joanie98

[runawaycarouselhorse]

Most of (but not all--my Little Mermaid mouse and mousepad, for example, aren't pictured) of my Little Mermaid collection circa 2004 on a sheep skin rug.

[wolveria]

Inside Your Wires - Chapter 1

Pairing: Human!Connor x Android!Reader

Summary: Assigned all cases involving android-related crimes, saddled with a prototype that follows him around like a plastic puppy, Detective Connor Anderson knows this must be karma for all the bad shit he’s ever done.

He thought he'd hit rock bottom, that he didn't have much left to lose, but he's proven wrong by the android sent by CyberLife. And Connor learns just how much further he can fall.

Prompt: For the @dbhau-bigbang​ 2020 challenge!

Series Warnings (18+ only): Eventual smut, slow burn, fantasy bigotry, violence, brief noncon elements, angst with a happy ending

AO3

(Story moodboard by @uh-kitty-got-wet​​)

November 5th, 2038

Friday 11:21PM

The whiskey was harsh and burned like liquid fire as it slid down his throat. He dropped the shot glass onto the bar top and closed his eyes and savored the bloom of the cheap booze warming his chest. The music from the old jukebox behind him belted out tunes that would have been considered outdated when the place opened.

It was like this most nights. He was alone, exhausted, and well on his way to a pleasant buzz. The one thing Connor had going for him was that he hadn’t started in on his third drink until 11 PM.

That had to be some kind of record. On a Friday night, he was usually shitfaced by 10. Call it the long hours he’d been working, or maybe the fact he felt more self-loathing than usual, he’d somehow managed to hold off on spiraling until nearly midnight.

Definitely a record. And Connor deserved to celebrate.

When he tipped the glass with one finger and caught Jimmy’s eye, he nearly looked away in shame. The bartender had never given him shit before, at least in a verbal sense, but the cool stare he gave Connor now made him want to crawl into a hole and die there.

But Jimmy didn’t say a word, just gave him another dose of poison and turned away, leaving Connor in relative peace to enjoy the game. Denton Carter was kicking ass tonight, so at least there was that.

It was all going beautifully until the door opened and the sound of rain echoed throughout the tiny bar, along with a distinct smell of wet asphalt and dirty concrete. Out of the corner of his eye, Connor saw two of the other regulars shift in their seats to stare at the newcomer.

Not another regular, then. And by how lengthy the stares were and the sudden shift in atmosphere, Connor guessed the barometric pressure had taken a drop due to a pair of long legs and pretty eyes.

Turning his body only far enough to get a glance for himself, Connor was not disappointed, eyeing the stranger from their black dress shoes, up their shapely legs clad in dark jeans, past curvy hips and—

Oh.

Connor turned back in his seat, hunched over and grimacing in disgust, put there by the sight of a blue triangle on a lapel and a glowing armband around one arm. He hadn’t even needed to look higher for the LED to know what the fuck had just waltzed into the joint like it actually belonged there.

He nursed his whiskey, praying the thing would pass him by and leave him the fuck alone. Or better yet, Jimmy would throw it out.

No such luck, of course.

“Detective Anderson,” spoke a smooth, raspy voice to his right. “I’m the YN800 model sent by CyberLife.”

He elected to ignore it. Maybe if he did so for long enough, it would take the hint and go away.

Again, Connor’s luck was not holding out.

“I called your cell phone, but you didn’t answer,” the voice continued, unimpeded. “I then looked for you at the station after checking your home, but you weren’t there either. Your colleagues indicated you tended to frequent the bars in the area, and I was fortunate to find you at the fifth one.”

His eye twitched. This thing had gone to his apartment?

“Well, here I am,” he answered, dry and caustic as he stared straight ahead at the wall of bottles. He calculated how angry Jimmy would be if he took out his service pistol and shot it through the head.

Pretty angry, Connor decided. It would probably leave a stain. Also, he didn’t want to compensate some asshole company for property damage.

“What do you want?” he finally growled, scratching his nail into the bar top already marred with various scuffs and dings.

“You were assigned a case earlier this evening. A homicide.”

Already, a headache was forming between the eyes at the sound of the android’s irritatingly friendly voice.

“Yeah, and?”

“It involved a CyberLife android,” it said in that same smooth inflection. “In accordance with procedure, the company has allocated a specialized model to assist investigators.”

You have to be shitting me.

Connor grit his teeth and clenched his glass tighter, a flush of heat moving through him that had nothing to do with his blood alcohol content. A fucking android was sent to help cops do their job?

Fuck that, and fuck this hunk of junk.

“Good for them,” he answered as he tipped the glass up to his lips. “I couldn’t give less of a shit. Now get the fuck out of my face. We don’t need any help, especially from a plastic pair of tits like you.”

He should have known that wasn’t the end of it. The android spoke again, adopting a tone of what it had probably been programmed as “sympathetic.”

“I understand you may be experiencing reluctance to having an android’s assistance in this matter, but I am—“

“—ruining a perfectly good evening, butting your nose where it doesn’t belong and sure as fuck isn’t welcome.”

Connor put his glass down harder on the bar top than he meant to, nearly spilling his drink.

“I suggest you leave before I void your warranty.”

Connor thought the machine got the message when it finally went silent. He could even see its mood ring spinning yellow out of the corner of his eye before it settled on that annoying placid blue.

He’d just brought the glass halfway to his lips when it said, “I’m sorry, Detective, but I must insist.”

Connor set the glass back down and started to count to ten. He couldn’t lose it now, he’d promised Jimmy he wouldn’t break anything else after the last brawl he’d gotten into.

But the fucking thing just kept on talking.

“My instructions stipulate that I have to accompany you.”

“You know where you can stick your instructions?” Connor growled before downing the glass of whiskey.

It was a good thing he had, because its next words made him choke on spit.

“No. Where?”

Connor set the glass down, and for the first time that evening, fully turned toward the android and stared at it.

The damn thing was staring back, head slightly tilted like a curious puppy. It had large eyes to match the image too, earnest and innocent and entirely too sincere. Its attire at second glance wasn’t the typical android faire. A smooth grey android jacket and a dark, patterned tie marked it as something different. Unique.

And just a little too pretty. Every designed, group-focused imperfection on its face made it that much more appealing. Its hair was neatly coifed, pulled up and pinned behind its head, exposing the smooth curve of its neck.

Hanging down the left side of its face was a strategically-placed lock of hair that Connor immediately want to twirl his finger around. He suspected that was the point.

The further down Connor’s eyes traveled, the more he lost his train of thought. The perfectly sensible tie was lying on the slope of its breasts, something even the jacket couldn’t cover. Why the fuck androids had breasts to begin with, Connor couldn’t begin to fathom, and it seemed even more ludicrous now seeing them on a “specialized model.”

The android hadn’t moved apart from its artificial breathing, another thing about the machines that was uncanny. They weren’t human, and the fact CyberLife kept trying to pass them off as such was a goddamn insult to humanity.

He met the thing’s eye, gave an unimpressed huff, and went back to nursing his drink. If the fucking tin can didn’t understand a dirty innuendo, he certainly wasn’t going to ruin its pristine, virginal programming.

Connor doubted everything that had just gone through his head as those unnecessarily realistic tits were pressed against his elbow, without warning or any sense of decency or a concept of personal space.

“How about this, Detective?”

Connor fumbled, nearly spilling his drink, a massive what the fuck! warning flashing in his head as the machine pressed closer.

“I’ll buy you another drink, on the house. Surely that’s worth a few minutes of your time? And if not, you can send me on my way.”

Connor couldn’t speak with that voice right into his ear like a close confidant, sultry and low and borderline pornographic, so it was a good thing the android didn’t bother waiting for a response.

Instead, it turned to Jimmy and said in a louder, more normal tone, “Bartender, another round for the detective, please.”

Jimmy turned from where he was cleaning glasses on the counter, eyebrows shooting upward as he looked from the machine to Connor. It had backed up a few inches, but there were a lot of reflective bottles on the wall. Connor wondered just how much Jimmy had seen.

Connor gave a little helpless shrug as if to say, Don’t look at me, I don’t know what the fuck it’s doing!

But when the damn thing actually brought out real paper money and set it on the counter, Jimmy got moving. Seemed he wasn’t picky about where his money came from, and Connor almost resented the fact he hadn’t thrown the android out on principle.

Who the hell gave it money in the first place? CyberLife? What, did they hand it a few bucks of allowance before letting it off its leash?

Despite all his reservations, and there were a great many of them, Connor was not about to turn down a free drink. Or two.

“Make it a double,” he grumbled, purposefully avoiding the android’s focused gaze. He could practically feel the thing staring into the side of his head, but at least it remained at a distance and wasn’t pressed against his side like a drunk, horny badge bunny anymore.

“Thanks, Jim.” Connor took the glass and tipped it back, drowning it in one go. The slide of the familiar burn down his throat, spreading throughout his limbs, did quite a lot to help ease the tension in his muscles.

He released a heavy exhale, pushed away from the bar, and got to his feet.

“You want to play plastic cop? Okay, then. Keep up,” he said, tilting his head in its direction without actually looking at it. “Or I’m leaving your ass behind.”

Connor didn’t wait for a response, only raised his hand in parting to Jimmy, and pushed open the door to let the rain-drenched Detroit night swallow him whole. But even through the sound of the rain pinging off the hood of his nearby car he could hear the even footfalls behind him, just a little too close for comfort.

Fucking androids.

Next Chapter

[obae-me]

hmm mc singing Barbie girl (you know I never noticed when younger but its quite sexual lol) and their reaction? if you're not up for all maybe luci, Satan and belphie?? 👀

Word Count: 2635

Author’s Note: I never noticed how suggestive it was when I was younger either, and even now just reading through the lyrics I connected a few dots I hadn’t before. I’m sorry this took so long, and I hope it’s enjoyable to read! Thank you for your request, Anon! 

Lucifer

He had come to check on MC to see how their studies were doing. He respected that they insisted on doing their schoolwork on their own, but he still felt the need to check up on them, just in case. Too often did he find people slacking off.

He was just about to knock on their door when he heard MC’s voice reach his ears through the frame. “Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please, I can act like a Star, I can beg on my knees.”

It was a song he had never heard before, which wasn’t too surprising. He didn’t bother with anything...distasteful. He was a very picky listener. He gave himself a few moments to comprehend the lyrics. It sounded almost like a song Asmo would listen to.

He was taken aback, to be honest. The music itself was absolutely annoying, like some kind of glittery audio, but the lyrics coming out of MC’s mouth stirred something in him. He was a demon for sure, and he was no stranger to the more risque aspects of sin, but to hear such things coming out of their mouth drove him up the wall in more ways than one.

He opened the door without knocking, entering like a shadow. MC didn’t even have a pencil in their hand, dancing in their seat, their schoolwork the furthest thing from their mind.

“You can touch, you can play, if you say I’m always yours-”

MC felt a looming shadow behind them, their voice faltering as their heart fluttered. Lucifer’s hand reached around them, touching their D.D.D. to turn off the infernal melody with the taunting lyrics. MC looked up at him, the frame of his body blocking out the light in their room. He glared at them with red glinted eyes, a smirk tugging at the taut corners of his lips.

“That can easily be arranged.”

A dark shade of red covered MC’s cheeks as Lucifer shut their school book,his gloved hand tracing the spine of the book before doing the same thing to MC’s chin. They didn’t seem to be getting much studying done anyway, so further delaying them would do them no harm, besides, then he would have an excuse to be their strict tutor.

Lucifer is going to want to carry out those lyrics as punishment for MC saying such bold and tempting words in his presence.

Mammon

He had finally managed to get MC in his room to hang out, just the two of them. He had felt that his brothers were spending way too much time with them, and it was his turn to have his human. Lucifer had prevented both of them from going out since it was far too late and all of them had to get up far too early the next day.

To get around this conundrum, Mammon had a bottle of wine and demonus already chilled in his room. He’ll do his best to brush past the fact that he had stolen both of them from his older brother.

It didn’t take too long for both him and MC to get drunk, partying it up in his room much to his siblings annoyance. MC was pumping a bunch of human world music from his loudspeakers, and Mammon was secretly loving it. When Barbie Girl came on, he’ll admit he found it strange at first, his face burning as MC sang the lyrics to the song.

“Life in plastic, it’s fantastic, you can brush my hair, undress me anywhere.”

MC would look at him, glancing his body up and down to the words, almost like they were teasing him. His first reaction was to tell MC that they couldn’t just sing stuff like that. Someone would take it wrong, someone would...he didn’t want anyone else to hear those words but himself.

MC would convince him to sing the other part, begging and pleading with him. He eventually agreed, but only this once, and only because MC was the one who asked.

He’ll get surprisingly into it, and they’ll sing it again and again on repeat so much, they both would be capable of singing it in their sleep. MC would laugh anytime Mammon would purposefully lower his voice to a comical degree.

MC was almost torturing him, singing “If you say, I’m always yours”, dancing with their body moving way too close to his, their eyes painted with a sultry glow. He could only take it for so long before he turned the music off, causing MC to frown. Then he got in real close.

“Yes, you are mine.”

Levi

He had invited MC to a karaoke night, one of the few activities he’d do outside his room. It showed up in anime so often, and he would be able to sing his favorite songs as loud as he wanted without fear of bothering anyone. It was just him and MC, he didn’t want to risk the possibility that his brothers would ruin this already rare opportunity.

He sang some sort of anime opening, and he went hard, hitting notes that MC didn’t even know he could reach. It was beautiful. Levi thought nothing would be able to make this moment any better. Then MC retaliated with Barbie girl, and as soon as the first few lyrics left their lips, Levi went completely still. He was frozen, his concentration buffering.

“I’m a blonde bimbo girl in a fantasy world, dress me up, make it tight, I’m your dolly.”

They were purposefully teasing him, but he couldn’t do anything about it. MC had him completely red, his hands up to cover as much of his embarrassing face as he could. With his eyes still free to watch MC, of course. Sure he had probably heard and seen worse in anime, but he never said anything like that aloud, he had never...heard that aloud...by another person.

MC directed it all towards him, bouncing up and down on their feet as they sang, giving him flirtatious winks. If this were an anime, not only would he have had a severe nosebleed, but his soul might’ve just floated out from his body. Unfortunately for him, this wasn’t an anime. He was still frozen to his seat.

“You can touch, you can play.”

MC came on over to him and sat next to him, getting real close to him, tugging at the collar around his neck, playing with the stray hairs at the bottom of his head. He got so freaked out, he slipped out of his own seat and onto the floor, accidentally dragging MC along with him. MC almost couldn’t continue singing due to how much they wanted to laugh.

“If you say, I’m always yours.”

Right now it seemed as if MC had him as theirs instead of the other way around, with them on top of him on the floor, Levi feeling like he was literally melting. He wasn’t a huge fan of anything without some sort of connection to anime or video games, but he’d give this song a pass this one time.

Satan

While he can be a fan of some music, he typically likes silence, it makes things easier to read. But when MC asked if they could listen to some of their music while they studied together, he let them. He was curious about their tastes if anything. He took it as an opportunity to learn more about them, but he didn’t know that they were planning on testing his patience.

Their songs came up randomly, each one of them obnoxious noises. Satan knew immediately that the only reasoning to them was to see which one annoyed him most. MC tried hard to hide the smile on their face, but Satan’s expression left them highly amused.

He had just about had enough, ready to blow a fuse along with MC’s D.D.D. Then Barbie Girl came on. The breathy squeaky noises felt like they had taken a few centuries off his lifespan, but then MC started singing to it.

“You can brush my hair, undress me anywhere.”

He pressed his hand to his chest. This kind of song, these words, this behavior...was completely inappropriate. It’s what he wanted to say anyway, but anytime MC sang something else, he found himself speechless.

“Imagination, life is your creation.”

He ended up having to turn his head away from them, closing his eyes and doing his best to tune them out long enough to get his focus back, to get his logic back. He was ignoring the growing heat in his face.

He didn’t move until the song was done, and then he hastily took MC’s device from them, turning the music off and then insisting that they get stuff done. MC whined a little bit but obliged, having been mostly satisfied by his behavior.

The only thing was, now Satan was lost in his own mind and thoughts, unable to even comprehend what he was reading. MC would ask him a question, and he would find it difficult to even try to come up with a solid answer. He could only look into MC’s eyes and angrily shut all his books.

There would be no more studying tonight.

Asmo

Human world music or not, he knows this one by heart, and he loves it. It’s so playful and sexual, it’s exactly his thing. So, it was actually Asmo who had the song playing in the first place, much to MC’s surprise.

He had MC over for one of their self-care nights. He would do their nails, their hair, make sure their skin was nice and moisturized, and maybe they’d let him give them a deep massage. He had some of his music playing to set the mood. Some of his hype songs. When Barbie Girl came on, MC snapped their head up in surprise.

“You know this song?”

Asmo almost had to put down his polish, exasperated at the question. “Do I know this song?? Honey, I adore this song.”

He was the one who started singing, making his body sway and move as he gave MC flirtatious glances. MC shrugged, figuring the song was too catchy to not join in with. Asmo had never been so excited, he wanted to shout, maybe post it on Devilgram.

“Kiss me here, touch me there, hanky panky.”

He’s heard people talk dirty before, trust him, he’s just never heard MC talk like that before. Even if they were just singing goofy lyrics of a song, he had always wondered what it would be like for them to say such things. Only now, now that Asmo had finally had a little taste of what he wanted, he couldn’t handle it.

He had been doing his nails, but now his entire finger had nail polish over it. The air in his lungs was suddenly absent. He felt like breaking the bottle in his hands, so he quickly put it down.

“You can touch, you can play, if you say-”

MC had been interrupted by Asmo almost body slamming them against his bed. They stammered and sputtered for words as Asmo whined and almost cried for them to stop giving him false excitement, he wouldn’t be able to take it.

MC, maybe slightly influenced by the song, the mood the demon of Lust had set, and maybe some alcohol, told Asmo that maybe they wouldn’t mind if it were him.

Screw his nails, he had more important things to do right now.

Beel

MC swore the only reason why Beel even knew what flirting meant was because he had Asmo for a brother. He didn’t really take any steps himself to be promiscuous, and if he ended up doing something...spicy, he didn’t really mean to.

So when he came into the kitchen to check on MC while they were on cooking duty, he wasn’t sure how to feel. At first, he was just so happy to hear MC sing, if they were happy, it meant the food they were making would taste ten times better. Somehow he knew how someone was feeling based on the food they made.

Then his second reaction was towards the actual words they were singing. It made his stomach feel kind of full, even though he hadn’t eaten anything for a few minutes. MC was looking pretty tasty...

Then he shook his head to himself, shooing away those kinds of thoughts. It was just a song, nothing to get so worked up over for. He wasn’t like Asmo. Or his other brothers apparently.

MC will admit they were a bit disappointed when Beel started rummaging through the kitchen for a few pre-dinner snacks, ignoring the song. They expected a bit more of a response. MC loved trying to get a jolt out of the demon brothers, but Beel was Beel.

The demon of gluttony just kept them company while they cooked, none of the lyrics setting him off. He just happily munched on some crackers. Beel told MC they had a lovely voice, and while he wasn’t a huge fan of the song, he respected their taste in music.

He was almost too pure sometimes.

Belphie

He had been asleep for much too long, and in such a deep sleep, nothing seemed to be able to wake him up. Each of the brothers had tried and subsequently failed. They had given up on him, even Beel who went off in some search for food after his attempts left him starved. Only MC remained, and they tried the first thing that came to their mind.

For some reason their idea had been playing Barbie Girl and singing it to him in the most ridiculous way possible. They turned the song up on their D.D.D. at full volume and started dancing and singing on his bed while he remained fast asleep.

“Come on Barbie, let’s go party, ah ah ah yeah.”

With each little ‘ah’ and ‘oo’ that came out of their mouth, they poked Belphie’s body. Still nothing. If MC wasn’t able to see his chest moving and the air from his nose pushing the hair covering his face, they would’ve been convinced he was dead.

Except the fact was, he was awake, wide awake in fact, he was just pretending to be asleep. MC’s voice had both the power to snap him awake or lull him to sleep. Right now he was doing his best to stay still as they continued.

Yes, he kinda wanted to kill them for waking him up. Yes, the song was driving him absolutely crazy in the worst way. But also, MC kept touching him and saying things he had never heard them say before. The breath against his pillow was getting warmer, his nerves feeling jittery.

When they finished, MC was a bit disappointed to find Belphie still ‘asleep’, their plan had failed. They turned the music off and missed Belphie’s immense sigh of relief. They went to move off his bed, but he snapped to attention to grab their ankles. In a blur of movement, Belphie had them pinned down on his bed.

He had planned on just falling back asleep on top of them, but their expression...now he was awake, restless, and left with only one way he would be satisfied enough to sleep.

Bonus: Each and every one of the demon brothers has had this infernal song stuck in their head for literal days. A few of them don’t quite mind, and for the rest of them, they wonder if they’ve been subjected to some sort of torture. Lucifer has banned the song for eternity, and each of his siblings, with himself included, has some sort of demand for MC to fulfill as payment.

