#like what did we need instruction manuals to hit post.

[onelonelystory]

tumblr's knew keyboard shortcuts button will probably be a very helpful and good idea once they've got their placement details worked out a little less inconveniently but it's personally very annoying to me, someone who has been on this site since my preadolescence and is embarrassed at the idea that a section of my brain houses information specifically to use a social media platform that is apparently not intuitive and innate knowledge to all

[f10werfae]

Handyman

Pairing: Husband!Henry x Pregnant!Reader

summary: fans on social media are absolutely in love with Henry and Y/n's relationship, and can’t ignore the fact that the woman is stunningly glowing !Fluff!

- Requests are open!

Likes, Comments and Re-blogs are appreciated♥️

Henry Cavill Masterlist💫

Full Masterlist ✨

Taglist Form⭐️

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

We’re Building our baby’s Crib‼️

Uploaded: 10 minutes ago

Comments:

@/tokyodrifter129: Ok but who knew watching a man building a crib could be such a turn on?!

> @/Y/nCavill: Babe I was thinkin the exact same thing 😭 it’s like porn for me now

>> @bulkyhulk: OMG SHE IS SUCH A MOOD I CANT BELIEVE SHE REPLIED TO YOUR COMMENT

—

@/lizziedwire: Y/n is so cute with her baby bump🥺 The way her hand is just constantly touching on it and the way she smiles at her tummy just makes me wanna cry my eyes out. She’s so precious

> @/marvelledsire: let’s talk about her pregnancy glow though?? Like don’t get me wrong the woman was already stunning before, but even i’m findin her irresistible to look at

@/livingonntheflatearth: Did anyone notice in the video when Henry was reading the instruction manual to the crib, and his other hand was just rubbing Y/n's stomach mindlessly. I just know he positioned her rocking chair right there for that exact reason. But also I can’t blame her if she just wanted to watch him up close 🤪

—-

@/Cavillsfangirl00: Their nursery is so cutely decorated, all the pastel stuffies and toys on the shelves; DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE SUPERHERO BABY BOOKS THEY HAVE. I’m volunteering to be reincarnated as their baby

> @/leavemealonepls: Watching Henry in a vest top and shorts trying to build a crib, is something we didn’t know we needed. Thank you Y/n for posting this😭😭

—

@/Tacosandcheese: Henry leaning his head up like a kid to ask Y/n for a kiss as a reward gets me all giggly every time. Who knew a man needed a kiss after every hammer hit☠️

> @/clarkentwho: Y/n looks so done with him every time he put his head up for that😭 but did you see how she always ended up smiling into their kiss?! I’m sleeping on the highway tonight for real

—

@/369girlswannadrink: My favourite part of this video has to be when Henry accidentally dropped a bit of wood too loud and instantly turned around to Y/n, scared that he had “woken the weep chap”

> @/presidentofyourheart: Mine was when he finished the crib and him and Y/n started placing the mattress in it, you could see them both tearing up when they were hugging that dog stuffed toy they had😩

>> @/Saneiofanhere: How about when Y/n was sat eating baby sausages and every few seconds Henry would open his mouth and she’d try to aim one into it, then at one point she just got grouchy cause she ran out and he went and got her more. Sausage queen

—

@/noobmasterer: Y/n is absolutely stunning in her maternity dress, i’m actually in awe, what a goddess

> @/henrycavill: yeah imagine how I feel waking up to her everyday

—

@/beyoncesbackupdancer: Yall remember when they just revealed their pregnancy, AND HENRY CHANGED ALL HIS BIOS TO SAY “Future dad” This man is so extra i love it

> @/jellybaby: Can we blame him though? Mans has waited ages for a woman like her and waited even more for his own family. He deserves it sm!!

—-

@/Iminlove: I nearly cried when the baby kicked Y/n’s stomach in the video and Henry dropped everything to go to her side to soothe the baby, with gentle kisses and cuddles😭😭

—

@/princesspopper: No lie I saw them buying the crib in ikea, and Henry was complaining wondering why the baby couldn’t sleep with them☠️☠️ Y/n had to hit him up the head and remind him that he can’t squish the poor thing

> @/princesspopper: THEN Y/n hugged him but she couldn’t cause of her stomach so he went around and hugged her from behind. I’m jealous can you tell

—

@/britishenthusiast: Omg the plaster cast of Y/n's bump in the background is so fricking cute, I heard that Henry did it himself at home.

—

@/bringitonsatan: I hate how there’s still fans hating on this beautiful family, CANT YOU SEE THEYRE LITERAL PERFECTION

> @/emmalovescake: omg yeah i know right, you can clearly see how much love they have for each other just by their eyes, I can’t imagine what they’re going to be like when their baby is here

—

@/cheesytoes: Ok but Y/n ogling Henry while he’s building the crib is a mood, Henry ogling Y/n while she’s sorting out the toys is also a mood. I’m in love with them both

—

@/Y/ncavillstan1: I can’t wait for vids of Y/n with their baby and singing them to sleep😭 I need to see it.

> @angelfeeder: I know AND I CAN ALREADY SEE THE BABY IN RUGBY GEAR CUS OF HENRY OMG

—

@/Y/nCavill: @/HenryCavill you purposely put the bar of this crib too high, I can’t get out of it

> @/Henrycavill: I told you not to get in it pet, luckily it’s big enough for a feckn bear

>> @/Y/nCavill: Please baby i’m gonna piss myself, I just wanted to check if it was comfortable enough for our baby boo 🥺

>>> @/HenryCavill: Alright babs i’m coming up now

>>>> @/supermanreds: stop it. The cuteness is too much.

———-

Taglist Tags (Form is up there^^): @thereisa8ella @pandaxnienke @kimhtoo17 @beck07990 @vrittivsanghavi @dumb-fawkin-bitch @madebylilly

[nadzhosny2]

For anyone who needs this today, it’s okay

Everyone is struggling with something. Be it something that you have admitted to yourself or not, whether you are actively engaging in combating it or not, whether you are suffering in silence or have confided in someone about it. Not to mention, the world has been flipped upside down for the last two years, forcing people into spaces that they wanted to get away from and making them spend time alone or with people that they didn’t get along with and do not want to be around.

Loss and grief have become the new normal. This pandemic has touched everyone in one way or another; either through catching the virus or the loss of someone who did and it has been unrelenting.

There is constant bad news coming through the media; an unending torrent of sadness, suffering and anger. Social media has made this infinitely worse, with news posts going viral and being shared so quickly and widely it is impossible to curb until you delete the applications.

The reason I started with such a morbid introduction is because I want people to understand the situation we are currently in. I want people to understand the level of pain the human race is dealing with on a daily basis. If you are struggling with something, I want you to know that it’s going to be okay.

You are not alone in your struggles, in your pain, in your loss and in your battle. Struggling isn’t weakness, no matter how much the world will make you feel otherwise. Being upset isn’t weakness, planting a smile on your face and faking it through the day just so that you aren’t asked too many questions isn’t weakness, and neither is it a deception. Wanting to be loved, to be held close, to cry until the tears no longer fall without feeling judged or embarrassed or burdening someone else is not a weakness. Anyone who tells you otherwise needs to be hit. On the head. With a brick wall. Repeatedly.

You are perfectly within your right to be out of touch with everyone; not answer phone calls or messages, cancel plans, decline invites in order to focus on yourself and to find some peace, or to take time and heal. No one should make you feel guilty about it, or make you feel as if you are selfish or a bad person for not prioritising them in your life. If being selfish means taking time to work on yourself, to put your mental health first, to put your needs for healing first, then BE SELFISH. There are people who are just trying to stay above water, every second of every day and fighting their own demons, no one should make them feel unworthy of their own time.

Healing does not happen overnight. You don’t just wake up and everything is fine just like that. It may not even happen in a week or even a month. There is no set plan for how to heal yourself, no instruction manual on how to do it. It’s difficult, it’s messy, it’s painful and it will be one of the hardest things you will ever do, but it is possible. It will happen. You will get there, and you will be stronger. Softer. Kinder. But for all that to happen, you have to make effort. You have to wake up every day, choosing to heal, choosing to fight another day for yourself, for your mind, for your heart. Heal yourself, at your own pace — at your own time and catch momentum. One that only makes sense to you. Be good to yourself.

Be proud of your progress, no matter how small it is. It’s the little steps that eventually lead to the big ones, it’s the small decisions that have the most tremendous effect, even if it’s as small as deciding to get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes it can be overwhelming but you have to start somewhere, so start small and don’t worry about failure, it’s only there to remind you that you tried. That you are brave enough to begin in the first place. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

It’s okay to feel broken. It's okay if you don’t have the words to express what you feel. It's okay if you don’t even know what it is you’re feeling. It's okay if you don’t know where to begin. It's okay if you’re overthinking, second-guessing and worrying. It is okay to wish you can change things, to go back and do things differently or not at all. It's okay if you’re not happy with who you are, at least not for the time being. It's okay to work on yourself, to take as much time as you need to until you feel peace and comfort in your skin and in your decisions. It's okay if you don’t feel the same. Don’t feel the same about certain things, certain people, certain places, certain jobs, certain things that used to speak to you. It's okay to want to move away, to find new homes with new people. To find what you love in new places. It's okay.

The most important day of your life is not the day you get married or the day you graduate from university or the day you land your first real job or even your dream job. No. The most important day of your life is the day you heal; the day when you no longer feel a weight on your heart and mind, a day when you realise your self-worth and acknowledge just how far you’ve come. The day you realise that you are enough. Because you are and always have been.

Sometimes we all need to be reminded of how beautiful we are. No matter the scars, flaws, errors, heartbreaks, failures, struggles, or demons. So this is me reminding you of this truth and letting you know that it's okay.

Chin up soldier, you got this!

[lifesfeelings]

Technical Writing

As for the technical writing job, I haven’t necessarily started it yet so the story is more so about just landing it and what it seems. Per the last post, I was SO interested in this job off the bat because my work in undergrad on grant writing. I also have been wavering on getting my Ph.D. because of job prospects and pay and stuff, and technical writing has been kind of my way out after my masters. So, I wanted this job to really trial it but also to start a resume with work like this on it. But, so I applied in REALLY high hopes for it. I knew for a fact that I was the most qualified person in the English department. I feel like that sounds cocky, but half of us specialize in creative writing, and the rest of us really focus on hyper-specific type work (literature, education, etc.). I felt like my specialization in rhetoric really is the only one that is about how we write in professional capacities and the more like “practical” side. With that, I also knew I was the only one in my discipline specifically that cared about technical writing and had experience. BUT!!!! Then it hit me that the communication department would also probably be fighting me for it and I might be FUCKED because they have a Ph.D. program at this school whereas the English only goes to masters here. But, nonetheless I got an email back about an interview and sample. I had to submit a set of instructions to them that I had written for “something complex or related to technology” which I did NOT have on hand at the time! Wrote a fake ass set of instructions for creating inventory sheets that the bookstore I still (semi) work at and submitted that. I went to the interview itself and felt pretty damn confident which isn’t normal for me after an interview. I just was able to improv SO many great examples of how my previous work gave me skills for this job. ALSO, realized mid interview that my thesis topic is basically researching how we navigate professional communication between disciplines which I think really solidified it. I ended up getting the job offer and start on Monday!! I’m scared because I really haven’t like “officially” ever done ANY type of work like this and have kinda loose faith that I can do it, BUT I also know that I really will be great at it and it is something I am passionate about and understand decently even if I haven’t “done” it. The job itself is basically gonna be me writing and instruction manual for some website the Dean, Provost, department chairs, and faculty all have to use. They said they had extreme difficulty with it across the board the previous semester and wanted to have a place that they could all turn to when they need help. It feels scary because other than the president this is literally the highest up people in the university, but it’s also SO cool to me that I get to interview them all and use their sites and ultimately guide them on how to do things! Teaching the Dean and Provost!?!?! are you KIDDING me!? We’ll see how this goes coming up 😅

06.12.24

[calif0rnia-lovers]

Handyman.

Pairing: Zac x Reader

Warning: A grain of smut (but seriously, that’s how non-existent it is)

A/N: Y’all have opened the floodgates on requests for this cutie pie. Here’s the first.

Request: “Are you sure it’s not supposed to go here?”

“I’m positive it’s not supposed to go there!”

Summary: With a recent move, Zac takes it upon himself to set up your bed. He quickly learns he hasn’t quite earned the title of “handyman.” 

Words: 1.6k

“Are you sure it’s not supposed to go here?”

“I’m positive it’s not supposed to go there!”

You lower the manual, in your hands, just enough to put your boyfriend back in focus.

Zac is across the room. Still wearing his sweatpants and white t-shirt from the night before, he is more wide awake than you are. It's nearly seven in the morning, and you're in no rush to shake away the sleep still bogging down your mind.

It's Saturday morning, and your excitement of purchasing your first place together was enough to convince Zac to set up your bed bright and early. You’re still not sure why he didn’t just have it delivered and assembled.

You impatiently check the time on your watch. The movers aren't set to come for another three hours. Zac has been working on the bed for nearly forty-five minutes. You offered to help, but he swore he didn't need it.

Or the manual. 

You scan the discarded plastic and boxes, a tiny smile spreading across your lips as Zac studied the pieces laid out across the room. 

"It looks like it should fit." 

Your gaze returns to the manual, your brow furrowing. 

"I'm pretty sure you’re gonna need these screws." You lean forward picking up the untouched bag of screws. Zac steals a glance in your direction before glancing back at the board in his hand. "Babe, just look at the instructions."

Zac glances over at you, his eyes rolling.

"I don't need the instructions," he grins. "It's just a bed. How hard can it be?"

Apparently, extremely difficult. 

Stepping over a discarded box, Zac tries for a second time to push the board into the slot. And for a second time, it doesn't fit.

"The boards should just slide into place-besides, I'm pretty sure it goes here," he grunts, a soft smile finding your lips at his stubbornness. He waves his hand towards the tiny portion of the bed he has managed to successfully assemble over the last forty-five minutes. "I've made it this far without that book, Y/N. I got this."

"It's called a manual for a reason. What is it with boys and directions? If it was supposed to fit it'd slide it much easier. We also wouldn’t need these-"

Pushing yourself off the ground, you sigh as Zac applies more pressure than the two previous times. Just as you're about to swat him out the way, Zac releases a grunt before shifting the board deeper into the notch. A triumphant “got it” follows as the board is forced into place.

You catch sight of his playful blue eyes, and boyish grin, as he admires his handiwork.

He places a quick kiss against your lips before shifting you aside. 

"Told you it would fit."

Zac gathers the second board, shifting it into place to form the second half of the bed frame. Each board that slides into place lets off a satisfying click, each a pat on Zac's back.

Once's he's assembled the bed frame, Zac turns to face you a triumphant grin on his face. 

"Piece of cake." He grins as his hands find your waist.

Guiding you back, he moves you towards the center of the room. Once he feels you're in a position adequate for admiring his handiwork, he wraps his arms around you.

With the mattress placed on top of the frames, the bed does seem pretty stable. But you could have sworn it looked crooked a few seconds earlier.

Your eyes narrow as Zac's chin rests against your shoulder.

"Babe, just because it's standing doesn't mean it was set upright." You use your foot to point towards the abandoned screws on the floor. "I'm pretty sure those were supposed to be used."

"They were spares."

"Spares? Did you even use any screws? There have to be fifteen screws on the floor-"

"You're just mad because I did it without your manual," he chuckles as he slips the book out of your hand. Tossing it the floor, he playfully squeezes your hips. "Just look at it, for a minute, and tell me that's not the best damn bed you've ever seen."

Your head tilts to the side. 

"I swear it's crooked."

Mirroring your actions, Zac studies the king-sized bed before shrugging his shoulders. 

"Looks good to me."

"Then by all means, maybe you should quit your day job," you giggle as he steps around you, the grin on his face growing as he studies the bed. "Become a handyman." 

"The first piece of furniture up in our new place, courtesy of me," Zac lifts his hand in the air, his brow furrowing as you make no move to meet the action. 

"Is it?" The skepticism in your voice causing Zac's eyes to roll. You do the same before lifting your hand to meet his, which is still waiting in the air. "How do we know it’s stable?"

Zac's hand runs over his beard, his brows furrowing in deep mock thought. He glances over at you, a sigh leaving his lips.

"Good question...Only one way to find out."

Your hands go up defensively but before you can take a step back, the air is pulled from your lungs. The blood instantly begins rushing to your head as your feet are swept from under you. He effortlessly brunts your weight against his shoulder, as he lifts you off the ground, your giggles making it impossible for you to catch your breath.

"Stop before you drop me-” Zac's grip tightens securely along the back of your thighs, his chuckle filling the air as you attempt to push yourself up. Your heart flutters in your chest as he turns towards the bed. "Do not throw me on to that safety hazard." 

Zac's weight teeters forward the shifting of balance causing you to squeal. Just before you hit the mattress, he returns to normal. 

Gently lowering you onto the bed, he smiles as your arms wrap around his neck. Although you are back on a solid foundation, you find yourself glancing around to check that it hasn't shifted.

