#man i went on a Kick watching this kind of old gay movie a couple years back

[brelione]

Love and Hate (The Best Boys)

dude come on. you said you’d upload the next chapter on christmas and now it’s been a whole week after and it’s still not out. :(, hi! when are you posting the next chapter of tbb??, tbb????, Are you posting the next chapter of best boys soon? I miss her, when will you be posting the next part of the best boys series??, Ok I’m over TBB I’m just gonna say she ends up with Blah Blah and they live happily ever after, the end. Thank you for the amazing read, it has been fun❤️, TBB is literally the last series I have to finish before I can finally peace out of the shithole that is the OBX fandom for good but like no rush or anything baby❤️,When do you think you’ll be posting the last chapters of TBB?, Hey queen how’s the writing for best boys going, 

Series Masterlist

SHES HEREEEE

Yes, im aware this chapter is all over the place. I went through writing four different versions of this chapter and this is the one that I decided to go with. I know that this one is kind of a little ahfioshviowenvionae but it all comes together next chapter (I already started writing the next chapter). Im so sorry that this is so late. I’ve been having issues for a little bit. My grandfather and my dog passed away and I recently had a relapse and I think that’s why it was taking me so long. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter <3

Warnings:Nothing really, swearing and unedited. Also im sorry if you dont like this chapter but like....yeah.

You were awoken to the sounds of screaming.Topper ended up at the foot of the bed, Kelce still clinging onto you.Rafe was absent from his spot but the mattress was still warm and had a slight dent which let you know that he hadnt been gone long.

You had spent most of the night trying to find the perfect spot on the mattress, one arm thrown over kelce and your heel against the back of Toppers thigh.It seemed like it hadnt been a super long time since the sun had risen which meant that it was probably around seven in the morning by now.

Your heart was thumping in your chest, trying to pay attention to what the voices were shouting.Something about a mess and irresponsibility but you couldnt hear much besides that.Rafe stomped up the stairs, opening his door.He was shirtless, face red from yelling and his eyes slightly watery.You sat up, making Kelce grumble.

 Rafe’s jaw was slightly dropped, his nose beginning to run and his body trembling.“Hey, what happened?”You asked, gaining Kelce’s attention.Topper’s eyes opened slightly, looking over at Rafe.The tall boy didnt say anything, he just dragged his feet across the room and sat back on the bed, mumbling.You were hesitant to grip his hand, squeezing lightly.

He just stared at a wrinkle in the blanket but the sound of something breaking downstairs told you that it had been more than just bickering.Kelce was worried, knowing that his parents had gotten home late last night and would see the mess he had created. “He doesnt want me living here anymore.”Rafe spoke up, a few tears rolling down his cheeks.

You pulled him closer to you, arms around his shoulders as he sobbed, your fingers rubbing against the back of his neck.He squeezed you tightly when he head footsteps coming up the stairs, silently praying to any god that would listen that it wouldnt be Ward.Kelce’s phone kept buzzing but he ignored it, knowing exactly what it was.

He knew that it was coming and he would be lying if he said that he didnt expect it, nervous the whole night as he waited for his phone to blow up.“What are you gonna do?”Topper asked.As much as you wanted to scold him for asking that when Rafe clearly didnt want to talk about it it was still something that you had also been wondering.

Rafe didnt answer, taking in a deep, shaky breath that hurt his ribs before picking up his head and looking over to his friend. “I dont know.”He admitted.His voice hurt your heart, the realisation kicking in that there wasnt really many places that he could go.

Kelce’s phone buzzed again, all of your eyes falling on him.He sighed, glancing at his screen.He had missed calls from his parents, dozens of text in all caps telling him to come home immediately. “They found the door.”He replied, keeping his voice calm.A new wave of silence washed over the room, not knowing what to say to that.

Your eyes watered as you remembered how simple life was a few weeks ago, all of you eating breakfast, watching criminal minds and laughing as Topper recorded it all on his snapchat.Now everything was completely falling apart.You didnt say anything, trying to think of a solution.Rafe couldnt go to Kelce’s house or Topper’s house since Topper’s mother had one of those security cameras outside of her home and she’d recognize him immediately.

She was still pissy about Topper’s accident, she’d explode if he let friends over. “SO what happens now?”Topper asked.You were all out of ideas.A simple drive or icecream or a movie couldnt solve any of this. “I mean...think about it.We’re adults, right?Child protective services cant stop us if we leave.”Kelce muttered.Rafe nodded, snapping his fingers.

 “Yeah, yeah!You’re right.”He agreed, causing your eyes to widen.They were acting insane. They couldnt be serious about just getting up and leaving forever, right? “No, no hes not.We cant just-we cant just leave!”You exclaimed.They were actually going crazy.How could they even think like that? “Why?What do you have here, (Y/N)?”He asked.You paused, thinking about it.

You didnt really have anything.You had your house of course but other than that you had nothing but memories and your boys.You didnt want to admit that he was right, letting out a quiet sigh. “But leaving forever isnt the answer.”You muttered.Rafe rubbed your back, shaking his head. “Doesnt have to be forever, baby.”He answered. 

“But- but just cause we arent kids doesnt mean we cant be registered as missing people.They’ll come after us.”You told them.You knew that nobody outside of this room actually cared about you enough to report you as missing but you were scrambling through your thoughts, desperately hunting for a reason to stay on the shitty island that you had learned to love so much.Topper shrugged, not really caring. 

“Guys, guys. Okay, look. You’re all fucked, ill admit it. But thats fine! Are you guys forgetting that I still have a house- you guys can just stay there until this whole thing blows over just like you always have!”You reminded them, hoping they’d agree. “This isnt gonna blow over, (Y/N). I cant come back here.”Rafe told you, becoming aggravated. 

“THEN MOVE IN! All of you guys, you can just move in, okay? You dont have to leave- I still have my moms money! We’ll figure it out as we go and…. And it’ll be fine.”You insisted. “Move in with you?”Rafe asked. You nodded, wiping your nose. “You practically live with me already, it wont be that different.”You told him, gripping his hand.

 It was a messy blur as Rafe packed his things, grabbing anything that he thought could be important. A photo of his mother, his birth certificate and diploma, laptop and ipad, the Frozen ll record. Kelce and Topper just watched, neither of them ready for anything like this so early in the morning. 

Maybe if you werent so tired and upset you wouldnt have said it, but here you were in Rafe’s truck, a dufflebag full of his things at your feet with the boys in the backseat as he drove to your house, a few tears rolling down his cheeks as the thoughts finally took over his brain. Kelce had got aggravated and shut down his phone entirely, staring out the window. 

The last thing you were expecting was to come down your road only to see a car that was practically falling apart already in your driveway, a tall man with his hands over his forehead as he tried to look in your windows. “What the fuck….”Rafe muttered, reaching for the door handle when you gripped his hand. “Dont, we dont know what he’s doing.”You told him, hoping he’d listen.

 Turns out he wasnt the one you had to worry about, Kelce swinging his door open and sprinting up your driveway before anyone could even stop him. Wherever Kelce went Topper went, the boy struggling to get the seatbelt over his cast before jumping out of the truck and nearly falling into a puddle. “ESCUSE ME! MR SIR! WHAT ARE YOU DOING LOOKING IN MY HOUSE?”Kelce shouted, purposely making his voice deeper.

 The man turned, confused as to why two half asleep teenage boys were walking towards him. “Your house?”The man asked. “Yes, sir. You ever heard of a gay couple before?”Topper asked, making Kelce break character for a moment. 

“Well, no, its not that. Its just that I thought this was someone elses house.”The man muttered, confused. You had slid down your seat, hoping that the man wouldnt see you. “He’s about to leave.”Rafe whispered. 

“Who’s the other guy in the car?”The man asked, pointing to Rafe’s figure. Kelce glanced over at Topper with wide eyes, trying to think. “Our son.”Kelce replied, cringing the moment he said it. The man only looked more confused, looking between the two boys. “How old are you guys?”The man asked, clearly not buying their story. 

“Excuse me? Are you saying that we’re too old to have a son? I did not spend years training for a medical degreee to have some random old man come and tell us how old our son can be!”Topper exclaimed.  “I didnt spend years trying to find a surrogate and figuring out a way to make a robot nanny for this!”He sighed, trying his best not to smile.

“Could you please leave the property before we call the police?”Kelce asked. The man was beyond confused at this point, quickly making his way to his shitty car before slowly backing out of the driveway, eyes still scanning the area before he gave up and went down the street. 

You let out a sigh of relief, moving to get up when Rafe placed his hand on top of your head to keep you down. “Hes coming around again.”He whispered to you, taking in a shaky breath and holding it in his lungs as the car passed a second time. Topper and Kelce were standing by the door, staring at Rafe almost as telling him to get out and make a run for it.

 “Open the door in 3...2…”You didnt wait, jumping out and running towards the house, typing in the key pad as quick as you could, Topper’s hand pushing you inside. “Here he comes again!”He exclaimed, coming in right behind you along with the others before Rafe slammed the door shut and locked it, letting out a laugh.

 “Oh god, that was scary.”He chuckled. Kelce and Topper nodded as well, eventually laughing. “Was that my dad?”You asked. “Maybe.”Topper answered. Now that you thought about it, your dad didnt same important. Nothing did. You lived on a huge rock that’s floating around space and you’re concerned about your dad when your boyfriends best friends are moving in.

 “What’d you tell him?”You asked. “We told him that we’re a gay couple, Topper’s a doctor and Rafe is our child.”Kelce replied. You giggled, snorting. “I mean, as you should.”You replied. “Hell yeah.”Kelce grinned. Topper tapped at his arm. “Bro, you wanna get married?”Topper asked. Kelce laughed again, nodding.

 “I’ll get baptised and get you guys married!”Rafe volunteered, all of you turning to look at him. “Did you just say baptised?”Kelce asked. Rafe nodded, eyebrows furrowing. “Is that not the right word?”He asked. Topper shook his head. “The word is ordained.”He informed the tall boy. “He’s trying his best.”You replied, sitting down on the chair that you werent used to sitting in. 

“You think he’s gonna come back?”You asked. Topper groaned, sitting down. “Well, I hope not. I dont want my husband and I to have to fight him.”He grinned. You rolled your eyes, changing positions in the chair. “Did he look like me?”You asked, leaning your head against the arm rest, groaning when Rafe pushed your legs aside and sat down with you.

 “Not really… he had rat tails for eyebrows.”Kelce replied, putting his fingers over his eyebrows. “Do I have rat tail eyebrows?”You asked, grinning when Rafe reached forward and poked your eyebrow, a chuckle slipping past his lips. “You wish.”He replied. “Fuck off.”You answered. “Dont be fucking rude.”He grinned, kissing you quickly before pulling away with a small smile. 

You were shocked, trying to hide your surprise. It wasnt like you werent used to kissing Rafe by now, it was just that he had never done it in front of the boys before. They looked nearly as confused as you, the thought of Rafe kissing you in front of them never even being a concern until now. They were used to him getting most of your love and attention but that had just stirred something within them. 

“So how are we gonna do this? I dont know about you guys but im not going back to my house anytime soon.”Kelce announced. Rafe lifted his head, looking over to the boy. “You could always sneak in your own window to grab your things...maybe wait until theyre at work. What about you, Top?”Rafe asked, turning his attention to the blonde boy. 

“What do I have at my house that I need? Like, really need.”He asked, grinning when none of you could answer. “Problem solved.”He replied. “What time is it?”Rafe asked, breaking the silence. “Ten.”Kelce replied, closing his eyes as he leaned against the couch. “Im going upstairs to take a nap then.”Topper yawned, slowly making his way down the hall into the first floor guest room. 

It was arguably the worst since it also worked as your moms office, a queen bed pushed into the corner. You wiggled out of Rafe’s grip, smiling when he whined. You went into the kitchen, grabbing a poptart. For the situation you felt rather calm, opening the silver package and taking a bite of one of the sweet pastries. 

The energy in the house felt different than it had yesterday. You werent sure why, maybe it was just the comfort of knowing that the boys were going to be living with you now and you wouldnt have to worry as much about Rafe or Topper’s relationship with his mom. 

“So how are we gonna handle this?”Kelce asked, confusing you. “The house, I mean. You have this whole house and like...30 million dollars. We can literally redecorate however we want, maybe even clean out your moms office if youre okay with it.”He suggested. 

You nodded, the idea of getting the memory of your mother cleansed from your life sounded appealing. His excitement took over as he opened his amazon prime app, looking for new decor. “How do you feel about your moms room?”He asked, not wanting to push your limits. You shrugged, swallowing part of the pastry. “Shes not using it.”You replied, surprised by how morbid you sounded. 

He simply nodded, shifting in his seat as he added things to his cart. “Can we redo your room? It’s been the same color since we were fourteen.”Rafe suggested. You shrugged, not really caring. You didnt spend a large amount of time in your bedroom anyways. You scrolled through your phone for a few minutes, seeing a little red bubble next to your messaging app that let you know that you had gotten a text. Curious, you opened it. 

As soon as you saw who it was a pit grew in your stomach, eyes widening. It was her. “Sweet words, (Y/N).”The text read. You knew that it was your uncle just trying to mess with you but it still caused your anxiety to skyrocket, deciding to block the number and place your phone between your thighs, taking in a deep breath through your nose. 

Topper dragged his feet, coming out of the room with a frown. “That’s the most uncomfortable bed in all of history.”He muttered, sitting down on the couch instead. “You can go upstairs.’You reminded him, feeling your phone buzz against your inner thigh. 