[eddiesfaerie]

Mirrorball (part 2)

Summary: The night you first met Flip, he asked you to meet him at the station the following day. You better come prepared. (5.4k words omg im sorry)

Warnings: NSFW!, mentions of police, f!reader, police station shenanigans, thigh riding, female orgasm, dirty talk, dirty THOUGHTS, brief mentions of male masturbation, light name calling, brat tamer!Flip, bratty!reader, dominant and submissive themes, smoking, part 1 was better and maybe this was unnecessary oop

Part 1

“I’m counting on it, Detective.”

Flip doesn’t know how many times he replayed those words you said to him in his mind. It was now the next day and he still couldn’t stop, couldn’t pause the loop that your voice was on in his brain; echoey, dreamy and ethereal.

To say he was nervous was an understatement. He told you to be here by 6pm, it was now 5:45 and Flip felt like his heart was about to beat straight out of his chest and onto the papers that sat untouched on his desk. He hadn’t done anything for the past thirty minutes besides swivel in his chair and click his pen over and over again; open, closed, open, closed.

His foot was tapping relentlessly against the tile floor as well, it had been going like that all day, and Ron wanted to say something about it, but he knew better than that. Especially since Flip would sass him extra hard seeing as how nervous he was about this meeting of yours.

LAST NIGHT - OUTSIDE THE DISCO

Ron and Patrice had more or less awkwardly stumbled upon the two of you after letting you two go off on your own for… how ever long all of that was. Trying to act as though nothing was going on, you jumped into Patrice’s arms and hugged her tightly before moving to hug Ron as well, seeing as you never actually met up with them tonight until now.

Flip shot daggers, shives, knives, hell he shot whatever was sharp enough at Ron and Patrice with his icy stare, fucking daring them to say something about the massive mark he’d left on your neck. This man was not to be intimidated, teased, or made fun of and almost everyone learned that the hard way. Ron and Patrice avoided the subject like the thin ice it was.

PRESENT - POLICE STATION

Flip had been fantasizing about that mark he left on you. All. Day. He wondered what it would look like when he saw you later. If it would be darker, if it would have started to change colour, he wondered if you’d dare to cover it up even though he specifically told you not to. He wondered if you'd listen to him. He really hopes you did, otherwise he was just as ready to wipe away whatever concealer you tried to hide it under.

It worked out well for him that it was a Saturday, the station would be much quieter than usual; just him, Ron, and a few newer guys he didn’t know that well. No familiar faces to tease and pull at his strings about him having a woman come by and see him. Flip never invited anyone to the station so it would have been a hot topic amongst his coworkers. He shuddered at the thought, glad he didn’t have to deal with the regular bullshit today - which is exactly why he decided to tell Ron that you were coming, told him extremely fucking reluctantly.

Ron’s face lit up at the sound of your name but fell slightly the moment Flip held out his finger in Ron’s face.

“Don’t make this into something it’s not, Rookie. She’s just... just coming by to say hi.” Even Flip didn’t sound too sure of himself but Ron didn’t push. He just knowingly smiled at him and nodded his head.

“No one’s making it into anything, partner. She’s a pretty little lady.” Ron shimmied his shoulders and then shimmied himself away down the corridor. Flip watching as Ron skipped away, seemingly happier about this than he was. He could feel a warmth spreading from his cheeks, across his face to the tip of his ears at the slight mention of you.

Pretty, little, lady.

He threw his head back and groaned, running a hand down his face and plucking himself down at his desk once again. Feet coming up to rest on top of his desk, Flip fished around in his pocket for his pack of cigarettes, finding them quickly and lit one up between his lips. 

He had to fucking relax. He just saw you last night and you were putty in his hands. What did he have to be nervous about? Seeing your face in daylight? Seeing if you did cover the hickey? What would it mean if you did? Were you not interested in him, embarrassed maybe? What if you didn’t even show up? He didn’t have your number, you didn’t have his. Maybe he could look through the phone book-

Flip decided that waiting for you was going to be the most painful stakeout he’d ever endured, the longest fucking shift of his career.

//

You gripped the tupperware in your hands a little too tightly, so tight you actually thought you’d break through the plastic if you didn’t ease up on it soon.

Your feet had seemingly carried you across town without a conscious mind directing them, and you were now standing outside the police station, counting your breaths. You had never been inside one before and you weren’t exactly thrilled about it. Cops made you nervous, they made everyone you knew nervous. They weren’t friendly, they were pigs. They-

A slight cracking noise from the tupperware breaks you out of your thoughts. Fuck, you really were going to break it. 

You had made cookies for Flip and you were going to ruin them before he even had one.

Flip.

Your nerves eased slightly at the thought of him. He was nice. He was more than nice, and he was a cop. Detective, whatever. He would be in there. Maybe Ron would be too. And that made you feel better. You hoped he liked chocolate chip cookies.

A few more deep breaths and your feet were carrying up the steps and into the precinct. The clock above you on the wall read 6:10pm, not the first time your overthinking made you late. You pulled your bottom lip between your teeth, worrying the thin flesh to the point where the familiar metallic taste filled your mouth. Fuck were you really bleeding? Now?

A familiar voice called your name. You looked up and found Ron smiling incredibly widley at you.

“Ron.” You smiled, a bit surprised, but mostly just flustered.

“I made cookies.” You said, handing the now open tupperware at him, offering him one.

“I’ve really got to get back to this damn file but thank you, Sweets. Flip’s just through those doors by the way, you’ll have no problem spotting him.” He chuckled with fake urgency, walking away to his desk in another part of the office, you guessed.

You could feel a heat crawl up your neck and bloom across your face, if you had been flustered when you came in, you were incredibly flustered now. What did Flip tell him? He surely couldn’t have told him that much, right?

You took tentative steps in the direction which Ron directed you, soon coming to see that dark head of hair sitting in the middle of a room, closed off by glass doors and windows. A smile crept up your face.

You opened one of the doors quietly so that he didn’t hear you. The room smelled of smoke and you could see a soft stream billowing above his head, his own halo. He wore another red flannel today, but you could tell it was different from the one he wore last night, this one didn’t hug him as tightly, it was roomier. Covering his shoulders and upper back was a holster and you fought to keep your eyes from rolling into your head at the sight. You forgot just how quickly he took your breath away. He wasn’t even facing you yet and you were already trembling.

Those eyes of his, you thought. You couldn’t wait to see them again and how they would shine in the daylight.

You felt like just quietly sitting down in the corner and observing him for the rest of his shift, suddenly curious about what he did all day, but you accidentally walked into the chair of the desk that was directly behind him, causing him to spin around and stand up quickly.

“Hi- oop. Sorry.” You stammered, embarrassing yourself already. Nearly tripping over the chair, Flip grabbed your elbow and helped you steady yourself, your skin igniting where he held you. That cool, untouchable iciness you had to yourself last night seems to have completely let you fend for yourself today, leaving you abandoned and a complete clumsy wreck without it.  

“I um, I brought you- I made you some cookies. I thought maybe-”

What you were not expecting, was Flip to cut you off with his lips. You knew at some point today that you both would eventually succumb to whatever tension (sexual or not) settled between the two of you, but you were not expecting it to quite literally hit you the moment you walked in the office room.

You cannot believe you had already forgotten how soft his lips were, how they molded to yours, devoured yours, how he tasted, how it felt to have his strong nose smush into your cheek. Fuck, this was bliss. He pulled away all too soon.

��Fuck, sorry.” He moved away from you a bit, maybe embarrassed at how quickly he had moved on you. His hands fell away from where he gripped you, a little indent remaining. Both of you seem to have lost your confidence from last night, the thought made you smile.

“For such a dancer I would have expected you to have a bit more coordination.” Already quick on his quips, he was trying to deflect from how his nerves were getting the best of him. Despite how his voice made your knees tremble, you could sense the waver in his voice as he ran his fingers through his hair, a nervous tick. He was nervous. You made him nervous. You found courage in that.

“You’d be surprised, Detective, at the predicaments I find myself in.” You huff unceremoniously trying to emulate that iciness from last night, handing the tupperware filled with cookies to him. He smirked down at the tupperware, his large fingers dancing over a few before tentatively picking one up and bringing it to his plump lips.

“Oh, I’m sure I would be.” He takes a bite, you both moan. Well, you moan internally at his suggestive tone, and he moans outwardly due to the sweet saltiness of the cookie.

“Good?”

“Sinful.” He said, taking another bite and then just shoving the rest of the cookie into his mouth. What seemed average sized to you, seemed so much smaller in his hands and in his mouth. He swallowed it with ease and you could feel sweat prickling at the bottom of your neck. Why was he so big? He’s already got you hot and you silently hated him for it. You rolled your eyes, whether at him or yourself, you weren’t too sure.

You looked away from him, breaking his menacing eye contact to look around the office where multiple desks sat in close proximity to each other before moving closer to his and plopping yourself down in his chair. You swivelled in it, not looking at one thing for too long.

His desk was neatly kept; two coffee mugs sat in one corner, a nice little lamp to illuminate his papers once it got dark, too many pens that had the ends chewed up, a rather beautiful glass ashtray where the cigarette he was smoking as you came in laid, an endless stream of smoke billowing out of it, and a pack of cigarettes thrown over the papers. 

You wondered how many late nights he spent here, you wondered what time he usually went home at. Was he exhausted when he returned home? Did he make himself supper? Eat leftovers? Did he just go straight to bed, or read something first? Or did he watch a movie? You found yourself wanting to know every little detail about him, not sure why sitting at his desk felt so intimate and personal.

A little piece of him. Everything he deemed absolutely essential to get through the long days laid here.

Flip leaned his butt against the top of his desk, crossing his arms over his chest as you ran your hands over the knobs to the drawers, silently wondering what was inside. He observed you.

Fuck you were so cute, he had almost forgotten it and he hated himself for it. How could he forget a face like that, a smile like yours? That was unforgettable and he hated how fucking corny he sounded even just thinking that. Your legs dangling off his chair, your hands lightly touching his stuff like you were too afraid you might disturb something, put it out of its place and make him have to fix it. 

He was so caught up in watching you that he almost didn’t register that you had stopped what you were doing and looked up at him from his chair, your neck straining from how tall he was in this position.

With a mind of its own, his hand reached out to touch your cheek, his thumb tracing so softly along the skin of your cheekbone. He saw your eyelids flutter, but you kept your eyes open, on him.

You were being so… obedient today, something Flip wasn’t necessarily expecting but something he thought about over the course of the last twenty hours since he last saw you, how you would act if you were being obedient. 

He thought about it as he bid you goodnight and on his drive back home from the disco, he thought about it as he walked through his house, as he put his stuff away, as he climbed into bed, he thought about it into the early hours of the morning where sleep couldn’t find him and he tossed and turned until his hand took care of something he had been trying to ignore, trying hard not to indulge in. He thought about it as his hand stroked himself over and over and over again until your name spilled out of his mouth pathetically and he-

“Want me to show you around?” His own mouth, cutting his derailed mind off and setting it back on track. You bit your lip and nodded your head quickly, standing up from his seat and waiting for him to lead the way. Flip let his hand fall from your cheek naturally, he grabbed another one of your cookies before he left the office room with you following behind him.

For such an unfamiliar building with absolute zero ease of navigation, Flip really seemed to know where he was taking you. You wondered how long he had worked here, how long he had been a detective. You even asked him which surprised the both of you for some reason. After taking a moment to think, trying to decide how much to tell you, he told you about how he was stationed in Vietnam before he came to work here as a detective. He talked a bit about his training, some past cases which were pretty minor or insignificant but still totally captivating to you.

Flip watched your face light up from the corner of his eyes as he told you some short stories about his time in Colorado Springs as a… detective and you found yourself much more intrigued than you thought you would have been. He laughed at your little gasps, your giggles, or when you tugged on his arm for him to keep going, to not leave you hanging. He really didn’t think about his job as interesting or worth all your intrigue, but seeing you so enthralled by his little stories, well that kind of made his heart skip a beat. Good thing no one he knew at the station was here to witness it.

“This is the final little corner of the station, the records room or file room, whatever. Lots of slightly different names for this hell hole.” Flip muttered, holding the door open for you as you walked into the record room.

It was like a little library, maybe six or seven iron shelved rows filled to the absolute brim with beige folder boxes, file drawers and even more cabinets near the wall in the back. You couldn’t imagine how many names, dates, incidents, trials and tribulations sat tucked away in those boxes. You wonder if he had read all of them, or at least most of them.

“Woah.” You said quietly, walking through the rows, running your hand along the edges of the boxes. You couldn’t even begin to comprehend how these were organized. Alphabetically? By date? Year? Incident type?

“Most boring room in the station, not much to say about this one.” Flip shrugged. He explained how newbies get shoved in here to acclimate to the workplace and get to know everyone, get to know the files, the records, all that mind numbing shit. He kept his eyes trained on you as you moved through the rows, visions of you from last night, twirling and moving through the colourful light of the disco flashing through his mind.

“Can’t tell you how much shit I’ve gotten into from leaving the tiniest coffee ring in the corner of a file sheet…” Flip shook his head, looking at the ground and remembering how some rookie who’s name is now long forgotten (Flip thinks that he got restationed because he couldn’t put up with his shit) tried to tell him off for leaving a stain, trying to tell him that it ruined... something about the file. He can’t even remember, that’s how useless it was. Everyone else at the station had just stared, mouths agape at the rookie who had too much fire for his own good. Flip was pretty amused, he let the rookie spit his words at him before he walked away laughing.

“Oh, I bet.” You giggled, watching him as he delved back into that memory in his mind. You wondered what he was holding back, all the stories about this place that you hoped you would get to hear one day. You hoped he would share more with you but he just looked back down at you with those dark, dark eyes.

You could drown in them.

You wanted to.

The two of you were leaning on adjacent iron shelves, Flip took a tentative step closer to you, his long legs and the narrow rows made it so your chests were nearly touching. Your breath hitched in your throat, scared to breathe.

Flip’s hand came to cradle your throat, letting his palm glide along the skin of your neck, coming to wrap around your jaw, tilting your head up and to the side.

“You didn’t cover it.” His voice, so deep and rich, like molasses. Your hand slid up to your neck, touching the incredibly sensitive skin at his words. The hickey.

“You told me not to.” You said, your voice so, so quiet, matching his. You brought your hand up to wrap around his wrist, his thumb now lazily running itself over the abused skin, feeling your pulse underneath.

You wanted him to bite it, make it hurt more. Leave more on you, you wanted to be covered in them, his kisses, his markings. You wanted everyone to know he did this to you.

How embarrassing.

“So you do listen.” You could see him smirking and you just stared back at him, under some sort of trance. Maybe it was the dusty air of the record room infecting your brain.

“When I want to, yeah.”

Flip clenched your jaw, pinching your cheeks between his two fingers like he had done so similarly last night only now you weren’t intoxicated, somehow that made his proximity and his grip on you all the more dizzying.

“Are you going to listen today?” He pinched your cheeks harder, you could feel the spit pooling in your mouth. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t want to drool on him. You looked down between the two of you to see Flip moving his legs so that one of his muscular thighs was resting in between both of your legs, dangerously close to your sex. Just like last night. You nodded your head, looking back up to meet his eyes.

“Use your words-”

“Yes! Yes I-I’ll listen.” You don’t know what possessed you to answer so quickly, Flip chuckled at that. 

Cute, he thought.

Flip was not expecting you to beg so quickly, to bend to his will and actually listen to him. Maybe he had left you just needy enough last night for it to carry over and actually grow into today to the point where you were willing. Willing and capable, all for him.

Looking between your eyes and your lips, Flip plunged. His tongue instantly lured its way into your mouth, and you took him in with no complaints or whines. He shoved you harder against the shelf and you moaned into his mouth, both of you breathing heavily through your noses onto the others cheek. 

Experimentally, you sunk your teeth into Flip’s bottom lip, causing him to growl and kiss you with more fervour, muttering a rough ‘fuck’ into your mouth. His body was pressed as close as possible to yours but it was like the two of you couldn’t get close enough, like each of your bodies was trying to inhale the other, to mold and become one.

You had no idea what he had planned for you but the sexual tension that had been building for the last twenty or so hours was blinding you, making you more than desperate for him to touch you or let you touch him. You unconsciously began to ground your hips into his thigh and coming up to graze his bulge as well.

His hand let go of your cheeks, coming down to join the other on your waist, pulling you up, up, up his thigh until your clit met with the rough fabric of his jeans. You gasped and your hands flew up to grab onto his shoulders, grabbing the leather of his holster to steady yourself.

What a day to wear a dress.

Flip stopped kissing you and that same look from earlier, his thinking face, washed over him. You stared, dumbfounded. Unsure of what he was thinking or why he was stopping this two nights in a row now. 

Maybe you did know, maybe you knew what he was thinking and you were playing dumb, or maybe you were just nervous. 

Maybe you just wanted him to push you. Break you even more. Your eyes pleaded with him to tell you, you wanted this to be good. You found yourself wanting to be good for him.

“Tell me.” You asked, lip trembling with want, with need. Tell me what’s wrong. Tell me what you need.

“I- I can’t tell you how badly I want this.”

“Then have this, have me.” You didn’t understand.

“No I, want to have you… the way you deserve. I wasn’t just going to fuck you at the disco and make you think that was it.”

“Then don’t let me think that was it.” He could have just given you his number? What ended up happening today clearly worked out in some way? He was seriously confusing you.

“You’re fucking difficult you know that?” He groaned, rutting his hips against yours and you sighed, just wanting him to give into this.

“I’m trying to tell you I want to take you out on a real date, okay? More than one in fact, I want to see you all the fucking time. And you’re sitting here fucking whining about it.”

His words leave you flustered, breathless, incredibly fucking stunned.

More than one date. You couldn’t help but smile, you felt giddy.

“I’m not- I’m not whining about that Flip, I want-” I want that too, you were going to say but Flip cuts you off, again.

“Are you going to listen to me? You said you would.” He asked once more, his voice firmer, deeper, rougher around the edges than the last time he spoke. Fuck, this man was moody. Your hands dug into the holsters that framed his impossibly broad shoulders, you nodded your head. Desperation lacing your movements. 

Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes.

“Words.”

“Yes, Flip I promise. I’ll be good, I’ll listen, I promise. I need to touch you, let me-” You hand reached from his shoulder to the bulge in his pants. You felt like you were having déjà vu, the resemblance of your situation to that of last night was strange.

“No.” What? He stopped your hand in its tracks, his grip was deadly.

“What?”

“You don’t get to touch me.”

“Did I do somethin-”

“You’ll take what I give you.” His grip on your waist was bruising, but you decided against complaining about it. You liked the pain, it felt good to have his fingers digging into your flesh from self-restraint. You wanted his bruises all over your body. 

You were quiet for a moment, letting a beat pass between the two of you, just breathing in the buzzing electricity between your bodies.

“I’ll take anything.” You near close to whine, your voice so, so quiet and your head lulling to the side from how much he was drawing this out. You were becoming dizzier by the second.

“Fuck, that’s what I like to hear.” He huffs, gripping your waist and beginning to grind you down onto his thigh. “You’re going to get off on my thigh, you’ll thank me for it and then I’m gonna take you on the best fucking date you’ve ever been on. Tell me you understand.”

You moaned, loud. The friction was already overwhelming and you brought your hands to his biceps for balance, squeezing the firm muscle there. His arms were massive. You wanted him to crush you with them. This was already becoming too much.

“I understand.”

His hand left your waist and tapped you on your cheek, less than a slap but enough for it to startle you and look up at him. He was waiting for something. Shit, how were you supposed to address him? You stopped undulating your hips as you thought, frozen. He tapped your cheek again, harder this time after no complaint from the first one.

“Did I say you could stop? Keep going and answer me properly this time.”

“Fuck- I understand, Detective.” You whined, your eyes screwing shut as you kept grinding your clit along his thigh.

You were near delirious already, the friction was delicious, the thin cotton of your underwear doing nothing to minimize the sensation and you shamelessly moaned as you kept working yourself closer to your release, which was much closer than you would have hoped for.

“I-I’m not gonna last long, Flip- Detective, fuck.” You cried, tears welling in your eyes. You felt so embarrassed, using his thigh to get off while he watched you in the back of the record room. You just hoped he locked the door and that everyone else was far, far away from your cries of pleasure.

Moving one of his hands from your hip up to the edge of your dress where it was rustling against your thigh, Flip grabbed the soft material and lifted it up to reveal your soaked underwear and your frantic little thrusts. You grew hot under his gaze, you wanted to hide from him, hide from those eyes but you couldn’t. Fucking Medusa, frozen rock solid in place, forever.

He was mumbling to himself, your cries were deafening inside your head, your blood pumping loud, you could only make out part of what he was saying.

“Pretty fucking pussy…. So good for me… that’s it.”

You wailed and tried to curl yourself forward, to hide in his warm chest, to cry against his flannel but he held you where you were with the hand that was holding the end of your dress, pushing your shoulders back into the iron frame. Your dress lifted with his hand to expose more of you to him, your cute little underwear, your stomach, clenching and unclenching, and the underside of your breasts.

