

Steve sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut as he makes his decision.

“How long will it take?” Bucky sighs in relief, glad that his friend is taking the better path. A little voice in his head is disgusted with the fact that wiping your memory is deemed ‘the better path’ but he shuts it up.

“A day? Maybe less. I’ll need to grab the supplies and bring it back which will take about a day, maybe two, but then I’ll be back and we can wipe her properly.”

Steve nods, looking at his friend.

“Fine. Can you do anything about her now? Make her more... compliant? Just until you properly wipe her?”

Bucky rubs the nape of his neck, his face screwing up in slight discomfort. “I don’t know, Steve. She’s so afraid... it’ll be hard to really get her to calm down enough for it to take hold in her mind. You might just have to wait until I come back.”

Steve sighs but nods, making to walk back into the house when Bucky grabs his arm tightly, stopping him in his tracks. He levels his friend with a serious look, trying to get his point across.

“Steve. I’m serious. You can’t keep treating her badly. If anything, you should go in there and make her feel safe. Tell her you won’t hurt her again and then don’t hurt her. Make her trust you at least a little bit.”

The blond nods and tugs out of Bucky’s grip with ease. They come back in the house and Steve is intercepted by Natasha.

“Where’s Sarah?” He asks, his heart beating a bit faster when he doesn’t see his daughter anywhere.

“With her mother, being fed. Where she belongs. Don’t worry.” He nods warily, taking a few deep breaths as the redhead glares at him.

“If you touch her wrong again I swear I will make you regret it, Steve Rogers. That woman down there is terrified for her life because of you. She’s broken and has no idea what she’s supposed to be doing with herself. If you fuck this up... Steve, I’m not going to side with a monster. Not again. You need to fix this or I’ll take it into my own hands.”

Bucky steps forward, taking Nat's hand in his. “I talked to him. He knows what he needs to do and he knows that if he doesn’t do it then he’ll be forced to face the consequences.” The two watch as Steve stalks out of the room, Natasha’s words hitting him square in the chest.

He enters the bathroom and shuts the door behind himself, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

‘What makes a monster?’ he wonders to himself. Is he really a monster? No, he can’t be. He’s Captain America, for fuck's sake. But then again, all the bad guys he’s had to take out, all the people who’ve been hurting other people, they all thought they were doing it for the right reasons too. Is he so different from them?

The line between monster and man is getting harder and harder for him to distinguish.

~*~

[omniswords]

Chronicles of a Parisian Dumbass 13

hey y'all. happy update. sorry i've been so quiet like... literally everywhere. it's been, a lot lately, as you can imagine. i'm doing my best on my end and i hope you are too. i'm coming back to things. slowly.

if you like, come give me a follow over on twitter where i’m more active, or on twitch where i’ve started streaming. (username is omnistruck for both, but i was afraid that linking would nix the post from the tags ;;)

hang in there.

29 July, La Tortue. You in?

Luka has been, quite frankly, working his ass off like he never has before.

Well, maybe that’s not entirely true. He remembers at least sort of working this hard to study for the bac, even if by most standards he nearly passed by the skin of his teeth. And he remembers at least sort of working this hard to find a paying job once he could actually have a job. But those ventures were for other people. To make a school district look good. To put food on the table even when he did n’t much feel like eating himself. This… he might even say this is the first time he’s worked so hard for himself, taken every bull he could find by the horns and steered it toward this club Bubbles has been hyping up, instead of figuring out where the things he loved decided to take him.

…Okay, and maybe he’s been doing some of this with Marinette in mind. But it isn’t entirely because of her, and he’d be dead and buried before he’d admit that Juleka’s right about this.

But what’s so bad about having a reason to work so hard? What’s wrong with calling the band together to practice when they’d been so lax about performances before? And what’s so bad about having a face to focus on in his imaginary audience whenever he closes his eyes? Or about having their setlist running like ticker tape in his head whenever he has a quiet moment in between deliveries? Or about splitting his attention between his messages to Bubbles and the tireless search for that perfect shade of blue music in the middle of the night?

Isn’t this what drives art? A color, a smile, a touch of the hand? Doesn’t this stuff launch ships and pen poetry? Isn’t it the little things, the things that are inconsequential to almost everyone else, that makes a painting into a masterpiece, or a song into a symphony?

Juleka says it once at the end of practice. Mostly with a jerk of her thumb and the hollow drawl of, “Get a load of this guy.”

Luka barely hears it, mostly because he’s crossed the room to study a heap of sheet music and rearrange it for what feels like the third time this hour. But he has enough spare energy, between writing and erasing and rewriting, to raise a middle finger behind him.

“Oh, come on,” Rose laughs, stepping back from the microphone; in seconds, he can feel her looming over him, studying with him. He doesn’t mind it, or how she rests her chin on his head, simply because they’ve known each other so long. “You just wanna get it right for our big break, right?”

Luka’s gotten a lot of things right; it’s easy to do when he keeps the bar for “right” on the ground nine times out of ten. He doesn’t want to get it right. He wants to get it perfect. And, as it turns out, the tenth time is the most finicky son of a bitch he’s ever dealt with. Which is saying something, when he’s been at the mercy of hungry customers more times than he can count.

“We’ll get it,” Rose encourages him with a friendly kiss to the top of his head. Her voice sounds tired. Maybe even worn. “But it’s not gonna go anywhere if you leave it alone for a while. I promise. Come on, let’s give it a rest.”

After a moment, he sighs, rights his papers, and rests his forehead on the keyboard he’s had to use as a makeshift desk. It makes the most distressing mix of notes in protest, but he hardly winces; it’s not like he’s ever been able to play it properly, anyway. “Fine,” he relents. “I’ll make you some tea and meet you upstairs.”

A shift in the air tells him neither Rose nor Juleka believes him. In the end, Juleka says, “Fine,” and Rose unravels from him, and their footsteps fade up the stairs.

With a sigh, Luka lifts his head from the piano, sure that the keys must have left some kind of mark, and finds Ivan still there, seated half-uncomfortably behind the drum set and twirling one of the sticks in his fingers.

“Juleka gave me The Look,” is all Ivan says, but it’s enough of an explanation. They’ve all been on the business end of The Look before. Even Rose, and maybe Luka more than most. He can see it in his head from the words alone.

“I get it, I get it,” Luka says, and he sets to work putting the kettle on and fishing out a couple of teabags and mismatched mugs from the cupboard. “You want a soda? Last one before we go grocery shopping—”

Ivan shakes his head. “You have it.”

Luka tosses him a water bottle instead, impressed by how he downs half of it in one go, dismissing his apology when he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. The kettle’s still going. They’ve got time to kill.

“She… kinda has a point,” Ivan mumbles after more than a beat of silence, like he’s uncertain about being too honest. Luka’s always thought he had nothing to worry about—Ivan’s much more tender than first glances would have others believe, and maybe tiptoes more than he should to fight those first glances. But he’s also had more than his fair share of overthinking the right words to say when music doesn’t suffice, and of regretting the words no matter how he ends up stringing them together, so he can’t really blame him.

Luka decides to bite. “What d’you mean?”

“I dunno,” Ivan says, which usually means that he does know but is looking for the right way to cushion his words. “It does kinda feel like you’ve gone into turbo mode about this whole gig. But like, Luka-Couffaine-Style Turbo Mode.”

“Is that better or worse than the average?”

“Well… it’s definitely different. It’s like you tune everything out and go… I guess, somewhere inside yourself that the rest of us can’t see.” Ivan shrugs. “I guess maybe she’s worried that it’s so nice in there that you won’t come back out.”

Luka smiles grimly at the stovetop. “You’re not gonna tell me there’s no I in ‘band,’ are you?”

Ivan laughs and takes another swig. “Nah, that sounds like something a guidance counselor would say. More like… it’s okay to come out sometimes.”

Luka bites his tongue and resists the urge to joke that he already does it every time he meets someone new. Instead, he busies himself with turning off the kettle and making the tea. “Hey, uh… you don’t mind if I ask you something weird i do you?”

“I’m already scared,” Ivan jokes, “but go ahead.”

Luka pauses, tea bag in hand. “How did… you and Mylène get together?”

When he turns, it’s hard to say just how Ivan’s expression’s shifted, but he knows it has. Reminiscing, maybe? Or is that... cringing? Or—for better or worse—understanding? “I, uh, wrote her a song. It… didn’t exactly go well.”

“What d’you mean, it didn’t go well? You’re dating, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but. “Ivan shrugs. “It’s not like we just magically came together or anything. There were hiccups, I guess. You know?”

Luka knew hiccups better than the back of his hand. “So… what happened?”

Ivan tells him everything. How he liked Mylène and how sometimes it felt like everyone knew it but her. Or how maybe she knew after all, but didn’t want to, now maybe she even pretended she didn’t to let him down easy. How he buzzed from head to toe just sitting next to her in class but barely talked to her because he didn’t feel like he had the right to. The nights he stayed up thinking about it, wildly swinging back and forth between what if she doesn’t? and but God, what if she does? How he was teased and goaded by his classmates into finally gathering up the courage to confess to her, and humiliating them both with that stupid, loud song. And how, at the end of the day, all she needed to do was read the lyrics.

“It didn’t have to be perfect,” Ivan tells him. “It just had to be good.”

Luka smiles to himself at the end of it all, and feels his stomach turn, and wonders in the silence if all Marinette needs to do is hear the notes.

“Is it?” Ivan asks. “A girl? The one you’ve been posting about?”

Luka doesn’t say anything. He only takes the tray of drinks, and gives a little shrug, and nods toward the stairs. He gets the feeling Ivan would know without words anyway.

Cause I’m in. In fact, I’ve never been more “in” in my life.

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Riding On  Ch2: Did Ceasar Really Live Here?

Summary: Frank’s off to Vegas with the Circle of Truth boys for Jake’s stag do…what could POSSIBLY go wrong???

Warnings: Bad Language words. SMUT (NSFW, no under 18s)

Pairing: Frank Adler x Fliss Gallagher

A/N: Imma start running now so @sweater-daddiesdumbdork​ can’t catch me… Chapter Song: Stripped by Depeche Mode

Series Masterlist // WIYPT Masterlist

Metropolis has nothing on this, you’re breathing in fumes I taste when we kiss

March 2019

Fliss stretched out in bed, keeping her eyes closed as she lay still, Frank’s arm curled loosely over her hip as he continued to sleep besides her. She knew her alarm hadn’t gone off yet, so it must have been before 7. Mind you, her sleeping patterns had been out of whack for the last week or so anyway now. Apparently another lovely little side effect Bean was giving her. On the plus side, however, she was into her 16th week now and for the last 10 days or so the sickness had remained at bay so she was hoping she was through that particular phase.

But then, no sooner had she thanked her lucky stars, the familiar feeling began in her stomach, rising to her throat. She threw the blankets off and flung the bedroom door open hurrying to the bathroom where she dropped to her knees and vomited into the toilet.

Her sudden movement jolted Frank awake, and after blinking a few times he heard the tell-tale retching and with a sigh he pushed himself out of bed, yawning and rubbing his eyes as he padded down the hall and into the bathroom.

“Hey…” he said gently, dropping to his knees by Fliss, rubbing at her back. She turned her eyes to him, which were watering, before she hastily dipped back to the toilet. One of her hands was holding her hair back so Frank reached up to gently do it for her, sweeping it out of the way. He knew there was nothing to be done other than letting her ride it out so he simply sat there with her for a few minutes until eventually she sat back on her heels, her hands running down her face.

“Sorry.” she mumbled as she emerged from behind her fingers, cheeks flushed from the heat and exertion.

“What for?” he chuckled, cupping her face in his hands.

“Waking you up.” she shrugged “It’s your birthday…”

“Don’t apologise honey” he shook his head “You need anything?”

“Yeah a shower.” she grumbled “And apple juice. Actually, do we have any apples, like actual apples?”

Frank nodded “Yeah, I picked you some up yesterday”

“Then I want an apple. And juice” she said. Frank smiled.

“Before or after shower?”

“After.”

“Ok.” he said, his hand running through her hair. He stood up and helped her to her feet before he dropped a kiss to her forehead and walked back to their bedroom, leaving her to it. He glanced at the clock, which was telling him it was just gone 6, which was an hour before the alarm went off. Knowing full well neither of them would be going back to sleep he flicked on the lamp as it was still a little dark outside and wandered into the kitchen where he poured Fliss a glass of juice and sliced an apple into 4 for her. He then made himself an instant coffee, before he headed back the bedroom, placing Fliss’ juice and snack down on her night stand before he dropped back onto bed and turned on the TV.

He was watching some news report on some senator who was giving Trump a blasting (not unjustified either in Frank’s eyes, the president was a moron) when Fliss walked into the bedroom looking a lot better as she towel dried her hair, her robe wrapped around her. She walked round her side of the bed, downed the juice in about 3 mouthfuls and bit into a piece of apple, her mouth crunching at the fruit.

“You feeling better?”

“Loads.” she nodded, reaching for another piece before she walked to her vanity unit and sat down to comb out her hair. Frank took the opportunity to head to the bathroom himself, grabbing a clean pair of boxers as he went, dropping a kiss to Fliss’s head.

Fliss heard the shower turning on as she stood up and grabbed a pair of panties. She was far too warm to sit in a robe, damned hormones but she was damned if she was getting dressed so fucking early in the day either, not when her and Mary had presents to give him before work. She pulled her underwear on over her legs and then retrieved Frank’s T-shirt from the back of the chair she was sat on. She pulled it over her head and then frowned a little as it felt…well, odd.  She glanced down and her eyes widened slightly as there, albeit very small and covered by the pale-blue cotton, there was a swell protruding from between her hips.

She swallowed slightly and moved towards the mirror, her hands creeping under the t-shirt as she gently placed her hands over the bump. Yep, it was 100% there. And almost like it had appeared in the last 10 minutes because she certainly hadn’t noticed it in the shower. But then again, she had been half asleep. After a few more moments simply gazing at her belly she moved and dropped onto the bed, crawling onto her side and grabbing the rest of her apple. She ate the remaining two slices, her hand still resting on her stomach and looked up as Frank walked into the room, boxers tight around his upper thighs, his head covered by a towel as he furiously rubbed at his hair.

When he finally emerged from the towel he glanced at Fliss who was looking at him, her eyes shining and she bit her lip. Frank grinned, he knew that look very well, and this was one side effect of her pregnancy he was more than happy to help her out with especially seeing as their sex life had taken a dive over the 8 to 12 week period as she’d been so tired.

Happy fucking birthday to me…

“You want something?” he asked as he tossed the towel to the floor.

“No, well, yeah, but…I got something to show you…” she said, standing up and walking round the bed towards him. “Come here.”

She held her hand out to him, and puzzled he took it. She gently pressed it to her belly and it took him a moment but then he felt it. Her stomach, it was different. His eye widened and he glanced down between them, noticing for the first time the ever so small bump which was sticking out from her pelvis. He glanced up at Fliss and she grinned, his own face cracking into a huge smile as he gently grabbed the hem of the t-shirt she was wearing, pulling it up as he knelt down so his face was level with her stomach, his hands softly cupping her bump.

“Hey Bean…” he whispered quietly as Fliss’ hand gently tangled in his damp hair. He looked up at her and her fingers softly caressed his cheek as he grinned before he pressed a kiss to her belly and his hands moved to the outside of her thighs, rubbing them softly as he stood up. “That’s the best birthday present ever…”

“Still want a boy?” Fliss smiled as his hands came to rest on her hips, her own sliding up his bare chest and round his neck.

“Yep.” he grinned and Fliss chuckled before he shrugged “Truth be told Lissy, I don’t much care. As long as he or she is healthy, it doesn’t matter.”

“Do you wanna find out, what it is I mean?” she asked, her fingers tangling in the hair at the back of his head “I know we got a few weeks before we can but…”

Frank pondered for a moment. Diane hadn’t found out with Mary, but then she hadn’t had anyone really (bar him) to care or get excited about it. Did he want to know? Knowing beforehand meant they’d be able to prepare properly…and they could give them a name. He didn’t know Greg and Zara when Zara had been expecting their kids but Simon and Lisa had found out for both of theirs, and it was almost as if the kids had been there with them once they had done, referring to them by their proposed names…

“Honestly, I don’t know.” he mused as he looked at Fliss “I kinda do, but then I kinda don’t…what about you?” “I don’t know either.” she said gently “I thought I did, but then I kinda like the idea of it being a surprise, because like you said, it doesn’t really matter.” “We can think about it.” he said. “Now, what I do want to know…how are the boobs feeling today?” he asked, causing her to laugh gently as his hands began pulling at the hem of the t-shirt, tugging it up over her head as he glanced down at her body.

“Sore, so be gentle” she said as he smiled, chuckling slightly before his hands softly cupped her face,  his lips brushed hers and he paused, their mouths barely touching as they simply looked at one another, breathing in each other’s air. With soft sigh, Frank tilted Fliss’ face back to his and kissed her, this time hard as his tongue traced the inside of her bottom lip gently and he could taste the apple she’d been eating before. She let out a soft sigh into his mouth and he moved, his hands sliding round her back to pull her closer to him, lips leaving hers and sliding down her chin and jawline to her neck where he softly placed an open mouthed kiss to the spot in the crook of her shoulder that drove her wild. She shivered in his hold, her breath hitching as he smirked against her skin, his hands on her back tightening as her body melted into his.

“Frank…” she whispered huskily, as he paused his actions, his breath tickling on her ear “need you…”

His nose nuzzled into her neck “Yeah?” he went back to sucking the skin on her neck into his mouth, gently enough so as to not leave a mark but harshly enough to cause her body to jolt slightly. “Yeah…” she whined, gently pushing him back towards the bed. He backing up the few steps before his legs folded as his knees hit the side of the mattress and he sat down. With a graceful movement Fliss straddled him, knee either side of his waist and he leaned forwards, his tongue swirling around one of her pebbled nipples.

“Fuck…” she hissed as her hips bucked violently at his touch and he pulled back to look at her, arching an eyebrow at how responsive she was being. “They’re sensitive…””

“Sorry baby…” he chuckled, his mouth leaving her chest alone and moving to her collar bone were he peppered hardly there kisses from one side to the other, watching and listening as she rolled her head back, baring her neck to him, enjoying the feeling of his soft mouth contrasting to the scratch of his beard as he went. Frank could tell she was getting worked up, she was pushing down on his lap hard, seeking some kind of friction, rocking her hips forward and back.

“I need…” she moaned softly into his mouth as he tilted his crotch upwards, hitting her spot and he smirked slightly as she pulled back, her teeth pulling his bottom lip. “Frankie…”

“What do you want baby girl?” he asked, his eyes closed and his voice husky as he nuzzled at her neck, hands flexing on her hips.

“Don’t make me beg.” she pleaded and, well, who was he to deny her what she wanted? In a soft movement he pivoted them both and gently moved so Fliss was led on the bed, underneath him and he stood, his hands hooking into the sides of her underwear and he peeled them down her legs before he dispensed of his boxers, dropping back to his knees and crawling over his girl. He kept himself propped up on his hands, now well aware of the small bump between them which was making him tentative a little, not wanting to press any of his weight on her. Fliss, however, had clearly had enough of waiting and sat up, pushing on his shoulders demandingly. With a chuckle he obliged, laying back so she could straddle him, which she did with a hunger he wasn’t quite sure he’d seen from her before.  As she sank down onto him, they both groaned slightly, his hips flexing upwards as she began to ride him, his hands settling on her hips as she found a steady rhythm that felt good.

Frank met her movements thrust for thrust, pulling her hips down as he did and she leaned forward slightly, placing her hands on his chest, her fingers digging into his skin as she moved. Frank groaned as his eyes flicked up and down her body and he saw her slightly distended belly, her marginally swollen breasts which bounced as she moved and the various other changes in her body thanks to the fact she was growing his baby. It was fucking incredible.

“God you’re beautiful…” he exhaled as he sat up, pressing his lips to hers as she mewled at the change of angle, grinding down against him harder “I love you so fucking much.” “I love you too…”she panted, her nose rubbing against his as he pushed up harder, making her cry out. “Fuck Lissy…” he said, between gritted teeth as she continued to roll her hips, crying out loudly once more as the heat began to rise in her belly. He read the signals right, as he always did, pulling her down onto him harder, again and again.

“Frankie…I’m gonna…” and then she let out a low wail, throwing her head back and she came undone, her hands tightening on his shoulders. Frank held her close, guiding her through her orgasm, as she collapsed forward, her head lolling against his shoulder. He thrust upwards again, and again, the spring in his own belly tightening as his rhythm became disjointed. Sensing he was close Fliss moved her head to watch him, her eyes locking onto his before they fluttered shut, eyelashes laying long against his flushed cheeks as he came with a pretty intense surge, moaning a mixture of curse words and her name. As Fliss pushed her hands through his hair, her mouth gently nipping at his jaw line as his throat bobbed, his eyes flickered open again as he took a deep breath. With a sated smile his head dropped to rest against hers as the haze from the high began to clear, and he ran his hands gently up her back. Fliss smiled back, the pads of her fingers cupping his jaw as she pressed a deep kiss to his lips.

“Happy birthday Sailor.”

******

The next couple of weeks past fairly quickly which wasn’t a surprise. Fliss had been holding interviews for a new member of staff to come in and help Joanne out whilst she stepped back a little as she had promised Frank she would, focussing on the teaching and leaving everything else to her employees. Frank, in the meantime had found himself being pulled into the planning of Jake’s Batchelor Party by Greg and Simon. Not that there was much left to do mind. They were off to Vegas, it was all booked and paid for now, and they were just planning the last activities out. They were all staying at Caesars for 3 nights, and it had cost a small fucking fortune but as Fliss had pointed out, so what? Once Bean had arrived they wouldn’t be doing anything for a while so he might as well make the most of it. So for one month and one month only he’d not put anything into the savings account to ensure he had enough to enjoy the trip.

The Thursday night was supposedly going to be the quiet one as Frank had suggested they head over to Mandalay Bay for low stakes Poker on the Friday, a suggestion which had been well received. Saturday night they were all heading to Omnia in the evening, Jake’s brother having booked a table on the balcony terrace. The thing was, Frank knew full well that there wasn’t going to be a quiet night, and for that reason had talked them out of planning anything for the day time, instead suggesting they took it as they found it. Greg had agreed, stating he was quite happy to lie in bed until midday and then collapse around the pool. A proposition Frank was also a big fan of.

Fliss talked him into buying a new suit for the Saturday evening as his trademark loud shirts were out of the question for the club dress code. (but not for the Thursday and Friday…) She’d picked out a dark blue and white fitted pinstripe ensemble, it was something he wouldn’t have thought about wearing usually but when he had tried it on he’d instantly liked it, and so had she from the look in her eyes when he emerged from the fitting room.

The day before they were flying out, Fliss had a message from her brother to say that he would be arriving on Friday and was in town for a month or so, something to do with a contract. As Bill and Verity were away for a fortnight in Italy, Fliss eagerly agreed to collect him from the airport and they made arrangements to hang out over the weekend...

And that was that.

“Viva Las Vegas!” Fran sang, putting on his best Elvis voice as he wandered into the living room grinning as he saw Mary roll her eyes. “Viva Las Vegas…”

“Is he gonna be singing that ALL night?” Mary looked at Fliss as Frank bent over the back of the couch to sing it into the 8 year old’s ear. She batted him away as Fliss looked at him, chuckling.

“Yeah but he’ll be gone tomorrow so it’s all good”.

“Admit it, you’re both gonna miss me.” he said, straightening up.

“Like a hole in the head.” Mary murmured, her eyes flicking back to the lap top resting on her crossed legs.

Frank snorted and dropped a kiss to the top of Fliss’ head before he wandered into the kitchen area, pulling a beer from the fridge.

“You all packed?” Fliss asked as he returned, picking her legs up as he sat down and draped them over his own.

“Yup.” he nodded.

“What time is your flight back on the Sunday?”

“3pm Vegas time.” he said, “Get back into Tampa bout 10pm.”

“And you got cars booked to bring you home?”

He nodded.

“Wow, I’m impressed” she grinned and he shrugged.

“They told me to organise transport, so I did.” he said with a smirk. Fliss looked at him and raised her eyebrow.

“What did you book?”

He looked at her for a second and then reached for his phone, before he handed it to her. She looked down at the white stretch hummer and gave a snort.

“They’re gonna love that!”

He nodded “Got one sorted at the other end too.”

“Well as long as you don’t lose Jake on the roof or marry a hooker…”

“Yeah, but a tiger in the bathroom would be pretty cool.” he shrugged. Fliss snorted as his hand gently ran up and down her leg.

“You know I went to Vegas once when I was about 23.” Fliss mused, looking at him. “Went with a group of the girls from the team. We got a limo to take us to the next club, because I wanted to make sure we didn’t get lost or separated. It took almost 40 minutes to get there, and cost something like $120.”

“That’s actually pretty reasonable.” Frank looked at her.

“Yeah, we thought so at the time.” she continued “Then the next morning, we found out that we literally just went across the street. There was a pedestrian bridge that we could have used that would've taken three minutes."

Frank tipped his head back in a loud roar of laughter “Dumbass!”

Fliss shrugged and grinned “When in Vegas…”

***** “Did Caesar really live here?” Jake said, slapping his hand on the check in desk. Frank groaned, shaking his head with a snort as besides him Greg and Simon both laughed.

“If I had a dollar for every time I had heard that Sir, I’d own this place.” The lady said in good spirits as she brought up their bookings. Jake was sharing a room with Simon, Jake’s brother Rob was in with his cousin Aaron, the 2 guys Chad and Jeff from Jake’s work were paired leaving Frank to share with Greg, which suited them both fine. When it got to their turn to check in, Greg offered his credit card as surety for the room declaring that they’d sort it upon check out but then warned Frank not to go charging any boats and hoes to the bill.

“You do realise we’re in a land locked state Greg?” Frank asked as he leaned on the counter as the guy seeing to them took a scan of Greg’s card.

“It’s Vegas man, anything goes.” he shrugged.

Once everyone was sorted, they headed straight to one of the bars for a drink, settling down into the various couches and chairs, ordering a beer each. Frank fired a quick message to Fliss to let them know they’d arrived and were sorted before he stuck his phone back in his pocket and reached for his beer.

“So, you all set for impending fatherhood?” Simon looked at him. “I mean not that you haven’t already with Mary like but…” Frank snorted and took a drink of his beer “All truth be told I’m shitting myself.”

“Your Mrs is pregnant?” Rob looked at him and Jake frowned.

“I told you this ages ago.” “Man I slept and drank since then!” Rob shrugged, before he looked at Frank and tipped his beer bottle in his direction “Congratulations man, when’s she due?”