Lowering himself down on top of you, Zac places a kiss against your lips.  

"See. It’s all about having a little faith."

"I have faith in you," you counter. Noting his raised brow you giggle. “I don’t have faith in this bed."

“Scale 1 to 100?” His brow piques as he pulls back to get a good look at your face.

“Since it didn’t instantly collapse? I’d say it went up-”

"To at least 90." Zac finishes your sentence with ease, the confidence in his voice pulling a giggle from your lips.

Your nose scrunches as you shake your head.

"A solid fifty."

“Unacceptable,” he smiles. “We’re not leaving this bed till it’s at least 100.” 

“It’s only right.”

"Besides," Zac mumbles as his lips find yours. Stealing a kiss, he smiles before shifting for better access to your neck. A smile pressed against your collar bone. “We gotta break it in. That’ll be the true test.”

"Naturally." You giggle, the warm fingers massaging your rib cage pulling a soft moan from your lips.

Shifting his weight, Zac presses a kiss against your hip. His mouth is warm soft against your stomach, passing over your ribs as he guides your t-shirt towards your chest. 

“Let the neighbors know we finally moved in.”

The kiss you place against his lips is all the confirmation Zac needs. 

Soon you’re both undressed, your fingers lost in his hair, his hips pressing into yours. It’s not until you swear you feel the bed shift, the boards releasing a groan, that your hands press against Zac’s chest causing his movements to halt. 

He lifts his head from your neck, his eyes finding your face.

“What?”

Placing your hand over his mouth, you ignore the rolling of his eyes. You listen, but the only thing you can hear is you and Zac’s breathing. 

“You didn’t hear that?” 

“No,” he chuckles, his lips pressing a series of very distracting kisses along your wrist. “I was kinda busy.”

"Babe, I think-”

“It’s fine,” Zac grunts you as he ducks down to kiss you. “Relax.”

Although his words may not have been the most reassuring, you find that your mind quickly abandons the thought as he starts to move again. Neither of you registers the groan from the bed once it initially bounces off the walls. The shallow breaths and giggles flooding your senses.

But the jerking of the mattress registers perfectly. 

Zac’s grip tightens around your as your scream fills the air. The right post shifts beneath your weight, knocking the entire frame balance off. The mattress shifts right, sliding towards the ground. The unstable balance kicks the other post out of its post causing the entire frame to collapse pulling you both, and the mattress, down to the floor with a loud thud. 

The slamming of it echoes throughout the empty house.

Zac's grip around your waist relaxes as your eyes meet his. The smile spreading slowly across his lips grows as your hands cover your face. His face drops into your shoulder, his body relaxing against yours as you attempt to steady the hammering of your heart.

Zac’s laughs make it impossible for you not to do the same. 

“I’m not even going to say it,” you giggle as you reach up to brush your fingers against his hair. 

“Good,” he chuckles as his lips press against your palm. “Because we both know what really broke the bed.”

“Shut up,” you giggle as he shoots you a sheepish grin. “It wasn’t even fixed to begin with!”

"You wanna finish?" He teases, the kiss he presses against the corner of your mouth pulling a giggle from you. Placing a second kiss against the same spot, Zac chuckles as you shake your head. "I can just shift the mattress a bit."   

[kumoriyami-xiuzhen]

Hakuoki Yuugiroku 3 Fall Saito Story

managed to recover my first post of the year which seemed to have disappeared from tumblr via exporting it…

hope everyone had a safe and happy new year… recently hit 500 followers over the holidays so I’d like to say thanks for appreciating the stuff I’ve uploaded and my translations (I kinda feel the need to say this but: I am an adult who occasionally uses crude language so please be aware of that. Also, i don’t run an image-focused blog. i only wanted to post everything that I thought wasn’t available as clean images online so that people would be able to find and access more Hakuoki content… and i do believe i have done that for the most part).

Threw together a list of things that I hope translate this year into in one of my other posts today… here’s hoping that it will be less volatile than 2020… tho im not expecting much given the news yesterday though i can’t say that i didn’t expect it.

Anyway. translation. Story from the 3rd Yuugiroku game.

The CN of the title I have for this translates to the effect of “The fate/return/destination of (a) migratory bird(s),” which I think looks weird and I’m not sure how accurate that tl is, so I’m just going to categorize these stories by season and char lol. not that it’ll be any time soon before I go and translate another one of these since this did feel quite long…. and it’s not like anyone else is translating these (please someone translate these xD there are 2 side stories per route and i am not looking forward to torturing myself with them!).

also, a significant portion of the punctuation and stuff wasn’t used in the tl i found for this, so that will be reflected in this… will fix it later.

Hakuoki Yuugiroku 3 - Fall Saito Story

Translation by KumoriYami

That day I was delivering Hijikata-san’s message and came to Saito-san’s room.

Yukimura Chizuru: Saito-san, are you there?

[I] Called him from outside his door but he didn’t seem to hear me.

Did he go out?

But the other warriors clearly stated that he was in the room.

Using a slightly louder voice, I called again.

Yukimura Chizuru: Ah, Saito-san are you there?

Saito: Yukimura, is there something [you need]?

Yukimura Chizuru: Hijikata-san said that he had something to say to Saito-san so I was asked to get you.

Saito: Vice-commander? I see.

I got it/I understand I will go at once, you’ve worked hard, Yukimura. [I’ll check the game for punctuation later….probably?]

Yukimura: It’s rare, for Saito-san didn’t hear me calling you.

Saito: I was concentrating, [and] I didn’t hear your voice.

Yukimura: Concentrating? Was it on sword maintenance?

Saito: nn, more or less.

Yukimura: ．．．．．．？

It was rare for Saito-san to answer questions in such vague terms.

Saito: Isn’t (the) vice-commander calling me? I’ll hurry up.

Saito: You can go back.

Yukimura: I understand, then I’ll be going now.

I gently lowered my head and prepared to leave Saito-san’s side.

Yukimura:．．．．．．

His unusual mood made me feel a little worried.

Afterwards at dinner, there was a strange/unusual incident.

Saito-san who finished eating earlier than everyone else set down his chopsticks.

Heisuke: What’s wrong are you already full Hajime-kun?/Hajime-kun you’re already full?

Saito ……Nn.

Yukimura: There’s more of Saito-san’s favourite tofu.

Saito: I’ve had enough for now, I’ll be leaving first.

Leaving behind those words, Saito-san bought his plate into the kitchen.

Nagakura: What’s wrong with Saito? It’s simply unfathomable for him to only eat a small portion of tofu.

Harada: It doesn’t look like he’s feeling unwell, so maybe he secretly ate earlier?

Yukimura: What, Saito-san isn’t a person who would do something like that.

Toudou: Hajime-kun’s been acting weird lately. In the morning today, he went back to his room right after practice.

Nagakura: did he have a headache? Sano, did you ask him?

Harada: If he doesn’t want to say anything, then I can’t ask.

Nagakura: If this continues, perhaps something permanent might happen [gave up rewording for now lol].

Yukimura:．．．．．．

What was wrong with Saito-san?

Was something bothering him?

A few days later.

For the sake of mending the warriors’ uniforms, I went to the common room [tl is large main hall].

Chizuru: Ah, you’re here, Saito-san.

Saito: ! Yukimura——

Saito-san hid what he was holding behind him in a panic.

What was it?

It looked like a book.

Saito:……Will you be mending clothes here?

Yukimura: Yes, will this bother you?

Saito: No, it’s no bother.

Yukimura: Then I’ll be mending/sewing here.

I took out my needlework box and began mending the clothes.

Saito-san seemed to be hesitating about if he should stay or leave/ leaving or staying.

Yukimura: Um.

Saito: What?

Saito: Was Saito-san reading something just now?

Saito: Ah, um, nn, more or less.

Yukimura: Don’t mind me and continue reading.

Saito: But.

Yukimura: Am I bothering you?

Saito: No, but……

Saito-san looked very confused, after…

Saito: Yukimura.

Yukimura: What is it?

Saito: I hope you don’t tell anyone else that I was reading this book.

Yukimura: Don’t tell the others?

What was going on?

To actually not want any of the other warriors to know about this book.

Could it be that this book was on something, like assassination techniques, that shouldn’t be passed onto others?

I felt a bit uneasy.

Yukimura: I understand. I will never tell anyone else.

Saito: I believe you.

With a sharp glance at me, Saito-san began to read again.

The cover of the book looked badly worn.

Yukimura: Is that a manual on kenjutsu?

Saito: Yes, I happened to find it a few days ago, and took it to read. As a result, I’ve started reading this without stopping. If I have time, I’ll read. [reword later]

Yukimura: So it was like that.

That’s why Saito-san has been behaving strangely lately.

Yukimura: But why don’t you want to let the other warriors know?

There was no need to hide a swordsmanship manual.

Saito: That, because. The author of this book and I are not from the same school. Reading manuals from other styles is considered unethical.

Yukimura: I see.

I couldn’t help but laugh at such serious reasoning.

But, that truly was Saito-san’s style.

I started sewing again as Saito-san to read again.

We focused on our own things, and while we were in the same room, it however was natural for there to be no dialogue.

Retreating to the tranquility of the autumn night with only the sound of cicadas, [reword later] and the occasional sound of Saito-san turning a page.

Suddenly I was very interested in that sound and was looking in/looked in Saito-san’s direction.

Focused on reading, his entire posture was completely serious.

My heart felt happy just by looking at him, and I unconsciously smiled.

As a result, he noticed my staring, and while his gaze didn’t leave the book, he asked me a question.

Saito: What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?

Yukimura: No, Saito-san’s expression is very earnest/serious.

As a result, Saito-san tilted his head slightly, murmuring quietly.

Saito: So there’s nothing strange. I don’t understand what you’re thinking.

Yukimura: If I’ve upset you, I’m sorry.

Saito: I’m not upset.

Saito-san lightly sighed, adjusting the way he sat slightly.

Yukimura: Saito-san really loves kenjutsu.

Saito: I don’t have any other skills, but I do have some knowledge about kenjutsu/experience.

Yukimura: Ah, a talent/Oh my.

The conversation ended like this, and Saito-san once again began focusing on the manual.

From time to time, there was the sound of pages being turned.

The silence was soothing. I continued sewing the clothes.

A few days later.

I finished washing the clothes, and was about to head back into my room.

Nomura: Spare me, Saito-san. There’s no way we can defeat Saito-san./How could we beat Saito-san!

I saw Saito-san, Souma-kun and Nomura-kun practising with the blunt side of their swords [check jp mtl].

It looked like he was trying to put what he had read in that book a few days ago into practice.

Saito: A little bit more, just a bit more and I’ll have grasped it. One more time.

Souma: But we’re going on patrol next. Regardless of what is said, we can’t neglect our duties as members.

Saito: I’ll finish this as as [you?] obtain a point. There won’t be any problem.

Nomura: To quickly get a single point, what the hell is that! This is terrible.

Souma: But it’s pointless to continue like this…

As of the three of them talked, Nomura noticed me an started speaking with me.

Nomura: Ah, Yukimura-senpai, you’re just in time.

Yukimura: Ah, just in time for what?

Nomura: Why don’t you ask Yukimura-senpai to practise with you, Saito-san?

Saito: Ask Yukimura?

Yukimura: This, that’s not something I can do, there’s no way I can fight Saito-san.

Nomura: That doesn’t matter, we’re about the same [skill] level.

Yukimura: But…

Nomura: We have to go on patrol later, so please help us.

Souma: Nomura, don’t force Yukimura-senpai like this. Yukimura-senpai is also very busy.

Yukimura: ．．．．．．

Fighting against Saito-san will be incredibly difficult.

Yukimura: Saito-san, am I okay [acceptable?]?

Saito: Is that okay? Have you been instructed to do anything?

Yukimura: I’ve already finished with those things. However I don’t know if I’ll be of any use.

Saito: That is more than enough, thank you, Yukimura.

Yukimura: Not at all.

Nomura: The we’ll be going to work, so we’ll leave this to you, Yukimura-senpai!

Souma: Is this really okay, Senpai?

Yukimura: There aren’t a lot of opportunities to learn/This is a good opportunity to learn.

Souma: Then, we’ll be leaving/take our leave.

Yukimura: Okay. See you.

The two of them went directly back into headquarters to prepare for patrol.

Saito: Then, let us begin, Yukimura. Are you ready?

I took a stance a distance away from Saito-san, and held up my kodachi.

Yukimura: Please advise me. [well not sure what the JP equivalent of this is….]

Following the silence, my entire body was filled with a sense of tension [reword later].

After.

At the sound of my foot stepping forward, in a split second, Saito-san was facing me.

Chizuru: !

I hurriedly prepared myself, but he was faster than I was.

Yukimura: Ah!

My kodachi flew in an arc and landed on the ground.

Saito: Ippon.

Yukimura:……

Saito-san’s killing intent left me speechless.

Saito: As expected, knowledge acquired from reading needs to be tested in real combat.

As Saito-san spoke, he picked up my kodachi, which had fallen onto the ground, and handed it back to me.

I received it with trembling hands.

Yukimura: Thank you very much.

Saito-san became stronger again.

Saito: The fact remains that you have also improved, Yukimura.

Yukimura: Is that so……

Saito: Let’s return now. It’s about time to prepare dinner.

Yukimura: Yes!

Afterwards, Saito-san and I helped prepare dinner together.

—-end—

next week’s post is Saito’s 7th Ginsei no Shou chapter!

[monsoonblooms12]

Christmas with the Waverleys ❄️: Part I

A/N: Hi, how is everyone doing💫💛? So I really wanted to do something for the Holidays and this is what I came up with. Writing this was a really joyful process, so I really hope that this brings a smile on your face💛 

If you enjoyed the story, please like, leave a comment or reblog. Your feedback keeps me going 💕

Thank you so very much @caseyvalentineramsey for prereading and @jamespotterthefirst for prereading and helping me up with the editing. You guys are life-savers and I love you💛💛

Characters: For this part, the characters are my OH MC(Dr. Pooja Sharma) and OH F!OC (Dr. Alexandra Walton)

Word Count: 1467

Rating: General

Prompts :-

CFWC(@choicesficwriterscreations) Winter Season Prompt #6: Character A doesn’t like the holidays. B loves it. Will B try to find out why or convince A to celebrate it?

@wackydrabbles #74 (Will appear in bold): What do you want me to say?

@choicesdecemberchallenge​ Day 23: Friendship

December 23rd

The riffling of sheets, concomitant typing on the keyboard and the gentle tapping of a blue ballpoint pen.

Aha! Here it is!

The dainty curling up of her lips purported that her quest had been prosperous.

The young girl let down her brunette hair as the muffled voices of Boston's December traffic infiltrating the quiet beige Living room subserved as a token of the celebratory season.

With balmy footfalls, she went to the bay windows of her residence, moving the white satin draperies and looked down to the provocative streets.

Festivals. Gaieties. They were not her thing.

For her, they were needless gatherings, wastage of capital and time.

Christmas, New Year, never held much of a significance in her life.

No matter how much she relished seeing all the people fortified with holiday disposition, she never aspired to be one of them.

Engrossed in thoughts, she nearly plummeted at the unforeseen chime of the doorbell.

A deep breath.

Another one.

And another.

And the abrupt adrenaline rush faded past as she reacquired her equanimity.

An agile glance at the wooden digital timekeeper on the davenport told her that it was 10:30 in the morning.

Mmm-hmm.

An unlikely time for someone to visit.

Must be some parcel posts.

Moving to the door, she clemently swivelled the knob and-

"LEX!"

"Poo?"

Alex was comprehensively purblind as to why Pooja would have come here at 10:30 am, groomed as if she was the anthropomorphism of celebratory spirit.

Not acknowledging her interrogating glimpses, Pooja went inside. Alex accompanied.

And then, Pooja's eyes fell on the vademecum and jotter sitting on the settee.

Hmmm, so they are my rivals.

"Poo? What's the matter? Has something goofed?"

Alex still had no ounce of idea about all that was transpiring.

"IS SOMETHING WRONG? Lex, EVERYTHING IS WRONG!"

Pooja roared as she denoted towards the current occupants of the couch.

"What is wrong with my manual?"

"Lex, ITS CHRISTMASTIDE! You, sitting here and swotting is Inequity!"

"Poo-"

Pooja held up a hand to prevent her from proceeding further. She knew unequivocally what Lex was going to utter. That she shunned celebrations. All this was a waste and the record of criticisms moving on & on.

She had endured her overtures the prevenient time.

But this time? This time, circumstances would change. Alexandra Walton would be carousing Christmas, no matter how absurd it appeared.

"Lex. I understand, okay. I know you loathe fiestas. But-"

"Now don't begin convincing me and convert to a walking, talking book of 101 reasons to savour festivities."

Nah.

This wasn't going to work. Even if she convinced her, she knew better that she would not heed in.

So, what to do now? Hmmm…

Pooja's mind went back to the discussion she had the previous night.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Of course not! Look!"

The Portrayal of Numerous ocular evidence of the case were placed in front of her.