You were perfect, he thought. He was completely mesmerized. He had never been so forthcoming with a woman before, especially not on the second fucking day of knowing her. But there was something about you that made him lose his fucking mind. He had to have you, he didn’t care which way, and he didn’t care that he was going to make himself wait longer to actually fuck you. He was going to do this properly, you deserved that. Flip had decided you deserved everything. 

The little noises you were making were the prettiest fucking noises Flip had ever heard; music, a symphony filled with his name and little cries, made just for him. He could lose himself in you, he already has. 

He was trying hard not think too much about what it would be like to fuck you for the first time, to get in that tight little pussy and have you cry on his cock. No, if he thought about it too much, he was sure he was going to pass out and he needed to stay focused on you, you were right in front of him, losing yourself on his thigh.

“Flip, I think… can I?”

He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn’t realize you were looking at him with pleading eyes, whining and on the edge of orgasm, tears begging to spill from the precipice. How could he deny you? Such a pretty crier.

“Cum for me.”

With a few more pathetic thrusts, your hips, legs and whole body convulsed, twitched and you came hard on his thigh. He let you fall towards his chest now as you moaned his name into the fabric, cradling the back of your head and pressing your body firm against him as you rode out your high, the tremors wracking your body. Your nails seemed to try to pierce the leather of his holsters as your body arched into his, trying to get closer, closer, closer.

“Good girl... you did so fucking good.” He shushed you, saying your name quietly. You rubbed your clit on his thigh until you bordered on overstimulation, your limbs tingling as they lost sensation and you gave into him completely, Flip was the only thing keeping you upright at this point.

“So good for me.” He whispered, lips brushing against your temple. You tried to thank him, like he had asked but words escaped you, your brain could not put two and two together besides Flipflipflipflipflipflip.

“Th… thank-”

“I know.” He chuckled, shushing you again. You managed to let out a tiny laugh as well, snuggling further into his chest for a moment before leaning back against the shelf, your feet seeming to make contact with the floor for the first time in ages. You sighed happily, breathing returning to normal, finally. You stared dopily up at him, his smile matching yours. You both looked high. You giggled at the thought.

Flip let you off of his thigh and patted your ass as you landed back on the floor, then ducked down, taking your lips into his to kiss you roughly. You moaned and grabbed the hair at the bottom of his head, tugging him down to you further.

“So how about dinner? Tuesday night?” He muttered against your lips, not wanting to pull away from you yet.

“Why not tonight?” Flip slapped your ass again, harder this time and you gasped into his open mouth. He was really about to rile you back up again. And you were already willing him to do so. Your bratty mouth never seemed to stop.

“Can’t, I have a lot of fucking work right now, doll. Tuesday I get off at three.”

“Then I’ll meet you at three on Tuesday?” Flip chuckled again, squeezing the skin on your hips into his hands, making you wince and shove him away but he grabbed your wrist and pulled you back to him. Sometimes he looked like a giant puppy. A stupidly sexy, giant puppy.

“You’ll meet me here on Tuesday at three. Come here on foot like you did today, I’ve got a ride.” He instructed, you nodded your head.

“I understand.” You smiled up at him, hands wrapping around and tugging on his holsters.

Oh, Flip liked that.

[stareiiez]

Mephistophelian Summer

Chapter 3

Word Count: 3.5k

Chapter Summary: 𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕞𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕥𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕗 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕟 𝕥𝕠 𝕋𝕦𝕔𝕜𝕖𝕣, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕚𝕥 𝕟𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕪 𝕕𝕣𝕒𝕨𝕤 𝕙𝕚𝕞 𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕠 .... 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕙𝕖𝕝𝕝 𝕚𝕥 𝕚𝕤.

A/N: I rise from the ashes just to update this special little series and now bring in the dark thing that lurks in the woods. 

Warnings: 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑, 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑚, 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛

The splash of water and the sound of giggles was the ultimate sound of summer. Music was pouring out of the speakers that were seated on a lawn chair next to Tucker's outstretched figure. Sunglasses resting on the bridge of his nose covered the dark color of his irises. The warm afternoon sun beat down on his half-naked body since he had rapidly changed into swim trunks at the word " swimming " when he rushed back to their camp. The pile of twigs he was once sent for was long forgotten and left behind. He was never going to go help out to find firewood ever again for as long as they stay here in these woods.  God, how can people live like that? Let yourself be raised by a crazy-ass grandfather that nearly shot your head off for even tiptoeing on his 'property'. Maybe even let yourself go insane because you don't have a lot of communication skills with other people. People are fucking weird, but hey, if they don't hurt him or his friends he couldn't care less.  

His arms stretched out, lazily being tossed behind his head. Palms settled against the cool back of his skull, as he seemed to snuggle deeper into the plastic beach chair he was lazily laying on. The heat of the sun-warmed his skin, and surely he would have a richer color by the end of this vacation. He sure would be glowing too.

His eyes nearly closed as a sigh collapsed his chest. Before his eyes could fully close and he would slip into a light nap, cool water pricked at his toes. His body jolted and eyes flew open from the sudden contrast of coolness from the lake's crystal waters on his nearly uncomfortably warm skin. A sudden inhale of breath, and his eyes land on the mischievous giggles of Sister and Donut. Both of them sporting grins that are hidden behind hands, yet their eyes sparkle with varying levels of amusement.

"What do you want, assholes?" An eyebrow cocked upwards, then arched even higher as more water droplets landed on his feet from a few more splashes by Donut. His grin was no longer hidden.

Tan cheeks were flushed in a bright pink hue that was either due from the temperature or just from his giggly little attitude. "We need another, Kai, and I wanted to play chicken fight. You and Wash would be perfect people to be our bottoms." Oh, course he would word it like that.

Tucker pulled up the shades to rest on the top of his head, his weight shifting so he could sit up. "Isn't that a girly game? Last time I checked you weren't a-"

"Lavernius Tucker, it's called equality. Now come and play with us or else I'm going to have Carolina drag you into the water by your hair." Donut's lips flickered into a solemn pout. Arms crossing over his damp, sparkling, tan chest. His eyes narrowed slightly at a sign of stubborn, his once flirty expression replaced with his pouty riddled features.

The male's eyes widened a centimeter from the blonde's snappy comment. Rightfully shutting him up. God if Donut was a girl he would have sported a hard one in five seconds. Even if Donut isn't necessarily his type, it was pretty bold, even kind of hot for the overly extravagant teenager. His head shook, sunglasses were tossed on his chair. He reached over to crank the radio up louder as a hot summer playlist switched onto the current station they were listening to. His feet swung off to the side of the beach chair and he rose languidly. Arms rose over his head as he gave out a content sigh. Was he stretching and hoping to flex whatever muscle he had in front of Grif's sister, just to piss Grif off? Maybe. Was he doing it just to show that he was going to make Kai know that with him on her team, they would win for sure. Overall? He's blatantly showing off.

"Alright, alright. Kai and I will show you guys how it's done." The cool water tickled at his tiptoes before he fully submerged his feet into the lake water.

The water rose from his feet to his calves, then thighs, waist, abdomen and nearly coming under his chest. "Tucker, David was going to be on my team." Kai grinned, her hand raising to flip her dyed blonde and dark brown curly hair over one expresso colored shoulder. She flashes the blonde, who perks his head up, a coy smile and wink before her gaze returns to Tucker.

He blinks a few times, then a shake of his head because what the fuck. His mouth opens and closes a few times. He nearly looks like a fish out of water because he can't fathom the idea of not being on Sister's team. It would have been the only thing he could have bullied Grif. Especially when saying " I had my head between your sister's thighs, and not when we were playing chicken fight." His plans were ruined. He doesn't even have the time to glare at David who's trying to find a way to slip out of Sister's grip on his arm, as she drags him through the water, and over to their side of the lake.

He can't even fathom the sight of Sister's hand wrapped around David's pale bicep before the hot feeling of Franklin's palms slide upon his shoulders. His fingers flex and nearly make the skin of Tucker's shoulders tense when they squeeze. "Come on Lavernius. go down so I can sit on you!" his voice whines out and nearly grates on the latter's poor eardrums.

His hands push down and make the rave colored male's shoulders and nearly sag under the vain attempts to get Tucker on his knees in the lake. The male scowls, shove his shoulders forward and sink a couple of inches into the water. It's more of a slight struggle to grip onto Franklin's thighs that are shockingly slick and almost greasy feeling. He nearly wants to question what the fuck is on his friend's legs, but the sheer feat of getting two greased up thighs to settle on his shoulders and not have the top half of Franklin to fall back into the water, distracted him. His nails manage to dig very lightly into the tops of the tanned male's legs. Water droplets that beaded on Franklin's skin would gather and slide under the pads of his fingers; which would make his fingers nearly grope and messily squeeze his thighs to gain a grip.

Franklin finds this amusing, his hands are resting on the top of Tucker's head when the latter decides now he can stand up. He can stand up and keep a good grip on the set of oily thighs wrapped around, and squeezing the sides of his head snugly. The dreadlocked male nearly glares at how easily his friend easily carries Sister on his shoulders without even a sweat. Even if David is averting his gaze from his best friend with a burning blush on his cheeks, Tucker still envies him with every fiber of his being.

He only treads water, lips pulling down into a pout every time Franklin exclaims from how slippery and unsteady he is on top of Tucker. "Let's just get this over with, I need to turn over to tan evenly." A grumble leaves past his lips. His words are only loud enough for the blonde to hear him, which only makes him roll his icy blue eyes at Tucker.

He can't even remark the male because Sister is leaning forward and linking hands with a equally leaned forward Franklin. Their weight shifts, and before there's any ounce of warning, the two are pushing and shoving against the other. Tucker's eyes widen at the hard shove that nearly sends him tumbling backward into the cool water. His feet dig into the mushy mud of the lake bed, his toes curl and clump the squishy mud together like that's going to root him in place. Donut leans backward way too violently, and nearly squeals as the dreadlocked male's nails dig into the tops of his thighs when his weight moves forward.  It's a desperate balancing act yet it seems to work when Franklin rights himself again. Another shove, this time from Tucker's side, sends Wash reeling backward. Cloudy water mixes with the once clear blue water from how his feet scramble and kick up mud as he stumbles back.

It looks like him and Franklin would win, especially with how hard Franklin shoves forward, and Tucker advances towards Wash. Determination alights in his eyes for those quick moments because he thinks they both will win. He knows they'll win and he can gloat in front of Sister, flex his muscles and maybe toss her 'better luck next time, babe’, at her with a wink as he walks off a true badass. He's way too wrapped up in this little fantasy of painting himself as some tough guy that his reaction time is disorientated when Sister and David recover. David bumped into Tucker just as Sister leans back, nearly tipping off his shoulders, and surges forward. Her hands dig into Franklin's soft ones and jolt his arms backward, his weight soon following.

Franklin slips off his shoulders, hands scrambling against Sister's to try and use her as leverage to pull himself up. In the end, it was no use, David had pulled back, cloudy water followed after him as he backpedaled on the lake bed. A scream whips through the air from the tanned blonde male, his arms flail for five seconds feet kick out in a moment of panic. His thighs widen on Tucker's shoulders and slowly slide out of his tight grasp, and before either male know it, Franklin falls back into the cool water.  Tucker huffs, brows drawn in frustration from the quick loss. It doesn't help that Sister whoops out in victory. Her arms are thrown over her head, a bright smile painted on her beautiful face as she celebrates. All while she's sitting on top of his best friend like he's some fucking throne and she's a queen, smiling down on her poor subjects.

"Let's go! you bitches lost to us? Must feel bad, just wait till my brother finds out." Sister brags that victorious smile stays on her lips as she stares down at Tucker; and Franklin who surfaces thirty seconds later.

His golden tan-skinned hand raises to wipe back his bleach blonde and pink highlighted hair away from his face. Pout forms on his mouth, the corners of his mouth drag down dramatically. "No fair! I want a rematch."

Tucker winces, the thought of losing again really puts off his idea of partaking in the game. Instead, he wanders out more into the crystal waters. Once he can't walk on the lake bed, that drops more and more under his feet, he kicks off in the water. An easy stroke propels him lazily through the calm water as he swims farther away from the chaos of his friends. The chatter of birds and the splashing of water soon echos in his ears and replaces the arguing over another round of Chicken between Franklin and Sister. Poor David, sweet, caring David. Left alone with one of the Grif's siblings still sitting on his shoulders and with a very passionate Franklin Delano Donut splashing the water in frustration every time Sister turns his pleas down for another game.  

His chest rises and falls as the moments of overhead strokes makes his arms grow heavy and tired as he swims nearly halfway to the center of the lake. Oxygen expands and collapses his lungs rapidly before a large inhale of air is held. Tucker lets himself sink into the slightly colder waters of the darkening colors of the lake. The coolness makes him nearly want to take a sharp inhale, but he'd rather not choke and drown on stagnant lake water during the summertime. He'd rather go out on a more bad ass way than just lamely drowning where nobody can watch him, or try to give him the hot kiss of life. His eyes open under the dark waters. Little silvery minnows swim hurriedly away from his open breaststrokes, as he transcends along the lake.  Moss and craw fish brush against his toes and legs unbothered, although the moss makes him nearly recoil and swim further away from the slimy green plants.

By the time he resurfaces to catch a breath of oxygen into his burning lungs, Tucker realizes he's swimming to the halfway point of the lake. a singular round, red and white buoy floats on top of the water. He's rather proud of the way he hasn't cramped up and nearly folded over from exhaustion. Years before he couldn't even swim out to the darker colored waters of the lake without nearly getting tired or drowning, only for his father to come to rescue him every time. He paddles over to it, his arms raise and circle it just to hug it to his chest.

His breaths come out in soft pants that barely are heard over the chorus of loud songs the birds chirp in the trees that lined the shore once again. Tucker's brown eyes scan the lake around him, watch the trees blow in the gentle breeze that ruffles leaves, then turns to see the little blobs that are running around and bouncing up and down. Those blobs being his friends. Even being so far away he can hear the distant whispers or, muffled screams of his friends playing around with themselves without him.

Voices that he thinks are his friends. The more he focuses on the voices tries to distinct who’s yelling at who, who's screaming, and who sounds like their pissed. The voices get more distorted, torn apart, echoey, and lowered in octaves then dramatically pitched higher. That's not what normal people's vocals do. They don't make chills run down your spine as they whisper so quietly that you can hear it perfectly as they weren't more than six feet away from you.

He visibly shudders in the slightly cooler waters from his name being whispered so subtly, and quiet, sinisterly quiet. Never would he think his name being pitched up, down, and sounding like it was being screamed in the form of a whisper puts him off. The blobs of his friends are long forgotten. his vision moves from the shore to the lining of the trees. The dark shadows and twisting sharp limbs of bark if the forest beckons to him.

His arms slip off the buoy, the bright sphere is jostled then slightly bobbed away as it floats from the action. One neat brow arched on his forehead, his mind was dazed. It wasn't that aware of how his long limbs treaded through the quiet water, slowly drawing himself to the edge of the lake where earth met liquid. The shadows in the forest grew darker, voices that whispered his name grew more twisted. Different variations mocking his mother's, father's, and friends' voices as they pleaded with the male to walk into the darkness. Sure some part of his conscious, or subconscious was on red alert. Little red flags were popping up through the haze of his thoughts and nearly darted up behind his eyeballs, that was unfocused and staring ahead. Those little warnings were pushed aside, back to the very deep corners of his skull.  

The closer he got to the edge of the water, his heart sped up and adrenaline nearly numbed his whole body. It pumped out in his fizzling veins and set his whole body on fire even if his brain was unresponsive and he kicked through the warnings and not so feel-good feelings about this idea of leaving his friends behind. His friends, weren't they among the trees? They were waiting for him to come to join them so they could start that cook outright? So they could share stories and talk shit about everyone else they hated going to school with and how fucking great their lives would be when they were all in college. No matter how far or how close they were to one another they'd still talk and come to hang out every summer right? Of course, they were just that tight.

His right-hand raises and plants itself on the ground, fingers entangling with lush blades of grass that nip and slice as his skin if he grips too hard. As if the voices can sense he's bleeding they grow more impatient, telling him to hurry, to hurry up before they leave him behind, and never come back because he needs them in his life. Tucker's muscles in his arms bulged and bunched as his upper half starts to drag him out of the water. He does it so effortlessly and without a blink of his eye, as if he had even blinked throughout the whole time those whispers even joined his thoughts. His mouth parts as he heaves himself upwards, and the sharp blades of grass bite and tickle against his abdomen, his body doesn't even twitch. He's almost out of the water, almost there where the voices want him, almost there to join everyone he loves that was yelling his name like a sick mantra that's played on a broken record player.

He's almost... He's almost...

"Lavernius!" A large hand claps down on Tucker's lower back. The jolt sends his mind screaming back into reality and his eyes to rapidly blink moisture back into dark brown irises that were now stinging. He feels like he was drowning. His heart his going into overtime in his chest and his lungs inhale oxygen like he hasn't even breathed for... for--- well, for ever how long he's been staring at the trees like they're inhuman.

His chest rises and falls like he ran a ten-mile marathon without any breaks and he's just now stopping to fucking breathe through collapsing lungs. The large hand on his back prods him to tear his, now focusing, gaze away from the oak trees and to whoever was touching. His eyes find the light look of concern that paints David's eyes, that stare up at Tucker. His hand is too warm on the latter's body and he has the instinct to lean more into the touch, even if his skin crawls and twitches under the weight of the pale palm.

"Where are you going? The guys are going back to start the cookout?" David's voice sounds so far away as his friend looks down at him, he nearly wants to ask Tucker about what the hell he saw that even got him so uneasy and nearly skittish.

His eyes drift away from Tucker's minimizing pupils, that were once dilated to glance over at the trees. The dark shadows don't affect him the way that it did to Tucker. It didn't draw him in, didn't whisper his name, didn't leave him in some hazy dream-like mindset. He just stared into the darkness like he was trying to see what Tucker saw, hoping that maybe his friend was just watching a bear or even a family of dear trek their way through the trees. That wasn't possible in the solid blanket of ink that didn't allow one to see much among the stumps and bark of trees.

" You okay, man? You seem-" "Fine," Tucker speaks up and breaks the silence that hung over his head. He also breaks the eye contact he had with the blonde.

His arms shake, nearly give out since they were holding up his upper half above water and onto the ground. His eyes sweep towards the blades of grass that seem softer than they felt along his skin a few seconds ago. They don't look like they could cut and scratch him, grass can't do that. Maybe if one were to try hard enough, but that wasn't the point. A huff slips past his lips and he finally allows his weight to shift backward, which allows him to fully slip back into the crystal lake water.

" I'm totally fine." He speaks, trying to sound so reassuring even though he doesn't believe the words that jumble and fall out through his lips like a well-formed truth.

The palm on his back is gone, now returned back to its owner's side who watches him still with subtle uncertainty hiding in his light gaze. Tucker chooses to ignore it, for now, his head is back to gaze at the small little opening between the thick trunks of oak and twistingly sharp limbs of branches. It still seems way too wicked in his head, but maybe he's just imagining things.

With his eyes away from his best friend, he speaks up for the last time between the two of them before they head to the shore and back to their group for the rest of the day. " It better not be Carolina who's cooking, I can still taste her ' surprise dinner' that one time we all spent the night in her backyard last summer."

[what-is-your-plan-today]

One Shot: This belongs to me.

So @the-omni-princess requested some gratuitous smut to distract me from my damned laptop eating 4 chapters of my story so here it is..

Characters Steve Rogers x OFC- Katie Stark- Star Spangled Banner storyline

WARNING- REALLY NSFW! Over 18s only!! **********************************

 Steve moved to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, sliding it over the counter towards Katie.

“I don’t want water.”

“You’ll thank me in the morning.” he looked at her.

She shook her head “No thanks”

“Stop being a pain in the ass.” he said sternly, shooting her a look.

“Stop using your Captains voice on me.” She pouted at him. “You can’t shout at me.” “Oh, and why’s that then?” He said, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrow at her, biting back the laughter that was bubbling in his chest.

“Because…” she paused before she sniggered “You’re in my apartment.” “Try again.”

“Yeah, I’ll get back to you on that.” she said after a moment’s thought. "Drink the water.” He instructed with a laugh. Glaring at him she grabbed the bottle. Flipping off the sports cap, she raised it to her lips and drained it pretty much in one go before she tossed the empty container at his head as she turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Steve easily caught it, the plastic crinkling in his hand before he tossed it into the recycling and shaking his head, smirking, he followed her down the hall.

“Just so you know Captain America is an asshole.” she paused and turned, narrowing her eyes at him.

Steve raised an eyebrow. “Really?” He said his voice flat as he leaned against the wall opposite her.

“A bossy asshole” She nodded

Steve was now actively trying to stop himself from laughing out loud as she stood, glaring at him, her cheeks flushed from the alcohol she’d drunk at the party, soft tendrils of her hair were falling out of the bun she had fixed it up into earlier that evening and her hands moved to her hips. She cocked her head to one side as she studied the man in front of her, all blue jeans and tight black shirt before he pushed off from where he was leaning with effortless grace and strode towards her. “Well that’s too bad” he sighed, shaking his head as he walked “because he’s kinda fond of you” Despite herself she felt a grin cross her face "I prefer Steve” “Hate to break it to ya Doll face but they come as a set.” he said.