“21st August.” Frank smiled “And thanks”

“Best thing in the world.” Rob smiled “Although, not gonna lie, it’s hard work…but of course you know shit already…” “Well only from the 6 month mark.” Frank shrugged “I only ever helped Diane out before that, the odd night here and there.”

“Meh, up until the 6 month point they’re boring anyway.” Jake said and everyone round the table looked at him, Greg snorting. “What? They are!” Jake pressed “All they do is eat,shit,piss,cry and sleep…”

“Yeah but, come on. Lying on your back with a bottle or a boob in your mouth sounds pretty good to me.” Simon quipped, and the rest of the group laughed.

After a few more drinks they headed up to shower before meeting back in the casino where Aaron suggested they head up to Freemont Street. So they did just that. They headed outside, hitching cabs for what was supposed to be a reasonably quiet few drinks in the late afternoon-slash-early evening. But nothing ever goes down that way does it? The few drinks became many, the early evening became night, as they wandered into the various bars and casinos and after losing some money in the old style slot Machines at The Golden Nugget they all headed back out and became engrossed by a Mo-Town band who were playing on a stage under the covered street. Mo-Town then became 80s, which then became Indie and before they knew it they’d enjoyed several light shows and it was almost midnight, so they decided to head back and call it a night.

Of course, once back at the hotel, they didn’t stop.

The drinking continued, using the free drinks whilst gambling policy to their advantage, each shoving a dollar at a time in the old blackjack machines, betting a quarter.

When the last 25c Frank bet was lost he stood up, hiccupping and announced he needed the bathroom. Simon declared this was the best idea Frank had had all evening, and the two of them made their way over to the corridor, Greg catching them up.

“Thought it was only girls who went to pee in groups?” Frank looked at him.

“Hey, I’m a modern guy…” Greg shrugged before he banged into Simon who had stopped dead outside the bathroom door.

“Move man…” Simon said, swaying slightly.

Greg squinted and looked at Simon, frowning and when he saw who Simon was arguing with, he let out a snort.

“Si, dude, that’s-“

“Don’t tell him…” Frank muttered, burping slightly, “I need to film this…” He reached in his pocket and fumbled with his phone, hitting the record button, before he held it up.

“Oh shit, hang on, we’re…” he snorted and Greg laughed as their faces filled the screen, before Frank flipped the camera from facing at them so that it was recording Simon. “I ain’t telling you again…” Simon stared at the doorway to the bathroom, or at least he thought he was.

What he was actually doing was staring at his reflection in the mirror to the right of the door.

“Ok, don’t say I didn’t warn you…” Simon snarled, and he drew his hand back. Before Frank or Greg’s drunken minds could kick into stop him he’d thrown his fist straight into the glass. It shattered, shards falling to the floor and Simon fell back slightly, utterly shocked.

“Fuck!” Frank gave a yell as he turned off the camera and stuck his phone in his pocket.

“Ow…shit…man…” Simon exclaimed, looking down at his fist which was now dripping blood.

A few people had gathered now to watch as Frank and Greg both stepped forward, grabbing Simon by the arms, their need for the bathroom suddenly forgotten as they had one purpose only, to get him as far away from the evidence as possible.

“Security…2 o’clock…” Greg moaned “Simon, you’re a fucking idiot…Frank, what do we do?”

“Fuck you asking me for?” Frank looked at him. “You’re the lawyer.”

“I’m also shit faced.” Greg slurred.

“Yeah, and my fiancé is 18 weeks pregnant.” Frank shot back.

“What…” Greg stopped walking, causing Simon to do the same “What the hell has that got to do with anything?” “Nothin’” Frank grinned “I just like sayin’ it.” “Look, you deal with Mall Cop, I’ll get him out of here…” Greg said, eyeing up the Security guard who was getting nearer and nearer. “You know how to deal with authority.” “No…no I don’t!”

“Sure you do, you went out with a cop didn’t you?” “Dude, that was years ago!”

“Even better, maybe she’s like a Captain now.” Greg shrugged.

“She’s with a Captain, does that count?”

“Why…how do you know that?” Greg looked at him.

“Facebook.” Frank shrugged.

“You’re on her Facebook?”

“It didn’t end badly, we’re friends…anyway, this has nothing to do with dickwad here!” Frank pointed to Simon who was stood swaying, still looking at his hand. “Focus…”

“Yes, Focus…” Greg nodded “Stands for fuck off cos ur stupid…” “That’s…that’s not a bad idea.” Frank nodded “Let’s just fuck off, pretend we don’t know him.” “Good…good plan…” Greg agreed.

“So, we just leave…” Frank looked at him “Deny any knowledge…” “Gentlemen?” The security guard who had now reached them spoke and Frank turned to face him. The guy was huge. Taller than him, wider than him…

“Hi.” Greg spoked.

“What’s happened to your friend?”

“Friend? No,we errr, we only just met him.” Frank said. He leant forward a and whispered conspiratorially “Between you and me I think he’s a little bit drunk…”

The Security guard looked at Frank sceptically, before he turned to Simon “Sir…” Simon looked up and grinned “Woah, you’re like…” he turned to Frank “He’s like a rhino, Frank.”

Frank was about to reply when he realised Simon had called him by his name. Greg looked at him, then to Simon, then to the security guard who had his arms folded.

“Never met him before huh?”

“Shit.” Frank groaned.

****** “How’s the hand?” Frank asked as Simon dropped onto a sun lounger. Greg snorted and Simon glared at them both.

“I can’t believe you let me do that…”

“We didn’t know you were gonna punch the mirror!” Greg shook his head.

“And you fucking filmed it then sent it to the Circle Of Truth Chat!” he shook his head. “What about the whole ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ promise?”

Frank chuckled, as he took a mouthful of his beer “I would say I’m sorry but I’m not.”

“I’m never gonna live that down.” Simon groaned.

“Yeah and you owe me two hundred bucks.” Greg looked at him over his sunglasses “I had to pay for the damage”

Frank smirked and then his phone went off. He reached for it where he’d stashed it under his shirt beneath the lounger and smiled as he saw it was Fliss.

He stood up, answering and walked away from the group a little.

“Hey Sweetheart.”

“Hey, how’s the head?”

“Not as bad as Simon’s hand.”

Fliss laughed “Yeah, not gonna lie, that video was hilarious. First thing I saw when I woke up.”

“How you feeling?” he asked, as he leaned against one of the glass boards that surrounded the pool

“I’m fine.” she replied “Bean is behaving.”

“Good. What about Mary?”

“She’s been fine. Just on my way to go get her then we’re gonna go meet Steeby at the airport and then I’m making tacos.” “What kind?” Frank grinned.

“Chicken and prawn…although I can’t have the prawns can I?” she groaned. “So not fair.”

“So why are you making them and torturing yourself?” Frank laughed.

“Because Mary asked.” “You don’t have to feed her whatever she asks for!” Frank shook his head.

“I know but it’s Friday.” Fliss said, as if that meant something “It was either that or the salad, and I can’t eat blue cheese either, and that’s much worse in my opinion.”

“Well, when he’s born…” “Or she…” “Whatever, I’ll buy you all the prawns and blue cheese you want.” “And champagne.” “And champagne.” he smiled.

Her soft chuckle hit his ears “I’ll let you go, sounds busy.”

“We’re just by the pool.” he said, “Background music isn’t quite as relaxing as I thought.” “That’s because you’re getting old Sailor.” she teased “Only 2 off 40 now…” “Don’t remind me.” he groaned. “You know I found another grey this morning…”

“I wouldn’t sweat it. I told you, men get better with age.” she quipped cheekily and he snorted.

“Like a fine wine huh?”

“Something like that.”

He chuckled again “Ok, I’ll call later to talk to Mary. I love you.” “You too. Have fun.” “I’ll try.” he smiled, before he bid her goodbye again and hung up. As he turned round to head back he collided with something, or more specifically someone. The young, blonde, bikini-clad woman he’d bumped into stumbled back a few paces and automatically Frank reached out to steady her.

“Sorry, you ok?” he asked.

“Yeah, no harm done.” she spoke, her Australian accent was broad as she smiled up at him, brushing her hair back out of her face. “Lucky my glass was empty.”

Frank smiled and let go of her elbow, holding his hands out in front of him “I’ll watch where I’m going in future.” “I hope not…” she winked at him, and with that she headed off to the bar, casting a glance at him over her shoulder as she walked. Shaking his head he allowed himself a little smirk. He wouldn’t dream of ever cheating on Fliss, he didn’t even want to, but he’d be lying if he wasn’t a little flattered, and kind of pleased actually to see the old Adler charm was still there.

“Still got it Frankie.” he mumbled to himself, a little smugly as he headed back to the sun-loungers.

**** It had been a while since Frank had played Texas Hold’ em but he was pleased to report he hadn’t lost his touch. They’d been there about two hours and Frank had won a couple of games, but by the time the rake was taken from the pot it meant he’d only really made about a hundred bucks, still, it was better than nothing and he wasn’t really there to make a lot of money, just enjoy the evening. For that reason he, Simon and Greg had all agreed to stick to the $4 /$8 table whilst the others headed over to the higher limit tables as soon as places opened, agreeing they would find each other later.

The waitress came back with their drinks, all three had drunk enough beer all day plus on top of the ridiculous amount of Nachos and Wing’s they’d eaten at the sports bar in the Planet Hollywood mall, they were starting to bloat so had started on the shorts, JD and coke for Greg, Rum and coke for Simon whilst Frank preferred his straight, opting for a scotch on the rocks. It wasn’t brilliant quality, but it was free whilst they were playing…well, almost, as they all tipped the waitress $2 each a time, but that meant she bee lined for them the minute she spotted their glasses were empty. Easy drinking, they were hardly without one in their hand.

A few more games in and the man to Frank’s right stood up, thanking them all and tipped the dealer before he left and an older lady took his seat. She nodded to them and she was dealt in, placing her bets. After a couple of rounds it was clear to Frank she was a typical “ABC" player- raising and betting her strong hands, calling and checking her medium ones and checking and folding the weaker ones. She wasn’t trying to outplay or outthink or bluff, and was pretty much a rock.  She never got out of line and never bet without a strong hand.  

Greg tossed his bet in and the woman raised. Frank glanced down, he had a pocket pair of tens. Now, most times against a tight player such as the woman he would just fold because the worst she’d likely raise with is Ace-King, and most likely she had either a pocket pair herself of Aces, Kings or Queens. He knew the chance of getting a set of tens from the flop wasn’t great, but seeing as it was only a low level game Frank called too.

Everyone around the table folded, including the original bettor and the blinds which left the pair of them heads-up. The flop was a rainbow rag meaning there were no flush draw possibilities as the cards were all different suites, and there was no card higher than a nine either. Still, the old lady bets and Frank called, deciding to at least see what the turn held. On the turn the dealer revealed another ten, giving Frank three of a kind. Keeping his face straight, he quickly noted that there were no strong straight or flush draws on the board so given her previous way of playing he placed her now on either an Ace-Ace or King-King pair. So unless an ace or a king came on the river card, he had her beat.

Clearly figuring her big pair is still good, she bet. Frank pretended to hesitate a little, and he knew said “Hollywood” hesitation move wouldn’t fool anyone in a higher limit game, but the devil in him was well and truly out to play. He raised and thought as tight as the woman played she might fold here or at very most make a crying-call, but to his surprise she re-raised. His poker face almost slipped, out of surprise and amusement more than anything, but he managed to keep it straight and re-raised again. All eyes around the table were on them and the lady at that point called, still not having uttered a single word all play.

The dealer looked to Frank and he turned his cards over, displaying his 3 of a kind.

The old lady blinked, before she turned over her cards, revealing a pair of Kings. Simon and Greg both let out little chuckles as the dealer declared Frank the winner. He had just turned to the older lady to give her a polite ‘well played’ but it died in his throat as she was focused on the dealer, her face angry as she shot the man a furious look and spat.

"You bad luck, black cat mother fucker!"

Frank blinked, and looked over at Simon and Greg who were looking at one another, shocked expressions on their faces, and then she turned to Frank and snarled. “Shove your winnings up your ass.” before getting up and stomping away from the table.

The entire table just sat there, stunned. Frank had heard plenty of players swear and many others blame the dealer when they lost but he hadn’t in a million years expected such a reaction from the quiet, little old lady that had sat besides him all night. He blinked, and looked at Simon and Greg, before Simon burst out laughing and set the whole table off.

As they left a few games later, Frank, Simon and Greg gave the dealer a nice tip declaring that was the most entertainment they’d had in years. They headed to the bar they’d arranged to meet the others at, finding most of them there. Chad had won big bucks, so was in the process of buying a bottle of grey goose along with mixers for everyone when Frank felt someone touch his elbow.

“I thought it was you.” The blonde Australian girl from before smiled at him. She was dressed in a long black jumpsuit, her hair pulled back it took him moment to realise who she was. “Almost didn’t recognise you with your shirt on.” she winked. Frank laughed, “Don’t say it too loud, might be taken the wrong way.” She smiled back, shrugging “Well, I won’t tell if you don’t.”

Frank lowered his eyes as he leaned against the bar, before he looked back up “Not sure my fiancée would appreciate that.”

“Ah.” she said, raising an eyebrow “So, is this your stag, sorry, bachelor party then or…”

“Who says it’s a Batchelor party?” he teased.

“Why else would you be wearing that shirt?” she asked, looking at his light blue Hawaiian number

Frank chuckled, “No, it’s his.” he said, nodding to Jake who was stood to his left by Chad, Rob and Jeff the 4 of them talking to a group of girls he figured were with the one stood in front of him. Greg, Simon and Aaron were parked at table in the corner of the raised platform. Greg looked over at him and raised an eyebrow at him, questioningly. Frank rolled his eyes before his attention turned back to the woman in front of him.

“So you’re a long way from Oz .” he said, “What you here for?”

“Oh my sister, the dark haired one, she lives in San Francisco. It’s her 21st so here we are!”

“God to be 21 again.” Frank let out a groan

“Can’t have been that long ago surely…” she looked at him, batting her eyelids and he took a deep breath, smiling. Enough was enough now. He’d been polite, entertained the conversation but…no…he was baling.

“You’d be surprised.” he said, pushing himself up straight. “Enjoy your evening.”

“Brittany.” she offered, even though he hadn’t asked, smiling again.

“Brittany.” he nodded, “Nice talking to you.” “Yeah, you too…”

He didn’t offer his name, he merely gave her a polite smile and headed over to the table Greg and Simon were at.

“Who was that?” Greg asked.

“No idea really, all I know is her name is Brittany and I bumped into her, literally, round the pool before.”

“Damned…” Simon said, eyeing her up. She turned, glanced at their table again, looking at Frank before she was pulled away by one of the girls, as Jake and the rest of the boys made their way over to where Frank was sitting. “She’s giving you the eye Frank.”

“Not interested.” he shrugged, before narrowing his eyes at Simon “And neither should you be.”

“Nothing wrong with a bit of window shopping.” Simons shrugged.

Frank shook his head, snorting, before Chad placed the ice bucket down in the middle of them which contained the large bottle of vodka, as the Bar Tender followed with a bucket of mixers.

***** Thankfully no one punched a mirror that night. When he woke on Saturday morning, Frank’s head was a little woolley, he’d drunk a lot again and as he scanned his messages he snorted at the ones he had sent to Fliss at stupid AM declaring how much he loved her, and Mary and Bean… she’d responded with one when she woke up which was a snap of her in the mirror wearing a pair of denim shorts which she couldn’t fasten anymore as her bump was protruding from the front. It instantly had Frank groaning to himself, and pretty horny on the low so he’d called her whilst Greg was in the shower, just to hear her voice and inform her just exactly what the photo had done to him.

He steered clear of the alcohol during the day, instead opting for water to rehydrate knowing full well the night was going to be heavy. In the afternoon he and Greg headed for a wander up the strip, just for a walk and chance to get out of the hotel, the pair of them simply chatting away about everything and anything. He’d grown even closer to the man following the court-case with his mother, and he enjoyed his company. He loved Simon and Jake to bits but Greg was more like him. Enjoyed cutting loose and having a good time but was also happy (and not ashamed to admit it) to sit home with his family. As they walked back to the hotel via the Pandora shop so he could get Fliss a charm to add to her now half full bracelet it struck Frank  just how much he himself had changed since meeting Fliss. He’d grown up, a hell of a lot, they both had in a way. And it was nice. He liked it.

Later that evening after they’d all met for food, they headed back to change. Once Frank and Greg were dressed in their suits, his accompanied by a white shirt and a blue tie, he told Greg he was under instructions to send Fliss a selfie of the pair of them. So they grabbed one, stood on the balcony and as they headed down to meet everyone he fired it off to her whilst Greg also took the time to check in at home.

“I picked well…” came the text reply.

“Yeah the suit is good…” “Wasn’t talking about the suit, Sailor ;-)”

Frank chuckled “Well you have good taste.” he typed back. “I know. Steeby says hi by the way.”

“Tell him hi back and we’ll go for beers at some point whilst he’s over.”

“He’s looking forward to it.” she replied. “Have a good time baby, we love you.”

We. He fucking loved that. Her, Mary, Bean…

“Love you all too xx “ he smiled, and with that he shoved his phone in his pocket as the elevator doors opened and they walked out into casino.

The Club was something else. He’d seen from the photos on the website that it was opulently decorated and posh and very upmarket, but still he hadn’t been prepared for it. It was adorned with dark leather furniture, mahogany tables, crystal chandeliers and matching light fittings. Yeah, this was way out of his normal comfort zone.

“Bit different to Fergs…” Simon muttered as they were led to the private table which was on the terrace.

“Just a bit…” Frank snorted

“Let’s pretend we belong here for one night.” Greg said, his arms reaching up around both their shoulders from where he stood.

“Ok, erm, who do you wanna be then?” Simon asked “Digby Yates the self-made car salesman come billionaire, Niles Orson the millionaire lawyer, or Aldrich Whitaker the trust fund jack-ass?”

“Where the fuck do you come up with this shit?” Greg looked at Simon as Frank snorted.

“I dunno…” Simon said, “Just humour me, pick.”

“Trust fund jack ass sounds fun.” Frank nodded.

“Yeah, I’m a lawyer every day, granted not a millionaire, but still. I’ll take the car salesman.” Greg nodded.

“I’ll take Niles then.” Simon smirked as the three of them all laughed.

They settled at the table and their personal waitress came over, Frank didn’t miss the eyes she was giving Aaron as she explained their drinks package options. They opted for the middle of the road spirits and mixers and they settled into a comfortable chat for a few hours until the club started to get busy.

Frank by this point was already feeling a little light headed. Simon and Greg weren’t faring much better. Jake, however, was suspiciously with it and hyper, leaving Frank to conclude that he’d also shoved a certain amount of substance up his nose as well as down his throat. That was something he’d never get. Sure he’d done a bit of weed as a kid but the whole other harder drugs had never appealed to him. Still, it was his Batchelor Party, his funeral so to speak.

Simon saw Frank watching it and looked at Jake “He been snorting?” he asked, passing Frank a shot of tequila.

“Looks like it.” Frank said, before he clinked his glass against Simons, before doing the salt, shot and biting the lemon, grimacing.

“Dumbass…” Simon winced, shaking his head as he poured them another shot from the bottle.

“Man, you’re as bad as Bonnie for this shit.” Frank moaned as Simon slid the full glass towards him.

“I know about that, you know…” Simon looked at him.

“Know what?” Frank asked, although he had a feeling he knew what was coming.

“Bout you and Bonnie…”

Yup, there it was. Frank grimaced and let out a groan.

“Shit…look, pal, it was way…”

Simon wrinkled his nose “yeah, I know…it’s fine…to be fair, if I tried to steer clear of any girl you’d slept with there’d probably be no one left in south Pass.

“Fuck you.” Frank shot back, as Simon snorted.

“What? It’s true!” Simon grinned “You were quite the ladies man.” “Yeah, well, not anymore” Frank shrugged simply.

Simon clapped him on the shoulder and nudged the shot glass towards him. “Drink that then let’s go investigate the dance floor…”

Frank wanted nothing less than to go on the dancefloor, but Simon insisted. Standing up, the alcohol suddenly rushed to his head and he swayed a little bit, sniggering as Simon did the same.

“No. More. Tequila.” Frank pointed at the man, Simon grinned.

They headed onto the busy dance floor, pushing through to where Jake and Rob were, not far from Chad and Aaron who were busy grinding up against a couple of girls. They looked familiar, and it took Frank a moment to realise they were the ones from the bar the previous night.

Then he felt a tap on his elbow and he turned to see Brittany smiling at him.

“Fancy seeing you here…” she grinned.

“Yeah, total coincidence…” Frank arched an eyebrow, leaning down so she could hear him, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Aaron and Chad “Don’t suppose those 2 losers had anything to do with it?”

“They might have mentioned they’d be in here.” Brittany shrugged “Cassie’s sweet on the blonde. Is he single?”

“I think so.” Frank shrugged “I don’t know him that well but he’s never mentioned a girl.”

“Doesn’t mean he aint got one.” she shrugged.

“True.” Frank conceded.

She gave him another smile and he watched her go, before he turned back to Greg and Simon who were now both doing some really odd kind of dance move to which Frank couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh or cry…so he did neither and joined in.

The music and drink kept on going, and sometime later, Frank had no idea when or how, but they were back around the table, the girls having been invited to join them. They drank more, and then they were all being dragged back to the dance floor by Brittany and her friends, and then they ended up at the bar, for some reason, despite having table service, ordering some kind of rum cocktail.

He was talking to Brittany about her job, having discovered she was a Vet, telling her Mary would love to hear all about it. The girls hand was resting on his shoulder as she leaned up, and he leaned down so he could hear her and as she continued with a tale about an angry terrier, someone barged into Frank from behind and he pushed into her, accidentally. Automatically he reached out to stop Brittany from falling backwards as she stumbled a little on her heels.

“That’s the second time you’ve nearly knocked me over.” she looked at him.

“Second time I’ve caught you as well…” he said, suddenly aware his arm was round her back. He let go and went to move away, but he froze as her hands slid up his chest and around his neck.

“Woah…no…” he shook his head as he felt her arms attempting to tug him down wards.

“What?” she asked as he reached round and gently prised her hands away, stepping back and shaking his head.

“Look, I’m flattered but I’m really not interested.”  he sighed “I love my girl” he shrugged simply.

“Your loss…” Brittany stepped back, and looked him up and down. “Although actually I think it’s probably mine…”

Frank blinked and watched her go, before there was a harsh clap in between his shoulder blades.

“What the fuck was that?” Greg asked, his voice thick.

“Nothing.” Frank shook his head, raising his eyebrows as he turned to look at Greg. Well, one of them. He was seeing two now. Fuck he was wrecked.

“She…she wassall over you” Greg slurred

Frank groaned, blinking.  “I’m too old for this shit. And I need another drink.”

Greg pointed at him, swaying a little, nodding in appreciation “That is the best idea you ever had Adler. Let’s go back to the table.”

**** Frank woke the next morning, face down with a mouthful of pillow.

Groaning to himself he rolled onto his back and stayed still for a moment trying to stop the room spinning. Jesus fucking Christ he had drunk enough last night to sink a battle ship. His head was pounding, his mouth felt like it was full of sand and he felt like death.

Maybe he was dead. It would probably less painful.

He lay his arm over his eyes, grimacing as furiously tried to recall what the fuck had happened last night. He could remember that they’d stayed in the club till the early hours he knew that, but the last memory he had was him being on the dancefloor, then sitting down at their table with Greg and Simon. And then they’d been joined by the rest of the gang…and some girls…

Fuck.

Brittany, the Australian one…he remembered her trying to kiss him, and he’d told her no, but now he could recall clearly her and her friends joining them at the table…and she’d perched on his knee.

Adler, you dick head.

She’d had her arm draped around his neck, but then she’d gotten up and left again. And he’d stayed at the table with his friends. He was sure he had.

And now he needed to pee. He lay there, his brain trying to kick start his body into getting up to go to the toilet and he suddenly became aware that he was naked. Which didn’t surprise him in the slightest, when drunk he tended to just kick his clothes off and pass out. Wasn’t like he had anything Greg hadn’t seen before.

He cracked open an eye and then frowned. He was in the wrong bed. He’d taken the one nearest the balcony because Greg preferred to be away from the window.  As his eyes focussed a little more, he noticed the door to the bathroom was also in a different place. It was like the room was identical but the opposite way round. Almost like he was on the opposite side of the hotel…

Shit. This wasn’t his room.

And then, just as that began to sink in he felt a movement in the bed besides him.

No, no…this wasn’t happening.