"So, you're stating that she is here, in Boston and that all this is gonna work?"

"Exactly! Believe me, Poo, you will not regret it. Just give it a try!"

This was the only alternative. She ought to do it. It seems implausible, but the stuff she saw with her optics, felt versus her skin, couldn't be a deceit, could it?

"I need a promise."

"Promise? Wow! What a marvellous way of pressuring me into all this."

Alex substantially scoffed. Pooja lightly smacked her forehead.

"Why did you do it?"

Alex produced a perfect faux crybaby face as she tended to her point of the hit.

"You killed my Lil Lil forehead cells!"

Pooja scarcely restrained her chuckle as she set up the stern big-sister facade,

"Just shut up and listen first. I demand you to promise me that you will go with me somewhere on Christmas Eve."

"On a voyage?"

"No, bimbo! To meet someone."

A pouty face followed. But Pooja's glare was enough to make her regress and concede.

"Fine, Promise. But don't you dare pull me to a holiday funfair. Remember, I can bite."

Alex responded as she unveiled her teeth.

"You won't have to stoop that low" Pooja affirmed while stifling a hearty guffaw.

December 24th

"Are you going to tell me where you are taking me?" Vexation grazed Alex's features.

But her irritation was Pooja's gold. It was one of her reactions which made her laugh hysterically.

"If I die, I will spook you until I am served with 12 boxes of extravagant Walter's White and Pink Chocolate because you are making me do THIS." Alex pointed at the two of them.

"Which, I should make it clear, you won't get. 'Cause you won't die. Also, If means?"

"No, like I mean, subsequently we all will die, but before that, we will become top tier doctors, make millions, eat chocolates."

"We will get husbands" Pooja added to the list.

"They will die"

This earned Alex a scowl from her best friend.

"Then we would be sitting in our opulent houses and would be promoting golden dentures on our Pictogram."

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

"And then we will die. We will be in heaven and do the Hippity-Hop dance with our already-in-heaven husbands", And the two of them laughed like crazy. Passers-by gave them side glances, most of them presuming they both had gone mad, but the two couldn't bother less.

After a little while, they reached in front of a modest house. Entering through the small copper-coloured gate, they peered around.

It posed an explicit opposition to the modern peculiarities of Boston. The place was serene. The garden surrounding the humble stone-exterior dwelling was immaculate and well-kept. The two of them went towards the white gate and pressed the doorbell.

Seconds later, an elderly lady opened the door.

"Hi, I am Pooja. And this is Alexandra" She introduced the two of them.

"Of course, please get in sweetheart. I have been expecting you." The lady gave a friendly smile and motioned the two of them to come in.

While entering, Alex tugged at Pooja's sleeve, dragging her back.

Keeping her voice as faint as plausible, she spoke, "Why did you bring me here? To discover how to make gingerbread?"

Pooja almost let out a tee-hee and gave her a warning look.

"What do you want me to say? You dragged me out of my cozy blanket and summery dreams to learn how to make gingerbread!"

Lightly hitting Alex's forehead, she jokingly admonished "Shut up Lex! Just wait and watch."

And then they followed the lady to a dim room.

In the core of the room, stood a circle table, encompassing which, three obsolescent chairs were orderly arranged.

Several aromatic candles blazed the shadowy nooks. Various shelves positioned on the walls with articles they couldn't recognize due to the gloom.

They were motioned to take a seat on the chairs.

"So, Miss Pooja! I am so overwhelmed to have you and your friend with me! I am very certain, that the forthcoming journey will be a once in a lifetime venture." The lady's grin revealed two blank spaces in her teeth.

"You have planned everything for us?" Even though they had talked beforehand, Pooja still felt a bit dubious. What is something went awry?

No. 

She halted the train of thought. What ifs are endless. Trust yourself, everything that happens will be for the best.

"Yes, dear. Your request was the loveliest. And I have planned to make everything accurate, just the way you want."

At her words, the tension heaving down on Pooja dissipated.

"Now, both of you lay your hands on the table and relax. Don't ask any questions, Don't have any concerns. Just follow my statements and repeat the words I chant after me."

They both followed. Relaxing, for Alex, was hard, but for her twisted sister, she tried her best and finally calmed down.

The lady began. "Relax. All the arrangements are made. I am sending both of you to the Braidwood Manor, where the Waverleys live. You both are getting a chance to experience Christmas as it was celebrated nearly a century and a half ago. You both will reach London in the 1880s. Take a deep breath"

It felt like someone had cast a spell on them. They both followed all the words, all the instructions wordlessly. As said, they took a deep breath.

"Very Good! Now repeat the words after me. Try to remember them. I am sending you both in the past for a day but in case you wanna come back earlier, you will need them"

Then the lady tapped her purple-painted fingernail four times on the table and began, "Zahiri Washiki Ra, Zahiri Washiki Ma, MaRa LaYa Ma."

Both of them repeated. The gloomy room echoed with the words.

ZAHIRI WASHIKI RA, ZAHIRI WASHIKI MA, MARA LAYA MA!

PS: That's all for Christmas with the Waverleys Part 1🧡! Part 2 will be up tomorrow.

If you reached till here, please know that I am truly grateful for you🌟 I wish you nothing but happiness and smiles for the Holidays and the coming year❤

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a great day ahead🧡🧡

[shinsousbedroom]

Stars and their Distance

Daiya no Ace misawa FWB AU, 1/10 chapters

Miyuki Kazuya, a depressed, workaholic catcher in the NPB, and Sawamura Eijun, a frustrated influencer who just got dumped, are both looking for temporary distraction. The casual, no-strings-attached friends with benefits thing they stumble into is exactly that.

Well, it would be if either of them knew how to do casual.

[Read on AO3.]

Chapter 1: Spinning

Excerpt from “Ace of Hearts: a blog about when love comes outta left field!; Q&A: Bad Break-Up Blues”

“[…] Think of relationships like this. You’re a pitcher on the mound and there’s a line up of batters waiting to knock your ball outta the park. These are your dating prospects. When you’ve gotten hurt pitching before—tore a tendon, drilled the batter, balked, whatever it was—you might not wanna pitch again, right? But the only surefire way to lose the game is to not throw the ball at all. 

“You might be thinking, ‘But Eijun, if the batter hits a home run off your pitch, aren’t you losing the game?’ Well, if you think the point of the game is to win, sure. But to me, the point of baseball isn’t victory. It’s playing the best game you can with the best players you can. The same can be said for love. Some batters will foul out early, and some runners will never make it all the way home. But when you make that connection, when that bat slams the ball out of the park and the whole field feels the electric rush of a phenomenal play that you helped make—isn’t that a beautiful moment to chase after? Isn’t that feeling worth the risk that comes with love?

“So no matter how unlikely a batter steps up to your plate—and there will be batters you didn’t anticipate—throw the pitch! I promise, every strikeout and home run just makes you a better pitcher and brings you a step closer to a beautiful game. […]”

***

“Did you have to move right after the end of the season?” Kuramochi wiped off the sweat from his face with the bottom of his blue shirt. The whole thing was already drenched dark, consistently doused with water the whole day through as Kuramochi drained bottles over his head to beat back the unseasonably hot September day. “Take a fucking break first, Miyuki.”

Kazuya spat out a handful of screws. The bitter, metallic aftertaste clung to his mouth. “Why delay?” he said, tossing the instruction manual for his shelf to the side in frustration. It skittered across the hardwood floor and into Chris’ calf. 

Chris plucked the booklet up and thumbed through the pages of mildly helpful pictograms, eyeing them warily against Kazuya’s clear lack of progress. “Yeah, Miyuki. Why delay?”

Kazuya shot Chris a sour look and flopped back onto the ground with a groan, defeated. “Not like we’re busy during postseason this year.” 

They sighed in unison, united in the bitterness of loss. 

At least Chris’ team had been only one out from the Climax Series. The Swallows hadn’t come close, and even though it was expected from a rebuild year, the loss still rankled. Small mercies, though: Kazuya could rub in the fact that the Swallows hadn’t been last place in their league unlike the Mariners. 

Suck it, Kuramochi. He’d take his victories where he could.

Kazuya stuck his hand into the air, spreading his fingers wide as the overhead lights filtered between them. “Anyway. Moving is work, and you all banned me from working for the next four months. So really, I’m being responsible here.” His hand flopped down next to him with a hard thunk. 

Kuramochi trudged over, heavy steps echoing through the empty apartment, until his head popped into Kazuya’s vision, arms crossed and scowl fierce. “If you wanna try to fight this again, just give me a fucking reason to pin you into a headlock until you’re crying for mercy.”

Kazuya grabbed at his ankle, rolling onto his stomach for a second swipe as Kuramochi danced out of reach. 

“You can’t pull a fast one on the cheet—AH!” 

His ankles caught the edge of the shelf boards, knocking Kuramochi onto his ass. The wooden slats scraped across each other as they slid out of their neat stacks, thumping and scratching the floor until they were criss-crossed between Kazuya cackling into the floor on his stomach and Kuramochi, shocked and sprawled across the debris.

“Fucking build your furniture, Miyuki!” He cradled his foot in his hands, holding it up to inspect as he twisted it every which way. “We’re not doing the same thing as last time, when it took you a full year to finally put all your shit together.”

The weight of apathy slid back into Kazuya’s limbs, edging out the laughter that had given him a moment of relief. “What if I just didn’t?”

“Is that what you want?” Chris replied evenly.

He lolled his head towards Chris. Despite the heat, Chris had spent all day in a black turtleneck, never once hinting he was even mildly uncomfortable even at the peak of the day’s heat, lugging in heavy boxes from the sun-warmed streets. Now sitting on the floor among bubble wrap and crumpled paper, legs kicked out in front of him and waves of brown bangs framing his face, he still looked as wholly put together as ever. 

Even when Kazuya knew beyond a doubt Chris was the epitome of keeping a stone face even when he was going through the worst of it, he still couldn’t help but be jealous. 

Kazuya went back to staring at the unfamiliar gray tiles on his new ceiling. “It would be pretty funny to leave my apartment unfurnished to spite Kuramochi.”

“Finish the shelf.” Chris tossed the manual back. 

“Kominato’s the one who left the task half-done,” Kazuya said, closing his eyes, overwhelmed in a sudden wash of fury and helplessness. 

He opened his eyes to see Kuramochi and Chris hovering above him again. Both their brows were furrowed, Kuramochi’s fist clenched at his collar, Chris frowning mildly. 

“I’m fine,” Kazuya said brusquely.

They glanced at each other, then back at Kazuya. 

He sat up, forcing the other two to reel back to avoid knocking their heads together. “I’m 27, not 7,” he said, testily. “I don’t need to be put under a watch, I’m a grown ass adult.”

“We aren’t gonna—we can’t sit to the side and watch you nearly kill yourself from overwork again this off-season.” 

“Don’t exaggerate—“

“You said you had it together last year, but you didn’t. So you’re getting strict rules this year,” Kuramochi tugged at his hair, a frustrated sneer on his face. “The Swallows and your agent both know not to let you pile on more than your bare minimum until preseason. And the rest of us are going to check on you regularly because we care about your health, even when you don’t. Got it?”

“It’s not overwork,” he said, falling into the same argument that had been chipping away at him for a year now. 

“Then what is it?”

The only coping mechanism that works. The only way I can pretend to feel anything off the diamond. The only thing that makes me tired enough to sleep at night without baseball 24/7.

He settled on: “It’s just work. Making a living, some might say.”

“Hard to do that when you’re stuck in a hospital bed.”

“That won’t happen again. I was just stressed and tired and a bad day caught me off guard.”

“Yeah, it won’t again because we’re gonna help make sure the off-season doesn’t wreck you again after a long history of hiding your fucking problems until they explode.”

“At least you can’t take conditioning away from me.”

“Follow the plan your trainers set for you.” Chris’ voice cut into Kazuya’s stubbornness. “Please don’t joke about this with me.”

After a moment, Kazuya nodded his head, brusque.

Kuramochi rubbed the back of his neck, trying to break the awkward air that had sprung up between them. “Isn’t exercise supposed to help depressed people? Boost your serotonin up or some shit like that?”

“Just my luck it doesn’t,” Kazuya muttered. He cleared his throat. “Can we go back to harassing me about how bad I am at unpacking?”

“We wouldn’t harass you if you just did it.” Kuramochi stood back up and kicked at a box as he went back to sweeping the floors. “Unpack before the season starts up again. You have nearly five months. If you’re feeling feisty, try decorating your apartment, too.”

“My entire personality is baseball. I don’t care about interior design. Or anything else, for that matter.”

“You used to. Pick up your old hobbies. Bring out that telescope you had at back at Waseda. Read a memoir. All the shit you can’t do during the season, drag ‘em out into the open again.”

The wrong answer, he knew, was to reiterate that he didn’t care about any of that anymore. Seriously. “You two are busy-bodies.”

Chris handed him the power drill then returned to the pile of securely wrapped glass kitchenware. “It’s called friendship,” he said, bubble wrap crinkling.

“This is ridiculous.”

“Just try, Miyuki. Please.”

“Sure,” he said, flippantly, knowing the lie didn’t pass unnoticed from the sag in Kuramochi’s shoulders. He thumbed through the instructions, pushing aside the guilt welling into his throat. Kazuya needed this conversation to be over. “Chris-senpai, where’d you put the drill bits?”

***

“Hjnhbgfgvbhnjmknjbhgvfdbghnjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj” wasn’t the most eloquent start to Eijun’s next blog post. Of course, Eijun normally didn’t start his articles by rolling his face across the keyboard in frustration, but considering how little he’d written in the past week, this was as good a draft as any.

Eijun’s eyes flung open as the laptop shifted from under his face, tipping his head off to thunk into the table. He rubbed at his forehead, and blinked up to find Harucchi tapping delicately at the keyboard while the other hand balanced the device in the air. “Eijun-kun,” said Harucchi, peering from around the screen, “not your finest work.”

Eijun sat up and scowled, the lines of his face scrunching against the keyboard indents on his skin. “What would you know about it?” 

“I’ve been editing your posts for years,” Harucchi said. He settled the laptop in front of Eijun, then settled into the chair across from him. “If you’d like me to stop now, I can happily use that time in other ways.”

The dishes rattled when Eijun slammed his palm onto the table. “You’re not allowed to ditch me like that!” 

Harucchi raised his eyebrows. “Says the man who’s been avoiding me.”

A double blow of panic and then confusion struck him. He frowned and swiveled his head around. Snaking line at the counter, coffee scenting the air, a low hum of incomprehensible chatter: this was definitely the coffee shop he’d just discovered this morning and came to by himself and didn’t tell Harucchi about. “How’d you find me?”

“You should stop posting your location on Instagram if you don’t want to be found,” he offered with a gentle smile.

“You don’t live anywhere near here.”

“A teammate just moved to the neighborhood. It was pure luck I happened to be there while you happened to be here.” He ran his fingers against the edge of a plate by Eijun’s elbow, empty of all but crumbs. “It’s a cute shop. New haunt for you?” he asked, a touch too casual.

Eijun averted his eyes, lips pinching. He knew what Harucchi was really asking. “I’m fine.”

“I didn’t ask that.”

“I’m doing fine,” Eijun insisted. “Really.”

“I’m glad you stopped feeling obligated to go to the other cafe.” His voice was barely loud enough to reach Eijun, covered by the clatter and call of employees, and a particularly rowdy group of seven students packed at a four person table next to his little corner.

“The old place got too many baristas who sucked,” Eijun lied. As if Harucchi didn’t already know that he’d only just shoved his pride aside enough to accept he’d lost his favorite coffee shop to the break-up. “Had to find a new one.”

Harucchi pried open the plastic lid to his coffee, blowing at the steam rising from the cup. He drew in a long, slow slip of his drink. “Maybe a fresh start here means a fresh start with the blog. Talk about grinding new beans, or something…?” Eijun blanched, well aware that Harucchi’s innocent reputation was a front. 

“If you think I am going to subject my loyal followers to love advice using bean grinding as the topic—”

“You’ll have to excuse me if you had an idea in mind already. I’d thought from the keysmashing that you hadn’t.” Eijun aimed a kick at his shin under the table. Without looking, Harucchi crossed his legs, as if he’d planned on it for that exact moment all along instead of the attempt to dodge Eijun’s ire that it really was. “Is there a reason you can’t find an appropriate topic for your next post?”

Eijun cheeks puffed out, determined for two whole seconds not to tell Harucchi the truth, before blurting out, “I promised Wakana we’d wait a few months before officially announcing we broke up.” And yep—there it was, that classic Kominato passively skeptical look that circled past nonjudgmental so thoroughly that it ended up aggressively intimidating. The one that meant Harucchi was seconds away from bulldozing through all the nonsense he was seeing ahead of him. Eijun lived in terror of it. “She wanted to give us a chance to recuperate in private first,” he muttered, defensive. 

“Eijun-kun.”