He just hummed, leaning his head against the back of the couch. “How long was I in there?”He asked. “Literally not even ten minutes.”Kelce replied, still scrolling. “Did I miss anything?”Topper asked. You didnt reply, breaking off another piece of the poptart. “We’re gonna redecorate the house.”Kelce answered. Topper nodded, lifting his head.

 “Does that mean that office too?”Topper asked. You nodded, staring at a spot on your carpet. “Does that mean we get to open the file cabinet in the guest room?”He asked, all of you looking over at him. The thought made you feel nauseous. Even if she wasnt here to yell at you you knew that opening the file cabinet would still scare you anyways. 

“If theres a dead body in there I swear to god-”You muttered, earning a chuckle from Rafe. “A body couldnt fit in there.”he replied, making your eyebrows furrow. “How do you know where bodies can fit?”You asked. “No, no. Like, its not….well...maybe a raccoon body.”He admitted. “Rafe!”You exclaimed, smacking his thigh. 

He rolled his eyes, pulling you into his lap. “There’s no raccoon body.”He answered. “I think theres a raccoon body.”Kelce replied. “Theres not.”You answered. Topper grinned, skipping into the room and beginning to open the cabinet, the three of you following him. “Okay, who votes raccoon body?”He asked, his hand on the knob. 

Kelce raised his hand, grabbing your arm to make you hold your hand up as well. “Ready?”Topper asked before pulling the door open, looking into it. His face fell immediately, not expecting this. “What?”You asked, stepping past Kelce and looking into the cabinet.Guns were being held by small metal pieces, multiple clear bags full of plants and needles on the floor, bullets on sashes hanging with the guns.

 The two of you just stared, ignoring Rafe and Kelce until they came up behind you, equally as confused. “What the fuck?”Rafe asked, seeing the bags. Kelce slammed the doors shut, locking it. “We’re not telling anyone about this, right?”He asked, looking at all of you. “What are we gonna do with all that? We cant just keep it here!”Topper argued. 

Rafe shrugged, resting his elbow on your shoulder. “We smoke the weed and throw the guns in the river, obviously.”Rafe answered. “We’re not smoking weed, Rafe.”You answered. “Well your mom didnt have a liscense to carry, right?”Kelce asked. You shook your head, figuring it would be hung up somewhere in the house to remind you of the power she had.

 “Right, okay. So we cant call the cops and we cant keep it here.”Kelce answered, clicking the lock on the cabinet. “What’d your mom even do for a living?”Topper asked. You frowned, thinking back. You never really knew what your mother did, you just stayed quiet and hoped you wouldnt make her angry. She’d disappear for months, money would appear in your bank account, she’d pay the bills aned thats all you needed to know. 

She’d have long phone calls with people in her office, grounding you if you even dared to listen. “I dont know.”You replied, cringing at how stupid you sounded. “She has these cabinets all over the house, doesnt she?”Kelce asked. “The one in her room is actual files.”You told him, hoping that there were no sorts of hidden things in her room.

 “Should we go check?” Rafe asked, out of the room with a grin before any of you could even answer. You sighed, slightly annoyed that he was treating this like a scavenger hunt. “Its been here this whole time, im sure nothings gonna happen.”Kelce assured you, patting you on the shoulder before his fingers tickled your arm and wrist, gripping your hand and bringing you upstairs. 

“I ordered some tapestries, succulents, fake vines and some new blankets for our new movie room.”He told you, nearly slipping up. “Movie room?”You asked, nearly slipping on the stairs. “Your mom has a big tv, I figured it could be like a second living room if you’re comfortable with that.”He answered, pausing at the top of the stairs so he could wait for you. 

Rafe was in your mother’s room, carefully pulling on the drawers, eventually finding out that the top one was locked. He looked over at you, silently asking if you knew where the key was. You shook your head, letting go of Kelce’s hand and opening the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. 

Your mother kept most of your medical documents and anything like that to herself along with basically everything that proved you existed. Baby photos, ultra sounds, old school tests. “We could just move it into the other guest room.”Rafe muttered, hoping he wasnt making you upset. You ignored him, looking through all the little colored tags, your eyes falling on a silver tag, your eyebrows furrowing. No other ones had that color. 

You picked it up, sitting down and reading it over. The words were all bundled together, ink scratches and smudges told you that it wasnt a serious document. The only word you could make out was ‘arsonist’. Nothing else was eligible. “Can we take it right now?”You asked, placing the paper on the floor and closing the drawer. Rafe nodded, Kelce grabbing one side while Rafe grabbed the other. Topper grinned, leaning against your mothers unused desk.

 “I would help but my arms broken.”he laughed, watching as Kelce struggled, walking backwards. “Some moral support would be great.”Kelce rolled his eyes. You grinned, slowly clapping. “Great job, guys. You’re doing great moving that illegal file cabinet.”You held back a laugh. They turned carefully, shuffling as they eventually got to the guest bedroom.

 “How do you feel about this?”Topper asked, sitting down on the chair. You sighed, shrugging. “I mean, you know. Its not that I dont love the idea of you guys being here but like… its the circumstances.”You answered, sighing when he pulled you closer with his good arm, rubbing your back. “Thanks a lot for this, though. Like in all seriousness im really grateful that you’re in my life.”He blushed, looking up at you. You smiled, kissing his nose lightly.

 “I mean, I do provide you with half of the drama in your life.”You giggled, kissing him gently. “Where does the other half come from?”He asked. You shrugged, sighing. “Probably you.”You answered. “I cant believe you’d say that to me! You know im at a bad place in life and you put me in this terrible situation when you know that!”He fake cried, bursting into laughter. 

“Kourtney dont laugh at me!”You exclaimed. You felt a vibration under your feet, hearing a loud, dramatic sigh and the sound of skin colliding. They had successfully moved the file cabinet, the door closing as their loud footsteps hit the floor as they entered your mother’s room again. Rafe took a moment to look around, sometimes forgetting that the room even existed. 

It was the biggest room in the house, the ceiling going up at least twenty feet with only glass separating the room from the outside world. His mind wandered, thinking of all the fun nights the two of you could have in here watching the stars or listening to the rain.

 The bed was large and still, the blankets and sheets unwrinkled and untouched. He understood why you were creeped out by the house now, feeling like he didnt belong in the room. You all took turns trying to figure out what the writing said, eventually deciding that it probably wasnt even in english. “Should we put it through google translate?”Rafe asked, staring at the paper. 

Kelce shook his head. “Nah, its not reliable. I tried using it for spanish class in freshman year and I got detention.”He replied. “Well thats definitely not spanish. Maybe its like…. Ancient text.”Topper suggested, causing you to frown. “I highly doubt that my mother would know an ancient text. 

Maybe we should just leave it.”You answered. Although you werent exactly satisfied with it you just didnt feel like spending your time trying to decode a random paper. They didnt seem satisfied either but didnt want to push you, putting the paper down on the desk where it would be safe from your footsteps. 

Of course the boys just couldnt stay at the same place for long periods of time, deciding to suggest that you guys go out to a store to get some paint for the boring walls. You agreed, the four of you getting into your car instead of Rafe’s truck, locking all the doors and windows before you left. 

Kelce didnt suggest a McDonalds run which caused you to frown, knowing that he was probably too stressed to want to eat. You guys went into Walmart with one goal, heading right for the paint section and looking at the wall of colors. “Lets get four colors and kind of just make it up as we go.”Kelce muttered, looking at all the different shades.

 “We could all pick one out.”Topper suggested, reaching forward and picking a bright green. You agreed, picking a shade of light purple, watching as Kelce picked the color toffee biscuits and Rafe went for cotton blue. You doubted any of the colors would actually look good together but that wasnt the point of the project. 

It was more about making the room look fun rather than nice. Kelce grabbed a few large paint brushes, the four of you leaving before you could get distracted by anything that you didnt need. Topper decided to get right to work, spilling some paint on the floor as he dragged the brush along the wall, creating bright stripes.

 “I have an artistic vision! Trust the process!”He exclaimed, feeling your judgemental eyes on him. You didnt say anything, watching Kelce struggle to connect his phone to your speaker, playing the first song on his playlist. 

Line without a hook. Topper looked over at you, almost like he was silently asking you if you had told the boys about his top secret playlist. You shrugged, not wanting to give anything away to the others.

 “Oh my god, I love this song.”Rafe dunked his brush in the light blue, making a smiley face on the wall. “Can I paint an onion?”He asked. You raised your eyebrows, not understanding why he wanted to put an onion on the wall. 

“Ogres are like onions! We have layers!”Kelce laughed. “Who is we? Are you an ogre, Kelce?”Topper asked, not taking his eyes off of the bright stripes, painting a circle on the top. “Topper Harry Katherine Thornton, are you painting a penis on my wall?”You asked, connecting the dots. 

He grinned, ignoring you. “Of course not.”He replied, painting frantically so that you couldnt stop him, green drops rolling down the wall. You picked up your paint brush, painting two circles quicklly before pushing the brush into the center of each, laughing to yourself.

 “Guys, really?”Rafe asked. “Cant we make the wall wholesome?”He asked. You shook your head, a smile on your face. “Says you of all people, Rafe.”You shook your head. “She got you there.”Topper replied, dragging the brush across the painting and blending it out so there was no longer a penis on your wall. 

“What are you doing now?”You asked, wanting to one up him. “What are you doing now?” He mocked you. Somehow you ended up splashing Topper with paint and getting tackled into the mattress as he held the paintbrush over you, trying to get the bright green liquid on your face while you held his arm back. 

“Im gonna murder you!”You laughed, rolling over under him so your face was against the mattress. “Im gonna paint your hair!”He laughed, holding the brush just above it. “Topper, dont mess with her hair.”Kelce took the brush away. 

Topper groaned, falling next to you on the mattress. His eyes were closed, the sun from the window casting a beautiful glow over his face, a small smile tugging at the side of his mouth. You pressed a kiss to his cheekbone, your arm resting on his torso. 

It didnt take long for painting to be forgotten, a few cheap bristles sticking to the wall with messes of colorful lines and unfilled shapes. The song changed, followed by a loud gasp from Rafe. “This is my favorite song!”He smiled, hitting his knees with his fists repeatedly. 

He didnt know what about it made him so happy, whenever he heard it it reminded him of you guys. “You know what we should do?”Topper asked. “No.”Kelce replied while Rafe rewinded the song to listen to his favorite part again. 

“We should make soup. Like, spicy soup with potatoes.”He replied, mouth watering. “We could just order soup.”Kelce replied, not in the mood to go downstairs and hunt for ingredients. “Order soup from where?”Topper asked. Kelce simply shrugged, shifting around and putting his arms under his body.

That had been a week ago. Since then a lot had happened. You guys had developed a system, Kelce could do his laundry on Saturdays, Rafe on Mondays and Topper’s just got mixed in with yours.

 It was a love and hate relationship to have them there with you. You didnt regret your decision but sometimes things would get difficult. Grocery shopping was the worst since nobody could decide what they wanted and you had all agreed not to eat out as much. 

“We need an actual meal, we cant just eat chips for everything.”Topper would grumble, realising he didnt even really know how to cook. That just lead to late flights of searching for recipes o pinterest and watching Gordon Ramsey tiktoks until they decided to try and make bake and shake chicken. That didnt really work out well, having to open all of your windows and get the smoke out of your house. 

Then you guys decided to take a new approach, finding a ton of frozen pizzas and ingredients for sushi. Kelce was the only one who had any idea of what he was doing since he had always been talented in the kitchen, specifically with breakfast. That became more of a safe meal for you guys, making extra food in the morning to eat later for dinner until you got sick of toast, eggs and bacon. 

Kelce ended up banishing you all to the pool so that he could decorate properly, vines hanging from the door ways and landscape tapestries hanging in your living room, hallway and your mother’s old bedroom. “How long do you think he’s gonna be?”You asked, floating on your back in the shallow end, letting out a yelp when Topper grabbed you and dragged you to the deep end. 

“I dont know, probably like three days.”He replied, finally letting go once you were in the middle of the pool. “We could survive three days in the pool.”You replied, watching Rafe shake his head. “With my allergy to the sun?”He asked, making you turn over, going underwater for a moment. “You dont even sunburn.”You told him, splashing water in his direction before swimming away quickly so that he couldnt get back at you.

 Kelce kept getting calls from his parents that were asking him to come home but he never did. They knew where he was, if they wanted him back so badly they’d drive over and take him away. “Guys, i’ve finished my creation.”Kelce announced, coming outside. “So we can come in now?”Topper asked, gripping the ledge of the pool and pulling himself out, falling onto his stomach as he struggled to get up.

 “Yes, you can come in now! Hurry!”Kelce yelled excitedly before going back inside, waiting impatiently for you guys to hurry. Rafe helped you out of the pool, tossing you your towel so that you wouldnt trail water through your house. “Guys! Come on!”Kelce shouted again, the three of you walking across the hot pavement quickly.

 “I’ll clean up the water after- just come see what I did!”He said again. You rolled your eyes, walking into the house. Goosebumps formed on y0our skin from the cool air, eyes widening as you looked at the kitchen. He had bought a plaid tablecloth for the table, vines hanging from the ceiling and doorways, a tie dye tapestry hanging in your living room. It looked like he had taken the time to wipe down every surface and vacuum any mess of broken spaghetti or eggshells that had been kicked under the fridge.

 “Do you like it?”He asked, unable to read your shocked expression. “Kelce, im gonna be honest with you. I feel like im in pixie hollow right now.”You grinned, making him smile. “I think thats a good thing- but upstairs is better!’He exclaimed before making his way up the stairs. He was right. 