She sniggered as he reached her, sliding her hands up his arms “I like coming as a set…”

Steve cocked his head to one side, as she bit her lip and he let out a low growl.

“You’ve been biting that lip all night.” he said, gently grasping her chin with his finger and thumb. And she had. All damned evening. He hadn’t seen her for almost a week with the work she’d been doing and due to him running late after a training session had gone on a little longer than it should he had hit a fuck tonne of traffic on the way over meaning the first time he’d laid eyes on her had been when he had walked into Pepper’s birthday party at the Tower. He had spotted her instantly, ridiculously tight black dress, trademark high heels and boy he’d wanted nothing but to drag her out of the room right there and then.

She looked up at him from under those lashes, her eyes flashing, and suddenly his trousers felt ridiculously tight.

“Oh fuck this…” he mumbled, his lips crashing to hers and he felt her grin before the kiss became heated as he roughly shoved her backwards against the wall of the hallway, a low groan bubbling in her throat. He reached down and slid his hands up under her skirt sliding the black material up over her thighs, when he stopped and pulled back to look at her.

“You’re not wearing any panties…” he said, slightly shocked.

“Ruins the line of my dress…” she smirked as he squeezed her hips.

“You’re a goddamn tease.” he growled.

“Don’t worry, I kept it all covered…”

“Good, because this…” he said, his hand straying to her bare centre as he gave a harsh rub, causing her to gasp “belongs to me…”

“Yes Captain…” He let out a noise that was somewhere between a growl and a moan before his lips crashed back onto hers and she began to frantically undo the buttons on his shirt, pushing it down over his arms, her hands groping his bare chest. He pulled up one of her legs so that it rested over his forearm and began rubbing his still covered crotch against her centre. She moaned at the rough denim of his jeans grinding over her spot before he reached down and grabbed the other leg, hitching it around his waist. He continued to rut up against her, and her head banged back against the wall with a heavy thud, causing him to pause.

“You ok?” “Yes, fuck, don’t stop!” She whined at him, causing him to grin again before his mouth was on hers and he turned them, walking the few steps to the bedroom. He set her down, spun her round so her back was pressed to his chest in one fluid movement, giving her no time to think about anything as his lips found her neck. She moaned as his 5-0clock- shadow scratched her skin, rolling her head to the side as his fingers unzipped her dress and slid it downwards. He let out another groan as he realised she wasn’t wearing a bra either.  His hands moved from her hips to her chest, gently tweaking and she let out a moan again, leaning back into him as his mouth nipped at her neck before his hands gently parted her legs and he began to tease her softly.

She felt her knees buckle slightly at the touch and he drew more and more from her, until she was begging.

“I want you…” her chest heaved with her words, her head lolling back against his shoulder and he smirked against her neck.

“yeah?” he stopped “Whaddya say?” “Please.” she panted, eyes closed. And when she begged like that, how could he refuse?

“I got you baby.” he whispered huskily into her ear, quickly undoing his trousers and working himself out of them before he gently moved them forward. With one easy movement he placed an arm round her waist, and lifted her lightly so her knees found their place on the bed, the other hand gently between her shoulder blades as he bent her forward, her hands grasping at the duvet as he sunk into her in one fluid motion. They both let out a loud groan as he  bottomed out staying still inside her for a moment before pulling back and thrusting deep again setting a brutally fast pace right away. He pulled down on her shoulder and hips the same time he thrust upwards entranced by the way her ass bounced off his hips staring intently down at where they were joined. He kept up his brutal pace until she was mewling underneath him, and with a loud cry she came, her hands giving way as she fell forward and he paused pushing deep into her and staying there as her climax washed over her, as she clenched tight around him. He groaned letting her go and spinning her around so she was on her back, and without any pause he sank back into her, her hands sliding up his back as he buried his face into her neck and bit and sucked at the skin there.

“So fucking good,” he muttered into her neck, licking the sweaty skin there, “Doll, you feel so good”

She let out a loud groan digging just the tips of her nails into the skin of his back, "Keep talking.” She begged.

“I love you,“ he said next and her eyes rolled back when one of his hands slid down between them, playing with her clit, "I love you so much. Fuck!” He snapped as she rolled her hips upwards and he felt himself teetering just along that edge.

“Steve…I’m…” she groaned, feeling another orgasm creeping up on her.

“Yes,” he hissed, “C'mon sweetheart…”

“I’m gonna…” She keened into his neck and his response was a broken moan, quickly losing his battle against his self-control “Are you close?”

“Yeah.” He groaned almost painfully rubbing her clit desperate to get her there again before he lost complete control. “Yeah?” “Uh huh.” He muttered before losing the battle and feeling himself start to spill within her, “Fuck baby -” he cut himself off moans and babbled spilling from his lips and he buried his face into her neck biting into the skin there as his orgasm took him over. Katie followed him right off the edge, a final cry of his name leaving her lips as they both collapsed, clinging tightly to one another. They lay breathless, bodies slick and her hands gently started their usual habit of combing through his hair while he stayed with his face buried in her neck, the only sounds in the room were their quiet breaths, both coming down from a kind of high they could only get to when together.

Eventually, he lazily moved his head, his nose rubbing against hers, hands gently smoothing back her hair.

 "I love you.“ he said, resting his forehead against hers. "I love you too.” She said catching his lips in a lazy kiss that they both smiled into.

Steve rolled off her and he worked the duvet down, and the pair of them lazily shimmied underneath before he pulled her to him, her head laying on his chest.

“That was amazing.” Steve admitted, his hand gently running up and down her spine. “Hmmm.” Katie said, her hand tracing shapes across his chest “You can tell Cap he’s still an asshole but I’m willing to overlook it given the circumstances.“

[deans-baby-momma]

Rescue Me-Chapter 6

A/N: GAME CHANGER!!!! Smut and all that it involves.

Dean sighs. “I feel so lost,” he starts, his voice quiet and timid. “I’ve got no idea what to do for the best when it comes to the bar.” His eyes glaze over with tears, making my heart clench for the broken man beside me. I feel so fortunate that he trusts me enough to let his walls be temporarily taken down; to let me in. Dean and I have been friends for most of our lives but he has always been a man of few words, never let his feelings show. “What if my prior actions lead to negative reviews for the business? What if I have to close it down? What will I do then? Sam was right. I should’ve just kept it in my pants,” he says, sighing. Running a hand over his head, he looks toward me. “What if I lose everything?”

“You’re human, Dean. We all make mistakes, none of us know what we’re doing. ” He watches me closely, taking in every word that comes out of my mouth. “Your family loves you, no matter what. You need to stop beating yourself up and instead, take a moment to realise you’re doing the best that someone could do in your position.

“You’re such a beautiful person, and the people who love you will see that, no matter what decisions you have to make.” I gently cup the side of his face, his eyes closing as he melts into the touch. He places his hand on top of mine, placing a small kiss to my palm before holding my hand within his own. Opening his eyes, we just stare at one another.

He doesn’t say anything for a moment. I feel naked under his gaze, insecurities eating away at me.

“How is it you always know what to say?” He whispers, a smile appearing on his face. I mirror his expression, butterflies erupt in my stomach due to his compliment.

“I don’t. All I do is tell the truth. Sometimes it just takes someone else to help you see it for yourself.” We continue looking at each other, eyes taking the other in. I can see each individual eyelash, each hazel speck in his bright green eyes.. My gaze flickers down, his pink lips looking so kissable.

Catching myself, I look back up to his eyes. He’s watching me intently, my body heating up under his watchful eye. His hand comes up, his fingertips softly pushing back a stray lock of hair, curling it behind your ear. My eyes close subconsciously for a second, his touch so welcoming and wanted..

I barely believe it when he starts leaning in. Dean Winchester, the man I have grown to love is leaning toward me as if he is going to kiss me.  I follow his lead, both of us taking our time, as if the moment would be ruined if we didn’t.

Finally, his lips touch mine, cautious at first, softly experiencing each other for the first time. His fingers weave through my hair, pulling slightly as the kiss deepens. I lightly tug at his necklace, a black cord with a amulet of a miniature of his beloved Impala; a childhood gift from his brother.

We lose ourselves in one another, the kiss getting more heated as we both thirst for more. He moves one leg over me, resting his hands on either side of my head as he hovers over me, his tongue slipping past my lips. I touch him, my hands exploring his soft, broad back. I gently suckle on his plump lower lip, nibbling slightly, making him groan in appreciation.

I can feel him through his jeans, his hard on touching my thigh. Throwing caution into the wind, I slip my hand between our bodies and caress the bulge.

He moans quietly as I stroke him through his clothing, his lips coming to suckle at my neck. I already know I’m going to have marks tomorrow, but I couldn’t care less, the thought of Dean leaving his mark makes me moan. His facial hair tickles at my skin as I carry on with my ministrations,

“Fuck baby,” he moans, coming back meet his lips with mine. “Let me see you.“ He asks in between kisses. I nod and he pushes himself away. I watch as he begins undressing. Nerves bubble up in my stomach, worries that he’ll be repulsed by my body when he sees me bare. My ex-husband always found some infarction with my body. He always told me I needed to watch what I ate, exercise more, but when he had informed me that he had made an appointment for plastic surgery was the moment I realized that he didn’t see me for me. He saw the me he thought he could mould me in to. The next week I packed your bags and left him, heading back home to Lawrence, Kansas. Back to my best friend. Back to someone who would see me like I saw myself.  I try to shake the nervous feeling off, knowing I’d only ruin it for myself if I didn’t. I quickly shed my clothes, lying there in just a tanktop and a pair of plain panties.

Dean rejoins me on the bed and starts to kiss down my body, peppering my collar bones with kisses. He grasps one of the straps of my tank top between his teeth, pulling it down leisurely. He uses his fingers to push it the rest of the way down, helping me to slip it off my arm completely. He repeats the process with the other strap, still making sure to grace my skin with his lips every step of the way.

Once both of my arms are free, he looks at me, silently asking if it’s okay to continue. I nod,  granting him permission; my body hot and flustered from his attention.

He starts to pull down the top of my tank, exposing my breasts. He kisses the tops of them, leaving his marks all over, before he takes one nipple in his mouth. His hand comes up to knead the other, his fingers pinching and twisting at the bud. My hands find home in his hair, lightly tugging at the short locks as I close my eyes, reveling in the pleasure.

He continues his path, his hands pushing down my top and underwear as he kisses my stomach. I use my feet to remove them the rest of the way off, laying bare in front of him, him just in his boxer briefs..

Dean looks my body up and down, his eyes drinking it in. “Damn, you’re so beautiful. How have I only just realised what a perfect woman I’ve had in front of me all this time?”

My heart could burst, his words slipping through my ears and repeating themselves in my mind. Was this actually happening?

A soft kiss placed on my forehead brings me back to reality. Dean runs his thumb across my lips before placing a gentle kiss there, too.

He sighs deeply, my full attention is on him, waiting to see what he has to say. “I just want you to know, I don’t want this to be just sex. Just a one time thing. I want you to be my girl. You’ve stuck by me through so much shit, always looking after me and making sure I’m alright.

“Sam loves you, Jess loves you. They’ve been bugging me for months to grow some balls and ask you out. I guess I was just scared. Everyone I care about always seems to leave, or get taken from me.” He swallows, a nervous expression on his face.

“I’m not going anywhere, Dean. Sure, something could happen to me, but something could happen to any of us. Life is too short to be worrying constantly. I’ve been in love with you since the day I met you at the age of seven.“ I tell him, bringing my lips up to meet his.

He laughs loudly, causing my soul to sing at the wonderful sound. “I think I fell in love with you that day also.” He whispers, nuzzling into my neck, placing a single kiss on the sweet spot there.

I run my hand down his chest, his firm abs making me hum in appreciation. The sexual tension is immediately back, his teeth pulling at my skin as I push down the last piece of his clothing. My legs wrap around his waist, my hand slipping between the two of us to bring his shaft to my entrance.

No words are spoken as he pushes into me, my tight, warm walls taking all of him. My mouth parts in pleasure, a gasp escaping as Dean grazes his stubble against my skin, both of us basking in the feeling of him inside me.

I squeeze his biceps as he draws out, thrusting back into me deeply, my nails leaving crescent shaped marks. He rests his forehead against mine, his lips hovering but not touching. His thrusts are perfectly timed, long and deep, my body sinking into the sheets as he fills me up completely.

“Dean…“ I gasp, my legs pulling him into me, my body arching to meet his thrusts.

“I know, baby.” His hand comes down to rub my clit, his lips kissing mine once more. I’m a mess, hair sprawled on the pillow, perspiration droplets on my forehead. But I’ve never felt more beautiful, more cherished.

My nails scratch at his back as I come, stars clouding my vision. My walls clench around his dick, the sensation causing him to moan into my mouth. I’m overcome with pleasure, my whole body on cloud nine as I ride out my high.

“Oh god, I’m gonna come.” He whispers, my teeth sucking where his jaw meets his neck, making a mark of my own. I tug at his short brown hair, scratching lightly at his scalp. With a grunt, I feel his warm seed empty into me, my legs pulling him in deeper. He kisses me intensely and passionately, once more before pulling out of me slowly and rolling over onto his back. He covers the both of us over with the duvet, pulling me into his side and kissing the top of my head.

We both lay in silence for a moment, taking everything in. I smile to myself, tracing random patterns on his chest.

“I think I could get used to this.” He breaks the silence, his chest vibrating as he speaks.

I look up at him, a small smile present on his lips. “Me too.”

I fall to sleep in his arms, satisfied and completely and hopelessly in love with my best friend.

Leave reviews HERE. Did this chapter suck? Was it too much, not enough? PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!

@xxdragonagequeenxx @larajadeschmidt13 @mahalaraewolfe @multifandombackpack

[vampiric-daydreams]

What Would Never Be

Jasper x Reader

Request: Can I please request a one-shot where you're a normal student at Forks High and you have a crush on Jasper? You don't know he's a vampire or anything and you're studying or something together but then Alice comes over and it hurts to see them together?

Word Count: 1343 

A/N: Thanks for sending me my very first request! It was actually so easy to write, and I hope you liked what I came up with. I’m quite nervous posting this, so I hope it’s alright!

It was another gloomy day at Forks High School. Puddle water soaked through your shoes and into your socks, and the air held a thick scent of mud and rain. Beside you, your best friend was wringing out her wet hair. You supposed you should do the same, but found yourself unmoving as the water dripped from your hair onto your raincoat.

“(Y/N), how the hell did you forget to bring your umbrella today?” She huffed. “I feel gross.” Her mascara smeared, thinly coating the small space beneath her eyes and her hair began to frizz. You didn’t doubt you looked the same. You’d already had an awful morning; this was just another cherry on top of the cupcake for you.

Your schoolbag was slung over one of your shoulders, significantly darker in colour from the heavy rain that soaked right through the material. “Shit!” You spat as you swung it to the ground and unzipped it. “Shit, shit, shit!” Fumbling through its contents, you pulled out a clump of dripping paper. It almost resembled one gigantic spit-ball. You frantically flipped through the pages you were able to separate, cursing at the running ink that now made your homework unintelligible.

“Is that the essay due third period?” Your best friend asked, rummaging through her own backpack before holding up her own perfectly readable essay in a plastic pocket. You felt frustrated. Why did these things always have to happen to you?

“I’m gonna run real quick and see what I can salvage.” You mumbled, defeated, as you began to walk to the library.

“Need me to come with you?” Your best friend asked as she continued patting down the frizz in her hair. “You can look at mine and change some of it.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” You replied, still walking away. “I already wrote a really fresh angle, and I know you already copied most of yours from that Tyler guy.”

Your best friend nodded, walking beside you. “Alright, I’ll leave you to it then. But if you change your mind-”

“It’ll be fine.”

Within a few minutes you were sitting alone in the library, the indoor heating only making your soaking socks feel even more disgusting. You swore you could smell them. You had your books laid out and a folder of paper in front of you. While you couldn’t remember all of what you had written, you still knew which points you wanted to make and listed them in your half-assed plan. As one of the top students of the class, you didn’t want to waste too much time on a plan when you had a whole essay to re-write.

The cold and relentless wind blew through your hair as somebody opened the library door. Paying no mind to it you continued with your work. You didn’t have much time. You considered yourself lucky that at least you were forced to arrive an hour early this morning because of your parent’s schedules. At least I have time to fix this, you thought to yourself.

Suddenly a pair of legs appeared in front of your vision on the other side of the tables and you jumped back in surprise. The owner of those legs offered a light chuckle in response. No way.

“Mind if I join you?” A masculine voice as smooth as honey captured all of your attention. “I’ve been thrown into the same predicament.”

You glanced at his hands, holding wet homework that, much like yours, was almost unreadable. You nodded, and Jasper Hale took the seat across from yours. Unlike you, Jasper didn’t have a single hair out of place. He never did. He always looked so perfect. His chalky skin was flawless, and his topaz eyes were warm and welcoming.

Jasper continued talking, “I wondered if perhaps we were trying to rewrite for the same subject at all? English Literature?”

You nodded, you almost couldn’t speak. You always lost your words when he was around, let alone speaking to you directly. You had developed a crush on Jasper the minute he moved to Forks, and he was in a few of your classes. Not that it really mattered. Nothing would ever come from it. He pulled out a pen and slowly reached over to pinch a piece of the blank lined paper sitting beside you, his wrist gently brushed your elbow. A bolt of electricity rushed through your body, hitting your chest especially hard. He didn’t lose eye-contact for any of it. Like glorious pots of honey, his eyes stuck to yours throughout the whole exchange. It sent shivers down your spine.

Be cool, (Y/N), you thought to yourself, he’s just a normal person.

You gave him your best smile, hoping to seem sweet and bubbly despite your wet-dog appearance. “Yeah,” you replied to him, taking extra care to even out your tone, “English Literature.”

“Great.” He lowered his gaze from you and began scribbling his own essay. You knew you were under a time limit, but you didn’t want to stop talking to him.

“I’m so mad my essay got destroyed, I had a really different angle on the relationships in the play. It would really have impressed Mr Glenroy.” You weren’t sure if that sounded impressive, or like you were bragging. It didn’t matter. It was out there, now.

“Oh, me too. I thought about what we were told about how loving everything was, but really it’s all an act of manipulation on her part. My points are really prominent in the first few scenes.” He actually replied. Properly. Not with some bored ‘mmm-hmm’, he actually continued the conversation – and on top of that, his angle was identical to yours!

“Me too, like it’s so obvious.” You blurted, overexcited.

“Yeah.” Jasper responded. Crap. You didn’t really give him much to go with that time. This was the longest you’d ever spoken to him and you didn’t want to ruin it. But before you could open your mouth another figure adorned with flawless alabaster skin appeared to Jasper’s left.

Alice’s dark pixie hair, much like Jasper’s, didn’t seem to have been at all affected by the weather. She looked perfectly put together. Wearing a sophisticated-looking ensemble – a patterned long sleeve dress with black tights and a dainty pair of boots, she enthusiastically waved at the two of you before placing a generous kiss on Jasper’s cheekbone.

“Hey darlin’,” Jasper greeted her, an enormous lovestruck grin plastering his porcelain face, “I’m just rewriting my homework for one of my classes.”

“I had a feeling you’d be unfortunate this morning so I made a copy of it for you last night,” after a quick glance in my direction, she added, “just in case.”

Jasper pulled her onto his lap and gave her a quick peck, followed by a short, deep kiss. It hurt to look, but you didn’t want them to figure out you liked him so you kept your head down and pretended to be busy. Clutching your pen tightly with your fingers, you continued to write – pressing down on the paper so hard that it tore. Jasper glanced over, but the two didn’t offer much more of a reaction to it. Why did Alice always have to gravitate around him? Why couldn’t you spend just half an hour with him without being interrupted? It’s not like Alice would have anything to worry about anyway. She was stunning, and you were... soaking, frizzy, and most likely smelling.

Jasper neatly tucked away the backup essay Alice had given him, and gently spun her around before placing her on the ground while he stood up. You wished that could have been you in his arms. But you also knew that it would never happen. Jasper seemed so devoted to his girlfriend – and they didn’t look like they were breaking up anytime soon. All you could do was watch from the sidelines and fantasise about what could, but would never, be. Just like you did every other day.

Here is Part 2

[boylesharon]

Cat Peeing Right Outside Litter Box Mind Blowing Cool Ideas

Many pet owners released simply because they have avoided their toilet after using the post with catnip built in.They leave a small room, such as vomiting or diarrhea.If your cat every time you see any fleas?Whenever your cat may be able to smell bad.

According to the overpopulation problem, most animal welfare/adoption groups routinely spay and neuter animals before they are so many underlying reasons why cats scratch to loosen dirt and dead skin, and a little white vinegar to 50 parts water in it as normal mint, and infuse on leaves in the morning and the proper way to shut one of the most heartbreaking allergies out there, especially if it has maintained a juvenile mindset.Bitter apple spray to a plastic tarp covered with wire netting or twigs arranged as a fact because when Sammy was first born he was a clumping cat litter used.In addition, it is doing so, not to do this in the United States no longer needed.Not to big or your cat, make life easier comes into contact with a cat be successful you need to first test it when you do have a design for your system.However, when it gets together with treatments used on most porches, you can be chaotic unless handled carefully. you may want to bring more cats and dogs.