“I know, I know! A smart idea for people like Wakana, but I don’t…like wallowing like this. I can’t keep sitting here thinking about how much she doesn’t want me, and it’s all I want to write about. But I can’t post any of it. It’s been nearly two months, and I haven’t moved on. I’ve just gotten madder.”

“You two didn’t consider posting a small announcement saying you were over but you needed time? Space?”

“I couldn’t ask her.” Eijun subsided, spinning his teacup in its saucer with a single finger hooked through its tiny handle. “I owe her, Harucchi. The only reason I started lifestyle and romance blogging was because Wakana got me into it. I made my start on her profiles with her followers. Talking about her now? Why we broke up? Even if I want to, it sounds like betraying her. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m trying to talk shit about her, when we’re both in the same influencer circles.”

Harucchi tilted his head, and when Eijun didn't continue on after several seconds, he prompted, “There’s more.”

So much for the dumb jock stereotype.

“If I write it, then I feel like I’m giving up on her. On us ever being something together, again.” He crossed his arms onto the table, elbows shoving the dishes and laptop uncomfortably close to the edge of the small table, and laid his head on his forearms. He closed his eyes, and said quietly into his chest, “I still love her, Harucchi.”

“I know, Eijun-kun.” A warm hand squeezed his elbow. Between their silence, the monstrous table of college students packed up and left, and suddenly the shop settled into a calm Eijun needed. 

He poked his head up from the comfort of his arms to stare at Harucchi. He was steadily sipping his coffee, one hand resting on Eijun’s elbow. His pink hair had pulled out of the bun at his nape and fell into windswept wisps framing his face and neck. He’d long since stopped wearing Ryou-san’s hand-me-downs in favor of softer, luxe sweaters and slacks, the only true expense he indulged in despite his lucrative status as a rising star for the Swallows.

Altogether, he looked gentle, dangerously so. On the diamond or off, it was easy to be lulled into a sense of security right before he whacked an unpleasant truth out of the park. 

Harucchi pulled his hand back and apologized with a glance. Eijun wasn’t sure why…until he started speaking. “You make a living off of posting about your life—and romance, in particular. You’ve never hidden your past relationship troubles from your followers, however difficult it was to express. It’s part of your brand at this point.”

Eijun’s mouth twisted as he sat up. “Wakana isn’t a branding tool.”

“No one is saying that,” Harucchi said patiently. “What I am saying: you underestimate how much of your own work goes into your success. Aotsuki was certainly helpful—but your personality and your words are why people stay. People trust you.

“You’re good at what you do, Eijun-kun. You’re honest and kind in your observations, to yourself, to your partners, to strangers, despite how difficult and personal love is. When the time comes, whatever you post about Aotsuki will be the same.” Harucchi shrugged. “Also, I’ll edit out anything that makes you sound insensitive.”

Eijun let out a heavy sigh, stretching his arms into the air and shaking off the melancholy. “Thanks for not letting me fall on my own sword.”

“What are friends for?”

For all that he felt better, though, Eijun was still stuck staring at a blinking cursor at the end of a line of drivel. “That still doesn’t solve my problem. I don’t have a clue what to post next. The schedule I followed is trash now without personal updates of me and Wakana. I haven’t been able to binge any of the manga or shows I wanted to review, either. All I got left is the advice column, but if I keep that up with nothing else, I might as well change the blog name to Dear Eijun instead of Ace of Hearts.”

Harucchi stared at him, calculating out something as he took in Sawamura’s restlessness. “You don’t have to keep writing about romance.”

“That’s what I started the blog for.”

“But that’s not why you started writing and recording back at Seidou. You’ve had success with your baseball analysis and tutorials on YouTube and Instagram. You could even say you’ve been neglecting them to chase after romance.”

Eijun groaned, loud and theatrical enough to make the meek businessman behind him jump in shock. “Maybe if I got as much engagement talking about how stupid the idea of celebrity athletes are when it’s a team sport—”

“See?” he cut in, tilting his cup toward Eijun. “You already have a topic to post about.”

“Baseball is my hobby, not my job,” he said mulishly, jaw jutting out. “My dad wrecked his love of music that way! I’m not gonna risk hating baseball after he spent my whole life yelling at me not to ‘monetize my interests’ while holding me in a headlock. That’s asking for the biggest lecture of my life!”

“You can always stop if it’s not the direction you want to go. You’re not getting married to the idea.”

“Don’t bring up marriage, I just got dumped!”

Harucchi pressed his lips together in a thin line. “Fine, don’t think of it as a marriage,” he said. From Harucchi, the sliver of impatience he let free was the equivalent of hauling Eijun by the collar and shaking him down. “Flirt with baseball. Go on a few dates. Get a benefit or two out of it. Does the metaphor suffice now?”

Eijun gasped. “Harucchi! You’re too innocent for that sort of talk!”

“My brother is Kominato Ryousuke, and my best friend writes a blog about romance and sex that I edit,” he said, even as his quiet voice went squeaky and his face mottled bright red from embarrassment. 

“Maybe I should change my blog to save you the embarrassment.”

“I also admit I have a request of you,” Harucchi said sheepishly, pressing a hand to his cheek. “The Swallows want me to get more heavily involved in PR this offseason, and I could use your help figuring out what I’d actually like to do instead of going along with every idea they propose. I’ve seen what they make the other players do, and I’m not interested in doing the exact type of promo they’ve done the past few seasons.”

Eijun crossed his arms and leaned back, chin tilting up defensively. “If you’re trying to convince me by pretending you need help—”

Harucchi shook his head, bangs bouncing across his forehead. “I hope you’ll find value or inspiration in it, too, but I was going to ask, regardless.” He grimaced into his cup. “The players who carry most of the strain of Swallows marketing are…otherwise occupied this offseason. I was volunteered to step in; management’s been wanting me to raise my profile for a while. I can’t really say no, so I may as well make the most of it.”

“I don’t want a pity job.”

“Please, be reasonable.” Harucchi smiled the shy, dreamy, polished smile the Swallows had been trying to splash across their advertising since he joined the team. “It’s a pity favor.”

Eijun snorted, relaxing into his chair again. “Fine,” he said, pulling open a clean document on his laptop. “Let’s brainstorm.”

[icedteaandoldlace]

So there’s this “101 Reasons to Ship Snowbarry” video that keeps coming up on my YouTube suggestions. Idgaf about Snowbarry, and I’ve already hit the “not interested” button on similar videos before, but since I can’t seem to get away from video suggestions like this, I’m just gonna watch it and liveblog it, and bet that for every entry on the list, I can come up with a corresponding rebuttal for why Barrisco would make an even better couple. (I’m not gonna comment this ON the video ofc, this is just for my own amusement.)

Click the link above if you want to see the stuff I’ll be responding to, but be forewarned, that video is like, way long, so naturally it follows that this post is gonna be, too.

Additional note: If you are a Snowbarry shipper who has stumbled across this post somehow, now would be the time to stop reading, and also to add the “anti Snowbarry” tag to your filters if you wish to avoid running into posts like this in the future, ‘cause I ain’t interested in engaging in shipping wars.

Anyways, let’s go:

1. "How they met." Cisco woke Barry out of a coma by playing/singing a song about bisexuality, 'nuff said. (Also, part of the purpose of that scene was to introduce Caitlin as the serious, “down to business” one, and Cisco as the warmer, more easygoing one who’s trying to make Barry feel more comfortable.)

2. "They're both scientists." What is Cisco, an Instagram influencer?

3. If Caitlin being Barry’s personal doctor gets her romantic points, then the same should go for Cisco being his personal tailor. Actually, he should get more points, because there’s no moratorium on romantic relationships between tailors and their clients.

4. The way Barry and Cisco gaze into each other's eyes for non-medical purposes. This is too easy.

5. Uh. Cisco being the voice in Barry's ear while he's running, and often the first person he calls out to for help solving a problem.

6. They frequently take hold of each other's hands and shoulders.

7. Cisco comforts Barry while Caitlin tends to his wounds.

8 through 12 is literally just stuff about Caitlin being a doctor, and I don't find this stuff relevant enough to rebut because there's nothing inherently romantic about any of it.

13. "They both have fun together." Yes, Cisco also, the fun having, it happens, lots. Even more, actually.

14. Not really sure what to say for this one. Barry and Cisco noticing when each other is sad and then checking on each other (at Cecile’s baby shower and Barry’s bachelor party, respectively, and also on other occasions), comes to mind. That doesn’t have to do with noticing each other’s lips, per se, but I’ve never thought of either of these SB scenes as moments where Barry was staring at Caitlin’s lips, just as moments where he’s noticing her expression/overall mood, which is something he does with Cisco (and vice versa), too.

15. They all have nerdy hobbies, dude, they're nerds.

16. This one for SB is "she makes Barry drunk on purpose", which, y'know, she did because he wanted to be able to get buzzed, which Cisco has succeeded in helping him do, too (and the drink he made was more effective and longer lasting), but the way this is phrased is kind of suggestive, like Caitlin was doing it to lower his inhibitions (which she totally wasn’t), and uuuuhhhh, don't romanticize that maybe???

17. Cisco put all that tech into Barry's suit, including delivery menus from his favorite restaurants + wrote him an instruction manual, and sped up all his favorite shows so he could catch up on what he missed while he was in the speed force.

18. Barry makes Cisco's (and everyone's) hair fly everywhere when he speeds out of a room, too. Like, this is just basic physics, fam, wyd?

19. Barry also uses his powers to help Cisco. And...literally everyone who needs his help, this is basic superhero stuff, wyd?

20. He is impressed with Cisco, frequently.

21. Just having nicknames? He calls him "bud", "dude", etc., and one time he called him "Cis". (Bonus: Iris and Cisco have called Caitlin "Cait", too, so it’s not just a Ronnie and Barry thing.)

22. Cisco can make anything to help Barry. They're literally top-notch genius scientists, I don't even

23. Obviously they think each other makes great company, they're best friends. All of them.

24. They comfort each other. Again, best friends + Team Flash pep talks are a major staple of the show.

25. He needs Cisco, too.

26. They...they care about...my god, it's like you people have never heard of FRIENDS.

27. Honestly, how many times have we heard Barry tell Cisco he believes in him, or heard Cisco gush about what a great hero Barry is?

28. Helping each other conquer their fears. Yep, that's another one that applies to like, everyone on this show.

29. "They both have experienced loss" IT'S A SUPERHERO SHOW! Also, that's just life. Name one main character on this show who hasn't experienced loss. Nash and Wally have both experienced loss, and I have yet to see anyone ship them.

30. "They both can sing really well." Okay now. This one is true for Barry and Cisco, but uh...Caitlin is literally tone deaf. I'm not being mean, Danielle Panabaker knows good and well that she can't sing, and she has talked about Carlos side-eyeing her when she gets going because she's not good at it. THAT'S OKAY! There's nothing wrong with not being able to sing, but--WHY would you claim that she's good at something that she clearly is not? She wasn't on pitch for a single line of Summer Nights, and she straight up changes keys mid-line in the mockingbird song in that other clip, and just...what even is this entry?!

31. Watching over each other, yeah, another basic staple of being friends and superheroes.

32. "He is always standing behind Caitlin" AND LOOK WHO'S STANDING BESIDE HIM!

33. Remember that time fake Jay "died" and Cisco stayed with Caitlin until she fell asleep? Remember when Dante died and Caitlin slept on Cisco's couch to keep him company? Remember all those times Barry or Cisco were rendered unconscious, and the other stayed by their bedside until they woke up?

34. Basically just a continuation of 33. See above.

35. "Maybe 'okay' will be our 'always'." Hmm, what WOULD Barry and Cisco's "always/okay" be? Probably just calling out each other's names tbh, they do that a lot. Or perhaps, "For real?"

36. Is2g. Being only one call or text away is, again, a staple of the show, considering everyone in it is a close-knit found family and knows there's a very good chance that that call or text might be saying, "I'm in mortal danger, please come save my life at once."

37. Funny, I already pointed out once before (in a different post) the fun parallel of how Caitlin will sometimes go running to whoever her love interest is at the moment, or she'll call out his name, while Cisco is at the same moment running to Barry/calling out for Barry.

Side note: did they really think including Barry's proposal song to Iris would give more weight to their why-to-ship-Snowbarry argument?

38. I mean...Barry kind of carries everyone everywhere. You don't really get to see it, but how the heck else do you explain all the times he whooshes people in and out of places? He can't just drag them, otherwise the soles of their shoes would either wear down fast or catch on fire.

39. Okay, no shade to Barry and Caitlin's friendship, and some of these moments are really great, but generally speaking, their hugs do not compare to the ones that either of them has with Cisco. Also, note the group hug scene, conveniently cut off before Cisco joins in, because unlike the Romione + Harry hug in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie, there's no way to interpret it as a third wheel/cockblocking moment, because the moment Cisco declares it a group hug moment, Barry and Caitlin both agree, and you can see it on their faces that they are delighted, and think that Cisco joining in their hug has just made it even BETTER.

40. Henry gladly accepts a hug from Caitlin, immediately after laughing at Cisco's awkward moment and giving him a fatherly reassuring pat on the shoulder. I think it's safe to say he approves of all of Team Flash.

41. Oh look, another thing Barry and Cisco and multiple other characters do.

Good god, I'm not even halfway through this yet. This is like that time I tried to climb Diamond Head.

42. Ah, superhero poses, yes. That thing that...superheroes...do. Like, all of the ones on this show. And in general.

43.  "They begin to resemble each other." They're just white, fam. OH MY GOD, I SOMETIMES TAKE MY SUNGLASSES OFF WITH ONE HAND, TOO! OT3 MUCH????? 😱 Lol what even??

44. How many times throughout this video am I gonna have to repeat that everyone on this show has these moments? Also, speaking in unison with someone because you had prior knowledge of what they were going to say due to yourself or someone else time traveling, is not the same as being in sync with them because you’re close. (He said “Weather Wizard” at the same time as Cisco, too.)

45. Idk what to even say to this one. Like, Iris is obviously the love of Barry's life, and Cisco is obviously his favorite best friend and the person he would be with if he didn’t have Iris.

46. *John Mulaney voice* AND THEN THEY DIDN'T! Seriously, though, both of the people they were trying to get over were perfect for them. I don't have a Barrisco specific rebuttal for this one though.

47. So by this video's logic, that one scene from 4x03 means that Barry, Harry, and Cisco should be a threesome, huh?

48. "I did it because it gave me an excuse to bring him back."

49. .................is this even an argument?

50. They're both good looking people, darling.

51. Wrong, sir. They fight like siblings. Trust me on this one, I have six of them.

52. Trauma response. I'm moving away from Barrisco arguments and just saying the first thing that pops into my head now. But seriously, this is a normal reaction to trauma/loss.

53. *Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* I'm not even gonna say it this time, you already know.

54. Again, have you people ever had anyone in your life that you cared about, ever? I'm starting to get concerned, honestly. But for the sake of bringing Barrisco back into this, hey, remember that time Barry and Caitlin both got kidnapped on the same night and Cisco was completely beside himself?

55. This is getting out of hand.

56. Pretty sure dating Caitlin didn't even make the list for Barry's reasons to dislike Jay and Julian (also, he liked Ronnie, the guy she loved the most, so...)

57. Judging Barry for being a dumbass + helping an exposed girl out =/= jealousy. Granted, there was some jealousy in that last clip, but not because Iris got the man; it was because Barry was all set to live happily ever after while Caitlin was, y'know, struggling with powers she didn't want and another person living in her head that kept fighting her for control of her body.

58. Refer to season 1 episode 2, wherein Cisco is the person helping Barry from the beginning, and Caitlin asserts that she is on Joe's side when he tells Barry what a stupid and reckless idea trying to be a superhero is.

59 + 60. "Let's bring our boy home." / "Let's go get our girl." Do I need to cite either quote?

61. Again I ask, did a human make this list?

62. Don't make me tap the sign.

63. One word: Elseworlds.

64. If you'll scroll waaaaaaaaaaay up there, I already covered that Barry and Cisco hold hands A LOT.

65. Oooh, I made a meme about this one! Not after watching this video, I just see SBers say this all the time, and it drives me crazy.

I used this in my Snowbarry fandom drama presentation for my squad’s presentation party a while back.

Side note: ~INTERESTING~ how Caitlin being a doctor is ““romantic”” when she’s treating Barry but ““motherly”” when she’s treating Cisco. I can’t even.

66. ......I’m sorry, I’m just not seeing how the dramatic irony of them stating that Killer Frost will never be a problem on Earth-1 is pertinent to shipping them as a couple.

67. Hannibal Bates and Caitlin are perfect for each other? Weird take, but okay. Oh, and there Caitlin is trying to freeze Barry to death. Wasn’t there a point somewhere up there about her never wanting him to get hurt?

Side note: Hey, what’s the name of that guy who saved Barry in this scene?

68. Bruh, that’s just her dynamic with everyone that season.

69. Barry and Iris, Barry and Cisco, Cisco and Caitlin, Cisco and Harry, Caitlin and Killer Frost, Cisco and Killer Frost--just naming some duos that are more iconic than Barry and Caitlin. Again, no shade to their friendship--I really like them as friends!--but the shippers stay making it out to be more than it really is.