There were marble heart shaped tiles hanging on the walls of the hall, a sign on the new hangout spot that was made out of drift wood. He opened the door, revealing bean bag chairs on the floor, a new carpet, a light yellow canopy hanging over the bed that had all new sheets and blankets on it as well. 

He had even somehow managed to fix the paint on the wall so that there were different colored polka dots all over it. The boys seemed equally impressed, still taking it in. You hugged Kelce, not even caring that you’d get his clothes wet. “So I did good?” He asked, hugging you back. “You always do good.”You replied, feeling him hug you tighter.

 “So you’re happy?”He asked, letting out a small sigh when you nodded. “I am happy, Kelce.”you replied, kissing him lightly. He smiled against you, taking in a deep breath. “I found a new recipe for fancy grilled cheese.”He told you, kissing your forehead. This was something that you loved about having them live with you.

@sweetlittlegingy​    @nicolefarley603 @ilikealotofpeople-younotsomuch @newsies-yeet​ @butgilinsky​ @jjjmaybank​ @gracelovesbroadway​  @one-stella @spn-marvel-nerd @lovelyelinor​ @chinamolina602  @sexytholland @28cnn  @popcrone818 @fttayla @cherryobx​ @n1ghtsh4d3-67​ @drewstarkeyobx​ @poguestyleskye​ @judayyyw​ @jjtheangel @jj-iz-bae@sunwardsss @meaganjm  @sarcasticsagittarius1998​ @natalie-kate-98​ @nxsmss​ @broken-jj @joshy-obx @classygirlything  @annmariek8​ @stupidpendeja​ @killjoyybsinner @pink-meringues @outerbongs​  @copper-boom​  @httpstarkey​ @teenwaywardasgardian   @simonsbluee  @deionswannabegirl​ @jiaraendgame  @khiaraaa-in-spacee​  @on-socks-off  @abbiesthings @kindahavefeelingskindaheartless @dmonchld​​@annmariek8 @harryswigss​ @ibookofstars​  @lostaurorax​​ @cheshirecat107​​​

[potatowitch]

finding out that the star wars sequel series was written on the fly rather than actually planned out makes so much fucking sense but also pisses me off EVEN MORE because i watched the force awakens in 2016 and within a day of leaving the cinema had a fully fleshed out idea in my head of the direction the next two films would take and the plot points they would cover, all brainstormed in the shower. 16 year old me was more capable of writing a cohesive storyline than disney was. so here you are - i rewrote the sequels to be ten times better than what disney actually gave us. enjoy.

- after rey finds luke they train for a bit then he's like "gotta tell u something. u ever heard of mara jade? she's ur mum" "wait weren't u two dating for a bit" "yeah" "does that mean ur...." "...yeah"

- "why did u leave me on jakku?" "i didnt. she did. i only just learned u existed i wouldve come for u" "oh."

- "...can i call u dad or" "i would be honored if u did"

- meanwhile at the resistance base leia realises finn is force sensitive, gives him her old lightsaber she had in the comics

- because come on. rewatch the force awakens and tell me that man aint fuckin feeling the "shitloads of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced" when starkiller goes off

- and he picks up a lightsaber and instinctively knows how to use it?

- also: two main heroes in a star wars film being a queer coded woman and a queer coded black man.

- and the whole "used to be a stormtrooper and defected, becomes a jedi" is a TOTALLY NEW storyline? not some tired old "white boy villain is a dick for three movies then suddenly turns Good TM right at the end" trope

- make rey explicitly asexual. she's beautiful and smart and got abs that make everyone who sees them MELT but she is NOT INTERESTED in anything but JUSTICE and PLATONIC HUGS

- finn and poe are also making out because come on, disney, if u wanted to show you're becoming more progressive having a loving interracial gay romance is the fucking easiest way to do it. BB8 has two dads and they share The Jacket

- turns out finn is a kenobi because u cannot tell me obi wan didnt Fuck. jedi code says "dont form attachments" but watch the clone wars - obi wan plays fast and loose w the jedi code at the best of times. now we got a skywalker and a kenobi working together being best buds again, THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.

- the destruction of starkiller has crippled the first order. don't fucking look at me like "the resistance just won a major, VERY VISIBLE victory but OOO no somehow they're still very low on numbers and infrastructure" NO. the public destruction of starkiller has earned the resistance an influx of allies. the republic has started publicly supporting them. the first order spent years building that thing and now not only is all that time, effort and MONEY gone, they lost a shitload of staff and military personnel when it blew up

- "the first order is rich" is a plot point I DO NOT UNDERSTAND because it directly contradicts what's going on in the expanded universe books. the first order was built from remnants of the empire that had been banished to the outer reaches of the galaxy to live out of broken down, shitty old star destroyers.

- it's the reason hux, who was raised in a decrepit old academy in the ass end of the universe by an abusive father, is SO anti republic. in his head, it's the reason he starved as a child. it's the reason his mother is dead. it's the reason he had to be raised by a father that beat him. his hatred for the republic is PERSONAL

- disney learn how to write a good villain challenge? hux EASILY could have been terrifying AND sympathetic

- hux and kylo now have to deal with how absolutely PISSED snoke is that both of them failed with starkiller. hux gets force choked and threatened. kylo gets snoke very painfully rooting around in his head. it is emphasised that snoke's relationship with these two is downright abusive.

- somewhere in there, they realise that the whole five years they've known each other snoke has been deliberately pitting them against each other and sneakily forcing them to undermine each other's authority

- they realise it was snoke's shitty leadership that lead to the destruction of starkiller. they realise that maybe they'd be better off on their own

- the two of them plot to murder snoke themselves. while this is happening, the resistance is happily building an army, gathering resources, and forming alliances. luke and rey have reunited with the resistance and now rey and finn are both happily training with luke.

- snoke dies. hux decides to take the mantle of emperor. kylo LETS HIM because he realises he doesn't know shit about fuck when it comes to leading anything more than his knights. has a crisis of confidence about how useful he actually is, then hux decides he wants to keep the knights of ren around as his personal "fuck up the resistance" squad.

- the two of them working together turn out to be fucking terrifying, competent villains. the films have short, five to ten minute sections where they explore their VERY SIMILAR traumas to make them sympathetic WITHOUT making them seem like "uwu they're not actually bad people" because THEY'RE STILL AWFUL GENOCIDAL MASS MURDERERS

- on the kylo trauma side: it's made obvious in the books that from about age 6 snoke has been in his head deliberately grooming him away from his family. make that obvious in the films. make its impact on kylo obvious in how unsure of himself he actually is. don't make his "redemption arc" one where he suddenly goes light side. give him a bastardisation arc where he realises his whole life he has never made a choice - and then make THE FIRST ORDER his choice. (it is the wrong choice! emphasise that! but make him MAKE THAT CHOICE)

- the resistance thinks they're doing well. they have two new jedi. they've seen very little of the first order outside of small operations that they've been squashing. they think "hm. starkiller's loss must have crippled them. we're doing well!"

- until they learn actually. they've got an emperor now. and the commander of the knights of ren is INCREDIBLY loyal to him. the first order is PISSED OFF and VENGEFUL. they're back with a force. they've started invading and subjugating planets even with their forces cut as thin as they are because hux is a military mastermind and kylo and the knights of ren are a fucking TERRIFYING unit in combat.

- also why did disney decide to present hux in the films as a weak pissbaby when he probably topped his class in all combat situations and fights dirty in close quarters. man can SNIPE. man will bite your fucking finger off if you manage to disarm him. he is a 6 foot beanpole and he will kick your ass

- kylo has a crisis about actually having to kill his mother, uncle and cousin. he still feels a bit bad about han - despite everything, he still loves them and is struggling. he actually confides in his knights about this. we get to see that the knights of ren have a found family dynamic with their commander and they comfort him.

- kylo realises it will be painful to murder the last of his bio family but it must be done, because he's come around to hux's view that the resistance and the republic are standing in the way of true peace in the galaxy. he actually believes that reinstating an empire is the best thing for the galaxy. this makes him a more effective villain because he actually believes what he's doing is right.

- more stormtroopers defect to the resistance. finn is there to welcome them and help them adjust. there's a couple of lowkey force sensitive troopers in there too. we learn more about how horrible, soul crushing and traumatic stormtrooper training is. this is a good way to keep painting the first order as an organisation that violates human rights and the geneva convention at every turn.

- the first order makes up for this loss of troops in picking up recruits from the planets they've taken over in the outer rim because they've been providing stability. again - it is SO EASY to write the first order as sympathetic villains WHO ARE STILL FASCIST ASSHOLES. this would've been such a good opportunity to show the moral argument between stability vs freedom. show the flaws in the republic because they do exist!! we see that throughout the ENTIRE expanded universe! every iteration of the republic fails in some way!

- the fight against the first order becomes increasingly more difficult, but they're actually on pretty even ground. it doesn't make sense to me that disney decided to go for the route of "the resistance should've been squished easily by the might of the first order but uwu kylo can't make up his mind and thats what saves them!" that is not a compelling storyline! they are relatively evenly matched and the resistance only JUST comes out on top!

- kylo kills luke in actual combat, not just "luke randomly dissolves for ... no good reason?". this hits the resistance HARD. rey and finn have to struggle with their desire for revenge. leia realises her son is beyond help. it nearly breaks her. she has a moment where she feels like she has lost everything. poe has to step in to remind her she still has him. it is revealed that he joined the resistance after the first order killed his family HORRIBLY when he was a teenager and he and leia sort of have a mother/son relationship.

- this is also a good way to juxtapose hux and kylo. they took their trauma and it made them awful. poe takes his trauma and it makes him kind. it makes him want to protect people from what he went through. also gets rid of the "haha we made the latino man have a drug dealer background" bullshit that disney did

- poe also has to comfort his boyfriend and best friend and remind them that they are fighting to make the galaxy a better place, NOT for revenge. then they have a discussion about "yeah, don't make revenge your main priority, but the jedi were a bit wrong in saying that you shouldn't enjoy it anyway. it's going to feel good to fucking murder kylo and that's okay". acknowledgement that the old jedi code was garbage and too restrictive for actual PEOPLE to follow it.

- kylo still can't kill leia or chewie. we get flashbacks of her singing to him, braiding his hair, comforting him after nightmares. we see baby ben riding on chewie's shoulders. seeing the conflict between kylo recognising his family loved him and still choosing to be a villain would have RUINED ME. he tells hux this, expecting hux to shoot him for it. hux understands - he had a mother, once. the republic killed her.

- (they actually didn't. she was an imperial slave and was probably left behind when an imperial settlement was being razed. the only reason hux actually survived was because he was his father's only heir. there's a whole spiel in the books about brendol going "this kid is a piece of shit bastard i dont want him" and imperial officials being like "the empire needs kids. go pick him up")

- hux decides to kill leia instead. he nearly dies doing so because woman is STILL a force to be reckoned with even at this age. remember she is actually trained to use a lightsaber AND guns. the only reason hux doesn't die? kylo steps in at the last minute and kills his own mother. he's made his choice. he mourns, and then he steels. there is nothing left to pull him to the light side anymore.

- anakin has given up trying to bring his grandson to the light from beyond the grave. him and obi wan are focusing their force ghost attention on rey and finn. now luke and leia are both there too. we get the same "all my jedi ancestors are rooting for me" moment that disney gave us, except now it's shared between rey and finn.

- the two of them plus chewie cut through the knights of ren until they get to kylo. he kicks the living shit out of them, but they manage to kill him. rey earns some gnarly, sexy scars. chewie needs a hug and goddamn does he get one.

- poe is the one to kill hux. he's not just doing it for the galaxy, he's doing it for leia. the first order already stole his first family from him. he won't lose his second family to them. bonus points if BB8 joins the fight and like ... tases hux in the leg a few times.

- we get some gratuitous "c3p0 and r2 are sneaking through an imperial base and fucking shit up but like, badly because 3p0 never stops talking" scenes

- you want to bring rose tico into it? she's head of the resistance's infiltration team. she's with the droids taking down shields, stabbing people in the back, freeing prisoners, stealing plans, sowing chaos. she's the one who finally takes down phasma.

- without their emperor and the knights of ren, the new empire crumbles pretty quickly. the resistance has taken HEAVY losses but they have won. we get a very beautiful funeral scene for luke and leia. there's a gorgeous group hug between finn, rey, poe, chewie and bb8. poe and finn smooch against the sunset.

- we see finn and rey going into crystal caves to get kyber crystals. poe, chewie, bb8, r2 and 3P0 wait outside the cave in the falcon for them to be done picking up their crystals, then we see finn and rey inside the falcon building their new lightsabers with guidance from a bunch of force ghosts. we get to see that rey has chosen to decorate the inside of the falcon with a bunch of potted plants so she can be surrounded by greenery at all time. the found family aesthetic is STRONG

- rey builds a saber pike. it comes out golden. finn builds a standard single blade saber that comes out white, like ahsoka's. gold to emphasise protection of the weak and the perfect blend of combat and scholarly pursuits. white to emphasise free will from both the jedi and the sith. it is emphasised that these two will NOT be your traditional jedi.

- we see an epilogue where poe is working to help shift the republic's focus from political squabbling to actually protecting its citizens. he leads reconstruction efforts, helps establish more of a presence in the outer rim, constantly fights for moving resources from protecting the republic's assests to providing food, shelter and safety to its citizens.

- finn is constantly by his side. we see him protecting his new husband, on the front lines destroying remnants of the empire and the first order, and using his combat prowess to absolutely murder slave owners.

