#like. an actual drawing can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to 4+ hours

[cosmicsketch]

How do you deal with art blocks?

I've been cutting down on bad habits like quitting cigarettes or spending too much and incorporating healthier coping mechanisms in my life to improve my quality of life, little by little. However I'm finding myself now feeling demotivated from going through these changes that have been affecting my creativity and facing art block these days.

I have tried drawing things I used to draw and it didn't seem to work. The ideas won't come as naturally as they used to. I have realized lately this year i have taken a habit of taking a long break whenever I have this issue which actually gets me nowhere. So again i have to start thinking differently.

Doodling really helps free up my mind. I have noticed when I keep painting and drawing for my work, i get stuck into this routine and the same kinds of themes of artworks that have become more habitual which leaves no room for flexibility and spontaneity. To make things easier, i had cut an A4 paper into 4 pieces smaller. Whenever I feel like doodling, I grab a paper and pen start drawing random lines, shapes and objects without really thinking of a plan to be more playful and less rigid in my creativity. I do this at least a few times a day each time taking like 5 - 10 minutes. After I wake up in the morning or after a meal or before I start painting or after playing a video game and so on. This helps me to fight through my art block but at the same time it also needs consistency to work. The more practice the easier it feels but this alone is not enough for myself.

After reading the atomic habits book, i felt inspired to make my own habit tracking schedule. To keep myself motivated i gave myself some rules to apply for next month. My goal is to work 8 hours a day except once a week which can be my rest day. Although after going through a big break a few times this year my speed has been slower than before and to get back on track i tend to put more pressure on myself which leaves me even more dissatisfied. Perfectionist tendencies? Indeed. So I'm making a system. Each hour I work for i get a reward. The more hours i work the more reward i can have. If i work for an hour, i get to snack on a chocolate, if I work for 4 hours i can order food home and give myself a treat. I made a rule also, if I lose a day of work, my saved reward will be lost. I can stack up and save these rewards for my rest day where I can truly enjoy or use it that very day. In all, it's like a video game. (I'm a gamer so this hypes me up) so far it has inspired me to work harder. Second day of trying and I was able to do art for 2 hours + even though i ruined a couple of them as well. It's also important to tell yourself you're making progress instead of beating yourself up. When I do beat myself up, I'm not going anywhere and setting myself back. So no point in that. Usually i work putting a stop timer from my phone for one hour. I can take a break anytime and get back to it when i feel ready again. This seems to be effective because the few days I tried to do art before then, I was barely able to keep on for 30 minutes.

Next I'm gonna try listing down some of the things i want to practice painting or drawing. Like I wanna learn how to draw cities and architecture which I can be bad at. I would like to learn how to draw more detailed trees or get creative like create my own kinds of flowers in my imaginary world.

This is what I came up with to fight through art block. I shall post again to update on the progress.

[tarosin]

the great adventures of y/n and ranboo

this is an extra part to the great adventures series

summary: part two to the angst imagine (the not so great adventures of y/n tommy tubbo jack and ranboo) it’s a happier ‘ending’ please read what is written in bold

this is an “alternative ending” around 15 years into the future this doesn’t mean this is actually how the series is going to end im writing it now and including it as part of series as their friendship is already established i can confirm y/n and the group are going to have a happy ending when the series eventually comes to an end this also does not mean the series is anywhere near the end i plan on continuing the series as vlogs come out, i feel the need to confirm this now love between y/n and ranboo in this imagine is completely platonic

it had been about a month since you last streamed whereas ranboo continued to stream a few days after the fallout as he wanted to make sure you were going to be okay. even though ranboo knew this huge fallout would eventually happen, it still hurt him, especially since he knew there was no way to prevent it, the four of you in the same house mixed with the stress of being some of the most-watched content creators made living rather difficult. it was like walking on eggshells as you didn’t want to interrupt someone's stream, then there was the additional stress of obsessive fans finding out where the four of you lived, you still remember that day very vividly. you were sat in between tubbo and ranboo watching the office whilst Tommy was in an interview when you received a message from your mod.

Chris: hey y/n I received this message earlier I don’t want to scare you, but maybe get the locks changed. someone sent a message claiming this is your address *image of message from ‘fan’*

it didn’t take long for tubbo and ranboo to receive a message from their mods saying the same thing

“holy shit...”

“chances are Tommy has the message too. we shall go check around the house when Tommy is done with the interview.”

luckily no one ever showed up to the house, but the fact some people were so obsessed to the point they found your address was enough to put everyone in the house on edge. and now it was just you and ranboo in the house. you didn’t feel safe as even though ranboo promised to not let anything happen, you didn’t wanna risk it.

“we should move. there’s no point in having such a big house for two people, what are we going to use the extra space for heh? hide and seek with people who have our address. no thank you. I say we move leave this mess behind and start completely over, hell I’d feel safer in the us and that’s saying something”

ranboo agreed the house didn’t have the happiest memories attached to it anymore, it hurt walking past the hallway as it would bring back the memory of him crying into the crook of y/ns neck whilst tubbo left the house.

“let’s do it, I’ll do an early stream then we can look for houses. go take a shower. I’ll stay close to the door so you’re safe, then you can stay in my room whilst I stream, you can join me if you would like.”

“you’re being very protective all of a sudden...let me guess you got the message from our mods announcing the obsessive fans are at it again?”

“go take a shower.”

“no.”

ranboo ended up picking you up, carried you to the bathroom and turned the shower on before putting you on your feet.

“quick shower I’ll see you later.”

and with that he left the room shutting the door behind him, 30 minutes later you got changed and followed ranboo to his room ready to join him whilst he streams

“hey boo, can I join you? I kinda wanna get into streaming again.”

“I'm so glad you asked, I was going to do a face cam stream, if that’s okay?”

“of course.”

you grabbed his mask and glasses whilst he locked the door so you were both safe. “here you go.”

“thank you.”

the pair of you started the stream and it was honestly going well, you were having so much fun you forgot about all the negative things currently going on, you began to understand why ranboo continued streaming as for those 2-4 hours of streaming it felt as though everything was back to normal. 3 hours later the two of you ended stream and Twitter went crazy. tweets ranged from fans talking about how ranboo was streaming with you, how Tommy was in chat, and how tubbo was modding as people who mentioned anything about their address being leaked were banned by tubbo. the one thing that caught ranboos eye was fan art and a picture of you both from the stream captioned ‘they’re platonic soulmates your honour’ ranboo went as far to like, retweet and comment on it.

ranaltboo: glad you liked the stream it was great having y/n back, think I might make them play tattletail next stream

definitelynoty/n: isn’t that the Furby game that terrified you in 2021? bring it on boo!

Twitter went crazy over this interaction, you had finally come back to social media after months of being inactive, and it looked like you were here to stay. a month later you and ranboo moved out of the house and sold it to your aunt and her wife and their three adopted children, you explained the situation and even changed the locks for them all before they moved in.

“Please do tell us if anyone shows up who shouldn’t be. we changed the locks as you were aware- oh hello little one.”

you noticed one of their children decided to cling onto your leg

“I like your hair it’s colourful!”

“Indeed it is.”

“WOAH A GIANT!”

the little girl let go of your leg and ran to ranboo asking to be picked up, unsure of what to do he looked towards you. however, you were too busy laughing about the fact he was compared to a giant.

“I'm so sorry uh if you want to pick her up you can, you don’t have to.”

“pick me up, tall man... I want to be taller!”

ranboo ended up standing next to you with an arm around your waist whilst the child sat on his shoulders happily playing with his hair.

“ranboo do not drop that child.”

“I didn't- I didn't plan on it y/n.”

eventually, it was time to leave and the child reluctantly let go of ranboo.

“bye-bye!! hope to see you soon!”

soon enough you were at a smaller house, far away from the old house, leaving behind the negative feelings. it could only get better, a week later the pair of you had settled into the new house, it finally felt like home. you and ranboo were now streaming full time again, safe to say the two of you were thriving and closer than ever.

“so I’m thinking if I hit the sub-goal today I’ll let chat pick what colour I dye my hair.”

“make it higher, and I’ll let you cut my hair.”

“Are you being serious? oh my god!”

a few minutes later you took to Twitter to announce you were going live.

y/n: kidnapping children in the sims with ranboo psst check the subgoal.

within 20 minutes you had hit the sub-goal, chat ended up picking another random neon colour for your hair.

“right hair dye and the cutting stream will be this weekend, now let’s go back to kidnapping.”

tubbo, tommy, and jack felt awful for what happened and went back to the house where you used to live, hoping to see you there so they could apologise, tubbo knocked on the door only to be met by a young child.

“my sister watches you on twitch!”

“oh that’s lovely.. are y/n and ranboo here?”

an older woman came to the door.

“oh no, I’m sorry dear they both moved out, but they left this box and said to give it to you if you returned.”

“do you know where they moved to?”

“I'm sorry dear, I'm not allowed to tell you that information for safety reasons.”

“I understand, thanks anyway.”

they ended up going back to jacks where the three of them had been staying.

“We should open the box.”

tubbo opened the box and emptied the items onto the floor, inside was the rocks y/n handed tubbo from every trip, photos of the group, a necklace y/n had gifted to Tommy a day before the argument, and a hat y/n had taken from jack during a trip to a zoo.

“what the fuck!”

“holy shit!”

“they really kept all these in hopes we would come back?”

“and now we’re too late.”

it was now the weekend you and ranboo were ready to stream, you stood leaning on ranboo who was significantly smaller than you as you lowered the chair he sat on.

“starting stream...now.”

after the starting soon intro played, you explained what was happening to any new viewers or people who didn’t watch the stream.

“so I’m about to become Edward Scissorhands...I love that film can we watch it later?”

“yeah mhm sure!”

you didn’t know this but your ex best friends were watching and ever so often would show up in the chat.

“so boo, what are we doing with your hair today?”

“just a trim please darling?”

“This is y/ns hairdressers you get what I’m capable of!”

you ended up doing a pretty good job of cutting ranboos hair, even he was impressed.

“I didn’t doubt you for a minute!”

“mhm sure thing please don’t mess up my hair tall one!”

soon enough you had the dye on. 45 minutes later you left to wash it off, leaving ranboo to entertain stream,

“chat I think I missed some of their hair it’s okay, I own scissors, I’ll just cut it.. speaking of they did a great job, didn't they? I honestly expected them to mess up.”

a few minutes later you joined ranboo again and spent the next few hours talking with chat. tubbo, tommy, and jack stayed the entire time. they loved the fact you and ranboo were able to stay close after what happened, Tommy noticed you were still wearing the necklace he got you many years ago and spammed them chat with him tubbo and jack

Tommy: THEYRE WEARING THE NECKLACE!!

jack: so what? they clearly don’t wanna talk to us.

tubbo: shut up listen to them.

“chat why are we spamming platonic soulmates?”

“they’ve been saying it all over Twitter, look on trending y/n.”

you started to blush slightly at all the amazing artwork soon enough the stream came to an end, after saying goodbye the pair of you sat together going through fan art. unfortunately the one that caught your eye was this one twitter post where the artist had created a drawing of a piece of paper with you, ranboo, tommy, tubbo, and jack, however the paper was ripped separating you and ranboo from the others, captioned ‘it was never meant to be’ this clearly upset ranboo as he took off his mask and glasses placing them on the desk before going straight to his bed.

“boo…are you okay?”

“Are you tired of me? are you going to leave next?”

“what? no of course not! I could never get tired of you, why do you ask?”

“everyone else has left..i thought they cared about us, i knew it would happen eventually and i couldn’t stop it, i’m sorry, y/n, please don’t hate me.”

you sat on the edge of the bed looking down at the floor,

“come here.”

you watched him roll over to face you.

“you know there’s no one else who I'd rather spend the rest of my life with, right…if i hated you i wouldn’t have moved house with you. it’s not your job to fix everything and make everything better, you’re a streamer for christ sake not a therapist.”

“i guess so.. can we watch that thing you were on about for ages.”

“edward scissorhands? “

“mhm!”

you could tell he wanted to be distracted, so you agreed and put the film on, towards the end you began to get upset due to how overwhelming everything was.

“Why are you crying?”

“poor Edward.”

“come here.”

ranboo pulled you into a hug you laid there crying into his chest, he knew that wasn’t the reason you were crying, but he wasn’t about to make you tell him, luckily it didn’t take long for you to stop crying as ranboo quickly distracted you.

“ranboo..”

“yeah y/n?”

“I feel bad i didnt realise how much pressure was on you whilst everyone was arguing.”

“Hey, it’s okay, is that what’s upsetting you?”

“mhm.”

“don’t blame yourself, i’d do it all over again to keep you safe and happy..then again i didn’t do a good job on keeping you happy.”

“you did..you were always there for me even when i gave up on social media, you shared your room with me after i started receiving creepy messages from that obsessed fan, hell you even went on adventures with me even though it was clear you hadn’t been sleeping, just so we could spend time together and forget about what was happening. you mean a lot to me boo.”

“i love you.”

“i love you too bud, I’m tired.”

“go to sleep, it’s been a long day.”

“okay.”

“you just staying there?”

“yes.”

“oh, oh okay, goodnight.”

about a year later the two of you were still thriving, ranboo got you a promise ring a few months earlier.

“heh what’s this for?”

“as your best friend i promise to stay by your side and keep you safe and make sure that you’re happy, in other words you're stuck with me till the end of time.”

“boo…i really don’t know what to say.. thank you so much!”

“you don’t have to say anything!”

you ended up going out to buy him a promise ring when he started the stream and decided to take your cousins with you now that they were a little older. ranboo was doing a facecam stream when the door slammed open revealing you covering your three younger cousins ranboo not realising you were hiding them from the camera, instinctively stood up covering the camera

“ranboooooo!”

“yes you three and y/n ,what do you need?”

“we would like to watch a film!”

“Okay, i’ll go put one on, y/n will you entertain chat?”

“sure thing boo boy!”

once they left you sat fixing your hair forgetting you were wearing the ring chat noticed this and went crazy, so did Tommys group with tubbo and jack.

tubbo: that’s a ring, right??

jack: yeah looks like it.

Tommy: holy shit I always thought if anyone was gonna get married it would be tubbo and y/n, they were inseparable.

tubbo: hilarious.

jack: it could just be a ring, no one mentioned marriage tommy!

Tommy: we should congratulate them.

jack: at least let them explain fucking hell.

soon enough ranboo came back into the room,

“sorry one of them found it hilarious to steal my glasses...”

“they’re little shits i swear to god but i love them.”

you both noticed chat going crazy and both looked at each other before laughing.

“i'm sorry, i can’t take you serious in the mask and glasses!”

“i can’t take you serious with neon hair, but here we are!”

“rude!”

you and ranboo quickly put an end to the rumours,

“no we’re not engaged or married, it is a promise ring. no they’re not our children, they’re y/ns cousins they just spend a lot of time here..chat stop calling me and y/n parents and comparing us to phil that’s not..that’s not how it works okay!”

“parent arc!”

“y/n, don’t encourage them!”

“it’s a little bit funny!”

soon enough the bit came to an end and eventually ranboo ended the stream.

“hey boo look what i got you”

you handed him a little black box, inside was a ring similar to yours

“i promise to always stick around and be here for you”

“oh my god”

ranboo tackled you into a hug thanking you several times for his rings. you and ranboo were living your best life meanwhile jack, tommy, and tubbo were stuck dealing with the guilt of what happened, but they’re weren’t giving up that easy. they wanted you both back, that’s when you received a notification, tommyinnit has sent you a message request: hey y/n can we talk..please?

taglist

@dumb-chaotic-bi-energy @uselesssapphickitten @l0ver0fj0y @etheriaaly @xx-smiley-xx @hawarun @kylobensgirl @cawcaw-pretty-thing @reverse-iak @renleicrashed @augustine-is-joy @c1loudee

[horansqueen]

Stuck With You - Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Things I’ll Never Say

🡪chapter 1  🡪chapter 2  🡪chapter 3  🡪chapter 4  🡪chapter 5  🡪chapter 6  🡪chapter 7  🡪chapter 8  🡪chapter 9  🡪chapter 10  🡪chapter 11 🡪chapter 12 🡪chapter 13 🡪chapter 14 🡪chapter 15 🡪chapter 16 🡪chapter 17 🡪chapter 18 🡪chapter 19 🡪chapter 20 🡪chapter 21 🡪chapter 22 🡪chapter 23 🡪chapter 24 🡪chapter 25 🡪chapter 26 🡪chapter 27 🡪chapter 28 🡪chapter 29 🡪chapter 30 🡪chapter 31 🡪chapter 32  🡪chapter 33 🡪chapter 34

College Enemies To Lovers AU

characters // masterlist // instagrams // mood board

If I could say what I want to say I'd say I want to blow you, away Be with you every night Am I squeezing you too tight If I could say what I want to see I want to see you go down On one knee Marry me today Guess, I'm wishing my life away With these things I'll never say

It don't do me any good It's just a waste of time What use is it to you What's on my mind If ain't coming out We're not going anywhere So why can't I just tell you that I care

click here to be on the update list

DEVON

                                                  I woke up with a groan and felt my head throb and ache just like it would do if I was hungover. I hadn't had a single drop even if I should have when I remembered the way I painted and for how long. I was pretty sure I had fallen asleep on the floor but when I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Niall's pretty face very close to mine.

My heart jumped in my chest and my lips parted before I licked them. He was sleeping and he looked so peaceful and motionless that I started wondering if he was actually breathing. I slipped my hand under the cover to reach for his naked chest and held my breath at how warm his skin was. It was a miracle my cold hand didn't wake up up but I still waited a few seconds, trying to feel his heart beating in his chest.

Every time I looked at him, I felt something twist in my stomach. I knew he wanted us to be official and if I listened to my heart, that's what I wanted too, but risking it was so scary I couldn't find the courage to give in to his request. I thought about Henry and how he had broken me, and I thought about Abby and how Niall could break me even more. There was no was I could heal my heart if he hurt me, it would be turned to complete dust and I knew it.

I found myself jealous of the way Niall was in love with Abby, and how he would have done anything for her. I was jealous of a past relationship of the man I had refused to date and I hated myself for it. I knew it wasn't rational and that it made no sense but I couldn't help it.

Perhaps, if I had met Niall before I met Henry... maybe if he had met me before he met Abby... In that specific case, maybe we could give each other the chance and the love we both deserved. The problem was that we both went through the exact same thing, or almost, and apparently, two persons who went through the same thing can understand each other, but can't help each other. I didn't know how true that saying was but I had heard it enough to hear it echo in my head every time I wanted to love again.

I brought my hand up to his face and brushed my fingertips on his cheek so softly that I felt a shiver run in my back. One of my fingers reached his bottom lip and I felt myself tear up. I had never met in my life a man like Niall and he was slipping through my fingers because of my fears and anticipations. It was unfair, and it was stupid, but the knot in my stomach was there permanently and I couldn't make it disappear. All the feelings that came back when I saw Henry again made me remember how bad love hurts and at that exact moment, laying in bed in front of Niall, I knew it was true.

I desperately wanted to kiss him but I knew he didn't want us to do anything anymore so I just swallowed hard and got out of the bed slowly. I searched for my painting and found it on the desk in a corner of the room, sighing low. I hated it and started nibbling on my bottom lip, trying to remember that I always hated my art in the first few days after making it, and that it was normal. Besides, artists are the worst critics of their own art.

I heard Niall move in bed and turned around just in time to see him reach for a pillow and bring it against him. He let out a short whimper and it made me wonder if he would have cuddled me if I was still in bed. I shook my head, trying to push that thought away, and finally search for a pen in the room, finally finding one in one of the drawers. I sat on the couch and started scribbling a few words on a paper. I really sucked at writing songs, but I could clearly remember a melody, especially one that really touched me, and it came in handy at that moment.

When I was done, I re-read what was written on the paper and raised my nose up before sighing again and folding the sheet, putting it away in my bag. I decided to take a quick shower to take the paint off my arms and face and when I walked back in the room, Niall was awake. I stopped walking and held my breath at the sight of his naked back. It's not like I had never seen Niall only wearing boxers but perhaps knowing I'm never get to touch him again made something twist in my stomach.

"Oh, hey." he let out when he turned around. "How did you sleep?"

I wanted to tell him that I slept better than I had in a while, if only because he was with me in the same bed. When I woke up, I felt the warmth of his body emanate on mine even if we weren't touching and I loved it way too much. I couldn't tell him that it would have been even better if he was holding me all night, but I wanted to, because I felt it all over my body. I felt it so intensely that I had to swallow a lump in my throat.

"Was nice, and you?"

"Good, thanks." he said, putting on sweatpants. "Better than the floor."

I sent him a small smile that he sent back and I licked my lips. "Thanks for bringing me in bed and tucking me in, last night. I vaguely remember."

"You're welcome, Devie."

I felt my heart flutter at the nickname and I realized I'd never get over it.

"So, you're going skiing today?"

"Snowboarding, yea." he let out, searching for his stuff in his bags. "You're gonna join us downstairs in a few hours?"

I nodded quickly and pressed my lips together as I stared at him. I loved how he moved around the room like it was just a random day and we were just used tp be around each other like that. To some extent, we were, since we shared the same room on campus, but it felt slightly different at that moment, more intimate, maybe. I let my mind wander, imagining what it would be like if we ended up dating and living together. Was that what I would see in the morning before he actually went to work?

"Okay, I'm ready. I'll see you later?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Mmhm." I nodded as I imagined him walking closing to me and bending down to kiss me.

Why did I like this scenario so much it made my heartbeats accelerate? I watched him leave and when the door closed behind him, I felt extremely empty and lonely. I got up after a few minutes and walked to my painting again, running my fingertips slowly on the colors I had used. Was it crazy to start painting with light colors so early after a break up? I turned my head to look at the door, hoping it would open again as my heart thumped hard in my chest. It was Niall, I knew it. It was him that brought in me all these new emotions and I liked it so much I felt myself tear up.

Without thinking, I searched through my bag and found a few pictures I had taken. I had taken the time to develop them by myself in the college darkroom and I had loved the result. Despite myself, the lights had added a few pale yellow spots and it looked amazing. At first, I wanted to numerize them and modify them but I realized I didn't need to.

I sat in bed and looked at them carefully. There were no full faces on any of them. My favorite was one of  Niall's naked shoulder with a bit of his back and hair. We could also see the top of my head and part of my forehead in it too as I lied down beneath him, and his fingers were slipped in my hair. I had no idea why this specific shot made me feel emotional but it was strong and it made something twist in my chest.

I got up and grabbed the piece of paper I had put in my bag earlier before I walked to the desk, sitting down in front of it. Slowly and carefully, I copied the lyrics I had scribbled while Niall was asleep behind the picture, along with a few lyrics that didn't belong to me. I had taken a lot of pictures in my life, but nothing like this one. Perhaps it was only because it meant so much to me... because he meant so much to me. It actually made me want to pain that picture and I quickly grabbed a blank canvas from my stuff before grabbing a pen. I was never really good at drawing people, I felt like the human body was too complex to draw, but I decided to make an exception this time. It didn't really matter anyway. When I'd add paint, the forms wouldn't be as defined and even if I knew nothing could be better than the actual picture, I felt like not painting it would eat me up inside.

I couldn't tell how long it took me but when I didn't stop until I was done. Normally, a painting like that could take me many days to create but somehow, it had turned out the way I wanted after only a few hours. I left it on the floor and decided to finally take an other shower, if only to take the paint from my hands, arms and face. I got out and quickly dressed before checking my phone. I had no message and I raised my nose up, telling myself they were probably busy skiing but I still decided to get downstairs, to the common living room. I loved how all the couches were placed with a fireplace in the middle. The first thing that made my heart jump in my chest was a laughter. I recognized it because I had to hear it for hours on a certain night and every time, it made my heart drop in my chest. Today was no exception. My eyes roamed around and found Abby who was laughing, throwing her head back. She was still wearing her beanie and coat and when I noticed Niall was the one she was talking with, I felt nauseous. He laughed too before taking a sip of his drink and Abby moved closer, placing her hand on his arm and letting it slip down.

I swallowed hard, knowing it probably meant nothing but telling myself that if this simple gesture made me feel like that, I'd never be able to be around Niall if he was dating an other girl, especially if that girl was Abby.

I held my breath and my lips parted when Niall turned around and our eyes met. I felt myself tear up and shook my head lightly before turning on my heels and leaving. I tried to keep my tears in, knowing it was ridiculous to be sad for that, and just as I was reaching the elevator, I felt his warm hand on my arm.

"Hey, Devie, where are you going?" he asked softly as I turned around. His face changed when he saw mine and took a step closer. "Woah, what's wrong, why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!" I let out a bit too roughly, taking a step back. "I didn't want to annoy you while you were flirting with your ex girlfriend."