He sat bolt upright and turned to his left, his mouth falling open in a combination of shock and horror as he realised that for the first time in 18 months he had woken next to someone that wasn't Fliss.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #455

“but you didn’t have to cut me off  /  make it like it never happened and that we were nothing”

Are you and the last person you kissed in a relationship or just friends? We're besties! :') Has anyone ever pointed out that your laugh was unusual? No. Would you get a lip piercing? I already have a vertical labret. I've considered getting spiked snakebites (they might be called devil bites?) too, though. With a vertical labret, it looks sick as FUCK. It might be a bit much too close together for me, though, idk. Nose piercing? I want my right nostril re-pierced. What are you currently waiting for? Girt to message me back. I've decided what I want out of our relationship and just want to see him. Do you have feelings for anyone? Hit me pretty hard through a lot of examination of my feelings that yeah, I do. Have you ever run over an animal? Oh my god no, I would be DESTROYED. Have you chewed gum after someone else already has? bro what the fuck When people sneeze do you say ‘bless you’? I do only out of expectation. I don't want someone to think I'm an ass or something for not saying it. When was the last time you were on a bouncy castle? A few years ago for my niece's birthday. She was scared of how loud it was and was very reluctant to get near it, so my fat ass got in there with everyone else to show her it was fine lol. I can't remember if she eventually got in. She loves them now, though. :') Have you ever went on a bouncy castle whilst drunk? No, but thanks for the idea, ha ha. Have you ever entered an art competition? Yes. What is one thing you will never do? Try hardcore drugs. What is one food that you detest? Asparagus. Did you have a rebellious phase growing up? Not really. What religion were you brought up with? Roman Catholic. Are you still that religion? GOD NO. Do you often find yourself questioning your future? That's my full-time job. How many friends do you have on Facebook? 124. What sort of music did you listen to when you were in high school? The same I listen to now. What pet names do you use with your significant other? I'm single rn, but usually, I go for "sweetie/sweetheart," "hunny," "love," "dear," stuff like that. What’s the name of the store you usually get your groceries? Wal-Mart. Have you ever seen a theatre show? Yes. What’s your favourite vegetable? Broccoli. Have you ever missed a flight? Yes. I was SO fuckin upset because it was on Sara's birthday and planned in secret, and I was supposed to wake her up. It still wound up being a big surprise to her when she walked into her room and I was chillin' at her desk, ha ha, but I still wish it coulda gone as originally planned. Do your neighbours have any pets? Have you ever met them? Yes; they have a yappy-ass dog that doesn't shut up. I haven't met them. What color is your bedroom door? White. If you were ever to become famous, would you grow annoyed at fans? This may sound very ungrateful, but I have heard A LOT of celebrities say it: it would get old, being stopped constantly in public for signatures, pictures, etc. Like yes, I still WOULD be grateful, but I'd miss just being off the radar and able to go outside carrying out chores and stuff like a normal person. Have you ever met your favourite band/singer? No. :( Are you embarrassed by any of the songs/singers/bands you like? Nah, not nowadays. Have you ever written a story? Yes, a kinda short one when I was little. Think of the last poem you wrote: What inspired you to write it? The breakup with Jason and the fact we're just strangers again. It was really short, but I like it a lot, honestly. Do you have a chance with the person you like right now? I think so. What’s the weirdest thing you were scared of as a child? A skeleton in my closet, lol. Literally. Are there any embarrassing stories your family tells about you? alkdsjflakjwle yes In your opinion, what is the funniest TV show? That '70s Show. 3rd Rock From the Sun is high up there, too. What is the maximum number of children you’d ever have? HYPOTHETICALLY, two, but I'm pretty damn serious about having none. I just always feel kinda bad for children without a sibling, but three would make me pull my hair out. Have you ever been concerned you had a serious illness? Yes. I overreact to even minor symptoms to ANYTHING. Are you comfortable with who you are? No. Pretty much everything about myself embarrasses me, even if it shouldn't. Would you date someone even if you knew you’d get made fun of for it? Yes? Others' opinions don't affect how I feel about someone. Does popularity matter to you at all? No, outside of trying to be a successful photographer. Would you ever consider homeschooling your children? If they really wanted that and it would benefit them, yes. Who told you about the band/singer you are currently listening to? I discovered them myself. Do you ever read fanfiction? Nah. Would you rather die in a plane crash, ship wreck or fire? Jesus. A plane crash, I guess, because in a lot of cases, it would be an immediate death. What are your top five favourite TV shows? Meerkat Manor, Fullmetal Alchemist (and Brotherhood; shut up, they go together), That '70s Show, Ginga Densetsu Weed, and Deadman Wonderland. What is your favorite superhero movie? Logan. If you died next week, what would be the cause of death? Uhhhh idk... I guess maybe a heart attack? Judging by doctor appointments, my heart is just fine, but the fact still remains that I'm technically obese, so that's always a risk. Have you ever taken a break from Facebook or other social media? Why? Facebook, yes. It was just depressing me. I was playing the comparison game REAL hard. Who is the most talented person you know? I dunno. I know many people talented in a lot of areas. Are you currently platonic friends with anyone you’ve had sex with? No. Where did you and your current interest go on your first date? Bowling. Have you ever experienced two people fighting over you (physically or mentally)? What happened? Jason and Juan pursued me at the same time. They'd known each other in the past, and Juan hated him for "winning" his ex-girlfriend. Then when Jason and I got together, Juan wasn't the happiest for sure. Have your parents ever thought you were gay? What happened? Before I actually came out as bisexual, I don't think so? Are your parents more liberal or conservative? Conservative. Mom is more open, but still conservative. I think. What year are you going into at the beginning of the next academic year? I'm not in school. How far away does your closest family member live? I live with Mom. If you’ve seen both, did you prefer the Disney version or the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland? I actually strongly prefer Tim Burton's. Would you have sex before marriage? Why or why not? Yeah. I just want to be in a long-term, serious, healthy relationship to reach that point and be as safe as possible about it. Are you more liberal or conservative? Liberal, but I do have some conservative beliefs, too. Who is your favorite Harry Potter character? I don't have one, given I never got into that franchise. What’s the worst that could come out of letting gays marry? Not a goddamn thing. What’s the most sexual thing you’ve done? Done "the thing." Name something that you are against. I'll go with an unconventional one that's a problem as of the late: making owning reptiles illegal. Why are you against it? Because reptiles are perfectly capable of being brilliant pets and, most importantly, can tame people's fears of them. I think that it's very important to see the worth and beauty in all animals, and reptiles are one of the most unappreciated families out there. :/ Have you ever played the Tomb Raider games? I played some of either the first or second one. I could never beat it. Old games are hard, man. Do you like it or hate it when your partner is clingy? I absolutely believe that it can get to an extreme that I don't like, but for the most part, I don't mind a clingy partner because hey, I am too. Beatles or Rolling Stones? Stonessss. When was the last time you changed your opinion on somebody? It'd been on my mind for a while, but I *officially* realized that I really do like-like Girt a couple days ago. And since then it's gotten a bit hardcore and all I wanna do is talk to him bc fuck me and how attached to people I get. What was the last thing that made you feel proud and why? Every single time I go to the gym, I feel proud of myself because it REALLY takes a lot out of me. Do you feel uncomfortable when people you hardly know confide in you? Nope. I'm willing to be a shoulder to cry on for like... anyone. If you're hurting, talk to someone. I'll be there as an easy option. What was the last thing to fascinate you? It was... INCREDIBLY disturbing and almost nauseating even for me, but I saw a video of a dead whale explode. It was GRUESOME. Guts just kept coming and coming and coming and :x Is there a certain noise/sound which scares you? Hmmm... I'm sure there is, but what, it's not coming to me. Sudden, loud noises are an obvious answer. Do you have a favourite microorganism? ... No, I can't say I do. Out of the people you know, whose birthday is next? Girt's, actually. It's in October. If you have pet fish do you bother to name them? I did when I actually had them as a kid. Do you keep your eggs in the fridge? Ye. Have you ever owned chickens? No, but that'd be cool. Fresh eggs from a properly cared for chicken taste SO much better. When did you last listen to music? Currently. NOW I'm obsessed with Melodicka Bros & Violet Orlandi's cover of "Somebody That I Used to Know." It's done in a gothic metal style and is amaaaazing.

[if-the-crown-fits-translate-it]

Discord pt 45

[Date: 23/02, 10.09 PM - 23/02 11.29 PM GMT ]

page: “Hello everyone!!! :)”

P R I N C E: “Hello Page! :D”

fetch: “Oh hey there Page :]”

page: “Ah Fetch! It's a pleasure to finally meet you! The others told me a bit about you before but I'm so happy I get to meet a new friend!”

[fetch: “Yeah its... Its really nice to meet you too :] How are you?”]

page: “I am doing quite well, I hope you had a nice rest last night! Crown said you were very tired...”

[fetch: “Yeah, I was a little exhausted. Nothing a good nights sleep couldn't fix!!”]

page: “I'm glad! Everyone apart of our family certainly deserves a good rest :)”

[fetch: “Anyway, what brings you round here?”]

page: “Well, I joined rather suddenly and Crown thought it might be a good idea to introduce myself properly! :)”

[fetch: “Oh yeah! Everyone else  got an intro. I suppose its your turn eh?”]

page: “Yes! I will gladly answer any questions anyone has!”

[fetch: “Opinion on chicken nuggies?”]

page: “I really like them! Especially with ketchup or even mayo :)”

[fetch: “Favorite flower?”]

page: “Freesia flowers are so sweet and pretty!”

[Denora: “Favorite girl scout cookie?”]

page: “In Canada we only have either chocolate covered mint ones or ones that are similar to oreos that can be chocolate or vanilla! I like the oreo looking ones :)”

[havoc.ren: “Can we get a fit check for the artists? :]”]

page: “Ah okay! I have a white button up shirt with a black bowtie on! As well as a pastel green skirt and of course my circlet, just like Barons it's a simple gold one with no gems :)”

[disks and the color red |Stars: “The most important question I can ask: Do you like maccy cheese?”]

page: “I love maccy cheese! Especially with extra milk!”

[fetch: “Hey page... Do you... Know me? I know you said you had just met me but like, has any of the Court told you about me?”]

page: “Hmm...Nope! I haven't, though you do remind me a lot of one of my great friends, Knight! :)“

[fetch: “Is that so? How do I remind you of him?”]

page: “I guess from what I have seen the way you type and how kind you are to me reminds me of them...Theres also something else but i can't quite put my finger on it...”

[fetch: “...Oh. You remind me of my old friend too.”]

page: “Oh! Was it the other friend I was told was missing? I hope you find him again soon! I've seen some people mention him before along with something about a...Turkey of some sort?"

jayyyyyyyy: “a turkey?”

fetch: “ITS-

its... an inside joke”

[fetch: “Yeah, you remind me of Maxwell. I... kinda miss him a lot. Think you can keep an eye out?”]

page: “Of course anything to help my beloved friends! :)”

[fetch: “its... an inside joke”]

page: “And the joke...it's...not a secret is it? You're not hiding something from me are, you shouldn't lie to friends...”

[fetch: “:] How close are you with crown? Is there anything you've gathered that you can share with us?”]

page: “Gathered? Do you mean...secrets! :)”

fetch: “And no its not a secret! Just something we can talk about later :]”

[fetch: “Family isn't supposed to keep secrets, remember?”]

page: “That's right!...But...Crown told me not to tell people things without permission because its bad...”

[fetch: “So... He's keeping secrets? But you said thats bad!”]

page: “ But-- but...Won't Crown be mad? I don't wanna get in trouble or be...grounded...”

[P R I N C E: “Crown doesn't keep secrets, page!  he can be a little forgetful sometimes, but he doesn't keep secrets. :)”]

fetch: “if you say so...”

[A random Spark: “What are you allowed to share without getting into trouble?”]

page: “Anything that Crown says I can :)”

[page: “ But-- but...Won't Crown be mad? I don't wanna get in trouble or be...grounded...”]

fetch: “If it gets you in trouble you don't have to tell me. I was just wondering.”

[jayyyyyyyy: “A little information here and there can't hurt!”]

page: “But if Crown finds out then I could get in serious trouble! Oh god oh god I dont wanna get in trouble if he grounds me--”

[fetch: “You don't have to tell! not if he's going to hurt you.”]

page: “Is there....Anything you would want to know specifically...? I might be able to tell you”

[P R I N C E: “I can ask Crown what you're allowed to share! :D”]

page: “Really? You're the best big sibling ever!”

P R I N C E: “Yeah! Aw thank you :D”

[fetch: “Can you ask him whats so important about the Crowns? And why we need to put them on to be in the family?”]

page: “Yes yes! I'll ask him for you! I'm confused why you want to know though? I mean they're important to us! :)”

Chat: “Don't worry Page! I'm sure Crown won't be mad at you.”

A random Spark: “Hello Chat...”

Chat: “Hello again, everyone!”

Chat: “Why do you all sound so upset?”

[fetch: “Can you ask him whats so important about the crowns? And why we need to put them on to be in the family?”]

page: “You don't need them! He just thinks it helps us look more unified as a family!”

[A random Spark: “I would rather not speak on the matter Chat”]

Chat: “I'm sorry. I hope you're in a better mood soon, though! :)”

page: “Well it's obviously a family! I mean, Prince is pretty much my older sibling!”

[fetch: “oh I see :] Can you take it off if you felt like it? Like, do you sleep with it on?”]

page: “We can sleep, though how much depends on how much we want to sleep! And yes, we always do wear our circlets no matter the situation :)”

page: “It's like they're not even there honestly! You hardly feel notice them!”

[A random Spark: “That sounds painful...aren't circlets hard?”]

Chat: “A little, but it doesn't hurt me at all! :)”

[fetch: “Is there any instance that could cause you to take off your crown? Like... say for showering or changing clothes?]

Chat: “No”

page: “Nope! why would we? We can't even really feel them, ha! :D”

Chat: “I'd like to talk to Knight again, too... I miss them a lot.”

A random Spark: “Fetch is nice”

Chat: “I'm sorry, Fetch! You're very nice too!”

[page: “Hey! Knight is like an older brother to me but you seem really nice to!”]

Fetch: “Glad I'm nice at least...”

Chat: “:)”

page: “I don't mean to be rude or pushy, i've been told being pushy is bad, but you all seem to be a bit more...confused after i told you about our circlets....Oh wait! Are you perhaps jealous? Would you like some too? :D”

A random Spark: “I think for now I am good...”

Chat: “Are you sure? There are plenty for everyone! :)”

fetch: “Noo, I would not like a circlet. Theyd look much nicer on you and the Court anyway :]”

page: “But why not? They're so nice and pretty and although it feels a little uncomfy at first you eventually forget you're even wearing one at all!”

A random Spark: “I have a pendant, I do not need a circlet”

[fetch: “I’m not much of a jewelry fan :]”]

page: “Neither was I! But Crown thought that perhaps it would be nice and it really is a simple one!”

P R I N C E: “If you don't want circlets just yet, I'd love to make everyone little flower crowns! :D”

[Continued in pt 46.]

[jbbarnesandnoble]

New Girl: Part One

Pairing: Bartender!Bucky Barnes x Teacher!Reader

Chapter Summary: after signing the agreement to your new loft, you head out to a local bar for a small celebration with your best friend.

Chapter Warning(s): grumpy bucky and awkward first encounters

Word Count: 1,865

Prompt: Roommate AU

A/N: this is my entry for @sourpatchkidsandacokecan Little Darlin's Birthday Celebration Writing Challenge. All of the excitement everyone seems to have for this fic. It kinda freaked me out at first, I'm not used to one of my fics getting so much attention. However, after my brief moment of panic -and a chat with a lovely friend. I decided to use it as motivation:) i hope this this lives up to everyone's expectations!! This is a little shorter than I hoped it would be. But I just couldn't bring myself to combine this part and the next. I would love to hear what you think of it/how you like it:)

(I don't own this photo)

Tuesday night's were never meant to be spent in a bar. At least not for you, not when you know you have work bright and early the next morning. But tonight you couldn't care less. It was a night worth celebrating. You had just signed the agreement to your new loft. Sure it wasn't located in the best part of LA and it came with three roommates. But it was a fresh start, one that you were more than ready for.

"Hello dear." Peggy, your best friend says from behind you. A smile forms on your face before you turn to look at her. You greet her with an equally enthusiastic hello, pulling her into a warm hug. She orders a drink from the young women behind the bar; while sliding onto the barstool next to you.

No more than a minute later does the bartender place Peggy's drink in front of her; exchanging a smile in thanks. "So," the tall brunette next to you says, drawing out her word. From the look on her face, you know exactly where she's going. You keep your face as neutral as you can; all while fighting against a smile. She continues, "What is the big news you had me waiting all day to hear?" She clasps her hands together, you can tell she's been on the edge of her seat since you messaged her this morning.

She watches you with her big brown eyes. You stare off towards the opposite side of the bar in pretend thought -really you're watching one of the bartenders make a fancy looking drink. Another short minute passes and you answer her, "You know, it actually isn't that big of a deal." You sip your drink, waving her off with your free hand.

Mouth hanging open, she quickly narrows her eyes at you. "I see what you're doing, you're trying to make me guess. Well it isn't going to work." She states confidently, you shrug in return. "You never drink on school nights. That alone means it must be something big." She adds, her British accent drawing looks from other customers sitting at the bar.

"I signed an agreement for a loft not too far from this bar." The words slip out before you can stop them. Your excitement taking over you completely. One minute you're sitting at the bar calm and collected, then next the pair of you are a squealing mess.

"Are you serious? This isn't one of your jokes, right?" Peggy asks you, her drink clinks against the oak bar splashing onto the wood. You nod and the spilt drink is now forgotten. "I'm not messing with you this time Pegs, this is real." You're giddy, practically bouncing in your seat while you go on telling her the story of your new apartment.

"You live with three other girls?"

"Well," you wince, drawing out the Ls at the end. To which she gives you a look, one you know all too well. "Two of them are guys and I never actually met the third. But they called them James, so maybe that's a nickname for Jamie." The words spill out of your mouth much faster than you expected them to. Your hand reaches for your almost empty glass, you down the remaining liquid in one sip. Melting ice swirls around at the bottom, water mixing with leftover alcohol.

Peggy's eyes burn holes into the side of your head. "Hun, that's not how that works." She finally says,  there's a hint of amusement in her eyes -which you don't notice. You let out a nervous breath. You had been worried she wouldn't be fond of the idea of you living with guy roommates. Turns out your fears hadn't been too far off.

Nevertheless, that isn't her choice to make, besides you are more than capable of taking care of yourself. And if you're being honest, they seemed more like overgrown children than anything else.

She continues to watch you carefully, you sigh saying. "I'll be fine Pegs, really." You smile at her, hoping to offer some reassurance. She laughs in response, properly confusing you. "It's not you I'm worried about dear. It's them, you'll destroy those boys if they aren't careful." She says through bursts of laughter and you can't help but join her.

She has one of those laughs that intoxicants the people around her. That's one of the many reasons people are constantly pooling around her. Her British accent and laugh alone cause heads to turn every time you're out together. What earns people's second glance is her goddess-like height and beauty.

"So now that you have a job and a place to live -after only a week of living in LA. I believe it's time you find a new, dare I say, better man." Peggy says, your laughter dies being replaced with an eye roll. But the amusement in your eyes stays. "Don't misinterpret what I mean, I know you do not need a man. But wouldn't you agree, it would be nice to have someone by your side when you take over Los Angeles?" Peggy states keeping her tone causal. Though there's a glint in her eyes that you know all too well. She continues to watch as you order another drink for the bar; before turning your full attention back to her.

"I can set you up, I know some decent-"

"Peggy, no! You can't set me up." You say a bit too loudly, earning you glances from a couple of single men at the bar. The two of you share a disgusted look, rolling your eyes in unison. "At least… not yet, okay?" Your words bring a small smile onto Peggy's face, one of understanding.

"Not yet, but eventually." She says with a wink coaxing you to giggle.

"I have to use the little girls room. I'll be back. When I come back there better not be any men waiting for me." You tell her, while sliding off of your seat. Of course in heels, such a simple action is more than enough to make a girl lose her balance; which sends you tumbling towards the ground. You put a hand out to catch yourself, what you didn't expect is for someone to catch you.

"I'm so sorry, I'm such a klutz." You're a rambling mess before you have a chance to see the face of the person who caught you. When you do, the wind is knocked out of your lungs. Never in your life have you seen such pricing blue eyes, specks of grey swirl around in his ocean eyes. Long locks of brown hair perfectly frame his beautiful face. He's the most handsome man you have ever seen, there's no way he can be human. No one just looks that pretty and for free.

Cold liquid soaks into your dress, snapping you out of your daze. Bringing you to notice the mess your small trip had made. Glass and alcohol cover the red carpet of the bar. You grimace at the sight. Your eyes move from the floor back up to the gorgeous man. Who doesn't look pleased.

"Oh my stars, here, let me help." You tell the handsome stranger, grabbing a couple napkins from the bar. When you notice his shirt soaked in alcohol.

You're panicking, you know it. All of the judging eyes from other customers doesn't help either. Shaky hands fumble with small square napkins, trying their best to wipe away the whiskey. Somehow your attempts to fix this mess of a situation, you manage to only make it worse. The frown on his face deepens. "Don't touch me." Is all he says, voice deep and gruff. His tall figure moves around you, leaving you standing there. Wishing the ground would open up and swallow you whole.

Wiping wet hands onto the extra napkins, you reclaim your seat next to Peggy. Who's hiding a grin behind her wine. "Don't say anything." You tell her plainly.

She snickers, "I wasn't going to say anything, love."

"Sure." Your head falls into your hands that still reek of whiskey. That's the least of your concerns, when you see the man from seconds before standing in front of you behind the bar. Of course he works here.

"Hey Wanda, bring two whiskey's neat to booth three." He yells to the women who had served you earlier. His eyes never break contact with your own. A small smirk rests on his pink lips, teasing you. His smug look leaves a feeling of rage in your chest. You and Peggy watch as he disappears into the back.

"He is definitely the one, you should go for him." Peggy teases you, poking a finger into your side. Your head falls onto the countertop with a thunk. "Let me die in peace." Her warm hand rubs your back. As she says, "It's okay, I'm sure he thought you to be charming."

"Maybe you should just kill me, it would hurt less. I'll never be able to leave my apartment again. I'll just confine myself there for the rest of my days." You complain to Peggy who can hardly hear you, because your face is pressed against the bar.

"That was so embarrassing, maybe I should go- crap he's back." You cut yourself off, head falling back into your hand, elbows propped up against the wood. Peggy turns her head to find the tall man walking back around the bar, a broom and dustpan in hand, a few rags draped over his shoulder.

"Can we go?" You whisper to your friend, careful the man, who is now behind you, doesn't overhear. She watches you a moment before nodding. "I want to sit home and watch cheesy rom-coms anyway." The pair of you laugh before getting off of your seats.

You're about to move around the mess, caused by you. When the blue eyed man says, "Careful, someone made a huge mess. You wouldn't wanna get a scratch." He has the audacity to wink at you. It only adds to your anger. You don't care if it's irrational, he doesn't have to tease you about it.

You decide against saying anything, instead you swallow your embarrassment and anger. Walking past him, ignoring his comment. Peggy does the same.

"Since it's my last night in this hotel you wanna have a sleepover, like old times? It'll also help me forget this horrible night." You ask once out of the bar, Peggy drapes an arm around your shoulders. "Just as long as you don't break anything. I'm more than happy to stay with you." You laugh with her, walking down the busy streets of Los Angeles.

"At least I'll never have to see him again." You say joyfully.

"You mean we aren't coming back here?" Peggy asks her nose scrunches and you know she's joking.

"Never again." The two of you laugh again.

"I don't know, y/n. He seemed like he was the one for you. I still think you should ask him out." She teases you once again. You laugh telling her it will never happen. All while being unaware of what cruel joke tomorrow held for you.

>>>>>

Well, that it's, the first part of New Girl is here. I hope you all liked it, and I just wanted to say a huge thanks for all the love this has already gotten! Yall are really inspiring me to write, thank you, i love yall! 

[hinaaspanda]

A Sunshine Boy and His Princess in Her Tower

Paring: neighbor!Jeno x reader

Warnings: swearing

Genre: fluff, angst if you squint

Word Count: 6049

You thrived in your seclusion. Like a princess trapped in a ten story tower. Yet she wasn’t trapped, she was free. As for that overly loud, sunshine boy next door, well, it was a different story.

...

4:28 pm. It was well into the afternoon. The clouds gracefully covered those harsh sun rays like a thick picnic blanket as the red and white lights of the never ending cars glowed onto the city road. The sun was destined to retire, and yet, it was right at your doorstep, not even bothered to put down his last cardboard box down before greeting you. 

“Uhm… aha… hi!” He went on, his fingers, laced with nervousness, tapping away at the cardboard surface. You shifted your stance, a hand lightly gripping the door, keeping it open. If he was so nervous, why even bother with this greeting? Your eyes interrogated his unbalanced figure, watching him as he shifted around the box in his hand, awkwardly balancing it on his arm before going in for a handshake. You cringed, second-hand embarrassment shooting through you as you quietly refused, not just because you simply didn’t want to, but because with his lopsided posture, he would’ve been better off without it. 

Finally dropping his box down to his feet, the boy in front of you continued. “Ok uh… well my name’s Jeno. I guess we’ll be neighbors, huh? He scratched the nape of his neck as you, on the other side of the door frame, simply nodded. You thought your naturally frigid and cold demeanor, one in which you were known for, was more than enough to drive the embodiment of sunlight away from your presence, but he clearly had other plans.  

This sunshine boy went on and on, never noticing the unwanting expression clearly plastered onto your face. “I’ve noticed this floor’s pretty empty. Is it ‘cause it’s the top? Personally I don’t mind the long ride upwards, the view up here’s amazing! You can always get the perfect amount of sunlight in the morning! 

You huffed under your breath. And yet, there's too much sunlight in front of me right now. 

A soft clearing of your voice finally caught his attention, startling him like an innocent deer in headlights. “OH! Yea right! My bad, I kinda got a problem with goin’ on and on like that. Anyways, what’s your name?” 

It seemed harmless enough, not that anything right now could convince you that he was harmful, but this question did seem worthy enough of your time. You leaned against the wall beside you. “Y/N” 

“Y/N!” He cheerfully echoed back, earning a slight wince on your end. Did he know how to control his volume? “Y/n, y/n, y/n!” He sang softly bobbing head left and right as he bent down to pick up the just recently discarded box just in front of his feet. “Well, I’d love to stay and chat some more…”

Well I wouldn’t, but whatever. 

“...But I gotta start unpacking! Wouldn’t want this sunlight to run out on me! I’ll see you ‘round, y/n! He sang the last syllable of your name before heading into the door neighboring yours, and shutting it quietly. Seconds later, you shut yours, too, resuming your boring, boring business. 

Nice try, there’s no way sunlight would run out in that room. 

...

...Or so you thought. But just like any other recurring theme in those novels that always put you softly to sleep, those stories you would easily get lost in, this Jeno guy always managed to take you by surprise. Apparently, sunlight could run out in his room, but on one condition. It would run straight into yours.  

As it turns out, being two of the only residents on the top floor of your apartment complex, aside from the token ‘building creep’ two doors down and building electricians, leads to a very quiet life. A life that you, whether as a curse or a blessing, genuinely enjoyed. As your supposed peers living in lower floors began to compare you to the building creep on your common floor, you relished in the silence, the lack of human interaction. You thrived in your seclusion. Like a princess trapped in a ten story tower. Yet she wasn’t trapped, she was free.  

As for that overly loud, sunshine boy next door, well, it was a different story. 

“Y/N!” he knocked on your door the morning after, the nervousness that once lined the tips of his fingers being fully replaced with sheer excitement. You swear, the boom of his voice had surpassed any of your powerless alarms. Grudgingly, you slid out of bed, the sound of his not-so-quiet humming acting as a magnet, pulling your sleepy figure to the door, just waiting for you to scream at it in an annoyed response. 

But you couldn’t. With his cheeks raised up into a heavenly smile, and his eyes growing into crescents the moment he laid his eyes on you, you just couldn’t move. Your froze, A blinding, yet comforting light pierced through, whether it was from the lively aura radiating at your doorstep or the morning sunshine peeking from the floor’s few windows, you couldn’t tell. 

You prayed to god it was just the latter. 

Your heart wouldn’t be able to take it otherwise. 

“Do you wanna help me get coffee?”

...help him? A quizzed look grew on your face, as nervousness grew on his. 

“Well, I’m new to the city and, uh, I kinda don’t know my way around it, so I was hoping’ you could show me around? We’re neighbors, after all!” 

Frankly, if you couldn't tell by my uninteresting responses to your overtly simple questions, I’m the last person you would want to invite to anything, so no, I won’t-

The innocent sparkle dazzled in his eyes, the same way pain tugged at your heart. You couldn’t say no. You couldn’t turn Jeno down, You couldn’t disappoint this sunshine boy. Unconsciously, your lips slightly strung upwards, cocking your head to the right as you forced out a response, a response you knew you were bound to regret. 