- rey has taken to training new force sensitives with chewie by her side, however she recognises the jedi code has been failing force sensistives for millennia, and instead her teachings are more aligned with the grey jedi philosophy. she recognises that people feel anger, hate, grief - and that they are all valid emotions. it's what you choose to do with them that is important.

- she actively encourages personal connection, believing that loving your friends and family is righteous and the true path to the light side. her apprentices all adore her, and she is always there for them - she'll listen to their worries, from something as small as "i am 13 years old and my first crush just rejected me" to "i am a former slave coming to you after the first order murdered my family and tortured me. i am having nightmares and am afraid of the anger i feel".

- she encourages apprentices to stay in contact with their family, and she becomes that family for the ones who have lost theirs.

- you get the feeling that this time, peace in the galaxy is actually going to last. anakin, obi wan, luke and leia look on from the Force in pride at their children and grandchildren. they did good. they can finally rest.

- the sequels have made personal choice a major theme. finn chooses to defect. poe and rey choose to be kind, when they have every reason not to be. hux and kylo make the wrong choices. there's no flip flopping like a dead fish between good and evil until the very last second. the lines between kindness and freedom and hatred and subjugation are clearly drawn again and again.

- i sit in the cinema after the screen goes black and i weep. i am satisfied. this was a fitting end for a franchise i have loved for most of my life.

[captainkippen]

hi how about mary’s song (oh my my my) by taylor swift and tyrus for the song inspired one shots! i love your writing

Fun fact, this is my favourite Taylor song.

Mary’s Song

-- a tyrus fic

Cyrus was seven years old when TJ Kippen and his family moved in next door. Their first meeting wasn’t the smoothest, what with Cyrus accidentally running TJ down on his new bike and all, but it kicked off something incredible. They say the greatest romances are the kind you never expect but Cyrus wasn’t sure that was true.

Their dads build them the treehouse when they were eleven. It was a joint effort to give Cyrus and TJ somewhere to play that the adults could keep an eye on so they’d stop running into the street outside (too many narrow misses had occurred with Cyrus and cars) but it didn’t do much to stop the two from getting in trouble. It was an even sort of structure, twelve feet up in a tree that sat between the border of their two gardens, and perfectly safe as long as you didn’t jump down the ladder. They lit it old camping lamps and fairy lights dug out of the Goodman family’s garage so in the summer evenings when all the grownups were having drinks the boys could climb up and escape for a few hours in the dark.

At night, the treehouse was magical. It had an air of secrecy and enchantment that made it feel like stepping into another world altogether. Cyrus loved it more than any place he’d ever been and it was possible that TJ loved it even more. They would lie down in there and gaze at the stars, which peered out through the tall tree branches, talking about anything and everything. It was an unspoken agreement in the treehouse; a place of confidence. Any secrets you told would not leave those walls. It was safe.

“TJ?” Cyrus asked one night when they were twelve.

TJ turned his head and looked at Cyrus right in the eye, making his throat go dry and tight. That had been happening a lot lately, Cyrus couldn’t begin to explain why. The two of them laid side by side looking at the bright moon through the window. Reality felt miles away.

“Yeah?”

A pause while Cyrus mustered up the courage followed, but TJ waited patient as ever to hear him out.

He took a deep breath. “I. I think- I’m gay.”

“Oh. Okay,” TJ said, then turned away again.

Cyrus frowned. “Okay?”

“So you don’t have a crush on Andi then?” TJ asked, turning his eyes to stare at the ceiling. Andi was one of his best friends, a girl he’d known since elementary school, she was awesome but he couldn’t imagine having a crush on her. Cyrus stared at him. The tips of his ears were going red.

“No…” He said, then, “Do you?”

“What? No!”

“Okay… good,” Cyrus said slowly. “Glad we got that covered.”

There was another brief pause which might have been silent if it didn’t seem like Cyrus could almost hear the cogs in TJ’s brain working. He’d really thought his best friend might have something more to say about him coming out than ‘oh, okay’. In a strange way, he found himself a little annoyed at the lack of reaction. And why on earth would TJ think he had feelings for Andi?

“You know,” he said. “It’s okay if you do have a crush on Andi.”

“I don’t!”

He wasn’t sure he believed him.

TJ sat up a little, pushing up on to his elbows and turning to look at Cyrus again properly. “So… do you have a crush on anyone?”

Cyrus looked away to pick at his shoes and mumbled a negative. TJ narrowed his eyes.

“Liar,” he said, poking him. “Tell me the truth.”

Cyrus sighed. “Fine. I might… I kind of like Jonah.”

“Jonah Beck?!”

He nodded.

TJ groaned. “But he’s the worst. He totally hates me.”

“But he doesn’t hate me,” Cyrus said, struggling not to laugh at TJ’s expression. “‘Sides, he’d probably hate you less if you didn’t act like such an idiot around him.”

At that, TJ grabbed a pillow and thumped him with it. It was with the ensuing pillow fight that the conversation was brought to a staggering halt, and they spent the rest of the night clearing up stray feathers, promptly forgetting all discussion of crushes. Or at least, that was what happened for Cyrus. Unbeknownst to him, the thought of Cyrus liking Jonah lingered in TJ’s mind for many nights to come.

*

Watching tiny white feathers flutter down out of the tree house window from where they were sat on the patio, the boys’ parents smiled and exchanged looks sweet amusement. Over the years, barbecues in the garden had become one of their favourite group past times. The Goodmans and Kippens were as good friends as their sons.

“One day those boys are going to grow up and get married,” Mr Kippen joked, listening to the distant sound of teenage laughter as he took a swig of his beer. “Attached at the hip they are.”

“Oh man, can you imagine the chaos they’d produce if they had kids?” Todd, Cyrus’ stepfather, laughed in return.

Neither of their wives laughed, they merely just looked at one another with identical knowing smiles, and Mrs Kippen rolled her eyes as she raised her wine glass.

“To our sons, for bringing us together,” she said, and it was with a great cheer that the rest of them clinked their glasses together in a toast.

*

At fourteen, playing dares had become TJ’s favourite thing. He’d become friends with two boys, Lester and Reed, who were as reluctant to talk to Cyrus as he was to talk to them. They were the popular kind of boys known for being loud and obnoxious in class, causing trouble, and generally being a nuisance. The two of them gave him an uneasy feeling, but he didn’t dare voice that to TJ. He didn’t want to be seen as uncool. Sometimes he wished he had the courage to - it might have stopped TJ from dragging him to all their awful hangouts.

There was one day in particular spent out on the dirt tracks where the bikers spent their time, Reed and Lester smoked and TJ talked to them about something incomprehensible to Cyrus while he hung back and watched on with thinly veiled disgust. An hour in a couple of unfamiliar girls showed up and it was no time at all before Reed was rounding them all up into a circle on the ground, announcing they were going to play truth or dare, which made TJ grin wildly. The uneasy feeling was a firm brick in Cyrus’ stomach. He wanted to go home and watch the collection of terrible eighties movies that TJ’s dad had dug out of the garage for them last week. Sitting in the dirt with a group of people he didn’t trust was not his first choice on how to spend a Saturday, especially with a sleepover game involved.

“You in, Goodman?” Reed asked. There was a challenge in his tone that made Cyrus want to tell him to go shove it, but instead, he just sighed.

“I’m in.”

He should’ve known Reed was up to no good.

Two rounds in, and that’s when it happened. He heard the words, but didn’t really register them, he’d been a little zoned out with boredom. Then TJ was leaning towards him, saying something, and at first Cyrus just nodded in confusion. Then, TJ reached up to cup his face and he pulled away startled.

TJ had been dared to kiss him.

“Igottago,” Is all that he could say as he jumped up and sprinted away, his heart pounding, and he could hear TJ shouting after him as he went. He didn’t stop. He ran all the way home.

Later, and by later I mean by about half an hour, TJ found him hiding in the treehouse under a pile of blankets.

“Cy?” He asked quietly.

Cyrus lowered the blanket from his face to peer at him. TJ looked shamefaced, shuffling his feet awkwardly and biting at a hangnail. Guilt sat heavy in his eyes. They looked at one another in silence for a moment before TJ sat down with a sigh.

“I can’t believe you ran this whole way,” he complained. “How did your lungs not give out?”

“I’m good at running away from my problems,” Cyrus joked half-heartedly. “You know that.”

“You don’t usually run away from me though.”

“You’re not usually a problem.”

TJ let out a huff and grabbed the edge of the blanket Cyrus was tucked under, wiggling until he was shoved up against him and blanketed neatly under it too. He lay on his side, one eyebrow raised and looking at his friend, while Cyrus stared at the wall ahead unwilling to meet his eye.

“Wanna tell me what that was about?”

“Not really.”

“Cy.”

“Ugh. Fine. I just… I don’t like your friends, okay?”

TJ snorted. “Yeah. I figured that out, but don’t deflect I know that’s not what this as about. C’mon, talk to me. You know you can tell me anything.”

That was the annoying thing, Cyrus knew he was right. He rolled on to his side, only a little reluctant, to look at him as he spoke.

“I didn’t want my first kiss to be a dare.”

TJ frowned. “You haven’t had your first kiss?”

“Don’t you think I would’ve told you?”

“Oh. I just- I don’t know, I just thought that time we played seven minutes in heaven at Andi’s… you and Jonah might’ve- I thought you guys kissed.”

“We didn’t.”

The guilt in TJ’s eyes returned. “Hm.”

“I would’ve told you,” Cyrus said quietly.

It was another few moments before Cyrus mustered up the nerve to speak again.

“I want it to be with someone who loves me.”

“What?”

“My first kiss. I… I just want it to mean something, you know? I don’t want it to be done because of a dare.”

TJ smiled. “Yeah, I get you. I’m sorry about all that.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. And don’t worry, I won’t make you hang out with Reed anymore. I know you don’t like him… I guess I just kind of wanted you guys to get along, you know?”

“I’m sorry,” Cyrus said. “I tried. I really did.”

“I know. It’s okay, not everyone gets along all the time,” TJ said, then he paused. “Cy?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, you said you wanted your first kiss to be someone who loved you.”

“Yeah.”

“I love you.”

Cyrus stared at him.

“I’m just sayin’, if you wanted to get your first kiss out of the way, I could…”

“You’re offering to kiss me?”

TJ shrugged at him and grinned. “Nobody better to have your first kiss with than the person who knows you best in the world, plus I know I’m cute. You could do a lot worse.”

Cyrus snorted. “You’re an idiot, you know that?”

“I do.”

The kiss was lovely as far as first kisses go. Soft, tingling, and the kind of kiss that made you warm from your cheeks down to your toes. In the future, the memory of it would keep Cyrus awake at night while he touched his lips and thought about the way TJ’s hair fell into his face when he laughed. It was beautiful.

They ended up falling asleep up there together, eyes drifting closed from the hazy warmth, and didn’t wake up until they were called in for dinner.

*

At seventeen, Cyrus and TJ had their first serious fight. It was late at night, coming back from a party, and they both sat in the front of TJ’s truck with the anger threatening to boil over any moment. Their friends sat in awkward silence in the back, rolling out of there as fast as they could when TJ pulled up outside of Andi’s house and slammed the doors shut after themselves as they raced to get away.

TJ cut off the engine. Cyrus folded his arms and stared straight ahead. They had reached a stalemate in terms of progress - Cyrus wasn’t sure he wouldn’t curse TJ out if he spoke and TJ wasn’t sure he wouldn’t say something regrettably mean if he didn’t calm down first. It took a few minutes before he finally broke the silence.

“You don’t get to be mad about this,” he said, voice controlled as he gripped the steering wheel in a tight grip.

Cyrus turned and looked at him with an expression of disbelief. “I don’t get to be mad about this? Are you serious?”

“It’s none of your business,” TJ fired back.

Cyrus let out a dry laugh void of any humour. “None of my business? It’s my friend that you’re cheating on-”

“I told you already that I didn’t-”

“-don’t tell me you weren’t because I saw-”

“-cheating on Natalie because we-”

“-you kissing Kira. You were literally making out in the bathroom with her-”

“-broke up!”

Their bickering ceased immediately and Cyrus frowned.

“What?”

“Me and Natalie,” TJ said ground out, refusing to meet Cyrus’ eye. “Broke up.”

“...Seriously?”

He nodded.

“When?”

“Like two days ago, I don’t know,” TJ sighed.

The anger in the set of Cyrus’ shoulders fizzled out and he relaxed, reaching out to put a comforting hand on TJ’s arm.

“What happened?”

TJ lifted his shoulders in a small shrug and leaned back. “I don’t know. Stuff. She said I was too distracted… that I needed to figure my shit out. Told me I didn’t really love her.”

Cyrus made a sympathetic noise and tried to ignore the feeling of secret joy rattling around in his chest. Now was not the time to be happy that TJ was single. He was clearly upset. He needed his friend there for him.

“I’m sorry. That really sucks,” He said. “...How come you didn’t you tell me?”

TJ shrugged again.

Cyrus pulled back and rested his head against the back of the seat. “So… you and Kira?”

“Not a thing,” TJ reassured him. “I was just trying something.”

“Oh?”

He sighed, Cyrus gave him a curious look.

“I think Natalie was right,” TJ said. “I had stuff to figure out.”

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

He half expected TJ to say no. Over the past couple of years, his friend had become less and less likely to talk about anything related to feelings. Cyrus didn’t like it but he had learned to live with it. As long as TJ told him the really important stuff then it was fine. That was why he was surprised when TJ next spoke.

“How d’you know if you love someone?” He asked.