"Devie, we weren't flirting." he argued. "At least, I was not."

"She was all over you." I just replied.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "So? That's what Abby does! Besides, you're texting with Henry and I haven't thrown a tantrum about it!"

"I'm not texting with Henry, what are you talking about?"

"You told me he messaged you when we were at my apartment!" he pointed out, making me frown.

"Yes! But I never said I answered him!" I let out a but louder. "Because I didn't!"

His face changed, his traits softened and he took a step closer. "You didn't?"

His voice was low and gentle and it calmed me instantly.

"No. I want to move on from him, I don't love him anymore."

Once again, Niall took a step closer and took his beanie off. I felt my lips curl very slightly on the light at the sight of his hair and he quickly passed his hand in it, messing it even more. He looked so pretty I felt my head tilt a bit on the right.

"If... If it makes you feel better, I don't have feelings for Abby anymore either. I can't even understand why I ever was in love with her." he added with a shrug. "Not that you really care, because you don't love me like that, right?"

I stared at him and blinked a few times, trying to decide what I was supposed to say. I could be mad at him but I loved the way he was looking at me, as if I was the only person that mattered in the world, as if he was about to jump on me to make me feel all the damn feelings he had for me inside him.

"Did I say that?" I just asked with an amused smile before licking my lip, taking a step back.

"Hey, stay with us, we were about to go out for dinner." he quickly proposed as we heard the doors of the elevator open. "You came here to spend time with your friends, right?"

My eyes roamed on him and I finally nodded. "Alright."

----

Niall was still telling me a story when we walked back in our room. It was late but neither of us really cared. I had a small talk with Louis who presented me his new girlfriend Eleanor, and I immediately liked her. Lewis was funny and the way Daxia looked at him made me happy. I tried not to give too much attention to Noah but he still bought me a drink and we had a small chat. All I wanted, though, was to be close to Niall, and I ended up scared he'd be annoyed that I followed him better than his own shadow. At some point, he had placed his hand on my thigh, moving closer to me to ask me if I wanted an other drink, but all I could think about was the fact that he was touching me.

We didn't drink too much though and when we closed the door of our room behind us, I was laughing because he was funny, and not because I was tipsy. He turned around and took a few steps back as I followed him, but when his lips curled into a cheeky smile, it made me frown.

"What do you have in mind?" I asked, unable to stop smiling.

"Are you tired?"

I frowned more but it only made his smile bigger. "Mm, no. Why?"

"Do you trust me?"

That question took me by surprise but I didn't have to ask myself the question. The answer came naturally. "Yes."

And I trusted him. I trusted him more than I trusted pretty much anyone, and it was one of the things that scared me in this relationship, whatever it was.

"Thank you." he just whispered, holding out his hand to me.

I breathed in but still slipped my palm on his and quickly, he pulled me out of the room. Instead to take the elevators, he brought me to the stairs and we ran down until the main floor, stopping abruptly in front of a door. I held my breath as Niall opened it very slowly, peeking out for a few seconds and finally holding his hand back for me. I grabbed it and he turned around to look in my eyes, bringing his finger on his lips to tell me to keep quiet. I nodded and followed him on the other side of the door until we reached a second door. He tried to open it but groaned and raised his nose up when he realized it was locked.

"Fuck."

I moved to look through the window and my lips curled when I noticed a pool. The lights of the room were off but there were a few at the bottom of the pool and the sight was great.

"I'm gonna try to steal the keys." he added, taking me out of my thoughts and making me blink.

"No wait!" I stopped him in a whisper, holding his arm. "What if you get caught?"

He sent me a small smile and his eyes roamed on my face before he shook his head. "Don't worry."

He left and I felt my hand slip from his arm. I held my breath and remained motionless as I waited for him to come back and it seemed to take forever. When he appeared again, my heart jumped in my chest, scared that it could be someone else, but he stopped right in front of me as I raised my eyebrows. A smirk quickly draw itself on his lips and he moved his hand up, showing me a  keychain with at least 20 keys on it.

"Okay, I'm impressed." I admitted low, making him chuckle.

It took him a few tries and he finally unlocked the door. We walked in slowly and when he closed the door behind us, I turned around to look at him.

"I don't have a swimsuit." I admitted, tilting my head.

"You have underwear." he chuckled, making me raise my eyebrows. "What? Nothing I haven't seen, isn't it what you said the other day?"

I pressed my lips together and moved my chin in his direction. "You, first."

He chuckled again and without hesitation, grabbed the bottom of his shirt, moving it over his head. I let my eyes travel on his chest as he worked on the button and zipper of his jeans, finally taking them off along with his socks. He looked way too good, illuminated by the soft lights in the pool, and my heart skipped a beat. I moved my gaze up until my eyes met his again and he sent me a soft smile.

"Your turn."

[adenei]

Hermione doing everything to seduce Ron but fails miserably. A hilarious Valentine's day fic. XD.

Hi anon! At first you had me stumped, but the idea started to unfold, and I enjoyed writing this one in the end. Please enjoy their first Valentine’s Day together

Warning: Implied Smut, but no actual Smut. 

**************************

Valentine’s Surprises

She’d read the books. She’d gotten special permission from the Headmistress. Hermione was fully prepared to give Ron the best Valentine’s Day surprise. This was the first Valentine’s Day that they were actually together and could celebrate properly, and she’d have to make it extra special because she probably wouldn’t get to see him for his birthday since it fell during the week this year.

It’d been six weeks since they’d seen each other over Christmas hols, and this whole long distance thing was getting old pretty quick for Hermione. She looked in the mirror and observed herself. Demelza had helped with her makeup, and she’d managed to tame her hair down a bit using Sleakeazy’s. It had a nice waviness to it, and was pulled back into a side plait.  She smiled as she stared down at her overnight bag. Massage oil, sexy red lingerie and a silk robe, the fuzzy throw blanket that was wrapped in decorative paper, rose petals and bath bombs...and a change of clothes for class tomorrow.  

If Hermione had planned everything out properly, Ron would be in for the surprise of his life. She knew he and Harry always went to the Burrow for Sunday dinner, normally arriving at four and getting back around seven. It was 4:30 now, and Hermione was heading to Professor McGonagall’s office, where she was planning to floo to Grimmauld Place. She had two and a half hours to bake biscuits, and set things up before setting herself up in his bed for him to come home and find her. 

Upon arriving at the Headmistress’ office, she was reminded that she needed to return at 8:30 the following morning, and Hermione profusely thanked her again for allowing her to leave. She stepped into the fireplace and in a few short moments found herself in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place. The boys had really done a fantastic job updating the home, making it brighter and more welcoming. 

Hermione set her bag down and began summoning the ingredients she needed to bake his favorite biscuits. Molly had shared the recipe. She only bothered with checking the ingredients because ‘if you could read, you could cook,’ right? Hermione quickly set to work preparing all the ingredients per the directions until she hit step seven. 

Wait...how was she even supposed to do that? She understood mixing the dry and the wet ingredients together normally, but there was a spell written, and having never read any magical cookbooks, Hermione was at a loss for what to do. She began panicking, looking around the kitchen for some sort of ‘how to’ book to help her through this. Of course the boys didn’t have one! She was opening and closing every cupboard she could find as she became more and more frantic. Then, she opened one particular cupboard, and a memory flashed before her eyes. 

Would it work? She had no idea, but she had to try. She was desperate for this night to go perfectly. “Kreacher?” she asked softly. At first nothing happened, but then a loud POP echoed through the kitchen and Kreacher stood before her. 

“Hello, Miss. What is you doing in Masters Potter and Weasley’s home?”

“Oh, thank goodness it worked!” Hermione said with a rush of relief. “I’m here to surprise Ron tonight, Kreacher. It was my intention to bake his favorite biscuits, but I’m afraid I- I don’t know how to get past step seven. Could you help me?”

Hermione was crestfallen. She wanted to do this all herself. She didn’t want to have to ask for help, but she couldn’t leave a half attempted recipe out for Ron to see when he got back.

“Yes, Miss. Where is the recipe?” Hermione pointed to the counter.

“Thank you, Kreacher! Do you mind if I watch?” Hermione tried to hide the disappointment in herself.

Kreacher gave a grumbled sigh and a curt nod as he set to work. Hermione should have known that the elf would use nonverbal magic on the recipe, so it was partially a waste of time to watch him work. He made quick work of the rest of the steps, and magically placed perfectly round balls on the baking sheet. “Miss forgot to turn on the oven.” He took care of it. “Would you like me to take care of the rest?”

“No, no, thank you Kreacher, I can take it from here. Thank you again!” Hermione said as Kreacher fell into a low bow and then disapparated out of sight. Hermione figured she had about fifteen minutes before the oven was heated to temperature, so she grabbed her bag and set to work upstairs. Somehow it was already after six. 

Hermione opened her bag and pulled out the bag of rose petals when she got to Ron’s room. She scattered them on the floor and over his bed,placing the package on the end of the bed and the massage oil on his nightstand. Satisfied with her work, she went back downstairs to find the oven was ready and she placed the cookies in the oven. Mrs. Weasley’s note said they needed to be baked for exactly ten minutes. Hmm, I wonder why so exact? Hermione thought. 

She set a timer for herself as she went back upstairs to draw the bath water and change into the lingerie and robe, keeping an eye on the timer. She’d gotten the top on, but was struggling with the bottoms when she got the minute warning. Giving up on them for now, she threw the silk robe around her and turned the water off, casting a quick warming charm over it as she hurried downstairs.

Hermione opened the oven door just as the timer went off and pulled them out. They looked perfect on top, but the bottoms were tinged a bit dark. It’s okay, at least you didn’t burn them! She turned the oven off and transferred the cookies to a cooling rack. Hermione magically washed the cookie sheet and double checked the recipe once more. Ugh, not another charm! She realized Mrs. Weasley had one more charm to set the cookies with at the end. I’m sure it’ll be fine without it, she thought because she did not want to call Kreacher back again. 

Hermione left the cookies to cool, and hurried back upstairs to figure out the mess of straps that were the bottom half of her outfit. It took a good ten minutes to get everything situated properly, and she checked herself in the bathroom mirror. She smiled softly and hoped she’d drive him mad with desire upon discovering her like this. Hermione didn’t often care what she looked like, and she wasn’t exactly one for seduction, but she wanted to do this for Ron. 

She checked to make sure the warming charm was still intact on the tub, and dropped one of the bath bombs in. Then, Hermione hurried into Ron’s adjoining bedroom, shut the door, and hung up the robe. She carefully climbed under his covers. Now, we wait.

************************

Harry and Ron finally flooed home from the Burrow just before 7:30. Ron knew they were later than normal, but it wasn’t like he had anything better to do on Valentine’s Day. He cursed again because he should be able to spend it with Hermione, but she was at bloody Hogwarts. Harry had invited Neville and Seamus over around 8:00 since they all might as well be alone together on this particular holiday. 

“Uh, Ron,” he heard Harry say. “You didn’t bake biscuits before we left, did you?” Ron looked over and saw, were those his favorite biscuits? He didn’t even realize the sweet scent until Harry had said something.

“Er, no, mate..that’s odd,” Ron said. Harry made to pick one up, but having been poisoned before, Ron stopped him. “Harry, no! Better check with Kreacher first. We don’t have any bezoars lying around.”

Harry called Kreacher who appeared with a POP. “Kreacher, did you bake these while we were gone?”

“I helped, but it wasn’t me,” Kreacher croaked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ron asked him.

“Surprise...doesn’t know how to bake with magic,” Kreacher muttered as he shook his head.

“Kreacher, is someone else here?” Harry asked as Ron did the homenum revelio spell. Kreacher nodded as the spell did in fact reveal a third person.

Ron looked back down at the cookies, which were his favorite. He looked at Harry, who said, “You don’t think…” 

“If it is, you’re on your own with Nev and Seamus,” Ron said as he sprinted up the stairs. His bedroom door was shut, and he definitely hadn’t left it that way earlier. He opened the door to see Hermione, scantily dressed and laying in his bed. His heart damn near stopped. “Bloody hell…” was all he could manage.

“It’s about time!” Hermione couldn’t help herself. She’d been waiting over a half hour and was starting to get nervous that he wasn’t coming home.

Ron shut the door and cast a quick lock and silencing charm on the door. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he said as he met her on the bed and wasted no time in pulling her in for a passionate kiss.

“Wanted to surprise you,” she said.

“Reckon it worked. You’re bloody gorgeous, you know that?” Ron couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was stunning. He’d never seen her in lingerie before, only dreamed of it. He was basking in the glory of having her here, when he saw the look of disappointment on her face. It was subtle, but it was there. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s- it’s nothing,” she said as she looked away.

“Tell me, ‘Mione. Please?” Ron reached out and touched her chin, directing her face back to meet his.

“It’s just, everything I planned has gone wrong! I couldn’t even bake your favorite cookies! I needed Kreacher’s help and I still missed that there was a spell at the very end, so they’re probably ruined. I planned for you to be home around 7, so the bath water is probably cold, and I couldn’t go anywhere to check because I didn’t want anyone seeing me in this. I probably should have just told you McGonagall let me off for the night. Then you would have known and we could have had more time.”

Ron chuckled. “Hermione, we have the whole night ahead of us, and I'm so glad you’re here. And it’s a good thing you didn’t leave the room in this because I want you in this all to myself, though I’m about two seconds from ripping it off you,” Ron gave her a dark, wanting look then. Six weeks was way too long.

He always knew how to instantly make her feel better. “I was hoping you’d say that,” she said, giving her best seductive smile. Ron was on her in an instant, hands exploring her body and relishing in the feel of her against him. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” she said against his lips.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, love,” Ron returned, becoming lost in the sexiness of his girlfriend.

[sneezingpotatoes]

Merry (LATE ASF) Christmas xD

Over a year late, but... You know?😂😂😂 I come baring gifts! xD Gotta keep my word no matter how long it takes lmao

Okay so I got my ex-best friend to draw Draco for me xD LOL She’s vanilla and doesn’t know about my kink so I had to kinda sneakily ask her to add the blush and stuff lmao BUT FOR THE MOST PART, this is my OC Draco xDD She did a good job with it! That’s him feeling all sickly in the story xD I might get her to draw my other OC’s too! If you want her to draw for you too or see what else she drew, her instagrams are: @ixreikoluxi and @ixreiko_luxi ((Just dont message her anything kinky LOL but she does do commissions on anime art!)) Also I tried new things in here... And there’s a lot that be happenin in this fic so hopefully it’s a good read lmao xD 

ANYWAYS MERRY (LATE ASF) CHRISTMAS AND ONTO THE FIC XD I think it’s around 15k words OvO ENJOY

December 23rd

 A soft murmur slips past Draco’s ears through the darkness of sleep, earning a sleepy snort and a shift on the couch from the sleeping drunkard. The murmur wasn’t loud enough to fully wake the hungover excuse of a man resting on the couch, but it did plant the seed of a weak headache into his temples from the lingering alcohol flowing through his veins.

“...co ... Draco! Wake up, please.” 

The gentle shaking of his arm causes Draco to slowly stir awake. The rugged man lazily blinks a few times, trying to get his eyes to focus through the dim light on the face hovering above him. He winces as he’s greeted with a sharp churning in his stomach from his heavy alcohol consumption the past few days, cursing at the situation entirely.

“Shit. Wahtimeisit..? Wahdoyouwant?” His voice was deep and groggy from sleep, words slurred from his mind and mouth both sluggish and still trying to register and function at the thought of being awake so early.

“It’s 10 ‘till 6am. I need you to do the Christmas shopping for me while I’m at work today.” The gentleman firmly instructed. Shit. He had forgotten about that. The rugged man audibly grunted, rubbing the sleep out of his tired eyes. “I left the shopping list and some money on the table. Do not forget about it, Draco. I mean it.” His voice was strict and bold, leaving a mark on Draco’s deafened pride. The gentleman locked the door behind him and was gone before Draco could even attempt to respond. 

“Could’ve at least turned off the fricken light, jeez.”

He groaned, dreading the long day of shopping he had ahead of him. Every time Reuben had asked him to go to the store for him, it was always at least a four-hour endeavor, seeing how Reuben always had items on the list that he had never heard of, and the nearest shops around his area were all unheard of and he had no idea where any of the items were. Even if he did go shopping on a regular basis, he was sure that he would still be lost in each of the supermarkets. Christmas was in two days, so that meant that everyone was out and about, doing their last-minute Christmas shopping, just as he was about to, seeing how he had waited nearly a month to even think about the list. Yeah, Reuben had warned him about this multiple times, that’s why he had made the list ahead of time, but Draco didn’t care. Well, he didn’t care until now. The rugged man cursed to himself just thinking about the long shopping list and having to deal with crowds of people. Why did he have to do all the damn shopping, anyway? ‘It’s not like you do anything all day, anyway. You just lay around or go to the bar and get drunk. The least you could do is help out around here and go to the grocery store.’ He could hear Reuben’s nagging voice already engraved into his memory. They’ve had this conversation once before, and Draco hated to be reminded of it. He sighs, shoving away the memory and slamming his eyes shut, trying to return to the peaceful slumber that he had been rudely awoken from.

4 hours felt like minutes according to Draco as he was rudely pulled out of sleep by warm licks to the tip of his nose. At first, he shoves the clever feline back away from his torso and rubs his freshly licked nose, sluggishly trying to go back to sleep. Absinthe returns a couple of seconds later, gently sitting on his chest with a soft ‘meowrr’ that makes the rugged man bat an eye at the creature.

“Jesus Christ, cut it out, will ya!?” The man grunted, remembering that he was supposed to feed the feline two hours ago, and that he probably wouldn’t hear the end of it with Reuben when he got home. She speaks again, hopping onto the floor and stretching outward near her food bowl. “Alright, alright already. Shaash, I’m goin’.”

Brain still foggy from sleep, the rugged man brought himself to his feet, releasing a loud, well-needed yawn that forced his jaw to slack all the way open as he headed into the kitchen, feeling the patient feline watching his every move. He takes the can of cat food from the cabinet and sluggishly places the food in the bowl, having Absinthe instantly begin to eat the protein packed meal.

“You’re welcome, little bastard.” He mumbled as he watched the feline scarf down the mushy substance, gliding a gentle hand behind her ears. “Must be good, huh?” It was odd. Draco normally judged Reuben for speaking to his feline like an actual person, but it was actually quite soothing to say the least, as it brought a wry smirk to his face. Obviously, he wasn’t going to tell Reuben that. The black cat abruptly stopped eating and peeked her head at the man crouched directly behind her, purring when he rubbed the right spot. He gave her one last rub before getting up to grab a change of clothes.

He called an Uber after taking a decently long, hot shower and eating a slice of cold, leftover pizza from the fridge for breakfast. Reuben was the only person with a car around here and he had taken it to work today, so he felt that an Uber would be the better option at least. The rugged man scoops the money from on the table into his pocket, grabs the shopping list and heads outside into the freezing winter air.

***

The sky was a nice dark gray, not doing the sun any favors with providing any warmth or sunlight really. There was a cold, gentle breeze that would occasionally brush through his dark black bangs and hug his neck and chest, forcing him to pull up his short jacket collar as much as he could in order to shield himself from at least some of the coldness. This would be one of the moments that he missed his trench coat and fedora the most. Reuben had made him throw the old things out entirely and get a completely new wardrobe about a week after he had moved in. He couldn’t complain; he didn’t much care about having to wear new clothes, he just wanted to keep his fedora and trench coat if anything. The sound of car tires sloshing in a puddle of rainwater catches his attention as it appears to be his Uber driver. The driver waves at his direction, beckoning him to come over.

“So, where we headed?” The uber driver asked as Draco entered the back seat.

“Just to the local shopping center up ahead. I put the damn address in the app, why are you asking me? Do your damn job.” He muttered, eyeing the long list in his hand. He’s sure that the driver said something back to him, but he wasn’t listening; He was already in a bad mood and had to prepare himself for the long endeavor ahead of him. 

The closer they got to the shopping center, the more Draco started to get annoyed. There were so many cars in the street, driving slow for what Draco thought was both to look at all of the Christmas lights and decorations hanging up on all of the lamp posts and just from the amount of people in the area period. There were so many people walking on the sidewalks with their families, friends, partners and just some walking solo; He was kind of glad that he hadn’t driven here himself. It would be hell to find a parking spot anywhere, and just hell to get out of here. He grunts to himself, noticing a few people wearing face masks that were walking along the sidewalks as well. He had forgotten that this was the perfect weather and season for people to get sick. It was probably the perfect place to get sick too, seeing how there were just so many people brushing up against one another, touching all sorts of the same products and just overall breathing the same air in general. The driver pulled over in what seemed to be the middle of the shopping center, having a giant Christmas tree on display to his left with so many bright lights and Christmas ornaments dangling from all of the branches. That seemed to be the hot spot of the entire center, seeing how there seemed to be a ton of families crowded around the tree, whether they were taking pictures in front of it, sitting and chatting, or just hanging out around the area. He paid the uber driver and exited the vehicle, instantly starting to make his way towards the nearest supermarket so that he could get out of this mess as quickly as possible.

Draco was hit with a little bit of relief when he entered the store, feeling the heat instantly wash over him as he grabbed his handheld shopping basket. It was short lived though as he saw how long the checkout lines were, and how many people were still shopping down every isle in the store. He briefly sighed, shoving all of his aggravation aside. He knew that he wasn’t going to get anything done fast if he just kept moping about the situation.

It took about an hour of roaming down every isle a few times, bumping into and being bumped into a good handful of times and scanning over the shopping list at least 30 times before Draco was sure that he had gotten a good selection of items off of the list and made the executive decision to check out. It didn’t matter which line he chose; each line was so long that it was stretching into an actual isle, causing multiple people to have to cut through every once in a while, just to get to the other side of the store. He picks the closest line to him and decides to start waiting now rather than later. Why does everybody have to be out shopping right now anyway? He thought to himself, feeling his arms starting to grow tired from carrying the heavy basket for so long. 

It wasn’t long before other shoppers began to slowly file in behind him, causing him to feel slightly uneasy from how close they had to stand in order to be out of the way of other shoppers. What made matters worse was that the person behind him sounded like he was under the weather and Draco didn’t want to be anywhere near it. The thick sniffling that was heard from behind him made Draco internally groan. Damn it, he hated this so much. The regret was really starting to sink in now. At this moment he wished that he had went shopping right when Reuben had made the list. There’s a chesty cough from behind him that makes Draco turn his head slightly enough to see a young man sniffling helplessly into the palm of his hand. He rolls his eyes, feeling like he’s stuck in his current position. He knew that he always had an option to leave the line, but he had already waited 10 minutes and he didn’t want to be there any longer than he had to. The shuffling of feet in front of him caught his attention as he followed suit and scooted forward a couple of inches as the next customer was being serviced. There were only two customers in front of him now, and he was actually standing inside of the gap with the chip racks and soda coolers; He was nearing the light at the end of his tunnel. He knew that he could wait a couple more minutes and put up with this a little while longer. That was until…

“Hh… Ah’TSSCHiuh!!” 

The loud sneeze from behind makes the rugged man flinch, feeling a gust of air and cold spray instantly hit the back of his neck. He slowly turns around completely this time, bringing a hand up to wipe where he had felt the sickly spray come in contact as he was greeted by a young man with short brown hair, sniffling and wiping his nose onto his jacket sleeve.

“Oh, come on, man! Are you freggin serious?!” Draco yells, feeling disgusted and aggravated at the stranger. The outburst causes a handful of eyes to veer over to their direction. The younger man could only give a sheepish smile in return, feeling way beyond embarrassed and nervous of what the rugged man would do.

“I, uhh… I’m sorry, man! It’s just allergies! ‘Tis the season, right?” The young man said with a pleading smile and nervous laugh, trying his best to ease the rugged man over. Allergies my ass. His voice sounded thick and strained just from that apology alone, and Draco already knew what this meant. He looked like a walking germ cell; ain’t no way that’s some goddamn allergies. 

“Un-fucking-believable.” He muttered, looking at his hand in disgust. He was furious way beyond comprehension, but he didn’t want to cause a bigger scene than he had already. For this kids’ sake. The young man pulled out a pack of tissues and handed him one with a shaky hand. “Where the hell was this at before you fucking sneezed on me?!” His voice was loud with anger again as he snatched the tissue out of the man’s hand and wiped his own in disgust. The younger man quickly fumbled into the packet again to grab his own tissues as his eyelashes began to gently flutter shut. 

“Ah’TSSCHiih..! Ih‘TISShiEW!!” 