 “Sure, just let me get changed.” The obviously fake tone in your voice was unnoticeable compared to the skyrocketing, joyful expression on his face as you uttered your answer. You turned around, shuffling far into your safe space. That would leave him alone, right? 

The door locked shut, steps begin inching towards you. 

No, he wouldn’t. 

He slips his shoes off and tosses them gently to the carpet behind him

Is he being serious? Who does this Jeno guy think he is? 

He plops down onto the couch, a couch almost always empty, with you never having guests over and all. 

He's definitely serious. 

“I’ll just wait here till you’re ready! He gushed, the couch he rested on taking him in perfectly with open arms. 

There went your safe space, ruined and disturbed, brutally disturbed. And the culprit? An innocent angel whose wings were crafted straight from the sun. 

...

“You don’t talk much, do you?” Jeno sipped his newly brewed coffee, quietly cursing at scorching liquid burning his lips. You sat parallel to him at the 7days Cafe, your hunched over figure using up all of your might trying not to laugh as he added another seemingly useless question to his “new neighbors questionnaire”. Gee, you don’t say, huh.

“What makes you say that?” you stirred your drink, gazing at each and every bubble popping away. Your eyes trailed up, watching the figure in front of you relish in the glowing evening sky. The various street lights accentuating his gentle features.  And if you were being completely honest, he was the reason you’ve hardly uttered a word the entire time you’ve been there. His skin, practically glowing before you. His hazel hair, falling just above his eyelashes. Eyelashes which could’ve cradled pleasant flower petals with that length. 

“C’mon now, don’t give me that,” exasperation filled his tone. “I wanna know why! I mean, you don’t go out much either, right? There’s gotta be a reason.”

Silence filled the empty space above your cafe table. You liked it, though. It hasn't been this quiet in a long time. You sigh, stirring your drink once more, you pitied the drink, it never got the chance to be properly enjoyed. 

“I dunno,” You began. A sudden rush of heat filled your cheeks, and you couldn’t find yourself to look back at him, even if he was staring at your enclosed figure with all the intent in the world. “I just never felt the need to? I guess.” You simply shrugged as Jeno began rocking back and forth on his chair. So childish. 

“Is that why you live on the top floor?” 

You grin under your breath. Maybe it was one of the reasons you barely conversed with the people in your class, the excuse for your desire to be alone, with only noise surrounding you were the quiet chirps ringing in the sky, as you lose yourself to your novel of the day. All of this, simply because you moved into the top floor of an apartment building. 

“Yeah, maybe it is.” 

God, how stupid do I sound right now? You winced, waiting for his response. 

Silence rushed in between the two of you once again, this time, it wasn’t what you had desired.

“That’s cute.” he broke the silence, bringing you back to the reality you so closely lost in that last second. You glanced up at him, eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Jeno simply smiled, taking your quizzed look as a sign to continue.  

“It's like those children’s fairy tales! Where the princess is locked up in a tower and, um, needs to be saved by the knight! Yeah something like that.” 

In an effort to speed up this ungodly awkward coffee run, you drink your now cold cup of coffee. “Princess?” 

Jeno springs up in his seat, creamer wrappers shivering in his presence. “Yeah! You’re like a princess trapped in a tower, err, I guess you’re not really trapped, cause you like bein’ there and all, but still!  

The only thing you could do was smile as he went on and on about this fairy tale alternate reality of our lives. He’s such a child. So cute. You sip onto your cold drink once more, shuddering at your own thoughts. Did I really just say that? 

Jeno stood up, enclosing the trash on his side of the table into his hand, and turned over to you before heading to the cafe trash can.  

“And I can be your knight and shining armor who’s always here when you need saving, and always prepared when you need to go out once in a while!” 

He turns back around and heads to the trash can, as you, the blushing mess you are, sighs under your breath. 

Well, you definitely shine bright, alright. 

...

Jeno stayed true to his word, of course escorting you out of your chamber of seclusion every chance he got. Whether it be through hasted coffee runs before your morning classes, or arcade expeditions on the weekends, you always found yourself tripping over your own two feet at the sway of his hand, awaiting his next adventure. It felt as if you were new in the city as he guided you around it, exploring all the sights and attractions your town had to offer. All these city-exclusive features you never bothered to glance at before, now finding themselves in your presence almost everyday. You didn’t know if it was because of your lack of knowledge of the outdoors, or simply who you saw every city splendor with, but you swear to god, they were beautiful. 

Whether to your dismay or utmost pleasure, however, you and Jeno grew connected at the hip, your different universities acting as nothing but a weak wall, waiting for it’s impending destruction as he decides to walk you home every night. 

“It’s the least I can do, this part of the city is dangerous at night after all.” he suddenly began, the pads of his thumbs clicking against the various knobs on the video game controller. The two of you were sat in front of your couch, stealing all the pillows and blankets from its possession, rendering it useless as you created a makeshift fort on the spot.  

“I don’t think I need protecting at night, Jeno.” you scowled, not bothering to look up from the book you could barely even focus on, due to the various screams and gunshots protruding from the screen. “You said it yourself, I’m a different kind of princess.” 

“Yeah, but, you’re still a princess,” he muttered, his words hardly reaching above the T.V. volume as another scream fell out of screen. “And a princess should always have their knight with them, right?” 

The room fell silent, Jeno’s eyes glued to the violent combat game, while yours stayed snug on the pages of your book. As another gunshot sounds off on the t.v, you both silently prayed that neither of you noticed each other’s cheeks as they grew more and more crimson.   

“So,” Jeno cleared his voice, eyes daring to glance at your figure, hunched over beside him like always. “Can I walk you home, Y/N?”

Your sigh was deeper than intended, and you couldn’t tell if it was in irritation or infatuation. “Of course.”

...

“Who knew the infamous apartment gremlin could ever step outside?” Renjun, your one campus friend, and employee at the 7days Cafe, swung his bag around his shoulders as you trotted out of class. The sunlight peeking through the emerald green leaves, and blinding you upon arrival; it all reminded you of him. That sunshine boy. 

As Renjun went on and on about how your only characteristic up till now was the fact that chocolate wrappers piled up your desk faster than any snow or leaf pile could, your mind began wandering. Visiting every arcade raid and coffee date that your mind stored with pure pleasure. Every time he waited at your doorstep every morning, and lingered around your campus after every class--sticking true to the promise he made just weeks before--all of it. Like a warm cup of tea, it felt snug, just right. A smile swiped across your lips subconsciously as Renjun’s eyebrows cocked upwards, an all too knowing smirk swiping across his. 

“But seriously, though, who was that guy you were with? A blind date? I don’t remember setting you up with anyone, though?” He inquired, recalling all the suspicious you-related sightings he saw that day.

“I can easily get a date by myself, thank you very much.”

“Are you hearing yourself right now?”

A giggle escapes your breath as Renjun pierces you with that intense stare once again, wanting, no, needing answers right this second. You sigh that same sigh, the one either filled with aggravation or adoration.

“It’s Jeno, he’s my new neighbor.” You continued. “He probably only started hanging out with me cause I’m practically the only one that lives on my floor besides him.” 

Only your best, and basically only friend could fish out the disappointment seeping through your voice, and Renjun did--effortlessly--as he gasped in the name of over-exaggeration. 

“Y/N, are you getting flustered?” he hunted, his words acting like a call for the red glow growing on your cheeks. His howling at the sight could’ve been heard miles away. 

“Shut up, Renjun.”

That same smirk grew 10x more sly, eyeing a sight far ahead of you. “Yeah you’re right, I should shut up, cause I’m definitely not drawing in more attention than your little coffee date over there.” Your head whipped up in response, the sight in front of you rendering you frozen, just waiting for his natural sun rays to melt your ice-cold stance. 

“Y/N! HEY!” his yelling, along with the attention of others shuffling around the campus, captured the attention of your heart. Jeno jogs up towards you, his backpack swishing left and right as Renjun slowly shuffles away, sending you a devious wink and an all knowing smirk before heading off his own way. 

 “Arcade?” Jeno exhaled, pleading for his breath to catch up to him. He glances up, eyes forming into those ethereal crescents as his lips perk up into a smile. You don’t even need to ask, dummy.

...

The trees shivered through the evening breeze as you and Jeno cloud the empty air with sounds of your soft steps. A pebble jolts under your feet as the two of you reside in reluctant silence, the only sound present being the irritable car engines swiftly passing by. The air in between you two grew tense--not that it wasn’t already tense the moment Renjun escorted himself out of the equation. This regular sunshine boy had stayed a little cloudy--too cloudy for your liking--  for a couple of days now. Gone were the days of constant rambling over pure nonsense, nonsense that made your heart burst into a thousand tiny pieces. In the past few days, he’s been silent, more than you thought he was capable of being. And you would rather die than admit it to him, but you missed it. You missed him. 

You couldn’t tell why he would miraculously grow mute around you, and only you, either. Were you too boring for him? Too unresponsive and detached for his liking? You always feared the day where he’d leave your desperate grasp for something newer, more alive, simply better. Yet you weren’t so much as worried for him, but rather for yourself. Could you handle it? Living in darkness for the rest of your life, the sun reluctant to shine around you? With no knight and shining armor to rescue with open arms? 

Your sulking figure props itself up as you saunter through the arcade doors. The arcade was a 20 minute walk from your campus. You shudder in response. How long was I stuck in my head like that? 

Like the child he is, Jeno happily trotts towards the various classic and retro games sprinkled around the coin-op. It was his favorite attraction of the city so far, easily trumping every cafe or stationary gym, and especially his “hell hole of a school” as he puts it. You grimace at the very fact that stayed in your mind, and head over to this arcade's only claw machine. 

Saying it was small would be a clear understatement, Yet it’s petite figure, coupled with its pastel pink exterior, provided a calmer, softer glow, compared to the chaos of the neon, flashing lights and rapid, unwinding gaming tickets that surrounded it. You studied the new additions of diverse toys that laid trapped within the transparent glass prison. Inside, a baby panda, a guinea pig, and a cute bunny all try to sway your hand into buying them, but only one contender out of the box of plushies catch your eye. A tiger, seated four or five plushies away from a tiny shark, entrances you with its sweet appeal, a rose-coloured ribbon laced around its neck, sealing the deal. You dig around your practically empty pockets, no quarters available in your grasp. As a defeated sigh escapes your lips, Jeno appears beside you, head cocked to the side as he examines the various toys for himself. 

  “These are cute,” he shoved his hands in his pockets, as if he was hiding behind some nonchalant facade you never knew about. He takes notice of the way your eyes sparkle as you stare at the tiger plushie. “Are you gonna play?”

“I can’t,” You held your head down in despair, fingers twiddling and picking at each other in utter embarrassment. “I don’t have any coins.” 

Jeno cleared his voice, scratching the nape of his neck with fingers lined with stress as he glances at you, flustered and embarrassed. Even if it was just cause of something as small as the toy tiger, you were still cute.

 And your endearing expression gave the most perfect idea. 

Jeno grumbled in annoyance. “I ran out, too, should we head home?” 

You shoot him a smile. “Sure.”

The two of you head out the door, Jeno grasping the handful of coins trapped in his pant pocket.

The afternoon sun swiftly melted into an evening night sky as you watch the white, little lights fully paint the exterior of your apartment building. The breeze grew harsher, and all you wanted right now was to be trapped in the walls of your tower once again. The silence that suffocated the two of you finally collapsed as Jeno cleared his throat. 

“Um, Y/N?” 

You turned your head “ Hm?”

“I won’t be able to walk you home tomorrow.” 

You would never admit it to his face, but your heart died a little that day. 

Curse you and your abeyant, pushover of a heart.  

“Oh, uh, ok.” 

...

The next day seemed more unappealing than most. You constantly found yourself moping around your apartment floor, disregarding school work you couldn’t care less about before. 

What broke your heart the night before, stepping into the broad doors of your supposed tower, wasn’t just the fact that he decided to leave your life right then and there, but because of how weak he's made your life into. You didn’t need him. You didn’t need human interaction in your life, the life you built solely on seclusion and the art of never leaving the comfort of your own home. You could always go back to the ways things were, burying your face into the words of your next novel, enjoying freshly brewed coffee with the coffee machine Renjun gave you, knowing very well he wasn’t going to see you for another month after that. You could always go back. You didn’t need Jeno. 

Right?

You shuffled towards your kitchen counter, the thought of that freshly brewed coffee making you salivate. 

You stop in your tracks. 

The jingle of house keys rattle through your door.   

He was home. 

You take a step forward, cursing at yourself in the process. But just like your first interaction, he acted like a magnet, pulling you towards him against every fiber of your being. Your hand gravitates towards the doorknob, but you decide against turning it when you hear a voice ringing from the outside. 

“I know, I know, leaving her to walk home alone was dumb but--hey! I still listen to your advice! I’ve been walking her home everyday before this!”

Jeno grows silent, and you grow confused. So walking me home was this guy’s idea?

“I just dunno what to do, Jaemin”  A thud hits your side of the apartment wall, along with the rattles of a… paper bag? “I just freeze up whenever I see her, my own neighbor, how pathetic am I?”

...neighbor? 

The silence resumes.

It stops.

“Yes! I won her a tiger plushie to cheer her up, what's so bad about it?” He sounded so defensive. It was cute. 

“But, Jaemin, seriously…”

Silence.

“...I might be in love, man.” 

The coffee pot almost collapsed in your hand right that second. It should’ve, at least, since your once proud, independent figure most definitely did. You rushed to your couch, the couch that held everyone of your favorite memory with him. Burying your face into the unwrinkled pillow, you don’t hesitate to perk your ears up when you notice that the ethereal conversation taking place just outside your door, wasn’t over just yet. 

Jeno giggles, each chuckle sends butterflies to your heart. “Yeah, Jaemin. I’m in love with Y/N. You gotta come visit, you’re in town, right?” 

...

“How many times do I have to tell you!? Flavouring first, AND THEN the milk!” Renjun grumbled, massaging his temples as he lectured the taller, two-toned hair, amateur barista, all while another younger looking boy with black hair and in a matching apron, howls loudly at the sight behind the 7days Cafe counter.  

You sat just parallel to the commotion, a warm cup of coffee enclosed between your two palms. Seconds after you heard Jeno’s apartment door close, you fled. Panic, excitement, and the thirst for what you hope was just a drink, riling up within you. You didn’t know who else to tell, who else to unload all these feelings to. Your mind went blank, more bare than the ivory walls that coated the interior of this very cafe. Renjun, however, took it surprisingly lightly. But you kind of understood, he had other things to worry about. 

“Chenle! Quit filming Jisung fuck up his latte! You can't even have your phone back here! Remember what happened last time?”

You wondered what this Chenle kid did to get Renjun so pissed like that as this supposed Jisung guy laughs back and his fellow amateur barista. 

An aggravated Renjun plops down on a stool on the other side of the counter, facing you as he wipes his hands on the towel placed on his shoulders.

“Damn high schoolers, such a pain.” he shudders, his voice low, but just enough to tick off his café students. “Anyways, about this Jeno thing,” You lean in closer, your coffee mug almost tipping over as you wait in anticipation.

“I fucking called that shit.” Renjun’s deadpanned expression causing you to lose 10 years of your life. “It was so obvious.”

“Obvious? How?” you scowled 

“Don’t worry, though. It's only obvious to people with basic social skills, so you’re off the hook.” he shoots you a sinister smile, as you shoot back with an overly offended glare. 

“Renjun, seriously.” you pleaded, catching the attention of the two other highschoolers behind the counter. “Well,” he continued, “No guy I know would want to walk a girl home EVERY DAY just for kicks. 99% of the time, they’re a simp for the chick.” You twiddle with your fingers, slightly disappointed in the fact that you never picked that up, despite your esteemed sharpness. 

“Not to mention how ecstatic he looked, like, every time you breathed near him.” 

“Ok but you’re not around us most of the time he breathes near me.” 

“Sweetie, I don’t have to be around you two all the time to know that’s exactly what happens.”

You grumble under your breath, not wanting to spare a glance at your supposed best friend, outsmarting every single thought that grazed your mind. 

“So, what do I do?” 

“Well, you like him back, right?” Slowly, you nod. Despite being the crux of problem presented, you were probably the most surprised out of the group.  

“Well then, go fucking tell him! Go!” he vigorously gestures towards the door, the liquid in your untouched mug swishing around, shaking in fear. 

You don’t take a second guess as you burst through the door, leaving a tired and sighing Renjun behind. 

“Hey, boss.” Chenle leaned against the counter as Renjun stood back up to continue his work. “Who does your friend like?” 

“None of your business, Chenle, now get to work!” Renjun snapped back, earning the shudders of both--now terrified--high schoolers. 

The chime on Café door sounds, and steps click towards the counter. Subconsciously, Renjun greets with the brand-wide slogan, followed by an unappealing “How may I help you today?” 

The figure in front of him, unfazed, continues the untasteful conversation. 

“Hey, the name’s Jaemin. Is there a guy named Jeno around here? I’m supposed to meet him.”

The towel once snug tight in Renjun’s hand, gracefully hits the floor. “Oh.”

...

You scramble to the tips of your feet seconds after the glass doors spread open. A tiny ding! chimes your way as you scampered inside, ignoring every uneven tile, medium sized pebble, and the devious tricks of your own untied shoelaces that bare a threat to your one chance to set things right. To finally let the sun shine around you once again. 

Reaching the elevators, you stop to catch your vanishing breath, all of your might used in stopping your exhales slowly slip away. You greet your--mostly unpleasing--reflection as you face the opening metallic doors, the whites of your eyes swelling as they meet up with dozens of other deadpanned expressions. 10 people, all enclosed in the walls of the vertical-travelling cart, limbs and torsos all clustered together at uncomfortably short distance. And despite the silence, not one set of eyes didn’t scream “Don’t you dare get in here.” right at your face. Of course, you huffed as you rushed towards the back of the apartment foyer. 

A door, hidden from plain sight, waits from your now exhausted figure, the word “Stairs” mocking you, plunging you straight into misery. Another huff blows out of your lips. You loved your apartment, but right now, it was being nothing but a total pain. God, ok. Here we go.

10 flights of stairs later, and you're nothing but a heaving, tired mess. Various hair strands string onto the sides of your face, while the sweat first formed on the 4th flight finally dried cold onto your lower back. You looked unhinged, psycho, and straight up not having a good time. But just like every time before, your sunshine boy can brighten up anyone’s day. 

 “Y/N?” A voice questioned, the vermilion and silver paper bag dropping to the ground in the name surprise. 

Fuck fuck fuck fuck. You clearly didn’t think this through. What is wrong with you, trying to confess to the guy you like while looking like an actual goblin. Why in the world would you listen to Renjun, half of the words that come out of his mouth are sarcastic?! You wince at his impending reaction, only sparing him a few glances every so often as the two of you stood frozen, trapped in each other’s presence.   

“Um, er--hi.” he stepped towards you and your gaping figure. A stride so light, one that could balance on feathers. Disregarding the paper bag from before, a hand dips inside, the bag rustling around as he pulls out… a toy? Not just a toy, but a plushie. That same tiger plushie that caught your eye that day, entrancing you with its rose-tinted ribbon. The same plushie you locked eyes with on the day your heart died, just by a little bit. 

Jeno stops in his tracks, scanning you. “Wait, why are you--did you take the stairs here?” 

You could only vigorously exhale, but you still forced out a response. “Ran. 10 flights.” he returns with a smile, a grin brighter than afternoon sun casting behind them. 

“I guess I’ll take over from here.” 

Jeno takes one last step forward, eyes, locked together in a trance. Faces just centimetres apart, nothing but the brisk indoor air roaming between you. Jeno glances down, his cheeks flushed a golden vermilion as he twiddles with the tiger paws held tightly in his tense fingertips. Your cheeks can’t help but fall into a deep crimson right after his, fidgeting with the ending fabric of your hoodie. The cool air that froze the sweat cascading down you back finally disappeared, leaving behind the warm, sensual, tingling feeling coming from your intertwined breaths. 

“Sorry,” he began. His eye contact encapsulating you, no matter how nervous it seems.  “Sorry for leaving you to walk home alone, I, er--I was being dumb. Really dumb.” He glances to the floor, breath shaking, with just an ounce of firmness. 

And exhale escapes his throat. “The truth is, well, I just get all shaky around you. I become flustered, I freeze, basically. And I thought that leaving you alone for a little while, shying away from you for a little bit, would clear my mind, would benefit me in any way. But I was wrong. So, so wrong.” Jeno grabs your hand, enclosing it around the soft, forged, fur of the tiger plushie.

“I knew I was right from the beginning, ever since I first dropped my last cardboard box to my feet in a desperate effort to greet you. I knew I always wanted to be around you, be with you. That’s why I walked you home every night, took you out for coffee every chance I took. I didn’t know what came over me, but I needed to stay with you. You’re my life source, ever since I moved into the secluded apartment complex. And now…”His eyes grew glossy as he shot you that crescent eye smile you fell in love with so easily. 

“I’m running out of excuses to be next to you, Y/N.”

A tug at your heart led it to the brink of destruction as your hands guided themselves to each side of Jeno’s face.  

“Can’t we just be together, now?”

Strangely enough the interaction brought memories to your mind more than anything. The way he’d go on and on about useless facts and unwanted knowledge, a trail of never ending words hurling at your direction. The way you’d sit in silence, admiring him, whether it be through how much he could say in one breath, or simply how he glowed underneath a simple streetlight.

You couldn’t pinpoint exactly when the tears flooded your vision, but you could tell something was wrong when you saw Jeno’s panicked expression. 

“Oh shit, wait, did I say something wrong--fuck, ok, um--please don’t cry, Y/N, I’m sor-”

You truly loved this boy, but he really needed to learn how to shut up. 

With your palms promptly placed onto Jeno’s cheeks, you pull him in, lips melting into each other with pure delight. Entranced, your two bodies fell closer, his hands clasped around each of your arms. The tiger plush danged from his fingers while yours roamed down to the collar of his salmon shirt, pulling it snug against you. 

Like contradicting magnets, the force needed to pull your love struck figures was vigorous. The need to breathe only slipped back into your mind once  you both gasped for air. The hands that once held your frame extended towards you, holding nothing but a soft tiger plushie, with a little pink ribbon to finish it off. You accept the toy with a smile, a smile--in Jeno’s opinion--shined brighter than any sunray or streetlight could. 

“I’d like that, being together and stuff.”

...

 The chime hooked onto the door of the 7days Cafe was fairly quiet on a regular day, but to the nervous, overly strained, “on the brink of ripping his hair out” Renjun, it was as loud as a fire alarm sounding off right next to him. Yet, he wasn’t the only tensed boy you noticed as you stepped into the beige coloured room, hand gripping onto the hand of your sunshine boy.  You simply put it off as another customer caught in the middle of his own rainstorm, but alas, you were wrong again when you watched Jeno’s eyes widen. 

“Jaemin! You made it!” 

The boy with cobalt hair in front of you uttered a clearly distressed grumble, crossing his arms as he didn’t even spare you a glance.

“Dude, what happened to meeting up at the cafe?”

“I guess I got distracted.” Jeno shoots you a reassuring smile, his hand gently dropping yours. 

A calmed expression washes over the boy in front of you as he finally decides to acknowledge your insignificant existence. “I’m Jaemin, but I guess you already know that” tilting his head in a friendly demeanor, he offers you his hand. 

“I’m Y/N, but I guess you already know that, too” 

As your greetings pass and the awkward silence fills the air, you watch an excited Jeno practically hurl over his own friend before heading over to sit with your own, and two highschool baristas. 

“Boss freaked when that Jaemin guy first got here, he thought Jeno actually had other plans, ruining your chance to confess.” His own hands shadowed over Renjun’s tired figure as a worried Jisung rapidly hit Chenle’s arm, telling him to just shut up. You didn’t care for all that commotion, you were too busy from the shock of Renjun actually being worried for you. 

“Whatever,” Renjun snapped up. “What matters is that you guys got together, right?” 

You glanced back at your sunshine boy, your Jeno, as his hair gets aggressively ruffled. 

“Yeah, the sun’s never shined brighter.”    

[lightwoodsmagic]

I’m worried about Liam and his album and I didn’t know where to go but you always seem rational. I feel awful because there’s only a few songs I like and the album isn’t getting good reviews but Liam DESERVES good things, and then everything with ‘both ways’ happened. I’m so sad for him, but do you think he’ll be okay? I don’t want him to be cancelled, but the song was such a bad choice? His image in the eyes of the public seems ruined. Please tell me what you think :(

Hi anon, 

Thank you for thinking of me, and for thinking that I’m rational. I know this has been sitting in my inbox for the better part of a day, but in order to be rational and approach this properly, I had to take some time to let myself play out all of my emotions. 

I’m here now! And I think I’m ready. This post is long though, so I’ve popped it under the cut. 

Before I start properly, there’s a few things I want to say first. 

- I love Liam, an absolutely ridiculous amount. Liam’s music isn’t the usual genre I would listen to, but I will always support him and his music, and his fashion, and everything else he does. 

- I am incredibly proud of him for finally being able to release his album.

- As anyone who follows me knows, I strongly believe Liam is queer, and closeted, and in a relationship with Zayn. Here’s a masterpost I made about it earlier this year.

- I’m realistic. Some things below may not be what people agree with, or wanna hear, but you asked for my opinion.

Okay. Here we go. I’ve divided it into sections to address your ask properly. I’m also aware that this is pretty late in terms of fandom, and I haven’t been on Tumblr, so people have no doubt said many of the things I’m about to say. 

LP1

First thing: don’t feel bad for only liking a couple of songs on Liam’s new album. Everyone’s music taste is different and it is completely possible to love and support someone even if you don’t absolutely love their music. It does not make you a fake fan, or mean that you love Liam less, or anything like that. Please don’t worry about that. It’s okay not to love the album. Completely okay. 

Also, YES. Liam does deserve good things, always.

You’re right; it hasn’t been getting great reviews, but even though I really enjoyed the album despite my musical preferences, some people are frustrated, and not just reviewers. People are frustrated that a third of it is collabs, that half of it is songs we’ve heard before (that weren’t just released as a lead up to the album), and that Liam seemed to hardly write on it. We’ve known for a while that something’s been up with Liam’s album, especially when last year he said he had a full album ready to go, and then suddenly it was like it was scrapped, and he had to start again. 

We also know that Liam is a brilliant writer; he wrote so much for One Direction. So many people completely disregard this because Liam once said that he was more about the melodies, and Louis more the lyrics. Under no circumstances does that mean he does not, and did not, write great lyrics, or just good songs in general. That kind of thinking is also what leads to a lot of Liam’s erasure from Home, which is something I also touched on in the masterpost I linked above. It’s something that frustrates me a lot, when people forget about his writing ability. It doesn’t help though when he didn’t, or maybe wasn’t allowed to, write more on his own debut album. 