Cyrus blinked at him. “I guess it depends on the kind of love.”

“Like… love love. Romance, marriage, valentines kind of love.”

Cyrus wanted to say he didn’t know, but he also knew he couldn’t lie to TJ. He knew firsthand that being in love felt like you were tripping over your own heart, again and again, every day. It felt like fire and devotion and hopelessness. It was awful and perfect at the same time.

“You just do, I guess,” Is what he told him instead.

TJ wet his lips - his most noticeable nervous tick.

“Why do you ask?”

“I think Natalie was right about me not loving her,” TJ said, then swallowed hard. “‘Cause I think I’m in love with someone else.”

Cyrus’ heart broke in two. He looked away. “Oh.”

“Cyrus.”

It took him a moment, but he forced himself to look at TJ. The look in TJ’s eyes was nothing like what he’d expected. It was open, unadulterated honesty. Perfect, lovely, and lonely all at once. Cyrus had seen that look on his own face in pictures of them together. He recognised it at once.

It was love.

Their second kiss was as perfect as the first, with more desperation and longing than they could’ve put into any sentences they said that night. It was the promise of a future, a vow protecting their past, and a mark of everything they had shared so far.

*

Their wedding was beautiful. It was held in the Goodmans’ back garden, treehouse in view, with all their closest friends and relatives packed in to watch them tie the knot. Cyrus cried outright, TJ tried not to and failed at the sight of both of their mothers shedding a tear, and when they said their vows they both knew they meant every word of them deep in their bones.

Todd clapped TJ on the back and told him he was excited to see the two of them build a tree house of their own, and when the line for giving congratulations had finally died down TJ and Cyrus managed to sneak up the tree themselves for a few minutes alone.

They laid down on the dusty old floor and looked out at the sunlight filtering through the trees.

“I can’t wait to spend my life with you,” TJ whispered, taking Cyrus’ hand.

Cyrus squeezed his fingers in response and with a soft smile he said in return, “Me too. Hey, you remember that time we were in here and you asked if I had a crush on anyone?”

TJ snorted. “Yeah, and you said Jonah.”

Cyrus laughed. “Yeah, well… I have a secret to tell you.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t Jonah. It was you.”

*

Cyrus was twenty-seven years old when he and TJ moved into their new house. They say the greatest romances are the kind you never expect but after twenty years of back and forth flirtations, shared memories, and stolen kisses, Cyrus came to believe the best romances were the ones you should have seen coming from a mile away.

[maple-keenes]

“it’s your turn to make dinner” but with logince?

prompt: 39, “it’s your turn to make dinner”

pairing: logince

requested by: anon

word count: 1103

trigger warnings: homelessness, there might be cursing, 

a/n: special shoutout to @ilovemygaydad for helping me come up with the idea for this!!!

--

Roman twisted the bracelet on his finger round and round, focusing on the way it moved. He’d been sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against the alley wall for a few hours now, mindlessly flicking through a newspaper and letting his brain wander elsewhere. It was another day of wishing he wasn’t there anymore and contemplating why he’d been put on this earth, also known as most of the days Roman experienced.

He’d been living on the streets since he was around 17 when his parents kicked him out for being gay, and New York City, the city where he used to think he was going to live his dreams in, became his own personal hell. 

There was a homeless shelter down the street from his usual alley where Roman often went if he was in desperate need of food, especially because it was a homeless shelter for gay youth and so they were kind enough to continue helping him out even after he had turned 18. 

So he picked himself up off the sidewalk and walked down the street, ignoring the pangs of hunger shooting through his body. The Lower Manhattan Center for Homeless LGBT Youth, while quite a mouthful, and also not a real place, was decent. Those who volunteered there were nice, and Roman liked to help out as best he could to repay them for keeping him safe. 

Roman pushed open the door shyly and was immediately met with a wall of noise from the volunteers who were working to get lunch ready. 

“Ro-ro!” One of the teens (a nonbinary kid named Remy) called, throwing their arms around him. “Are you here to sing with us again?” 

He smiled. “I wish, but you know Miss Riley is gonna kick me out if I spend too much time here again. I’m too old for this place now.”

A young man strode over briskly, and Remy promptly broke the hug. “Er, sorry Mister Logan. It’s just nice to see Roman here.” 

The young man (Logan?) smiled softly. “It’s fine. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. There’s a couple things ready if you’re hungry, Remy. I…” He gave Roman a once over, and Roman felt his heart skip a beat when their eyes met. “I’m going to talk to Roman here for a second.” Remy nodded and rushed off.

Roman bit his lip. “I can leave. I usually just hang out to get some food.” 

“You’re… really hot,” he blurted out, and Roman laughed a little bit. “Er, I meant to ask what you’re doing here. You do look a little older than the normal clientele.” 

“I just said -” 

Logan held up his hand. “I’m not going to make you leave. I am, however, going to… offer you a job of sorts.” 

“A job?” Roman tried, and failed, to disguise the excitement in his voice. “Logan - that is your name, right - I’ve never even seen you before. You don’t know me at all.” 

“It’s not a real job, but it could be. You sang to those kids the other day while I was here, and it was gorgeous, Roman,” he said, “and I think you should volunteer here full time. And I… well, I think you’re rather attractive, as you could probably tell by my outburst. I want to spend more time with you.” 

He shook his head. “I can’t make a job out of volunteering! They’d never let me. And I still wouldn’t be getting paid and I’d still be on the streets.” 

Logan shrugged. “I could run some statistics for you. I think you’re a good enough singer to go to a couple auditions and start making money.” 

“I don’t know, I doubt anyone would take a trans gay homeless man off the streets. I think I just want to finish high school and try and get a degree.” Roman frowned. “I wanted to be a music teacher before… everything.” 

“Promise me you’ll at least consider it? Working here?” he asked, looking at Roman hopefully. “I think it’ll be good for you.” 

Roman sighed. “I… “ he trailed off, noticing the look in Logan’s eyes. “Yeah. I’ll think about it.” 

Seven months pass, and Roman is using Logan’s laptop in the back room of the shelter to finish his diploma online. He knows not everyone he’s met like him is not so fortunate, and so he keeps helping out at the homeless shelter to try and help these kids find something to keep them going. He wants them to be okay. 

Two more fly by and Logan and Roman go out on their first official date and share a kiss at the end that rivals all romance movies. In another two, they’re boyfriends like no other. 

A full year has passed since the offer and he’s graduating high school and as they celebrate, Logan grabs his wrist and whispers “I love you” into his ear and Roman just about cries. 

Another year passes and Roman is enrolled in community college and living with Logan. 

Roman’s life is full of snapshots like this, moments that make him remember that he’s the luckiest man on Earth. 

He’s sitting on the sidewalk again, but this time it’s in rural New York and he’s watching his adopted son, Patton, play in the street with their teenager, Virgil. Patton is insisting that Virgil push him on his tricycle and the other kid is adamant that he can do it by himself. 

Roman and Logan have been married for three years, and they have three kids, Patton, Virgil, and Thomas, who has decided that he wants to bake a cake for dessert and is preparing it currently. 

He forgets, sometimes, how he got this far, teaching music at a local high school, but he looks at his life now and Roman can’t help but know that he was always meant to be right here, in this moment. 

“Honey?” Logan called from the doorway, “It’s your turn to make dinner. Thomas is almost done frosting the cake and I promised the kids mac’n’cheese tonight!” 

“So you’ve screwed me over is really what you’ve done since you know I’ve got no clue how to make that the way you do,” Roman responded, laughing as he picks Patton up and bounces him on his hip. 

Patton gasped. “Dad, Papa said a bad word!” 

“Look at my husband, such a horrible influence on the kids,” Logan says, shaking his head. “Virgil, put away the trike, will you?” 

They salute him and Roman has to stifle a giggle. “Yes, Dad!” 

This is what his life is now, and it is absolutely perfect.

[nothingeverlost]

penny!verse. I'm curious how Belle & Gabe walk the line between a teenage boy getting into halloween and Claire being just old enough start to understand the holiday and be scared of some of the movies and things, especially given what B&G have seen because of their jobs. tricks and treats?

Apparently when I said ‘flashfic’ I lied.  Are we shocked?

Takes place about 5 years after Belle returns. Claire is a little over two.  

____________

Halloween stores were not Belle’s favorite place.  She’d seen too many skeletons laid out on coroner’s tables to be amused by the styrofoam immiations.  One aisle was entirely fake weapons, from plastic knives painted with fake blood to rubber guns that looked too realistic.  Worst were the costumes that declared ‘serial killer’ and ‘sociopath’ and ‘insane patient’ to be the perfect way to dress up.

Unfortunately she needed a costume for Claire, and didn’t have the time to look more than one place, of the skills to make it herself.  Bay, seeking a costume of his own, had decided to join the trip which meant she couldn’t just stick to the aisle filled with rainbow colored costumes.  Claire settled relatively quickly on a ‘pun-kin’ costume.  Belle wondered if Bay would be as easy to please.

“Hey Belle, you should totally dress up this year.  There’s a ton of stuff here.  Just not, you know, the sexy FBI agent costume because that would be weird.”  Bay didn’t seem to have found a costume yet; the only thing in his hands was a pumpkin carving kit.

“I wish I thought you were joking.”  She had nothing against dressing up.  And certainly she and Gabe had tried their hand at role play more than once, but the general sexualization of women’s costumes upset her.  Sometimes it seemed there wasn’t any other option and she hated the message that it sent.  “We’re only taking Claire to a few homes this year before dinner at David and Mary Margaret’s.  If anyone asks I’ll tell them that I am a FBI agent.  What about you?”

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to Gabe yet, but I think I’m missing dinner this year.  There’s this party, one of the guys in my chem class is throwing it.  I can’t decide, is Dracula too overdone or is it classic?”  He looked at his hands; Belle hadn’t noticed the fake blood container on top of the carving kit.

“Classic,” Belle decided.  It certainly was better than a lot of other options he could have come up with, and she knew that he had almost everything he’d need at home.  They just needed to find fangs and a cloak.  When she thought too much about the party, though, the hairs at the back of her neck stuck up.  He was nineteen, in college now but mercifully had decided he wanted to live at home.  He needed, even more than other kids his age, to feel like he belonged.  In high school it had been common knowledge that he hadn’t grown up the same, that school was new to him.  He was small for his age thanks to poor nutrition.  It had taken time, Gabe had told her, for him to settle in and begin to make friends.  Now as a college freshman he had a fresh start in many ways.  

She knew what could happen at parties.  Knew that kids on their own for the first time would be testing their limits.  And Halloween always seemed to make it worse, the anonymity of masks and costumes allowed people to do things they wouldn’t usually consider.  She had to bite her tongue to keep from telling him it was a bad idea.  She would have to talk to Gabe and figure out how they prepared their boy as well as they could.

Every year since she’d moved back they’d all had dinner at the Nolan’s - the first time she’s almost hadn’t gone, but Emma had talked her into coming and Archie had gone home with her; they’d watched Christmas movies for hours declaring it the start of the holiday season.  The next year she and Gabe had been together, and had come with Bay and gone back to the pink house.  Three years ago she had only just learned she was pregnant.; the next year there had been four of them.  Last year she’d dressed Claire up as a dragon and Neal Nolan had been a knight.  Emma, Graham, Ariel, and Archie had all joined her, Gabe, Mary Margaret and David was they’d taken the two around the neighborhood.  Henry and Bay had spent most of the night playing video games.  Perhaps she should have known then that the tradition was changing, but she would miss it.

“Awesome.  Give me five minutes to grab a couple of things and I’ll be ready to go.”  True to his word Bay was back in four with a red lined black cloak and an uncomfortable looking set of plastic teeth.  He also had a gold plastic necklace with a large medallion that was supposed to look gothic.  Perhaps she would at least be able to sneak in some education on the historical and literary character of Dracula. She paid for their purchases even though Bay offered to cover his own, and was relieved when they were headed home.

II

“Would you like paints too, sweetheart?  It might be safer for you.”  Belle teasingly moved the carving knives closer to Bay and offered her husband a paintbrush.  Claire, covered in an old shirt of her brother’s, had a paper plate covered in easy wash paints in front of her and a pumpkin waiting to be decorated.  Bay was already sketching out a monster’s face on his pumpkin, while Belle’s plan was for something more traditional.  

“I haven’t had a kitchen accident in ages, thank you very much.”  Gabe accepted the brush, though, thinking it might come in handy.  It had potential for tickling a certain brunette on the back of her neck, for starters.  And perhaps other places as well, when his kids weren’t around.  He jumped into his own carving without a plan or sketch.  Everything was quiet for a few minutes before Claire started crying.

“Sweetheart?”  Her hands were covered with paint, and somehow her left cheek as well, but he didn’t hesitate before pulling her onto his lap.  He was closer than Belle.  “Can you tell papa what you’re feeling?”

“Hurt,” she sobbed between her tears.  

“Where does it hurt, my love?”  He couldn’t see anything but maybe the paint was hiding it.  Or maybe it wasn’t something that could be seen; she’d had the flu a few months ago and had thrown up enough that they’d had to take her to the emergency room for an IV.

“Pun-kin hurt.”  She pointed to his pumpkin, the top cut off and some of the seeds removed.  “Bandaid?”

“Oh dear,” Belle spoke from across the table.  “I hope this doesn’t mean I picked the wrong costume.”

“It’s okay, peanut, the pumpkin likes it.”  Often times anything Bay said was okay was taken as law by Claire, but today she wasn’t having any of it.  She only cried harder.