The cans and bottles in his handheld basket clanked against each other as the young man jerked forwards, diving into his hand full of tissues as his bangs bounced off of his clammy forehead with each itchy explosion. He would’ve crashed into the chip rack if not for the kind stranger behind him. Draco was relieved when the customer in front of him was beginning to load the belt with his items, allowing him to scoot up some again. It was short lived though, when the young man also scooted up behind him, sniffling and coughing so close in his ear it felt like he was practically shoulder to shoulder with him.

Finally, after a few more minutes of waiting, it was Draco’s turn to quickly checkout and instantly leave the store. The cold air greeted Draco once again, but he didn’t care this time. He was just happy to get out of that store and separate himself from that walking germ infestation. His arms were already starting to get tired even though he had two more stores to visit; He just wanted to go home honestly and take another hot shower to cleanse himself. It was about a ten-minute walk to get to the next store on his list. The fresh air was really nice, but it was awfully cold and starting to loosen up his sinuses. He had to sniffle every few seconds just to try and prevent his nose from leaking onto his numb upper lip.

His second shopping experience was pretty similar to the last store, minus the disgusting event, but the process went by faster than he had thought it would, and for that he was grateful. He peered down at the shopping list once again, having a wave of relief brush over him from seeing the small handful of items that he had left to get: Cranberry sauce, Asparagus, wait… Proscouittio? What the hell was a proscouittio? The rugged man sat down on the nearest bench, allowing his arms to rest by setting down all of his grocery bags onto the cold concrete as he pulled out his cellphone and dialed up the pediatrician.

“Hello? Draco?” The smooth and concerned voice of the gentleman was heard on the other end of the phone.

“Yeah, it’s me. What the hell is a pro… scouittio?” The rugged man asked, voice still coated with irritation from having to be out shopping. He snuffled twice into a curled knuckle, giving the underside of his nose a quick wipe after feeling a faint burning at the back of his sinuses from the cold air. A light chuckle is heard on the other end from the gentleman.

“It’s prosciutto, not proscouittio.” Reuben corrected through a light snicker. Draco snarled, irritably bringing his phone closer to his mouth. 

“If you’re going to laugh and make fun of me, so help me God I swear I’ll hang up right fucking now and blow this money at the nearest bar in sight.” His voice was dry and grim, causing Reuben to stop his chuckling instantly. The rugged man snuffled thickly again, lifting up his arm to briefly rub his leaky nose along his jacket sleeve this time. 

“Okay, okay, calm down. There’s no reason to get all riled up.” Reuben’s voice had a naturally childish glee to it today that forced Draco to ease up a little, even if he didn’t want to. “It’s a thinly sliced ham. Very delicious. You can find it at Scardello deli a little way east of the Shopping Center. Oh, and Draco, make sure you’re reading all of the ingredients carefully. My parents are coming over and it has to be correct.” It was hard to pay attention to Reuben, seeing how his nose would not stop running no matter how many times he wiped at it. He had to keep sniffling to himself in order to barely keep the leakage at bay. He audibly sighs, as he felt his inner nostrils begin to tingle from the cold air just enough to make his chest bounce with a muted hitch.  “—And a block of Gruyère cheese from the deli too, please.” There was a moment of silence before Reuben realized that he had been talking to himself for the past few seconds. Another muted hitch escapes from Draco as his nose and lips began to quiver uncomfortably from the subtle itch. 

“Hehh…” He could feel his eyelids start to droop closed and his shoulders begin to rise from the third inhale that was audible this time and forced him to bring up a shaky hand to squeeze his nostrils shut with his thumb and forefinger. 

“Hello? Draco? Are you there—" The hitch only sounds like a soft grunt to Reuben as he is unable to hear clearly since Draco instantly pushed the device deep into his chest as he jerked forwards twice.

“Kxxnt… Hhuh-… Eh’GSXnt!” The first sneeze was weak and soft enough to go unnoticed, but it made the gentle tingle in his sinuses rattle, causing the second sneeze to sound a bit more agitated and loud enough to get picked up on the line.  

“Oh? Bless you, Draco. Are you alright?” Reuben asked, voice clearly coated with concern. The rugged man barely caught the sentence as he brought the phone back up to his ear, sniffling a handful of times into his curled knuckle.

“Yeah, ‘s just cold as hell out here. What were you talkin’ about?” Draco muttered, massaging the bridge of his nose with chilled fingertips.

“I said I need you to pick up a block of Gruyère cheese from Scardello’s Deli for me while you’re out. I must’ve forgotten to put it on the list.”

“Jeez, I need a drink.” Draco groaned as he massaged the bridge of his nose in irritation of the new item added to his list this time.

"Tell you what: I'll pay your bar tab for all of the hassle you're going through today, even though all of this could've been avoided had you listened to me." Reuben offered, mumbling the second half of his sentence in a matter-of-fact manner. Draco didn't care though. He was sold on the 'pay your bar tab' part.

"You've got yourself a deal then." 

“Good. Oh- And Draco, be safe out there. Don’t stay out in the cold for too long. Make sure you’re keeping wa--” 

“Tch.” Draco instantly ended the call after he irritably smacked his lips, ignoring the pediatrician’s advice. He didn’t need to hear something he already knew and was well aware of. Reuben wasn’t his parent. He knew how to take care of himself. The rugged man quickly stood back up in a huff and headed straight for the second to last store on his list. 

The next store that he needed to visit was a fresh produce store. Reuben was very picky about the ingredients that he needed. He always wanted it to be organic and to be from a certain brand, which was very annoying and very time consuming to find. If he had been lazy and just brought home a random brand of the product, he knew that he wouldn't hear the end of it from Reuben. Draco didn't know why the hell he cared so much, seeing how it all tasted the same to him anyway. What was the point? It was all food; one just costs more than the other.

The list was growing shorter though, and it only took him about half an hour to find the ingredients that he needed, and checking out was a breeze. The only place he needed to visit was Scardello's Deli. He was glad that this was his last stop though. He was growing rather hungry and decided to take this opportunity to grab him some lunch with the leftover grocery money, if he had any.

Upon approaching the Deli, his heart instantly sinks from how many people are inside of the deli, and just from seeing all the tables outside being filled as well. For a brief moment he had forgotten that it was almost Christmas and that the piles of people showing up to this Deli wouldn't be an exception. Scardello's was also a popular Italian deli, famous for their tasty, high quality ingredients; seeing this many people here on an average day wouldn't be surprising either. You'd be lucky if you didn't have to wait in a long line that extended outside of the store.

Draco quickly stepped in line, wanting to save his place before someone else had the chance to and began the waiting game for the last time. He was happy, seeing how after he was finished shopping here, he could finally go home and he also had free alcohol on his waiting list. It wasn't too bad though. He enjoyed the scent of freshly toasted bread and the savory scent of spices that were infused into the meats. This was the best experience he had today for waiting in a long line, even if he had handfuls of groceries in his hands.

After waiting for about 20 minutes in line, it was finally his turn to order and he was relieved. There was a big glass full of different types of meats on display in front of him, all looking very delicious, but he points to the specific type of prosciutto that Reuben had asked for, along with the block of Gruyère cheese. The cashier nods to the rugged man and repeats the order back to a couple of workers that were slicing meat in the back as he pressed a few buttons onto his register.

"Prosciutto di Parma. Good choice. Delicate to the tongue and sweet to the taste." The woman behind him stated as she approached the meat display and stood beside him. She held her black suitcase to her side as her long, white lab coat flapped behind her as she turned to study the rugged man standing in front of her. "Hmm... You don't look like the type to eat anything close to prosciutto... Who sent you?" She mused, chuckling to herself as she saw the confused, and now irritated glare on Draco's face. The rugged man furrowed a brow at the lady, feeling offended by her choice of words. ‘Look the type’? The hell does she mean by that? 

Her long, brown hair seemed to flow vibrantly behind her back, naturally complimenting her dark, purple orbs while she looked at the display case full of meat. She was actually very beautiful in Draco's eyes; he had to force himself to shift his gaze so that he didn’t end up staring for too long.

"I gotta $62.60 for a Prosciutto Di Parma an’ a Gruyère ." The cashier stated through a heavy Italian accent that instantly snagged Draco's attention and brought him back to reality. Over $50 for just some damn meat and cheese? What has the world come to, he thought to himself. 

"U-uh, yeah, and I wanna add your uhh... Italian Sub. That should be cheap enough at least." He muttered, dazed by both the woman still hovering over his shoulder and the price of the meat as he fumbled into his pockets for the leftover grocery money. 

"Ey, Giuseppe, put his order on my ticket." The woman stated as she gently grabbed his hand in order to prevent him from scrambling for the lose bills in his pockets any longer. “Grazie mille amico mio.” Draco gave the woman both a confused and disapproving look in return but she brushed it off as she placed her own order on top of his. 

“Nessun problema. Qualunque cosa per mia sorella!” The cashier replied with a smile as he typed away on the cash register. 

"The hell d’you think you’re doing, lady? I have the money to pay, you know." Draco muttered to the woman with shattered pride after she had placed her order. The cashier had told them to stand over to the side as they began preparing their food.

"Mm-hmm. Oh I'm sure you do." She said with a flirtatious grin. Draco couldn't tell if she was joking or if she was just being sarcastic. Or both. The childish tone of her voice reminded him of Lirin a bit, and made him unintentionally release an agitated sigh. "Nobody in their right mind walks into Scardello's with pocket change."

"Listen, lady, pocket change or not: money is money. Don’t give a rats ass about how it looks." Even though she was very beautiful, her beauty didn’t seem to filter Draco’s mouth nor his personality. He could care less, really. She could’ve been Beyonce in a two piece and he still would’ve said the same thing. 

"Hm. Touché." She muttered, giving the rugged man an approving nod before giving him a light punch in the shoulder. “Can you not call me lady though? Don’t you know how rude that sounds?” 

"Do I look like a fuckin’ mind-reader? I don’t know your name, lady.”

“The name's Sicily." Her response came out awkward sounding as she fought to keep herself from actually socking him in the shoulder again. “Gaash, do you kiss your mother with that potty mouth?” 

"Don’t you ever mention my mother ever again, you got that??" He mutters intensely, having the cashier interrupt their conversation with two bags of food in hand. 

She awkwardly thanked the cashier and gave him a tip before leaving the Deli. Draco followed her outside over to a wooden bench a few steps away from the Deli as she sat down and separated the food between both of them.

"Y’know, you’re being kinda rude to the person that just bought all this food for you. Here." She said as she gave him the bag with freshly purchased food inside. "That one's yours." Draco accepted the bag in silence as she taps the bench and invites him to join her and have a seat, in which he distantly accepts. The two sit in silence for a good few minutes before Sicily decides to cut through the tension. “I didn’t catch your name earlier...” She mumbled into her sandwich before taking a bite out of it. 

“... Draco, I guess...” He replied annoyed, only staring at his sandwich rather than eating it.

"Well, Mr. Draco... You’re an asshole, you know that?” She stated through a soft chuckle after hearing Draco release a loud, obviously aggravated grunt in response, “An attractive asshole, I might add. And honestly, you just have the manliest resting bitch face I’ve ever seen--” 

“What the hell are you getting at here?” 

 “You wanna know why I paid for your meal? I just wanted to make that sour face at least a liiiittle bit sweeter, you know?” The rugged man gave a perplexed look towards the woman sitting beside him. It felt weird hearing a woman speak so openly and without a filter just like him. 

“...Shut up...” Draco half-muttered after an exhausted sigh, before finally taking a bite out of his sandwich. 

“You’d like that wouldn’t you? Too bad. I’m not a sheep. I don’t follow orders.” She mused with a dorky accent, surprisingly earning an unexpected chuckle from the rugged man. He wasn’t expecting such a resilient response. He had to admit, she was a cute, quirky, and geeky person that made his heart flutter the more he talked with the woman. 

The two sat on the bench oddly enjoying each other's company and eating the delicious Italian lunch for about half an hour. Even though it was really cold outside, it didnt matter to them. It felt like Draco was genuinely having a great time with Sicily and he didn't want it to end. You might even say it was a first date at that. She seemed to be the only person that could get underneath his thick skin and actually make him chuckle, multiple times at that. Wait a minute, what was he thinking? It couldn’t have been a date. They were simply just having a decent lunch together. That was all. 

The half hour feels like seconds as the time flew by, though. They had already finished their lunch and Draco knew that he needed to get back and put the groceries away. Sicily seemed like she had her own plans to get back to as well, seeing how she was the one who had cut the event short. She did feel awful about ending their moment, so she paid for his Uber and waited with him until the Uber arrived to take him home.

***

Draco had an odd, empty feeling resting in his stomach as the Uber pulled up to Reuben's home. He was glad to be home and to have all the shopping finished; It felt like a huge weight was lifted off of his shoulders, but he still missed the company of Sicily. He thanks the driver for the ride after he collected all of his belongings and started for the front door, heaving all of the groceries along with him.

Draco raises a curious brow as he sees Reuben's car in the driveway. It was out of the ordinary to see Reuben's car here at this time, because he normally didn't come home until late at night. The rugged man adjusts the bags in his hands, dismissing the fact of the car being there only to be halted by a stray dog crossing his path in the driveway.

The dog looked like a black and brown German Shepard, but it had a deep cut along its left eye and it was faintly shivering from the cold winter air. Once Draco made eye contact with the canine, it slowly sat down and wagged its tail, patiently waiting. For what, Draco had no idea. He had seen this dog before. Multiple times at that. Reuben would always chase the dog away with his shoe whenever he saw him on the porch, but Draco never understood why. The rugged man cautiously approached the injured creature with a struggling hand to scratch behind its ears and the dog instantly dropped its mouth open and let its tongue hang out, clearly enjoying the attention and feeling of affection.

"You like that, dontcha boy?" As if in response to Draco, the dog barked and hopped up to place his paws onto the rugged man’s chest, trying to lick his face. Draco chuckled at the friendly creature and gave it a hug as he couldn't resist the poor, abandoned animal. He knew how being cold, lonely and abandoned felt and how much value was in the slightest amount of affection. He wasn’t fast enough to dodge as the canine licked his cheek a few times. "Okay, okay, down boy! Get down!" He had to force the dog down, seeing how the canine was overly excited from the rugged man and his attention. "What’s your name, anyway?" He muttered, trying to find a collar or dog tag on the animal, only to find nothing. The stray dog sat in front of the rugged man with excited eyes. It was hard for Draco to look back at the poor animal, but he knew that he couldn't take him into Reuben's house. The pediatrician had mentioned that he disliked dogs with a passion; for what reason, Draco had no clue. He gave the dog one last good rub and slipped past him in order to get to the front porch. The dog only sat in place, watching the rugged man as he stood on the porch, glaring back at the stray dog with guilt. “... You know what, fuck it.” He says as he grabs a slice of the prosciutto and tosses it to the stray dog. Immediately, the dog grabs the meat and runs into the grass, tearing the meat up and swallowing it savagely like he hadn’t eaten in a while. ‘You enjoy that, little buddy.” He whispers before sliding into the house. 

***

Draco released a light sigh as he was relieved to be back home and outside of the cold. Before he could enter the kitchen to set down the groceries, Reuben arose from the couch and greeted him with a cheerful grin.

"Welcome back, Draco. I assume everything went well?" The gentleman grabbed a few of the bags from the rugged man and led him into the kitchen.

"Yeah, but- wait, why are you home right now?" Draco asked, confusion coating his voice, as he sat the bags on the counter and began to take all of the items out. Reuben gives a slight chuckle as he takes the empty bag from Draco and throws it in the trash.

"I couldn't have you here while I wrapped up all the Christmas gifts, now could I?" He said, pointing at the elegant Christmas tree that now had multiple gifts resting underneath it. Draco rolled his eyes, aggravated at the fact that it would’ve been a whole lot easier if Reuben would’ve taken him to the store in the first place. “Oh, relax, would you? I thought I’d find you wearing an ear-to-ear grin from the clean slate you now have at the bar!"

"... Fine, just whatever... There better be a flask full of booze under there or you're catching fists." He falsely allowed the joke to slip off of his tongue, forgetting that he wasn't outside with Sicily anymore. Reuben doesn't mind though, and takes it as him finally getting into the Christmas spirit. "What's with the sweater?"

"Oh this old thing? You like it?” Humors Reuben as he stretches out the sweater in order to show off all the glowing Christmas lights and decorations on it. The rugged man only gives a disgusted look in disapproval at the ugly thing. "It even lights up, s-see?Ihktsh!" Reuben furrowed a confused brow as he barely caught the abrupt sneeze into a curled knuckle, feeling an overwhelming itch force entry into his sinuses and cut his shirt viewing short. 

A sharp, breathy inhale was the only thing Draco heard before he looked over to see Reuben twitching forward with each rapid sneeze, catching them with the top-side of his hand. "Hih-Ktsh! Hihktsh! Hh-Hihh! Hih'KSsh! HuhISsSCH'ue!!" The power of the tickling sensation was so strong and abrupt that his lungs didn’t know how to function properly with the irritant fighting in his sinuses.

He knew the feeling of this type of tickle. It wasn’t from sickness, nor from hay fever, and his house hadn’t been dusty enough to irritate him the past few days, so it could’ve only been one other thing.  A handful of muted gasps escape from the gentleman as he could feel his sensitive nose trembling in agony. 

“Hh-have youhh beenn playi’gw-wihh-hih! Wid dohh-gs??” The pediatrician struggled to ask between hitching breaths as he grabbed a few tissues from off of the counter with one hand and pinched his nostrils closed with his other hand. 

“Yeah, so what if I did?” Draco fired back, defensively as if the stray dog were under attack by the evil pediatrician. The gentleman only blew his nose in return, shaking his head from how intense the tickle was becoming. He instantly shuffled backwards after he blew into the handful of tissues for a second time, foolishly trying to expel the irritant as quickly as possible, only to rattle the irritant around and get hit with the full force of the tickling sensation. He coughed and fanned at the air as if doing so would remove the irritant that forced his nostrils to instantly tremble in aggravation. He could feel his body rejecting the irritant fiercely as his eyelids instantly slammed shut once again and his chest visibly bounced from the rapid, overwhelming breaths his body felt were necessary to take between each desperate sneeze he lazily caught in the handful of tissues. The sudden irritant caught both him and his body off guard as it physically tried to process what the devil Draco had brought into his presence. 

“D-Dr-a’KSh!Ihktsh!! Huh’kSsh!! I-Ihssh’uehh-hih! HihH’ksh’u!!… I-Ih-hhehh-HH…” Reuben barely squinted his eyes open to share a struggling glare with Draco, trying his hardest to speak but failed miserably, getting lost in his own sea of rapid hitches. The strength of the irritant forced the pediatrician to instantly jerk forwards into the damp handful of tissues with rapid, itchy explosions. 

“Hihktsh! Kshnt! IhKTSH-tsshIISsh! AlleH-Hh’Issh…! T-tIDSh’ue!! Hehh…D-dohhgs-s Hhgh-ihkssh’u! hHAH-ESsh’uekgshu! IH’KGshIEw!! Iksshu! Kgshu-IKGSshu!” The gentleman's body trembled with each sneeze as he struggled to take in a breath of air. He had foolishly tried to speak in-between the fit in vain as he had cut himself off with the rapid, tumbling sneezes. 

The rugged man gives Reuben a questioning glare as he released four more tired sneezes in-between desperate nose blows and irritated coughs into his handful of tissues. He didn't know that Reuben had a dog allergy; He also hadn't played with the canine for that long either, so he was confused as to why Reuben was having such a reaction.

"I'm a-allerhh-hih... Hahh...! Ihktsh!! Hheh'kssh-ISshu! 'EDSh'ue!! Ekgsh!! IsshShishh! IGSSch'uh! Hahh... Allergigk do dogs." He congestedly tried to explain again through disruptive hitches. 

Draco could see the pediatrician's pink tipped nose still twitching from the irritant lingering about as he dabbed away the allergic tears that started rolling down his cheeks with the side of his hand. He gave a sly smirk to himself, finding a hint of pleasure in seeing the arrogant pediatrician looking so vulnerable. It was nice to see Reuben knocked off of his high horse for a bit. 

"Well in that case, I want a dog." Draco humored to the pediatrician as he watched him still trying to catch his unsteady breath.

"Hah’KGshn! Ihgsh! Kgsch! H-how consihhderate o-of... Ih-Kgsshn! Hh-huh... youhh." His speech was still shaky and broken from the faint hitches riddled between his words. He blows his nose once again in an attempt to blow out the irritant that had entered his nostrils, but it does nothing but dampen the tissues further in his hand.  

 The gentleman irritably tells Draco to finish putting away the groceries and to throw his clothes into the washer as he left the room to take some allergy medicine, already beginning to feel miserable. He also couldn’t help but give a little chuckle to himself, finding the whole situation to be quite humorous. He only wondered how bad it would be if Reuben were to actually encounter a dog in person. 

The hot shower that Draco had been waiting for all day finally came and went, leaving him with a strong feeling of relief and relaxation. It felt like ten pounds had been lifted off of his shoulders, seeing how he still felt disgusting from that irritating encounter at the store. Reuben seemed to be feeling better as well, since he had stopped sneezing when he got out of the shower. He had to admit: The Christmas vibes were definitely present from both the nicely decorated Christmas tree and all of the decorations Reuben had been putting up all over the house. It was his first Christmas with the pediatrician, and it felt like it was going to be a great one at that.

December 24th

The loud clank of a pan serves as a rude awakening for the rugged man as he flinched awake from the couch. He tries to open his eyes but instantly slams them shut with a heavy wince from the blinding living room lights. A few light coughs escape from his grasp as he sluggishly wiped the sleep from his eyes. He felt groggy today. Groggier than usual. He releases a sluggish snuffle in an attempt to clear the wall of congestion that must’ve built up overnight. 

“Evening, Draco.” The lanky gentleman greeted from the kitchen, adding water to a pot before placing it on the stove top. “A pleasure to see you awake. I surely thought you were going to sleep the entire day away.” The rugged man remained silent as he blindly reached for his flask from off of the coffee table and instantly began consuming the alcoholic beverage, only to choke on the burn in his throat. That was strange. He thought that he was used to the burn of a little Whiskey. “How many times have I told you to stop drinking in the morning?” The rugged man winces, trying to clear his throat of the itch and now faint burn from the alcohol.

“Mornin’ to you too, asshole.” He muttered dismissively, hearing his own voice sound a little scratchier than usual. “HhUh-TDZSSH...!! EHh’GTSZSHh’UHH!! GOD--!! Damnit!!” He barely catches the first loud sneeze into the cup of his hand, almost spilling his flask from the force of the second loud sneeze that shakes his entire core. He yells a swear, feeling the most torturous burn scrape his raw throat from the loud morning sneezes. 

“Ah. Lovely.” The sarcastic tone from the gentleman earned a pained chuckle out of Draco as he struggled to choke down another swig from his flask. “I’m expecting company over soon. I’d recommend getting dressed and presentable.”

“Dressed and ‘presentable’? Screw off.” Reuben only sighed in return, not in the mood to put up with Draco’s shenanigans. A mild yawn escapes his lips as he glares at the clock resting on the stand. “3:30pm? Shit.” He mumbled as he rubbed a hand across his face in an attempt to wipe the sleep away as he got up to join the pediatrician in the kitchen. There were a lot of different foods scattered across all of the kitchen countertops with other food items cooking on the stove as well, and he was sure that he saw something baking in the oven. “Why the hell are you makin’ so much food?” Reuben abruptly stopped cutting the vegetables on the cutting board and sat his knife down in order to share a confused glare at Draco. 

“Draco, my family is coming over for the Holidays, remember?” His heart instantly sank after hearing those words. He had forgotten about Reuben’s family coming to visit. He dreaded this day as well because it was going to be the most awkward day of his life, which was probably the reason he had forgotten about it in the first place. “You do remember, don’t you?”

“HhUH-EGTSsh!! Y-yeah, sure. When are dhey cobin’ a-adywayhh? IH’TIZSSCH'ugh!! Shidt.” He asked between the forceful sneezes, dismissively trying to hide the fact that he truly had forgotten about his parents coming over. The gentleman raises a concerned brow at the second pair of harsh sneezes and gives the rugged man a quick gloss-over. 

“My blessings. Are you feeling well, Draco?” The pediatrician doesn’t hesitate to shove a cool palm underneath the man’s disheveled bangs and atop his clammy forehead out of his routine pediatric habit. “You look exhausted. Then again, when don’t you look exhausted?” Draco flinches and knocks away Reuben’s hand in return, before taking another swig from his flask. 

“’M fine. Your snooty parents must be talking about me already.” He humored, but not really. He didn’t want to offend the gentleman, but they both knew it was obvious. Reuben brushed off his comment, not disputing it either, seeing how Draco could’ve been right. His parents were a bit snobbish and he wouldn’t be surprised if they actually were talking about him right now.