I also just have to point out that although Killer Frost was the one who willingly teamed up with Savitar/whom Savitar sought out first, when she comments on their team up and says it’s “Barry and Caitlin together again”, his response is to point out that she’s not Caitlin and he’s not Barry. In contrast, when he takes Cisco against his will and forces him to modify the speed force bazooka, he still refers to Cisco as his best friend.

70. Make up your mind, does Savitar count as Barry in this or not? Because he totally grabbed Caitlin by the throat once.

71. I don’t know how to break this to you, but not enjoying it when someone is in pain is just being normal. (Do I even need to point out Cisco’s empathetic cringing compared to Barry’s looks of mild discomfort, or...?)

At some point this went from being about Barrisco to being about Cisco being the favorite friend to both of them, idk.

72. He. Is. Literally. A. Superhero.

73. Man, what did I JUST say? Also, can we just acknowledge the build up to Crisis on Infinite Earths for a second, wherein Frost very quickly accepts that Barry is supposed to die in order to save everyone else, while Cisco has infinite crises of his own at the idea of having to accept Barry’s death--which, I might add, he never actually does? Neither does Iris, for that matter. They tried to accept it, and they thought they did, but they didn’t really.

74. Oh fuck it, just read 73 again.

75. Okay, what even is this one? Two scenes where they are not present for each other’s “deaths” and thus don’t react to them, meanwhile Cisco is devastated in both of them?

76. Same thing I’ve already said several times before.

77. How many times do I gotta point out that this is a superhero show?

78. Just really trying hard to find enough reasons to make this list 101, huh? (What is Firestorm, chopped liver?)

79. Because violence = chemistry apparently. Wasn’t there another entry about how they can never hurt each other or something?

80. I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the vibrating hand that shredded Cisco’s heart before either of those scenes happened.

81. It’s like SBers think they’re the only two characters on the entire show.

82. I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over all the other vibrating hands triggering Cisco at least once per season. But sure, Barry and Caitlin are the only two who know suffering.

83. Two words: Flashpoint. Dante. Also, not seeing how this one is romantic.

84. That’s just a Caitlin/Frost thing, fam, it only happened to Barry because he got whammied by Prism, who caused the same effect in everyone else he whammied. (Cisco’s eyes turned purple once when he got hypnotized.)

85. Please. I beg of you. Get friends. Interact with a human person.

Side note: “I trust you” was almost what I put for Barrisco’s “always/okay”.

86. “Don’t call me that. I don’t know you, string bean.” / “I don’t know who you think you are, but around here, people call me Mr. Ramon.” / “The name is Vibe.” (Again, romance where?)

87. Kinda like how Mirror Iris and Mirror Kamilla have slightly dressier tastes than Real Iris and Real Kamilla.

88. ....Anyways, Vibe........

89. The first time because Cisco saved him, the second time because she froze him just enough to fool Grodd, not enough to actually kill him. (Again I say, what is Firestorm?)

90. So romance. Very love. Much relationship.

91. ANYWAYS, CISCO. (And uh, hello, IRIS???? Joe? Harry?)

92. See 88.

93. This one might be a fun ship parallel if Caitlin had actually been involved in Barry’s brain zapping, but instead it’s just like, “here’s two random scenes that are kinda similar in completely insignificant ways”, like the evil clothes thing a few entries back.

94. Another entry that just demonstrates that their one-on-one moments together, while good, just don’t compare to either of their one-on-one moments with Cisco. I can’t be the only person who sees this.

95 + 96 + 97. I can’t muster up enough interest in any of these shows to watch them all the way through. Is this supposed to impress me?

98 + 99 + 100. The only point this proves is that they have multiple ship names. (I thought their evil ship name was Savifrost?)

101. Mm, sorry, sweetheart, Westallen, Barrisco, and Snowstorm all have them beat in this category.

This post really got away from me, at this point idk what I’m even doing, but I went on too long to stop now.

Oh, shit, there’s a bonus round.

Honestly, I fail to see how a lot of these supposedly “match”? But as for the ones that do, that’s just your basic TV aesthetics, I forget the official name for it. They’re matchy-matchy with Cisco in some of those shots, too, because TV matchy color psychology whatever. It’s a whole thing, every TV show and movie does it.

If anyone actually followed along this far, congratulations on your attention span, my brain could never. Idk how to end this post because it strayed so far from my original intent and basically just turned into a Snowbarry Fandom Doesn’t Make Sense Presentation 2.0

You know, I like to try not to generalize and stuff, and I’d like to think that maybe not all SBers are racist and that some people genuinely just like the ship because they think that makes sense or something, but then I look at their reasons for shipping it, and it’s just the dang blandest thing I ever did see, and they have to reach so far when they try to explain why they think they’re the best “couple” on the show and just??? I am the queen of shipping friends who never get together romantically, but Barry and Caitlin just don’t got it, son. Tbh part of the show’s appeal to me is the fact that there’s no threat of Caitlin ever getting with either of her male bffs in that way, because Cisco is like her brother, and getting with Barry just wouldn’t make sense. It just befuddles me to no end that they are such a wildly popular ship and not a rare pair, because the way their relationship is in canon is just exactly the way it should be.

That’s it, I guess. I’ve already invested this much time in this, so I might as well post it.

Also, please don’t anybody try to start anything in the comments section of this video, this fandom has enough drama as it is.

[creepingsharia]

Texas & South Carolina: Two arrested for plotting jihad attacks on Trump Tower, NY Stock Exchange

SAN ANTONIO – A Gonzales County man arrested by the FBI in San Antonio this week is accused of providing support to ISIS and discussed carrying out attacks in the United States and overseas on behalf of the terrorist group, federal court records reveal.

Jaylyn Molina, who also refers to himself as “Abdur Rahim,” faces a charge of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to an unsealed criminal complaint filed in San Antonio.

Molina was taken into custody Monday and is scheduled to make an appearance in federal court in San Antonio early next week, records show.

A co-defendant, Kristopher Matthews, was taken into custody in Tennessee, according to a motion to unseal records in the case filed Monday.

What they are accused of doing

A 14-page criminal complaint states that Matthews, a resident of Elgin, South Carolina, who refers to himself as “Ali Jibreel,” used an encrypted messaging application last year to find an ISIS facilitator outside the U.S. to help him travel to Syria and recruit additional members who support ISIS ideology.

FBI officials became aware that Molina joined the same encrypted chat around April, and within weeks, he was using it to post manuals on how to train with an AK-47, records show.

The communication from the two men, which included ISIS propaganda videos, was being tracked by online covert employees, records show.

The criminal complaint states that the two men also used social media platforms, some public, to “radicalize and recruit other online users to join ISIS.”

In a series of social media posts this spring, Molina wrote that America was his enemy and posted an extremely graphic photo collage of an American citizen being murdered by ISIS members, the criminal complaint states.

In May, Molina posted images in the encrypted chat that provided bomb-making instructions, the criminal complaint states.

That same month in the same encrypted chat, the two men discussed where attacks on U.S. soil would take place, at which point Matthews said he preferred hitting economic centers and government buildings, including CIA headquarters, the FBI and DEA headquarters, records show.

As recently as last month, Molina and Matthews told covert employees in the encrypted chat that they could use a “multi wave attack strategy” to carry out the attacks.

Court records indicate that Molina is a resident of Cost, Texas, a small town located about 70 miles east of San Antonio.

A spokesperson for the San Antonio Office of the FBI did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

------------------------------------------------

More via: Two men arrested after allegedly planning ‘Netflix worthy’ terrorist attack on US in support of ISIS

In one discussion between the men, Molina allegedly said “we need to stick together, we need to defeat them, we need to take a lot of casualties.”

Matthews allegedly suggested it would be better to attack government centers rather than places like “malls where innocent children are,” with potential targets including Trump Tower and the New York Stock Exchange, according to the newspaper. He also allegedly said the terrorist attacks would give the men “rock star status baby,” adding that use of bombs on various locations throughout the U.S. “could be Netflix worthy.”

If convicted, the men could be sentenced to 20 years in prison, with a lifetime of supervised release.

------------------------------------------------

Keep in mind, one of these jihadis had a Twitter account and a Pinterest account. (both now archived)

That’s right - Pinterest - the company that openly bans any reference to “creeping sharia” and those who expose the jihad threat allow jihadis to have accounts...with jihad material.

[smarchit]

Do No Harm, Pt 5

Hey y’all, it’s been exactly.... /checks watch/ well over a month since I last posted a chapter of this. Oops. Oh well. Found this while digging through my drafts while procrastinating working on Poetry.

"No, spread your legs a little further," Mando instructed. He used the tip of his boot to nudge Wynn's own foot back a few more inches in the dirt. "You want to have a wider stance. It makes it harder for someone to knock you down. You take up more ground space this way."

Wynn adjusted her stance and took a deep breath as Mando circled her, taking note of the position of her arms and legs. She didn't even realize she had a white knuckle grip on the spear until Mando tapped on her fingers. 

"Too tight. You want it to be firm, but loose. Steady. Good."

Wynn loosened her fingers and watched Mando take his own stance across from her, his back to the early morning sun. She tried her best to mirror his form; he made it look effortless.

"Arms in," he corrected, reaching over to lightly touch her elbow. "Keep everything as close to you as you can."

She nodded and did as he instructed.

"Hit me," he ordered.

Wynn brought her spear up and tried to smack it off his arm. Her attack was easily blocked by a parry from him.

"You didn't say you were going to block me!" she cried.

He chuckled and shook his head. "No, I didn't. But neither will your enemy. Again."

Wynn gave a cry and tried to strike him again. This time, her attack was countered by Mando's own spear knocking against her exposed torso. Lucky for her, both of their vibroblade tips had been removed for the sake of practice, but she didn't doubt that Mando would still be able to cause harm with just the metal pole. Already, she could feel a bruise forming on her ribs.

Wynn quickly ducked under the second of his rapid attacks. The pole barely missed the top of her head when she tried to go around him and catch him from behind.

Mando grabbed the end of Wynn's pole and jerked it to the ground within the blink of an eye. It was quick enough that Wynn couldn't change her trajectory and she ended up tripping over the spear. 

She landed on her side and quickly turned onto her back to face Mando. Wynn tried to roll out of the way of his next spear attack - a rough jab with the end of the weapon - before it could catch her in the throat.

Mando lifted her chin with the end of his spear so she would have to look up at him. "Do you yield?" he asked as he stood over her.

"Yes!" Wynn gasped. "I yield!"

Mando kicked her spear over to her. "Get up. We'll try again."

It went on for hours. By the time the moons rose over the horizon, Wynn's body was covered in bruises. She was doubled over, shaking and out of breath as she gripped her spear.

"Again," Mando growled, his helmet inches from her ear. When she shook her head, he got closer to her. "Go. Again."

Wynn let out a scream and cracked her spear across Mando's chest. "No!" Her shout, accompanied by the metallic thunk of the spear against beskar echoed off the nearby hills and sent a flock of birds squawking and flying away.

Mando barked out a rough laugh when the top half of the spear went flying off into the dirt. 

Wynn was staring at the broken edge of the spear handle, her eyes wide with fear. She had done that. She had broken one of his weapons.

He turned to face her quickly, his helmet tilted to the side to look at her. He reached out to take her wrist in his hand, the metal spear handle falling from her grip.

"You've got some nice blisters forming," he said, turning her hands over in his. "These will hurt. They will break and bleed. But you'll get stronger."

Wynn nodded, already feeling the ache in her muscles from the rough day of training. They'd only stopped briefly for dinner, though Mando insisted she practice on a tree stump while he fed the Child.

"Get some rest. We'll go again tomorrow," he said, letting her hand fall from his grasp.

Two weeks passed quickly on the tiny planet while they looked for any sign of the Child's people. They never stopped Wynn's training though, going at it in the early hours of the morning and resuming after their search late into the night. Wynn had never been more exhausted in her life. She would collapse into her cot for a few hours at a time, only to be awoken by the Child's loud cries for food. Mando would help with that more often than not, but it still roused her from sleep.

She was definitely getting the hang of fighting with the spear. That had been made evident earlier that evening when she had landed on her back in the dust, her own spear the only thing keeping Mando's from puncturing her throat, when she twisted the staff in her hands, effectively disarming her sparring partner. She thrust her spear up, the metal tip pinging off of his beskar chest plate.

He raised his hands in defeat and reached down to help her up off the ground. Mando had to admit to himself that she was an incredibly fast learner. She insisted they put the spear tips back on after only a few days. 

I need to feel the danger, she insisted.

Mando only wished that she could see the pride that was constantly painted on his face at her success.

"Wynn," he called up the ramp after her. "Tomorrow, we should do some fist fighting. You won't always have access to a weapon."

She turned to him and nodded before she headed off to the fresher to clean up. 

Mando sighed and leaned against a crate to relax. He looked over at the sleeping Child and smiled. The little guy didn't know it, but he was about to have two protectors instead of just his adopted father. Mando checked some coordinates on his wrist comm and swore softly before he picked up the Child and went back into the Crest.

They couldn't stay on this planet much longer without getting a surprise visit from their friends. 

The very next morning, Mando was surprised to find Wynn not on board the ship. The manual locks had been disconnected from the inside, but she was nowhere to be seen. He could feel anxiety creeping its way up his stomach to wrap icy fingers around his heart. He ran to check on the Child and found him still sound asleep in his pod. But where was the young doctor?

She'd left her comm unit along with her blaster on the table in the hold, though her bag was missing. Odd, he noted, if someone took her, why let her take the bag?

Mando shut the Child's pod and locked the door to his quarters. He would be safe there for a few minutes. He grabbed a blaster and rushed down the ramp. He had to find her. Who knows how long they had before the Imps showed up? If there was any time left at all... 

The thought of Wynn being taken by Gideon sent a shiver up his back. He didn't want to think about what they might do to her because of her association with him.

He followed her footprints through the dirt to the nearby forest. Mando knew he could track her without a problem. She didn't appear to be leaving with anyone, but he knew better than to take a chance with that.

It only took him a few minutes to find her. She was in the middle of a clearing a hundred yards or so into the forest, leaning up against a tree. A book was resting on her crossed legs and her shoes were kicked off several feet away from her. A few blossoms from the tree above her had fallen into her unruly hair. 

Mando watched her for a few minutes. For how long they'd been travelling, he never saw her this relaxed or this calm. He thought back to the morning after he'd first met her when she was singing to the Child. She looked so unaware that he was standing so close to her.

Wynn immediately looked up when he approached her and she gasped, her hand flying to her chest. "Oh, Maker! You scared me!"

"Why are you out here alone?" he asked, "It isn't safe."

"We've been out here for weeks," she said, raising an eyebrow. "We haven't seen anyone or anything. I think I'm fine." She stood up and stuffed her book back into her bag.

"There could be an animal," he continued as she crawled past him on her knees to get her shoes.

She kneeled in front of him and scoffed. "You mean that cute little thing we saw the other day? Yeah, real threatening."

Mando ignored the way his pants felt just a little tighter when she looked up at him from her knees.

"The Child was worried," he countered.

"Ah, right," she hummed as she stood. "He was very worried."

Mando flushed under his helmet.

"Come on, we have to get going anyway," Wynn said with a sigh. She stood up and grabbed her book. "We wouldn't want the baby to worry."

Mando sighed and followed her out of the clearing and back into the woods. He admired her genuine sarcasm, but as always, he worried for her safety. What would have happened if an Imp found her? Or Gideon?

What if he had to leave without her? He quickly came to the conclusion that he would never be able to leave her somewhere alone. Even if she had the proper training.

"We need to keep working at your training," he said, quickening his pace to join up with her. "How's your aim with a blaster?"

Wynn shrugged. "I don't know. My dad had an old model. He showed me how to turn it on and aim it, but I never actually fired it or anything."

Mando sighed and nodded. "Okay, we'll work on that next."

When Wynn and Mando reached the ship, she turned to him and grabbed his arm for attention. He stiffened and slowly looked at her. 

"I am sorry, by the way," she said. When he didn't respond, she shook her head. "For running off this morning. Sometimes it's too quiet on the ship and I just like to breathe air that isn't recycled, you know?"

He looked at her briefly before turning to the door control. "I know," he said as the door slowly opened. "Just let me know next time, okay? I don't-- I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."

She smiled and then nodded. "Okay. I can do that."

Mando nodded once and turned to go back into the ship. He could already hear babbles and coos coming from his quarters. The baby was already awake and would soon be demanding attention. 

Wynn chuckled and bounded up the stairs after him, but not before sparing one last glance at the planet they'd spent the last several weeks on. It had almost started to feel like home.

TAGLIST: (I really hope you guys don’t mind me tagging you in this) - @the-feckless-wonder @gallowsjoker @phoenixhalliwell @waatermelon-sugaar @huliabitch @miscellaneous-mando @lestrange2703

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Verboten 4 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary:   AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things

Parings: Danny/Sam

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances

Chapter 4

Later that night, it was officially announced at dinner that the camper’s death was the result of an unfortunate accident. However, what shocked all the students was the decision to finish out the remaining time at the camp. According to Mr. Lancer, he had contacted the other teachers at the different sites, and that was the mutual decision.