“Hurted.  Pun-kin owey.  Fix, papa.”  She looked up at him and if he wasn’t convinced by the tears he was when she touched his cheek.  “Peese?”

“Mama will go get some bandaids while we wash our hands, princess.  We have some surgery to prepare for.”

II

“It’s just me, Claire.  Your brother.  See?”  The scary man crouched low, holding out his hands so he could take her away.  He’d already taken her Bay and was in his room, his face the wrong color, like the same as her milk, and blood on his mouth.  She wanted her Bay.

“It’s a costume, kiddo.  I’m just getting ready for a party.”  When he came closer Claire wanted to run but maybe Bay was hurted.  Claire did the only thing she could think of, she kicked as hard as she could and ran to find her papa.  He would make the scary thing go away and find her Bay.

II

It was after two when he pulled into the garage, his cloak in a heap in the passenger seat and the ridiculous fangs in some trash can.  When he looked in the rearview mirror he could still see streaks of white from the makeup he’d mostly washed off.  Unfortunately he could see some blood on his lip, and not the fake kind.  Hopefully it would look better in the morning, before he had to sit across the breakfast table from his family.

When he opened the garage door he found that there were still a few lights on.  Normally catching Gabe and Belle kissing on the couch made him feel both good, because of how much they loved each other, and weird because who wanted to see their parents doing that?  Tonight, though, he just hoped they were distracting each other enough that he could get to the stairs before letting them know that he was home..

He should have known better.  FBI agents, even when one was retired, were not people you snuck away from.

“Aren’t you going to say goodnight?  Or perhaps good morning?”  He couldn’t ignore Gabe, and took a deep breath.

“You didn’t have to wait up for me.  I would have let you know I was home.”  He knew they worried, and understood it.  Appreciated it, even.  Before meeting Gabe he hadn’t known anyone could care about him.  

“It’s not that we don’t trust you, Bay, we just…”  Belle stopped, and got off the sofa.  “What happened to your lip?”

“It doesn’t hurt.”  Or it least it didn’t until Belle touched it, no matter how soft her touch was.  “It was a good party.  Most of it.  There was just this one guy.”

“Someone you liked?”  Gabe asked, frowning.  

“Hell no.”  It hadn’t been that long ago that he’d told Gabe how he felt about guys.  Had said the word ‘gay’ outloud.  Gabe had told him it was the person that mattered, not their gender.  He’d also gone into embarrassing detail about what it meant to be safe and protected.  There had been a guy at the party and there might have been some fumbling in a literal closet, but he wasn’t about to talk about that.  “Someone who liked a girl that didn’t like him back.  He didn’t accept the word no.”

“Bastard.”  Gabe’s expression could only be described as a snarl.  Belle touched his arm and gave it a squeeze.

“Is she alright?”  Belle asked.

“Yeah.  I gave her a ride back to her dorm.  Dom was too busy holding his nose to notice where we went.”  He wasn’t ashamed at the pride he felt in what might have been a broken nose.

“I’m glad she’s safe.  And you are too.”  Belle kissed his cheek.  “Now let’s go get some ice for that.”

II

“It’s too much to hope that the experience has soured him on parties, isn’t it?”  Thirty minutes later Bay had gone to bed, Claire had been checked on and was still sleeping in her costume, and he and Belle were finally getting ready for bed.  “It was easier when he was still in high school.”

“He’s smart and he’s kind, and he’s not alone.  That matters, sweetheart.”  Belle spoke from the bathroom.

“At least Halloween is over for the year.”  He stripped out of his clothing and slipped under the blankets.

“Not until the sun rises.”  When Belle came out of the bathroom she wore a witches hat and a black lace nightie covered in bats.  And nothing else.  “Not everything about Halloween is bad.”

He had to agree.

[twosidesofhorror]

My take on... Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich

To combine a creepy, half-burned up elderly man from Europe, an extreme case of discrimination from the ideology of the SS during World War 2, an Egyptian mystical curse or spell that is still active after one’s death, a 30th anniversary of a mass killing spree and… puppets?

The movie is about a guy named Edgar who gets a divorce and is invited by his mom to stay at her and his dads house for the time being. He works in a comic bookstore with his best friend Markowitz, where he sells and draws comics. While being is his hometown he meets this girl from high school again named Ashley and they start to date. Besides from the kissing and (apparently) lots of sexy time you see nothing of this relationship. He is trying to find ways to get money so he can get a place of his own. Being back at his childhood home he scouts through old boxes and drawers to feel sorry for himself and be melodramatic. He finds an odd-looking doll which used to be his brother’s, before he sadly passed away. Now, as soon as he grabs the doll and starts to turn it over and upside down, a knife comes right out of the dolls hand and slices his inner arm. But that is not all. As soon as he turns it around again and stares into those hollow eyes, a hook comes out of his other hand. He finds out his brother found this doll at a camp he went to and had never any real attachment to it, so Edgar tries to find a place to sell it. He finds out there is an auction for these kinds of dolls at an 30th anniversary of the infamous Toulon-murders. Because that is something worth celebration, obviously.

The three of them (Edgar, Markowitz and Ashley) decide to go there and see what it is all about, and to try to sell the doll. They check into a hotel to stay for a couple days. On the second day they get a tour off the house where Mr. Toulon tortured and murdered people, and where he made his infamous dolls. Here everyone finds out that dear Mr. Toulon was a dedicated Nazi-lover and fanatic. His grave, a gorgeous mausoleum with weird looking spikes, which Edgar is so kind to point out, is also on this land. When they get back to the hotel all hell breaks loose in a rapid motion. First, several people report their dolls missing and stolen. While this is being discusses and investigated with the local police the first murders take place. These are some weird ass murders where the victims are chosen based on the “racial purity” ideology of the SS. We see a man and a prostitute getting stabbed during sex, a gay man getting his throat sliced right after he finishes talking to his mom, a lazy-ass fat and disgusting man gets his head chopped off while peeing (after which he pees on his own head, lovely), a sleeping, pregnant lady getting her belly ripped open because a puppet entered via her backdoor and goes off with her unborn child. One puppet rips open a poor, old man’s back and decides to take over his body completely. Just to name a few. And all these murders and commotion seem to happen so fast it almost look surreal. Now, I can withstand gore and weird ways of slicing bodies up or stabbing people in sensitive places like the eyes, but what I can and will not accept in any movie is when someone’s ankles are being sliced, right through the Achilles heel. I hoped the scene in Hostel was the one and only time I had to see that, but unfortunately, no. No, they had to get that in during the sex-scene. Thank you very much.  

After more deaths and more hysteria all the hotel guests are asked to assemble in the lobby, where everybody decides to freak the fuck out after the power goes out. Thrice. Because that’s what’s really scary off course. They dare to just run for it and hope for the best. All I can say is that hope wasn’t on their side that evening. The surviving smarty-panties decide to take cover in the kitchen. After realizing these puppets are notorious Nazi’s, they try to use their dear friend Markowitz, who happens to be a Jew, as bait and just shoot these guys senseless. The only problem is that there might be around 40+ puppets who are possessed, and tiny, and super strong and stealthy, and work together and punch holes and get to your unborn child through your rectum and what not. So, what could possibly go wrong, right?

One of the funniest moments where I had to slap myself across the face because I couldn’t believe they actually did this, is where Markowitz sort of finds a girl to hook up with and this girl is just plain stupid. This girl happens to have a manga character pin on her work shirt and being the comic fanatic that he is, he recognizes it, and the two of them start talking. When they use big guy Marko here as bait and things turn bad, he and his girlfriend, alongside Edgar and Ashley decide to take cover in a hotel room. Here poor Marko gets stabbed in the throat and dies. But they can’t morn now, there are killer puppets after them! They start to jump out of the window one by one with Marko’s little Asian girlfriend as last. Edgar and Ashley, having normal IQ’s, jump right into the dumpster downstairs. This girl does not. She jumps right onto the side of the dumpster and dies instantly…

Where this movie is already so bad it is actually entertaining, they decide to throw that scene in like it is nothing. And it is nothing, not really. But, just, why?

Edgar says in a very sweet, little voice that he now knows how his brother died.

Edgar and Ashley seem to know how to stop all this and head to Mr. Toulon’s mausoleum. When they arrive after a thirty-minute drive or so and stop the car for a minute, they decide to buckle up. Because… logic. They see that those weird spikes are giving off electrical shocks. Edgar here warns his girlfriend very briefly about driving the car straight through the mausoleum’s wall before he does just that. Mr. Toulon gets disturbed in his death and the puppets stop killing. Unfortunately for the two lovebirds, Mr. Toulon isn’t as dead, and slow, and dumb as zombie movies make them seem. But then again this is an Egyptian spell, not a zombie-virus. Mr. Toulon kicks the shit out of the two and goes back to grab his gun (?) and shoot Ashley, after which he just leaves and let’s Edgar live.

Do the puppets get alive after this again? Because Mr. Toulon is not really dead. Why does it happen now? How does he get this spell? Why does he have this spell? So many questions…

This movie is full of weird and sudden deaths, fast paced shifts between scenes and a story which is not really explained. You get almost no backstory whatsoever (this has probably to do with the fact that this reboot is the 14th version, or spin-off, or sequel, or part of this huge franchise). What you do get is 86 minutes of pure puppet-gore. This movie has some excellent deaths with great visual arts and a good way of keeping it interesting. Everything could’ve felt very fast-paced because it was just so damn interesting to watch. The way it was filmed felt a bit off. It looked like a B-movie from the way the camera was angled, and the lack of storyline didn’t really help. The deaths, the blood, the intestines, the gore, everything important basically looked really fucking good though. At this point the weird point of views and slightly off-colored shots didn’t matter. It worked.

The puppets look absolutely gorgeous and really original. The creepy factor is definitely there. I can honestly say that I want to watch those other movies and read the comics. The art is just beautiful and well made, I want to see more of that.

I do have to say that this movie means absolutely nothing if watched on its own without further interest in the story. So, for a movie on movie-night, this isn’t really a good movie to watch. You just get more questions and find out you need to invest a lot of more time to get the whole story. But, if you got nothing better to do like me, I think this is going to be a hell of a ride to follow, figure out and enjoy. This wasn’t really my favorite movie to be honest. Let me hear what you think.

What was your favorite scene?

Which part of all those other ones do I have to watch first?

Which one is your favorite puppet?

Let’s talk.

-Miez.

[coffecatsandbooks]

Hung over in a hotel room, cell phones dead. You streatched out next to me. Lost somewhere in a dark whiskey dream.

Steve stirred a bit and groaned flipping over to feel a warm body next to him. His eyes shot open and he sat up quickly to see his partner Danny lying there, streatched out- naked.

He ran his hands through his hair and grabbed his phone to check the time, but it was dead and as he looked, he realized he had no charger, but there was a bottle of whiskey. A couple by the looks of it and last night started to come back to him slowly and he smiled. After all this time he and Danny can finally be together. After all the pinning and wanting and longing.

Hung over in a hotel room call the concierge, two bloody Mary's and some cigerettes so you can wake up to breakfast in bed, hear your voice in my head, "hey when you gonna come pick me up? You always say we're gonna burn it down. If you wanna baby call me back. Call me back maybe we can out."

His head was pounding, but he grabbed the hotel phone and ordered two bloody Mary's (his Aunt Deb always said they worked when it came to hang over) and ordered him and Danny some food so when Danny woke, he'd be woken up to breakfast in bed. He wanted Danny to know he cared. He wanted Danny to know that he wanted to make this work.

He slid his legs off the side of the bed and pulled on some boxers, grabbing the pack of cigarettes off the wooden nightstand he stood up and walked out onto the balcony lighting one up. He rarely smoked, but he was nervous for what might come. What if Danny hated last night? What if he didn't like him the way Steve did? Steve had never bared his soul nor his heart to someone like the way he did last night. As the ocean breeze came up and attacked him, he closed his eyes reminiscing.

He and Danny were in the office late and after Chin Ho left bidding his goodbyes, Steve stood up and streatched deciding to go to Danny's office to see if he wanted any take out.

He knocked and after hearing Danny's grunt he entered. "Hey man you want anything? We can get take out or-" Steve breathed in deciding to be bold. "We can head back to my place and get something and watch a movie?"

Danny sighed. "I was going to pamper myself tonight but sure."

Steven laughed. "Don't let me stop you, I was just wondering." He felt his heart deflate a bit.

"Well I have a hotel room booked. I was going to surprise Grace for her birthday, but she's older now and wanted to hang out with friends tonight." Danny frowned. "She gets older everyday and it breaks my heart a little everyday."

Steve agreed. That girl was something and was destined for greater things. "She'll always be your little girl Danno."

That made Danny smile and gave Steve a bit more confidence for his next question. "Well hey since you don't want it to go to waste me and you can always burn it down. You know that."

"Burn it down? Did you know that's what the kids are now saying? It's another term for sex." Danny scrunched his nose and it took everything Steve had not to go up and kiss him.

"I did not know that, but what do you say?" Steve opened his arms.

"I don't know." Danny fished into his pockets and pulled out a key card. "You can go though. I doubt I'll join you though."

Steve felt like he'd been stabbed. Fuck feelings, he thought bitterly. Why does Danny insist I have them? They've just given me pain.

"Okay well let me know if you change your mind," he sighs. "Imma go ahead and head out. Night brah."

"Goodnight McGarrett."

Steve went back to his office closing everything down and was eventually walking out of the building and climbing into his car, heading straight to the hotel.

Steve doesn't know what changed Danny's mind but as he was pulling up his cell rang and he answered. "McGarrett."