“We agreed on 4pm, but knowing my family they’ll probably be knocking on the door any minute now. That is why I’d strongly advise getting dressed.” The rugged man leaned against the countertop in silence for a moment, trying to find at least someway to get out of this pickle he was forced into. 

“Why the hell do I gotta act all nice and prissy just to impress your damn parents? It ain’t like we gettin’ married.” He irritably muttered into his opened flask, dreading the evening he had to prepare for. The pediatrician took a moment to compose himself, trying not to let the stress of the day wash over him and cause him to say or do something he didn’t intend to. 

“Draco, can you please just wash up and get dressed? Don’t make this difficult. You can leave for the bar right after, I don’t care, just don’t embarrass me, please?” Draco gave the man a questioning look. He hadn’t heard the pediatrician ask him to do something in this pleading tone ever. It was... different. A bit concerning. 

“Whatever...” He grumbled, silently slipping out of the kitchen and leaving the pediatrician to continue cooking the feast in kitchen.

He had to admit that he was a little nervous about meeting Reuben’s family. If his family was as arrogant and uptight just like he was, it was going to be a long evening. Especially if Reuben was acting this way about his parents, something was definitely going to go down. He did seem like the type to have parents with high expectations and standards, which Draco knew that he wasn’t qualified for. Even though Reuben was how he was, he didn’t want to leave a bad impression on his family, but he couldn’t make any promises either. He knew that he was going to have to prepare himself to probably listen to his parent’s brag about how much money they make and how proud they are to have a Pediatrician as a son. He released a long sigh as he collected a some-what clean outfit, completely ignoring the pressed suit and tie that Reuben picked out for him, and headed into the bathroom. 

***

Draco took his time in the shower, not wanting to leave the bathroom at all and face a room of strangers. He already started to feel slightly worse from when he had woken up, seeing how his nose had begun to leak and itch more profoundly and his throat was really becoming agitated. He could already hear a few unfamiliar voices carrying into the restroom that made him uneasy. He was a complete stranger getting dumped into a family meet and greet. He knew that he would feel out of place and like he didn’t belong but there was no way to escape. All of his guests had already arrived and were chatting up a storm in the other room. He could make out Lirin’s high pitched voice, which gave him at least a little bit of comfort, but the other few voices made him release a tense sigh. This was going to be weird, but it was better to hurry up and get this over with now.

Draco slowly opened the bathroom door, deciding that it was time to leave the steamy bathroom so that the stuffy, warm air could stop making his nose leak so damn much. He carefully peered down the hallway, instantly being greeted by unfamiliar faces. There was a man with brown hair and glasses in a dark suit, looking like an older version of Reuben just with stubbles on his chin that was having a conversation with a mature woman, looking young for her age, with long, luscious brown hair; They looked like they had professions related in business or sales.

“Speak of the devil, that must be the man of the hour! My son here’s been tellin’ me all about ya!” The man in the suit said with open arms as Draco approached the group. He instantly pulled the rugged man in for a tight hug that took the breath away from him and caused him to cough over the man’s shoulder. “Don’t be shy! We’re all family here.” After a brief moment, he finally let go and gave Draco a good look over. “You look well! Seems like you’ve made yourself right at home.” The rugged man remained silent, unsure of how to respond to the sudden change of tone from his last sentence.

“Oh, don’t mind him, honey.” The woman said as she straightened up Draco’s shirt. “Donovan’s always been such a hard-ass to all of Reuben’s new friends, haven’t you, Donny?” She said, abruptly giving Donovan a death glare. “My name’s Colette.” Before he could even reply to the woman, Donovan stepped closer to Draco with judging eyes.

“I just don’t want my son to have any bad influences or distractions. You know how it is.” Draco took an uncomfortable step backwards, feeling the tense atmosphere weighing on his shoulders. He already felt like he was being pulled in both directions from both parents. The rugged man froze, feeling like the dark glare from Reuben’s father was judging his every move and action. He curses internally, feeling his nose start to run again, knowing that he can’t do anything about it at this moment.

“Dad I’ve told you countless times, he’s not a distraction. I’ve been doing just fine even with him here.” Reuben said through an irritated sigh as he stressfully massaged the bridge of his nose. Donovan instantly approaches Reuben with a stern voice, clearly not fond of the entire situation. It seemed like none of his words were getting through to him.

“Mmm. And just how long does this Draco plan on staying here?” The rugged man forcefully took this opportunity to turn around and grab a few tissues and wipe his nose, before the leakage had the chance to become visible. A hint of relief crosses over him as he quietly blew into the tissues. It was a soft enough blow to the point where it didn’t draw any attention away from the conversation.

“Ease up, darling. It’s Christmas. We came down here to enjoy the holiday with our son and niece. Besides, Draco looks like a responsible young man. If our son says he’s fine with him being here, leave it at that.”

“Yeah, Draco is SUCH a RESPONSIBLE young man.” Lirin childishly chimed in, hugging Reuben loosely from his side. “You should see how RESPONSIBLE he is when he’s drunk.” She smirked. Draco bit his tongue, trying his best to catch himself from saying an angry remark. Just hearing her sarcasm made him clench his teeth.

“Is that so…?” The voice of a clearly intrigued and curious woman fills the room as Sicily enters the house and locks the door behind her. “We’ll have to grab a drink later.” She flashes Draco a charming wink that makes him instantly look away.

"Sicily, darling! We thought you wouldn't be able to make it! What a pleasant surprise!" Colette exclaims in surprise as she embraces the woman. “Is that alcohol I smell on your breath?”

"Mom, relax. What are you, a police officer? It’s Christmas!” Sicily’s entrance cuts through the tense atmosphere as she gives Donovan, Reuben and Lirin a hug in greeting. “Anywho, don’t be shy now, Draco, was it?” She gave the rugged man a playful nudge in his side as she pulled him over onto the couch. Draco doesn't fight her as he allows himself to be forced down onto the couch, feeling both relieved that he got snatched away from the demonic man, but also, dare he say 'happy' to see Sicily for a second time. "Some parents, huh?" She says after observing Draco's facial expressions. "I know. Dad can be quite the handful. Just make sure mom doesn't get a hold of any wine, or that could be a real shit-show." She giggled to herself as she kicked off her boots. “Last year, mom had a liiiiittle too much of the holiday nog and almost broke all of my drinking glasses. Wanna know how? She was throwing them at pops for losing 10 grand in one of his stock investments.” Another, louder giggle erupts from Sicily, earning a darted glare from Donovan towards Draco. 

“Um, excuse me everyone. Dinner is almost ready, so if you all could please relocate to the dining room…” Reuben muttered, placing the dinner rolls on the table.”

  ***

“Honey, this looks delicious!” Colette exclaims, looking at all of the food Reuben had prepared. It did look delicious. How one man could make so many different dishes all by himself beat Draco. He did a really nice job with everything, but of course, he wasn’t going to tell Reuben that.

“Let’s dig in!!” Lirin exclaimed before instantly chowing down on her over-piled plate. She was the first to make her plate before anyone else cold even touch the food.

There were so many silverware and differently sized plates on the table and it made Draco squirm internally. It felt like he was being setup. He and Reuben both knew that he didn’t have any knowledge about dining etiquette, or any etiquette in general. Hell- he doesn’t even know the name of anything that’s on his plate! He’s sure that everything on the dining table was fancy and had a L or Lu in front of it. He wouldn’t be surprised if Reuben’s family called their glasses of water: L’agua. 

The rugged man watched as all of the family members delicately picked up their proper utensils and began to elegantly cut and eat the food on their plates. It was like he was in the realm of gods and goddesses and he was the only human in sight, attempting to mimic their custom. Even Lirin somehow managed to mask her gluttony. It was hard to even think about eating, seeing how he could barely survive the coldhearted looks that Donovan was darting his way. He could tell that he was subtly watching him, waiting to see which utensil he would pick up first and judge him if he grabbed at the wrong one.

“Aren’t you going to eat, Draco?” Reuben’s mom gave him a concerned look as she noticed he hadn’t touched his plate. “Your food will get cold soon. It really is good, I promise!” 

"Mom? Please." She whispered, feeling insulted. "Hey Draco, wanna blow this joint and go get some drinks? Lirin tells me you're a real drinker."

“I thought you’d never ask…” He replied with a nervous laugh, giving Reuben almost a puppy dog look of ‘please let me leave, this is my only escape.’ His parents tried to talk them out of it, but of course, Draco can’t be talked out of consuming alcohol.

***

 The music being played from the piano at the back of the bar rang blissfully in their ears as they entered the bar. It wasn’t too crowded, surprisingly. A soft aroma of alcohol filled the air as the two slowly approached the counter. There was a nice Christmas tree set up near the piano that lit up the room, with a male bartender wiping out a glass behind the counter.

“How can I help you?” The man said as he tossed the towel onto his shoulder and sat the glass down onto the rack.

“Let me get two shots of Bourbon for me and my friend here please.” Sicily ordered as she took a seat on the bar stool. The bartender nodded in understanding as he grabbed a bottle and started pouring the alcohol. Draco hesitantly sat down in the stool beside the woman, still tense and a bit uncomfortable with going into a bar with the pediatrician’s sister. “Relax, I just want to loosen up and have a couple of drinks with you.” She muttered, pulling out a cigarette from the paper carton and resting it on her rose red lips. She shared a short glance with Draco before it was awkwardly broken by the rugged man pretending to clear his throat.

 As the night went on, the fuzzier his head was beginning to feel. He had only had 5 shots and he could already feel himself starting to get a little more than tipsy. It was weird; Usually he could down more shots than this without feeling a buzz this early on. He could hardly think, let alone keep up with what Sicily was saying, not like what she was saying mattered, anyway. Draco was sure that she was one shot away from being completely plastered, seeing how her cheeks were flushed and her words were so slurred that it was a challenge to understand a word coming from her.

“It’s nice to let lose every once in a while, and take a break from all this classy shit.” She says, hoping to break the tension while allowing a long sigh to escape from her lips, causing a stream of gray smoke to bounce off of the counter-top and disperse into the air.

"You're tellin' me..." Draco muttered, grabbing the shot glass from the bartender and immediately scarfing it down like it were a dose a vicodine. "I could barely manage back there."

"Yeah..." Sicily distantly mutters, glaring down at the shot glass in her hand for a moment before irritably scarfing it down as well with haste.

“HhH’EGJISCH…!! ‘EGSSCHIUH!!” The rugged man dove forwards over the counter, holding his glass of whiskey away from him in vain so that hopefully it didn’t spill when he jerked forward with both of his itchy explosions. “O-oh shit! *hic*” He yelled with a breathy chuckle, finding humor from both Sicily’s laughter and the discovery of a small splash of alcohol that had spilled onto the counter from his glass. Sicily had toppled over onto the drunk man’s chest in laughter, struggling to breathe from how hard she was laughing. Draco’s own laughter abruptly stopped as the burning in his nostrils was still intense and flaring about.

“HhUH…!!” He sloppily leaned backwards with a deep inhale, barely able to stay upright from the weight of Sicily leaned so close up against him. He can feel his nostrils trembling in irritation from the burning as he slams his eyelids shut and dipped forwards again, slamming his glass onto the counter-top.

“Hhih…! Hhg’TIZSSCH’uhh! *hic* h-HUhgDzZSSCH’uhgg!!” His reflexes aren’t in tune from the alcoholic fuzziness as he is slow in turning his head away from the drunk woman. The first sneeze flies over Sicily’s head and lands on the counter-top, but he is able to partially turn his head over to the right and aim the second slurred mess of a sneeze towards the ground. Sicily shrieks in surprise from the two loud sneezes, feeling his chest tense up and shove her forwards, but she instantly smothered her chuckles into her hands as she pulled away from Draco and took a sip of alcohol from her shot glass. The rugged man brings up a sluggish, curled knuckle to lazily wipe underneath his faintly twitching nostrils, only to feel how moist and leaky they had been.

“Sh-shidt… Hheh…” He tries to cup his hand in order to lazily cover the disgusting mess on the lower half of his face, but before he can even ask for a tissue, his chest inflates quickly, forcing him to lean back once more with a disturbed grimace on his face. “

Sicily sloppily reaches into her purse, fumbling over herself as she takes out her handkerchief and shoves it into his cupped hand.

“Pineapple!” Sicily yelled abruptly, before he could even finish the oncoming sneeze.

“HhUHh’G-ghhn…?” The forceful hitch is instantly interrupted as his fuzzy and sluggish brain tried to wrap his mind around the randomness of the word pineapple. He sat there for a moment, confused, still waiting for the impending sneeze but the tingling in his sinuses had slightly died down to a quieter itch at the back of his nose.

“Ahh YEP, works everytimee.” She tiredly mused, downing her last shot of whiskey. Two hiccups escaped from her mouth once she downed her last shot and she giggled to herself before she flipped the shot glass upside down onto the counter.

“I use’to do thaht with Reuben when he’ws younger. That boy hadth’ most sensitive nose I’d ever seen. Once he start’d sneezin’ there was no goin’ back. ‘less you yell ‘pineapple!’ a’the right time. That’ll do it.” She muttered, fighting the effects of the alcohol that were trying to make her pass out on the counter-top.

"Hey... I wann' tell you somethin' an... An' you bettnot l-laugh..." The rugged man rubbed his face, feeling his mouth and tongue gradually becoming numb. It was definitely weird. He was feeling a lot of things tonight, both good and bad. He looked at Sicily with tired eyes, watching her back rise and sink with each breath she took as she rested on the counter with her head faced down in her arms. She grunted softly, as if signaling to Draco that she was still listening. "I... I r-really like you, you know tha?"

"Oh, that's nice. Me too." She muttered, giggling softly in her folded arms. At that moment, Draco's heart flew out of his chest as he struggled to sit upright.

"I'll have the ramen too. No eggs..." She weakly reached out to grab Draco's arm and shook it gently, "Please no eggs. I don't want eggs." He sighed and rolled his eyes, realizing that Sicily must've been talking in her sleep.

   December 25th 

“Hhg’tdsszhh! ‘Egsschh!!” The two tired sneezes were lazily stifled and released into the air as he shuffled around covered in his soft blanket in which he wore like an oversized jacket. He gently scrunches his nose around, feeling the tickle remaining at the same strength. He was lifelessly lying on the couch, too fatigued to do anything. Too exhausted to even sniff away the wetness leaking from his sore nostrils. What was the point? He had been sniffling and snuffling all night; every time he sneezed, the wetness quickly returned anyway. He was so congested to the point where it sounded like he was inhaling pudding every time he took a breath. The room was still dark, besides the random flashing lights of the elegant Christmas tree in the corner of the room. He audibly winced from the pressure pounding in his head with the pulsing of his veins. Drinking alcohol all day probably wasn't the best call, he had to admit. He felt so worn out and tired but he couldn't fall asleep; Not even the word Christmas could bring his spirits up. He snuffled lightly, too exhausted to even sniffle as hard as he needed to. His body tensed up reflexively as a shiver crept down his spine, forcing his body to quiver every once in a while. Blankets. N-need more blankets. A-and huhh-

“Draco…? Are you up?” The soft, sleepy and tender voice of Sicily cuts through his suffering as he can just barely see a thin figure slowly approaching from down the hall. She slowly made her way over to the couch and noticed the poor, sickly body lying there in pain. Her sleepy expression changes instantly to concerned when she observes the sick body closely. “Draco, you look horrible!” She exclaimed in an intense whisper, not trying to wake up the sleeping pediatrician. She held his clammy cheeks and frowned, giving them a smooth rub with her thumb to clear the sweat away. “You’re boiling! And-- Oh...”

"Ehh'hoOo! Hh-hih- HIH'gdzssh!" He can feel his cheeks start to blush a light pink as he barely realizes that he had sneezed on Sicily's neck and chest; He wanted to pull away but he was too exhausted and fever struck to do anything.

“HEH'Ssgk! ’M-m alrigh’. ‘ll jus’… Jus’ do the sleep. EEH'HooOgk! Hih'gSHUHhgk!Tiredhh…” He muttered, finding it complicated to compose the proper sentences and to communicate in general. At this point, he had partially given up stifling, forcing his sneezes to sound like a mixture of a cough and a mild yell. Sicily gave him a worried look, finding it odd to see a person so delusional and out if sorts. She was too worried to feel disgusted.

“Hey, Draco! Wake up! I ne...ed you t.. sta... Awa... Ke..!"

Draco wasn’t sure what dimension he had stumbled upon, but he couldn't hear or see Sicily anymore; He felt like he was asleep but at the same time, he wasn’t sure if he was. The blackness around him began to swirl into a spiral as if he were entering a portal, and before he could comprehend what was happening, he was back home in his old house. All the lights were off in the house but the single overhead kitchen light, which severed as a homing beacon to the rugged man. There was a tall, slender woman that stood hovering over the stove, humming an all too familiar tune.  

“Mm?” The woman slowly turned around to face the rugged man as if she were moving through molasses. The crimson locks resting beneath her shoulders dangled behind her back as she gave him a pained smile. “Just in time for dinner. Have a seat.” The bags underneath her eyes were complimented with a subtle dark circle, indicating that she had been overly exhausted and worn out for days on end. “Dinner’s almost ready.” 

“N-no, I...” Something isn’t right. Before he could do anything, the creaking of the front door catches his attention.

“M-mom...?” His words came out sluggish and muffled, as if he were moving in a time warp. With each hesitant step he took, the world around him blurred and swashed around, colors blending and smothering each other like dye on cake batter. The single word that he spoke seemed to echo for ages and bounce off of the walls and floors with a weird reverb like they were in a mutated cave. 

“You heard your mother, boy.” A dark tone from behind brings a boil to the blood flowing throughout Draco’s veins. He knew that voice all too well.  “Sit like a good dog.” 

“You...” He clenches his fists, feeling all of his uncontrollable anger rising to the surface.

“Draco. Draco, get up! Draco--!?”  He could barely hear the screams of his mother behind him as he was too busy dashing towards the figment of his father with a bawled fist, ready for a solid punch.

“I’LL KILL YOU!! YOU FUCKING MONSTER!!!” His own battle cries begin to drown out the loud crackling of the now roaring fire engulfing the walls and flooring. The dark, bulky body in front of him kept a cool smirk on his face, even in the given situation, which angered the rugged man and the fire even more.

“Draco, stop it!! Draco--!!!” The fear-filled screams from his mother began to cut in and out, almost mutating into the worried screams of the pediatrician.“Draco!!! Stop! Wake up! Blast--, he’s not responding!” Reuben yelled as he was holding on to Draco’s arms.

“We need to get him into some cold water, NOW! Start the bath!” Sicily nodded and darted for the bathroom, immediately starting to fill the tub with the coldest water she could. "Draco, you're hallucinating! WAKE UP, DAMN IT!" There was a slight shakiness to Reuben's voice as he struggled to pin the rugged man down. He had been in situations like this before and seen it plenty of times, but something about seeing Draco in such a broken state filled the pediatrician with more than just a little worry. 

“I-I’ll fucking--... Kill you... I swear it...”  The rugged man exhaustedly muttered, trying to punch the air but failing, since Reuben was holding him down in place.

"Reuben, the tubs halfway full!" Sicily yelled from the bathroom. The pediatrician signals for her to come and help him drag the sick corpse into the bathroom, in which she doesn't hesitate to do.

He was a tall, heavy and sickly thing. It took them a while to get him off of the couch with him fighting the two while weakly kicking and punching at the air as if doing so would hurt his invisible enemy. You could imagine how tough it was for them to force him into the bathroom, let alone the freezing bathtub.

"Help me get his shirt and jeans off..." Reuben muttered to his sister as he forced the rugged man to sit down on the toilet lid.

"W-whahd are yhou d-doig, pervert?!" Draco yelled, eyes sluggishly tracing the room and barely staying open. "G-Gedhh... HEH'Gdzsshiew!" The sneeze sprays the pediatrician’s pajama shirt as he temporarily flinches in disgust, but he doesn't let it bother him. He's in pure focus mode, as a trained pediatrician should be. "EHHgtsshnk!! Thad's whad you ged, b-bast.. bah.. heh-"

"Don't mind him, Sicily. He'll be fine." He says, noting Sicily watching with an expression on her face that he couldn’t read, but mainly to himself to give him some sort of relief while dealing with the given situation. He bites his lip, having mixed feelings about the situation. "L-Let's get him into the tub." The two nearly shove the rugged man into the cold pool of water, causing a lot of it to be spilled onto the bathroom floor. It only takes a second of being in the freezing water for him to snap out of it and realize where he was. Reuben sighs, feeling his heart nearly beating out of its chest. He had never seen Draco in such a state before in his life, and it worried him more than any patient he ever had. “Could you use this cup and pour some cold water over him?” He says, handing Sicily the small cup. “We still need to cool his body temperature down before he overheats. I need to go ge… some water. T-towels…” Before Sicily can even say anything, Reuben darted out of the room and closed the door behind him. She knew exactly what that meant.

“I need to ge… some water. T-towels…”

She heard him repeat it in her head. The tone in his voice when he said it. The strain and slight shake towards the ending. The pause in between and after. She gripped the cup tighter in slight anger. Two loud coughs from the rugged man jolt Sicily out of her own thoughts and redirect her attention. She can’t help but give the rugged man a good gloss over. He was visibly shivering in place, causing little ripples to bang against to tub walls. He looked like a dead corpse that still managed to breathe in her eyes. His red nose didn’t even attempt to hold back the sickly fluids that dripped down onto his chin and bare chest. He was too cold and out of it to care or do anything about it. She could see a tinge of black starting to linger underneath his eyes and his cheeks looked like pieces of cotton candy against his ghostly pale skin. She dipped the cup in the water on his side until it was submerged in the water and poured it over his head. He didn’t even flinch. He was probably too dazed to even feel the cold water, she thought to herself.

“… ‘ts c-cold m-mom-mm…” He barely mutters through chattering teeth, slowly closing his eyes and leaning back into the tub. Sicily immediately drops the cup and grabs the rugged man before his back can fully sink into the tub.

“Draco! Hey-hey, you have to sit up! Look at me!” She says, voice sounding strained from pushing the rugged man forward to sit upright. Draco doesn’t respond, allowing his body to fully go limp into Sicily’s arms. Sicily grunts, barely being able to keep Draco above the water from her current position. She hunches over the bathtub, trying to find the right position to comfortably hold Draco upright, but falls forward into the cold water on top of him. She releases a heavy exhale from the abrupt submersion in cold water and immediately pulls Draco’s upper half out of the water and into her chest as if he were hugging her. The rugged man takes in an immediate deep gasp and releases a handful of wet coughs over her shoulder, shivering like a madman. The woman gives a soft smile to herself, feeling the grown mans body tremble underneath her arms. She allows her fingers to rest on his clammy back, enjoying the feeling of his body up against hers so tight and closely. She closes her eyes, feeling warm from both Draco’s body and the happiness and comfort of Draco’s embrace. It felt as if time stood still for ages as the two leaned up against each other in the tub. Draco’s body had calmed down from the event, besides the constant sniffles, and they just sat there together. Holding each other. 

“S-Sicily…” Draco’s faint whisper barely cut through the thin silence.

“It’s me, Draco.” She whispered back softly, still resting her head atop of Draco’s shoulder and hugging him. The rugged man slowly pulled away and nuzzled their foreheads together. She kept her eyes closed, enjoying the company of the rugged man. She moaned softly, feeling the warmth from his forehead rub against hers. The warmth from his fever radiated off of his face against her skin, summoning a faint smirk to cross her lips. She can feel her heart race a little from the shift in the room as she feels a cold hand rake through the side of her hair. She flinches as the cold water from his hand drip down her left side. His hot breath comforts her as she smells a hint of Marlboro and leftover booze beam closer. She can feel his shaky breaths get stronger and closer as his warm lips come in contact with hers. He gives her a long peck on her soft lips, allowing her body language to convey to him if he should stop or proceed. She gasps internally, half knowing what was happening and half not. She doesn’t fight it though, and brings up a hand to trace a line down his chest as he pulls her closer and gives her two more deep kisses. He can’t help but moan as she gently pushes his head closer to hers. It was a very intimate moment, that’s for sure. If Draco had any questions, they had all been answered right now.

He slowly pulls away and nuzzles her forehead again, allowing them both to catch their breath. Sicily’s eyes were locked onto his as she seductively licked her lips, signaling that she was ready for more. He swallows down a cough as she leans up against his chest again, but this time, pushing him back and forcing him to lay his back against the curve of the tub wall. Draco is caught off guard by this action and flinches, uncertain of what she was going to do next. He can feel his heart begin to race as she starts to give him kisses on the top half of his chest.  Once she reaches his neck, she rests her body on his and starts to give him pecks all over his face. She reaches his nose and gives it two pecks, feeling her insides start to get all warm and excited.