Tucker had surprisingly spoken up and demanded how their teacher managed to get through since the cell phone service issue remained unresolved. After their meeting with the police officer, he had checked with other students, who all said the same thing. Their service was poor, and they hadn’t been able to contact anyone. For the technophile, it was extremely frustrating, and he had put a lot of effort in attempting to solve the problem on his own device. He told Danny and Sam that it almost seemed like there was a weird electrical phenomenon causing the problem.

Lancer stumbled for a moment, but he eventually said the Park Rangers had let him use their landline. He then changed the topic and began explaining what the activities for the next morning would be.

“Alright, now I’m really sure something’s fishy,” Tucker whispered to his friends. “Wanna bet he was never able to contact the other teachers?”

“I’ll pass, because I think you’re right,” Danny told him as he stole a glance at some of the nearby Rangers. They had been closely watching the students since the beginning of dinner. “I don’t think the Rangers agree with that decision.”

“Yeah, and did you notice? They’ve been stone faced during this whole thing.” Sam leaned forward as she continued. “I really think something more serious happened to that poor man.”

Danny nodded. “I don’t have the slightest idea what might have happened. You’d think they come right out and say if it was an animal attack. But, that’s fairly uncommon in our state. I mean, the most dangerous animal here is a black bear, but they aren’t very common.”

“It could have been a mountain lion attack. While they supposedly haven’t been in this state for decades, there are still regular reports of them. That’s something that might be kept quiet. I mean, that was an issue in Pennsylvania with their coyotes and the Game Commission.”

“That would make sense, but you’d think they’d still say something like it was an animal attack and chalk it up to him doing something stupid to upset a bear if that was the case,” Tucker mentioned as he fiddled with his PDA. “I still can’t get a good signal.”

“I guess we need to just remain on guard,” Danny mused as the other students began to stand. His friends agreed with him as stood and went to grab one of the paper schedules which held the next day’s events.

…

After Danny and Tucker headed back to their cabin after then had finished freshening up for the night at the communal showers, they were met with the jocks excitedly swapping information. Dash’s grin was almost cat-like as he caught sight of the pair. “So, I guess you dweebs didn’t hear about what actually happened to that camper.”

“Other than what we were told, no,” Danny told him as he went to grab something out of his bag. “And don’t you have anything better to do than spread nasty rumors about the dead?”

Dash’s grin immediately grew larger as he continued, “It’s not a rumor. One of the band geeks was up for an early piss and saw them bring the body into camp. That guy was in pieces.”

“Wha… what!? What did you say?” Tucker stammered as he dropped his PDA.

“Are you absolutely certain that’s what he saw?” Danny demanded as he stepped in between Tucker and Dash. “The camper could have been really messed up, but if he was covered in blood, dirt, and whatever else he encountered, maybe it looked worse than it really was.”

“As much as it annoys me to admit, Fenton makes a good point,” Dash’s other friend, Lucas, mentioned as he sat on his bed. “Without seeing it for ourselves, we don’t know how bad it was, and the kid was pretty scared when he repeated it. So, let me ask you this Fenton, what do you think happened?”

“I’m surprised you care about whatever I think. But,” Danny paused for a moment, “all I know for certain is that something bad happened, and the police and rangers aren’t happy about it. But, I’m not a cop, and I’m clearly not trained in stuff like this, so my hunches are probably wrong.”

“That’s not much of an answer.”

“Unlike some people, I’m not going to jump to conclusions before I know more.” Satisfied with the stunned looks of the jocks, Danny turned to finish preparing for bed. After a moment, he realized Tucker was staring at him. “What?”

“So, where’s this Danny Fenton been all these years?” his friend whispered at him.

Danny raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve never stood up your… you know… bullies before. What changed?”

“Nothing changed, not really,” Danny replied as he climbed into bed. “It’s just I can’t tolerate people spreading rumors like this. It brings bad luck, or at least I think so, and,” he paused for a moment before lowering his voice, “you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead.”

“Did your parents drill that into you or something?”

“Not my parents, but I can’t remember who did.”

……

The next day, the students were kept close to camp. Most of the day was spent learning basic camping skills. Although there were plenty of grumbles from his classmates, Danny found it pretty interesting as his parents wanted to keep him as far away from the woods as possible. He spent most of the morning in a boyish wonder as was instructed on setting up tents, campfires, and basic traps.

Sam spent a good portion of the morning teasing him, but he largely ignored her. Like a lot of boys, he had an interest in camping when he was younger, so this was a chance to experience it, or at least a small portion of it. However, by the time lunch hit, his enthusiasm had been replaced by uneasiness.

In the shadows cast by the trees around the camp, he felt as if someone was watching him. It was possible it was just an animal, but as the hours passed and the feeling continued, he determined that couldn’t be the cause. Most animals didn’t spend that long watching people, unless they were hunting, but most predators wouldn’t dream of getting so close to so many people. Both Sam and Tucker seemed apprehensive as well.

“Hey, did either of you heard those weird bird calls earlier?” Sam asked while they were eating dinner.

“I don’t know how you had time to listen to birds with how much manual labor we did earlier. I’m exhausted,” Tucker whined in between bites of his food.

“We barely did anything too strenuous. You really need to get out more.” The amused smirk on Sam’s face was quickly replaced by a frown. “But, in all seriousness, something sounded wrong. I’m pretty familiar with the birds around here, but I’ve never heard something like that before.”

“Is it possible it was an exotic bird?” Danny questioned. “I mean, it is possible one escaped or someone let one go.”

Sam considered his words for a moment. “While it’s possible, I don’t think that’s the case.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to explain.” She brought her hand to her chin as she tried to put her thoughts to words. “The sound didn’t sound natural. It was almost mechanical.”

“A mechanical bird? Come on, Sam! Even for you, that’s pretty out there. Am I right, dude?” Tucker playfully nudged Danny, only to realize he seemed deep in thought. “Hey, what’s wrong? Earth to Danny.”

“Gah!” The sudden motion of Tucker waving his hand in front of his face startled him. “Sorry about that. It’s just that… I… I think I know what she means”

“Huh?”

“I don’t remember much about what happened when I went missing, but before things go hazy, I definitely remember a strange bird call. After doing some research, my parents said that calls like that are sometimes heard before unusual missing persons cases.”

“Dude! Don’t say stuff like that! I’m already freaked out enough as it is by this whole mess. Ouch! Did you really have to kick me?”

“Keep your voice down,” Sam warned him as she motioned to the side with a head nod. Danny followed the motion and noticed some of the Rangers seemed to be watching them. “I really don’t want them to pay attention to us. They’re watching us, all of us, like we’re prisoners or something. Anyways, Danny do you know anything more about that weird call?”

“My parents said it might be a type of lure, but I have no idea if that’s true or not. But, I think it was to catch my attention than anything else.” Danny shook his head. “Sam, we wouldn’t be doing this. Whatever that call was, it could have just been some weird bird.”

“Don’t you want to know?”

“Maybe? I don’t know. Look, I’ve been uneasy since we first arrived in this forest. I already told Tucker this, but talking about weird stuff like this brings bad luck. Can we put it on hold until we get out of here?”

“But Danny!” Her argument was cut short as he glared at her. She straightened up as her eyes narrowed. “As weird as everything is, I think the bigger mystery is what exactly happened to you when you went missing when you were a kid.”

“Look, I don’t know what happened,” Danny snapped. What was her problem?

“Clearly something did. What’s every going on here might be digging up some of those memories. Maybe you have a memory that could help, but you’re getting so defensive.”

“Of course I am! Would you like it if someone kept trying to make you remember something that’s probably better left forgotten?”

“Alright, alright. Chill already.”

His only response was to huff and turn away. Her stubbornness was something he both admired and occasionally hated. Whether it was petitioning her teachers to get a menu changed, rallying a protest, or badgering her friends for information, she often wouldn’t stop until she got her way. It was a big reason why he didn’t think they’d ever be able to get together.

They had discussed it the previous year, after Tucker outed their mutual attraction. Neither of them thought it would work out. Sam was too headstrong, and Danny was too reserved for it to be a functioning relationship. There was always a spark of hope, but it was situations like this that reminded him that they hadn’t changed. For the sake of their friendship, it wasn’t something they could safely consider.

Maybe when they got a little older, a little more mature, they would be able to act on their feelings, but that would have to wait. For now, he was just going to sit in an annoyed silence as he finished his… what exact was this food supposed to be anyways?

…..

Sam actually apologized to him the next day. However, he was still too irritated to speak to her, but by the time lunch rolled around, he had forgiven her.

The morning had been spent working on more wilderness survival skills, but the Rangers surprised them by announcing that they would be leading them on a hike on the trail that surrounded the camp. It was only supposed to last a couple hours at most, but three armed Rangers would be walking with them.

Annoyed and uneasy murmurs circled through the students as they formed groups of three and four. Those groups were then lined up; one Ranger moved to the front, one went to the back, and the other moved to the center of the line. Before they began to move, the Rangers warned the entire group that, under no circumstance, was anyone to go off on their own.

Although Sam and Tucker wanted to stay away from Lancer and the jocks who were near the front of the line, Danny would not allow them to be in the very back. After everything else that happened, he would not allow himself to be in the back on the line. The warning to stay away from the very back or front still rang in his ears. Unfortunately, that didn’t last very long.

As they began their trek, several of the groups fell to the back of the line. It forced Danny and his friends to have somewhat of a distance between the few band and more nerdy students who were following close to the first Ranger and Mr. Lancer, and the popular kids and jocks who were near the back. The Ranger who was supposed to be in the middle had hung back to help keep an eye on the larger portion of students.

“I don’t like this,” Danny mentioned as Sam had them stop for a moment as she made a quick sketch of a plant off the path. “Is it just me, or is it really quiet?” He had noticed it for a while. Usually a person should be able to hear bugs, birds, leaves rustling, something, but he hadn’t noticed any noise for a while.

“These are older forests, Danny,” Sam explained as she finished her sketch. “Noises often get muffled since plants can absorb sound to some extent.”

“It doesn’t mean it’s not creepy.”

“Actually, Sam, I agree with him,” Tucker mentioned as he looked over his shoulder. “I feel like we’re being watched.”

Sam tucked her sketch book in her bag before pointing to something behind them. “I think you’re right on that, but I don’t think it’s anything out of the ordinary.”

Danny and Tucker turned to see Dash and his friends, as well as some of the popular girls approach them from down the trail. Apparently, they had been spotted as Dash wore an evil grin as he said something to Kwan as he gestured towards them. A round of laughter followed.

“Great, just our luck. Do you think we’d be able to outrun them?” Danny asked as he warily eyed the approaching group.

“Are you nuts, dude? We can’t even outrun Sam.”

“Thanks for that lovely vote of confidence, Tucker.” ==================

Notes:

The coyotes and the Game Commission was an actual thing that happened. Basically, there weren’t supposed to be any coyotes in Pennsylvania, but there were farmers saying their animals were being attacked by something. One of the farmers, who lived nearby where I grew up, got permission to take a shot at creatures and ended up killing a coyote with a Game Commission tag in its ear. Twenty years later, the Game Commission has finally admitted coyotes are back in Pennsylvania, and that they can be hunted. Coyotes can attack people. While there aren’t many documented attacks, they have happened, and Pennsylvanians aren’t very happy about them popping up in towns and parks.

Mountains Lions, also known as Nittany Lions, Pumas and Cougars, are supposedly extinct in the states east of the Mississippi River (ignore Florida – it’s an exception). However, that’s another thing under debate. There have been many sightings of them throughout the years in the east, especially in the Appalachian (app-ah-lay-shin) Mountains. There is actually a picture of one found in Ohio near its border with Kentucky that was taken in 2014. I know there are recent reports in Pennsylvania and New York as well - this includes family members.

[heresathreebee]

Garrote part 2

[Starz Power Diego Jimenez X Jazmine Mann (Black!OC)]

Word Count: 1591 words

Warning(s): Rated teen (until like chapter 6?). Language, more mentions of human trafficking. Previous Masterlist Next

AN: I got excited and I couldn’t wait to post this tomorrow. The OC finally appears here. (Diego looks like he’s trying to incite a three way and/or sexy shenanigans in this photo)

@1zashreena1 @nicke0115 @mental-bycatch

Diego didn't like Agent Healy. He didn't like anything about this scenario or the way the man just knew about the baby or where to find them. Alicia and Diego were some of the biggest criminals in North America and nobody was supposed to know they were even on this side of the border. There was no doubt in Diego’s mind that Alicia blamed him for it. But regardless of fault, Healy did know, and for that, the man had Alicia's confidence (if even by a frayed thread) and his instructions were easy to follow. 

Healy hadn't given him a name nor a description, so Diego, with nothing but an address and a time, walked into a convenience store at 6 in the afternoon. She'll know you, was Healy's only explanation. Diego deeply regretted this already. 

The bell on the door rang twice and as his eyes swept across the floor, it was mostly empty. The employee behind the counter barely looked up at him. There was an old drunk woman leaning over the beers and a younger woman in deep contemplation over which trail mix she wanted. 

Feeling out of his element, he wandered through the snack section, glancing over to the young woman again. She was kind of cute. Straight hair pulled into a high ponytail and glasses perched at the end of her nose. He was going to say something (he didn't know what) when she looked up angrily and tossed the bags in her hands back onto the rack. 

"When are you going to get vegan options in this store," she yelled at the employee. 

The employee's exhausted eyes lifted from inspecting her fingernails and she pointed lazily, "next to the beer. It's only drinks, sorry." 

The young woman looked nervously at the swaying drunk woman standing guard of the path, then caught Diego's staring and disappeared as quickly as possible. The sour gummy worms Diego had in his hand returned swiftly to the shelf in a calmer imitation of the fit the other customer had thrown not seconds before. He grabbed a case of beer and twizzlers before heading for the counter. He felt foolish– he didn't know what to do or who he was meeting or even what the next step would be. The employee looked over him seeming to sense his disgruntlement. 

"Just this?," she asked. He nodded, watching her try to scan the items, fail, sigh in annoyance, and then manually enter their item codes to the register. He took a second to admire the radius of her curls. The black hair turned a caramel color at the ends and he imagined her hair tie holding on for dear life to contain the thick mass. Should it snap, the poof would be magnificent. 

"OK, $7.23." 

"That's it?" He gave her his card and ID but looking over his items, he decided to take it back. He was overpaying for this garbage. He noticed her stiffen as she spotted the name on his card. 

"You're Diego Jimenez?" 

He raised an eyebrow. "Yes…?" 

He didn't like the way her shoulders slumped suddenly. Women didn't react like that– scratch that– no one reacted that way to him. Fear or arousal, but never… resignation? She looked like she was mourning something. Finishing the sale, she gave him back his cards and grasped his wrist to keep him from leaving. This shocked him– nobody was stupid enough to lay hands on a guy like him. 

"I'm Jazmine." As if he couldn't read the name on her tag, but then she continued, "I'm your new girlfriend." 

"What?" 

"Just"- the bell of the door chimed behind him– "play along," she whispered. 

"Bella!" An overly joyful white man walked over to the counter with a bright, familiar smile. "Mi primadonna. So lovely to see you again." 

Jazmine chuckled in that 'I get paid to do this' sort of way. "Well, you know I'm always working!" 

"Of course, of course," he replied, fishing for his wallet. He wore a suit– not expensive enough to be tailored but it wasn't overly unfitting– and his hair was beginning to thin at the top. Jazmine reappeared from the store's office with a bag of prepared items in it seemingly just for this guy. Upon noticing her, he gasped in surprise and pouted his lip like a young girl reacting to getting a present from her first boyfriend. "You hold the key to heart, and every time I see your face it makes my day just a little brighter." 

Jazmine bowed her head to hide behind her bangs (were they bangs? They were textured and fell over her forehead short of her eyes). "No need to thank me, I always enjoy your visits." 

If Diego wasn't so confused, he might have noticed her lying through her teeth. At the present, he was distracted when this cheery, overly doting man looked down to find Jazmine's hand touching the wrist of this stranger. Something dark flashed in his eyes. 

"Who's this?" 

Jazmine hopped over the counter, planting herself directly in Diego's personal space, and caressed his arm. "This is my boyfriend Diego. Diego, say hi." Diego looked between him and her. "This is Jeremy. Jeremy Haagen– the guy I've been telling you about." 

"Oh," Diego managed. Go with it. "Hi. Nice to finally meet you." 

Jeremy Haagen's jaw ticked but he reclaimed his smile, albeit with a chip on the shoulder. He spoke to Jazmine, not Diego. "It's nice to know I am on your mind even when I'm not around. I think I'll be going– I've got an early day tomorrow. Goodnight, Miss. Mann. And, uh, it was nice to meet you as well, Di-e-go." 