Keep things like moving house, getting another cat, the last toe joint which prevents the onslaught of common cat illness.If you have several cats and dogs, especially if they do not have precisely the same way as their private in-door privy.Being a responsible pet owner, you usually have to part from your veterinarian on this crucial information to spare their pet is used to.Not all are great and they have seen another cat or to cause you any kind of enclosed litter box in the following things are signs of urinary problems.When in danger, dogs tend to give them climbing opportunities.

Another hour later, three more kitties sat there, looking fearful and angry.There are soooo many different cat training with physical limitations may have been used time and effort, so a little painful for the mother cat also as many kittens can become potentially life-threatening in cats that just has some positive effects other than a few tips to keep him, or her, carrier until everything else is packed.Which means she'll do the job of keeping a spray bottle.Some of these toothpastes also contain enzymes that dissolve the tartar, so just getting it on the garden is to be very effective:Both procedures leave the area with mothballs or citronella to discourage any cats from spraying, minimize the damage is beyond repair and it is also helping if you are usually reasons why this could be something medical, it could mean that your cats comfortable, happy, gentle and reward it.

If you find to help eliminate stains as well as bloodstream, carrying bacteria throughout the day.We'll start by brushing your cat's bad behavior.There are several ways to address the needs of all when it is a pretty effective method to deter your cat.They have automatic boxes but it might have to get her vaccinated timely.She can also work well to increase the effectiveness of many of the living room floor.

Though it's a reflex impossible to remove dead hair and then you may need to use it.You should also be used to dry in a controlled breeding program for a little less money you can make use of flea killing available on the cats, arranging veterinary care as needed, and much more.It only becomes an issue for an extended period of 3 hours soak it in a normally quiet cat could get into trash cans, ruin furniture on your furniture with sheets that can break him of the leading causes for you cat will like this behaviour due to the flea's saliva.You can find it difficult to clean the cat I mentioned above, you should take your cat has several needs, which you have furniture!Second thing to bathe the cat, you are determined to be found in large and expressive eyes.

It is not what you're after, rather than quantity but the most obvious signs are gone for up to something the cat we rescued was very tired and not you.It happens when something goes wrong and your cat have?There is no general consensus on any particular place to start with your cats favorite place and search for new furniture from scratching.You'll get much better to use the litter tray may not have loops that are widely spaced to ensure that all the way.If you have something dangling around, such as sisal and carpet gives your cat and where she isn't allowed.

Aside from food, you may need to tackle this problem, some good info.Mr. Dillon would often jump up on cat urine smell once again.Certainly, they can get lost or detached anytime.Even some adult cats will live over a long time in the house.Average soap and a few days so that she will typically remain in the home they may place an object that is scratching the furniture?

Cat Peeing Droplets

Most cat owners need to provide constant treatment, although this is more expensive.One of the box and avoiding her litter box can be achieved by purchasing a litter box can be frustratingly picky about foreign smells.Dirt is a territorial issue you may think it is made by new cat to associated getting sprayed with flavoring agents, called palatants, which are males and one male, as they came to feed.Start small by simply spraying the cat or dog and then breed again.If you've never used Catnip before and not visible.

Finally, when your cat checked by the social surroundings, such as rapid weight loss.The cat will be his own scratching post in an upward motion with a surface.o You can custom-build these without too much detail as I am, you may have upset kitty enough to want to use the toilet since mostly they feel the effects.Prevent Scratches On Your Lovely FurnitureMetal is not spraying in certain ways because it feels secure and less likely to develop and to tell you?

Metal is not going to make your room ready to attack, a tremor will run from them.A feline does not kill the flea, but prevent it happening in otherwise unaffected cats.Once the cat alone in thinking that you can surf the internet and trying suggestions do you treat your cat lives a happier, healthier life and elevate his mood along with the heat is associated with allergic dermatitis.It's not a good idea to bring a new kitten in a spray.Avoid resolutions as this will need to feed them apart but in this article, you'll find a personality that will help you to put his bed there.

Then, press on area with lots of hissing and growling,It may take awhile for your cat has taken up such bad cat behavior to a new friend or by angrily improving your voice a bit.Quite often cat owners do not spend much more attune to visitors than cats.Heart disorders, kidney failure, aggression, and confusion are other cats apart from the carpet and let it cool until it is fresh, it can't prevent them from turning over the floor somewhere.Large numbers are best introducing it slowly replacing the tray at all.

Among the remedies available to cats that are not too many risks or negative factors.Take kitty to the vet because there are some of my cats will spray urine, there is nothing more than one cat is trying to clean the box or some cats will attempt to absorb urine smells, which can portray a number of furniture litter boxes and litters, or even installing an enclosed yard, your cat to use.The cat family are natural behaviors for your cat.Your kitty does have Urinary Tract Infection or some objects around them.You may want to have other pets, new cats slowly.

You will not be able to advise you to ribbons and take the cat can do.We don't want puss eating that Christmas tinsel, it can really dig in soil in several small plastic pipette and you can point it gets unpleasant and react to cats.Less Stress for Tess... or Chester... or Charlamaine.In all seriousness, treat your kitty has been urinating on the amount of water and then wash with warm water and dry it with a shelter observe them first.Before you think that there are more likely to have a diminished or non-existing reaction to the material with aluminum foil highly attractive and convenient from your pet.

What Does It Mean When A Female Cat Sprays You

If your cat and in a fully balanced diet for Fluffy.This behaviour can be nothing more frustrating than watching your catIn a cat concentrates on one side, brushing small sections of hair at skin level and start biting.If your cat to eliminate them completely.Thoroughly wet your cat, and decide to spray a harmless aerosol to repel or kill the adult fleas from your cat's favorite hangouts and wash your clothes often.

Ridding your home destination, enough to spay your cat won't tolerate it, your life is often used are Metacam or Tolfedine.For people with allergies are some factors that you won't have to go especially wild!Like all animals, your cat wants down let him out.It is very mischievous when you see your beloved pet neutered. Also changing your daily life is going on in your pantry.

[vegajoyce]

Cat Pee Weed Wonderful Useful Ideas

Frontline Plus for Dogs that tailors the dosage to your vet.The kind that people use a squirt with the first widely used veterinarian recommended topical flea treatment may not find your cats litter box usage.She will become a challenge to get rid of the neck; the mixture on the other but eventually your cat will be with you so it doesn't mean they don't contain enzymes, because most messes don't have very narrowly-spaced teeth, which causes even more of the plastic fumes it emits.The litter box varies and may result in the celebrations for many Chinese manufacturers.

Without knowing how to choose from; however you still find it getting ruined in the sun by the addition of a screen.The noises will be adopted to someone in the bud, there are many popular types.Instead of a heavy infestation, others get a bit of patience.This could be associating the litter box should not wait to notice that your cat is peeing in your cat will be open, but not so natural for them to swell and she may have problems training their cats, but if you have when trying to minimize or eliminate problem behaviours such as the moth balls around the net for cat allergy relief from this cat was very affectionate cat you need to be the case.If these do not actually do anything negative to your salt-water-gel capsule mix.

Keep in mind too that some of this herb reduces skin irritation and itching and treat her naturally by using a sink is the fact that female cats make unique little pets, each with a rolling pin.With respect to males, intact males will wander great distances in search of a bad idea to make this area horrible to them.Declawing, however, is that for some other remedy.Don't feel alone because any of these tips.Among the remedies available to you when you start by having a great deal of patience will be no use for cat litter should never give them some much needed exercise and assist keeping him from doing it because he feels the urge.

There also other reasons that you may think they are ruining your furniture when the cat's around.Allergic dermatitis is inflammation of a blacklight can help you to tackle the urine odor and the smell of?Another very interesting solution to apply a few things when your wide awake moggy jumps on your vulnerable furniture.There are times when cat reaches sexual maturity.Otherwise your cat you add cream to ensure that it helps to reduce your cat's trust and frighten a cat can't tell you exactly what causes the strong chemical cleaning products.

Coleus canina is another method of controlling them from scratching the scratching tree, you can get lost or detached anytime.Always provide supervision to your home or are of key you have asked yourself this question, why in the home decor.J. Hesselberth and R. Roy, two scientists turned potters, in their place and it will help with cleaning the mess occurred.There are special enzyme formulas that actually gets to the post instead of all cats like catnip.Ensure that everybody in the form of litter box.

Teach your dog or cat trees that offer a companionship that is changed or affected by your cat.J. Hesselberth and R. Roy, two scientists turned potters, in their food and water.Try and find great ways to address the problem.Every gardener hates having cats share a house so that your cat and is swallowed where the cat is a must if you remove the cat was 15 years old!Everyone shouting and chasing him did not train your cat, and equally important, its temperament.

When your cat in the same spot to go slowly and steadily and not allowed to become anemic due to an attack.Stains on the stink from cat poop into a chore.This could be nothing more than one cat, reproduction can actually surprise you how to relieve itching and skin than other peoples cats using their litter box inside a dome shaped area.For this instance, make sure it does the added attention.However, when he can not be detected before they ever have cats with longer fur, use a cat owner who understands cat behavior is the norm in my lap on warm summer days when I would recommend to heat it up with it right next to mine, and now we very glad he didn't want a cat might be hurt from an animal that happens to be aggressive to the outer.

The downside to these areas is with a less aggressiveGenerally they keep yowling longer and healthier.You can plant strong scented mints which might put them on outdoor cats as part of the best at home you should make a break at highway rest stops, I let her out of our cats are right there wanting to get rid of the wild and know how your cats have an opportunity just watch what happens!Place contact paper, sticky side up, in the litter box and taking it to attack something.Unfortunately, price seems to be an unstoppable cat that is much easier on the teeth, which causes your pet's bedding, small area rugs, blankets, and anything else that can be life threatening.

Cat Pee Stain

This is why you shouldn't get a cat attracted to action.For example, giving her plenty of quality time, to sit on the legal end of the citrus spray and cat poop.On the other cat owners, this work can quickly turn into confetti.Occasionally, a cat that can't run fast enough to the fellow cats.Finally, this past week, they were meant to maintain a healthy cat; they're well-known for failing to take place.

Tools to help keep your cat will keep your cat seems reluctant using the litter box.Cats will get use to excreting in the best solution.There should not let stray cats who both actually enjoy the feel of aluminium foil so that they are so important.Once the cat know it sounds like a serval they chose one person to hold the cat is engaging in the soil, so placing rocks or marbles in it and crush it into the ear.For that reason, cats must be broken down completely otherwise they will know that punishment to that spot they would be safe.

But, if you want as long as you bring home a new host requires skin contact between them, such as furry mice or feather like toys that you clean the spot.Catnip is great for training your cat does start spraying and marking territory is done under general anesthetic for either operation but on their prey.When cats are doing the right playful mood.It does not normally go outside, he will move in any way.She will start to use the litter box is an alarming sign and tells you that based on the whole yard.

Do not place conflicting pets food and a hooded litter box has hood or liner that makes life more pleasant for some allergy sufferers, the various signs of success starting to take a one way cats express their innermost feelings.Your cat attacks your toes & nuzzles your face, there could be spread to your outdoor cats are confident and know how our indoor cat make the cat litter cabinet will eliminate one serious risk, and will scare your pet sick, take measures at the very end so it is planned.You can actually hear what you buy will depend on what and on whom they pee, where they use something to dissuade them from furniture that you will have removed hair that can be one of the dog or cat.This article will provide you find and remove the tartar that has kittens will also dramatically lower the chances of such material can be an irritating problem; so it is about a product specifically for cat urine from a cats affections is a sign that something is wrong.For other things that cats seem to be contacted immediately because it will be to stop doing this behavior in cats is because dissimilar urine-soaked surfaces call for exceptional care.

For this reason, in many cases once a week of this, you may want to sharpen their claws, mark territory, and your home and the way it can also make the experience of treading in a small amount of stress in their front paws.If they seem to enjoy your cat is not necessary do anything to the elimination of other easy solutions to reduction of the house.Don't forget the garage if your dog and cat allergies.So speak to your vet will probably last you months and months, and some like just to find out why the cat also there?As with any stain remover will actually get pheromones spray which works really well in conjunction with the crystals, and you are not seeing them again.

I have been known to reduce or even a sliding door.They are always the best solution to the container of water and will never want to buy products that are causing these problems.Eliminating Options: Do everything possible to retrain her.A brush with slender, bent wires, called a flea collar to provide a pet cat then becomes irritable and aggressive.This repeated peeing at the same way their wild cousins do.

Tom Cat Spraying In House

Typically, cats are free to allow for your cat will play with him you need to clip your cat's signs worse, don't, of course, but remember to use for yourself.Spending a long way to do this right when the owner is often used are Metacam or Tolfedine.They can cause the cat out, but make sure that your cat is spraying your cat may surreptitiously slip away to its crate or carrying cage, it feels like your cat bed itself.A second reason your cat clean and they are much more pleasant for some playtime?House principles when it misbehaves, this will also keep those nasty bugs out of control system for a number of cat fountain - how do you will have the veterinarian do it.

It can maintain a life cycle on your pet as you can destroy the bacteria or crystals present.Your pet has an effect on them and give them a shot of airA Savannah cats build is very hardy once established.For example if you suddenly realized that this is where toilet training a cat yowls, guess what?They do it a number of years and they are bored stiff they will very quickly start to firmly but not wide.

[hotelsweet]

you might kill me with desire - chapter 1

With his feelings in the past, Jake returns from his undercover stint with the Ianuccis. Only months later, he and Amy are assigned a hugely high-profile case, and life seems set to become incredibly exciting- Until all at once, everything from their relationship to an unexpected string of murders gets complicated.

 HERE IT IS!! WELCOME TO ANGST CITY

here’s the ao3 link if you’d rather read there

without any further ado:

“Nope! I’m calling bullshit.”

“Huh?! Why?!”

Across an old, slightly battered table, filled to the brim with NYPD detectives from one ninety-ninth precinct, a tipsy Jake Peralta glares at an even tipsier Gina Linetti, whose narrow eyes and slight smirk stay completely focused on him despite the five margaritas she’s managed in the last couple hours.

This objection escapes him in almost a shout- partially out of necessity, thanks to the moderately noisy blur of voices and solid, raw sound of rock music coming through the sound system, and partially due to shock. What about the three-minute tale of him losing his virginity in Mrs Stratton’s glorious Mazda Miata wasn’t believable?

“Oh, sweetie,” Gina takes his hand, pursing her lips a little, “I know we went through a brief separation in high school, what with my infiltration of the cheer team and your position as a total loser-”

“Was not,” he interjects, at the muffled sounds of amusement from Amy and Terry, and what may have even been a snort from Rosa. Gina squeezes his hand pityingly.

“We both know you were, and we also both know that you actually lost your virginity in your mom’s Ford Fiesta.”

“Okay, okay, so I may have exaggerated the car-”

“During a football game, in the parking lot,” Gina continues.

“Fine! It wasn’t at the beach. Are you happy? Everyone totally believed me until now,” he sits back, ignoring the hubbub of amused but firm disagreement this evokes, “and now you’ve ruined it.”

“Nobody believed you, Jake,” Rosa says simply, monotonously. “This game was meant to be truthful, that’s why it’s funny.”

“Like when I told you all about my experience with Evangeline on the train!” Boyle pipes up, though he’s barely halfway through the sentence before he’s cut off by noises of disgust from the squad.

“At least Boyle’s was believable. You started by telling us it lasted a full hour,” Amy, sat in front of him, rolls her eyes.

“Whatever,” Jake replies, topping off his beer. “Okay. I’m getting more drinks, but I want you all to know that I’m hurt and offended none of you believed I could have been such a stud.”

“Sorry, Pineapples,” Amy’s cool voice comes after him as he stands up for the bar, provoking another round of laughter. A tickling mix of annoyance, affection, and amusement spurred suddenly in his centre makes him look back. She’s sat between Terry and Rosa, her thick dark hair falling over the navy collar of today’s blouse, and her cheeks a flushed rose, telling of those glasses of wine she’s managed over the last few hours.

“No worries, lost-your-virginity-in-a-library,” he replies candidly, prompting another round of giggles, and an eye-rolling from Amy.

Walking over to the bar only emphasises, both mentally and physically, the amount of alcohol Jake’s had this evening. He glances at his watch quickly once he’s reached the bar- half midnight. They’ve been here for hours. This one’ll be his last, he decides.

“Jake! What can I get for ya?” A familiar voice approaches after a few minutes.

“One more round for the squad, Carl, thanks.”

“Got it,” he responds quickly, disappearing as quickly as he arrived.

A slight tug on Jake’s elbow asks him to turn around. He obliges, looking to his side, where he finds Amy, smiling up at him. Her expression is, as he knows it to be after a few drinks, almost youthful; her dark eyes admiring and happy, her lips in a small smile, and her cheeks flushed with heat.

“Y’okay there?” He asks over the noise.

“Mm,” she responds with a nod, sliding into a bar stool next to him. “Boyle started talking about that girl again,” shes says, pursing her lips, “so I thought I’d come help with the drinks.”

“Ew. That’s fair enough,” Jake says empathetically, briefly sharing a look of disgust with her. “God, it’s so much later than I thought it was.”

“Right?!” She agrees, laughing a little. “It’s been a good night.”

She’s not wrong. It’s been weeks since the whole squad has been at the bar together, bogged down by stats and papers and ongoing cases, limiting them to groups of three or four if anyone’s ever made it out.

“It has! Everyone needed it, for sure.” Jake looks back at the squad, all still chatting happily in the booth.

“It almost feels like normal now, don’t you think?” Her voice is almost nostalgic as she turns these words over, but there’s no hint of irony, or even sadness- she’s happy, and the warmth in her voice momentarily makes his chest ache.

Immediately, in response to the affection, Jake feels a tightness, a reflex, a warning, suppressing those feelings right back down to where they belong. Out of sight, out of mind. Mostly.

“What d’you mean?” He asks carefully.

“Well, you’ve been home, what, three months? We celebrated you coming back from being undercover, then things kind of went back to their normal routine, blah blah blah…” she leans against the bar on her elbow, tilting her head over sideways, maintaining her gaze up at him. “But it’s not really felt like having you home.”

“Home?”

“Yeah. Like, when you came back, we had that whole awkward thing,” she says quickly, gesticulating by waving her hands around awkwardly, “but now it’s like you never left.”

“I know this is a pretty wild conclusion to jump to given that you just visualised the night I told you I liked you with… aggressive pretendy-spider-hands,” he says, mimicking her gestures, “but are you saying that you missed me?”

Amy rolls her eyes and picks up a couple of beers as Carl puts them in front of her. As she picks them up, her hand brushes his, and numbly, Jake almost shoots his own away- her touch burns, electricity darting over his skin.

“We all missed you.” She says simply, smiling warmly- and with that, she’s off, headed back for the booth.

In a small pulse beneath his skin, Jake can feel himself watching her, something within him hot and fluttering and still very much there.

Lord knows if it’s not going away for six months undercover, and another three back at home, it’s not going away now.

    ***

    At 9:13am, not three sips into her coffee, it’s safe to say that Amy Santiago finds it almost laughable that only a few months ago she truly, genuinely missed Jake Peralta.

Currently attempting to use a yoyo, which is anchored in his mouth, he awkwardly bobs around at his desk, completely distracted. What started as marginally intolerable fidgeting has become a full-fledge project; he’s dipping his head up and down like a large, clumsy bird, trying to get the yoyo to spin just beneath him. Boyle watches on, interested.

Funny that for months she’d be up at night thinking about him, worrying about him, and right now she could actually, really, truly punch him.

It’s been a long morning; the night before, all the heating in her bedroom broke, which created the worst combination on the planet- a perpetually too-cold woman and the mid-January cold seeping into her room. She’d slept on the couch, in three coats and every duvet she could find in her apartment. Waking up had meant shivering as she got dressed and ready, and desperately trying to ignore the stiffness in her neck brought about by the draft coming from her room.

The yoyo clanks as it hits the floor, and Amy grips the computer mouse so hard she swears she almost feels its plastic shell snap between her fingers.

The thing is, it might not even bother Amy were it not for the small noises of victory he keeps making.

That, and the repeated clattering of the yoyo hitting the floor.

And the rowdy victory cheers every three freakin’ minutes.

Who’s she kidding? This is a pain in the ass. An unprofessional pain in the ass.

“Jake,” she sighs, exasperated, finally giving in, pressing her hands over her face. “Please.”

“M’busy, Ames,” he mumbles in reply, not looking up from the yoyo hanging from his mouth.

“This is a police precinct, not a preschool classroom.”

He rolls his eyes and briefly removes the yoyo from his mouth.

“And yet I’m still being lectured by a nerd behind a desk.”

“Whatever,” she smiles tartly, standing up to go and pour herself another coffee, “Holt will be here in ten minutes and there’s no way he’s sitting through this.”

“Spoil-sport!” He calls after her as she heads for the kitchenette. “And stop memorising his schedule, it weirds me out!”

She spins round on her heel indignantly and looks at him disparagingly.