Her adrenaline was rushing all over for many different reasons. She knew about Reuben. She knew about him being gay and she knew about his sneezing fetish. She knew he had the hots for Draco way before he himself probably did. She knew that something was off when he said he needed to get some water. He couldn’t handle Draco sneezing on him or him being practically naked in the bathtub. She herself didn’t have the fetish, but she was overly curious about what was so appealing about it. She couldn’t knock it until she tried it at least; she was already in the mood to get dirty with Draco. It did give her a rush knowing that she had the man Reuben had his eyes on. She was doing things to Draco that Reuben would probably never get to do. Draco sneezing on him was probably the closest thing he would ever get. 

“S-Sicily I—… Hh…” He whispered weakly, closing his eyes and slowly lifting a hand to his face. She immediately grabs his wrist and shoves it back down into the water and holds his other hand hostage under the water as well.

“I know.” She says, watching his red, glistening nose twitch above her. Another peck from Sicily occurs on top of his nose. She can feel his chest rise with another weak inhale. “Don’t worry, I don’t mind. Just sneeze.” Draco snuffles twice, giving Sicily a confused glare.

“W-waih wah?” He says, trying to lift his hand again only to have Sicily press more weight down against it and prevent him from doing so.

“You heard me.” She reaches her head up to Draco’s, using her nose to lightly rub against the moist rims of his nose to try to coax out the sneeze before he can say anything else.

“B-but I ne—” Sicily shushes him and pecks him on the lips before continuing to rub his nose in different patterns and speeds. He produces two loud snuffles, sounding both thick and wet, which creates a spark in Sicily’s eye. “W-wa- HhiH… Hih! W-wahd are y-you HiHh…. Hh-doig??” He manages to say before tilting his head back against his will, involuntarily trying to escape from the induced tickling sensation on his already sensitive nose. She reaches up to follow him, giving a subtle giggle, enjoying the chase.

“Stop fighting me and just do it already.” She says as she can feel his chest practically jumping with each stuttered inhale. Cold, clear sick coats the tip of her nose as she feels his nostrils twitching up against it. She knew that it was building up in there to the point where his nose was crying and leaking sick tears for a release.

“HhuH! …. Hh-hUh! HhIH!” She tightens the grip on his wrists in anticipation, feeling slightly aroused by it all. It was like waiting for the inevitable. A devilish smile creases her lips as she watches the rugged man’s face grimace in torment. He snuffles thickly a few times in vain, as the sick just leaked immediately back down anyway; he just accepted the fate of not being able to use his hands. He felt awkward not being able to have the freedom to cover his mouth. He wanted to turn away from her but he knew that wasn’t what she wanted. He curses mentally, feeling a little embarrassed but more irritated with the pestering itch in his sinuses.

“HIH… HHIH…! HHG’TIZGSSSSCHK’ughh!” She slams her eyes shut and flinches hard, unprepared for the sudden cold spray of sickly fluids. She wasn’t sure what position she was supposed to be in for the actual sneeze. She was too intrigued by the satisfaction of him suffering with his nose to think that far ahead. But this was something… new. “H-HUhgDzZSSSGCCH’kguhgg!! ‘HEEHGSSZCHH’uhh!!!” The second batch of mist sprays her face and she can feel glops of sick make contact with her face and chest that start to slowly drip down. At first she’s disgusted, but she is oddly satisfied in a way. The third sneeze hits her back-to-back with a new batch of wetness, and by this point, she feels like she’s being rewarded for her good deeds. A subtle moan is released, more to herself as she realizes that she liked it more than she thought she would. “Eh… HehhgKSSZCHHh’kt!!” She squirms, feeling a rush when his body jerks underneath her from the harsh coughs that follow; the rattling coughs remind him of how much he feels like a pile of crap all over again. Sick was all over both of them and he knew it. It was hard not to hide all of it, especially since he didn’t have his hands to cover or wipe away at it, and his nose was practically drooling over her nose tickling his. There was bound to be a lost of discharge. He can feel his cheeks start to flush a dark red from embarrassment as he tries so hard to sniff everything away. All he wanted to do was get out of the bath and hide on the couch. “S-sorry.” He mutters between sniffles and nose twitches, feeling slightly guilty as he tried to clean himself up without his hands.

“Thanks.” She says, kissing his now sick coated lips and giving him a smile. “Now I know.” Draco pauses for a moment, surprised at what he was hearing. Was he still hallucinating from the fever?

“Huh..??” He says, overly congested, trying to clean himself up with the bath water now that his hands are free.

“Now I know that you are the one… And this secret stays between us.” She said with a final kiss before getting out of the tub. The whole time she dried herself and left the room, Draco was still sitting there dumbfounded, overly confused about everything. He didn’t know how to feel. He was happy that he pretty much made out with his newfound crush, but… What the hell just happened??? Was any of this real..? N-no… It couldn’t have been…

“… I need to go the fuck to sleep…” He muttered before sinking into the tub again

***

“Reuben, I don’t care! I wanna open gifts now!” A loud, high-pitched voice rings the ears of Draco and causes him to stir awake against his will. “We’ve waited long enough! It’ll be New Years if we wait for him to get up!”

The rugged man sluggishly cracked open an eyelid to be blinded by the Christmas lights from the tree and the fire in the fireplace. Someone must’ve moved me back onto the couch… What the fuck… Immediately he feels his nose start to run like a faucet as he tries to sit up on the couch. He grimaces when his body aches and finds it a challenge to even sit upright. He sniffles a few times, trying to stop the leakage but it does nothing but make the sick dance around in his nostrils before returning back to the same spot it was in before so he just gives up and lets it stay there, too fatigued to attempt to blow his nose or wipe it. His heart skips a beat as he notices Sicily lying on the floor right beside the couch.

“Look who’s awake!” The pediatrician says, relieved to see him up and at ‘em. “Did we wake you?” Draco only sniffles in return, feeling grumpy and too sick to respond. He just wanted it to end. And by it, he means everything. This damn cold, flu, whatever the hell that kid gave him, Christmas, this day, pretty much EVERYTHING. Just leave him alone. “You should go back to bed and get some rest if you still aren’t feeling that well, Draco.”

“I wahs tryig do before your loud ass woge be ubp!” He yelled congestedly, coughing into the blanket right after. He winces, feeling his entire body feeling sore; inside and out. It felt like his whole body would break if he coughed or sneezed again.

“Okay, okay! Everybody calm down.” Reuben says, looking more towards Lirin as she raised a fist to him. “Don’t get too riled up, Draco. Your body is still recovering.” The rugged man leans back into the couch feeling defeated and overtaken by pain. He just wanted someone to put him out of his misery.

“I… I deed sobe paid bedicinde.” He mumbles through wet sniffles, sounding clearly beat down and worn.

“I’ll get them.” Sicily says, stretching from the floor before Reuben can leave the room. He freezes for a second but then nods in acceptance for her to get the meds. She returns a moment later, with the bottle of NyQuil and pours him a cup.

“I deed like… dhree o’ dhose…” He mutters through a strained voice as he shots the cap of medicine down.

“You ‘deed’ to blow your nose.” She jokingly mocks, pouring him a second cap full of NyQuil and handing him some tissues. He snuffles dismissively and jokingly steals the cap, chugging it down and returning it back to her with a mumbled ‘fuck you’ under his breath. She giggles, feeling slightly relieved that the old Draco was starting to come back a little. Reuben distantly watches the two from the distance, feeling a little excluded and odd. He knew something was going on here, but he wasn’t sure.

The gurgling sound in the tissues grabs the attention of the entire room as Draco gives one good blow into the handful of tissues. One blow and that’s it. Fuck it. He was too tired and that single blow took the wind and force away from him. He weakly coughed a few times into the tissues and threw them onto the floor, immediately sinking back into the couch.

“Let’s do the fucking gifts so you assholes can get out and leave me the hell alone.” He mutters, voice barely audible.

***

The gift exchange was fun for the most part. Everyone was having a great time except for Draco of course. Everyone seemed happy with their gifts. Reuben bought him a brand-new motorcycle so that he didn’t have to Uber or wait for him to drive him around. Lirin bought him a book on tips for being sober. And Sicily went out and got him a new flask with a bottle of Jack Daniels and a pack of Marlboros. One thing he could say was that this was the first Christmas that he had in a long while that actually felt homie. And it was the first Christmas that he had been too sick to participate in the festivities for.

“Alright Draco. Thanks for being apart of our Christmas and opening the gifts. We’ll get out and let you rest.” Reuben says, watching the NyQuil already start to take its’ toll.

Reuben and Lirin walk out of the room, leaving Sicily and Draco together again. She was sitting beside the rugged man on the right side of the couch. They sat together in a peaceful silence, besides Draco sniffling every couple of seconds. He didn’t mind her company. If anything, he was glad that she decided to stay.

“Alright, you’re tired. Time to go back to sleep.” Sicily says as she tries to get comfortable on the couch. “Come here.” She gently tugs on his arm for him to come closer to her on the couch. He exhaustedly obliges and nearly collapses into her chest, shifting around to get comfortable in her embrace. She blushes a little, feeling his head resting on her chest. Best Christmas gift ever, she thought to herself. She closed her eyes and raked her fingers through his damp hair, massaging his scalp as she tried to fall asleep wit the sick rugged man. She cracks an eye open as she feels the rugged man shift uncomfortably in her embrace and freeze before lightly jerking forwards twice, releasing two weak sneezes aimed at the floor.

“Hhuh’kgDTzsshn! Eh’Dsschkn!” The two weak sneezes take whatever energy he had left and he doesn’t even sniffle, feeling his entire body becoming too tired to do anything at the moment. He can only release a shaky exhale and collapse into Sicily’s embrace. She smiles, feeling overwhelmingly happy at the situation.

“Merry Christmas to me…” She happily mutters to herself before joining Draco in a long, well deserved sleep. 

END. 

Hopefully it was worth the wait LOL XD A lot is going on in this fic but I like’d working on it even though I had some intense writers blocks lol xD Like I said, I’m working on like 5 different fics all at the same time hahaha so hopefully I can post those because I been writing a lot, just not all on the same fic ahaha.

[stxphxn-strange]

will you hold this? (it’s my heart)

a/n: i wanted to write some sad fluff, like well everything is going to be ok, but is it? and it’s kinda just me sharing my experience via college AU!tony.

Of course they could talk without saying anything out loud. They’d been inseparable almost from the first day they met, their childhood codewords evolving into a serious language of gazes and expressions. They could have an entire conversation just by looking into each other’s eyes, far away from anything else that was going on around them. Sometimes their conversations were so fast, you’d miss them if you so much as blinked. Anthony knew Stephen like the back of his hand (and vice versa) and could read him like a book. To be fair, Anthony was of the opinion that reading Stephen’s facial expressions and their subtle changes was more interesting than most books. And that was, in a weird way of arriving at the conclusion, part of the problem.

It wasn’t Stephen’s fault, in fact it had nothing to do with him whatsoever, but books and articles and journals didn’t hold Anthony’s attention sometimes. It didn’t matter how passionate he was about the subject matter, sometimes his brain just didn’t want to absorb anything. He’d stare at the wall, or sometimes at nothing, following a thought process that didn’t always make sense. More often than not, it was just an avalanche of one (1) idea after another, leaving him confused and upset. How come he could sing an entire song in his head or invent a new product, but not focus on the pages in front of him?

And of course Anthony didn’t want to give himself too much credit, he wasn’t that brilliant and his thoughts/mind weren’t the only thing that distracted him. Sometimes he’d click open a new tab and follow internet discourse.

Sometimes he’d scroll through old texts.

Sometimes he’d send some new texts.

Sometimes he’d stand abruptly and wander aimlessly for a few minutes. What he did tended to vary, but his focus consistently left the task at hand. If he was listening to someone, or trying to listen to someone, he’d bite his lip, touch his face, tear at the hole on the knee of his jeans, or something similar just to deal with the realization that he was occupying his body. He was too often gripped by the realization that he was a corporeal being, leaving him desperately needing to feel the environment around him, just as a reminder that he was alive. Sometimes he wondered about how and why he still existed, but today wasn’t one of those days.

Anthony hadn’t asked himself any questions relating to his mortality in awhile, and he didn’t want to. He could deal with fidgeting as a reminder that he was a living thing, he couldn’t deal with wondering why. All of his anxiety was, ironically enough, focused on the fact that he couldn’t focus on a damn thing. There wasn’t time to let his mind wander into any dark corners, but Anthony didn’t know that he’d be able to collect his thoughts if it did. So after picking up his phone for the third time, just to play a quick game and see if Rhodey texted him back (he didn’t, because he was in a lecture and Anthony knew that but still checked his phone every few minutes), Anthony subtly shoved his phone in Stephen’s direction.

Stephen looked up as he saw Anthony’s hand in his peripheral vision, fingertips lingering near the top right corner of his notebook. That was one of the clearest signs that he wanted or needed something but was hesitant to bring it up.

“What’s up Ant?”

“May I ask a small favor?”

Stephen rolled his eyes fondly. “There’s no limit to the things I’d do for you, but go on.”

“Will you hold my phone in your bag?” Anthony asked, a bit sheepishly. “I’ll take it back once we’re home.”

“Sure,” Stephen replied, not thinking twice about the request. He brushed his fingers lightly against Anthony’s as he grabbed his boyfriend’s phone.

Anthony let out a sigh. “Thanks.”

“What’s wrong?” Stephen asked, holding his hand properly.

“I just can’t really focus,” Anthony confessed. “I should’ve finished all of this ages ago, but my mind is just elsewhere. I must be distracted because you’re too pretty.”

“I’m fucking gorgeous, but that’s not why you’re distracted and we both know it,” Stephen replied, his tone firm but sweet.

Anthony shrugged. “I don’t really know what it is. I just can’t seem to concentrate, even as I’m trying to do multiple things at once. I’m trying to make up for lost, wasted time I guess? But I can’t focus on one (1) thing, let alone four (4).”

Stephen frowned at the look of distress on Anthony’s face, letting go of his hand for a moment just to brush his hair back. He smiled as Anthony leaned into the caress, relaxing just a bit.

Every bit counted! But beneath Anthony’s little moment of bliss, he was unsettled and frantic. Stephen reached for his hand again, sending Anthony a knowing smile as he began to draw circles on the back of Stephen’s hand with his thumb.

Anthony cocked his head to the right and frowned, tapping his pen on the desk with his other hand. A look of fear and regret flashed in his eyes as he let go of Stephen’s hand. “I didn’t mean to distract you too.”

“You know I can’t resist you,” Stephen replied teasingly, trying to convey that he wasn’t actually upset.

But Anthony wasn’t convinced, crossing his legs nervously and looking at Stephen with guilt-stricken eyes.

“I’m not actually upset or annoyed or anything like that,” Stephen assured him. “I promise.”

Anthony just nodded and slouched uncomfortably in the chair he’d been sitting in for the past few hours. He eyed the stack of papers in front of him with disinterest, trying to convince himself to just finish reading and start this damn essay. He knew that looking at the articles wasn’t going to help him absorb the information, but he wasn’t getting anywhere by trying to read and it was so FUCKING frustrating.

He sighed and opened his laptop again, mentally committing to just getting the outline of his paper done. It wouldn’t be that painful, right?

Actually it could. Even though Anthony stood up to stretch, walked to the bathroom, got some water, and doodled just to keep his mind busy while he tried to take some notes and start his outline, nothing worked. And again, it was REALLY fucking frustrating.

Beside him, Stephen quietly closed a book. “Want to head home?”

Anthony hesitated, looking for a minute like he was going to decline. Eventually he nodded, feeling a little like he was admitting defeat. He’d come back to the essay later, he always finished his tasks... but he hated how long it took him to do them.

“Come on,” Stephen said gently. He stood up and reached out to hug Anthony against his side. “What should we make for dinner?”

++++

Anthony was uncharacteristically quiet for most of the night, which worried Stephen and their housemates. Stephen knew Anthony was upset and that he always dimmed himself when he was lost in his head, but he was rarely this eerily silent. He didn’t touch his work for the rest of the night, trying to make sense of his day and watching Stephen and Carol argue about movies once she and Pepper came over.

Stephen would glance at him every now and then, finding obvious stress in his tired expression. Even though Anthony seemed relaxed, sitting next to Rhodey and occasionally adding a joke to their conversation, he was tense and edgy. Sometimes his sleepy facade would sort of slip, and Stephen could see how much stress he was hiding in his tired eyes.

After spectating a Mario Kart tournament for a few rounds (Pepper insisted on challenging Rhodey with everyone present, raising the stakes of the competition), Anthony slipped over to the other side of the room where Stephen was. While Stephen was still sitting, Anthony hugged him, clearly enjoying the reversal of their height difference.

Stephen found he didn’t mind it as Anthony rubbed his back and softly kissed his hair. With a smile, Stephen looked up at him and pressed his chin into Anthony’s shoulder. “Hi. I’m surprised you aren’t gloating about being taller than me since I’m sitting down.”

Anthony just shrugged. “I didn’t come over to brag. I think I’m going to bed, though. I’m tired.”

“I’m surprisingly not,” Stephen remarked. “But I don’t blame you, weren’t you up late last night?”

“Yeah. I almost fell asleep in the kitchen trying and failing to write that damn essay,” Anthony muttered.

Stephen frowned. “Go get some rest, love. You deserve it, and you need it. I’ll probably come to bed soon.”

“Sounds good,” Anthony replied, kissing the top of Stephen’s head again. He addressed the group then, saying a quick goodnight and hugging Pepper and Carol before wandering towards his room.

Overcome with tiredness and a need to be close to his boyfriend, Stephen left for bed not 30 minutes later. Anthony was shrouded in the scent of vanilla and residual steam from the shower, his damp hair tucked away under the hood of an old sweatshirt his mother had given him.

He was curled up near the center of the bed, resting on a pile of throw pillows he hadn’t bothered to move, his eyes following the screen of their TV.

“Villager hunting? Who moved out?” Stephen asked, realizing that his boyfriend was playing New Horizons.

“Filbert,” Anthony replied, his avatar running the hell away from some wasps. “I’m looking for Pietro now, Clown Town isn’t complete without him.”

Stephen rolled his eyes. “I still can’t believe that’s what you named your island. I think I have some extra tickets I can give you if you need.”

“This is my first mystery island, but I might take you up on that,” Anthony said, with a soft smile.

++++

“Did you come to bed at all last night?” Stephen asked, resting his cheek against Anthony’s shoulder.

“Yeah, don’t you remember?” Anthony asked softly.

“How would I? I was asleep,” Stephen reminded him.

“No I know, but you do this cute thing whenever I come to bed late, I guess it’s a subconscious thing, where as soon as I lay down you always reach for me and end up holding me,” Anthony replied. “It’s adorable. Kinda like this spooning thing we’re doing right now, except not because I’m usually facing you.”

Stephen smiled, hugging him closer. “Well I do sleep better with you.”

Anthony blushed, amazed that Stephen’s affection could catch him off guard sometimes. “I love you.”

“I love you too, dumbass,” Stephen replied. “Although I still can’t believe you didn’t take Raymond on the last island you were on.”

“I’m not looking for him. If I’m going to bring a smug villager to Clown Town, it’s going to be Pietro!” Anthony said, laughing quietly at Stephen’s sudden outburst.

(Actually, that was only the beginning of Stephen’s outburst.)

“Raymond is my favorite villager, and you know it! This is a betrayal, the greatest disappointment of this century, and I’m so upset,” Stephen complained, exaggerating every word. “I’m absolutely devastated!”

Anthony knew he was joking, but he started to wonder if Stephen could be disappointed in him for not trying harder to concentrate. He shelved that thought for a minute, running in a circle around another villager. Instead of voicing what really bothered him, he asked: “I thought Dizzy is your favorite villager?”

“Dizzy is my favorite on my island, Raymond is my literal dream villager,” Stephen explained. “I was going to visit him on your island! I feel so betrayed, Anthony!”

“Raymond is alright I guess, but—”

“He’s the best villager in the game! And he kind of reminds me of you,” Stephen cut him off.

“Ah, that explains why I dislike him for some reason,” Anthony quipped.

“Anthony.” Stephen changed his tone, his voice soft and loving in contrast to how bitter his boyfriend sounded.

“What? I’m just saying. Nothing that reminds you of me could possibly be a good thing,” Anthony explained.

Stephen frowned, hugging him even closer. “I call bullshit. I’ve never come across anything I think that’s ‘bad’ that reminds me of you. Only good things.” 

Anthony scoffed. “If you say so. If nobody moves to my island by tomorrow, will you give me some of your NMTs?” 

“Of course,” Stephen replied. He paused before speaking again. “How are you feeling, by the way?” 

“Tired,” Anthony said, saving his game and putting his Switch away. He saw Stephen frowning again, this time at his absence, and quickly returned to bed and his boyfriend’s arms. “And also discouraged. Sorry I insisted that you held my phone earlier, I was thinking if it was out of sight I wouldn’t be distracted and it didn’t even work so all I really did was bother you when you were reading and I’m sorry.” 

“Hey, remember what I always tell you? It’s never bothersome to support you and be around for you,” Stephen replied. “I know you don’t always believe it, but I’ll just keep telling you. And I’m sorry you had a hard time today.” 

“It’s not just today, Steph,” Anthony remarked. “I’ve been thinking about it kind of a lot recently, and I’ve had trouble sitting still, concentrating, not getting distracted, etc. since third grade at least. I’ve just noticed it more recently and it’s made me more anxious since I notice it more.”

Stephen just hummed, softly kissing his cheek. He knew Anthony wasn’t done talking, but always liked to silently offer support/affection/reassurance.

“I don’t have my thoughts together very well, I just feel stupid for not being able to focus,” Anthony continued. “Today I couldn’t focus on more than a sentence without a distraction, and I’m not sure if I hate myself or if I want to be forgiving just this once.”

“Be gentle with yourself,” Stephen urged. “I know you’re trying. You thought about how to minimize your distractions, and I know you like to plan your time. It might be hard to follow your plans, or to keep from getting distracted, but you’re doing your best.”

“I’m going to talk to my mother about this tomorrow,” Anthony said. “Maybe she has some advice on how to deal with it? Is it stupid to hope that I’ll be able to fix myself with just some advice?”

“You’re not broken, Anthony, so there’s nothing to fix. But for the sake of your analogy, no. You are an engineer, after all, and a problem solver. Just promise me you’ll try to be kind to yourself?” Stephen asked.

“No promises. I really fucking hate myself for not completing something as trivial as that essay,” Anthony muttered. “It’ll get done eventually. I guess that’s reassuring.”

tags: @stark-strange-love2 @ah3m @thespacecryptid @chocopiggy @kiwidino @ironstrange-chaos @majesticnerdynerd @spooky-n-spunky @doctorstephenvincentstarkstrange @maya-custodios-dionach

[the-marauders-enthusiast]

The Cute Barista

Draco Malfoy X Harry Potter - Coffee Shop Au

(not my gifs)

Summary: Harry and Draco meet again after the war, when harry steps into a coffee shop and seeing the cute barista working there.

Word count: 1.8k

Harry found himself in Muggle London, looking for a coffee shop. Ever since the war, he decided to live in the muggle world.  As a kid, being the boy who lived caused him to gain a lot of popularity and attention by the wizarding world, which only grew more after the war. Never being one for all the attention, he moved to the muggle world to get away from it all. Although he'd been living in muggle London, he'd barely left his flat. He could still rely on the money his parents left him to get by, and he didn't have any muggle friends so he never had a good enough reason to leave his flat (other than getting groceries and the occasional clothes shopping trip). So, he thought It'd be nice to get out more, maybe make new friends. He soon grew thirsty, which left him here, in search of a coffee shop.

After asking around, he found a coffee shop named CottageVillage Cafe. He opened the door and instantly felt a wave of calm wash over him. The shop looked and felt extremely cozy, and the delicious smell of coffee was all around him. Harry walked up to the counter, waiting for an employee to take his order. What he wasn't expecting, though, was to run into a certain blonde.

"CottageVillage Cafe, how can i hel- oh my god" The blonde stared at the other boy with wide eyes, his skin visibly paling.  

Harry also paled a few shades lighter, his own eyes matching the horrified look of the boy's in front of him.

"Malfoy?" he sputtered.

Draco shook his head in disbelief, "Of course, of bloody course this has to happen to me." he covered his face with his hands, then preceding to brush through his hair with his hands nervously.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked, surprise still evident on his face.

"Well it's not that easy to make a living in the wizarding world when everyone hates you" he scoffed.

"So now you're working in a muggle coffee shop?" The boy asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Well this is the only place that actually considered giving me a job, and it pays well, so I'm not complaining."