Overall, in terms of his album in general, I’m exceptionally proud that it’s been released, and sad for him that it’s not getting great reviews. Reviews don’t always matter, though! The support for the album from other sources has been really brilliant, and I’m sure he was feeling the love (and still is, despite recent stuff that I’ll touch on now).

Both Ways

No matter how you look at the situation, no matter who you are or what you think of Liam, it is baffling to me that this song went through numerous people to be released, especially knowing that a large part of Liam’s fan base consists of young, queer women from his days in the band. 

It should never have been a surprise that the reception was bad; the people who are upset about it are allowed to be upset, and their feelings are valid. In a world where bisexual and pansexual people are constantly fetishised, it’s a kick in the face for some people. I’m pan, and while personally I wasn’t overly offended by the song, I did cringe at a couple of bits, and I have no right to tell other people how they should or shouldn’t feel. 

To me, there’s a couple of options as to what happened here:

- It was genuinely just a gross misjudgement on everyone’s behalf. People make mistakes. I hate cancel culture. At the moment, if this is the case and they all genuinely didn’t think it would be this bad, I’m not sure if Liam addressing it would be a good thing, or if it’d just make things worse. If he apologises, it’s going to seem disingenuous to a large number of people, but if he doesn’t, it’s like he doesn’t care at all about the people that’ve been hurt. It’s not a good place to be in. 

- It was a purposeful song put into his album by his team to push his narrative. Liam’s in a shit spot at the moment. A very large majority of the media attention leading up to his album used negative promo, like his ‘relationship’ with M*ya and the fight at the bar during Thanksgiving. Aside from very recently, Liam’s team have been a nightmare, and it’s frustrating when people can’t see that he’s in a situation just as bad as some of the other men. Would I be surprised if this explanation is the correct one? Abso-fucking-lutely not. I’ll touch on it a bit more in the next bit though. 

No matter what, the song was not a good decision, and was not going to go down well. Alllll of this leads onto…

How it affects Liam’s image

I’m separating this into three parts to explain it the way I think I need to; the part of the fandom who believes he’s queer and closeted, the part of the fandom who don’t, and the general public.

The part of the fandom that believe Liam is queer and closeted

Liam’s image hasn’t changed here. This whole thing has made this section of the fandom angry, frustrated, and sad. At a time when everyone should be able to just relax and enjoy Liam’s new album, we’re bombarded from all over the internet with people trying to cancel him. Angry because Liam is being absolutely attacked, especially at a time when he’s just spoken about how fragile his mental health is, and because there’s quite a few hypocrites around at the moment. Frustrated because there’s nothing that can really be done at this point, and when it comes to Liam, people never seem to care as much as they should. Sad because we love him so much and he deserves such good things, and people never seem to care enough to recognise that.

It’s also frustrating that people can’t, or refuse to, realise that Liam is just as closeted, has had just as much PR bullshit including at the moment, and suffered through forced interview after forced interview, and been made to say a million things. It’s also important to note that if Harry can have a stunt song, and Louis can have a stunt song, Liam can also have a song (even if not directly stunt related) added to his album to push through his current narrative. They’re different situations, different songs, and different explanations, but they all have the same running cause. Just something to think about. 

The part of the fandom that don’t think that

Fuck me, I never realised how massive a chunk of this fandom there is that does not give a shit about Liam James Payne. Can’t relate, but okay. In terms of his image here, it kinda depends; for some people, they’re not fussed enough to pay attention, but that can mean that they’ll just believe he’s an arsehole here because they can’t be fucked to look into it. People don’t have to be invested in all five of them, of course they don’t, but it might be a big negative here. 

For other people, the ones that seem to hate him for some reason, this adds so much more fuel to the fire. There’s a lot of people currently calling him out for homophobic things he said about Harry, which I’ve spoken about before but can’t find my own damn post but the masterpost I tagged at the start of this mentions it a tiny bit. When this swirled up again recently in the last month or so, which interesting timing, the media ran a TONNE of articles about how Liam had been talking shit about Harry. Harry liked the very next tweet Liam posted, even though it had nothing to do with him or the situation, and Harry wasn’t just on a liking spree. It seemed very much like a ‘hey, don’t worry, we’re all okay, don’t believe this shit’. This section of the fandom is exceptionally unlikely to change their mind about him unfortunately. 

I spoke about this very recently, but the fact that people can’t see Liam’s situation for what it is, and can see the others, is beyond frustrating because the patterns are INCREDIBLY similar, and there’s very similar situations. 

Also, Liam and Louis’ friendship is 100% legit. They’re very close. If there’s anyone out there who loves Louis and thinks he’s closeted, but hates Liam, do you really think Louis would love Liam so much if this was really who he was? Someone who doesn’t care about the community that Louis is obviously so fiercely proud of, and someone who talks legitimate shit about Louis’ partner? Of course he wouldn’t, because Liam is also closeted and stuck in a shit situation and made to say things in interviews to stir up One Direction drama for the media. Speaking of the media though…

The general public

When I woke up this morning and Mar told me about the hashtag that was trending on Twitter, I was instantly so emotional, for a lot of reasons. As I said before, I hate cancel culture in the easy way it exists. People are allowed to make a mistake, or slip up, or make a wrong move; everyone is human. It’s how they respond to it that should change things. 

There’s a couple of problems here, though.

- Liam can’t really respond to it in the way he needs to. Like I said before, I don’t know whether it’d be better or worse for him to talk about it. The only genuine way he could is to come clean about everything, and he can’t fucking very well do that, can he? So the apology will just be a lie, and people probably won’t believe it anyway. 

- People are more willing to forgive someone if it’s one mistake, but Liam’s team have fucked with his image so much that to the general public, it’s not one mistake. We know they’re not real, but if we step back from the fandom and try to look at it through the eyes of someone who knows not very much about him and only knows what the media pushes, it’s a slightly horrifying image. 

When I speak to my friends about Liam, people often think he’s arrogant, conceited, and your standard ‘gym bro’. The GP may remember the times he was made to say homophobic things, and if they don’t remember, they’re reminded in every new article. They see him as the young guy who dated a woman in her mid 30’s and got her pregnant, and who hardly sees his ‘son’ and therefore is a deadbeat ‘dad’. They see him now as the man in his mid 20’s who’s ‘dating’ a teenager, and the articles I’ve seen today all mention her, some mentioning the debate about her age and others trying to say the song is about her even though it was being written about three years ago. They see him as a man who has fights outside bars, and are told it was because of his underage ‘girlfriend’. They see him as an artist who sings about getting wasted, sex, and being rich. 

I know I’m setting a bleak image, anon, and I’m sorry, I am. I don’t believe a single word of the above obviously, and NO ONE should, but it’s the reality of the situation for the GP, and it shouldn’t be pushed to the back as if we should only blame other sections of the fandom for his image, or that this isn’t, realistically, how it looks for Liam right now. 

We know Liam as the kind, sweet, caring, protective, talented, queer man that’s been there for us through his music and his words, who’s been there for the boys the entire time since the band started, who’s suffered through addiction and mental health problems to come out the other side stronger than ever. 

They don’t know that, anon, and I don’t know what Liam will do to come back from this massive of a social media hit. There’s numerous articles slamming him, the hashtag trended for almost a whole day in Australia at least, and for some of the GP, it’s the final thing in a long list of bullshit that Liam’s supposedly done. Each article mentions all of the above things again too, and Apple Music even mentions Ch*yl and B*ar directly by name. 

I’m hoping for his sake that in a few days, this will all blow over, and it’ll be handled the way it needs to be handled. The problem is that I don’t know what the right way to handle it is. 

I think he’ll be okay. I believe he’ll be okay, I do, but I think in terms of the GP, he has a way to go. I want the very best for Liam, always, and I will always continue to love and support him. Everyone else should too, because right now, he needs it from us more than ever.

[lifewithlemons00]

Friendly Neighborhood Heroes

Peter Parker X Reader

MASTERLIST

Synopsis: You and Spidey decide to see who the better hero is in a certain contest.

Not much Romance but still cute.

Words: About 1580

Warnings: Incredibly awkward Peter Parker.

_________________________________________________________

“No Spidey, I don’t think the spiders can understand you.”

“I don’t know, I have spider blood in my veins, I feel like they can understand what I’m saying to them.” You laugh at your partner in crime.

Well, more like partner in stopping criminals. You met the masked hero a month or two ago on your nightly patrol. You found each other quite useful, what with his spider-like abilities and your ability to change the matter of your body into liquid, there was nothing you couldn’t accomplish together. You were currently on a stakeout, since you heard that there would be a robbery at a local jewelry store.

“Do you have Spider blood?” He squints his eyes at your comment.

“Well, technically no. But a boy can dream.” You chuckle at his comment.

“Sure Spider-Boy, whatever you say.” You both sit in silence for a moment, just watching for the thief and enjoying each other’s company.

“Hey, you wanna play an interesting game?” You look over at the masked hero, a mischievous glimmer in your eye.

“Depends what it is.” His mask eyes turn to slits as he squints his eyes at you.

“What do you say we try to find each other out in the city, our real identities.”

“Why would we do that?” His tone grows confused at your idea.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if we knew each other’s identities? It’s not like we’re putting anyone in danger, and we can make it a challenge instead of just telling each other.”

“I don’t know about this, Matteria.”

“Oh c’mon. It would be nice to talk face to face with someone that goes through the same things as you, right? For me, I know it would be nice to talk about hero stuff.”

“We can talk about hero stuff right now.”

“You’re saying you’re not even the slightest bit curious of my identity.” He looks away from your gaze.

“I didn’t say that…” he looks over at you again, your eyes pleading as you grab one of his gloved hands.

“Please.” He sighs loudly at your plead.

“Fine. But the one who finds the other first is the better hero. And when I find you first, you have to admit that I’m the better hero.” You smile at his conditions.

“And we have to answer 3 questions honestly. We’ll both answer the question, so we can think of one each and then one of them together.” He nods at your request, you could sense a smirk on his face.

“Deal. So what questions should we ask?” You shrug lightly.

“I dunno, let me think” you rub your chin in contemplation.

“Okay, I have one, and you have to answer.” You turn to face him completely.

“Do you go to high school?”

You thought this would be a good question to ask, that would almost half the population you would have to search through.

“I do, what about you?” You nod your head.

“Yup, guess we’re both pretty young.”

“Okay, now it’s my turn. What are your basic physical features, you know, eye colour, hair colour, stuff like that.”

“That’s a pretty informative question, Mr. Man.” He chuckles at your nickname for him.

“But fine, h/c hair, e/c eyes, and that’s all you’re getting from me about that. So what do you look like under the mask Spider.”

“I’m pretty boring, brown hair and brown eyes.”

“Fight me, brown hair and brown eyes aren’t boring, they’re cute.” He chuckles at your somewhat compliment.

“Thanks, I think.”

“Okay final question. Why don’t we ask each other what school we both go to.” One mechanical eye lifts up, as if he’s lifting his eyebrow at you.

“Wouldn’t that make it too easy?” You shrug.

“No, if we don’t go to the same one we’ll be in school so we wouldn’t be able to use it to our advantage. I’m just curious, since you’re pretty smart for being in high school.”

“Alright then, you go first though.”

“I go to Midtown, what about you?” His solid white eyes widen in surprise.

“I go to Midtown too.” Your jaw drops at his confession.

“Huh, maybe this did make it way too easy.”

————————

It was the next day at school, and you were watching all your classmates like a hawk. You were trying to list off all the brown hair, brown eyed guys that were incredibly smart, and the first person that came to your head was Peter Parker.

After all, he did have the best grades in your year. But the more you thought about it, the more impossible it seemed. He was a pretty frail guy from what you remember, so how could he be Spider-Man. That being said though, he was still a possibility, so you were going to check him out.

“Hey Peter.” You smile at the boy, who’s eyes widen at your greeting.

“Y/n, I was just about to come find you.”

“Oh? Why is that?” He crosses his arms, obviously a bit nervous.

“Well, you know… Oh, right. I lost my notes, I was hoping you had some I could uh, borrow.” you raise an eyebrow at his weird behavior.

He’s never asked you for anything in his life and has hardly even spoken to you, so there was definitely something weird about this, but you couldn’t be sure he was Spidey.

“Sure, but… why wouldn’t you ask Ned, or even MJ.” He chuckles nervously at your words.

“They uh, lost theirs too? Yeah, they lost their notes cause we were… hanging out when we lost them.” His hands were swinging wildly around his sides as he told you this.

“Peter, are you okay? You’re extra… enthusiastic today.”

‘This guy can’t be Spider-Man. Hell, he can’t even lie properly.’ You thought, staring at him still fumbling with his words.

“I-I’m fine, are you fine. Well obviously you’re fine, but like fine as in feeling fine, not looking fine.” His eyes widened at what he had just said, and you couldn’t help but laugh.

“As much as I would love to watch more of this, I need to get to class Parker. I’ll lend you my notes after class.” You pat his shoulder as you give him a friendly smile.

“In the meantime, you should plan what you’re going to say, you’re not so good at this whole conversation thing.”

“Right. I’ll uh, I’ll do that.” He shoots finger guns at you quickly, before walking away.

“Bless that boy.” You mutter to yourself, before walking to your next class.

——————-

“Here are those notes you wanted.” You hand Peter the small binder of papers from your locker.

“Yeah, thanks for these… I really needed these.”

“So uh, what are you doing after school?” He asks before giving you a short look and adverting his eyes quickly.

“Uh, probably just going home, why?” You give him a slight smile as you tuck the hair in your face behind your ear and shift your weight to your other leg.

“Do you wanna maybe, hangout?” Your eyes widen at his proposal.

You were definitely shocked, you had never even said 2 words to Peter for months, and now he’s asking you to hangout? I mean, it’s not like you could, you had agreed that you would meet Spidey at 3:30. But what was weird was that you actually wanted to. Sure he was a bit awkward and dorky, but he seemed really sweet and kind.

“I’m sorry Peter, I can’t today.”

“Oh, why not?”

“I just remembered I have plans with my friend.”

“Oh, do you mind if I ask who?” He gives you an inquisitive glance as he crosses his arms.

“Peter, I don’t know if you know this, but we hardly know each other.” A smug look takes its place on his face.

“Oh, I think we know each other a lot better than you think.” He winks at you, rather badly you might add.

“Your awkwardness is getting a bit weird now.” You give him a weird look as you close your locker.

“Yeah, that sounded better in my head… can I talk to you in private?”

“You know, I would say yes, but now you’re just acting creepy, so I’m gonna have to go with no.”

“It’ll only take a second… Matteria.” He mutters the last part and your eyes shoot open at the name he calls you.

“What are you…” you quickly start to put the pieces together.

He was Spider-man.

You quickly pull him by his wrist into the nearest empty classroom.

“Spidey?” He smirks at you as he leans on the table behind him.

“Looks like I’m the better hero, huh.”

“How could I have figured out that the geeky, awkward, weak guy in my class is Spider-Man?”

“Wow, you know that hurts more than most the bruises I get from criminals.”

“How did you even find out it was me?”

“Your nervous ticks. You always push your hair out of your face and give half a smile. You also shift your weight.  And well, you didn’t really give me a convincing lie.” You mentally scold yourself for giving yourself away.

“I can’t lie? You literally fumbled through our whole conversation earlier. It was cute, but it wasn’t convincing.”

“So you think I’m cute?” He looks up at you, a shy smile on his face.

“Well… you know, kinda?”

“So about hanging out later… you wanna do that as Y/n and Peter, instead of Spidey and Matteria?” You take his hand and start playing with his fingers.

“Yeah, I really do.”

[ocular-intercourse]

👀👀👀 there's only 25 questions 👀👀👀

i think i know what this means 😂🙏🏻

Meanest VS Kindest

meanest is definitely asher, though under normal circumstances he would not make use of it quite as often as he does rn, but even then he is kinda bred to be mean, that’s the rich kid gene, but also his father’s influence

kindest is teddy, without a doubt, i was for a second considering noor because they are actively doing more kind things, working on bettering the life for their subjects, but the prince is definitely more capable of being unkind for the sake of something bigger than ted would ever be (also they are spoiled and tend to kinda unintentionally put their needs before others in their private life)

Tallest VS Shortest

gyo the absolute beast of a man that’s them primordial genes, the shortest is ace

Most humble VS Most arrogant

hmm i think devin might be the most humble, it’s kinda pathological, a result of his low self-confidence, social anxiety and all, asher’ll be like screaming at him about how talented he is but that kinda does not sink in, but even with the things he can accept being good at in he is not the person to brag about it, he was raised to be polite and humble i guess

ah that’s a little hard it’s outwardly appereance vs inwardly feelings and they never match up, asher definitely is arrogant, but he is also very aware that anything that people admire about him and his skills is just a result of privilege and money and people wanting to crawl up his ass, so he’s like, yeah i’m fucking good at this but that doesn’t mean shit i had like 20 tutors since i was a toddler anyone could do this with my resources

finn is probably the most outwardly boasting about stuff he is arrogant about, but also the most fickle, you just gotta poke the wrong spot and he’s crumbling

gyo kinda has to be arrogant, it’s his job, it’s part of the whole ‘you can’t touch this just try and harm the empire you’re not getting past me’ deal, but he is also inwardly very aware of his limitations and what is realistically possible for him and what isn’t, he just can’t show it to leave openings for his opponents 

i can’t decide 🤷🏻‍♂️

Coldest VS Most emotional

oh boy, god seriously the more i think about these questions the more i realize that my boys all just put up a front all the time whelp

ace has trained himself to seem colder than he actually is, but gyo is probably better at actually shutting his emotions down to get where he needs to be so i’ll go with him

finn is the most emotional he just puts it all out there i don’t think he could hide it if he wanted to he’s an open book really he’s even a terrible liar

Most chaste VS Most lustful

i had the impuls to say ace but i feel like asexuality and being chaste kinda cancels each other out, like you actually need to be sexually active and attracted to other people to be able to be considered chaste? like it kinda has to do with surpressing things? and if i follow that logic it fits asher way more, though he is also not really chaste, just prude, but still more than any of the others

teddy is the most lustful which is always very fun cause it’s unexpected, maybe he got a little messed up along the way but physical affection is just his biggest love language he needs to be shown that he is wanted to be happy and he needs to be shown often and thats the same way he tends to express his feelings for his s.o. (which is a huge problem between him and zeke oof), but also outside of a relationship he tends to get his self-worth reaffirmed through sexual encounters

Most serious VS Silliest

gyo is the most serious, might also be another work trait, asher also currently has little space for silliness in his life but that’s just cirumstancial, ace is by far the silliest, straight faced maybe, but he loves to irritate and amuse people

“Sleep is for the weak!” VS “Sleep for a week”

asher is the ‘sleep is for the weak’ man, though he sure’d like to sleep more, his body just does not want him to, at some point he’s just, god fuck fine more time to be productive i guess, teddy could sleep for a week

Happiest VS Saddest

GOD fuck, what a question, which one of my sad boys is the saddest boy? asher is the saddest, noor is the happiest

Darkest backstory VS Lightest Backstory

hasghj please, gyo has the darkest backstory, devin has the lightest

Biggest eater VS Lightest eater

hmmm finn has a crazy fast metabolism so he just needs to eat constantly to keep his mass it actually drives him crazy he’d much rather be able to bulk up properly, asher is the lightest eater, though a lot of that is also circumstantial, he’d be eating more if he wasn’t going through things, but still probably less than all the others, i’ll count gyo out cause he actually does not have to eat technically, so he doesn’t always, teddy is also a fickle eater with his eating disorder, but he’s being healthy atm

Most ticklish VS Cruellest tickler

never thought about it, asher is the most ticklish under regular circumstances, his meds make him a little numb, ace would be the cruellest tickler

Brainiest VS Brawniest

despite discrediting himself constantly by saying ‘i had all the help money can buy it does not count’ asher is still the brainiest, straight a student, speaks multiple languages, can play multiple instruments, is juggling two degrees and a mental breakdown etc etc excelling in all of it (especially the break down) i guess he could be considered gifted but he’d refuse to accept that denotation, he’s diligent at best, and was not allowed to function any other way, in his mind it’s really not that impressive he had no other choice and who knows how many people just praise him unfounded to please him/his father

gyo is the brawniest, no question, not all brawn no brains you need both to get where he is but his martial might is literally legendary

Most forgiving VS Most grudgeful

teddy is the most forgiving, not necessarily always because the person deserves it, but because he just wants them to deserve it, he just wants to believe people are good and have good intentions, finn is the most grudgeful (his father is a special exception i suppose) he still hasn’t forgiven kitty for killing herself after what.. 10 years or so? to a point of major detriment to his own life by giving a wide berth to anything that reminds him of her which is a lot of the things he loves/loved

Physical vices (drugs, sex, alcohol) VS Spiritual vices (Lust, wrath, envy)

god i kinda just wanna put finn on both ends of that question, he seriously is the most susceptible to vices in general regardless of physical or spiritual, and he knows, and he’s trying to be better (good thing he knows terrible examples about drugs and alcohol both so he’s pretty good at staying away from those at least)

Optimistic VS Pessimistic

teddy and noor share the optimistic spot, teddy generally believes more in the good in the world and that things will be good, noor is more active about it, their mindset is more of the ‘things might be bad but i WILL change them i don’t care who tells me i can’t’ variant, asher is the most pessimistic, but once again i feel it’s not fair to call him out on that it’s not actually in his character it’s, again, his circumstances, but i’m not sure there’s gonna be a lot of space for optimism left in his life after everything anyways so i guess it’s really him

Most secretive VS Most open

gyo is the most secretive, ace too to an extend and asher certainly has his big secret, but gyo just wont tell you a thing, you’ll hardly get him to talk at all, especially about personal subjects, devin might be the most open, teddy is all trusting and optimistic but he’s been burned often enough to know to keep some things to himself, devin is a little more oblivious to that, or maybe it’s not really that, it’s not naivite, it’s him just believing that it is the best to put everything out there so there is no space for misunderstandings

Judges a book by its cover VS Judges mostly by personality

none of my characters are overly superficial it’s hard to say if anyone of them would judge based on appereance, i want to say it’s probably noor, but it’s not really about looks, it’s more that they tend to stick to first impressions a lot, when they have an image of a person in their mind they have a hard time seeing anything but that, and get confused often when they get blindsided by traits that do not fit the idea they have of that person, finn definitely judges the most by personality, he tends to be hypervigilant around people, probing their emotional state, checking that everything is okay, it’s that classic abuse survivor habit, always making sure everything is alright and there’s no hidden threat

Best singer VS Tone deaf

finn is the best singer by far, he’s good he’s really really good but it’s one of these things he’s connected to kitty so that’s not always easy for him, noor is absolutely tone deaf it’s awful they are not insecure about a lot of things but only people they trust will ever hear them sing cause they know they won’t judge them too much

Cast iron stomach VS Most squeamish

ace can and will eat anything, he grew up in a shitty situation where they did not always have access to proper food so he’s not picky about quality or freshness, food is always a little complicated for teddy cause he has to train himself to eat regularly, on top of that he will not eat just anything, he is a vegetarian but also the kind of person that was a picky eater growing up and is holding on to some dislikes that probably only exist in his head at this point, it’s about the consistency of eggs for example, or certain combinations he’ll just not eat or even try, finns body can’t handle histamies super well so he has to be careful too, raw tomatoes even give him allergic reactions, but all of that is less about him being squeamish, he’s more the try anything once kind of person

Shows most skin VS Covers up most

i’d say it’s a cross between finn and noor for most skin, finn just enjoys being mostly uncovered, noor just likes the look of revealing clothing, asher is definitely famously the one to cover up the most, maybe that’s also a weird defense mechanism but mostly he’s just been brought up in a rather conservative household and that notion stuck

Most religious VS Most atheistic

none of them are really religious, in a ‘greek gods do exist’ kind of setting that’s a weird thing to be anyways?? is it still religious when you know gods exists/you are part god lol?? noor also exists in a setting where they, as in the leaders of the empire, are considered to have divine right to rule and are basically worshipped themselves plus i have not yet figured out in what way religion and a pantheon even exists in their world, gyo most definitely worships noor in a way but lets not go there, asher is by no means religious, but he enjoys the, uhm, quiet contemplation and prudence i guess? the sense of reverence and tradition, he likes the idea of believing in a guiding power, but he does not believe himself (he’d have a bone to pick with god if he did), he does however go to church with his family not only for outward appereance there is in some weird way something calming he takes from that (the congregation is not conservative in the gay hating way so that helps), i think gyo might actually be the most atheistic, even when confronted with god-like beings he’s more like ‘you can’t do shit i pick my own destiny and i’ll fight you if i have to’, he can’t take them seriously and he sure as hell does not consider them superior in any way (tbf the glimpse he gets at their world makes that very easy he basically just brawls his way out of hell and everybody there is like ??? help ??)