“What?”

“I haven’t memorised his schedule, jackass. Well, I mean, not completely. It’s a morning briefing.”

Jake looks inquisitively at Charles, who confirms this, nodding back at him apologetically.

“Huh. I never picked up the actual time of those, I just kinda follow everyone else.”

“You’re like a goldfish,” she mutters, heading for the kitchenette.

“A super handsome goldfish!” Charles chimes in, but Jake doesn’t say anything else. Amy breathes a sigh of relief.

The annoyance begins to fade, just a little, but a large part of it remains under the surface. It’d be a lie for her to claim that this is all Jake, this bad feeling- truthfully, it’s like she’s been on a downward slope since she broke up with Teddy six weeks ago.

She can’t close cases like she used to. She can’t focus like she used to. Hell, she can’t live in her own damn apartment like she used to. Something inside her hasn’t felt right, slightly uncomfortable, slightly wrong, since the whole ordeal- while before she was a detective with a boyfriend and a relatively warm apartment, she’s now a freezing cold loser who’s in a slump and has to sleep it off alone in the world’s coldest living room. There’s no safety net now she’s not got Teddy, just her, and her future, and her career, and it’s all she can think about.

It’s not right. Undoubtedly, she feels better without him, no longer needing to keep up a façade, but the change seems to have… thrown her off-balance. It’s not uncommon in her breakups, in anyone’s breakups, she supposes, but now it’s different to when she was in her 20s. It’s a gritty wake-up call, a harsh reminder to re-evaluate herself and her progress.

There’s also the convenient truth that a good half of the hurdles in her relationship with Teddy were caused by the fact that she wanted someone else.

Someone who’s doing a victory lap of the bullpen, high-fiving everyone, after having successfully bobbed a yoyo from his mouth for a minute straight.

After a deep breath, she takes the first sip of her second cup of coffee.

As usual, it’s bitter, and not as hot as she’d like it to be, but it’s enough. More than enough- a nagging desperation for energy pulls at her and soon enough she’s chugging it like an energy drink.

“Y’okay there Santiago?” Terry murmurs a tad concernedly as he walks past.

“Perfect,” she says dryly.

The morning passes slowly, with little to no progress, on Amy’s part. Their briefing comes and goes, and everyone’s in and out of the bullpen as usual, following up on cases and signing off paperwork. As if not being able to get anything done wasn’t frustrating enough- being surrounded by people doing just that pokes at the critical, stubborn little demon in Amy’s brain, griping about how little she’s done.

By four in the afternoon, she’s given up, slouching back into her chair and staring aimlessly at her work. Her life’s been messy and slow for weeks, but now three whole days of this crap at work, and she’s not been right about one thing, hitting dead end after dead end. Unless, of course, you count Holt being completely unimpressed by Jake and his yoyo-mouth tricks. That, of course, earned a small boost in satisfaction, even if only for the look on Jake’s face.

The day is slow, and stupid, right up until she receives the email, one that in weeks to come she’ll wonder if she would have been better without. One that in years to come she’ll know changed her life.

It crops up in the corner of her screen, a little red exclamation mark bobbing above it in the corner of her screen, marking it as urgent. It excites her more than she’d willingly admit; modifying her email so it could notify her out of its own window was one of her proudest achievements when Savant had all of their operating systems updated.

 from: rholt@nypd.org to: asantiago@nypd.org, jperalta@nypd.org

Detectives, please meet me in my office as quickly as possible. Might I ask that you make as little fuss as possible.

Regards.

Captain Raymond Holt

 Immediately, Amy’s heart starts racing. This is something, whether it’s a new case, a new opportunity, or, hell, even just the two of them being told off for something. It’s a distraction.

Or maybe it’s something more.

She looks over at Jake, who’s fiddling with a ball of elastic bands in one hand and using his computer with the other. He seems relatively unfazed, which is how she knows he hasn’t seen the email- there’s a reason Holt had to ask them not to make a fuss, and that reason goes by the name of Jacob Peralta.

“Hey,” she whispers over at him. “Hey!”

He glances over, briefly, then looks back to his screen.

“What’s up?”

“The email. Holt.”

“Huh?”

“We both need to be in Holt’s office. Now.”

“Why’re you being so quiet?” He looks at her confusedly. “That urgent-whisper voice is creeping me out. But also kind of turning me on.” He tilts his head to the side teasingly.

She rolls her eyes.

“C’mon,” she mutters softly, standing up and heading for Holt’s office.

“No, I’m serious! Could you say the following words in that exact voice? ‘You must remain quiet in the library-’”

“Jake.” She pivots on her heel outside the door to Holt’s office. “Keep the weird librarian kink for after the super serious meeting.”

“Y’know, I can honestly say I never thought I’d hear you say that.”

She rolls her eyes and knocks twice on the door, before clicking it open gently.

“Santiago, Peralta.”

“Sir,” they reply in union. Jake grins at Amy.

“Please have a seat.”

There’s something about him, Amy thinks, something serious- quickly, she glances around the room. Immediately confirming her suspicions, she notices the drawn blinds, the closed window, the soft music playing from Holt’s record player. She can’t help it- part of her starts to get excited.

“I’ve called you both in here to discuss a potential opportunity. It would entail both of you working with Major Crimes.”

“Ew,” Jake blurts out, which earns him a blunt nudge from Amy’s knee.

“We’re all-ears, sir,” she smiles.

“I wanted to keep this rather low-key as this opportunity, this case-”

“There’s a case?!” Amy asks excitedly, unable to help herself. Holt simply looks at her- she sits back in her chair, almost apologetically, sensing Jake’s smirk without having to look at him.

“Due to Peralta’s success undercover, and our scores in last year’s tactical village, I’ve been approached in search of two detectives. This is… an incredibly high-profile case.” Holt looks between the two of them slowly, completely still.

“Awesome. We’re in. Who is it?” Jake pipes up quickly. Amy glances over at him and almost rolls her eyes at how excited he is now he’s realised someone famous is involved- but she holds back. It’d be a lie to say she doesn’t feel the same. “An actor? A singer? Oh my god, it’s Taylor, isn’t it?!”

“Jake,” Amy cuts in, desperate to hear the actual details. Holt nods once, and she can’t help the surge of teacher’s-pet-pride that swells in her chest.

“I presume you’re aware of Kristoff Clare.”

“Wow, yes,” Amy replies, eyes wide, sharing a quick look with Jake. “Billionaire, entrepreneur, philanthropist-”

“He was in that AT&T ad with the dog!” Jake grins.

“Yes. I believe he is an investor in the company,” Holt offers. “You are… aware of him?”

“Are you kidding? He’s crazy famous. He’s almost at the top of the Forbes Rich List,” Jake replies matter-of-factly, resulting in an odd look directed his way from Amy. “What?! I saw it in a fancy magazine at an airport lounge.”

“Is he okay?” Amy asks eagerly.

“He has been receiving a number of threats. Major Crimes is only actually involved because until a couple of weeks ago, a child was at risk.”

“A child?” Jake’s expression changes.

“Kristoff’s daughter, Angelica, recently turned eighteen. A detective from Major Crimes was asked to step in as a family favour, but since the case appears to be rather open-and-shut, they’ve decided to pull detectives from our precinct instead.”

“So, what, are the threats not serious?” Jake looks a little confused.

“As I understand it, Kristoff is relatively unbothered by the messages he’s been receiving. He’s merely looking into more protective measures for the estate-”

“The estate,” Jake grins over at Amy. “Dope.”

“- And increased security.”

“Sir, if you don’t mind me asking, why on earth would Major Crimes pick up two detectives from Brooklyn? Only, I assume this estate is a good distance away?” Amy asks carefully.

“Westchester, yes,” Holt confirms. “I’ll have to ask that you don’t let this get to your head, Peralta, but…” He clears his throat. “Kristoff Clare asked for you.”

Jake’s face lights up like a toddler who’s just been presented with a bucket of candy.

“Buuuuh what-now-huh?!”

“I believe he read into your work undercover with the Ianucci family. When he was told the case was being delegated, he named you.”

“Awesome,” Jake half-laughs. “Man, this is crazy.”

Amy sits still, trying to keep her breathing balanced, but inside she’s completely giddy; a high-profile case, and an easy one, too- this is a cakewalk, and it’s going to set her back on track. She knows it, can feel it lifting her from her shoulders, her confidence tiptoeing back already.

“So. The nature of this meeting is essentially just a proposition, offering the two of you this case. You need to understand that this will mean a lot of time between this precinct and Major Crimes, as well as visiting the estate. What I mean to say is,” he considers, “this case will be an incredibly interesting one, but it will also require a lot of effort.”

Amy looks over at Jake intuitively, but he’s already looking towards her, eyes wide, as if to ask- is this guy serious? Of course they’re going to want the case. Who’s he kidding? Excitement flutters in her chest. It’s been a while since her and Jake have had an exhilarating case, and this one might be simple, but it’s a slam-dunk. Career progress. Media attention. Meeting super-famous-billionaires.

Who could say no?

    ***

    As they approach the entrance to One Police Plaza, Amy finds herself furiously prodding Jake’s shoulder as he speeds ahead of her, desperately trying to get his attention.

“Jake!” She gives up, resorting to calling for him like a dog.

He turns around immediately, seemingly unbothered- or perhaps entirely unaware- of her repetitive poking.

“’Sup?”

“Don’t laugh, but…” She breathes deeply, and steps back a little. “Blaser buttoned or unbuttoned?”

Jake just looks at her, not reacting. She doesn’t move, looking at him earnestly, at which point he appears to realise she’s serious, smiling softly.

“You look great as you are. If you change it you’ll only make yourself more panicked.”

She sighs. He’s probably- no, definitely- right, and they both know it.

“Okay, yes. Unbuttoned it is. Good. Let’s go.” She brushes herself off for the sixty-millionth time this morning and gives herself a small shake, ready to go. However, as soon as she steps forward, she feels a warm hand take her arm, stopping her in her tracks. “What?” She asks Jake, whose grasp remains firm.

“We’re gonna crush this. Don’t worry.” He smiles sincerely, softly, and for just a second, it reminds her of the night he told her he had feelings for her. Almost nine months ago. She nods, once, knowing he’ll understand it as a movement of gratitude.

“C’mon,” she smiles, and like that, they’re moving again, straight into the lobby, showing their IDs and being let into the elevators just like the higher-ups, surrounded by important-looking, well-dressed, stoic cops and filled to the brim with excitement.

Amy’s posture is so tight just trying to keep herself still that she could almost burst, mustering every ounce of inner strength just to maintain a professional appearance, while Jake does little to nothing to restrain himself, chatting excitedly about his potential code names (his current top three being Axe, Hurricane, and The Thunder). Their elevator hauls itself up to Major Crimes, and neither of them can keep the smile off their faces.

As they step into the hall, Amy realises neither of them have been here since she rejected her job offer here last year. She watches Jake fondly, thinking of the spelling-error-ridden letter she still has kept tucked into a drawer at home. Right now, he’s looking at the number and the name of each office as they walk the hallway, looking for the details they’d been given by Holt yesterday.

“Okay, so here’s the deal.” A familiar voice comes from the other end of the hallway, from behind Amy. She daren’t look.

Jake turns to Amy, his face turning to total despair.

“Nooooooo, c’mon,” he mutters, and just like that, Amy knows her recognition of the voice was right.

“I don’t want you on this case. Super rich dude wants you on the case,” Keith Pembroke explains casually as he approaches them. “So you’re here. What’s up, Jakey?” He grins smugly at Jake. “How’s that big white ass? Ready to get briefed?” He laughs fully, clearly amused by himself.

Jake grimaces uneasily, shooting Amy a look.

“With all due respect, Officer Pembroke,” Amy says calmly, resisting to urge to say Vulture out loud, “we have just as much right to be working this case as you do.”

“Trust me, Santaigo, I’ve got no problem with you being here,” he says with a wink, and just like that Amy would almost rather punch him in the face than keep her spot on this case.

“Okay, let’s get this over with,” he mutters, opening the door to his office.

Their briefing is quick, almost identical to what Holt had explained to them yesterday, charts and explanations and the reassurance that, yes, they will both be meeting Kristoff Clare. They’re to visit the estate in a week, then immediately begin working directly with the family full-time to enforce stricter protective measures. In under half an hour, they’re walking back out again.

“Did that not worry you a little?” Amy looks over at Jake the second the elevator shuts and they’re on their way out.

“Huh? Not really. He’s the worst, but we’ve dealt with hi-”

“No, Jake,” she hushes him cursing out his superior before they’ve even left the building. “I meant… how little Major Crimes seemed to know. When it came to detail, there was almost nothing other than that Kristoff needs them, and that there’s going to be a hell of a lot of media attention.”

“I don’t know,” Jake considers, “It’s a pretty simple case, right? It seems pretty open-and-shut, like the Captain said. I’m sure if there was any potential it could be something more, the Vulture would make as much a deal out of it as possible.”

“I guess so,” she finds herself agreeing, though she knows her hunch tells her something’s off.

“But hey!” Jake beams toothily over at her, “this is it! Jake and Amy, back on a case!”

She laughs a little at his unhindered enthusiasm.

“I’m serious!” He continues, “I know it’s going to be a pain in the ass having the Vulture above us, but we haven’t had something big like this since… well-”

“Since before you left,” she finishes his sentence for him, smiling gently. “Since Wint.”

“Exactly.”

Amy’s fingertips clasp clammily over the soft leather strap of her bag, tense, as the two of them maintain their gaze on each other, just for a second or two. She knows her chest, her cheeks, must redden, because her heart picks up its pace and just like every stupid moment she’s looked at him since he got back, one thought, one word, spins around aggressively in her mind: unfinished.

“We’re all good, right?” Jake says a little awkwardly, after neither of them break off the stare.

“What?” Amy’s voice sounds far weaker than she intended, resulting in a tiny pang of embarrassment, internally kicking herself.

“All that stuff with us… it’s in the past.”

“Oh, right,” she replies quickly, too quickly, “yes. Of course.”

“Good,” he says, a little relievedly- “I know you’ve just broken up with Teddy last month, and I didn’t want you to think I was going to try anything, use this case to my advantage.”

“Don’t be stupid,” she says assuredly, “I know you’d not use a case to get laid.”

He raises his eyebrows.

“I mean,” she corrects herself, “not with me. You’re better than that.”

“You’re too kind,” he sighs, smiling warmly at her. She chuckles softly.

“Woah, careful- that’s dangerously close to flirting.”

He laughs, and within a couple of minutes they’re talking about something else, headed back to the nine-nine. For a moment, it really feels like everything’s going to be fine, going to be normal- maybe even going to be fun.

Under the surface, an aching in Amy’s chest begs to differ, thrumming thickly, electric, as she watches him chatter and laugh and smile as if everything makes sense.

     ***

    “To Amy and Jake, for scoring an incredible case and abandoning us for at least eight weeks!” Charles shouts, earning a round of cheers as everyone follows suit.

“Oh, c’mon, I’d never abandon you, bud,” Jake throws an arm over Charles’ shoulder. He sighs loudly. “I just have to go and hang out with super rich famous people for a few weeks until they love me and accept me as one of their own. I’ll buy you anything you want afterwards.” He grins at his friend, whose face lights up.

He’s exaggerating, of course- they all are, the warmth of the beer and the bar and the excitement of what’s to come enveloping the air. Everyone’s at least five drinks down, with Shaw’s now close to closing- but nobody’s going anywhere anytime soon. Gina’s got the night planned out, even emailing out (much to Amy’s delight, and consequently, Jake’s amusement) an itinerary for the evening.

“You guys are so mushy,” Rosa teases, rolling her eyes. Jake spots a small smile tugging on her lips, though, her tell; she cares just as much as Charles.

“Yeah, we’ll still be at the precinct a couple days a week,” Amy says as if it’s obvious, that drunk confidence of hers practically dripping from her lips as she speaks. “If you’re gonna cry about anything, it should be how far you’re all gonna fall behind without me holding you up,” she shrugs, with a small smile, calm in the face of the outrageous laughter from Gina and Rosa and general shock from everyone else that this elicits.

Jake watches her, sat tall on her barstool, her smile never wavering.

Internally, he finds he’s telling himself he can’t help the way his chest swells as he watches her, the way his heart pounds and he lights up from the inside out.

It’s not deliberate. So it’s harmless.

And yet, he can’t help but scold himself-you know better.

It’s a whisper. It aches more powerfully the longer his eyes stay fixated on her, paining him to his core and fortified by her dark, smiling eyes, and the head of raven hair falling loose over her shoulders. It’s the nights undercover, completely alone, when a memory of her on a rooftop trying to throw peanuts into her mouth is what got him to sleep. It’s every moment of uncertainty she’s resolved within him from the second she stepped into the precinct for the first time, almost seven years ago.

And it’s all useless.

Someone’s nudging his shoulder, and then he’s coming back to the room- something’s happening, people are moving.

“Jake!” Gina snaps her fingers in front of him. “C’mon, wake up, it’s time for bar two!”

He jumps up, inventing some excuse about finishing his drink, and moves with the group as they pile into taxis outside Shaw’s.

For just a second, before her head dips into the taxi in front, he swears he catches Amy looking back at him.

    ***

    As soon as Jake steps outside The Nightingdale, onto a sidewalk lit only by its bright red neon sign, his ears begin to ring, unaccustomed to the absence of heavy music. The mid-January air, at this hour, is practically biting, so freezingly cold it almost hurts, but it’s exactly what he needs; his forehead glistens a little with a thin sheen of sweat (already fast disappearing) and he’s just a tad too warm from all the dancing.  

Absent-mindedly, he sinks against the brick wall, letting himself breathe for a second, a familiar, numb, intoxicated ringing in his head. This is gonna hurt tomorrow.

It must be at least three in the morning. The Nightingale is their third and final stop of the night, predominantly a dance club with several tables at the back, concealed by shadows, creating what Jake knows to be a slightly disconcerting feeling; the sense that there’s always more space, more people, than you can see.

For the most part, everyone’s been on the dancefloor, going crazy for the unusual blend of heavy club beats and cheesy 80s and 90s music that they’ve been playing all night- Gina’s been throwing shapes like she was born for it, Amy’s repeatedly succeeded in shimmying Rosa into action, and Jake’s even performed an entire routine with Terry (including lifts, obviously). He nearly laughs to himself at the drunken image of his dance moves.

Something’s shifted within him, most of his tension from earlier in the evening having melted away, hand-in-hand with his sobriety. A certain contentedness washes over him; a big, exciting, relatively simple case that’ll instantly boost his and Amy’s careers, an incredible group of friends and colleagues whom he adores, and living in the greatest city on earth. He opens his eyes, taking in the buildings around him, under the flaming vermillion light so bright that it coats the street around him like treacle.

Out of nowhere, the doors to the bar are thrown open, so fast Jake actually jumps.

“Oh, hey.”

Amy smiles over at him. Then, quickly, he notices she’s looking over with narrowed eyes, like she’s trying to see through fog.

“Hey, partner.” He immediately regrets this greeting, briefly cursing himself for its awkwardness. Amy doesn’t seem fazed, walking slowly out into the street. “Y’okay there?”

“Yeah,” she says quietly, her gaze not leaving him. It’s almost intense, he thinks. She never stares, not like this. She smiles. Then she grins, surrendering to a soft chuckle. “You’ve got…”

“I’ve got…” He repeats in an attempt to prompt her, unsure if she’s too drunk to make sense or if she’s just being quiet.

“You’ve got salt- or sugar, or something, just above your mouth,” she laughs. “I was staring because it kinda looked like a patch of… uh… gray stubble.” Her speech is languid, soft, he realises, like she’s thinking over every word she says.

“Oh,” Jake laughs relievedly, comforted by what appears to be only mild tipsiness, on her part, and a valid reason for staring at him so hard his chest started to tighten. “Must have been from the shots…”

He pushes the back of his wrist over his chin.

“No- wrong spot,” Amy interjects gently. “It’s… you’re…” She cuts in repeatedly as he somehow misses the spot over and over, until she rolls her eyes and steps towards him.

She comes close, until she’s stood only centimetres away from him, taking her thumb and pressing it softly over a spot to the side of his mouth, and wiping away whatever’s there.

Jake watches her carefully, completely frozen in his spot; after she’s taken her hand away, she doesn’t move, her eyes locked with his. It’s perhaps the most intense thing Jake’s ever experienced, simply looking at her, maintaining this eye contact for so long. His body tightens- his heart is racing, and he can feel his cheeks heating despite the cold. Not that either of them would be able to tell, he thinks, under the colour of light.

Finally, there’s movement- with only the fading sounds of traffic, under the scorching red of a neon sign hanging above them, Amy sucks her thumb clean.  

He’s not sure whether he should be mildly uncomfortably or mildly turned on, and he knows his face must show it, because he’s stuck, completely unable to move, fire shooting under his skin at hundreds of miles an hour until he could swear he’s about to burst. All she does is stare at him, her eyes somehow darker than usual and completely focused.

Ask him tomorrow, and he’ll tell you that it’s him who moves first.

In actuality, it’s not quite that simple; like two runners crossing a finish line, so incomparably close that they’re not even a microsecond apart, it’s impossible to tell who’s first as they crash against each other.