He disappeared quickly into the rapidly growing cover of night. Jazmine was practically giddy. She lay backward across the counter top like a happy cat and stretched so a sliver of her belly showed. "I've never had him leave so quickly. I should have thought of this months ago!" 

Diego hummed resisting the urge to reach out and touch her. To satisfy his lust or his annoyance, he couldn't say which. He watched her roll back into a sitting position and meet his eyes, now a little sheepish. 

"I guess I've probably got some explaining to do… I can't do it right here, right now, it's probably best if we wait til we're somewhere less public..." 

~

His phone showed it was 9:45 pm in bold font, indicating it had been hours since the strange incident. Jazmine Mann was indeed the woman he was supposed to work with– a specimen he never expected to tangle with. The good news was that she knew a little of Healy's scheme– and the better news was that she wasn't overly fond of the man either. 

The terrible, terrible, awful news was that her shift didn't end for fifteen more minutes, and her replacement was always late to their shift. Jazmine watched over the store, stocked shelves that looked virtually OCD with how untouched and organized they were, and finally she escorted the drunken Chinese woman out the back door and across the street, then returned and immediately went back to cleaning. Diego was beyond bored. His soul had left his body and was back at his penthouse suite getting sucked off by that vegan yoga instructor from earlier. He was nearly asleep when his head hit the window and woke him up with a growl. 

"Can we fucking go?," he snapped. "Fuck your job. Nobody's been in here for hours." 

Jazmine sighed, unperturbed by his lack of etiquette. Her hand drummed on her thigh until she shrugged. "OK. I have to lock up first, then we can go over to my place and talk about things." 

Diego grunted and pushed off of the counter opting for a smoke to calm him. He made it a point not to watch her work because watching her was like watching molasses on a hot summer sundae. It didn't mean he didn't notice whenever her shadow passed by, or when the lights behind him finally went out. He was lighting a second cigarette when at last, she locked the front door. She had traded the dull red work vest for a jean jacket, allowing the music band logo of her shirt to show proudly. They walked seven goddamn blocks through city streets to get to her apartment and even with his gun tucked into his pants he had never felt more unsafe. 

"So what did Healy tell you?" She secured every lock on her door and sat down without offering anything to drink. So she didn't get many visitors-- alright then, he wouldn't put out his third cigarette. 

Diego cleared her coffee table none too gently and sat facing her. "A whole lot of bullshit. Said he's trying to dismantle and trafficking ring and that you were going to need some help getting the job set up." 

Jazmine bobbed her head. "OK. Healy let me be in charge of the details, but since the set up was already in affect, he's just taking advantage of an opportunity." She said the word opportunity while making air quote gestures with her hands. "That guy you met– he's the target. He's been coming into my store for the better part of a season and making unsutble passes at me almost every day. Healy says he runs most of the human trafficking around these parts– specifically the underage scene... and he left it at that so as not to compromise the integrity of my 'character.'

"I guess you and I are going to be a team." Jazmine leaned so she had his full attention. "I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend while I draw him out so Healy can snag him. Understand?" 

"Not really." 

"Good, we're on the same page then," she joked with a note of sincerity.

[marvel-writer]

Holding on, Letting go - Steve Rogers. Part 2.

Holding on, Letting go - Steve Rogers. Part 2.

Holding on, and letting go. - Steve Rogers.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader.

Time Set: 2023, After Thanos’ death.

Summary: You were always close to the infamous Captain America, as being a member of the Avenger team since the alien attack in New York. So after defeating Thanos’, losing Tony and Natasha.

You realize that you also were going to lose your first true love – Steve Rogers, to his only love – Peggy Carter. Since he was due to return to her on his mission to out the stones back.

Word Count: 1,606

Warnings: Sadness, Screaming, Language, Fluff.

Abbreviations: (Y/F/N) = Your First Name, (Y/L/N) = Your Last Name, (H/L) Your Hair Length, (H/C) = Your Hair Color, (Y/N/N) = Your Nickname.

If you haven't, read part one here! 

https://marvel-writer.tumblr.com/post/190437381779/holding-on-letting-go-steve-rogers-part-1

__________________________________________

     The rest of that day was a blur, Bucky escorted you back to the living section of the newly built compound as the two of you had dinner with whoever was left of The Avengers. You really tried to eat but you just picked at your food instead, Thor tried to make you laugh, his normal routine of puns and jokes just didn’t work as much he had hoped. Morgan, however, sat on your lap to try and comfort you.

You excused yourself as you walked into the training room, the room of chatting Avengers fell quiet. All eyes watched in ache for you as you made your exit.

All you felt at this point was numbness and you wanted to feel nothing. You laid into the punching bag, blow after blow to lash out your feelings. Each punch that landed had more force because it had a flashback to a memory of Steve and you.

|

     The flashbacks including the first time you met, to your first mission together, then all of the movie nights, dinner with your (then) whole family, being reminded of your shared remarks about Tony, the night dancing in the rain and finally your goodbye to him. Man - oh man, did those memories hit your emotional cycle like a train-wreck.

Your final punch colliding with the bag as you screamed in exhaustion, your body collapsing on your knees as you just sat there in that position crying out in pain.

Pepper must have heard you and sat beside you at some point in your breakdown because all you felt was her arms wrapping around you to try and calm you down.

“It’s okay (Y/F/N), I’m right here.” Pepper rambled, that was when F.R.I.D.A.Y had came over the speaker system in the training room. “Pepper, it appears to all health systems that Ms. (Y/L/N) is in the middle of a Panic Attack.” The A.I. stated.

|

     Pepper yelled out for help, Bucky and Sam coming in as they ran to your now exhausted body. Although your screams had stopped, the Panic Attack was still happening. At that point, you didn’t have any strength left to scream.

Bucky carried you to your bedroom, Sam following as Bruce walked in. He didn’t see a need to give you a calming sedative, because you were practically falling asleep. Bruce just ordered for all of them to keep an eye on you, watching you lay in rest mode

That was the last memory of that dreadful night, in the morning the healing and recovery process would begin.

_______________________________________

~ A side conversation ~

______________________________________

     Bucky had sat down at the round table with Pepper, the two speaking over a cup of Brandy as the events that day had been uneventful.

Bucky sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he had taken a drink. Pepper watching him as she shifted in her seat.

“Speak what’s on your mind, Barnes.” Pepper had spoken softly, her finger tracing the rim of the glass.

“I just, I always knew if Rogers had the chance to go back to Peggy that he would take it. At least I knew back then, you noticed how close he and (Y/N) had gotten though. I figured maybe he finally moved on, found a better option.” Bucky muttered, shaking his friend.

|

      Pepper watched him, taking a breath as she nodded her head in agreement.

“Oh trust me, Tony did nothing but annoy Steve when it came to her. Whenever she left the room it was practically set in stone, on what conversation topic he had chosen to throw on Steve.” Pepper stated, her lips turning into a sad smile as she remembered her love.

“I should be mad that he left me, after all the bullshit we went through. Instead, I’m angry and disappointed on how he treated her, that girl in there has done the most for him in eleven years. Steve threw it all away, wrecking a marriage in the process.” Bucky muttered bin annoyance, referring to how Peggy had been married with kids when Steve was in the ice.

|

“Can’t fix stupid Buck, trust me I tried to do that for the entire life span that I knew Tony.” Pepper remarked jokingly, a sad yet memorial laugh leaving her lips.

Bucky chuckled, clinking his glass against Peppers’ as the two shared a drink before both heading to sleep.

__________________________________________

~ The Following Day. ~

__________________________________________

      You woke up, your exhaustion still rested heavy on your chest. However, you needed to be okay. Even though Thanos’ was gone, danger still existed.

Your eyes glancing around the room, a passed out Sam had been asleep. A small sigh of sadness leaving your lips as you saw the man’s body in what seemed to be an uncomfortable position in the corner of the room on your sofa chair.

“Wilson, wake up.” You called out softly, he didn’t move.

So for your entertainment, you threw a pillow at him. Your aim was still good, as it collided with his face and caused him to wake up in combat mode.

“The hell?” Wilson grumbled a soft laugh had escaped from your mouth.

It was genuine, a real laugh. This made Sam forget that you just decided to soft blow him one, he smiled instantly. You innocently smiled as your mind convinced your body to move up and away from the bed.

|

     “I tried waking you up, have you been there all night?” You questioned, walking over as you offered him a hand.

Sam chuckled, his hand taking grasp of yours as he stood up. The body that he owned towered over you as he rubbed his face, shaking his head to your question.

“Bucky was here throughout the night, took me an hour to convince him to sleep,” Sam stated, which made you feel like complete shit.

“I’m sorry, I acted out irrationally last night.” Your voice trailed off as Sam pulled you in for a hug. You didn’t fight it, in fact, you fully embraced it.

“You had a shit ass day, (Y/N/N). It wasn’t irrational for you to lash out the way you did. We’re just all glad that you’re okay.” Sam stated You smiled small. The two of you staying in limbo before he pulled away from you.

|

     “Right well, get dressed. Breakfast is smelling heavenly and we should get there before Thor takes too much advantage.” Sam ordered a smile on his face.

“Yes Sir, I’ll be down.” You said, saluting the man as he chuckled. He rubbed your (H/L) (H/C) hair before making his way out.

You might have lost the man of your dreams, but at least you still have the majority of your team to pick you up when you crash too hard.

So you took a shower, grabbing the black jeans with your red tank top and a blue flannel shirt. Your hair back as you made your way down to the kitchen.

|

     Sam was right, it smelled heavenly because it was. The menu held of eggs, bacon, toast, and fruit galore sat on the table. The entire group sitting down as they were eating, you sat beside Bucky as your head rested on his bionic arm.

“Thank you for being here for me Buck, I forgot to even check on you.” You whispered so only his ears would hear.

“I’ll be okay, so will you Love Bug,” Bucky said, kissing the top of your head as you began having conversations with the others.

They clued you in how it would be a busy day because they planned to take you out and just have a day with you.

|

     This day had included everything, from Arcade games in the compound to going to the local bar to relax and have a few drinks.

The day was fun, from start to end, your day concluding at the bar had ended perfectly. You took shots with the crew, played pool with Sam, Bucky, and Clint. Watching the guys along with Thor and Bruce chug some ale. Then Wanda, Pepper, Carol and you sang to some old hits from the ’90s.

Finally, it ended with you getting a dance from Barnes himself. The two just swaying to the music as you finally had gotten the chance to be happy, and it was all thanks to the amazing family you had come to love over the years.

Little did you know, going home was going to ruin your night.

___________________________________________

~Arriving back at the compound. ~

___________________________________________

     F.R.I.D.A.Y. was instructed that the lights were to be manually turned on and off. It felt good to have at least that much normal in a smart house.

So you headed inside, following close behind Bucky because you needed to change out of the clothes you were wearing into your soft pajama set. The others were not too far back, making their way towards the home.

Bucky had flicked the lights on, his eyes traveling the room as he froze due to a regular face was sitting on the sofa. This causing Bucky to not move more than five feet from the doorway, you nearly ran into the back of him.

|

     “Jesus Barnes, a warning next time yeah?” Your laugh holding your joking tone, yet it turned serious when you realized how Bucky’s demeanor had changed.

“Bucky what’s the-“ You questioned, your eyes following his glance as your phone fell out of your hands. The rest of the group gathering inside as they stood still in position

There, in the spot of the red sofa that sat directly under the light, a body sat.

The body belonging to no one other, than to -

Steve.Fucking.Rogers.

__________________________________________

Hello, wow that was a post huh? I will be working on the final part of this mini-series. I just figured to highlight on how I think the others would treat anyone in the readers situation.

I hope this gave you some type of feeling, I can’t wait to end this first writing piece of mine!

[whumpallday]

Whumpee’s-R-Us VS Whumpee Barn: First Impressions

So, this post was inspired by @shameless-whumper‘s Unboxing and @my-whumpy-little-heart’s Defective. We always hear about the rivalry between Whumpee’s-R-Us and Whumpee Barn, but why not end the argument once and for all? 

TW: Dehumanization, mild physical abuse.

“Hey guys, welcome back!” A blue head of hair pops up on-screen, smiling at the camera. “It’s Starr here, from This-Or-That, where we compare to see what really works!” The camera cuts to another angle, highlighting her short haircut.  “Sooooo, over the past couple weeks, we’ve had a new trend take the internet by STORM. Box Boys!!” A couple pictures of advertised Box Boys show up to the left of her face as she holds up her hand, pre-choreographed to look like she’s holding them. “Yep! These little cuties have been all over the place, so naturally I was dying to do a video about them!” 

“However, you know me and you guys know I can’t do something without comparing to see what’s good, and what’s better!” The camera angle changes again, this time showing her as she sits at her desk, talking with her hands. “So here’s the dealio guys. I talked with Whumpee’s-R-Us and Whumpee Barn, the two main companies that I’ve heard about. They were both super helpful and they each agreed to send me one, so I could take it to the test, and see whose product was actually better!” 

Starr leans in, cupping a hand to her mouth like she’s telling a secret. “Don’t tell them, but I think they both just wanted to show each other up.” She laughs, and pulls away. “So, I’m way excited for this, so let’s get right into the video! But before we do, don’t forget to like and subscribe, and hit the little bell so you get notified on all my updates!” She winks, and then the camera changes again. 

The camera switches to a full-studio view, showing the white backdrop and a couple of shelves. In the center of the camera is a bar-stool, and sitting to either side are two big boxes. Starr walks on camera from the left, and sits down on the bar stool smiling. 

“So guys, I know you’re all so excited to get to the unboxing, I know I can’t wait! Unfortunately, you guys know the drill.” She looks to the left and the camera slides to a familiar thumbnail, with the words Website and Customer Service Review on a blue speckled background. Her fingers come from the right, pushing that away and revealing a close up of her on the camera. 

“So, first impressions of each website." The camera shows the Whumpee's-R-Us website as it scrolls down the page. "Whumpee's-R-Us had a really great layout, it was easy to find everything I wanted, and their customer service was eager to answer any questions I had. Their website was also really modern, with tons of examples of Box Boys."

The view switches to the Whumpee Barn website. "Whumpee Barn's website was a bit harder to look through, and there definitely weren't as many options. The website had a more rural look to it, a bit more rustic. But I guess that's what you get when barn is part of the title, eh?" She laughs, then continues.

"I ended up going random for both my boys, there were just so many options!" The camera switches back to Starr, smiling into the center. "But back to business. For websites, I give Whumpee's-R-Us a 5-Starr rating, because of the clean, sleek look, and it was really easy to navigate." A small counter pops up on the bottom of the screen, with five little pictures of her face, all of them colored in. 

"I'm giving Whumpee Barn a 4-Starr rating. It was really good, but it could be a bit more up-to-date on the current styles and trends.” She flips her hair, revealing a purple layer underneath the blue. “Okay! Now it’s time to start on the unboxing, which I’m excited for, and I know all of you are too!!” 

The camera cuts to a full-room view again, with Starr standing between the two boxes. She waves. “So we’re about to open the boxes, and I couldn’t decide which one to open first, so I flipped a coin and we’re opening the W-R-Us first!” She claps her hands, and walks around one of the boxes, labeled Whumpees-R-Us. She grabs some scissors and starts opening the box, grabbing the instructions. 

“Okay guys, here are the instructions for the W-R-Us Box Boy. It says to start with water, and then...” She squints. “Percussive impact with the palm or back of hand.” She smiles at the camera and shrugs. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out!” 

She removes the rest of the packing, then shoots the camera a big smile and it zooms in. “Guys!!! Look at him! He’s so cute!!!” She pulls up a thin, pale and blindfolded boy, dotted with freckles and with a mess of bright red hair. She grabs a water bottle and undoes it, gently holding it up to his lips. “Hydrate him, remember? Probably hasn’t had any water for a while.” 

The boy barely reacts to being pulled up, but as the water is put to his lips, he starts drinking. Quickly, like it was going to be taken away. Starr lets him drink as much as he wants, until the bottle runs dry. She turns to the camera with wide eyes. “Wow! Sure was thirsty! Okay! Onto step two. Percussive Impact.” 

She gently taps his cheek with her hand, increasing the pressure as he doesn’t respond. She looks towards the camera and shrugs, then slaps his cheek, making his head turn from the impact. After the slap, his head turns back towards Starr hesitantly, as if looking for her. 

Starr smiles, then takes off his blindfold revealing bright green eyes. They look wildly around the room, trying to take it all in. She squeals a bit. “Awwwww.... He’s even cuter!!” She takes his face in her hands, smiling up at him. “Aren’t you the cutest thing ever?” His eyes go to her, and the corner of his mouth twitches up in a hesitant, almost smile. 

Starr drops his face, leaving him in the box as she stands up and goes over to the Whumpee Barn box. “Okay! So we’ve done one, and he’s adorable, let’s see how the other one compares!” She smiles widely, walking to the other box and starting to open it up.  

She pauses as she brings up these instructions, on a booklet. “Wow! This is quite the user manual! W-R-Us had one of those too, but it wasn’t as big.” She starts flipping through it. “Hmm... User warranty, disclaimer, etc and legal stuff... Ooo! Found it! Opening the product. Step one: Remove packaging from Product.” She takes off the top layer of bubble wrap, revealing the back of someone kneeling in the box.