Harry took a moment to examine the boy in front of him. He hasn't seen Malfoy since the trials when he spoke up for him in court. At the trials he looked thin, his face gaunt, hair short and dirty, his eyes a dull gray. He looked utterly miserable. The man in front of him now looked more fit, face fuller and more angular, hair longer than before (about the length it was in 3rd year, he noted), eyes bright, and he looked much happier. He somehow looked like he belonged in the shop, like he was a part of it's very foundation. Harry also noticed that he somehow got more handsome in the time they hadn't seen each other. His eyes wandered down to Draco's arm, his sleeves rolled up, exposing the mark on his left arm. The last time he saw it, it was dark and ugly, the tattoo contrasting starkly against his pale skin. Now, the mark was still there, but it was riddled with flower designs around it, seemingly removing all the negative meanings of the original design.

He only removed his eyes from it when he heard someone behind him say, "Do you mind hurrying up? You're holding up the line."

Malfoy rolled his eyes quickly, "Right, so what is it you want?" He said in a monotone voice.

"Well this is my first time shopping here so I'd rather just get something you recommend."

"If I were you, I'd get a Vanilla Chai Latte, It's my personal favorite drink."

"I'll take your word for it" Harry smiled at Malfoy. He wrote down his order and looked up, meeting Harry's eyes again.

"You can go sit on one of the couches until your order is ready, golden boy."

Harry chucked, "Thanks Malfoy." He then turned around and sat on a couch, waiting for his drink. He found himself staring at the barista taking orders. He greeted each customer with a bright smile, which harry thought looked brilliant on him. He would swiftly take their orders and move on the next person, all of his movements looked graceful and practiced, as if they've been done million times over. In about 5 minutes, he heard his name being called,

"Potter! Vanilla Chai Latte for Harry Potter" Draco said, and Harry could see his painfully handsome smirk from the couch. He stood up and walked to the counter, smile on his face. Malfoy slid his drink across the counter while Harry pulled out his wallet to pay for it. Once he gave Malfoy the bill, he swiped up the drink, taking a sip quickly. Now Malfoy was staring at harry, unable to draw his eyes away form him. He noticed how attractive he'd gotten since he'd last seen him. Sure, he was attractive before, but it seemed that as he matured he only got more handsome. Harry's lips parted from the cup, causing Malfoy to dart his eyes away from him.

"Wow, you were right, that is good. I'll have to come more often."

"Well I'd be happy to take your order."

-

The next day harry was standing in front of CottageVillage Cafe again. which he tried to convince himself was because the coffee was good, but was actually because he felt drawn to the white haired barista. He swung the door open, bells chiming as he did so.  Draco looked up immediately, unconsciously smiling as he saw the raven haired boy walk in and step in the line.

"Good Morning, Malfoy" Draco looked up, instantly enchanted by Harry's smile.

"Morning, boy wonder, same as yesterday?" Harry nodded.

"Well you know the drill, Potter." He tilted his head towards the couches, silently telling Harry to sit down.

Harry did exactly that, finding himself thinking of the other boy yet again.

-

"Vanilla Chai Latte for The Chosen One, i repeat, Vanilla Chai Latte for The Chosen One."

Harry instantly looked up, smirk evident on his face, standing up and walking to the counter. He grabbed his drink, "Thanks Draco."

Draco froze due to the unexpected use of his first name, which he thought sounded so incredible coming from his lips. His eyes landed on Harry's and he was sure his cheeks had gone a few shades darker.

"You're welcome Harry, It's part of the job" He grinned brightly, causing Harry to have a familiar feeling in his stomach.

"When do you get off work?" Harry asked hopefully.

"At 4:00, why do you ask?" Draco leaned on the counter with an eyebrow raised.

"I was hoping we could catch up, It's been a while."

Draco pretended to think it over before nodding, "Okay golden boy, you can wait here if you want. I'll get off soon." Harry nodded before returning to the couch.

Suddenly it was 4:00 pm, and Draco was clocking out of work. He grabbed his things and walked to the couches, where a certain wizard was expecting him. It felt weird to see him again after everything that's happened, but he seemed to feel glad he walked back into Draco's life. He pulled himself out of his thoughts and sat next to Harry, who smiled at the platinum haired boy.

"So, why did you move to the muggle world?" He started the conversation.

"I just wanted to get away from everything, all the attention."

"I definitely get that, It felt awful. Always being in the public eye meant constant invasion of personal privacy."

"Exactly! It was just so much easier to leave."

"By the way, are you still talking to Granger and Weasley?" Draco asked curiously.

"We talk every now and then, and I have the floo network connected to my flat in case they want to visit."

They talked for what felt like hours when Draco rolled up both his sleeves, causing Harry to instantly take another look at the mark on his arm with flowers surrounding it.

It looks so beautiful on you

Draco's eyes widened and he looked at Harry, and saw that he was staring at his mark. "What?"

Harry's eyes snapped up to meet Draco's, his mouth gaped, opening and closing before he found words. "Did i say that out loud?"

The other boy nodded and smiled softly.

"Well, it's true, I love what you did with it, it looks beautiful on you."

Draco's cheeks dusted a rosy color, "Thank you Harry, I appreciate it." He gave him a soft smile before smirking, "So, are you still going out with the weaslette?"

Harry chuckled, "Her name is Ginny, and no, we're not dating anymore. We both realized that we just weren't meant for each other. I had a few short relationships after we broke up, but none of them ever went anywhere. What about you, how's the dating life going?"

"I had a few flings but they didn't last long, so I'm pretty single right now. For some reason most blokes don't want to date a cute barista that can get them 30% off any cup of coffee." He laughed.

Harry's eyes flashed, "You like blokes?"

"Yeah, is that a problem?" He asked cautiously.

"No, not at all! I'm actually Bisexual!" He said confidently, and Draco suddenly felt butterflies in his stomach, suddenly shifting to curiousity.

"Did you date any guys at Hogwarts?" Harry laughed before putting on a sly smirk, "I had a thing with Cedric Diggory in 4th year." Draco's eyes widened in disbelief.

"You're kidding!" Harry shook his head no, and Draco found himself talking again, "Merlin, how did i not notice?" He questioned.

"I think you were too busy trying to get my attention, you know with the whole 'climbing a tree just to insult me' thing" He snorted. Draco softly punched his shoulder, "Shut up!" He said lightheartedly, then spoke again.

"Speaking of the insults, I'm really sorry about that. You guys didn't deserve the torture i put you through." He said softly.

"It's okay. It's forgiven and forgotten. I'm just glad we're here now, starting again." he replied just as soft.

"Thank you Harry. We should do this more often." Harry studies the blonde for a few moments before asking, "Do you wanna go out sometime?"

Draco looked up with wide eyes, "What, like a date?" He said, the corners of his mouth twitching.

"If you want it to be" He said with a smirk.

Draco's smile seemed to reach his eyes, and Harry couldn't help but think he looked positively gorgeous

"I might just take you up on that offer, golden boy."

-

part 2 ?

also pls pls send me requests !!

[purplesurveys]

1130

survey by nadine07

Where were you three hours ago? Was passed out on the living room couch and probably dreaming away, lmao.

Were you with anyone? Both my dogs were in the living room with me, if that counts.

Have you had anything alcoholic in the last 24 hours? Hmm, I’m trying to remember but I don’t think so. I went outside to eat, but I doubt they put any alcohol in my meal since I literally had a truffle-based pasta. No plans to drink this weekend, either.

Are you wearing shoes right now? Nope, I’m always barefoot around the house.

How long have you known your 1st phone contact? At least since the 6th grade cos I think that’s when she had transferred to my school.

Are they a relative? Nope, I went to school with her. We were seatmates for a while in sophomore year and that’s when I was able to see how talented she was at drawing and painting. She ended up transferring to UP as well after getting accepted to the fine arts program so we got to be collegemates as well, though I don’t really remember what university she initially got admitted to.

Would you ever consider getting back together with any of your exes? Yeah, because I’m a dumb fuck when it comes to these things. I WILL SAY though that I’ll be so much kinder to myself should this ever happen, and no longer tolerate her bullshit and emotional/mental abuse under the guise of ~unconditional love. There’ll be a lot of shit she’ll have to pick up and fix, and I wouldn’t get back with her unless she acknowledges her mistakes and seek to correct them.

Would you ever go skinny dipping with the last person who commented you? That would be Leigh, and no. Idk if I’ve shared this or if this has ever come up on a survey but Andi actually once asked me if I’d like to be a part of a threesome with them and Leigh, and I just had to immediately decline because I view Leigh as a younger sister more than anything and I can’t bear to see her all naked loooool.

When was the last time you saw a movie in theaters? December 2019.

When did you last talk to the last person you shared a kiss with? I think the morning of New Year’s Eve. I was already starting my healing process by then and the holidays were getting me feeling kind of peaceful, so I sent her a few voice notes thanking her for the year that was but giving her a heads-up that I might not talk to her for a while, because I realized I was starting to get happier on the days I didn’t force conversation with her.

I honestly thought ‘a while’ would only take a couple of weeks, but I’ve since gotten used without her presence and it’s been 3 1/2 months since our final encounter; and I think it will stay this way now.

Has anyone called you beautiful today? No.

Are you still friends with the last person who broke your trust? That would be JM, and yeah. I find him ridiculous for lying to our faces about joining a fraternity in law school (frats are a big yuck where I live because of their toxic hazing and misogynist culture), but I mean I still sort of understand why he had to do it - obviously not for the above reason, but for the perks and support that usually come with joining frats. From now on I’ll always see him as someone who can smoothly lie to my face, though.

Does drama seem to follow you everywhere? No. I would hate that lol, that would just be too much to handle.

Do you feel like anyone is playing mind games with you right now? No.

How would you feel if your best friend hooked up with your ex? I think my literal first reaction would be to laugh out of sheer disbelief, and then proceed to call her stupid for cheating and for choosing to cheat with her. After that’s died down, I think I’d mostly feel disappointed and betrayed.

How long did your last relationship last? The stint lasted 4 years, but we were technically together for 6 years if we’re counting the whole on/off thing.

If you knew you had the right person, would you marry them today? No. That’s what I had thought and they left. I’ve stopped trusting my feelings about these things anymore, and will assume anyone is capable of leaving.

Does it make you uncomfortable to talk on the phone around people? I just don’t want to be loud enough that I’m almost screaming around other people, but I can’t always monitor that since I have to concentrate on what I’m hearing on the other line.

Would you rather be 10 years older or 10 years younger? Probably 10 years older so that I can see into my future.

Have you ever kissed someone the same night your met them? No.

Do you bite your fingernails? Occasionally. I pick at them more frequently.

Would you consider yourself very flexible? Nah. Like I said on a previous survey, I can’t even reach my toes either while standing up or stretching on the floor.

Do you embarrass easily? Yeah.

Have you ever tried to talk your way out of getting a ticket? Yup. It’s happened twice; one of the occasions I was able to handle by myself and the other time Gab had to step in to talk to the officer because he was adamant about the ticket and I had started crying.

Did it work? Yes, both times. I’ve only been issued a ticket once, from this annoying grumpy officer in Alabang.

Have you ever been banned from anywhere? Trying to remember if I have been, but I don’t think so.

Do you have a ringtone or do you leave your phone on vibrate? The important messaging apps are on vibrate. I’ve turned off notifications for some apps and I have just the silent banner notifications for others.

What was the last thing you drank from a mug? I’m drinking coffee from one right now.

Has your #1 ever seen you naked?

Does your #2 know your deepest secret?

Will your #3 repost this?

Does your #4 smoke?

Were you born in the 90's? Yes, but by the end of it so I never considered myself a 90s kid.

When was the last time you paid less than $1 for something? The parking fee in Feliz.

Have you loaned anything out to anyone recently? Nope.

Are any of your siblings married? None of us are.

Who was the last person to spend the night with you at your house? Gabie.

How many different picture ids do you have in your wallet? Just my driver’s license and TIN ID.

Do you have a hard time making decisions? Depends on the weight of the decision. The heavier it is, the more I seek out friends who can provide fresh perspectives.

Has anyone kissed you when you weren't expecting it? Idk, Gabie probably snuck in some surprise ones a few times. IBetween the two of us I was more likely to do so, though.

Did you like it? If she did then I probably did during that time.

Who was your date to senior prom? We have junior prom, not senior prom. I just bought my favorite cousin since I had no interest in boys and was still learning how to make guy friends at that point.

Does your dad smoke? No, he’s never tried.

Is your mom over 50? She is turning 50 this year, but not until September.

Do you want to get married? It would be nice to experience it.

Have kids? Yes.

Are there any movies coming out you wanna see? Not that I know of. There are movies I do want to see, but they’ve already come out, like Ammonite and I Care A Lot.

Do you ever feel like you're leading a double life? No.

Do you have any plans to get a new tattoo or piercing? Tattoo, yeah. I’m just super chill about said plan and am not really in a hurry about it. I’ve yet to think of a design and where on my body to place it.

Do you know anyone named Christine? I know several people named Christine but they go by a nickname, like Tin.

Do you know anyone who's biracial? Sure, I went to high school with a couple of girls who are both half-brown and half-white as they both have European dads. I believe one of them is part German while the other girl is part Swiss.

Do you know anyone who works at Walmart? I don’t think so. I know my aunts who live in the US will occasionally shop there though, hahaha.

Has the last person you rode in a car with seen you in your underwear? I mean yeah, as a baby and as a young kid (it was my mom).

Are black bras sexy? They can be, sure.

Spell your full name without 'C','I','R', or 'Y': Obn.

Open the nearest book, turn to page 11, and type the first sentence: I’m at a Starbucks rn and didn’t bring any books with me.

Are you currently listening to anything? There’s jazz music faintly playing at the moment.

Would you ever consider getting breast implants? Before I definitely used to, when people still liked to make fun of small boobs. Nowadays I don’t feel the need to anymore.

If you could spend 30 minutes with someone who's gone, who would you pick? I’d probably pick my great-grandpa over my grandpa. I never met the former; and if I only had 30 minutes with my grandpa (who I did grow up with) I think it would just fuck with me psychologically.

Are you on birth control? Nopes.

Do you know anyone who is bisexual? Lots.

Would you walk into Walmart naked for $10,000? Yes.

Does anyone call you babe? No.

Do you hate it when people try to play with your hair? If I’m not close enough to them I would feel bothered, yes.

Who would you tell, or who did you tell when you lost your virginity? I think I had just told Sofie then.

Were you in a relationship 6 months ago? Yeah but it was cracking and it was cracking fast. It’ll be hitting 6 months this March, actually.

Are you still with that person? No.

Are you the kind of person who has crazy mood swings? No. This happens to my mom and I hate it very much, so I try to watch my actions and not switch rapidly between different moods.

This is question 69...so have you ;)? Sure.

How long is it until your birthday? Around a month and a couple of weeks.

[orange-plum]

Alright, all you artists. I’m going to give out some good tricks to keeping your wrist in good condition. As a lot of my followers/readers know, I have a bit of an art addiction. I usually spend anywhere from 8-16 hours a day drawing (for the last 8 years at least), and have even done a week long (yes, you heard that right) art stream where I only stepped away to sleep about 9 hours.

I’ve always wished, now, as my wrist is in very bad condition, that I’d gone steps further to take care of it. I jump through hoops now to draw, and the pain is very excruciating on a daily. It affects my art, my writing, and day to day activities.

So, I figure I’d tell you all of the things I’ve experimented with that have been life saving for my wrist’s health. Everyone has different methods, but these are the ones I use now and swear by.

1. The buckets

I have significant nerve damage in my wrist, which causes painful inflammation in my hand. To lower the inflammation and pain, I fill two buckets (big enough to submerge my forearm), one with hot (not so hot that it’s too painful to keep your arm in), and one with cold, sprinkled in a handful of ice cubes. Submerge your forearm in each for 30 seconds, alternating between each other till the temp of both seems relatively equal. It takes roughly 15 minutes alternating with a timer before receiving the desired effect.

You can also do this if you have a double sink. I use camping buckets that look this like tho.This helps a lot, so I recommend doing it daily, or every other day. You’ll see some improvement and swelling going down if you have inflammation.

2. Wrap

It’s taken me years to figure out how to use gauze and wrist braces that actually support my tender areas. I only just discovered the best way last year. So, for me personally, my thumb, down my pointer finger, and my wrist hurts the most. I’ve found that gauze (you can get it at any drug or grocery store) and a good wrist brace combo is essential for pain relief.

Wrap the gauze around whatever finger is giving you problems, make sure to cut a strip for each finger you need support for (but not wrap it so tight you lose blood flow), then cut a long piece to wrap around your wrist. You can slip in in a wrist brace like this, if you want to continue drawing (this is the brace I use)

When you’re not drawing, it’s good to limit movement of the hand for short periods of time throughout the day, so I will keep the gauze wrap on, but put my hand in this brace. I won’t go far enough to put my fingers and thumb through the holes, just let the tips barely out before I velcro the straps tight. I can’t really move my fingers/thumb and I can’t grab anything. But the pressure and limited movement from doing this for an hour at a time has helped IMMENSELY. I do this about 3 times a day. Here’s the brace in question. It’s by wellgate products

The gauze that I like looks like this. It’s mainly used to tape sports injuries, but it’s not sticky. Don’t get the plastic looking ones, use the felt looking ones

Here’s what it looks like when I wrap my hand before putting on a wrist brace. (I’d rec wrapping your pointer finger even if it doesn’t hurt tho. A good technique to drawing is pointing your pointer finger out so you relieve grip pressure on your pen)

Also be mindful of how tight you’re holding your pen and how hard your pen pressure is. It might be in your best interest to lower the pressure and adjust to it, so you don’t get RSI or fuck up your hand from pressing too hard over a period of time.

3. Stretches

Do these stretches every single day, no exception. You will regret not keeping up with these in the long run if you opt out of doing them.

4. Take breaks

I struggle with this the most, esp when I have deadlines or are in the zone. Take a five minute break, shake out your hands, every 30 mins or so. Don’t over stress your hand.

5. Form

A big thing that helped me over the years is paying attention to where my arm is. Your arm should be parallel to you. Don’t let your elbow jut out as you draw. Keep that elbow in, and keep a good posture. Investing in a good seat or desk is also something that will prolong your drawing time. It took me a while to find out where I drew best (because I’d always draw on my bed or the couch, but that ended up giving me bad neck problems).

Please take care of yourself! I only wish I’d done these earlier so I wasn’t in such bad shape now. Learn from my mistakes and start this stuff early! I swear by all of these, especially the buckets/wraps!

[strongsassysexysloane]

You and Me - Cont. Recovery

So I don’t do case specific stuff or medical, but I wanted to write a certain situation so I bit the bullet or in this case bomb. 

. . . 

Its been two months since you first kissed and emotions were admitted and its been great. You spend most weekends at each others place with a few nights during the week spent together when there's no intruding case. This case has been just out of reach for over a week now. Someone had been going around DC assassinating people by way of small explosions and the toll was currently at three people.

"Found something. Abandoned warehouse down town. Shell company but its the same as the others." McGee explains while everyone grabs their gear.

Everything happens so quickly. You and Ellie enter via the back door of the warehouse and you see the wire spring and you throw yourself over Ellie before the bomb goes off. You can hear voices, its all jumbled but you hear a siren in the distance and just let the blankness take you.

"Please wake up, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. Sweetheart just please wake up." You can hear Jack's plea but it feels like a thousand miles away. You want to respond but the blackness pulls you back under.

"She's going to be fine Jack." Gibbs voice doesn't come out as confident as he hoped.

"Don't lie to me Gibbs." Her voice cracks.

"She's going to wake up Jack." He reaches over and squeezes her shoulder. Jack sobs and squeezes your hand.

"She has to. How did you not get bomb squad to go in first?! He's killing people with bombs for crying out loud." Shes defeintely sobbing now. Holding your hand and resting her head against your waist. "Baby please wake up."

"If you need anything Jack, just call. When she wakes up, please call." She doesnt say anything just nods. Gibbs leaves reluctantly but he needs to find the bastrd that put one of his agents comatosed in the hospital. He stops in to see Ellie signing herself out. "You need to stay here."

"Hell I do. How is she?" Ellie has a few scrapes on her cheek and forehead, her left arm is in a sling but she's been cleared by the doctors to leave and take it easy.

"Still out. Jack will call if there's any change."

The day falls to night and you havent shown any signs of waking. It's been 8 hours since the explosion, 4 since you came out of surgery to remove shrapnel from your shoulder and thigh. Jack tries to speak but nothing comes out, she just looks at you with tears falling down her cheeks. Both of her hands wrap around yours and you move a finger. Jack chokes out, afraid she was mistaken.

"Jack.." You choke out and slowly open your eyes to see a red eyes, flushed cheeks and Jack crying. "Hey.." You hate seeing Jack cry.

"It's ok. Don't worry baby. Just relax, I'll get a doctor." She goes to leave but you hold onto her hand and nod slightly towards to call button. She half laughs and presses the call button. You reluctantly let go of her hand once the doctor comes to check on you, your eyes don't leave hers as she calls the team to tell them youre awake.

Its another two days before you're released from hospital and are on strict orders to take a week off work. To your suprise Jack gets a few extra days off because as Vance put it shes getting no work done edge wise so she might as well be at home with you and work from home if needed. You can't complain. Jack has been by your side since you got home from hospital 3 hours ago.

"Come here please." You wriggle back into the couch and you watch Jack walk towards you from the kitchen. She holding a cup of tea.

"What do you need?" She sits on the edge of the couch and you tug are her shirt. She places the cup ong the coffee table.

"You." She smiles and lies down on her side facing you. You wrap your arm around her waist and tug her closer so your noses are only millimetres apart.

"How are you feeling?" Your eyes drop to her lips and you don't answer her question. Just capture her lips in a passionate, moan causing kiss.

"Sorry I put you through that." You rest your forehead against hers.

"You dont need to apologise. Someone should've call the bomb squad." You smirk at her anger. That would've been the smart thing to do but they responded quickyl, wanting to catch the guy but instead you got thrown hard, hitting your head and shrapnel as a reward.

"Probably but it didn't happen and I'm sorry-" You brush your nose against Jacks which makes her mouth curve up into a cute smile.

"Stop it."

"No. Becuase if the roles were reversed I dont know how I would cope." You kiss a tear that rolls down Jack's cheek and you pull her in and she starts crying. "I'm fine. I get you all to myself for a few days at least. If I knew that would happen I'd do it-"

"No!" She chokes out and you stop that sentence.

"No I wouldn't but when I'm back to 100% I think we should go away somewhere."

"That sounds amazing." Jack leans back and looks into your eyes. "Where?"

You smile and run your hand up her arm, cup her cheek. "I'd love to see you surf."

"You just want to see me in a bikini." She accuses and you laugh.

"Maybe." You kiss her and she smiles.

"Only if you wear a bikini as well."

"Sounds like a fair deal." She laughs and curls back into you. You relax with her against you, the slight pain from the position is dulled by having her relax in your arms.

She looks after you, helps you move from the bedroom to the couch. She doesn't go home until she runs out of clothes and only when you insist that you can be left alone for a few hours does she reluctantly leave promising to grab some food before returning with enough clothes to last another week.

"Hey. You were meant to stay on the couch until I got back." Jack comes up beside you, wondering what you're doing. "Why did you all of a sudden need to clear out a draw?"

You smile at her and see the moment she figures it out. "If you need more space, I can move around some other things. There's space in the cupboard as well to hang up your dresses and power suits." She reaches and pulls you by the back of the neck in for a deep, passionate kiss. "Mmm I should've done that sooner." You both laugh and Jack helps you back to the bed to sit down even though you are capable of doing it yourself. You enjoy Jack fussing over you and she enjoys doing it.

"Thank you." She smiles and helps you prop yourself up on the pillows.

"Go on. Sort out your clothes. I'll watch." You wink and she shakes her head with a smirk. You enjoy watching Jack move around your room. Like she's meant to be here and you want to tell her but know that the draw and cupboard space is enough for now.

She joins you on the bed not long after, satisfied with her sorting and you roll into her. She sighs and you know what she's thinking.

"I'm fine. I can actually move around you know." You push yourself up and Jack runs her fingers across your cheek, avoiding the scratch just under your eye from the explosion. "I may look like I'm half dead still but I'm good. I've got a check up on Monday and should be back in the office if everything is good."

"I know. But-"

"But you want to be here with me, I know babe. I want you here too but work needs you more. Lots of cases and your paperwork is getting out of hand on my coffee table." She leans over and kisses your lips. "Not that I don't love your crap everywhere in my house." She nips at your bottom lip and you smile.

"You haven't complained before." You kiss the tip of her nose and rest back into her shoulder.