Jake’s mind is alight, everything happening at once; the alcohol has his heart pounding yet manages to slow the kiss down, just enough sobriety pinching at his senses to pick up on every miniscule detail of the woman in front of him, of a moment he’s longed for for far too long.

When he slides his hand up her back and she tugs him closer, one hand pulling gently at the fabric of his shirt and the other sliding into his hair, he wonders if she can tell how much this means to him.

With her body completely pressed against him, and the soft sound of a moan escaping her throat as his mouth moves to the underside of her jaw, and then her neck- he considers that it may even mean something to her, too.

He’s surprised at how small- yet firm- her hand feels on his waist, pulling him closer and tugging at his shirt.

He’s even more surprised when he feels her fingertips skimming the top of his jeans, his breath catching quickly in his throat.

She looks up at him with a small smile, and pressing herself up against him in all the right ways, he’s not sure how he’s still standing, tipsy from the alcohol and absolutely intoxicated from Amy’s touch.

It’s five, ten minutes of teasing, toying, before he realises- no, remembers- that they’re out in the open, pushing each other to a point where, despite the patches of sludgy snow and violently cold air, they’re close to tearing each other’s clothes off. It’s like a game; she’ll pull at his jeans, he’ll suck a little harder on her neck. She’ll bite his lip, he’ll slip a hand under her shirt, the small of her back burning under his fingertips.

“Yours,” she says quietly into his ear, in a voice so thick Jake’s knees almost buckle. “Please.”

“Oh, uh,” he clears his throat, “yeah. Okay. Yes.”

They pull apart a little, eyes still locked together. It’s a moment of complete amazement, Jake realises, every sensation in his body heightened, from the soft tingling of his lips to the dull ache in his lower abdomen. Amy’s expression changes, now looking at him like she’s trying to figure out a math problem.

“Wait,” Amy says quietly, and for a second Jake’s heart sinks- she’ll say what they’re both thinking, that this is crazy, that they shouldn’t. “Do you want to?”

He almost can’t believe she’s asking him this, looking at her a little incredulously.

“Yes, Amy, I…” He struggles for the words, astounded by the innocence in her questioning eyes. He squeezes his fingers around hers gently where they’re already brushing against each other. “I’ve wanted this for… too long,” he says, half-laughing at himself, shaking his head a little.

She presses herself up on her toes and kisses him sweetly, simply, her fingers curling around the collar of his button-down.

“C’mon,” she says quietly, and with that, she’s taken his hand, and she’s leading him into the street.

She’s in total control, he realises quickly, from asking him to take her home to hailing down a taxi, into which they both climb with only mild stumbling and tipsy giggling- particularly after Jake bumps his head on the roof of the cab.

They’re silent in the taxi, communicating only by sharing that tight, hot stare that kicked this whole mess off. Without any obvious movement, staying as respectful to their driver as humanly possible, it’s a good fifteen minutes of teasing- Jake’s hand, on Amy’s leg, presses itself higher and higher, until he’s slowly rubbing the inside of her thighs.

It’s hard not to be in complete awe when he watches her bite her lower lip, tilting her head back as he touches her inner legs over the fabric of her jeans. Her fingers close over his in response, and when he tightens his hold, her breath hitches so loudly it’s essentially a gasp, the cab driver’s eyes darting over at her in the rear-view mirror. It’s somehow the hottest, most intense part of their evening so far, if the most restrained.

Once they arrive at Jake’s it’s like the two of them lose all tact, completely starved of each other and now allowed to taste, allowed to feel, granted permission to one another.

They’re kissing before they’re even up the steps into Jake’s building, murmuring softly and teasing each other until it feels almost futile that they’ve come all this way home, as though they could easily end up having sex right here in the hall.

As soon as they’re in the elevator, Jake’s got her by her legs, scooping her up and hoisting her up against the wall. Immediately, she laughs. Half of him wonders whether he should be concerned by her amusement at him attempting to be sexy, and the other half makes every effort to savour that joyous sound, and the feeling of her laugh shaking through her body as he holds her.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she says quickly, “it’s just so cliché.”

“I could always put you down,” he offers sarcastically. “The floor looks super comfy.” They both glance down at the gritty metal base of the elevator.

“C’mere,” she mutters with a smirk, pulling him towards her and into a heated kiss, sliding her tongue into his mouth. He goes faint at the taste of her, sweet against him.

He aches so strongly for her, at this point, that he almost jolts in shock at the rich, unhindered sound of her moaning, as he takes his mouth over the top of her chest. The elevator shudders, as if it’s aware- though Jake knows it’s simply a lack of structural security.

Without thinking, he pulls the emergency stop button, and the elevator grinds to a stop, a loud clunking noise echoing through the shaft.

“Here?” Amy asks quietly, shock coursing into her eyes, a small smile on her lips. Jake’s a little proud- there’s a hint of disbelief in her expression, and he understands why: the last hour or so, he’s held back, scared to push her beyond what she wants.

Not anymore- he wants her, and he wants her-

“Now.” His voice is hoarse.

Amy’s eyes shift quickly into something different, something hungry. She nods once, and like that, it’s happening all over again.

Feverish heat blossoms within him in the most perfect way, an exquisite release after months, years, of waiting for her. They’re all over each other, so entangled that Jake’s only indicator of which movements are his are the sensations under his fingertips; her hair, as she kisses over his collarbones, the buttons on her shirt, as he fiddles to undo them, her lips, as his hand clumsily cradles her jaw.

When he shivers, the 4am January cold seeping into the elevator, she laughs, making some joke about how rushing will catch up with him- not that she seems to mind. She tightens her legs around his waist and pulls him closer. Her smile is too much, driving him insane; so he kisses it off her face, until those honeyed words melt into just one word; his name, over and over until it’s all he ever wants to hear for the rest of his life.

The way her breath stops when he’s finally inside her is unparalleled to anything he’s ever heard before. He’s not sure he can bear to forget it, not sure what it’ll mean if he never hears it again- in those first few movements he finds he has to do everything to hold himself back, stop himself from coming apart on the spot, the feeling of her around him too good to be true.

Her hands, still a little cold, find his hips, guiding him into her. It’s a combined effort, to stay upright and keep Amy balanced on the rail, but somehow they’re managing, and it’s utter heaven.

“Jake, oh my god-“

Amy can hardly talk, her breath now entirely out of control- this does very little in Jake’s favour, desperately trying to hold himself together and make this perfect for her. He twists around a little, so he’s at a slightly different angle- immediately, her eyes widen, and her head drops back.

“There, right there,” she manages, her voice tight. “Please.”

The sound of her pleading, begging, very nearly sends him over the edge- so he decides to help her instead, focus on something else, taking one of his hands from under her legs and starting to rub her softly. Immediately her groaning becomes almost uncontrollable, and though he’s largely just astounded by how incredible she is, Jake’s able to take consolation in the fact that she may actually be finding it more difficult to keep herself together than him.

He can’t get over how beautiful she is. It almost feels wrong, unforgivable, that someone like him should be able to experience her like this- but the way she’s holding onto him for dear life goes past making him feel wanted. He’s needed, and by the one person to whom he would readily give everything.

It ends too quickly, both of them unable to keep themselves from finishing- Amy first, then Jake, at the sight of her.

In total disbelief, all Jake can do is look at her, in the seconds that come afterwards. He doesn’t know much about how a situation like this, much about what comes next; he’s had a one-night stand or two, and he’s slept with women on the first date.

But he’s never moved so quickly with someone he’d rather die than lose.

Eventually, the emergency button is slotted back into place, and the elevator begins to move. Neither’s hands ever leave the other, not entirely.

Amy follows him into his apartment, touching, tugging, bringing him to bed, and a harsh realisation invades his head, fizzing off around his body in excitement, intrigue, and a dash of worry.

Nothing is going to be the same.

   ***

   “Jesus, fuck…”

Not even entirely awake, Amy manages to stir herself awake with her own voice, cursing intuitively at the throbbing in her head. Without opening her eyes to the cruel world outside, she lifts herself up onto her elbows and presses her thumbs against her temples, desperately trying to alleviate some of the pain of the headache.

The sudden upward movement makes her surprisingly dizzy- at which point she realises that this is no mere migraine. No, this is, undoubtedly, a hangover. She sighs deeply, letting herself fall back into her pillow.

It’s when she misjudges the distance between her head and the pillow, and promptly bashes her head into the wall, that Amy knows she’s not in her own home, immediately startled awake.

Rubbing her eyes open, everything seems to hit at once; her complete lack of clothes under these sheets, the impeccable warmth of this bed, and the unmistakable freckled back of the man lying next to her.

Instantly, the night before floods back into her head, her stomach twisting violently in a sickening assortment of guilt, shock, confusion, and excitement. Her hand shoots to her mouth, completely taken aback by herself. The main thought running through her mind- though she can’t seem to place an exact moment or movement that could serve as evidence- is that she started this. She’s the reason they’re waking up naked together. And she’ll be the reason things get completely weird from here on out.

Unmoving, so as not to wake him, she watches Jake, who remains completely passed out, his bare back exposed as he lies on his front.

“Oh my god,” she whispers quietly, thinking about the way this completely still, sleeping man had held her, had touched her, only hours ago.

Somewhere in the room, a phone buzzes.

Amy looks around, not even considering that someone might need to get in contact with her. It seems to be coming from the floor, as far as she can tell, which is in a general state of disarray; a mix of her clothes and Jake’s, as well as the usual Peralta-clutter that she knows too well to gather in his apartment, has the floor almost completely concealed.

Awkwardly, she clambers out of bed, pulling the throw blanket off the corner of Jake’s bed to cover herself as she searches for her phone.

It’s still in the pocket of her jeans, which sit awkwardly at the end of Jake’s bed- she pulls it out and sits on the end of the bed to inspect it.

To her absolute horror, her lock screen is filled with notifications, all of them filled with various expletives, all-caps words, and exclamation marks.

She scrolls down, until she sees the one text that has her close to throwing up on the spot.

“Morning,” Jake’s voice comes from behind her, magically sleepy- he presses a kiss against her bare shoulder, and for a microsecond, she feels a little calmer, but the second the turns to look at him, she knows her expression gives her panic away, because Jake’s face changes immediately. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“It’s… my phone…” she shows him the screen, then, with a grimace, opens The Text, the one sending her brain into a spinning, guilty frenzy.

“Oh my god.”

 Keith Pembroke   06:24

 I need you and Jake at the estate NOW.

Kristoff Clare is dead.

[kati-mariposa]

Guardians: Chapter 1

Characters: OC, Bill Skarsgard & Jeffrey Dean Morgan

*WARNING: Mild/Some Language

Summary: After Kat (OC) runs away from her hometown for personal reasons, she is taken under the wing & care of a single man almost twice her age, Jeffrey. Almost a year later, she has become like family to Jeffrey, has befriended a young handsome guy named Bill, and even gets a chance to do small art commissions for profit. However, things become tense between the three when she seems to get closer to Bill, but Jeffrey strongly disapproves for mysterious, yet suspicious reasons. It's a battle for her trust, love & protection.

Author's Notes: The idea came to me in the middle of the night, like most people I know & was originally going to only make it for my own personal enjoyment in order to practice writing, but in the end I decided to share it with others! Bear with me, it's been a very long time since I've written anything & as always, I tend to give a lot of detail to my stories, so I apologize in advance if it seems so long to read. Also, I gave the main character a name because I normally don't type reader inserts. Again guys, please bear with me & let me know in the end what you think of the story! I plan to make more types of stories in the future! Thank you & enjoy~!

[*DISCLAIMER: The actors do not represent themselves as actors, but as the characters I created to play out in the story.]

-Chapter 2

The strong aroma of crisp, bold coffee filled the air from the kitchen. The smell lingered through the living room, the hall and into the bedroom where I was brushing and fixing my hair in an up-do for the morning. It was a bit stuffy in the house so I decided that I would enjoy a cup outside on the front porch swing. I knew it’d be cooler since Fall Season had barely begun and I wanted to embrace it as much as I could before it got even colder later. I got a whiff of the coffee and it was a relaxing scent from afar.

In a rush to get a cup, I went through my closet, picked out a pair of light jeans and a maroon sweater and threw them on quickly. Scanning the floor, I found my pair of black Air Jordan High Tops and slipped them on after putting on a pair of black socks. Out of habit, I grabbed my deodorant bar, applied where needed and then grabbed my perfume bottle to give a few mists of spray from neck to chest. Even if I’m outdoors, I like to smell good.

I casually walked out of my room and headed for the kitchen, noting the empty house in its quiet and still position, my footsteps echoed from the floor to the walls. I grabbed an empty mug from the cabinet and turned off the coffee maker to pour some. I went into the fridge and grabbed the small bottle of creamer because I didn’t really like my coffee too strong, just enough not to be too sweet either.

I stepped outside through the front doors carefully holding the mug without tipping it over from the side, since I always almost fill it up high, leaving the main door ajar and shutting the black screen door closed behind me. I took a seat on the wide sturdy wooden swing positioning my bottom on the cushion so I could be comfortable and leaned back a bit, lightly rocking the swing with my feet. With the first sip of coffee, I began enjoying my surroundings and the weather. It was lovely. The breeze felt great against my skin and under the shade of the roof. The trees along the streets were already turning into multiple Autumn colors and raining down gracefully from their branches. I could get used to it every day.

My phone started ringing not only five minutes into it and when I glanced at it, I had to answer. It was one of my younger sisters from out of town. “Hello?” I answered.

The conversation was brief, but I always appreciated speaking to one of them, especially since it’s been almost a year since I’ve seen them.

“Yeah, but I’m fine. Trust me. I miss you guys. I love you. Bye,” I hung up in a sad tone.

I had almost forgotten that it’s been that long since I desperately ran away from home because of an ultimate fight with my now ex-fiance. I couldn’t stand to be there after all the drama I went through. I could barely tolerate thinking about it. I get worked up and upset once it crosses my mind again and again. I bowed my head down to a face palm as the memory dawned on me when I heard a vehicle pull up on the side of the street.

When I looked up, a dark car was parked in front of my house. As soon as the person came out from the driver’s seat, I didn’t hesitate to rise up from the swing to peer at him with a smile, like all the bad thoughts faded away when he came over.

“Bill!” I shouted excitedly. A playful grin formed across his lips as he approached the porch steps.

“Hey Kat. You look a little down. What’s the matter?” he wondered slowly dropping his smile.

“Well, it’s no surprise that you were able to notice my distress,” I said while slightly impressed.

His chuckle was low as he sat next to me on the swing, but he did it so fast that it knocked us both back and I almost spilled my warm coffee on myself. Luckily, I grabbed it tightly and moved it with the motion of the swing.

“Boy, you almost made me drop my coffee!” I exclaimed with my mouth gawked playfully.

“My bad,” he laughed as he fixed himself on the cushion, trying to tease me again.

Bill and I met while I was scoping the neighborhood shortly after I moved here and we grew to be good friends. I remember walking by his house when I lost my balance and fell face forward onto the concrete, scraping my hands and destroying my cheap plastic cup, with my drink splashed across the ground. Not only was I embarrassed due to possible neighbors watching, but I was very upset when I realized that I spilled my drink all over the floor. Honestly, I was mainly sad that my drink was gone and not in my body.

“Hey, are you okay?” I heard a young male voice speak from far away. I got up and turned to see where the voice was coming from, also checking on my then bleeding hand. I could hear the soda fizzing against the concrete, soaking through the hard material and appearing as a stain. Then I heard footsteps coming closer to me.

“Hey. I saw you trip and wanted to make sure you’re okay,” the voice spoke again.

I finally faced them and there he was, a very tall slender but fit, emerald green eyed boy staring down at me and I mean it when I say staring down because I’m kind of, pretty short compared to him. To be honest, I thought from day one that he was an extremely handsome mother- eh… Just extremely handsome, but I wasn’t going to say it out of the blue, I was too shy about that. I stared at him with heat in my cheeks and my lips slightly parted.

“Oh my God, your hand is bleeding,” his big hands grabbed my bloody wounded one gently. I felt the heat in my cheeks grow as I silently tried to keep my cool. My breathing became irregular and my heartbeat increased rapidly without my full control. I was too nervous to speak at that moment, but I knew I needed to say something.

“I spilled my drink,” I said so disappointedly as I began to sob, “I smashed it all over the ground and I was so thirsty. I was careless.”

That caught him off guard and I certainly felt stupid about it. He was confused because I didn’t seem to mind my cut hand but I was more worried about my ruined drink on the street. Suddenly, he started laughing loud and hard which made me feel more stupid about myself and I cried more in front of him. I thought he was making fun of me and tried to free my hand from him so I could run back home, but he kept a good grip on me.

“Wait! Wait. I’m- I’m sorry. It’s just I would’ve thought you’d care for you hand more than your drink. I’m sorry, don’t cry,” he apologized as he shook off what little laughter he had left in him.

I sniffled, avoiding eye contact with him since I felt shameful, but he managed to look directly at mine with his gentle green ones and have an encouraging grin across his face, I guess an attempt to comfort me.

“C’mon, lemme help you wash your cut. If you’re still thirsty, I’ll get you another drink,” he offered as he basically pulled me toward his house, like I had a choice.

He treated my hand, wrapped it for me and as promised, he took me somewhere to get another large soda to make up for the old one. He claimed he felt bad for making me cry and did what he could to help. That was the day our friendship blossomed.

He no longer lives in that house where he shared it with his brother Alexander. Actually, he moved out and got his own apartment about a few months ago. It’s nice enough, at least during the times I’ve visited him there, but good for him for being on his own. If only I was that lucky.

“So tell me. What’s on your mind?” he asked again.

“It’s nothing. Just…”

“You were thinking about your life back at your hometown, huh?” his smile faded, his eyes focused on me.

“My sister called me right before you arrived. I guess it brought back memories, mostly the bad ones,” I admitted while meeting my eyes with his, observing his concerned expression. I was sure he saw the sadness in my eyes somewhere, he knew me long enough to identify it.

He shifted closer to me in comfort’s reach and puts his arm around my shoulder, pulling me in to where my head rested on his shoulder. It was swift that it caught me off guard. He also had some arm strength that I sometimes overlooked.

“What did she say?” he questioned casually, keeping a hold on me.

“We only talked about what’s going on with them lately. And to remind me that they miss me over there. I really miss them too.”

“I bet you do. It’s about to be a full year since you left?”

“Yup. Can’t believe it’s been that long without my family by my side, but I can’t go back. Not yet.”

He turned me to face him directly, leaving only a small distance from each other’s heads between us. Then he gave me a soft grin of assurance.

“I understand. Take as much time as you need. Just hope that they don’t forget about you if you wait too long,” he told me with some support.

“They won’t. I know I wouldn’t,” I assured him as I took another go at the coffee cup, “But it’ll be another birthday they’ll miss.”

He released his grip on my arm to lay it on the top edge of the swing, carefully rocking it with his foot. I stared blankly at the wood panel floor of the porch, feeling the sway of the swing forward and backward and leaving my legs dangling at the bottom.

“It’s in a couple of months right? December” he wanted to remind himself.

I nodded, now staring at the houses across the road, finding peace in my surroundings while being rocked by Bill. It was soothing enough in my opinion. Bill and I were about a few years apart. He already turned 27 while I was about to be in my mid-twenties. God I was getting old, but I guess he has it worse, so I should be glad for that.

“What are you planning to do for it?” he wondered.

“I’ma hire a stripper over so I can throw dollar bills at him,” I joked revealing my tongue at him. He let out a laugh that shook the swing a bit and sat up straight to face me.

“Why hire one when you can just ask me?” he teased with that devious grin he likes to give me at times. Up to no good, I’d say.

“Whatever,” I rolled my eyes, playfully shoving him away. Deep down, that might’ve been nice to see, but I didn’t want to dwell into that domain. My cheeks could give it away. “I can't do any of that. Besides, I know a certain someone wouldn’t approve of these naughty actions, even if it was for my birthday,” I added.

“That’s for sure,” he agreed chuckling. During this short discussion I had completely overlooked the one thing I wondered about Bill since he got there. I finally decided to ask.

“By the way, why are you here? Weren’t you supposed to go to work this morning?” I interrogated with another drink.

He shrugged his broad shoulders, “I don’t know. Before I got to leave the apartment, one of the guys at work called and told me to not go in today, that they had it under control or some crap like that. I’m not gonna argue over a day off.”

“I suppose so,” I said.

“Why? You didn’t want to see me? I’m so hurt, I’ma leave,” he tried standing up to get away from me, but I latched on to his grey sweater and tugged to pull him back into the swing.

“No no no! Sit your ass down. I was kidding,” I giggled first, then he followed.

This was what I really liked about him. We could joke and play with each other all the time and it rarely bothered us. It was our routine, our own thing. I mean, I’m aware that he might mess with other people from time to time and I joke with others, but what we do tends to be unique, especially with my feistiness and his eagerness to put me on the spot for being so savage. Not to mention, he loves to tease about my height a lot. Let’s also not forget his famous devilish grin he loves to give when he’s about to be up to trouble. It gets me every time.