"Hey come back and pick me up if it's not too late. You always say we're gonna burn it down and I never join you. But I want to forget the fact that my little girl is growing up and I want to forget my name tonight. Please. I'm tired." He heard Danny whine and Steve smiled.

"On the way buddy."

Hungover in a hotel room slide the curtains back. Light up the morning on the balcony. Look at your stirring in the shadows and sheets. Last night on repeat.

When he was done with that cigrette he threw it off the balcony and heard a knock at the door. He opened it and in came a cart with food and bloody Mary's. He tipped the consierge and pushed the cart over to the end of the bed.

He went back over to the balcony and slid the soft burgundy curtains back to let the sun shine through hoping Danny would wake up to that, but until then he went back onto the balcony and lit up another.

The sun shined at the bottom of Danny's toned calves and up to his torso, but his back and head were covered with the shadows.

Steve watched as he stirred a bit, his muscles bulging as he stretched out. He lifted his head and if he was doubting the fact they had sex it would have been debunked due to the sex hair and fact that as Danny moved the light caught his back and scratches littered it. Danny had his turn on Steve it seemed and couldn't help but think back again.

Danny and Steve had arrived back at the hotel checking in with a stash of Jack Daniels in their grocery bags and some other conventiant store bought whiskey that they had never even heard of. When they opened to room 704, they put a sign on the door and Danny chuckled from behind Steve and put an arm on his shoulder. Steve could feel himself caving to the touch and had to stop himself.

"Why do I feel like a teenager all over again?" Danny whispered into Steves ear and Steve had to stiffen to keep from shuddering. Fuck Danny just didn't realize what he did to Steve.

"Well you can sometimes look like one Williams," Steve complimented and opened the bags twisting the lids off the whiskey bottles and upturning the Jack Daniels.

The liquor burned going down and as he set the bottle back down, he could feel himself loosening up. "It's good."

Danny was giving him that disapproving look. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Steven you're an animal! You just upturned that whole bottle and put your lips all over the top. That's gross."

"You're a woman you know."

At that Danny glared. "I am not a woman. I'm just respectable."

Steven thrusted the bottle into Danny's hands. "Woman," he said in a sing-song voice.

A little while later and whole bottle and a half of Jack Daniels later, they were both pretty drunk. Danny more than Steve which wasn't a surprise as Steve could hold down pretty much anything.

They were sitting up in the bed and watching some old football game, but neither really cared as they were both too lost in their conversation to care.

"I'm not seeing anyone I swear!" Steve was saying.

"Okay but someone must have your attention at least!" Danny practically shrieked and Steve laughed putting his hand over Danny's mouth.

"Shut up! You're going to get us both in trouble. And yes if you must know, someone does have my attention." He lowered his hand and took a big swing of whiskey.

"She mus' be a luck lady." Danny was saying, but he sort of slurred the words a bit. "I think I need to stop."

Steve nodded. "You're slurring now so yes. And yeah." It could have been the whiskey that gave him the balls to say the next thing, but it could of also been the fact that their shoulders were touching or that he was so tired of not having anyone to talk to about his feelings or it could've been a mixture of all three. He's going for the latter, but- "Yeah, he is a lucky guy."

Danny whipped his head around. "You're gay!?"

Steve looked down, now more interested in the bottle than anything. "Bi actually."

He felt Danny soften beside him. "Oh Steve. No I didn't mean it like that just- does anyone else know?"

He shook his head and felt the tears threaten, but pushed them back. If he was ever good at anything, it was hiding his emotions. "No. The realization was sudden and I should of seen it before, but I didn't and so."

"Wow so he is special for you to realize you like men too. Why haven't you asked him out?" Danny questioned and Steve could feel his innocent eyes on him. Sometimes Danny could be so clueless.

"I think he's straight." Steve confessed and took another swig, but as the bottle left his lips, Danny grabbed it and took another one as well.

"You'll never know if you don't ask. Maybe he's only gay for you too. Cmon Steven you're not afraid of anything. This should be nothing for you! I mean look at you," Danny pushed himself up and turned his body to face him. Steve lifted his head up to look Danny in the eyes. "You have the body of a fucking Hawaiian God and if this guy knows you at all then he also knows you're a sap on the inside. Anyone would be lucky to have you. Just ask McGarrett. Worse comes to worse he says no and that's his loss. Besides- you always have me. Does anyone else really matter?"

Steve laughed. "Yeah Danno I always have you."

"There you go! Now the next time you see him I want you to March right up to him and ask him on a date. In fact I dare you. Triple dog dare you." Danny tilted the bottle to his lips and gulped down a good bit of the whiskey. "'S all you gotta do buddy."

Steven grabbed the bottle again drinking the rest of the bottle. "You're right. I should."

"'Atta boy!"

"So Danny-"

"Yes Steve?"

"Will you go out on a date with me?"

Danny looked up quickly. "What? Me? Why?"

"I like you duh." And this is where the alcohol kicked in. "Liked you a long time Danno. Prolly too long."

"I'm your special guy??" Danny asked incredulously.

Steven nodded. "Yup yup yup."

"I just- but I can't- why?"

Steve looked very confused as to why Danny didn't realize this. "Well because if you must know I have fallen for you. Hard. Like really hard. So hard I think I've hurt myself. You're kind, great father, badass, not to mention hot when you're angry-"

Steve doesn't know what compelled Danny to then lay a fat one on him, but he did and boy Danny's lips were softer and more scruffy that he imagined and he loved it.

Then it was room 704 hang the sign on the door, Gucci falling on the floor with the lights down low. Dancing in the dark, body killing me, throwing off sparks lay it back baby anything goes. Spent the whole night last night all messed up, making love. Girl I swear I've never felt this good. Waking up, Hungover in a hotel room.

The rest of the night was blur. He remembers asking Danny why and Danny replying with because I think I like you a lot too and the kiss deepened and clothes got thrown and love was made. He made sure Danny was comfortable and okay with it all before he completely went in on him and from what he can remember it was soft and slow and passionate, the first time around. The second time they got more greedy and fucked senseless and the third was when Danny got to try on top.

Everything about last night was hot, heavy, and passionate. And Steve didn't want it to end.

Danny stirred again, this time sitting up in bed and Steve put his cigarettes out, placing it out on the balcony table, walking back inside and closing the patio doors.

"Well good morning good looking," Danny whistled lowly, his raspy morning voice coming out thick and Steve thought about anything and everything other than the fact that he wanted to fuck him senseless right now with that voice.

"I got use breakfast," he grabbed a tray handing it to Danny and he got the other one, setting it on the night stand and then grabbed the bloody Mary's handing one to Danny. "Aunt Deb says it always helps get rid of hangover headaches."

Danny shrugged sipping it and then giving it a dirty look. "I hate these."

Steven nodded, "me too."

They are in silence and once they were finished Danny looked at Steve again. Headaches now gone he felt as though he could think clearly. "I could get used to this. You, me, hotel rooms with breakfast in bed."

Steve laughed and looked Danny up and down. "I suppose I could get used to seeing you naked all the time."

"So are we going to try this?" Danny asked after a moment.

"I would like to if you would." Steve said.

Danny gave him a devious smirk. "On one condition."

Steve looked at Danny with raised eyebrows. "That is?"

"You tell me how exactly you fell for me."

"Well I tried to last night and then your kiss kinda distracted me," he leaned close to Danny.

Danny leaned in too, brushing his lips across Steves. "Really? Well we don't want that happening again do we?"

Steve smiled. "Actually I think I do," and then kissed him so passionately that the force nearly knocked them apart.

There's that smile driving me wild. Call the front desk make check out requests, no better yet book it for another night. Then it was room 704 hang the sign on the door, Gucci falling on the floor with the lights down low. Dancing in the dark, body killing me, throwing off sparks lay it back baby anything goes. Spent the whole night last night all messed up, making love. Girl I swear I've never felt this good. Waking up, Hungover in a hotel room.

Danny layed on top of Steve naked, both with swollen lips, unable to detach themselves from each other. Steves hands had made their way into Danny's hair and once Danny bit Stevens bottoms lip, he let out a growl and tugged on his hair. Danny gasped grinding his dick on Steves but the fabric of his boxers were getting in the way.

"Why did you put these on?" Danny whimpered.

"Couldn't go outside naked babe." They kept kissing and Danny finally pulled back a bit.

"We need to make check out requests Steve, I can't really afford another night and we can finish this at your place really." Danny said and Steven rolled his eyes.

"Fuck it, I'll pay for another night. Let's book it for another night." He pulled Danny closer to him and massaged his scalp. "How's that sound?"

Danny smiled and it drove Steve up the wall. He wanted to see that smile on Danny's face all the time. "God you drive me fucking wild," Steve grunted and flipped Danny over onto his back and Steve pulled off his boxers tossing them to the floor. "Where were we?"

Danny wrapped his arms around Steves neck and kissed him slowly which threw off sparks throughout the room. The energy in the room was filled with nothing but love and lust and Steve ate it up. This was all he ever wanted and he was going to be damned if anyone ruined it. Fuck work and responsibilities today. Today and tonight was going to be for Danny and he was going to shower him in pleasure and ravish his body like a true prince.

"Make love to me again babe," Danny rasped out inbetween kisses.

"With pleasure," Steve replied softly.

And that's just what they did.

[buckyscrystalqueen]

Quads: Part 3

Pairings: Jason Momoa x Reader

Warnings: All tooth decaying, sickeningly sweet fluff. Maybe a swear word or three. But just straight up fluff.

Word Count: 5,747

Part 1 / Part 2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is that him?” Your mom asked as you pulled into the marina that housed the pontoon boat Jason was borrowing from a co-worker since his speed boat didn’t have enough shade for the kids. You smiled as Jason, in all his shirtless glory, looked away from his mom, Coni, and waved.

“That’s him.” You said with a wave back as you pulled your SUV next to his truck.

“That’s just not fair.” Kiki said from the back row of seats as she leaned around Sherry to get a better, in person look since all she had seen were photos of his face or him with the babies. “Shit should be illegal.”

“Damn it.” Your dad said as you put your car in park, and unbuckled your seat belt. “I wanted to hate him so much but I just… I can’t.” You laughed as Jason pulled open your door for you with a wide smile.

“Aloha, ke keiki.” He said softly as he gave you a chaste kiss. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, baby.” You returned as you slid out of the car. “We got lots of stuff.”

“I figured as much.” He said as he pulled open the back door to start getting babies out of their car seats. He smirked as he watched your dad reach back between the two front seats, and jokingly push your mom’s jaw closed.

“My mom, Sherry.” You laughed as she whacked your dad’s arm a couple times. “My dad, John, and Kiki is in the back seat.”

“Nice to finally meet you.” Jason said politely as he lifted Scarlett’s car seat off the base. “Merry Christmas. Welcome to Hawaii.”

“It’s so nice to finally meet you, too.” Sherry said as she grabbed the bag of towels you had stuffed behind the drivers seat so she could get out. “We’ve heard so much about you.” 

“Uh oh.” Jason laughed as he pulled the shade over Scarlett, and took the bag from your mom. “All bad I hope.”

“Oh, of course.” She laughed as she moved the middle seats to get Kai’s car seat so Kiki could get out.

“We don’t like you.” John said with a small smirk as he came around the car with Willow and the bag of life jackets, hats, sunglasses, and sunscreen for the kids. “Not at all.”

“Well, here’s to hoping I can change that, sir.” Jason said as he shook your dad’s hand. John mumbled, ‘damn’ under his breath and glanced over at your mom.

“He has manners, too!” He whisper yelled as Kiki passed you Celeste’s car seat.

“I sure hope so.” Coni said as she came up behind you. “I’m pretty sure I raised him right. Who knows though.” You laughed as she gave you a hug, since you had already met her when you went with Jason to pick her up from the airport. You did quick introductions with her and your family as Jason grabbed the cooler of drinks and food for everyone out of the trunk.

“Does he have a brother?” Kiki asked only you as she watched him walk away to get the cooler on the boat. “Or better yet, a twin?”

“Only child.” You said with a glance over at her. “And I so dibbed the fuck out of him.”

“Hate you.” She growled as she tilted her head the slightest bit to stare at Jason’s ass when he bent over to put the cooler in the boat.

“You’re drooling, sweetie. And I think you’re even turning a little green.” Coni joked to your sister as she grabbed the bag of towels for you.

“Worth it.” Kiki laughed as she picked up Kai’s car seat, and smiled at Jason’s mom. “Woman kind thank you for gracing the Earth with that man.” Coni, and Sherry burst out laughing as you grabbed Celeste and locked your car. It took a little maneuvering to transfer all your belongings, all four babies, and your family into the boat, and after a little bit of fussing from all of the quads, you got them slathered in sunscreen, in their life jackets, and passed out amongst the adults.

“Alright, let’s go to the beach.” Jason said as he untied the boat, and pulled away from the dock.

“Not to fast, please.” You reminded him as you sat with Willow on your lap.

“I know, ku’uipo.” He said as he sat down in the captain’s chair and reached our for your daughter. “Lemmie see her.” With a small nod, you got up, and passed over your little girl as Jason made his way out of the harbor with practiced ease. You crouched down beside him, and fussed with her pink sun hat for a moment, causing him to chuckle. “Relax, baby girl. It’s all good. Go get some sun.”

“Relax isn’t in my vocabulary.” You said as you stood up, pulled off your bathing suit cover, and went to sit with your sister in the sun at the front of the boat. Your parents and Jason’s mom were already talking about what a difference Christmas was without snow, since you were originally from Northern California where your parents still lived, and Coni was currently in Iowa while they each held a baby in the canopy’s shade.