"Not complaining." There's silence and you begin to drift off to sleep but Jack's phone rings.

"Hey, yeah she's alright." You hear the mumbled voice of Gibbs.

"You woke me up!" You groan and here a chuckle through the phone.

"She is a very grumpy morning person. Ow!" She laughs and drops a kiss to your head. "Yeah I know, you what? I'll be there in twenty. Don't start without me!" She snaps the phone shut.

"Found him?" You guess and you roll off her and move to get up.

"Where do you think you're going?" She tries to tug you down.

"You will miss out on interrogating him if you argue with me on this." You here her grumble and you hop out of bed slowly. She helps you put on a jacket and both leave within minutes of Gibbs calling.

"Hey! You aren't meant to be here." You walk in behind Jack into the bullpen. McGee hops up and gives you a gentle hug and then Ellie does the same. You havent seen the team since you left the hospital.

"You look like shit." Nick laughs and you just chuckle.

"Thanks Nick." He winks but the smile disappears when he sees Jack's glare. "She knows I'm joking."

"Go home y/n!" Gibbs orders.

"Don't you have a bad guys to interrogate. Plus Jack drove so I can't really go home without her, now can I?" You can see Gibbs ready to fight it. Probably to call a taxi.

"The sooner we interrogate this guy, the sooner she can go home." Jack mediates and you just smile, looking at your girlfriend and then to Gibbs. Gibbs gives up and walks off to interrogation with Jack in toe.

"Need a hand?" Ellie asks as you hobble after them.

"I'm good. Thanks. Want to see them tear this guy to shreds." Everyone follows you to interrogation.

The guy is smug and tight lipped. He notices Jack's emotional state and plays into it. Jack almost punches the guy but Gibbs is quick to intervene and Nick is quick to jump into interrogation and Jack leaves.

"Smooth Agent Sloane." You lean against the doorframe to observation.

"Like you wouldve kept your cool with that dickhead." You reach out your hand and Jack takes it, you walk back into observation and watch Gibbs finally break the guy. Caught him out on a lie and you rest your head on Jack's shoulder as she wraps her arm around your waist.

"Think Nick was going to punch him if he didn't get caught out." McGee commented from beside you.

"Gibbs was about 30 seconds away from flipping the table." Ellie mentioned and you all chuckle.

"Now can we go home?" You smile at the thought of Jack calling your place home.

"Lead the way." You say your goodbyes to the team and promise Gibbs to have your detailed report from the explosion in his inbox by end of day tomorrow.

. . . . 

[ashes-and-ashes]

Have a Drarry Muggle AU. I may decide to write more and make this a longer, multi chaptered fic - let me know!

Beach House

When Harry pulls up in the driveway, Draco is ready. He sprints towards the car, wrenching open the door and flinging himself inside, his bag awkwardly crammed up against his knees. “Go go go go,” he pants, jamming his feet into his shoes. “Drive!”

To his credit, Harry doesn’t question him, merely guns the engine and speeds off, Draco’s house fading into the distance. With a grunt, Draco shoves his bag underneath his seat, managing to get his feet up so he could tie his shoelaces. He knows he probably looks horrendous, like he’s just walked through a cyclone, but he really doesn’t care.

Beside him, Harry raises an eyebrow. “You’re in a hurry.”

Draco grunts. “Parents.”

“Oh.” Harry looks over, one hand finding Draco’s. “You good?”

“Yeah.” Draco shrugs. “Assholes as usual. The usual shit. ‘You can’t be an artist! Why don’t you try football?’ Blah blah blah blah.”

Harry frowns. “You sure you’re okay - “

“I’m fine.” Draco gives him a small smile. “It’s summer. They can’t stop me. Besides, I’ve been looking forwards to this for weeks.”

Harry looks like he’s about to press the point, but Draco hastily changes the subject. “Who are we picking up first? Pansy?”

“Nah.” Harry takes a sharp left, trees and houses wizzing by the windows. “Blaise. Cause Pansy takes forever to get ready. We’ll grab him, then pick her up on the way to the beach.” He pauses. “Actually, you should probably text her now. Tell her I’ll be over in ten.”

Draco nods, digging his phone out of his pocket. Picking u up. Be at ur house in 10.

K, came Pansy’s reply, and Draco grins. “No way she’ll be out in 10.”

“When is she ever?” Harry rolls his eyes. “I swear, how long does it take her to put on her fucking eyeshadow for God’s sakes?”

Draco laughs, leaning back in his chair. It was late afternoon, sunlight streaming through the windows, making everything seem golden. The air was warm, smelling like leaves and plants and growing things, the sky clear above him. It was the perfect day, and Draco feels himself itch for his sketch pad.

“What are you thinking about?”

Draco looks over, his brows raised. “Sorry?”

Harry laughs. “You have your ‘I’m thinking’ face on.”

“I do not have an ‘I’m thinking’ face - “

Harry nods. “Yep. Your eyes go all dreamy and glassy and you bite your lip like this - “

Draco flips him off, and Harry smirks. “Fine tosser. I’m thinking about how bloody hot your car is.”

Harry frowns. “Yeah, I can’t get the bloody roof to open for some reason.” He bangs the console with his fist. “Damn thing is stuck.”

“Your car is a piece of junk.” Draco pokes at the buttons, grimacing at the cracking noise they made as he pressed them. “I’m surprised it’s gotten you this far.”

“Asshole,” Harry says. “I happen to be the only one of us who can drive - “

“Gays can’t drive.” Draco gives him a wink. “And you’re bi, so don’t even.”

Harry rolls his eyes, but remains silent as they pull up at Blaise’s house. “Call him will you?”

Draco sighs, raising his phone. He dials Blaise, fiddling with the handle of the door as he did. “Oi - “

“Yes yes, I see the car. Calm your tits, Malfoy.”

“Screw off,” Draco says, hanging up. He shrugs. “Should be out soon.”

The door opens, Blaise strutting down the driveway. He was dressed perfectly as usual, and Draco sighs as he rolls down the window. “Hey Zabini. Going to a fashion show?”

“Fuck off,” Blaise mumbles. He throws himself in the backseat, kicking his legs up behind the chair. “Least I don’t look like I crawled out of the dumpster.”

“Hey!” Draco says. “That’s not nice to say Harry looks like he’s crawled out of the dumpster!”

Harry swats him, and he laughs. “We can’t all be models like you, Blaise.”

“True,” Blaise mutters as Harry pulls out of the driveway. “I’m one of a kind.”

Harry snorts. “Why, so humble today Blaise.”

“I’m always humble.” Blaise kicks Draco’s seat. “We getting Pansy?”

Draco nods. “I told her we were coming in 10.”

“No fucking way she’s going to be out in 10.” Blaise scoffs. “This is Pansy we’re talking about.”

“I texted her 30 minutes ago so...” Draco trails off. “Hopefully she’s out.”

“It’s so fucking hot in here.” Blaise bangs his head on the window. “Where’s the air con?”

Harry jabs at the controls again. “Useless thing is broken. I can’t roll the roof down.”

“Fuck.” Blaise kicks the back of Draco’s seat again. “It’s too hot.”

“That’s because I’m in the car,” mutters Draco, and Harry laughs.

They pull up at Pansy’s house after 10 minutes, Draco texting her again. We’re here.

Blaise snorts. Get ur fat ass out here pans.

10 minutes, she writes back, and Harry groans. “10 minutes. It’s always 10 minutes. Last time she said that - “

“Waiting in the car for 1 fucking hour.” Blaise scowls at his phone. “Can we leave without her?”

“I wish,” mutters Draco, and Harry sighs. “Okay. We give her 15 minutes.”

25 minutes later, Pansy breezed out, carrying a huge bag in her hands. “Hey guys,” she chirps, sliding into the car next to Blaise. “Ready for our 5 days of epic fun?”

Harry groans. “Don’t call it that.”

“Oh I’m sorry,” Pansy snaps. “I was going to call it out 4-way orgy, but I decided not to.”

“Thank God,” Blaise mutters, and Pansy flips him off. She rolls her eyes. “Why is it so bloody hot in here?”

“Roof won’t roll down,” Harry says. “The button won’t press.”

Pansy leans over, jamming her finger into the controls. “That won’t work - “ Draco starts, then stops as she slams her fist against the dashboard. “Pans, you’ll break the fucking car...”

“Zip it Malfoy,” Pansy replies, slamming her hand against it again. With a self-satisfied smirk, she sits back down, raising her eyebrows as the roof slowly buzzed open. “Kiss my ass.”

“Already tried that. Turned me off girls permanently,” Blaise mutters. Pansy huffs. “My ass is extraordinary. There’s this one girl named Granger who I’ve been getting on with, and I swear she can suck me off - “

Harry bangs the steering wheel, the horn going off with a loud honk. “I actually know Hermione and I’d prefer if we don’t talk about her sucking you off Pans?”

Pansy winks, sticking her bottom lip out. “Fine. Be like that.”

Draco just sighs, placing his feet on the dashboard. The wind was fierce, now that the roof of the car was down, whipping his hair around his face. He glances over at Harry, his dark hair and green eyes, the lines of his jaw and his fingers wrapped around the steering wheel. The familiar itch takes over, charcoal and ink on paper, and Draco’s remainder of 1 year ago.

Sitting on the roof, hiding from his parents, sketchbooks filled with drawings of the boy with green eyes. Hundreds of them, sketches and paintings and watercolors, because even then Draco couldn’t stop himself.

He’s jolted out of his thoughts by Harry again. “Thinking about me?”

Draco turns away, hoping Harry couldn’t see his blush. “Thinking about art school, actually. Or applying for it.”

“Parents still won’t let you?” Blaise asks, and Draco lets out a bitter laugh. “As if they would ever let me. Manipulative bastards, both of them.”

“Assholes,” Harry mutters, and Draco shrugs. “Whatever. That’s not the issue.” He takes a deep breath, staring up at the sky, willing the tears not to flow, for his eyes to stay dry. “They want me gone. They say I’m hanging out with the wrong people, that they are corrupting me into thinking I want to be an artist. They want....” He falters. “They want to send me to some bloody school in Norway.”

He senses Harry stiffening in the seat next to his fingers going white on the steering wheel. He winces, looking down, anywhere but Harry’s face. Behind him, Pansy swears. “Shit. Fucking Norway?”

“Fucking Norway,” Draco replied, and Pansy swears again. “What the hell?”

“Bastards.” Blaise shakes his head. “What a load of goddamn bastards.”

“When?” Harry’s voice is quiet, and it makes Draco want to cry. He swallows, hard. “Start of next year. This is supposed to be my last summer.”

“Do you want to go to Norway?” Harry’s deadly serious, fingers white-knuckled on the wheel. His biting his lip, peeling away at the flesh with his teeth, blood starting to well at the cracks and Draco shakes his head. “No. God no, I don’t want to go. I don’t want to leave you guys.”

“I can kill them.” Pansy locks eyes with him. “I could kill them. You could come and live with me.”

Draco laughs, his eyes filling up with tears. He blinks them away rapidly, coughing to clear his throat. “Thanks for the offer, Pans. I... I don’t really want to talk about it any more.”

Blaise nods. “Yeah. We’ll enjoy these 5 days. Figure the rest out later.”

Harry gives a tiny nod, one hand reaching out to grasp Draco’s. “Right. Let’s enjoy the beach first.”

“The beach,” Pansy grumbles. “All this sand up your crevices.”

“Lovely, Pans,” Blaise mutters, and despite himself, Draco laughs.

They finally pull in to a small cottage, on a cliff overlooking the waves. Harry parks the car, climbs out. “We’re here!”

“Finally,” Pansy chirps. She stands, stretches her arms above her head, then winks. “Okay. I’ll unpack?”

“Nah.” Harry shakes his head. “I’ll bring everything in. You two make food or something.”

“Sounds fair,” Blaise says, grabbing the bag with all the groceries. He stalks up to the door, yelling over his shoulder, “Where are the goddamn keys?”

Draco finds them in Harry’s bag, tossing them to Blaise, who winks as he unlocks the door. He and Pansy skip inside, kicking it shut behind them.

Draco takes a deep breath. He can hear the waves, crashing over each other, rolling and tumbling and mixing into the sand. The wind pulls at his skin, soft tendrils on his face and he grimaces. “Harry - “

Harry just shakes his head, grabbing him and shoving him against the door of the car, presses his mouth to Draco’s.

They stay like that for ages, Draco’s hands on Harry’s waist, the edge of the handle digging into his hip. The sound of the ocean fills his head, deep and distant, his lips moving against Harry’s.

They’ve done this so many times that they knew each other perfectly, knew every line and fold, every movement before they started. Draco lets his head fall back, his mouth open, drowning in the emerald sea of Harry’s eyes.

When they pull apart, they are both panting, Draco licking his swollen lips. He raises an eyebrow at Harry. “What was that for?”

Harry looks down. “I - “

“You tell me what you’re thinking, and I’ll tell you what I’m thinking.” The words fall out of Draco’s mouth in a clumsy heap. He winces. “I mean. If you want to...”

Harry just sighs. “I’m thinking that I don’t want you to go. To Norway, I mean. I’m thinking that it’s far and cold and I’ll be so fucking lonely and I know you will too. I’m thinking that 10 months is a goddamn long time to be away from you, and that I don’t know how I’ll survive not being able to see your face. I’m thinking that I’ll miss you, from your smart ass comments to your drawings.” He runs his hands through his hair. “What about you?”

He wishes he could draw it, show what he meant on a piece of paper. Eyes and embraces and falling stars, chocolate and marshmallows, the fizz of soda on your tongue. Wind and hands and lips on your hair, a hundreds kisses to hide the bruises, all the trappings of a simple summer together. Ink, two boys together, so close their shadows merged into one, blood dripping from hands onto a concrete floor.

He looks up. “I wish I could draw it. What I’m thinking, I mean.”

“What are you thinking,” Harry asks. “What are you thinking?”

“I...” Draco trails off. He glances, over Harry’s shoulder, to the ocean and the sand and the cottage. When he looks back, his voice is firm. “I’m thinking that I love you.”

[turning-dreams-into-chaos]

Rain, Rain, Go Away (Part 3)

*Not My Gif*

Part 1 Part 2

Paring: Barry Allen X Reader

Word Count: 2145

Post Date: 5-20-19

A/N: Part 3! I hope you guys enjoy this! I was just going to end it with this one but the ending (not going to spoil it if you’re reading this before) is kind of abrupt, so if you guys want a part 4, I’ll write one! Just let me know! Send me in requests, also be sure to like, reblog, and comment on this! I live on all your feedback! Thanks for reading! Love you all!

-​Ria

~Master List~

~Open Requests~

“You’re just trusting me? With your identity? Dude’s right, 20 minutes ago I was just trying to kill you.” You say as you nod your head in the direction of the long-haired man. Your mind was still reeling from your latest robbery gone wrong, you hadn’t expected your day to turn out like this. You hadn’t expected your life to turn out like this. You had a job, you had a sister, you had a life, and now? Now you had none of that. Except now you knew who the Flash was, and for some reason you didn’t care. He was a person, just like you. Your sights remained on Barry as his on you, both blushing a little but refusing to turn away. Cisco watched the awkward (yet he had to admit you both looked comfortable) exchange, feigning a cough to draw your attention away.

“I’m Cisco and that’s Caitlin, nice to meet you. You’re not evil, right?” Cisco asks a little annoyed at how easily Barry trusted you, unsure as to why. The truth was that Barry had no idea why he pulled off his mask. Something about you had made him tell you his most coveted secret, and he doesn’t even seem to regret it. You glanced up to Cisco watching as he sat in his chair, not really sure how to answer that question. “I mean, we know what you’ve done but you’re not going to try and kill us all right?” he asks causing your breath to hitch in your throat.

“Cisco…” the woman said, causing Cisco to groan in frustration.

“I’m just asking! Barry literally just dropped the ball and told her who he is! I’m just making sure she’s not some evil mastermind!” He defends, sticking his hands into the air in surrender, giving you a slight smirk. You couldn’t help but let out an airy chuckle at his remark.

“I’m not evil. I promise. And I don’t care about who he is. I might’ve been fighting him a while ago, but he’s Central City’s hero. I wouldn’t take him away from those who need saving.” Your voice became quiet as you looked at your fingers, feeling the leather of your blue jacket on them. Barry eyes you with wonder, thinking back on the fight, how vulnerable you felt.

“Guy’s could you give us a minute?” Barry asks before nodding at his friends, who reluctantly left you two alone. “Y/N… during our fight, you mentioned someone, a girl, a girl who you said you couldn’t save? Who, uh, who-o is she?” Barry knelt in front of you, his hand on your knee, drawing your eyes to it, his face watching yours, seeing the small pool of tears about to fall, but just hanging on. Your eyes flickered to his before you grabbed his hand on your knee, holding onto it for a few lingering seconds as you stand up.

“My sister. Her name’s Kenna. She’s… she’s dying, she’s in a coma at Central City Hospital. I can’t save her, nothing I can do can save her.” You say turning around to face Barry, your hand rubbing up your arm into your shoulder as you cross the other over your chest as if to protect you. Protect you from what, who knows. Maybe your feelings, maybe from knowing Kenna’s dying, maybe from the fact that you’re just openly sharing all this with a complete stranger.

“I’m sorry.” Barry hums glancing at your troubled face and glossy eyes, feeling the need to make you feel better but unsure how. You roll your eyes at him while you smirk at his comment.

“Don’t apologize, Barry, you didn’t do anything wrong.” You giggled. Barry tried to ignore the way his heart skipped a beat as him name rolled off your tongue. He liked how you said it, how it sounded, and he loved the little laugh you had. He hoped he would always be able to hear it, that you would never stop. He chuckled as you made eye contact once again, a lot closer than you thought you were. You held your gaze your (e/c) eyes staring into his as he smiled, a warm smile that brought you hope. But you knew all to well that hope and reality don’t belong in the same world. You took a step back, coughing as you pulled your face down again, your fingers once again absentmindedly playing with your jacket.

“Y/N, what can we do to help?” he asks watching you with curiosity.

“Nothing. You can’t do anything. No one can. I’m losing her.” You give him one last look before you start towards the door. “Thanks for calming me down Barry. I needed it. I really did.” Barry saw you walk towards the door and without thinking he run to it, stopping in the door frame causing you to run right into him and fall, but Barry was quick to stick his hand out catching you before pulling you into his embrace on accident. Your face was mere inches from his, your eyes staring up into his once again as your cheeks darken. You could’ve pulled away, but you didn’t, he felt familiar. He felt… he felt like home.

“Could you take me home Barry?” you mumble, afraid to break these feelings but to tired to be anywhere else. Barry nods his head before picking you up bridle style. You direct him to your apartment and open the door, inviting him in. “It isn’t much, but it’s enough.” You plop down on the couch as Barry picks up a picture on your table.

“Is this her?” He questions as he shows you the picture. You nod your head as you take it, smiling at the frame, remembering the moment fondly.

“Yeah that’s her. It was taken last year after the particle accelerator exploded. She had just gotten her drivers licenses. She was so happy. She kept claiming that she didn’t like when I drove her, saying I drive like a mad woman, but I know she liked it because it meant she was growing up. And that scared me. You know, she was always my little sister. My annoying, smartass little sister, but she was mine. And I was hers. It was perfect. Everything was perfect. Then everything went to shit.” You said nodding your head, eyes locked on the prominent smile in Kenna’s face, “Our parents died soon after, I became her legal guardian, even though sometimes it felt like he was taking better care of me. I spiraled, and she was there to pick me up. I didn’t even have to ask her too. She just did. She was my best friend.” You laughed as you wiped away a stray tear before handing it back to him to put back.

“She sounded amazing. I am really sorry, Y/N. About everything.”

“Barry, I already told you! You don’t have anything to be sorry for, you didn’t do anything wrong!” you yelled as you threw back your head in laughter. Barry looked amazed at you, asking you how you could laugh like that seconds after a moment like that.

“She’s not dead not. And until then, I’m not going to sit here and cry. Well anymore than I have.” You give him a weak smile as you let out a yawn, Barry yawning as well after smiling back.

“You’re tired. I should go. But before I do, what do you say about being part of team Flash? We could use someone with your powers.” He gives you a pleading look as you pretend to think about it, as if you would actually say no.

“I would love to Barry. Maybe I could actually save somebody. Here, my phone number, let me know about the team.” You hand him a piece a paper you ripped with your number scrawled across it. He takes the paper before giving you one last smile.

“Goodnight Y/N.”

“Night Barry.” When he left you crawled out on the couch, grabbing the picture frame and pulling it into you, giving it one last look before you drifted of into a sleep, thinking about the last few hours.

Barry headed into the cortex, choosing to walk instead of run, a ghost of a smile on his face as you lingered on his thoughts. He still had no idea why you enchanted him as much as you had but he didn’t mind, you made him happy in the little time he’s known you. He was so encased in his thoughts he hadn’t heard Cisco trying to get his attention since he’s walked in.

“Sorry” he mumbles when he realizes he was being called. Cisco and Caitlin share an amused expression before Caitlin decides to speak up.

“Where did you two head off to?” she asks eyebrows raised. Barry blushed under her gaze.

“She was tired, so I took her home. Got to talking a little, that’s all.” The smile on his face made them think otherwise but nether one of them questioned it. The smile lasted only a few seconds before alarms in the room started going crazy.

“What’s wrong?!” Barry yelled as Cisco and Caitlin looked at the computer screen.

“It’s Y/N! Storms are everywhere, People are getting hurt everywhere. What’s she doing?” Caitlin said as she flipped through the screen of damages done already. Barry didn’t know what happen, 30 minutes ago you were fine and now you creating chaos like your world ended and that’s when it hit him.

“Her sister… Cisco can you pull up hospital records. Anything on Kenna Y/L/N.” Barry turned around to watch as Cisco pulled up her records. But one stuck out, the most recent.

“Oh no…” Barry said as he sped of towards your apartment, leaving a confused Cisco and Caitlin reading the record of a recently deceased girl.

As Barry got closer the storm got worse, him slipping every few seconds but determined to get to you. To save you. When he got to your apartment he knocked on the door, but when no one answered he barged in, breaking the door from its frame.

“Y/N!” He shouted as he ran around your apartment, only finding the broken picture frame and your phone, both of which you threw against the wall when you got the call. The call that had ended your hope, bringing you back into reality. And like you realized earlier with Barry, hope and reality don’t belong in the same world. The rain outside the window grew greater and Barry knew you were somewhere in the building, and he had the perfect idea where. He ran up onto the roof, finally seeing your (h/c) hair, drenched in the rain as you screamed. Barry’s heart sank at the sight of you on your knees, screaming on the rooftop but not being heard over the storm surrounding you. He ran up to you, pulling you up as you turned around and punched an old metal container beside you, your knuckles becoming bloody after the first blow, but it didn’t deter you as you kept punching. The container kept denting as you hit it, causing you to want to continue. Barry grabbed your wrist, stopping your motions and pulling your attention to him. Your bloodshot eyes and bloody hands scared him, not because you looked crazy but because Barry found himself caring for you, and seeing you like this hurt him. He pulled you into his body, his hand cradling your head into his chest.

“She’s gone Barry! She was all I had left and now she’s gone! And I’m all alone! She’s gone and I’m all alone!” You scream clinging onto him with everything left in you. Barry felt something in him break, he’s known you for a few hours, but he knows he never wanted to see you like this, this broken.

“You’re not alone. I’m right here. Cisco a-and Caitlin, everyone, they are here for you!” Pulling you out of the hug, rain falling onto both of your skin, drenching you. His hand moves to your cheek, rubbing the area right under your eye. “You are not alone.” He whispers as he pulls your lips into his, you melt into the kiss, all the sadness you felt flying away at the warm and loving contact of his lips. Your hand finds its way to the nape of his neck, the other crawling into his hair as his is on your waist and the other traveling down to your back, pulling you into his embrace. Your breath was rugged when you separated, only for his to go back for another light peck, catching your lip with his.

“Promise me… Promise me you won’t leave me? Please?” you whisper, eyes cast onto the ground. Barry’s hand finds your chin as he pulls your eyes up, smiling down at you.

“I Promise.”