Biggest reader VS Hasn’t touched a book in 3 years

asher is the biggest reader, he’ll read non-stop if you let him it’s such a good way to get out of his head, so it’s a bit of an compulsive habit, teddy definitely hasn’t touched a book.. in basically ever, it’s the dyslexia it’s really not his favorite thing to do it’s exhausting and frustrating, but he’d probably go for audio books every now and then, it’s similar for ace but he has more patience to chew his way through a book

Best at self-care VS Most self-destructive

oh boy, noor is the very best at self-care, cause they are always so well cared for? they were raised in an environment where everyone always made sure they were happy and comfortable, so they themselves value these things a lot and go searching for them even if nobody offers them from the outside, asher is by far the most destructive, he’s the last priority on his list the only reason he is still alive (if you want to call it that) is to shield other people, so self-care seems utterly pointless at this point, the one thing he does still do is grooming but for him that’s more just a part of functioning than anything that has to do with making himself feel better

Most flirtatious VS Most modest

under different circumstances asher would be the most flirtatious, and he still is sometimes when the situation calls for it, but just ignoring all the trauma and everything, just looking at the person he used to be/will maybe be again, he just likes schmoozing and dazzling people, making them feel welcome and appreciated, he’s oozing charme all over the place (to be fair none of this is sexual/romantic in any way, it’s more just his base socializing mode) to a point where he gets in trouble cause he not only leads people on unintentionally but also drives devin into jealous fits, it’s really hard to figure out who’s the most modest actually, gyo is a brick wall but sometimes social events require friendly mingling and he is very much able to, you know, for the sake of the empire, but he’s usually calm and collected and unapproachable, ace on the other hand never ever tries to attract other people, but on the contrary to gyo his wall is hidden, he does not let people close, but let’s them believe differently, and  sometimes has a bit of a mischievous behaviour about him that could be seen as flirtatious in some ways

Most outdoorsy VS Most indoorsy

teddy is by nature (ha) the most outdoorsy, it’s his domain, he’s truly at home surrounded by plants and animals, devin is the most indoorsy, locked behind his computer/tv most of the time, ace is a close second but he does get out more, training or hanging out in the streets

[punkscowardschampions]

Ali & Carly

Ali: How do you like your  🥚🍳 in the morning? Carly: no 🐣 Carly: ha Ali: 🐔 didn't show up in your roost later, did he? Carly: he must be scared of you Carly: 🔮 Ali: or my 🐺 Carly: maybe Ali: eggs aside, how you feeling, chick? Carly: 😷🤒🤕🤢🤮 Ali: 👎👎👎👎👎 Ali: unacceptable! Ali: what do you need, kill or cure? Carly: cure forever Carly: im too young to die Ali: I'll swing by with my witches brew Ali: actually doesn't taste like ☠ either Ali: pure 😇 Carly: aw Carly: really? Ali: 'course, not gonna half-arse the job Ali: and it makes a full pot, no sense in not sharing the 💚 Carly: 💙 Carly: wat does it taste like? Ali: like Christmas 🎄🎅🤶🎁❄️🌨️☃️✨🌟 Carly: 😋😊🥰 Ali: it's got ginger and peppermint in Ali: the only other person hanging out their arse is my brother and he would rather die 'cos he's grumpy 👴 man energy so Carly: no 🦃 tho yea?! ha Carly: oh no he sounds like my da Carly: which cute bro is it? Ali: definitely not 😂 Ali: some greens but not sprouts Ali: the freckly one Carly: did u heal my heart to 💔😢? Carly: course itd be the most beautiful one Ali: oh no, you're delirious Ali: I'll come quick 😜 Carly: dont b jealous 👼 hes only the most beautiful boy Ali: 😏 My ma'll be gutted Carly: do u have a tea for that? Ali: 🍋 'cos she's so bitter? Ali: I'll see if she goes for it Carly: noooo 🍯 so she wont be Ali: you're too sweet yourself, Walsh Carly: aw Carly: but ur the 1 who saved me Carly: ur the sweetest Ali: anyone would Carly: nah ur the 1st Carly: not just saying it to u get ur fairy wings Ali: had to fly away from that particular 🐔 plenty myself Ali: harmless and flightless though he is, most the time Carly: yea Carly: he talks about u wen hes been on it Carly: the 1 that flew away Ali: uh oh Ali: can't let a boy ✂ your wings Ali: ever Ali: ever Ali: 👼🏽 🐔 🐧 🐦 🐤 🐣 🐥 🦆 🦢 🦅 🦉 🦚 🦜 🦇 🐝 🦋 🐞 🦗 🦟 🐓 🦃 🕊 Carly: im 😕💫🙃 but idk if those were the guests i danced with Carly: did get a cute lil 🎶🎤 to fall asleep to tho 💙🕊 Carly: 🌚🌝🌛🌜🌞 Ali: very 👸 of you though Ali: I can 👀 it Carly: my ma is trying to make me clean Carly: 🐇🐁🐀🐿🦔🐾 pls Ali: also unacceptable Ali: not 'til you're better Ali: use my wings to fly through and 🤞 he don't get the wrong idea about who I'm there to see Carly: [sends her a pic of whatever caravan mess she caused last night that her mum is raging about] Carly: so u can play a game of spot whats got her 😠 Carly: cuz idk Ali: Fun 🧐🤔🤨 Ali: angry mothers are my forte Ali: [does the circling the hazzards moment on the pic] Carly: making her angry is mine but nah to knowing y ever ever Carly: k ur cute & smart Carly: 🌟 Ali: it's rarely logical, but 🤫 on that or it's hulk levels in 0-60 Ali: how are you this nice when you're 😷🤒🤕🤢🤮 Ali: that's a skill, rare one at that 💎✨ Carly: my da is looking green must of had his own 🎶🍻💃 ha Carly: idk i can b nicer? but k now i know ronan aint been talking bout me when hes 🍺 or 💊 Ali: can be a tea party for three Ali: have to bring his own 🎩 though Ali: not to me anyway Ali: but as you can tell Ali: 🐺 keeps all the 🐓🐓🐓 away Carly: 🐇🐇🐇♠️♣️♥️♦️🐇🐇🐇 Carly: she is fierce Ali: she likes to think so Ali: 🐶 really Carly: course ur not scared of her silly Carly: u love her Carly: im a 🐈 person ha Ali: [sends her a load of pictures of Bluebeard she didn't ask for rather than being like do I love her hmm] Carly: AW!!!! Carly: 🥰🤗 Ali: he's captain ☠🏴 but there's always room aboard Carly: thats the best offer ive had from a gentleman ever ever ever Carly: whats his name? Ali: Bluebeard Ali: and he is MOSTLY a gentleman if you can handle some toe nibbling Carly: 😍😍😍😍 Carly: into it Carly: ive done more for lads i just met who aint as beautiful so Ali: 😂 I feel that Ali: honestly, it's quite comforting, when he doesn't sneak attack you with it Carly: [sends her a selfie that shouldn't be as adorable as it is] Carly: now u can introduce us Carly: 👋 baby blue Ali: the 😍😍😍😍 are mutual Ali: I can tell Carly: yay Carly: 🧡 Ali: is there anything else you need/we want for the tea party? Ali: en-route at last Carly: ur really coming? Ali: yeah, sorry I was ages, it's a whole process brewing it Ali: also a dead giveaway you're 😷🤒🤕🤢🤮 which obvs my ma takes as her cue to be all Spanish inquisition about it Ali: 📚 of my mostly-fictional-but-which-are-and-which-aren't-mother exploits later Carly: sorry iou so much magic Ali: nah, don't worry about it 👸 Ali: who doesn't love a little scandal with their morning brew? she deffo does Carly: its too late im looking for 🍀 Carly: among the 🌼🌼🌼 Ali: awh Ali: I'm never turning down extra luck Ali: we can make daisy-chains Carly: its the dresscode Carly: soz da Ali: does he have a 🧔? Ali: that's a #look Carly: not rn Carly: my ma wasnt on @ me only to clean up Carly: he had his turn Ali: damn it Ali: maybe a nice belt Ali: I'll be 🤔 Carly: dont b 💔😢 he has bushy eyebrows Ali: same Ali: he's earnt his invite back Ali: your ma gonna have to chill though Ali: and it ain't that kinda tea 💔 Carly: you wont b able to tell if shes angry or surprised Ali: 😚 ⬅ I know the vibe Ali: you do you babe Carly: she used to let me sort em out but there was an accident Carly: which im sworn to secrecy about Ali: I'm so good with secrets 🙏🙏🙏 Carly: k Carly: my head zoned out but my hands kept going like Ali: you were meditating you can't help having  🌌🧠 Ali: I'll 🤭 now and never tell, don't worry Mrs W Carly: @ school yea im meditating on your q sir relax Carly: ha love that Ali: they just ask questions to answer it themselves, what is the point Carly: u coming for my ma again? Ali: 🤫 bad first impression, that Carly: shes heard it from ronan too sorry Carly: lad has loose lips Ali: honestly Ali: 🙄 can't keep up with my bad reputation Carly: ud think hed be better at kissing Carly: its talk talk talk Carly: more good things about u than ive made it seem like tho Ali: he was a big talker Ali: probably 'cos he ain't allowed with the lads Carly: if he talked about what a 👼 u are & how 💔😢 he is theyd uninvite him from the bonfire Carly: its sweet really how hung up hes got Ali: he only thinks I'm an 👼 'cos he took my virginity probs Ali: that's more suitable 🔥side chat Carly: he goes on about that alot but I thought he was lying Carly: oh no that sounds bad Carly: not calling u a slag ur obvs not its y he likes u more Ali: 😂 I'm fine with slag Ali: all definition dependent anyway Carly: yea same Carly: can be hot if ur in the mood Ali: right, and if I'm a slag 'cos I didn't marry him then I'll take it Carly: & hes not allowed to marry gorgers theyd wanna throw him in the 🔥 Ali: exactly Ali: we can't both be 💔😢 forever can we boy Carly: just me @ the party til u came to my rescue Ali: 🥺 Ali: What was he even on about then, like? Ali: dickhead Carly: idk i zone out wen he shouts @ me too Ali: I can always poison a cup and send it his way Ali: just say the word Carly: hes not that bad Ali: okay okay, just some laxatives Ali: 'cos he's a bit 💩 Carly: ha Ali: no 🌼🌼🌼 unless he says soz then Carly: but his beautiful curls 🥺 Ali: hmm, a good point Ali: be strong, baby Carly: ill throw one @ him & run away Carly: back to u Ali: you're so adorable Carly: says u Carly: 👼👸🏼 Ali: 💚 we're gonna have an adventure when the tea hits okay Ali: I've decided Carly: k thats the kinda 🎄🎅🤶🎁 it is Carly: i do want the energy of a kid on xmas morning Ali: that's the best Ali: how I'm tryna be every day Carly: 💫⭐️🌟✨⚡️☄️ 🚀🛸 Ali: if only 🚀 Ali: this bike can only go as fast as my lil legs can carry, like Carly: aw baby Carly: i shouldve asked u where u live before this 2nd rescue was launched Carly: im sorry Ali: No distance is too far for a fair maiden Carly: ill have to see what other 🔮 i can find before u get here Carly: dont love ious Ali: there's no ious Carly: [sending her loads of pics of her with or just pics of the cat lady's cats that she's rounding up for this tea party and they're adorable] Ali: 😍💞😻 Ali: okay, non-debt fully paid though Carly: [just rambling about the names she's given each cat cos her and cat lady don't know each other properly til Ali comes along and like facts about each cat/her fave things cos she's a big nerd] Ali: I love them Ali: I'm gonna get them some 🐟🐟🐟 when I get tea party tings Ali: some cream, awh, okay, this is happening Carly: im picking enough 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼 for everyone Ali: should've put Bluebs in my basket Ali: next time Carly: aw Carly: Humbug might try & fight him Carly: youd b there to protect him tho Ali: I can ref Ali: my little brother is always trying to play-fight everyone so I'm well-versed Carly: is he ticklish? that works for me Carly: broken up lots of fights Ali: big time Ali: his kryptonite Ali: reckon it's against the rules in professional fights but preparing him for anything like any good big sister Carly: ha Carly: aw i bet ur an amazing sister Carly: if i had 1 maybe id wanna be on site sometimes Carly: my ma's eyebrows r hardly a call to home Ali: he might disagree but he's 5 so what does he know 😉 Ali: feel that though Ali: home is just a base, whole 🌍 out there Carly: wen ur 5 you argue to argue Carly: yea if u dont use ur wings theyll think u dont want em 💔😢 Ali: flying is like riding a 🚲 though Carly: r we goin on a 🚲 adventure? Ali: definitely Ali: ugh, need one of those wagons for the 😻😻😻s Carly: ☺️its gonna b so fun! Carly: we might meet more 🐈🐈🐈🐈 Ali: way better than 🐔 Carly: ha Carly: do u have 🔮 left to help me find shoes? Ali: have you checked the fridge? Carly: [a pause while she do] Carly: theyre not there 😕🧐 Ali: damn, that'd be the last place I'd look though Ali: were they in the mess your Ma was sounding off about fr Carly: o mayb Carly: if i was wearing any when you dropped me off Ali: 🤔 I don't know if I recall any glass slippers Ali: I'll ask Lene hold up Carly: 👸 energy Carly: but idk if i wanna scary 🐺 at my door Ali: turns out she's actually your 👵 Carly: ha my grandma is 💍 to god Carly: its not close to the energy shes putting out Ali: she'd probably tell your actual that God is a gay girl Ali: nah she's well 😇 around fam, just hide behind your Ma and me, baby, you'll be fine Carly: ha that wasn't in any of the kids bible stories she sent me every 🎄🎅🤶🎁 Carly: her god is 😠 than Humbug Carly: he likes to shout so i gotta zone out Carly: aw that's sweet ur ma loves her too? Ali: Hooray for Catholicism, yeah? 😏 Ali: she loves my Ma, more like Carly: we spend our sundays on our knees nana but its 🚽🤮 or u kno a bigger sin Carly: u do look like her i remember Ali: that's not QUITE 🚽🤮 levels but close 😂 Carly: nah its nice u have the same 👀💙✨ Carly: idk who i look like Carly: postman maybe Ali: now I don't know whether to 😳 or be 🤨 you like my Ma too Ali: you look like you and that's Ali: 💛 😍 😘 🥰 😚 👸 👼🏽 🐰 🌼 🌻 🌞 🍓 🍑 🍨 🍰 🍭 🍬 🎆 💜 Carly: yea 🤞🙏🌠 the postman isnt my da cuz hes a ride Carly: aw now youve got me 😳 Ali: rude, my postman is not Carly: 🚫💌 then baby Carly: ill text u instead Ali: so grumpy, don't stick your hand right into our house if you don't wanna get bitten, sir Ali: not by me, whatever Ronan has said Ali: though I'm well flattered I'm getting a text back Carly: ha its k its not that u use too much teeth Carly: & course ur my hero Carly: tho 🤞🙏🌠 wont b an sos every time Ali: good, can't have him putting you off with blatant lies Ali: it won't be if I do a better job at the heroics and get there before any bad shit can happen Carly: its k i like it Carly: helps me remember what i did Carly: 💔😢 no lads r spelling their names out in bruises for the who Carly: 🐇🐾🐇🐾🐇 Carly: nooo theres no better u could do Carly: ur flying to me faster than anyone has ever ever Ali: amateurs, like Ali: so rude, ain't they heard you're 👸 Ali: I'm basically there now, prepare for the best tea party you've ever been to Carly: aint wat theyve heard but idc Carly: yay 💙 i havent had 1 since me & my 🧸🧸🧸 Ali: I'll be 🎶🔊 it so get in the know lads Ali: awh, can I meet them too? Carly: not too 🔊 or ur gf will bite me which could b fun but im not trying to do u like 💔😢 Carly: some r shyer than others but if u work ur 🔮 how u did for me ull make friends Ali: fill your boots, babe, I don't reckon she's your type, like Ali: I'll be on my best behaviour 🤞 Ali: the loveliest guest you've ever had 🤞🤞 Carly: be fun though Carly: not boring Ali: 😲😲 Ali: Is that the impression I give off? Ali: or another Ronan tale, either way Ali: gonna have to prove otherwise now in the most extra ways imaginable Carly: nahhh Carly: he don't lie to me its his 1 saving grace Carly: its just like a pls Carly: to u & the universe Ali: I won't be boring Ali: trust me Carly: k Carly: i do ur a lifesaver Ali: nah Ali: just happy to help Carly: im happy we r mates Ali: me too Ali: idk why we weren't before, like Ali: too many people at school Carly: & i dont go much ha Ali: this is true Ali: lesser spotted walsh 🐦 Carly: oooh wat colours am i Ali: 💗💜💛🧡💗 Carly: cute Ali: very Carly: wats ur fave colour? Ali: It's a harder question than people reckon, that Ali: like, there's so many beautiful things of every colour Ali: if I can decide for the day, I feel like I'm doing a disservice to all the others Carly: sorry Carly: i havent decided on mine either Carly: when i was a lil kid it was 💛 for the 🌞 then wen i started goin out it was silver for wat i thought the 🌚 looked like Carly: but ive seen so many new colours since Ali: kids always know Ali: they're much smarter than adults about everything Carly: i bet ur lil bro is the smartest Carly: like u Ali: he likes red for 🚨❌🛑⛔️🚫💯‼️🥊🥤 Ali: and I see the appeal Carly: does he like 🍎? i kno somewhere that sells the reddest shiniest 1s Carly: or we cud just throw 🍅s Ali: he's at the anti-fruit stage Ali: but I reckon he could be convinced if we let him smother 'em in caramel and sprinkles Carly: its a date Ali: Me first

[lopez-richter-fangirl]

So. Homecoming. Holy fuck. It’s taken me this long to even start to get my thoughts together. Very spoilery post under the cut. Like, as much as I can possibly remember of the show spoilery. Also rambly. And long. Ridiculously long. So you’ve been warned.

Also disclaimer, this is just homecoming to the best of my recollection and it might not be 100% accurate. So first of all the setlist (this was everything they sang but the order of songs in act 2 is a bit hazy, I think it’s about half right. Also I don’t think hardly anyone at the show could tell you exactly because it was just so overwhelming). They did medleys for all the non-Potter shows in act 1 in reverse chronological order, act 2 they did full songs from all the Potter musicals.

Act 1 TGWDLM, Join Us And Die, Show Stoppin Number We Got Work To Do, Make The Most Of It Ani, With My Own Eyes, Back On Top Gone To Oregon, Naked In A Lake, Speedrun No One Remembers Achmed, A Thousand And One Nights, Happy Ending Holy Musical B@man, Rogues Are We, Superfriends Status Quo, Kick It Up A Notch, I Wanna Be Me And My Dick, Listen To Your Heart, Ready To Go Act 2 Going Back To Hogwarts Harry Freaking Potter To Have A Home Different As Can Be (and reprise) Coolest Girl Cho’s Song Hey Dragon Granger Danger Guys Like Potter Wizard Of The Year To Dance Again Sidekick Voldemort Is Going Down Everything Ends Not Alone Days Of Summer Not Alone (reprise)

Thursday 25th The more I think about it the more I realise I really had no idea what I was expecting from the show. We’d been planning before they even announced what it was to fly out for it, but we had very few details. I didn’t even know they had an orchestra until like two hours before. I’d barely been able to watch any of their rehearsal stories. But I don’t think I’d ever been more excited for anything in my life. I was super excited for AVPW but also, it was my first time seeing any of them, the whole thing felt like a dream, and I had no idea how much it was gonna mean to me so it didn’t even hit me properly until the last night. Whereas I already knew exactly how special this would be, it was entirely once in a lifetime and I was nearly shaking.

Outside the theatre I’ve said it before but genuinely my favourite place in the world to be is surrounded by Starkid fans. Seeing people in cosplay, in merch, talking about the same shows and people I love, I just get such a sense of ‘this is home’. There was the classic waiting-in-line going back to hogwarts singalong. And some la dee da da day thrown in for good measure. Liam was walking along the line filming and doing interviews for the bts. Tessa got out of a car right next to us, we saw Jade and Traci and their friend Bella. They’re all gorgeous it’s insane and unfair.

Inside the theatre Spent over $100 on merch but honestly could have spent so much more, really I showed a lot of self restraint. They didn’t have the programmes though which I’m still heartbroken over. Saw Denise Richter which I was maybe too excited about. Didn’t speak to her or anything but even just to see her she exudes kindness she’s the best. Then we were hanging out in the lobby and Tessa was talking to everyone and hugging them and taking selfies and jumping in people’s group pics and I love her. Like she made my night even without me talking to her because she was SO sweet to everyone she spoke to and I was stood there falling in love with her by the second. Also, let’s talk about how cool the venue was? It looked unbelievable and they had a bunch of posters up with AVPM quotes. And the stage? Y’all have seen by now but they made it look like an actual homecoming dance and it was amazing. Considering how far back our seats were it was actually a very good view, it helped that I had an aisle seat so had a clear view of the entire stage. I’ve posted the pre-show playlist here, it was perfect, especially the JATP like, hell yeah to celebrating all their various projects. At this point I literally thought I was gonna die of excitement. AJ and Clark came on stage and as much as I was having great fun freaking out with the groupchat about how soon the show was I couldn’t wait to put my phone away cause that meant the show was starting. And then the lights went down.

Darren Very pleased to say it was not the Darren show, even though he did give the opening and closing speech. And as much as I have opinions about him, when he walked out for the first time it was a pretty special moment because it’s like, this is it this is really happening. The amount of energy in that room when he came on stage my god. You would not have believed there were only 1600 people there. The whole show people could barely get a sentence out without cheering, which in hindsight was probably annoying but it just shows how incredibly loved they are, and we were as grateful to them as they were to us. I loved the atmosphere in both shows, it was completely different both times and I’ll obviously get to the Friday night show, but there was something special about being in a room of majority backers, all of us seeing these show for the very first time, it was totally new. Again, literally no idea what to expect and it was the most exhilarating feeling. Darren did a little ‘look for your exits pretend we’re at Disney’ which was cute after being at Disney for two days beforehand. Classic starkid fashion, he told us they had no idea how long the show would run for. He made a G.L.E.E. joke so it’s nice to know he’s still on our side at the end of the day. I don’t know if it was him that talked about Starkid performing with a 13 piece orchestra for the first time, but I’m gonna bring it up here anyway. I’m so grateful they were overfunded and that they were able to have the orchestra, because it’s probably something they really wanted and it’s also something they 100% deserve. I’d sell my soul to hear every starkid song with that orchestra, it was magnificent. I really hope we do get an album because it all sounded SO GOOD. Unsurprisingly don’t remember much else of what Darren said because I was just so excited for the show to start.

TGWDLM medley  So as soon as the opening started playing even as Darren was still introducing people went insane, literally within two seconds I knew undoubtedly that this was gonna be the best two hours of my life (also the fastest. Often watching theatre shows I lose attention a little bit but there wasn’t a single second of this show that I wasn’t 100% in the moment they’re completely captivating, and it went by way too fast). Oh wow this is where we got to see Joey and Lauren for the first time. Fuck. I cannot describe to you how good they looked. Pictures do not do it justice. Thank god the mustache was gone. Thank god Lauren didn’t wear the boots. She was wearing my favourite hairstyle. Joey’s hair looked great. Their outfits were incredible. They literally could not have been more perfect looks for me and I’m so grateful. I could have cried happy tears at seeing them. This in itself could go on for five pages so I’ll leave it there. They all did the whole iconic zombie pose entrance. Corey sang Joey’s astronomical line which was kinda a shame cause I love the way he sings that line however I’m glad they did it like that cause Joey got to sing a lot in the show (still not enough for my liking but then again my liking is Joey and Lauren singing the whole show so I’m good). Wish they did Lauren’s ‘pines after a cute lil barista’ bit. Also kinda wish they did inevitable so Jon could sing because I love him and he deserves better @ starkid when are you going to hire me. However they made up for that when Jaime went ‘it is time’ and the room was absolutely electric because everyone knew exactly what was coming. That note had me shook from the moment I heard it on the digital ticket and I feel honoured to have heard it in person. Jeff was still her hype man. Jaime’s voice is honestly out of this world, she’s the person I’d most heard sing live but it was still mind blowing. She’s incredible I love her so much. Then Robert came on stage so like, room exploded again. Joey and Lauren should have been on stage doing their bit for show stopping number but again, what do I know? This song was 100% pandering but as much as it’s overhyped it is a good song and Robert fucking killed it, he actually impresses me so much. His voice? He did the hip wiggles, maybe even more than were in the show, and people went absolutely wild for it. He did the working boys bit and of course everyone lost their minds. And I loved it, I loved that atmosphere of everyone being entirely obsessed with every tiny thing these people do because that’s what connects us all. Jon did get to be a working boy (as did Mariah) and sounded great. They actually sang so much of this song holy shit definitely pandering. But they really were giving Hamilton some competition.

Firebringer medley Lauren Walker introduced this one, do I remember what she said? No, I was too busy wondering if they were going to sing Climate Change. They didn’t. You sang three songs from every other show but two from firebringer and one of them wasn’t climate change? Okay sure. This sounds like I’m complaining I’m not this section was still gorgeous and I loved every second of it. Hearing music from firebringer was amazing because it has some of my favourite music from all the starkid shows, and also because apart from TGWDLM which was so recent it’s the only show we hadn’t heard anything from since. They sang we got work to do which again, pandering and not even to what most people actually wanted if we’re being honest. But I’m happy about it because hearing Lauren sing that first line was a spiritual experience. Her voice? No words. So good. Can’t believe I got to hear it live? Properly?!? Also Joey got to be in this bless his heart and I couldn’t stop watching him doing the choreography. Lauren’s little expressions throughout the whole thing are adorable god I love her. Meredith sounded so good. Rachael got so much of a cheer when she sang her bit. Joey comforted Joe after the shadow bit. Then they sang from the proposal bit of the finale. Brian was pretending to be jealous when Meredith was singing to Lauren which made my life, p.s. Joey step up your game. The first time hearing Lauren sing ‘this is the dawn’ literally took my breath away. And with that orchestra!? (Will I ever shut up about the orchestra? The answer is no). The CHEERS for ‘we are womankind’. Hell yeah. And then Lauren did the arm thing like way to literally flex on us Lo. Not okay. They did the little Molag dialogue bit and Denise did the being-blessed-with-knowledge face. Watching Denise off to the side was honestly one of the highlights of the whole show. 

TTO medley

Now I’m questioning my memory but I think Jaime went offstage after Firebringer when she wasn’t supposed to because I’m sure I remember her not being on stage for this at first. Like everyone else was there and there was a moment where I was like ‘I feel like someone’s missing...’ and then Jaime walked on late. She did mention Julia having to remind her of her cues. Anyway. Gone to oregon was first and I was reminded what an actually good performer Jeff is. He’s great in that show. Corey got the cheers he deserved at his ‘wisconsin’ bit. Lauren singing Naked in a lake was beautiful. Even if not enough people sang with her when she asked for help (spoiler, we stepped up Friday). She was definitely trying to get us to sing the high bits cause her voice was tired and she didn’t want to but that’s fine. This was one of the songs from that show I really wanted them to sing and I’m glad they did, it’s so much fun. Also Lauren does kinda steal the show but watching everyone else in this song is great. Shoutout to the sax guy, I’m glad we as a fandom always appreciate the band/orchestra. I still can’t believe everyone just lets Lauren sing a whole song about skinny dipping but I’m here for it. Then they did speedrun which was. An experience. Still think Joey should have sung wagon on fire but would I have passed out most likely yes so maybe it was better off this way. I’m glad Rachael got a moment. The ‘faster’ bit was fucking insane I don’t know how they had the breath for it. Everyone clapped pace and I’m pretty sure we clapped faster than the song ever goes so, sorry guys that you had to go through that? I think I have a newfound appreciation for this song. It was either in this or possibly in Naked in a lake that Joey did something stupid and Lo looked at him and shook her head. There were a lot of little looks throughout the show and trying to catch each other’s eye across the stage and it was very cute and probably won’t make the cut even though it should it’s the best part of the show.

Ani medley Moses introduced it and he was wearing like the jacket that’s one of his costumes and he wore in the final SK10 livestream idk you guys I’ve seen that show twice. The Ani band is fucking great, they had Mark, Nick Gage (?? idk there was definitely a fourth person I was mostly watching Meredith let’s be real here), Clark and Meredith all sing. Meredith had the biggest smile on her face at all times it was a joy. Ani is such a fun song so many starkid songs are so fun. Also they added a key change (was it even a key change? I’ve never studied music whatever they did it sounded good.) Actually the whole arrangement of this medley I loved, I hope it makes the people who don’t appreciate the music in this show appreciate it. With my own eyes is my favourite song in that show and I’m very happy they did it. They should have had Denise do her choreo when they did Back on top tbh. I love Meredith in this song though.