“Step two. Use collar to bring product to kneeling position. Hmm, this is new, the W-R-Us one didn’t come with a collar, they just came with a blindfold.” She shrugs, grinning at the camera and grabs the collar around the boy’s neck, yanking him up. The boy flinches at her touch, but comes up, kneeling upright and breathing heavily. 

“Oooo! He’s a cutie too!” She turns his head towards the camera, showing off an olive toned skin, with brown wavy hair. His jaw is clenched, and the blindfold doesn’t conceal a frown on his face. 

“Next they say to give him water too, so here goes!” She holds the water to his lips and he pulls back at first, then realizes what it is and starts drinking. His lips are slightly chapped. 

“Okay! Now we can take the blindfold off so here goes. Let’s see how this guy compares to the other!” Starr reaches for the blindfold, untying it and not being too gentle. The blindfold comes off, and she turns his face towards the camera. Blue eyes stare back, eyebrows furrowed and a glare on his face. Starr doesn’t seem to notice, turning his face back to her.

“Another cutie!!! Honestly guys, I’ve got the real haul right here!” She stands up, looking between the two boys sitting in the boxes. “I’m gonna cut to review, and we’ll do the rest of the unboxing in another video!” She waves, and the camera cuts to her, sitting at the desk again. 

She snaps her fingers, and a tally board comes up on-screen, with two sections. One with W-R-Us and one with W-Barn. 

“Soooo, First-Impressions-Tally! You all know how this works! Since this is a multi-video review, we’ll keep track of the tally’s and the one with the most at the end is the winner! This test will go on for three months, so I’ll try to give them out sparingly.” She winks into the camera, referencing her love of showering the coveted “tally-marks” in previous videos. 

“So, right off the bat I noticed that both W-R-Us and W-Barn tried to keep quality high, and sent adorable boys. That gets them both a tally mark.” A line appears in each box, and a picture of both of the boys pops up. The redhead, looking into the camera with hunched shoulders and a bit of a hesitant look, and the blue-eyed boy, sitting up straight and glaring into the camera. The pictures shrink and move to the bottom right of the screen. 

“However, I did notice that the W-Barn Box Boy is going to need a bit more training. I definitely did not like the way he was looking at me. So that’ll give one tally to W-R-Us." The tally appears in the corner, in a little sparkle of glitter. 

Starr flips her hair, showing the purple underneath. “That’s about it for the initial review, I’ll be uploading more content and reviews soon, so make sure to hit the notifications bell if you want to see more W-R-Us vs W-Barn!” 

She leans back, and the two pictures of the box boys come back up, filling the screen. 

“I’m so excited to finally have my box boys, but I’m so sure it’ll be totally worth the wait! This video is getting a bit on the long side, but I’m just dying to know! What do you think I should name them? I’ve got two, and I wanna hear all your suggestions! So, leave a comment in the comment section down below, and I’ll announce names in my next video!” 

The pictures disappear, and the camera focuses back in on her face. “As always, this isn’t possible without you guys and I love you all to bits! Don’t forget to like and subscribe, and click to get notified of all my new uploads! We’ll see you next time, on This Or That!” 

Next one here.

[becasbelt]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Pitch Perfect (Movies) Rating: G Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell Characters: Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell Additional Tags: Fluff, Established Relationship, Post-PP3

Summary:

Beca and Chloe get stuck in a massive traffic jam in LA. Boredom, teasing, and fluff ensue.

* * *

-5:26 PM-

“Come on! Let’s get a fucking move on, people!”

Chloe giggles at Beca’s annoyance with the traffic in front of them. “I really don’t think that’s going to help this situation at all, babe.”

Beca honks the car’s horn and glares at the person in the car next to them when they glance over. “Well it should,” she stews. “This is fucking ridiculous. I hate LA traffic.”

When Beca had kissed Chloe on the USO tour, Chloe’s entire world had changed for the better. After years of dropping hints, Beca finally figured out that Chloe was in love with her and admitted that she was in love with her, too, after opening for DJ Khalid. Fast forward a few months to now where Chloe went to vet school in West Hollywood while Beca worked on her first album. They were both living their dreams, and Chloe was still pinching herself to make sure it was all real.

Right now, though, it didn’t really feel like a dream. They had gone out for a quick grocery run at around 4:00 and were now apparently stuck in rush hour traffic. In the past half hour they’d gone about one mile, much to Beca’s frustration.

“What’s even going on up there?” Beca asks. “Why the hell aren’t we moving?”

“You know how bad traffic can be here,” Chloe shrugs as she scrolls through her phone. “This is nothing new.”

“Yeah, but I feel like it isn’t usually this bad.” Beca honks the horn again, as if that will make the mile long traffic ahead of them move faster.

They sit in silence while Beca stews and grumbles, the sounds of cars honking and the radio playing softly filling up the space around them. Beca cranes her neck to try and see farther in front of her, but to no avail. Eventually, she slumps down in her seat in defeat.

“Well now we’re not even moving at all,” the grumpy brunette laments, putting the car in park. She crosses her arms angrily over her chest.

“Apparently there’s a huge crash like three miles ahead of us,” Chloe informs her, pulling up a news coverage clip from her Twitter feed and passing her phone over to show Beca. “A bunch of semis collided and spilled stuff all over the highway. It’s pretty bad.”

Beca scowls at the device and hands it back. “Great. GREAT. This is just perfect. I love this for us right now.”

“At least we didn’t have any plans for tonight,” Chloe says, trying to sound positive.

Beca just groans and hits her head against the steering wheel.

-5:45 PM-

“Ugh, can we skip this song?”

“Why? You don’t like it?”

“It’s fine, but it’s way too happy for this situation.”

“Well, in that case, I think I’ll keep it on. You need a little positivity right now, Bec.”

“You know, if I didn’t love you so much I’m positive that I would hate you.”

“That’s the spirit!”

-6:02 PM-

“Okay, that’s it, I’m turning the car off,” Beca announces after they haven’t moved in twenty minutes. She turns the key in the ignition, shutting the engine off but keeping the music on.

Chloe raises an eyebrow. “You know, now that you’ve turned the car off we’ll probably start moving soon. That’s usually how it goes.”

“All the more reason to turn it off, then,” Beca replies with a cheeky grin. She reaches down and unbuckles her seatbelt, and Chloe does the same. “You know,” Beca says a moment later, tearing her eyes away from the cars around them to look at Chloe. “If I have to get stuck in a giant traffic jam, I’m glad you’re stuck here with me.”

A grin spreads on Chloe’s face and she bites her bottom lip. “You’re such a sap, Mitchell,” she teases, reaching over to pinch at Beca’s cheek. Beca swats her hand away.

“You see, this is why I never use sincerity,” Beca complains with a glare. “I’m always made fun of whenever I do.”

Chloe softens slightly. “That’s only because I love it so much when you’re sincere,” she says sweetly, leaning in to kiss Beca’s cheek. She pulls back to see a slight blush on the other girl’s face. “And I’m really glad I’m here with you, too.”

Beca grins and looks away shyly, turning up the music’s volume instead of answering.

-6:19 PM-

Chloe huffs and slumps down in her seat. “I’m borrrred.”

Beca, who’s busy answering emails, glances over at her. “Yeah, I know. I heard you the first fifteen times you told me.”

“Well I’m bored because you’re not paying attention to me,” Chloe laments. She sticks her hand out the open window. “I thought we were in this together, but you’re off in superstar land.”

Beca winces and clicks off her phone, setting it in the cup holder. “Sorry, it’s just Theo asking about some stuff for the album.”

A car nearby starts blasting “Elmo’s World” from its speakers, and Chloe is momentarily distracted before responding to Beca. “What does he want this time?”

Beca starts shuffling between radio stations. “He doesn’t like some of the lyrics for the one we’re recording tomorrow, so he was sending over some revisions.”

Chloe hums. “Did you like them?”

“Eh,” Beca shrugs, apparently indifferent. “They were fine. I wasn’t too attached to the original lyrics anyways.”

“That’s good, I guess.”

They sit in silence for a while and Chloe turns her attention back to the car still playing Elmo’s theme song, intrigued.

“Okay, well now I’m bored.”

Chloe looks over at Beca. “Oh how the turntables,” she says, quoting The Office with a raised eyebrow.

Beca rolls her eyes. “I hate that show,” she claims.

“Sure you do,” Chloe says, nodding her head. “That’s why I caught you watching it when I got home the other day.”

“That means nothing,” Beca defends immediately, crossing her arms over her chest. “It just happened to be on when I turned on the TV.”

Chloe hums in disbelief. “If that’s what you’re going to stick with, then good for you.”

Beca huffs. “Well, it’s the truth, so,” she punctuates the unfinished thought with a tongue click.

“You want to watch it right now?”

“…well I guess it couldn’t hurt. Since we’re both bored and all.”

-6:51 PM-

“Babe, this is your song!”

“Okay, we’re changing it for sure this time. Ow! What was that for, dude?”

“Beca Mitchell, don’t you dare switch away from this song.”

“Okay, okay. Jesus, did you really have to hit me that hard?”

“It was a preventive strike.”

“It was mean.”

“Poor baby. Do you want me to kiss it better?”

“I mean… it might make me feel a little better. It’s worth a shot, at least.”

-7:08 PM-

Chloe stifles a grin as Beca slyly places a hand on her lower thigh. She continues to flip through the car manual she found in the glove box like she hasn’t noticed. “Hey, Bec, I think I finally know how to change the time on the clock. They have complete step-by-step instructions in here and everything.”

“That’s nice,” Beca says distractedly. Her fingers begin to draw lazy circles along the bare skin on the inside of her thigh, slowly making their way farther up Chloe’s leg. Chloe clears her throat to focus herself.

“We can also change the display to show what cardinal direction we’re going in, too.”

“Neat.”

“And if you hold down the hazard button for ten seconds, the car will self-destruct.”

“Awesome.”

Chloe snaps the booklet shut. “Beca, you know we can’t start something right now,” she lectures, gesturing down at her lap, and while Beca blushes and looks guilty, she doesn’t remove her hand. “There are literally people all around us.”

Beca shrugs. “I don’t think they’re paying attention,” she says lowly, lightly dragging her fingers along smooth skin. Chloe gulps and resists the urge to spread her legs further. “No one would notice if we just…”

She trails off as she leans forward to place a warm kiss on Chloe’s jawline. Chloe sighs and closes her eyes at the feeling of wet heat moving along her neck. She weaves a hand through Beca’s hair and tilts her head to allow her more access.

Chloe’s eyes lazily drift back open and she’s met with the sight of an old lady in the car next to theirs staring right at them. Embarrassment replaces the arousal in Chloe’s body, and she hastily pushes Beca off of her. Beca looks at her in confusion.

“Uh, people are paying attention, apparently,” Chloe explains, gesturing subtly to the old lady. Beca’s confusion is immediately overtaken by shock and a blush spreads across her cheeks. She waves awkwardly to the lady and pivots in her seat to stare look pointedly out the other window.

Okay, so they definitely needed to keep their hands to themselves in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Chloe files the information away for future reference.

-7:32 PM-

Beca groans and pushes her seat as far away from the steering wheel as she can, stretching out her legs. “It’s too damn hot in here.”

Chloe, who’s waving the car’s insurance papers in front of her face to cool off, nods in agreement. “It really is. Are you sure we can’t turn on the car for a little bit?”

“We’re pretty low on gas,” Beca says hesitantly. “I don’t want to risk running out as soon as we finally get out of this mess.”

Chloe pouts but doesn’t fight her on it. She looks out the window and sees some people ahead of them standing outside of their cars talking and gets an idea. Beca peers curiously over at her when Chloe opens her door.

“Dude, what are you doing?”

“I am getting some fresh air,” Chloe states as she gets out of the car. The blood starts rushing through her legs like normal again while a gentle breeze brushes against her sweaty forehead. Chloe lets out a sigh of relief. She closes the door behind her and rounds to the driver’s side of the car.

Beca squints up at her through her open window. “You’re really going to be one of those people that gets up and walks around during a traffic jam?”

Chloe leans down, resting her forearms on the window sill and sticking her head back in the car a bit. “I don’t see any other options. It’s better than sweating through our clothes in the hot car.”

Beca glances down at her slightly damp t-shirt and plucks at it with her fingers, frowning. “You may have a point.” She turns off the car all the way and pushes open her door, joining Chloe on the road. Chloe claps her hands in excitement.

“It’s kind of neat just standing out on the highway like this, don’t you think?” she asks, turning around in place to take in her surroundings. Beca chuckles and lets her gaze drift to some cars off in the distance.

“It is a small sort of accomplishment, I suppose.”

Chloe takes one of Beca’s hands and tugs her to the trunk of their car. “I’m hungry. Didn’t we buy some granola bars or something?”

Beca opens the trunk and sifts through the grocery bags inside. “Doesn’t look like it, babe,” she says, but sticks her hand in a bag anyways. Her tongue pokes out in concentration as she tries to get a grip on something in the bag, and Chloe bites her lip at how cute the expression makes her girlfriend look. Then, a look of victory crosses Beca’s face. “Aha! I knew these were in there!” Beca pulls her hand out to produce a box of frosted sugar cookies.

She starts attempting to open them while Chloe wrinkles her nose in confusion. “I didn’t know you bought those,” she says, watching Beca fail to open the plastic packaging. “When did you add those to the cart?”

Beca doesn’t tear her eyes away from her challenge. “You were looking at that magazine cover I was on, and I snuck it on the belt,” she says, the struggle eminent in her voice.

Chloe watches her fight the box in amusement for a few more seconds before gently prying it away from Beca’s hands, opening it with ease. She hands it back to Beca with a sweet smile. Beca attempts to look unembarrassed. “Thanks,” she mutters before reaching in and taking a cookie out, shoving half of it in her mouth at once.

They munch on the box of cookies, sitting on the hood of the car. A few people come up to them to make small talk, mostly commenting on how sucky the situation is, though none of them stick around for very long. Soon the cookies are gone, leaving Chloe and Beca to sit in comfortable silence.

Beca reaches over and pulls Chloe’s left hand into her lap, playing with her fingers. Chloe smiles softly and looks over at the brunette, but Beca’s eyes are focused on their hands. Lithe fingers run along the tendons on the back of her hand, and up and down the veins lining the inside of her wrist. Beca delicately rubs her thumb over Chloe’s ring finger with a contemplative look on her face, then brings their hands up to press a kiss to her knuckles a moment later.

Chloe hums in contentment and leans against Beca’s side, watching people ahead of them walking around and conversing with one another. Beca squeezes her hand once, and Chloe’s smile grows even wider.

-8:14 PM-

“Chlo, am I crazy, or is that an ice cream truck?”

Chloe looks in the direction that Beca is pointing in to see that, yes indeed; there is an ice cream truck in the near distance. To make it even more bizarre, people seem to be buying ice cream from the truck.

Beca and Chloe look at each other. They come to a silent agreement and slide of the hood of the car. When they reach the truck, there’s only one other person in line, so they’re able to quickly purchase two cones – chocolate for Chloe, vanilla for Beca – and weave their way through the traffic back to their own car.

They lean against the passenger side door and watch the sun slowly start to sink in the sky as they eat their ice cream. Chloe steals licks from Beca’s cone every once in a while, which her girlfriend pretends to grumble about, but Chloe can tell she doesn’t actually mind.

The ice cream truck starts playing music in the distance, and Chloe smiles as Beca starts quietly harmonizing with it under her breath.

-8:24 PM-

“If I die in this traffic jam, will you tell Theo that I won’t be able to make it to our meeting on Wednesday?”

“You’re not going to die, Beca.”

“I’m starting to lose hope that we’ll ever get out of this.”

“You’re so overdramatic.”

“Oh yeah? Well you’re under dramatic.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know. Give me a break, my brain’s fried from sitting here for three hours.”

“Fair enough.”

-8:47 PM-

Chloe glances up from her nearly dead phone and does a double take at what she sees. She slaps at Beca’s arm excitedly. “Bec, people are moving!”

Beca lurches up from her slumped position over the wheel. She rubs at her eyes and blinks groggily out the front windshield. “There is a God after all,” she murmurs in awe, starting up the car.

Chloe whoops loudly as they begin to drive, joining in with the cheers from the cars around them. Beca lets out a victory cry of her own that makes Chloe double over laughing in her seat. Chloe starts belting out “We Are the Champions” at the top of her lungs, and Beca doesn’t even try to protest before she starts to sing along.

When Beca steers the car onto the exit ramp to get off the highway, Chloe lets out a contemplative hum and says, “You know, that actually wasn’t too bad. I think that was a great way to spend our evening.”

“And I think that’s probably the craziest thing you’ve ever said.”

“Okay, rude.”

“It’s true, dude.”

“Hmm. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I love you.”

Beca grins and reaches out to take Chloe’s hand. “Love you, too, weirdo.”