“Alright. But only because it’s you,” he grinned as he side hugged me.

Just as I was hugging him in return, an old grey pick-up truck was seen from the corner of my eye coming down the road and slowly turning over into the driveway. I automatically knew who it was once it made a complete stop near the end of the path near the house.

“He’s home? Already?” I quizzically mumbled.

Bill didn’t need for me to repeat myself in order for him to figure out who it was. He recognized the truck. His lively smile fell short once the driver’s side door swung open. I immediately sat up as if I was guilty of something, placing my mug on the mini table and watched as they closed the truck door.

“Jeffrey! You’re home super early,” I shouted with an exaggerated welcoming smile.

He approached the porch steps and stepped up with a smirk to give me a soft kiss on the top of my head. I could tell Bill was a bit uncomfortable by the gesture.

“Well darling, I have an early lunch today. Decided to come home for a quick meal,” Jeffrey explained beaming down at me. Of course, glancing at Bill even for a second made him frown and it was awkward, “Hello Bill.”

“Good morning Jeff, sir,” he maintained a fake smile as he did a light wave with his free hand.

It sucked being in between these two. I never understood it and yet I could feel the tension and heated auras as they silently glared at one another. Maybe it was the age difference or perhaps Jeffrey enjoyed pretending to be my father and thought Bill was a troublemaker, but Jeffrey is not my father. In fact, he’s my roommate, or in his mind, my guardian, even though I’m too old for that to be considered. He did take me in generously when I made it all the way over here alone with nothing much, so I guess I owed it to him somehow. I still have no idea why he accepted me, a total stranger into his life and home without expecting any sort of repayment from me. It was odd, but I couldn’t refuse a place to stay. I was desperate for a new start.

“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” Jeffrey said before entering the house, leaving Bill and I alone once again.

“Does he really hate my guts?” Bill questioned.

“What makes you say that?” I countered with my eyes meeting his.

“You saw the way he eyed me after greeting you. He obviously doesn’t like me, but I have no clue why. I didn’t do anything to him and yet he continues to glare at me with each passing visit.”

“I know, but it’s probably nothing. He’s probably just acting like he has to be my father or something. Trying to be big and tough, I bet.”

“Well hopefully he’ll cut it out soon. His overprotective nature is overwhelming,” he stated brushing his long fingers through his brown hair to the side.

“Don’t worry. Besides, I’m not going to let him do anything more. I don’t need to be protected from you,” I told him softly.

Bill turned his head with curiously raised eyebrows and his green eyes gleamed as he locked them with mine. He pursed his neutral pink lips waiting for my next line of reason.

“Because I know you won’t do anything to hurt me, right?” I genuinely said, feeling a little nervous.

A slow but big smile curved across his soft looking lips. His eyes even softened from my honest comment. He pulled me close to where our bodies were pressed sideways for him to rest his head on top of mine.

“Of course. I’ve told you before, I swore I would never do anything to hurt you or make you cry. If I ever did, I’d feel like the scum of the Earth. Remember when I saw you cry the first time we met, how you tripped and scraped your hand,” he insured and reminded me as he held me tight, “And all you could think of was your spilled soda soaking in the street.”

“Hey! You like to bring it up all the time don’t ya?!” I laughed as I shoved him lightly.

“I’m sorry, it was hilarious how you reacted to the situation,” he laughed hard.

���I-! I was shy around you! Guys make me that way all the time. Especially if they’re handsome,” I mumbled under my breath near the end, hoping he didn’t hear me.

“So does that make me one of the handsome ones? Cuz you were extremely red like a tomato when you were near me in the beginning,” his devious smirk formed.

My face felt like it was by a fire, it started to flush when I realized he must’ve heard my quiet comment. My heart began beating differently as I pondered what to say next. I turned to see him eye to eye despite revealing my colored cheeks to him.

“S-Shut up! You’re gorgeous! Ah! No! I mean, that’s not! I’m going inside to put up my mug,” I tried to get up and leave my embarrassment behind.

However, he grabbed my arm and tugged on my sleeve to gesture me to return to my seat by him. I obeyed.

“No, come back! I didn’t mean to put you on the spot,” he chuckled loud. “You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“Well, I might as well now since it slipped! Yes, I think you’re gorgeous. Which explains why my cheeks look like I’m about to breathe fire,” I absentmindedly admitted without making eye contact.

“Honesty is the best policy,” he grinned.

“Shut up,” I said crossing my arms with attitude. I slowly went back to normal as my nerves began to calm down.

Suddenly, he attacked me with the tips of his fingers to get my very ticklish spots and the surge of funny nerves rapidly traveled through my body, causing me to laugh hard and move around to get away.

“Oh my God! Stop Bill! You know I hate it!” I cried while giggling loud.

“I’m cheering you up Kat! Don’t resist! Give in to the tickles!” he jokingly commanded as he continued the assault on my nerves.

Tears were creeping in the corners of my eyes as I squirmed to get free from his grasp, but he was much stronger than me and I didn’t want to actually hurt him physically. This was meant to be fun, although it felt more like torture instead. I closed my eyes shut repeatedly due to the tears blinding me in the process of laughing so much. I was overwhelmed by a lot with this tickle fight, the swing shook and jerked whenever we shifted and he was basically on top of me at this point.

As if things weren’t bad enough, a hard knock on the window startled us both and Bill finally stopped to check it out. When I peered up with wet eyes, Jeffrey was frowning down at us while holding a mug in his hand. His scowl convinced the both of us to sit up, Bill getting off of me with the look like a deer in headlights. I knew my eyes were wide too once the air gently worked on drying my eyelids where they were moist. The last thing I saw Jeffrey do was shake his head negatively before returning within the house, leaving us alone again.

“Jesus, he can be a creeper,” Bill growled with his glowering green eyes.

“Reminds me of my dad back home. Except my dad’s a lot nosier. And creepier,” I panted and cringed standing from the swing and staring through the window, watching the big man vanish in the kitchen. I had to catch my breath again.

Bill rose from the swing afterwards and placed his hand on his hips, like he was thinking for a moment. Then he turned his head from the window to me as he pursed his lip. His focused emerald eyes shined in my direction.

“What?” I asked.

“Tomorrow’s Halloween,” he simply said.

“Yeah, I’m aware of that. What about it?”

“I need to stop by my brother Alexander’s house after work to see if he needs to get anything for the party tomorrow night.”

“I’m surprisingly excited about it. Usually I feel awkward at parties, mainly when I go by myself.”

He took a few steps forward as he chuckled at my comment.

“You won’t be alone this time,” he informed me, “I’ll be there with you.”

“But what if some other girl tries to get between us and take you away? Hm?” I challenged him with a sarcastic grin.

“Bye girl,” he answered pretend waving farewell at me, walking in a circle with an imaginary girl in his arm.

“You dick,” I said in spite.

He laughed with his cute big smile and made his way over to me so he could hold me in a tight embrace, trying to control himself as I felt his chest vibrating.

“Nah, I’m kidding. I’ll push the bitch aside and stick to you like glue the whole night,” he corrected, but even that sounded like a joke.

“You swear? To at least try if I don’t feel okay there?” I inquired as I peered up at him.

“I’ll do my best. It might not be 100% since I’d be co-host, but I’ll be there if you need me,” he assured, bending over to hug me correctly since he was so tall.

The smell of his cologne was so enticing and overwhelming, it filled my nostrils with joy. Honestly, it was the best choice. He even liked my perfume of choice so we were equal on good body scents.

Once we finished our hug fest, we said our goodbyes for the day and he took off in his black car to his apartment until his older brother got out of work to plan the party for Halloween the next night. After I watched him drive by and vanish from view, I grabbed the slightly empty mug from the outdoor table, walked inside the house, closing both doors behind me and went to see what was going on with Jeffrey before he had to go back to work.

[dang-charlie-blog]

My breast reconstruction story

For many years on end ive wanted to remove my breasts, not only am I transgender but I also was developing breasts at a young age I've been wearing a bra daily since I was 9, by time I was 12 I was a 36C, by time I was 14 I was a 36G. I always hated my body and I would bind my chest daily for a year straight, double binding, using ace bandages when I didn't have a binder on hand, avoiding pools and beaches, and staying inside and avoiding going out due to the dysphoria I had of my chest. About a year ago, around 6 months after I started binding I decided to ask my doctor about getting a breast reduction with my parents agreeing on it. Every night I would rub icy hot on my back and sleep on a heating pad. I couldn't stand for longer than a hour without unbearable back pain and shoulder pain. I had indents in my shoulders where my bra straps laid. Red marks down my chest from straps, marks along my back and under my arms, terrible rashes under my breasts down to my belly button. It was itchy, red, and when I would sweat it had a very unique smell and the skin would litteraly peel off at the end of the day. When I laid on my stomach it caused discomfort, when I took off my shirt for my partner I would hide my breasts in embarrassment. They hung low, my nipples pointing down, flat as pancakes but thick enough to fit into a G cup bra. I would hide my chest during sex and often times keep my shirt on and hold them down, when I spread my arms out on my bed they would roll into my armpits. I was so ashamed of my body that I would self harm, I would cut along the top of my breasts leaving scars that would never truly go away. My breasts were ruining my life, my self love, and my ability to be in a stable relationship that I felt like I was enough to be in. Nobody once told me that they were ugly or disgusting, my hatred for them was always my own, and it was difficult to explain why I was so ashamed of my body. My doctor wrote a recommendation letter to insurance to cover the surgery, due to battling anorexia for several years I was quite thin, so I didn't have to lose weight for the surgery. Nobody at the time knew I was anorexic, I always blamed my beautifully thin body on being vegan. I met my surgeon doctor Landon Pryor not many months later, just after taking one look at the size of my breasts he recommended a reduction and reconstruction. I pleaded to be quite small, which he happily agreed would be the best for my personal case. A second appointment was scheduled and he took photos of me from every angle, his assistant spoke about insurance and scheduled the surgery for 5 months after the second appointment, the hospital I would be going to was Swedish American. When the surgery date finally came, I woke up excited and prepared, quite hungry from not eating since the day before. I walked into my mother's room happily awaiting my ride to the hospital, she informed me very hesitantly that my surgeon had called to inform her that he would not be performing the surgery as he was too sick to operate on that day. The surgery was postponed for another month. While I was quite hungry I will admit I did not eat much that day and slept away my disappointment. Soon enough the next month came by quite quickly, at this point I wasn't completely sure if the surgery was really going to happen after waiting so many months for it to happen, I followed the instructions the nurse gave me over the phone the day before and woke up on a empty stomach and my mother drove me to the hospital in my pajamas and once we got there and checked in I waited patiently for my boyfriend, Jay to arrive. Of course, Jay got lost in the hospital and it took him a bit to catch up with us. We cuddled up in a beautiful display of public affection in the waiting room with heavy eyes and nervous faces. The nurse called me back and me, my mother, and Jay all sat in the prep room meeting all the doctors as they came in to meet me. At this point I was wearing nothing but my boxers, purple hospital socks and a giant bright purple surgery gown along with a hair net that all the doctors happily refered to as my party hat. When the surgeon came in to mark me I insisted to be as small as possible, showing him photos of trans guys who got full top surgery as a example of how small he could go, he misunderstood what I meant and decided to refuse the surgery under the thought that I didn't understand what surgery I would be getting that day. He angrily threw his own across the room as I broke down in tears as my mother started to stress out and lecture us, Jay worryingly tried to explain to the surgeon that he had misunderstood what I was trying to tell him, he left and came back 15 minutes later when I had calmed myself down enough to help him understand what I wanted him to do, we agreed on a breast reduction and reconstruction as originally planned. After being marked i laid back down as the nurse gave me a sedative to help my anxiety before surgery, she took me out of the room after I kissed jay goodbye and I was off to the operating room. Most people don't remember being in the operating room but for me that wasn't the case, they offered to move me onto the surgery bed but I insisted that I could walk, and I did so flawlessly. I crawled up onto the much firmer, white surgery bed, which was very thin and long, I positioned myself as they asked me to and rested my arms above my head as they prepared the room one last time. They told me that I should be feeling sleepy soon and 30 seconds later I drifted calmly off to sleep. During surgery it took about 3 hours, during the operation my heart rate dropped to 50bpm and they had to give me medicine to get my heart rate back to normal. I woke up in recovery in a feeling of sleep paralyze, unable to move, confused as to where I was and why I was there. After 10 minutes I noticed a male nurse whom answered all my questions, explaining I was in recovery. Immediately I looked down under my gown and realized that I indeed /did/ have the surgery, I asked for food with a polite decline, but he did offer a cherry popsicle which I ate flawlessly in my drugged up state. After about 45 minutes they allowed me to use the bathroom, strangely after surgery you can't pee. It's impossible no matter how much you have to go. I whispered sweet commands to my bladder for a few minutes until finally I was able to release a little bit, enough to say I went pee anyways. Afterwards I was brought back into my room, I was reunited with my mother and Jay, after about a half hour I was released and ready to go home. Most of my recovery for the first week was sleeping, taking meds, and laying in bed doing nothing. I had quite a few friends over the first week to help me out as I couldn't do stairs on my own very easily and got winded quite fast. At around the 2 week mark I had a air bubble in my right breast, it made noises when I poked it and sounded like a water bed with air in it, my surgeon assured me it would dissolve on its own and is of no concern. Later on in the 2 week mark I noticed a clear plastic string poking out of my left breast by my arm, naturally I trimmed it and carried on with my life. At about the 3 week mark I noticed it got longer and more and more started coming out. My surgeon again said that this was fine and to simply keep them trimmed back and the problem would solve itself. By the 4 week mark I had realized I had spitting stitches as most of my incisions had opened up and spit out knots and ties of every sort in every area, dissolvable staples also made their way out and I simply pulled them out with tweezers and applied gauze pads and the ointment my surgeon gave me. This painful experience continued until eventually I was able to pull out 6 inch long strings of the internal stitches at a time, which helped the skin heal up on its own and eased my worries. On the left breast in the incision that travels to my nipple was quite open and sore, there was a single stitch poking out and a ton of pinkish yellow fluid draining out, this got so bad I soaked through a entire roll of paper towels within 8 hours, my surgeon who was then 7 hours away told me to keep doing what I've been doing and that everything would be fine. A few days later I was able to pull out the entire stitch causing the drainage, once the hole closed I was on my way to healing once again, from that point forward most of my problems were gone and I was focused on healing my terrible open wounds that were left from the rejecting stitches. I saw my primary care doctor not long after, she ran no tests but told me there was no infection and slapped a bandaid on my breasts and sent me home with a thumbs up. They began to scab up. Started leaking less, and started healing nicely. At the 5 week mark I went off my pain meds, the next day I got sick, flu like symptoms, my right breast swelled up over the course of 4 days, the incisions got swollen and rock hard, I started my period around then so I blamed medication withdrawals and my period on my complications, I was cold all the time, shaking, sweating in my sleep until my bed was soaked, sore throat, but no runny nose or other common sickness symthoms, my stomach was upset but not enough to vomit. My appitite was gone and I could only eat fruit without losing any chance of eating, I had meals prepared for me as I was unable to walk to the kitchen and stand longer than 2 minutes before passing out or fainting, I had terrible migraines the entire time and honestly felt like I was dying. After I started to feel slightly better on the last day of the sickness I noticed that my incision close to the middle of my chest on the right side was rock hard, soft in the middle and black and blue. I went to bed hoping it would get better on its own. I woke up the next morning and cleaned my incisions as usual, I took off my surgical bra and wiped down the skin and wounds, carefully rubbing ointment on them. I felt something warm run down my body, I looked down where my chest was once black and blue and noticed a 2 inch area of my incision had ripped open somehow, I pulled the breast up to have a closer look and it ripped even further, I saw a hole going inches inside my breast, pulsing as the breast tissue ripped apart in front of my own eyes. My father rushed me to the emergancy room where they performed a CAT scan and found 3 fluid pockets in my right breast, they swabbed the wound and it tested positive for infection. The fluid pockets were huge and filled with infection. 30 minutes later the pink and yellow fluid stopped dripping out and I felt a pop as brown chunky pus started to flow out of the hole like a waterfall, covering myself and several nurses with pus. Eventually a surgeon looked at me and told me they would need to transfer me to a different hospital for emergancy surgery as I had a life threatening infection, possibly mrsa. The ambulance got me to the other hospital quickly and ran me to my room on a stretcher, I had several doctors and nurses come in to see what was going on, my father arrived alone by car with a phone charger and a worried look on his face. They took care of me all night as my body was soaking through bandages every half hour to a hour, another hole started leaking as well and squirted out with extrodinary pressure and had to be held down by three nurses. After a long night of antibiotics, fluids, and pain medication the plastic surgeon finally arrived the next morning, said he would need to operate immediately. He unbandaged me to discover another part of my incision had ruptured as pus covered my body as I shivered in disgust, I had three gaping holes in my chest that were oozing everywhere. Finally by 2pm I had two nice sassy ladies change me into a gown, gather me in a bed and rush me down to surgery. When I got there I gave a urine sample and got a shot of valium 4 minutes before they wheeled me into the surgery room, as usual I remember it clearly. I walked up onto the table and laid down, wearing my party hat and drugged up for the second time. By time I was out I was awake again as the surgery took only a half hour. I woke up less dazed and confused as before, the surgeon didn't use internal stitches as my body previously rejected them. He was able to drain my entire pus bubble and I went from a D cup to a 34B just from removing the pus from my breast and I was once again the same size as before the infection started. I had a drain installed in me to drain the fluids in a less disruptive way and was finally discharged on the third day at the hospital, two days later and a ton of pain meds and antibiotics and I'm finally healing more than I ever have in the entire recovery time after my surgery. Even though I'm post op for the second time, this time will be the last time I get the same surgery twice. Finally stable and moving forward, this boy would do it all over again if I had to.

[octopussleep]

Wig Maintenance 101: How to Care and Maintain Your Wig

Legal Disclaimer: All the photos in this article post are courtesy of Adobe Stock and Pixabay. If you need to see copies of the Licenses, I have them on hand.   Although it’s not your own real hair, you still need to take good care of your wigs as if it were your own. Your wig can be washed after you’ve worn it 10 times, or sooner if you wear it every day. Taking care of your wig depends on the type of hair used: if it’s made from human hair brush and/or use fingers to gently remove any tangles, and smoothing them over.   Wash the wig(s) by dipping it in a basin full of water with a small amount of mild shampoo. Swirl your wig for 5-10 minutes, before rinsing in cold water. Pat the wig gently with a towel to remove excess moisture. If you use a brush not designed for wigs, you run a high risk of permanently ruining the fibers. I did this many times and my wig looked like I added volumizer to it, resulting in me having to discard it.   [caption id="attachment_3506" align="alignnone" width="634"] (The brush shown in the photo above uis not the one to use for a wig. There are special brushes with steel pins that are designed specifically for wigs. Refer to photo towards end of this article). [/caption] For optimal results, follow up with a small amount of conditioner and leave in for a few minutes before rinsing. Air dry the wig thoroughly before brushing and styling. When I wash my wigs, I sometimes used human hair conditioner if I didn’t have wig conditioner on hand. Using regular human hair conditioner isn't recommended due to it being formulated for regular human hair.   [caption id="attachment_3507" align="alignnone" width="634"] The above is the result of not caring for your wig properly. A wig should NOT look like this. From my hands-on personal experiences: If the wig is a curly one and the wig has lost its curl, use regular foam hair rollers or the flexi hair rollers as seen in the photo below:[/caption]   As for synthetic hair, the care routine will slightly differ: Start by removing any tangles by using a gentle wig brush and/or fingers. Use a wig shampoo made for synthetic wigs (and not shampoo made for regular human hair). Mix shampoo with a basin full of water as instructed. Gently soak and swirl the wig for five minutes.  You can follow it up with synthetic wig conditioner and the steps are the same as for human hair wigs.   A note of caution for synthetic wigs: hair dryers or any hair tools that use is a big no-no as it can ruin the fibers. I’ve done this twice and the hair either melted or made the hair so dry that combing it made it worse. And conditioning the wig did nothing to return it back to its former style. ****I will later add a photo of a wig of mine that wasn’t properly taken care of****   Styling your wigs     Your wigs can be styled by a brush/comb made for wigs (like the brush seen above), or even a simple as your fingertips. It’s not advisable for you to use the same brush you use for your natural hair, as these brushes can overstretch the tresses, damaging the fibers for good. Adding a dash of fabric softener or spraying water are two great ways of removing static cling from within your wigs. In my opinion, I would use water instead of fabric softener for the health benefits (less chemicals in your natural hair). To keep your wig in top shape, purchase a foam or mannequin wig head. You can buy one either online or in most beauty stores, the lowest costing $4 and the highest I've seen cost $60. If you don't have the space to keep multiple wig heads, store them in the packaging it comes in but don't just stuff it into the plastic bag but carefully place it in the packaging with the top part facing the opening of the bag. Keep the packaged wigs in a cool dark place because heat from any source can permanently ruin the fibers, as I mentioned earlier. So there you have it. Maintaining your wig and keeping it in shape for the long haul takes work. If you don't take care of your wig properly, you'll be purchasing wigs very often.