Twisted medley Joe came out to introduce it but kept hyping everyone up about Ani first. I really miss Joe he has so much onstage energy. I knew they were doing No one remembers achmed but I was still so excited about it. It’s such a good song. And the whole ‘you ooze sex’ bit in the flesh? That’s all. Obviously the best part was everyone yelling tigerfucker. Experiencing that in person is unbeatable. Then they had Britney and Carlos sing their version of 1001 nights and it was beautiful, I very rarely listen to that version of the song but I should, Britney is unbelievable and I love her so much. I can’t believe she’d just flown in and had such a rough time right before the show, you wouldn’t have known it. Dylan walked out and I kinda thought they were gonna have him and Meredith do a quartet (starkid when are you gonna hire me??) but then he sang ‘and with my wife beside me’ and I was like :’) this is good. That part of the song always gets me and Dylan’s voice is a goddamn gift. I love the overlapping parts at the end of Happy ending too so it’s always a good choice. But why they didn’t sing dream a little harder when Alex was right there I do not know. 

HMB medley Pretty sure they had Julia introduce it? Guys it’s been a week gimme a break. Either way she definitely introduced something at some point and I’m glad everyone cheered so much for her because she was the glue of Starkid for a while. Nick Gage sang HMB and they had a reverb (again, is that the right term? not a clue) and he looked so pleased with himself every time we laughed. Then they sang rogues are we (rogues medley would have been better but in fairness that would have ruined the whole thing they had going). I do love Lauren singing we are the harlots and the hussies. A lot. But Denise does it so well. And Jaime’s ‘we’re rising up from the underground’?? I don’t think I have a single thing to say about any of the men in this song and I’m not sorry. Superfriends sounded very cool. It doesn’t matter how many times I see it, I always love the matching tattoos bit, and seeing Meredith’s story afterwards about how she was directing hers at Jade made it even better. I don’t even remember who sang Robin’s lines because I was too busy watching Lauren do the dance, she’s adorable. It was funny watching like five of them doing it cause they were the only ones who had learned it before and the rest not knowing it. Also, I don’t know which makes me happier, when they point into the audience for ‘I wanna be your friend forever’, or when they point at each other. Both are good.

Starship medley Denise introduced the show and um hi I love Denise she’s so cute. She said the thing about her mom calling Starship a show for dreamers and I still think that’s the most adorable thing. I will say for the rest of time that having Alex and Mariah sing Status quo was a weird choice. Also made me pissed that basically no one cheered for Alex but of course everyone went fucking crazy for Mariah. Not even that Mariah didn’t deserve it, but she didn’t deserve it more than Alex. Just saying. It did sound very good with the orchestra and they both have good voices, but I still think we deserved it sounding good with JOEY and the orchestra. I would have died to hear Joey sing that song. Moving on though. Kick it up a notch is always better in rogues medley but I do adore the Jim Brian and Jaime trio anyway. And it’s SUCH a good song. Then they sang I wanna be which I was psyched about I love that song (it was straight from Brant’s verse though like hello what happened to Joey rights). Hearing the older songs makes me wish so much they’d remount them because they all sound so good now it would be amazing. Joey’s voice is legitimately a blessing from the gods. 

MAMD medley Brian introduced the show and walked away from the mic before he said dick, which was funny but also reminded me of how they said this would be the most PG show starkid had done which is laughable. Joey did a whole bit in the beginning that reminded me a lot of his jekyll and hyde performance in shitty broadway. I love that man. Again, we deserve a remount of this show if only for Joey’s voice. Then we have maybe the most iconic moment of the thursday show which is when Joe had way too much excitement for his entrance, fucking sprinted on stage, knocked over the mic stand and had to rescue it, spraining his ankle in the process. And recovered BADLY, he was trying to figure out what to say to pull it back and Joey basically had to tell him to just sing already. I feel a little guilty now because it looked pretty bad, but it was really fucking funny. And then the cheer at the head tilt, why do we all love it so much??!? Then Joey sang Listen to your heart with AJ (him and Brian are a better duo fight me). I loved their little added dialogue, with Joey being like ‘do I smell?’ and AJ being like ‘so bad’. I always always love the little dance break Joey is the sweetest boy. I think I remember something like ‘am I doing it?’ ‘not even close Joey’. Then Alle Faye and Ali came out for ready to go and it went from their bit. It was really nice seeing them back together again. It wasn’t like nearly ten years had gone by at all. God it’s weird how nostalgic I was/am for something I wasn’t even there for. The ‘we’re finally ready’ bit sounded so gorgeous with the orchestra, I had it stuck in my head for days. They slowed it down, and we had everyone on stage, and it was just beautiful. The perfect way to end the act, which was over way too soon, and I was already feeling sad about the show nearly being over even though there was so much good to come. Wait how could I forget to mention the ‘my hormones are freaking out’ bit. Fuck all of them for that. Even if I pretty much just watched Lauren with a quick glance at Joey, which is an accurate description of what I did for a lot of the show.

Intermission First quick thing to say, as much as I wish we’d heard some more full songs from the non-Potter shows, I think I like that they kept it separate. The first half was celebrating everything they achieved since where it all started for them, and the second half was pure nostalgia. And even though I wish it wasn’t the case, more people know the potter shows so it was kinda nice that everyone was even more united than they had been for the first half. Secondly, what I should have done during intermission was used the time to recover, because the show was a whole lot of excitement and emotions and I knew it was only going to get worse in the second half. But instead I yelled to the groupchat and met @starkidmelly. More JATP was played, everyone was buzzing, I couldn’t believe I was there. I think it was a long intermission but it did not feel it, Nick came out on stage and it’s like oh shit here we go again.

Nick’s speech He worried me because he said he wanted to take a minute to get sentimental, and I’d already cried a couple of times it was too early in the show to do it again. But then he just talked about the movie Starkid and how it was a bad movie and made us all laugh which I appreciated. What I really did love was how much people cheered for him when he came out, and also for Matt in the audience when Nick shouted him out. Especially on that first night the happiness on Nick’s face at everyone cheering made me want to cry it was so special and he deserves every bit of it and you could tell it still comes as a surprise even now. Also I’ll tag it on now because I don’t remember exactly at what point it was, but at some point in the second act Corey was telling people to stop filming, which kinda made me mad cause they’d asked people not to film and he looked so mad, but was also kinda funny because like, it’s one thing being stopped from filming by an usher but it’s a whole other thing being stopped by Corey Lubowich himself. I probably would have volunteered to leave the theatre if I disappointed Corey like that tbh. But anyway back to Nick, he introduced GBTH with the original cast of AVPM and everyone fucking lost it.

GBTH So you already know what you’re about to be blessed with and then you hear that opening note and people are impossibly screaming even louder and Darren comes onstage and crouches down and it’s like nothing has really changed at all. I’ve been in a room of people singing this song before and it was magical, but this was even more people and even more special. This is where it all started, and there we were ten years later. And it was so surreal actually hearing them sing this in person. Darren put the glasses on and people went insane. The amount of anticipation I felt for Joey’s entrance was ridiculous, and he got the cheers he deserved (almost. he always deserves more). And no matter how many times we see it or how long it’s been it always makes me feel a lot of feelings seeing Darren and Joey on stage singing this together. Joey messed up the floo powder a bit and it was cute. Still iconic. It was deafening when Bonnie came out, which I guess was to be expected we haven’t seen her in nine years. I will say that she did look genuinely happy to be there, and they looked genuinely happy to have her there. Plus the line ‘why do you have to be such a buzzkill’ was so much more funny with the irony of her pretty much bringing the house down. The nostalgia factor ramped up even more here and it was pretty awesome to have that original trio back on stage after so long. Again, so much but simultaneously so little had changed in ten years and trying to articulate those feelings would require a hundred page essay. I didn’t expect them to change the original but I still think they should have kept Lauren’s altered ‘that would be cool’ line. It’s better. But I digress. Jaime got to do her bit and it was a masterpiece. But rest in peace to the whole Cho Chang and Cedric bit, you were deeply missed. Lauren’s entrance, do I even need to say more? Fucking iconic as ever. One of the best moments in all of history. I’m glad they kept in most of the dialogue-y bits although I do not remember what her accent was like. People delivered on ‘whatever I say’ and I love how that’s become our thing. The train bit always makes me emotional, even more so this time with so many people old and new onstage. I always think of Lauren saying she hates the train move but she should have told her face that. Dylan did his entrance from the back of the theatre aka right by us and it was magnificent, he held the note all the way down to the front. They added in the lines about sorting here so Tyler got to do ‘hufflepuffs are particularly good finders’ which was a good choice they did good on that one, Dylan’s ‘what the hell is a hufflepuff’ was drowned out by people still cheering for Tyler, it was a pretty great moment. I may have cried a bit at ‘it’s all that I love and it’s all that I need’. Just a bit. I loved so much that they got everyone to be a part of this song.

Harry Freaking Potter Have I lost all my memories of this song? Maybe. I remember it being amazing. Predictably I watched Lauren a lot, it’s very hard not to she’s so cute when she’s dancing. It’s funny to me how they hold out the mics for the last ‘harry freaking potter’ but most people are already cheering so they get nothing. They should have learned by now.

To Have A Home Was possibly next? I know I got teary again pretty early on in the act (saved the full crying at this song for Friday though stay tuned). I know I’m very far from being the only person who felt the most at home I’ve ever felt. How can you not, surrounded by so much support and mutual love for these incredible people who’ve done so much for us. Starkid is a huge family and it’s tangible in moments like that. And ‘to know this is real’ hits hard. Especially because you can really feel it from Darren, as famous as he is now being on stage with his friends is truly home.

Different As Can Be There’s just something about this song that brings so much energy and Joe and Brian are an iconic duo. And they brought the Quirrelmort vibes strong. Loved everyone shouting ‘prevails’. I’m super glad they did the reprise too. The reaction when they go back to back is incredible. Also, Joe’s ‘Quirrell’ was impeccable. 

Coolest Girl I will say to Bonnie’s credit that she did a very good job opening this song, considering how many people were there and how much pressure there must have been seeing as she’s suddenly making a reappearance after so many years. And she did get a lot of love for it. But Meredith coming out to duet with her actually made me cry, she looked so happy and they did a cute little ‘hi’ and I really truly consider this Meredith’s song, even if she didn’t originally sing it, so I’m glad she got to do it. It was a special moment having them sing it together with no resentment or jealousy. And then Meredith confirmed that Bonnie was pregnant again at the end of the song.

Cho Chang Of course Darren sang this. Of course. What would a starkid show be without Darren playing his dumb songs on guitar. But nothing beats a room full of people shout-singing ‘that’s in canada’ (side note, why did this stick so much? every time I saw it on the map when I flew to Canada it’s all I could think of). But also, idk why Darren introduced this song by saying he wanted to test if we knew the words like buddy pretty sure we know the words to your songs better than you do but sure.

Hey Dragon More of Darren playing dumb songs on guitar but this is also a pretty fun song so we’re letting it slide. Also he did say that he didn’t want to do this song and said they should cut it to make time for better songs but that everyone else made him do it, which does not surprise me. He obviously had to call out his own songwriting abilities from ten years ago, it makes me laugh every time he does it but this time he really came for himself with how bad the rhyming was and how the lyrics are dumb. I love that he can’t get through the song without laughing because it is pretty stupid but we love it anyway. They trusted us on the ‘la la la’s and I think we came through. 

Granger Danger Okay. OKAY. So after all that Darren was like ‘let’s take it to a school dance’ which did not register for me at all because that song has gone way beyond that and now it’s just Joey and Lauren’s song. But then Darren’s playing it (which I found ??? sweet?? for some reason? idk it was good) and Joey and Lauren are on stage and I’m like here we fucking go. This is what I’m here for. Cannot begin to describe how happy I was to hear this song. I literally had said I refused to die before I heard them sing this live and now it will forever be one of the highlights of my life. The amount of power on that stage. Also the amount of attractiveness. They honestly are a power couple. The most iconic duo singing one of the most iconic songs. Their stage presence just blows me away. And it always makes me feel things too because they’ve done this song so many times and when they were first performing it they had no idea where they’d end up and now they’re fucking living the dream together and I can’t believe how far they’ve come. This is a hole we don’t need to go down though. It absolutely is a crime that they haven’t had more songs together but it does make this one particularly special because it’s fucking THEIR song and there’s no doubt they love performing together and their chemistry is so good anyway anyway I swear I’ll get back on track. This song with the orchestra??!? Holy shit you guys it sounded so good. They managed to take a song I love with every inch of me and make me love it even more. They came out and did a handshake because they’re fucking dorks. My heart genuinely felt like it was about to pump out of my chest, the adrenaline rush from seeing this live was crazy it’s a fucking experience. Joey was remarkably in character when it got to Lauren’s bit but she could not be in character for the life of her when he was singing my god she just did not give a fuck. Her heart eyes were off the charts I swear to god I couldn’t believe that dumb girl. Also Lauren was practically making love to her mic stand half the song which was honestly unnecessary but I love her. And her looking at her crotch murdered me. And then Joey was looking at her for most of the ending and she didn’t look at him once so she sucks. As always the last note was heavenly. When do we get a two hour concert version of this song??

Guys Like Potter Maybe came next? I love the apocalyptour arrangement of this song but it was nice to throw it back to the original and Tyler’s great. Joe tried? We’ll leave it at that.

Wizard Of The Year I think this followed after purely because of AJ saying something like ‘that’s enough about that Potter boy’?? And then he only went and did the whole fucking mouse monologue. And the entire time I was sat there having an internal conflict between ‘this is one of the funniest things I’ve ever witnessed’ and ‘they could have used this time to do climate change’. Honestly hearing him pull that out was wild. But then he sang the song and some of the girls came out to do the ‘gilderoy’ bit (which was the best part duh).

To Dance Again The beginning of this song is always iconic. Most important thing to say here is how I’m even more impressed now with Joe’s dancing after seeing what his ankle looked like. Also, hearing all the tapping (thudding) from the audience brings me inexplicable joy. Lauren ran on stage before her cue when Darren came off and had to book it back off and I feel a bit bad immortalising it because I’m sure she’s glad they weren’t filming that night. While we’re on the subject, the Thursday show was a little messy but like, there were no HUGE fuck ups apart from maybe Joe’s in MAMD and it was all surprisingly well rehearsed considering they’d had barely two days of rehearsal and they’re all so so impressive. Still think they should have had a 40 person kickline but the three person Joe Darren and Brosenthal kickline was still pretty good. Also, I remember someone doing a very cool harmony? It maybe sounded like Holden? His voice is underrated. 

Sidekick I cannot remember for the life of me if this is actually where this song goes?? I don’t remember if Joey went offstage or not. I just know that he ended up alone on stage and I damn near lost my mind. I know I’ve said it before but Joey’s performance of sidekick genuinely is a show stealer and I never in a million years thought I’d get to see it live so I feel extremely privileged that I did. God bless whoever included this in the setlist you have my eternal thanks. It’s what Joey deserves (and what I deserve). His voice!?! The high notes?!? Still love the irony of Joey singing this song. Classic cheering at ‘am I the hottest’ because yes you fucking are. He messed up a bit and sang ‘am I the one who takes you home’ twice but we love him. He absolutely killed it and being reminded that they’d not long got back from SDCC and finding out he had a fever made me even more impressed because you literally wouldn’t have known it.

Voldemort Is Going Down More on Joey continuing to kill it (but maybe not in this order). It was good to hear this song again, it slaps. And they all sounded so good too. And there was a super cool little piano riff at one point. This song makes everyone so hype I love it so much.

Everything Ends Haha tear time (jk just about managed to save them for Friday). But it is very much when things get sad because you can feel that the show’s coming to a close. This was Robert’s duet with a person he’d never sung with before and it sounded beautiful. We got the return of Joe’s snape voice or am I imagining that? I don’t remember what he said but I’m sure he said something and it probably made me sad. Literally the whole end of the show is just a blur because I couldn’t believe it was almost over so quickly.

Not Alone Jaime. Just, Jaime. Incredible every time she sings this song. Also, so many AVPW feelings because this is what they came out and sang and this song has been extra special to me since. So I was in tears from the get go tbh. God I’m really really really missing AVPW today so this is a lot just thinking about it. And personal feelings about Bonnie and also how much I love newer arrangements of not alone aside, it was unimaginably special to see the original four singing this together again. 

Days Of Summer We knew they’d save this to the end (or at least so we thought) but it was still a bit of an asshole move ngl. Like, do you enjoy our suffering? Seeing everyone on stage together singing this song that’s at the heart of starkid, if there was anyone who didn’t cry I applaud them. Darren gave a closing speech where he didn’t thank half the people he needed to because he hadn’t rehearsed. I wish I remembered more of what he said because it wasn’t exactly the same as Friday, it also didn’t make me cry half as much which I guess was a bonus. They did the little going back to hogwarts reprise probably partly to make us all feel a bit better and got everyone on their feet for it and as much as I never know which house to say I still love that moment of everyone yelling their house. Then they had “curtain call”, except they faked us out because Brian stayed on stage with his fist in the air and I’m like okay what are these idiots up to now. And Nick came out to tell him they sang all the songs and Voldemort’s dead, which of course meant ‘dead?! *skips stone*’ and we all needed that laugh. And then Joe came out and they did the ‘okay is good’ bit so I was sad again and god they really messed with our emotions. And everyone came back out and did the not alone reprise and literally stomped all over my heart because ten years ago they did the exact same thing, except now they were on a bigger stage with a bigger audience and a bigger family and they’ve all grown so much and achieved so many amazing things in their careers and their personal lives and they’ve grown up a lot but they’re still these college kids at heart who love performing with their friends and making people laugh and I didn’t want to leave my seat after they all walked offstage because it really felt like my soul had left my body and I was just completely emotionally drained. And unbelievably happy that I was getting to experience it all again the next day.

Friday 26th The one thing I have to say about the line this time round is shoutout to the kid handing out red vines, I don’t know how many people actually wanted one but it made me smile. As we were waiting in the lobby we saw Denise x2 (Joey’s mom still looked like the embodiment of kindness and Denise always seems so happy to be there I love them both).

Anyway when we got to our seats I just sat down and was internally screaming because we were So Close to the stage and I was like how on earth am I going to survive seeing this much beauty. Also I knew that some people had different outfits and I was trying to figure out if Lauren and Joey were wearing the same thing cause that was the most important thing so it was an anxious wait. Then when they came out being that close to the crop top nearly killed me and Joey looked even hotter in that red shirt than he did on Thursday so like, I want that image tattooed on my eyelids.

Oh and we saw MK, Sean, Sarah and Whitney up in the balcony before the show started. This is how the conversation went down... Sophie: is that MK up there? Me: I think so, that looks like Sean Sophie: it doesn’t look like Sean? (spoiler alert, it was Sean)

Also to quickly go back to the live atmosphere, Friday night was INSANE oh my god. Whether it was that it was the last show or whether it was being closer to the stage but the room was absolutely electric, it seemed like so many more people - including me this time - were singing and fucking reciting all the lines like it makes me so happy that we’re all fucking nerds who love these other nerds to death and memorise all their shows. As was my plan, the first night I took everything in and then the second night I just got to enjoy it and make the most of it. So the Thursday show it was kind of like I was observing everything but Friday I was LIVING it, and I really was living. It was a fucking party. And I could anticipate what was coming and it somehow made it even more exciting than witnessing everything fresh for the first time. I was literally sat there having the time of my life for two hours and I hope they all saw it, they would have just seen me with a huge fucking grin the whole time (apart from when I was crying we’re not talking about that rn). Maybe the most fun I’ve ever had. It made all the money I’d spent to get there 10000% worth it because as amazing as the DVD is going to be and you bet I’m getting it (well the digital download shipping’s an outrage), you can’t buy the atmosphere in the room and it was incredible to be there.

Okay y’all know the drill now so this is gonna be quickfire:

Act 1

Seeing everyone doing their crazy eyes in TGWDLM up close was an EXPERIENCE. Jon was a stand out. Also Jaime. Being so much closer the energy was so much higher for Join us and die. I think that was really my main thing about Friday, aside from how emotions were even higher, was how crazy the energy was it was SO MUCH FUN. And Robert is pretty great.

Have I mentioned Lauren’s look nearly killing me? Yes? Good. The gay came out full force in Firebringer. Lo’s talent is out of this world and I feel so lucky to have witnessed it live.

So many more people sang for Lauren in Naked in a lake and she looked so happy my baby. I made eye contact with her at one of the points she was holding the out mic for the audience to sing so I’m glad she saw me (quietly but extremely enthusiastically) singing my heart out for her. Joey made Lauren laugh when they were dancing during speedrun and it’s the most adorable shit I’ve ever seen. Those two are genuinely in their own world half the time they’re on stage together and I live for it.

Carlos wasn’t there this night so I think Dylan should have filled in for his verse of 1001 nights but my ideas are worthless right? Oh have I mentioned how much I live for over a thousand people yelling tigerfucker? And Robert smashed ‘he fucked a tiger’. Also I’m sure they did it the first night too but I noticed even more Denise and Meredith encouraging everyone to cheer when Joe was doing the dialogue bit I adore them.

Brant got so out of time on I wanna be my god Joey looked like he was trying to telepathically tell him to slow down but he never really recovered. But the chaotic energy felt appropriate? It’s not a starkid show without a mess up.

Joe’s MAMD entrance was more controlled this time but honestly it’s a shame the fuck up won’t be on the filmed version because it was definitely a highlight (I hope you’re okay Joe). Mere and Brian had their arms round each other when they were singing ready to go and I was hit with the ‘oh my god they’re getting MARRIED’ feels. Look how far they’ve come. They were also making faces at each other during one song, I don’t remember which one, and giving Joey and Lauren a run for their money for being in their own world. Still not nearly as bad though.

Intermission 

I remember even less of this intermission than the first one. I was just in total shock. Also when we came back from the intermission Nick went ‘two people just got engaged’ and almost literally stopped my heart like I KNOW that’s not how it’s gonna happen but where did he expect me to go with it. And then he wanted to be reminded of their names but someone shouted ‘Joe and Traci’ so he had to be like ‘no I’m not talking about them’ which made me laugh a lot.

Act 2

GBTH was somehow even better this time round. It’s actually a spiritual experience. 100% my happy place. Also Joey didn’t have the headband the first night and I didn’t know I needed it until he came out wearing one on Friday, it was weirdly emotional.

To have a home was worse this time around because I had to come to the realisation that I was gonna leave this home behind. That’s always the worst part, it was the same with AVPW, it’s not just that I miss it it’s also that it’s this happy, safe little bubble where everything feels okay and it’s so sad to lose that. So yeah, cried a lot this time. Also Darren went offstage on Thursday too in the instrumental but this time he went offstage and ran round to the other side to come back on which was so much better good job Darren.

When Lo and Joey shook hands for granger danger they both had such cute smiles my HEART. Lauren still had heart eyes for Joey singing, she was just stood there grinning at him the whole time she loves him so much jesus christ. Also she was staring at him when they were both singing the ‘falling in love’ bit just saying. And they got super close to each other for the end but kept alternating looking at the other person and the audience so they were never actually looking at each other and it KILLED me I hate them. I also didn’t even think twice about singing Lauren’s part during granger danger until halfway through oops and now I kind of want to apologise, Mr Joey Richter I love you.

You could tell there were a fair few people in the audience who’d seen one or both of the other shows and knew what was coming so actually shouted out ‘what’s your fantasy’ when AJ was working up to the mouse monologue which made it even better. It was just as insane and funny the second time, but I still couldn’t believe they actually put it in there.

Back to Mr Joey Richter, he brought the house down with sidekick even more than on Thursday. He’s so talented y’all. You’d expect more cheering for ‘am I the one who takes you home’ but the urge for everyone to yell ‘definitely not’ is too much and it cracks me up. And he pointed at the very least in my direction when he sang the last ‘I love being at your side’ so I’ll take it for SURE.

They got everyone standing even earlier on in the show (during voldemort is going down) and I just felt a sense of elation, the whole show but at this point in particular, because everyone was there having a fucking amazing time and pouring out so much love, from our direction and from theirs, and I feel like that song really does do what it’s supposed to and make us feel united.

Everything ends made me cry a lot because it actually was the end this time, and starkid have some fucking heart wrenching goodbye songs that are supposed to make you feel better but really don’t at all. Not alone made me cry more, obviously. Days of summer was so much worse because it really was goodbye, me having to say goodbye to seeing them and one of the best experiences of my life, them having to say goodbye to each other. SO. MANY. TEARS.

Random point, Lauren looked so fucking cute when she came out in her varsity jacket with the sleeves pushed up because it was too big for her I just wanted to hug her.

Joey and Lauren kept looking at each other during Darren’s speech, Joey in particular kept trying to catch Lo’s eye which killed me he’s too soft. And Lauren pulled a face at the mention of a twenty year reunion like she felt way too old for that and he was smiling at her I hate them. 

There were a lot of tears, Joey and Tiffany especially and Lauren pulled her trying not to cry face. In the speech Darren said something about starkid bringing about this group of friends and Joey’s wide eyed already-crying-but-trying-not-to-cry-even-more-face was both heartbreaking and funny and I hope it makes it onto the DVD. I don’t remember much else of the speech other than that it was incredibly emotional and it very well summed up a lot of what we were all feeling about the show and how special starkid was. Also I made eye contact with Joey when we were both crying and we smiled at each other (tried to) and honestly that was a bonding moment for us.

And we saw Bob and Denise on our way out which caused a whole lot more feelings because those are their kids up there performing with all their other honorary kids and yep we’re done here.

I don’t really know how to bring this all to a neat end. I don’t really think there is one. It’s an experience that can’t fully be put into words, the emotions it brought up aren’t ones that I can properly label, and it’s going to stick with me forever. But it was a reminder of how special starkid is. Watching their shows at home, scrolling through their social media, of course it brings me so much joy it’s my reason for living. But getting to see them live and feel the impact they’ve had on so many people? Getting to do it with a friend I made because of them? I just wish I had the words or the time to give them the thanks I wish I could. I really hope they felt the sheer, deep love we all feel for them over those two days.

Anyway, I know this was way too long and half of it wasn’t information people care about but I’m done now. And I’m so excited for the DVD and (hopefully) album so I can experience it all again!

[dumbbitchnumberone]

Maybe its one of their birthdays,,,

Okay so this ficlet… kinda got away from me. It’s 3500 words. That’s longer than 2 of the full fics in TVG, but I just started writing and couldn’t stop. without further ado, enjoy:

Truth be told, the only reason Wade looked the kid up on Instagram in the first place was because he needed to figure out where he’d be and when to prevent him from getting assassinated, but even after the hitman situation was dealt with he found himself checking the kid’s profile every now and then.