[queenangst]

advice for high school??

advice for high school:

put yourself out there. i know high school is big and scary, but it's new. you're going to know people who you've seen all your life and people who you have never met before, probably. don't be afraid. sit next to someone new in chemistry and... bond. ask to squeeze in a lunch spot. smile at your teachers, say hello. join clubs. it's 2-4 years of your life, so find your people.

stop thinking about the numbers. this is one of the hardest things when you're surrounded by a pressured environment from all sides - teachers, students, parents. but let me tell you that you have to learn when to care and when to not. which times to fight and which times to let go. you might get your first 35 on a test. you might be ranked far behind your other classmates. not every homework has to be done well, just done at all. not every grade has to be an A, because in the end higher academic institutions care less than you think and not every "bad" grade is the end of the world. and if you don't do so hot on something, feel a little bad and then keep going. no use in dwelling, just do better next time. (sometimes just give up. don't do an assignment. take the 0. sometimes you need the time, or the break, and it's not worth doing.)

freedom. high school is the first taste of bigger opportunities in learning. choose classes you might have an interest in over what will boost your gpa or whatever. take art, take music, something creative, even if you are a stem student through and through, you don't have to do well but this will enrich your life and give your brain something different that isn't numbers or grammar or whatever. and creativity fosters community.

communicate with your teachers. some teachers accept nothing late ever period. some teachers procrastinate. actually a lot of teachers procrastinate they're really just like you. whatever the case talk to them. if you're having trouble understanding high school teachers often have some form of out of class tutoring/tutorials before, after, and even during school (such as at lunch). if you are sick, if you want them to look over a paper, if you need an extra day to finish your project and make it good, talk to your teachers. they want you to succeed. they cannot always be lenient for personal or academic reasons, but they will understand. and them knowing is better than them not.

get sleep. i mean it. 6 hours at least. 7 is good. 8+ is best. if you can't, at least sleep for some amount of time even if it's 30 minutes. if you can't sleep, still lie down for a bit in the dark and let your body rest even if your mind won't shut off. you will thank yourself in the morning.

do your damn homework. just do it. there's a lot, some of it is useless, but a lot of it is not. homework is meant to help you retain the info that you learned in class, or even learn more info that you will not cover in class.

on top of #6, read the textbook and listen in class. sometimes it's boring. just do it. you don't have to take notes but they definitely help, and notes never have to be pretty they just have to be legible to you. it can be bullet points. it can be diagrams. it can be a treasure map of weird associations. draw angry faces next to notes about dead historical figures. whatever works for you.

teachers are resources. ask if you can record lectures. see if they have a google classroom or someplace online where they post notes and powerpoints. ask for websites and further reading. ask for HELP.

study a lot, have fun a lot. i know every day is limited and you're going to be tired all the time. i know. i was there. ib was working us to the bone from the moment we went in to the very last exam. but on the weekends and after school, every now and then do something with your friends that isn't going through your math homework together. see a movie. get coffee, or boba, or tea, or whatever the hell y'all drink these days. go to a museum. find free activities. swim. talk to your friends outside of an academic environment and you will be closer and dearer. and you will not regret it.

you're allowed to disagree with your authority figures. so parents/guardians/teachers. don't overstep your boundaries but as you learn and grow there will be times that they are wrong and you are right. in many different situations... but most especially about you yourself, a person.

reach out. talk to someone when you're hurt. theres going to be a lot of new experiences in high school and some of them will be bad. please talk to your friends. your parents if you can. talk to a teacher you trust. sometimes school counselors suck but part of the job, regardless of if they are doing well or not, is listening to you, and it's meant to be confidential. and if you're worried about someone else for gods sake talk to an adult.

you are still a kid. please don't stress too much about matters that are bigger than you and things that are too much for you to control. you are almost an adult but you are not, you are grown up but you are not. do kid things. you don't need to be super strong, or super mature, or act ten years older than you are. you don't need to prove anything.

pursue your interests, and good things will follow. i mean this in every sense. your health. your mind. your attitude. your college applications. (seriously, everyone has done the volunteer hours and everyone has the grades and everyone has what you have. show that you're human.)

be awkward. be weird. there are so many different kinds of people but someone will be like you, and someone will like you. be happy, and others will see it.

don't put your burdens unnecessarily on other people. or yourself. here's the truth: if all you talk about is how bad you are, how you aren't getting anywhere in life, how the numbers aren't good enough, then no one will stick around for long. you will surround yourself in something bad that people don't want to be around. like mentioned, talk to someone. friends are the most comfortable but not always the most appropriate. im not saying to keep your thoughts to yourself, but adults > other emotional, struggling, hormonal teenagers in terms of being equipped to handle tough situations. people want to help! but when all you talk about is yourself and your trouble, and not listen to other people, talk about things that make you happy... you're going to lose something.

college is a big deal but also not. please don't worry about it until junior and senior year.

failure is inevitable. take it.

surround yourself with people who are better than you, and who you like, and who like you. surround yourself with people who you aspire to be similar to. you will do better and you will want to do better.

keep organized. good god. please do not be like that one guy in my math class. one day my classmate and i got so fed up we cleaned out his backpack for him and shoved things into folders and begged him to stay organized. folders. binders. accordian folders. just use something im pleading you. it's going to be 2 minutes before class and you realize you can't find your homework or turn in a wrinkled, stained paper. also keep some sort of schedule and task list or else you will be that guy that goes "wait we have a TEST today?"

halo effect. first impressions are important, even if you can overcome bad ones. show up on time. sit in the front even though it's scary, because midyear you'll realize you have been doing badly because you sat in the back and can't see or hear over the two girls who gossip in front of you. smile. say hello. ask questions. raise your hand. you can be wrong. you can be wrong. you can ask stupid questions.

ask your teachers if you can eat in class. my 4th period teacher (after lunch) was fine with us eating, so id take lunch to study sometimes and eat then. i always ate breakfast during 1st period bc when i got up it was too early for my body to take more than a little. most teachers are okay as long as the smell isn't strong and lasting, and you clean up. have a snack so you don't crash. don't forget to eat either. please eat lunch, and some teachers will give you snacks if you ask, and if you don't have money please just... ask someone for a share or to borrow some cash. it's okay. you need to eat.

there is so much more. school might be all you know. but stop and enjoy life. if you worry about college you're going to spend 4 years looking forward and not enough at the present, and you're going to lose your precious time. there is so much more.

you're going to change. a lot. you will be a completely different person. that's normal. you're gonna be a little embarrassed. like the person you become, and become a person you like. make good choices. be kind. have heart.

enjoy high school, kid. good luck!!! it was honestly a rewarding and wonderful time, and that was in part bc i made it so.

[bianca-warriorwriter]

Catching Feelings - Part 4 - KJ, S.M

https://www.honeybirdette.com/products/kukuro-3-piece-set (this is the set that is described in the end of the story)

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

part 1, part 2, part 3 

I know I haven't posted in a while so I thought I’d add another part. 

I watch Shawn skate off in the corner of my eye catching up to Brian who is struggling to stay upright and it doesn’t help when Shawn sprays ice up at him causing the boy to fall.

“okay, is that Shawn Mendes? Like the Shawn Mendes” Sarah basically screams.

“ah yes that would be Mendes” I say walking up to them.

“and—and- and” she fumbles for words

“use your words” I say laughing.

“and he’s your boyfriend? But I thought – K.J? – I’m confused” Alli says finishing Sarah’s sentence who is starring like a gapping fish at the ice rink.

“he’s not my boyfriend, he is my best friend and K.J I don’t know what’s happening there” I answer. “come on lets go to the rink!” I say and before I can get down the stairs I hear a bang and Shawn has rammed into the wall again.

“are you going to get out here or what?” he calls at me.

“Don’t make me put you on your ass Shawn” I grit getting down the stairs.

“As I remember you are quiet fond of this ass are you not?” he winks at me and skates off before I can yell at him for that comment. I can hear giggles behind me and as all of them get past me Bonnie whispers;

“Just friends, huh? I can see that tension from a mile away” and I’m struck when she winks at me.

The four of us start to skate in a line and as I’m looking around for a particular brown headed boy, something collides with my back causing me to lose balance, but hands wrap around my stomach to prevent me from falling.

“I see you finally got onto the rink Luce” he says before he start to skate backwards in front of us.

“and I just nearly broke my face because of it” I glare at him.

“and isn’t it such a pretty face we wouldn’t want to break it would we” he pouts at me.

“I’ll trip you up, Mendes” I warn.

“I dare you” he counters “break a bone and Andrew will be pissed at you” he says laughing.

“oh rack off, you and your dumb curly hair” I say sticking my tongue off at him.  he spins around and skates off.

The look I get from the 3 girls is astonishment and Bonnie is looking at me strangely.  

“what?” I ask

“Get him back” they all basically say.

“I want to look at that gorgeous face” Allie says.

“ugh, seriously?” I ask.

“go” Sarah shoves my arm.

I skate off from the girls and catch up to him, with him purposely slowing down for me.

“didn’t you just tell me to rack off?” he asks.

“yes, but the girls that I befriended want to actually meet you”  I say.

“I’m sure they do.” He retorts. We skate in silence for a little bit. “so how’s the sorority going?” he asks with his hands in his pockets.

“ah about that. I actually got kicked out about 30 minutes after you left” I say laughing and Shawn joining in and shaking his head.

“how did you manage that?” he asks.

“ah they weren’t fond of my attitude or my inappropriateness or the that I slept over at the Alpha Beta Boys” I say rubbing my hands together for warmth.

“I knew that mouth of yours would get you in trouble one day” he says grabbing my cold hands in his warm ones and warming them up.

“from what I recall you liked this mouth” I say seductively. In a second he uses the grip on my hands to pull me in front of him and pull me against his body.

“don’t tease like that, especially when I know what makes you tick” he says and runs his hands down my spine. I put my hand against his chest.

“you forgot I know what make you go just a little crazy” I say drawing liner over his shoulder blade. “I know what turn you on, a particular matching set of mine” I whisper into his ear.

“oh? Do describe this matching set?” he says huskily.

“black, strappy, chains and clips… with matching handcuffs” I all but wink at him and the way he swallows tells me enough. However, before he can respond we hear a cough.

“hmm?” I look over his shoulder

“now if the dirty talk is done. We’d like some introductions” Bonnie says.

“ah how much of that did you hear?” I ask, Shawn trying to supress back laughter.

“do you really want to know” Alli asks.

“no not really” I say laughing. “so this is Shawn, Shawn this is Allie, Sarah and Bonnie” I say as he turns arounds waving at them.

“Hey” he gives his famous smile.

“friends, huh?” Bonnie says.

After another hour of skating and getting the girls to know Shawn our session is over.

“we’re going to head back to the house, what are you planning on doing after this?” I say to Shawn as I’m taking off of my skates.

“I’ve got a meeting with Andrew at five and then I was thinking you could show me that set of yours” his smirk is so evident and the giggles from the girls behind me make me go a little red. “don’t forget, those black stiletto’s you wore last time” he winks at me and shoves off of the wall. “I’ll send you the address” he calls as he walks off.

“oh honey. Please tell me you are answering that booty call, because if you don’t, I will” and to my surprise it comes from Bonnie, it seems Bonnie is the most expected person to make a sexual comment. My smirk is answer enough for her to smile back at me.

“Maybe next time I’ll bring you with me Bonnie” I say to her.

“oh baby don’t tease me with a good time” she giggles. And maybe one day I will bring her with me.

I roll the stockings up my legs and strap the garter belt around my thighs before its gets to my waist, the bra clips on at front. I full the knee length cream coloured coat and tie it up firmly. I clip on the cuffs and put the chain in the coat. As I head out the door the girls catcall me and whistle in my wake.

“don’t stay up late” I give them a red smile as I leave.

I knock once before leaning against the door frame, spinning the linking chain for the cuff on my finger. He leans against the door as he opens it.

“I’m glad you could make it” he drawls eyeing me up and down.

“I promised, black, strappy, chains and clips” I say undoing my coat, his glisten over as he eyes the set underneath.

“I can definitely work with this” he hooks a finger in the suspenders and pulls me into the hotel room. I pull the door shut behind me. “you know ever since that night a few weeks ago whenever I’m in the same city as you, I get my own room. Just in case you stop by”

“same deal as last time?” I say instead’

“no attachments, no feelings, just benefits for both of us” he says clipping the two cuffs together before he lifts my arms around his neck before sliding his hands down my body before he wraps them around my thighs pulling me up onto his body and wrapping my legs around his waist.

“is it gonna be one of those nights?” I ask leaning back from where almost all of my body is connected to his.

“what do you mean?” he asks sitting me on the bench.

“rough, kinky and is that peak of dominant Mendes?” I feel a pinch on my back side. “oh yes it is” I say tugging on the back of his hair he bites his lip to prevent any sound from escaping. “baby girl” there’s only of one us in control tonight, he says pulling my heels off “we don’t want their digging in anywhere unnecessary” he says pulling me into a kiss.

“I want to struggle walking tomorrow” I whisper into his ear.

“I can make that happen” he says nipping at my earlobe.

_______________________________________________________________________

tell me what you thought here 

[silversunshine2012]

There’s so much we can do to stave off boredom

There’s YouTube, tumblr, ooh hey my fav creators just posted some new amazing stuff! There’s a million or more fics on ao3 and tumblr. There’s Netflix, Hulu, regular tv, and that’s only counting what you can “consume” for free, passively.

Then there’s actually writing or drawing or crafting yourself, there’s digital art, then markers and pens, there’s origami and coloring books, there’s knitting and crotcheting

You can write poems, songs, learn an instrument, journal, create a world or a new language, you can write a story for that world where the characters speak your language,

You can role play, cosplay, talk with friends,

There’s so much to learn too. You can learn about history, paranormal, religion, and there’s so many areas to focus on inside these categories. You can study American history, Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian, Russian, German, and you can focus on just ancient history with Neanderthals and things, or you can learn about just the 17-1800s in France

You can learn about space, animals, the ocean, people, physics, geology, GEMology?

It’s hard when there’s only 24 hours a day..

A whole third is taken up by sleep, so for many it’s the first that gets cut when we don’t have enough time for recreation

Another third is taken up by jobs or school for many,

And what’s left?

The last 8 hours

Seems like a lot

But when making food takes anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour, times three, is anywhere from 45 minutes to over three hours lost just from making food to survive

Another chunk is taken up by being healthy and hygienic, keeping the house clean, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, etc

What’s left after all of that? 4 hours? Maybe?

A single episode of a tv show is anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. A single movie is three hours or more nowadays.

What abt talking to friends? A good friend can keep you talking for an hour.

How do you budget time?

How do you take into account rest in all of that? Yes. Watching a movie, playing a video game, doing something fun is restful.

But

If you don’t give yourself time to just sit and let your mind just be,

No noise, no YouTube, no whatever,

When the only time you rest is when you sleep

You aren’t letting your mind be healthy

If your mind is constantly going, and the only time you rest is when your body finally collapses in the middle of reading a fanfic late at night, dropping the phone on your face, because you’re exhausted

When the only time your brain stops is when it forces you to finally sleep for even just an hour today

Then even the things you love become exhausting

..

Have you ever felt guilty for not doing the things you love because you’re just too damn tired?

Have you ever been sitting at the dinner table bc your family makes you eat together, or there’s an outing where you and family/friends are going out to eat to celebrate, and you realize you haven’t spoken a single word the entire time?

Have you ever just sat there while everyone else is having fun and talking, and all you can do is stare at your plate that you maybe took one bite from?

Have you ever felt like the only thing you can do in the moment is nothing?

And then later you ask yourself why didn’t you do your homework earlier?

Or why didn’t you celebrate your 30 minutes of free time with something you enjoy?

Have you ever realized that you haven’t written a poem or something stupid just for fun in a year?

Have you ever realized that every time you think about coming back to one of your wips you end up feeling worse even tho you love them?

Have you ever realized that whenever you try to come up with something new because you’re bored, your brain refuses to give you anything? And then once you have an idea you try to start it but end up spacing out instead?

Have you ever realized that the only thing you can think about anymore isn’t the story you just read, or the next thing you have to do, or anything like that, and instead the only thing you can think about is how you’re not thinking about anything? Or maybe sometimes you’ll think about why aren’t you doing anything? Have you ever just sat down to rest and all you can think about is what you should be doing instead of being lazy?

Have you ever forgotten that you got a lot done today the second you sat down to rest?

I have..

Why do I do this? Why can’t I just rest and let myself rest?

Why do I get bored from resting and try to find something to entertain me and end up getting drained from finding something to do?

Why..

[rolypolywl]

Hello, and welcome to Roly-Poly weight loss. I’m your host, Roly-Poly.

Welcome to day 22!

And today is a weigh in day, so let’s see how that is going…. 270.

Not bad!

So today we’re going back to our routine, so let me start the timer.

Okay, so today I want to talk about step tracking. Now, if you’re like me, I’m sure you’ve heard that you’re supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day. Many fitness trackers, including my fitbit, have that as the default setting, so it seems pretty important.

Now, if you’re coming from a sedentary place, like many roly poly people, 10k steps just seems like a huge number! I was certainly not hitting that number when I first started walking.

In fact, I set my first fitbit at 5k steps, and worked up to getting that number. Then 6,000, then 5,000. There are still plenty of days when I don’t hit that number.

Now, when I was working at a more active job, and climbing all those stairs I’ve mentioned, I was usually hitting 6,000 consistently, and with a little effort I could hit 7,000 in a day.

I also, as I’ve mentioned, walked 5ks, which are 3.1 miles. If you have a particularly sedentary day, only hitting 1,000 or 2,000 steps, that hour of walking will bump you up to 7,000. At least it did for me.

I could only hit 10,000 if I was up on my feet all day, or walking in a 10k or something like that.

Roly Mama, in fact, has 5,000 as her goal, because she isn’t doing those long walks, and that’s a reasonable goal for her to hit in a day, provided she does a half hour walk.

Well, according to the Mayo Clinic, our numbers are pretty typical.

“The average American walks 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day, or roughly 1.5 to 2 miles. It's a good idea to find out how many steps a day you walk now, as your own baseline. Then you can work up toward the goal of 10,000 steps by aiming to add 1,000 extra steps a day every two weeks.  If you're already walking more than 10,000 steps a day, or if you're fairly active and trying to lose weight, you'll probably want to set your daily step goal higher.”

But the’re still encouraging us to get to that 10,000. And Self pushes it even further.

“Fitness pros have been citing 12,000 steps as a new target, which begs the question: Is 10,000 steps just not good enough anymore? ” They interviewed two trainers who encouraged people to aim for 12,000 instead of 10,000.

MyFitnessPal sums up the issue pretty well.

“When you’re just starting an exercise program, you may not have the confidence or ability to get anywhere near 10,000 steps (even if you go for daily walks). This lofty goal might backfire as consistently falling short of your goals may discourage you from exercising. If you swim or cycle, those activities don’t register as steps, so your count for the day won’t accurately reflect in your activity level. Plus, if you get 10,000 steps just from walking to and from work, you may feel best when you get 15,000 or 20,000 steps per day, instead of stopping at 10,000. Ultimately, “tracking step count is highly individual and there’s no perfect number,””

Now, we’ve looked at research in the past that says that that half hour a day walk is what we need to become more healthy. If that only equals about 3,500-4,000, do we really need to hit 10,000 a day? That’s three half-hour walks a day! Or 12,000?

When you’re coming from a sedentary place, that seems insane. And just waiting for us to fail. Even the idea from the Mayo Clinic of adding 1,000 steps a day seems like a pretty steep incline. Do we really need to hit that target? And that quickly?

Well, it seems like the answer is no. And kind of yes.

Let’s start with “no.”

First, let’s look at where that 10,000 number comes from. Some scientific study, right? Yeah-no.

This article from The Atlantic actually gets to the origin of this number.

““In 1965, a Japanese company was selling pedometers, and they gave it a name that, in Japanese, means ‘the 10,000-step meter.’”  Based on conversations she’s had with Japanese researchers, Lee believes that name was chosen for the product because the character for “10,000” looks sort of like a man walking. As far as she knows, the actual health merits of that number have never been validated by research.”

Yeah, that’s it. That’s where the 10,000 number comes from.

So now let’s look at the “yes”.

Now, since then, people have actually initiated studies that seem to validate this number, but Self points out a problem with that.

“It's important to note that while research in this area can provide interesting insight, there are some limitations.  For example, if a study only looks at the benefits of 10,000 steps and doesn't compare it to other step counts, the research can't conclude how much better 10,000 steps is for a specific health outcome. (Or if there's even a difference at all.)”

For example, in one study, “overweight participants were asked to walk 10,000 steps daily for 12 weeks. The 30 participants who consistently reached that goal lost weight and had a decrease in anxiety, depression, anger, and fatigue.”

But, aside from the fact that a pool of 30 people is insanely tiny to draw data from, the study doesn’t seem to have tested other areas. Maybe people who hit 7,000 consistently also had less weight, anxiety, and fatigue, just not as much.

Similarly, “A study where 355 participants were asked to take more than 10,000 steps a day found that there was a decrease in blood pressure among participants after six months.” Which is great news, but again there doesn’t seem to be any control group at a lower step count.

And that’s important for a number of reasons, as the Atlantic points out.

“That nuance can mean a lot to people who want to be less sedentary but aren’t sure how to start or whether they can do enough to make a difference, says Lindsay Wilson, a clinical professor of geriatric medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “I don’t think setting the bar at 10,000 steps is a very successful way to approach exercise,” she says. “Some people are not walkers. They don’t have safe neighborhoods, or they feel unsteady on sidewalks. You need to be more creative. Is this a person who needs to go to a gym class or the pool, or sit on a stationary bike?””

And Self adds, “It also depends on what other activities you're doing in a day. If you take an indoor cycling class or do a strength training workout, you may not rack up as many steps as you would if you went for a run or walked a lot one day. That doesn’t mean you’re being unhealthy or that the other activities you’re doing don’t "count"—especially if you're hitting those 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week.”

So are there any studies that look at lower step counts? Or just being more active in general? And, it turns out, the answer is yes!

For example, Self notes “One study showed that participants who reached 7,500 steps or more were less likely to report poor sleep, while those who reached 5,000 steps or fewer were more likely to report poor sleep.”

That shows a benefit at just 7,500 steps, up from 5,000. So that’s promising to those of us who are looking to incrementally increase our activity!

Harvard Professor I-Min Lee performed a study “observing the step totals and mortality rates of more than 16,000 elderly American women.”

As she explained to The Atlantic, ““The basic finding was that at 4,400 steps per day, these women had significantly lower mortality rates compared to the least active women,” Lee explains. If they did more, their mortality rates continued to drop, until they reached about 7,500 steps, at which point the rates leveled out. Ultimately, increasing daily physical activity by as little as 2,000 steps—less than a mile of walking—was associated with positive health outcomes for the elderly women.”

So there you have it, in this study, an increase as little as 2,000 steps showed improvement. If you’re the kind of person who struggles to get to 5,000 steps, don’t feel like you’re a failure for not getting to 10,000.

““I’m not saying don’t get 10,000 steps. If you can get 10,000 steps, more power to you,” says Lee. “But if you’re someone who’s sedentary, even a very modest increase brings you significant health benefits.””

Now, all that said, what can you do if you do want to increase your daily step count? Tracking your steps on a pedometer or fitness tracker can help, and adding a half hour daily walk - like we did for No Zero Day May - can certainly boost your numbers.

If you’re in the moderate area - 6,000-8,000, you should consider the app, StepBet.

It looks at your past activity and calculates an “active” and a “stretch” goal for you. Actives at minimum are 7,000 and Stretches are 9,000.

Then, you join a bet! Usually costing about $30-40 to enter, the standard format is 6 weeks, needing to hit your stretch goal twice, your active goal 4 times, and with one “free” day. If you can make those numbers for the whole time, you win a chunk of the pot!

There are also variations, such as shorter, 4 week bets, no stretch days, no free days, and similar. I loved doing these, because it was great motivation to get that last thousand steps in before bed if I was a little low.

And the extra money at the end was nice! Sometimes I only made $2 back over my bet, sometimes $10! The great thing was the guarantee. If you won you bet, you would always get your money back. They’ll forgo their own cut to make sure that all winners at least make their money back.

So if you complete the steps, you can’t lose!

And, as you finish stepbets, you become more active, and your active and stretch goals inch higher. It’s a great way to slowly (over a month, not a day), increase your step goals.

Again, however, the minimums are 7,000 and 9,000, so if you’re just hitting 5,000 a day comfortably, and stretching to 6,000, this might push you too far.

If you still want a little extra stepping motivation, but StepBet isn’t right for you, check out Charity Miles.

Regardless of your step count level, it will work for you. You pick the charity you want to support from your list, start up the tracker, and get walking! Or running, or biking, or whatever! They track all kinds of activities. And when you finish, their corporate sponsors will donate money to the charity of your choice!

You can even join teams and help support or compete against each other.

It is a great way to add an extra motivation to getting your daily exercise or steps!

And that’s it for today!

This has been Roly Poly Weight loss. As always, I am your host, Roly Poly. Please share your experiences with the hashtag #StepCount. You can even share your step goals or achievements. I’d love to see them!

And please join me next time!