Peter posts pretty frequently, but when he does it isn’t like there’s any sort of strongly curated theme. He doesn’t just post aesthetically pleasing pictures of coffee and designer clothes—he posts what’s going on in his life.

There’s a picture taken from a hospital bed in Avenger’s Tower. There’s a picture of a cool looking pigeon. There are multiple pictures of cute dogs he passed on the street and some dumb selfies with his friends. The thing is, those aren’t the ones that catch Wade’s eye.

The ones that catch his eye are the off-guard ones of the tall girl he hangs out with. The pictures of the city that had to have been taken while the kid was webbing his way around the city. A shot of the kid’s aunt (she’s his aunt? Is she old enough for that?) drinking coffee and sitting on the fire escape. Peter has quite the eye for what makes a good picture, but it’s obvious he doesn’t have anything to take pictures on other than his phone that’s quite a few generations out of date.

Wade has money. Granted, he’s been known to spend it all on plastique explosives so that he can build himself a throne out of them, but right now he has money. He’s also spent a lot of his life being poor—both regular poor and power shut off in the winter, breaking up bits of furniture to burn in a grate in the floor so you don’t freeze to death poor—which is why he knows that the kid won’t accept a gift from him without a good reason. Peter hasn’t talked about being poor exactly, but Wade has heard some of his epic rants about how annoying it is that Stark is always throwing money at his problems and trying to give Peter a new phone or laptop because “this one still works just fine—why would I get rid of it?” That along with the way he hardly ever goes out anywhere (if his Instagram stories are anything to judge by) and wears the same worn but well taken care of clothes almost every time Wade sees him as a real person is enough context for him to get a grasp of the kid’s attitude. It helps that Matt mentioned the kid’s aunt is a nurse and the uncle is dead. Living in New York on a nurse’s salary with a kid? That can’t be easy on the old wallet.

It isn’t until he’s leaning out of Matt’s bedroom window so that he can smoke without bothering the guy that he finally thinks of a time the kid might accept a gift. Peter always says that he’s almost sixteen, but there haven’t been any sweet sixteen posts on his Instagram, meaning his birthday is still coming up. The only question is when.

Wade stubs the cigarette out on the brick outside Matt’s window before dropping the butt to the street.

“Hey, when’s the kid’s birthday?” he asks, turning to look at where Matt is lying on his stupid, wonderful silk sheets.

Matt raises his eyebrows. “Considering what your heart just did, that is not the question I was expecting.”

Wade snorts. “Very funny. Seriously though, do you know when it is?”

“August tenth,” Matt answers. “Why?”

Thank god—still a week or so out. “Cause I wanted to get him something. Sixteen is a big deal and all.”

“That’s true,” Matt agrees, pulling himself up into a sitting position. “I’ve been trying to think of something to get him, but I’m not sure what he’d like.”

“I want to get him a camera—one of the really nice ones. You wanna go in together on it for him?” Wade offers.

“Sure—but why a camera?”

“If you could see his Instagram then you’d know,” Wade teases, and Matt snorts.

“Asshole. Well, I don’t know anything about cameras. Do you?” he asks, and shit, Wade doesn’t know anything about cameras.

Matt must be able to read that realization in his pulse or whatever, and the smirk it puts on his face is so incredibly annoying.

“Shut up,” Wade says.

“I didn’t say anything,” Matt replies with the smirk still on his face.

“Yeah, well you didn’t have to.”

Matt must take pity on him for once, because the smirk fades away to a much nicer smile. “Put your clothes back on and I’ll help you track down Jess and get her to tell us about cameras.”

“You really want me to put my clothes back on already?” Wade tries, because he is but a man and asshole-ish smirk or not, Matt’s got it goin’ on.

After a second of consideration Matt says, “No, I guess not.”

-----

“Okay, seriously, let’s go find Jess and get this figured out,” Matt says eventually as he’s doing up the buttons on his stupid fancy shirt.

Wade gets that matching clothes can be hard—but a suit every day has got to be some form of penance because no way in hell would anyone other than a Catholic willingly do that to themselves.

“Ugh, fine. Give my healing factor a second,” Wade groans.

Matt snorts and throws Wade’s shirt at him. “Don’t be a bitch. I’ve seen you walk off stab wounds quicker than that.”

“Haven’t seen anything,” Wade mutters under his breath, getting his pants thrown at him as well for his efforts.

Once they get down to the street looking like the world’s strangest yet most fitting couple (seriously, a horribly scarred guy and a blind guy—the perfect combination), Wade realizes that he’s the one blindly following after Matt.

“Hey, where are we going? Did you call Jess when I wasn’t looking?” he asks even though he highly doubts that’s the case. With Matt it’s almost always something stranger.

Wade’s hypothesis is proven once again as Matt shakes his head. “I know where she is.”

“… why do you know where she is?”

Matt shrugs. “We were hanging out last night and she mentioned she was getting lunch with her sister today around now. I know the general area she’ll be in, and I can find her from there.”

Freak.

“You’re so fucking weird,” Wade says, and Matt just smiles brightly at him.

He follows after Matt for another two blocks before the man stops abruptly and turns onto the next street then into a café that Wade doesn’t recall seeing the last time he was in this part of the city.

Matt heads straight for a table near the back, and Wade takes his arm so that it at least looks like the blind guy is the one being led.

“Jessica,” Matt says as they come to stand at the edge of a table tucked into a corner.

Jessica looks up from where she had been talking to a blonde lady who looks absolutely nothing like her yet still strangely familiar. Jess groans, and the blonde one just gapes at the two of them. Wade’s used to it, so he just waves at her. She looks embarrassed and immediately tears her eyes away from his face.

Jessica gives them a scrutinizing look and wrinkles up her nose. “Really? You couldn’t even bother taking a shower before you came and tracked me down?”

“We tried,” Wade replies, putting his arm around Matt’s waist and yanking him closer even if it does get him an elbow in the ribs. “We just got distracted.”

“Gross. What do you want?” she says, though she doesn’t actually sound all that grossed out.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends, Jess?” the blonde one asks, but it’s really very clearly a demand.

Jessica sighs. “They aren’t my friends, they’re a pain in my ass. The blind one’s Matt—my lawyer. You’ve met him once,” Matt smiles his charming smile in the blonde’s general direction. “The burn victim is Wade. Assholes, this is Trish. Now, tell me what you want.”

“We need to know about cameras,” Wade chimes in.

“What about them?” she asks.

“What’s a good one for someone who’s new to photography,” Matt asks.

“Sorry Murdock, but no matter how fancy a camera you buy, the pictures are still gonna come out blurry.”

Matt gives her a very flat look. “It’s for Peter. His birthday is coming up.”

Jessica’s demeanor softens a little bit at that, and it’s precious—not that Wade would ever say that out loud. But he’s noticed that at least he isn’t the only one who has a Peter-shaped soft spot in his heart.

“How much are you guys willing to spend?” she asks.

“I just took a job,” Wade says.

Jess nods in understanding. “Foreign or domestic?”

“It was in Brazil.”

“Ah, thought that one might’ve been you. Usually you’re more obvious though,” she says.

“This one called for subtlety. Made the paycheck higher, so I can’t complain too much.”

Trish looks like she’s just dying to ask what Wade’s job is, but she must be smart considering she doesn’t.

“Well, if money isn’t an issue, you can’t go wrong with a Sony Alpha A7 III. It’s around 2000, very beginner friendly, but if he has any trouble with it then I’ll be more than happy to show him how to get started with it,” Jess replies, taking out a pen from her pocket and scribbling something down on a napkin. “Get this lens with it—it shouldn’t be more than 500.”

“You’re a godsend,” Wade says, taking the napkin from her and blowing her a kiss.

Jessica rolls her eyes. “Save it for someone who’ll put out, Wilson.”

“Wonderful talking to you as always,” Matt says. “Nice to meet you properly, Trish.”

“You too,” Trish says with a smile.

Wade and Matt leave the restaurant and trek all the way up to the nearest Best Buy to get their hands on the camera and lens Jess recommended. The sales associate looks at them a bit strangely, and when he asks what they’re going to be using the camera for Matt somehow knows to slam his hand over Wade’s mouth and answer himself. Good choice; Wade’s answer would’ve been nudes.

“Do you know how to wrap presents?” Wade asks, looking at the boxes the camera and lens are in and then looking back to Matt to see the bitchiest look on his face.

“No, I don’t know how to wrap presents, Wade.”

“Well do you know anyone who knows how to wrap presents?”

“Yes,” Matt says with a defeated sigh.

-------

Half an hour later, Wade finds himself in a rundown apartment building with a two thousand dollar camera in a bag on one arm and a roll of Spider-Man wrapping paper from the dollar store with Matt standing beside him and knocking obnoxiously on the door.

“I know you’re in there, asshole,” Matt calls out, thumping his fist against the door again. “Stop calling me a bitch under your breath and say it to my face.”

“You’re a bitch,” comes a response that’s loud enough for Wade and his sad, normal hearing to pick up.

“To my face,” Matt repeats.

“I’ll shoot you!” the voice calls back.

“That’s a lie!” Matt says.

There’s silence for a moment followed by the sound of heavy footsteps and the door opening.

“What the hell do you two clowns want?” Frank asks, pinching the bridge of his nose much like a put-out parent.

“We need help wrapping a present for Peter’s birthday,” Matt says.

Frank looks like he just might shoot them both. “And why the hell did you decide to come to me for that?”

“You were the nearest fully functional adult I could think of. Take it as a compliment. Help us wrap the present and we’ll put your name on the card too.”

Frank stares at them for a moment but eventually loses the stare-down with Matt and lets them in.

While wrapping the present, he interrogates them on their choice of gift. Once he gets an answer that he deems suitable for that, he moves on to giving them shit about the choice in wrapping paper. Then he gives Matt shit for something Hell’s Kitchen related that Wade has very little interest in.

“Are you two done flirting?” Wade asks when Matt and Frank are still talking long after the present’s been wrapped.

“Why? Eager to be alone with me again?” Matt shoots back.

Frank gags.

Matt punches him in the shoulder.

They leave after that, and it’s determined that Matt should be the one to keep the camera safe until Peter’s birthday. Wade gets to keep the definitely-not-officially-licensed Spider-Man wrapping paper though, so it’s a pretty fair trade.

----

Peter’s apparently got his hand full with a combination of school, his internship, and dealing with the lowlifes of Queens, so Wade doesn’t get a chance to see the kid—either as himself or his alter-ego in the next week. In fact, it isn’t until he’s scrolling aimlessly through Instagram that he sees a picture of a poorly-made cake on the kid’s story and realizes that it’s the tenth. One frantic flurry of text messages to Matt later, he confirms that Matt hasn’t had the chance to see the kid either thanks to being up to his non-functional eyeballs in lawyer work for the entire week.

Matt isn’t a fan of texting, so he elects to call Wade instead of suffering through any more grammatical errors and excessive punctuation.

“Should we bring it to him tonight?” Matt asks.

“I mean, it’s his birthday. I doubt he’s going out as Spider-Man on his sweet sixteen,” Wade points out. “Come on orphan, at least pretend you have a functional knowledge of childhood milestones.”

“I’m flipping you off right now,” Matt says.

“Glad to hear it—wait, he just added to his story again.” Wade taps on the gradient circle surrounding Peter’s profile picture and sees a short video of the kid, his aunt, and the two friends he’s always with at a restaurant. Wade’s pretty sure he actually knows that restaurant, and that’s confirmed when he checks Peter’s location on Snapchat. “He’s like, six blocks from your place. Carmine’s—you ever been there?”

“Ugh—yes. Worst date of my life,” Matt replies, and Wade makes note of that comment so he can wheedle out all the wonderful, cringeworthy details at a later date.

“Great, meet me there. Don’t forget the camera.”

“Don’t forget the card,” Matt shoots back before the line goes dead.

Wade won’t forget the card. He put way too much effort into the card to forget it—including hand-done illustrations and glitter. Rather than bother Dopinder or, god forbid, take the subway, Wade just gets an Uber and talks the poor driver’s ear off the whole way there.

When they pull up outside, Wade sees Matt standing casually outside the restaurant and the driver is more than happy to have the weird, rambling burn victim out of his car.

“Matthew!” Wade calls, pulling Matt into a half hug. “You’re here!”

“Of course I’m here, dumbass,” Matt replies in that charming way of his. “Peter and his people are still inside—let’s go give him the present. Oh, by the way, his aunt thinks I’m his Spanish tutor, and I don’t think either of his friends know who I am either. Let’s keep it that way.”

“Um, well, his friends definitely know who I am, so how are we gonna explain how Deadpool knows his Spanish tutor?” Wade says, and god bless poor Matt for having to keep all these different stories in order. Super-secret identities are a bitch.

“I’m Daredevil’s lawyer, I met you through him,” Matt answers.

“Wow, you had that one prepared. Have to use it a lot?”

“More often than you’d think. Come on, it smells like sewage out here,” Matt says, putting his free arm through Wade’s and dragging him towards the restaurant.

Even with Wade on his arm, Matt still manages to charm the maître d’ into escorting them to the Parker’s table.

“Hey, kiddo!” Wade says, loud enough to get the attention of everyone at the table, but not so loud as to draw unwanted attention. Contrary to popular belief, he can manage some sort of subtlety on occasion. “Thought you could ditch out on us on your birthday?”

Peter looks shocked at first and then pleasantly surprised by the two of them. That adorable smile spreads across his face, quite the contrast to the unreadable look on the girl’s face and the awed one on Ned’s. Peter’s aunt is doing a pretty good job of not staring at his general appearance, so props to her.

“Wade—Matt, hi!” Peter says. “What’re you guys doing here?”

“Wishing you a happy birthday. And giving you a reminder—what did I tell you about Snap Maps the first night we met?” Wade says.

“Hitman’s best friend, I know, Wade. You’re one of, like, six people who can see where I am,” Peter answers in a very exasperated ‘yes, dad’ sort of way.

Wade is touched by that, and he puts his hand over his heart.

“Hi, Matt. It’s good to see you again,” the kid’s aunt says with a smile that Matt can get from any woman on the planet. “And Wade, was it? I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you before,” she adds on with a very deliberate look at Peter.

“Pleasure’s all mine,” Wade says. “I’m a friend of Peter’s. From work.”

May’s eyebrows shoot to her hairline and she gives Peter another look.

“Um,” Peter says, looking over at Wade who gives him a big ole thumbs up. “Deadpool,” he whispers to his aunt.

She looks shocked, and Wade speaks up to fill the silence.

“Anyway, sorry DD couldn’t be here, but you know how much of a bitch he is about his stupid secret identity. He sent his lawyer to serve as a proxy. We come bearing gift.”

Matt sets the nicely wrapped gift onto the table. “Courtesy of my clients.”

Wade sets the card on top of the box and pushes both towards Peter.

Peter picks the card up off of the box and admires Wade’s doodles on the front of it before opening it up to read what Wade wrote inside.

Hey kid, happy birthday! You might be sixteen, but I’m sure we’ve all stressed you out to the point your heart is in its mid forties. We might be a bunch of dysfunctional alcoholics with the emotional maturity of thirteen year olds, but here’s hoping you’ll be the first of us to break that cycle. With so many examples of what not to do, how hard can it be? Anyway, we’re proud of you for sticking (ha! Get it?) with us. I like to think I’m pretty observant, so I think you’ll be able to put this gift to good use. You can thank Jess for lending her experience in the area to DD and me, and Frank for being the only adult we know who can wrap presents.

Happy birthday, webhead.

–Wade, DD, Jess, and last but not least Frank.

Peter smiles up at Wade after reading the card. “Thanks, Wade, and tell DD thanks too. And Ms. Jones, and Mr. Castle.”

“I’ll be sure to pass it along,” Matt says with a smile of his own.

Peter sets the card aside very carefully before taking care in opening the package. As soon as he sees the box, the kid just gapes up at Wade.

“This is too much,” he says, and Wade is reassured in his choice of waiting for a special occasion to give the gift.

“Baby-child, there’s nothing I’d rather do with my paycheck from murdering a druglord and burning down his empire than get you something you’ll undoubtedly put to good use,” Wade replies, earning himself a rather horrified look from the kid’s poor aunt.

Rather than being disturbed by Wade’s declaration, Peter gets up from his place at the table and flings himself into Wade to hug him.

“Thank you,” Peter mumbles where his face is smushed up against Wade’s chest.

Wade smiles down at him.

“You’re welcome, kid.”

[mianite-season-3]

Unofficial Mianite S3 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15 - It’s About the Journey

Tom was exploding with energy, and Jordan was not up for it this morning. He hadn’t slept well and he felt like his eyelids would soon become so heavy that he wouldn’t be able to stay awake.

“Joooooordan!”

He blinked and stumbled back. Tom was in his face, looking over him with a curious expression. “You look like shit, dude. What’s wrong?”

Jordan shoved him away, shaking his head. “I’m fine. Just tired. Can I borrow some of your energy, since you seem to have more than enough,” He snarked, and Tom grinned.

“I would if I could, man! I feel amazing, like I could fight a god or something!” The zombie man bounced on his toes and twirled his sword. Jordan felt drained watching him.

“Glad you are.” Gods, he was so tired. They’d been walking for what, an hour? He should not be drained like this, if he’d gotten a good night’s sleep. He was fed too, though fish and bread for a month hardly filled his stomach anymore.

Then again, maybe he wasn’t the anomaly. Everyone else had seemed at less than full this morning, and they had for the past week or two. This world had an energy that was different than the ones they’d been to before. It was heavy, dark, like thunder clouds hanging low overhead. The air was thick, making it hard to breathe and think properly. It made everyone want to seek shelter, stay inside and lie in bed—to wait until the clouds finally broke, because none of them wanted to be caught in the rain that wasn’t an if, but a when. Hopefully once it finally did, the sun would break through and they could finally be free from whatever it was that made them feel so strange.

Only Tom seemed to be able to resist the ever present weight on their shoulders, staying lighter than air. He wasn’t even aware of it, since the one time Jordan asked him about the bad feeling this world gave him, he didn’t understand. He pointed to the chaotic organization of the land as why he felt uneasy, rather than the oppressive feeling in his gut. Everyone else had known exactly what he was talking about, but Tom… didn’t.

“Do you really think we’re going to find anything out here, Tom?”

The Dianitee tilted his head, jumping down from a small hill and falling into stride next to him. “Well, I don’t really think we’re gonna find anyone that we’re looking for. It’s been a month, I think we’d have found something by now. But you never know, we might find someone else who can help us. Like pirates or something! Or like, an old temple that’s got a bunch of gear! Anyways, isn’t this better than staying at home? Fresh air’s good for you, since you look like death!”

That neverending optimism did make him smile slightly. While he’d love to see Ianite in this world, and speak with her, finding any clue about this world would also be good.

Hopefully Sonja would be able to get that at least. As much as he tried to hate Star as vehemently as his friends did...  he couldn’t. Ianite stood for balance, and that meant he had to consider both sides. And weighing everything against each other, the evidence suggested that Star was a good person, albeit angry and with a short fuse. She hated Ianite for a reason, but he’d seen that before.

What killed him was that he wasn’t able to help directly. His presence would only serve to worsen the problem. It was the exact opposite of what Ianite was supposed to stand for. It made him a little sad to think about it.

“Ok, but Tom, Martha was sure you’d be able to track down Mot and Dianite somehow.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m trying, but I dunno how she expects me to do that. What, does she think I’m some kinda compass or something? It’s not like I can see souls like she can, so what the hell does she expect?”

Jordan shrugged. “She said because you’re a Dianite follower, you might have a connection.”

“That’s bullshit. If that was all it took, we’d have found all three gods by now!”

He shrugged again. “I don’t know. If you concentrate, can you feel anything?”

Jordan saw a flash of something appear in Tom’s eyes, but it disappeared before it registered. “I’ve never felt Dianite in this world, not once. Not even the other world’s Dianite.”

They’d been friends long enough for Jordan to know when he was blatantly lying. “Can you at least try? Who knows, maybe it’ll work this time,” he insisted, taking a seat on the ground himself. Tom made a face at him, but surprisingly didn’t put up too much of a fight before joining him.

“Fine. Just for you, Sparkly-dick, I’ll try.” he winked flirtatiously and Jordan rolled his eyes, leaning back and using his arms as a pillow. Might as well try to get some rest while he could. Within minutes, he was asleep.

Tom glanced back at his friend as he fell asleep. He may be loyal to his friends, but he was also loyal to his god. And Dianite had told him that he wasn’t to say a single word until he could gather enough energy... “Wait, what am I supposed to do?” Tom said out loud, frowning when Jordan doesn’t answer, due to being asleep. The Dianitee groaned, then crossed his legs, rested his hands in his lap and closed his eyes.

“Um, so, Dianite, if you’re around somewhere, can ya please show yourself? I don’t wanna have to find you.”

No response but a faint whistle of a breeze in his ear. “Come on, we’ve offered you literally hundreds of diamonds, that’s more than enough.”

A nerve in his right forearm twitched, and he winced. “Gods, this is pointless. You’re not around. I might as well be trying to talk to a ghost!” Tom sprang to his feet, energized with his frustration. He paced around, punching at the air to try and calm himself down. “Come! On! Dianite! You talked to me before, what the hell did you mean?”

He looked down at his hands, taking a breath. “You said to not abuse my power... but I don’t have any power!” he said it out loud, but part of him knew that wasn’t completely true. He remembered the incredible surge of power within the dream. It wasn’t real… but it was.

An idea. He sat down again, now a little ways from Jordan, and resumed his position. His lids fell and within the darkness of his mind, he summoned the image of the dream. The flames, suffocating. Them swirling into the visage of his god, terrifying and powerful. The words, spoken in a tongue he could only understand in a dream. The spark landing on his hand, and the incredible power blooming inside his body. The floating feeling that he was capable of anything, if he just put his mind to it. “I’m sick of fish and bread. If I could just have something else… an apple, or melon, or something!”

He concentrated, squeezing his eyes so tight that he saw stars and gave himself a headache. With eager anticipation his eyes flew open, and looking around, he saw…

Nothing. There was nothing laying on the ground, besides his friend a few meters away.

Tom moaned in annoyance. He tried so hard! What good was Dianite’s cryptic message if he didn’t actually get superpowers?

He spun around to wake Jordan. They should get going, they didn’t want to get caught at night with the millions of mobs. The flat field they were in wasn’t going to be the best to dig a temporary base into.

“Jordan? Jordan, wake up!” The older man groaned, batting at his friend. Tom rolled his eyes and shook his shoulder, but Jordan still didn’t rise.

“Jardon, get up!” Tom reeled back to kick Jordan’s foot, but before he could he heard a small “pop” come from behind him. He froze, the small sound had somehow reverberated within his entire body. When he finally managed to turn his head, he did not expect what he saw. A single apple, floating a few inches above the ground. Waiting. Tom blinked, sure that he’d just gone crazy. But it stayed. He closed his eyes for longer. It was still there when he opened them.

“Jordan! Holy shit!” He exclaimed, and that brought Jordan out of his nap. He squinted at Tom, irritated.

“What?”

“Look! Look what I did!” Tom pointed excitedly, and Jordan rolled his eyes before sitting up. They widened as he focused on what he was seeing. “W-What? Where did that come from?”

“I did it! I was just thinking really hard about wanting an apple and there it was! Hold on... I want... a million diamonds to rain from the sky!”

He threw his head up to the sky expectantly, but not surprisingly nothing came of it. Shrugging, Tom moved to scoop up the apple, taking a big bite out of it.

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold up, why do you get to eat it!?” Jordan’s eyes were intense, ready to pounce for something other than bread. He lunged for it, but Tom danced out of the way. “Cause I spawned it, so it’s mine!”

“How could you have spawned it?!” Jordan exclaimed, still trying to get the bitten apple.

“I dunno, how else does it exist?!”

“I don’t care, give it to me, Tom!”

Jordan was in a frenzy, and in the heat of the moment Tom’s only option was putting some space between them. Unfortunately for Jordan, that meant throwing a punch right into his solar plexus. The older man fell to the ground, suddenly unable to breath. He gasped, trying to drag air back into his lungs.

Before he could get back up, Tom shoved the rest of the apple into his mouth, nearly choking. That was... intense, especially for Jordan who was usually so collected. This world was getting to him more than Tom had thought.

“You... suck...” Jordan huffed as he started to regain air. “How did you even... do that?”

Tom shrugged. “I don’t know! I was just concentrating, and then I thought about how hungry I was, but that I didn’t want bread or fish, and then it just appeared, right there!”

Jordan blinked. “And it wasn’t, you know, a god or something that you just didn’t notice?”

“And they didn’t say anything? The gods are attention whores, Jordan, they always say something when they appear. If they didn’t, isn’t that weirder than me summoning it?”

He pursed his lips. “I guess... but, you’ve never been able to do that before!”

“Yeah, well, maybe you can too! That girl had a bunch of spawn eggs, remember? Maybe people in this world can summon items sometimes?” He didn’t sound too sure of himself, but it was the best suggestion he could come up with. Why else would he be able to summon an apple out of thin air?

“You try it!” Tom shoved Jordan forward, causing his friend to stumble. “If I can do it, you can too!”’ “But what did you do?”

Tom rolled his eyes. “I just imagined it was there, and then it was!”

Jordan shook his head, confounded. But Tom didn’t let it go, so he sat down and closed his eyes, focusing on materializing something. Anything. He squeezed his eyes so tight that he saw stars, but when he opened them again, there was nothing sitting in front of him. Tom patted his shoulder after a minute of waiting. “I guess I’m just special. Alright, c’mon, let’s go!”

“What?” Jordan asked incredulously, standing up and following his friend. He was re-energized by this phenomenon. “Tom, shouldn’t we think about this some more? You made an apple appear out of thin air! Aren’t you curious?”

Tom thought about it for a second, then shrugged. “Nah. Weird stuff happens, it’s whatever.”

That wasn’t the right thing to say, according to Jordan’s reaction. “What do you mean? Does stuff like this happen to you a lot?”

“No! I just meant, you know... look around! The land’s like this, why not summoning random items sometimes?” Tom lied. But now was not the time to spill to Jordan about the weird things that have been happening to him. “Now come on, we’re s’pposed to find Dianite and we’re not gonna do that if you don’t move!”

They continued on, and Jordan dropped it after Tom refused to answer any of his questions. But only for now. Tom was hiding something. That in itself wasn’t new. But there was something about how he was acting, how serious he kept getting, that gave Jordan a bad feeling in his gut.

He would get the answers from Tom, because it felt like they were racing the clock, and whatever Tom was hiding was the key to their victory.