“Man, I could get used to this.” Kiki said as she turned on the front bench seat with a content sigh. You nodded as you looked back at Jason with a smile as he sat, and taught your ten month old how to drive a boat even if she did have no idea what he was saying. All the same, she answered back with ‘dada’, which all of your children called every man they saw except your dad, who was ‘pa’, ‘up’, ‘mama’, and ‘no’; her favorite collection of words.

“Yea, it’s a great life experience.” You grabbed your phone from the towel bag, and took a few pictures of everyone before sitting back, and getting some sun like you had been told.

——

“Look at them.” Sherry said to John, Kimi, and Coni as they all watched you and Jason sit right along the shoreline each with two kids standing in the sand against your chests, while they laughed, and screamed with each small wave, and stomped and kicked at the water.

“I haven’t seen him this happy in years.” Coni said as she smiled at her son. “Lisa destroyed his heart when she slept with his best friend.”

“Same thing with (Y/N) and her fiancé.” John sighed as he looked at the giant smile you had on your sun reddened cheeks. “Though, at least she found out before the wedding he was gay.”

“No!” Coni gasped as she looked over at your parents.

“Oh, yea.” Your mom said with a nod as she turned on her chair to gossip. “It was a huge scandal. That’s how she met the kids’ dad. She went on her honeymoon cruise, and he was there for a bachelor party or something…”

“Guys trip high school reunion.” Kiki interrupted. Your mom nodded and pointed at your sister before continuing.

“Yea, that. So they were like… sex friends for a while, and then she got pregnant. He was just supposed to be a rebound…”

“Yea, ‘cause that guy is a low-life piece of shit.” Your dad growled, angrily as he kept an eye on you to make sure you weren’t over hearing them talk about you.

“Oh, I’ve heard all about him from my son.” Coni said with a shake of her head. “It’s so sad for those poor babies, and (Y/N). It just breaks my heart.”

“Well Jason has helped her out so much.” Sherry said as she glanced over as you and Jason walked a little deeper in the calm, warm water with a kid on each hip. “He’s so good to her and those babies.”

“Oh, those kids have him wrapped around their little fingers.” Coni laughed as Jason moved Kai and Scarlett so that they were in front of him, and so he was the deepest in the water just in case. “He talks about them as much as he talks about his own kids.”

“Aren’t you worried about it though?” Sherry asked. “I mean, it’s a big, big responsibility to raise someone else’s kids especially when you have your own. It just worries me that he’s trying to replace his kids since he doesn’t see them as often as he’d like. Don’t get me wrong, I know he cares for her and those babies…”

“I know what you mean.” Coni said with a nod as she glanced at her son. “But that’s not my Jason. He’s falling in love with your daughter. I have no doubt in my mind on that one. And he loves those kids, too. But he’s not trying to use them to fill a void. I’ve asked him about it because I was concerned, too. He said it just feels like his heart has just grown to love all six children equally. He actually can’t wait for his son and daughter to meet them. He’s just waiting until he’s one hundred percent positive (Y/N) is the one. He’s concerned that if he does the introduction too soon and she’s not, that it will hurt his kids if they break up. But I don’t see it happening, not the way those two look at each other.”

“It’s like something out of a movie, isn’t it?” Sherry asked as she looked out to watch Jason splashed the water with his hand softly. You both laughed as all four kids mimicked the movement much harder, and burst into peels of giggles.

“It takes a special man to be a step parent.” John said as he smiled at his grandchildren. “Especially to quadruplets.” The three adults nodded in agreement as Kiki got up off her towel to get in the water and cool off and play with her nieces and nephew.

“I think he’ll be the one to do it.” She said as she stretched her arms over her head. “I’d put money on it, actually.”

——

“God, they are so tired.” Jason said as he helped you get the kids changed into pajamas after Christmas dinner and a bath so it would be easier for you to put them to bed when you got back to your house.

“They had a big day.” You agreed as you struggled with Scarlett to get her foot in her pj’s. “A big day, and no naps. I’m surprised they made it this long without a major meltdown.”

“Same.” He agreed as he picked up Willow off his couch to put her in her car seat. The moment he put her down, she screamed ‘dada no mama’, burst into tears, and stretched as far as she could toward him to be picked back up. “I know, baby girl. You’re gunna go to bed soon.”

“Come on, Scar.” You sighed as you zipped up her onesie and picked her up off the couch. She too, started to cry, and reached for Jason, nearly throwing herself out of your arms in a desperate attempt to get to ‘dada’ as well.

“Hey J.” Coni said over the cries of all four kids as she watched from the kitchen where she was helping your mom, and Kiki put away the left over dessert. “Why don’t they just stay here tonight? That way the kids can just go to bed, and they don’t have to get woken up when they get home.” You started to shake your head as you looked up at Jason but your mom cut you off before you could even say a word.

“That’s a great idea! We’ll just take your car, and come get you in the morning.”

“Well…” You said as you looked back and forth between the women in the kitchen and your boyfriend. “I mean, I don’t have clothes for them in the morning, or anything for them for breakfast…”

“How ‘bout I drive them to your place.” Jason offered as he took Scarlett from your arms so she would stop trying to throw herself toward him. “And I’ll grab whatever you need.” You nodded at him as you looked back over at your mom.

“Are you sure? I mean, it’s Christmas…”

“Oh, honey. I’m sure.” She said with a nod.

“Look, what she’s trying to say is she’s on vacation and she wants to sleep in and not get woken up at 7 am by the babies.” Your dad, who you thought was napping in the recliner, said as he opened one eye to look up at you. “Because Willow has a set of freaking lungs on her.” You huffed and nodded in agreement as you picked up the daughter in question from her car seat.

“OK.” You agreed as you looked up at Jason. “Wanna help me get them to sleep before you go?” He nodded as he took Willow from you since she was still reaching for him anyways.

“You got the pack and play? I’ll get these two down while you get the other two ready for bed?”

“I’ll help with pj’s.” Kiki said as she came around the kitchen island to kiss her nieces good night with Sherry right behind her. You quickly pulled the half dozen toys from the bottom of the currently childless, pack-n-play and closed it enough to carry it down the hall to the master bedroom. You set it along the wall under the window on the far side of the bed where you now slept and sighed, tiredly.

“Hey, baby girls. It’s alright now.” Jason said softly as he sat down on the bed against the headboard, and laid your daughters on his chest so they would calm down and go to bed faster. Letting them fall asleep for the night on you or Jason or in your arms wasn’t something you typically did because you didn’t want it to become a habit, but with how tired they all were, you were willing to make an exception.

“She must really like you.” You said to him as you kissed your daughters good night. “My mom. I wasn’t allowed to even sleep over at my fiancé’s house on Christmas night but then again, she was never a huge fan of his.” You kissed his cheek and stood up to get your other kids ready for bed with a tired smile. “She must really like you.”

“Well don’t I feel special then.” He chuckled as he rubbed the two girls’ backs and started to sing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ to them like he did every night.

“You are to me and the kids.” You informed him on the way out the door. “And that’s all that matters.” You headed back out into the living room to find Kai and Celeste already in their pajamas in your mom and sister’s arms.

“Here you go, baby.” Sherry said with a smile as she passed you your daughter. “Get them to sleep. We’ll just see you in the morning, OK?”

“Sometime after… say 9?” Kiki said with a laughed as she passed you Celeste.

“I think we can make that work.” You giggled as you gave your sister a kiss on the cheek. “Merry Christmas, guys. I love you.”

“We love you, too, sweetheart.” Sherry said as she kissed your cheek and gave you a slightly awkward hug. “Sweet dreams.”

“Where is this going, (Y/N)?” John asked as he folded up the other pack n play and picked it up.

“Back here.” You said before saying good night to Coni as well. You headed back down the hall and pointed with your foot to where you wanted your dad to put the second temporary crib.

“Merry Christmas, sweetie.” John whispered with a smile so he didn’t wake up the girls Jason was still singing to as he kissed your and his grand kid’s foreheads. “See you in the morning.”

“Night, daddy. Merry Christmas.”

“I’ll be out in a few minutes to drive you guys home.” Jason said as your dad walked over to the bedroom door. He nodded at your boyfriend and pulled the door closed behind him as you crawled onto the bed, and laid down with your kids in your arms. He started the song over again for Kai and Celeste, and a small smile spread across your face as you let your eyes fall closed so you could just listen until it was over.

“I’ll just sleep in one of your shirts, and I’ll steal your shower stuff since I have deodorant and a toothbrush here anyways.” You whispered as you glanced at your sleeping pride and joys. “So I just need day clothes. I don’t care what. I need an outfit for each of them, diapers, I’m good on wipes, and stuff for breakfast.”

“Want the sound machine?” You sighed and looked over at him.

“I don’t know.” He smirked and nodded his head.

“I’ll grab it. I’ll bring the towels and stuff back with me, too. I’ll just leave the left over drinks in the cooler for tomorrow.”

“That’s fine.” You said as he stood up slowly so he didn’t wake up Willow, or Scarlett. “Can you grab the car seat strollers, and leave them in the trunk, please?” He nodded as he laid the girls down on either side of the divider that separated your pack n play into two sleeping areas.

“Anything else, baby girl?” You shrugged as you glanced down at the two sleeping kids in your arms.

“I’m too tired to think.” You huffed as he came over to take Kai to help you out. “If you think of something I’m missing, just grab it. But I’m sure we’ll be just fine for the one night with those few things.”

“Alright, I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

“If I’m already asleep, I’m sorry.” You giggled as you leaned into his chest and wrapped your arms around his waist. He took a deep breath, wrapped his arms around your shoulders, and rubbed his hands on your back.

“I love you, (Y/N).” He said softly as he leaned down and kissed the top of your head. You looked up at him with a smile as tears welled softly in your eyes.

“I love you, too, Jason. So much.” A full smile spread across his face as he moved his hands to cup your jaw and gave you a long, deep kiss. You both pulled away entirely too soon for your liking for air, and you laid your head back down on his chest as he hugged you tightly. 

“Alright, I’ll be right back.” He said after a moment as he pulled out of your arms and gave you another kiss. “Love you.”

“Love you.” You replied as you stood on your tiptoes to give him one more chaste kiss before he left. “Drive safe.”

“Always, ke keiki. If you wait for me, I’ll jump in the shower with you.”

“Ooo. I like that offer.” You said as you headed over to his dresser to grab a shirt to sleep in. “Wake me up if I pass out before your back.”

“I will.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You stood in Jason’s living room in a flower patterned, twisted front, tube top, and a matching sarong, smiling at Celeste, and Willow, who looked adorable in their first birthday hula outfits, and Kai in his bandana, white muscle shirt, and floral bathing suit bottoms that made him look so much like Jason on his days off, it was ridiculously cute. You rocked your hips back and forth, trying to get your daughters to dance while Kai simply stood, leaning on Jason’s thigh while the latter changed Scarlett’s diaper to get her dressed for their party.

“Hula, hula.” You said in a sing song voice to the Hawaiian music you had playing all morning while you decorated Jason’s house. “Hula, hula.” Willow scream laughed, and shook her hips like you did, making her grass skirt shake back and forth.

“Wait, not you.” Jason laughed at Scarlett when she tried to dance on the changing table as well. “You can hula your butt off when you get dressed.”

“Hula, hula.” You laughed as you moved were Scarlett could see you so she would continue to wiggle. 

“Will you quit?” Jason laughed as he quickly taped the diaper and fought to snap the onesie. “No hula!”

“Hoo.” Kai said as he started wiggling his hips as well. You laughed, and grabbed your phone to record your babies dancing.

“Yea, buddy. Hula hula.” You laughed as you crouched down by your kids.

“Hoo!” Willow squealed as she walked over to be the center of attention in the video.

“OK, go hula.” Jason said as he put Scarlett down so she could finally dance like she wanted to. 

“Your turn, baby.” You said as you stood up, and took a step back to get all of your little family in the video.

“Not happening.” He laughed with a shake of his head. 

“J, you gotta hula!” He sighed and quickly shook his hips back and forth for a few moments, causing you and your kids to laugh even harder in joy. “Yay!” You cheered as Jason came over and gestured for your phone.

“Your turn, mama.” He chuckled as he turned the camera on you. You happily got down on your knees between Willow and Celeste and shook your hips with a giant smile.

“Hula, hula.” You sang as you reached for Kai to bring him over to you so he was in the shot, too. “We got this down, don’t we babies?”

“Hoo.” Was the only response you got from your son as Jason watched on, fondly. His heart filled with impossibly more love as he watched you slow your hips to match the new, slower song, and you used your hands to make little waves. It took your kids a few moments of watching before they caught on awkwardly to the new hand movements.

“God, you’re so damn beautiful.” Jason said as he looked at you over your phone with a smile.

“Thank you, baby.” You smiled as you looked up at him. He turned off the video, and set your phone down before calling you over with a wag of his finger. You smiled and let him spin you in a small circle to slow dance for a few minutes before your guests arrived, causing your kids to lose interest in dancing since they didn’t have your attention.

“I can’t wait for my kids to meet you.” He said softly as he rocked back and forth. “They are excited, too, but you can tell they are more excited to meet the babies cause there’s four of them.” You giggled as he reached up to adjust the flower headband you had on your head that matched the ones the girls were wearing.

“They’re staying all weekend, right?”

“I have them all week since it’s spring break, remember?”

“Oh, that’s right.” You said with a nod.

“And I was thinking that you guys could stay here tonight. And maybe we could take all the kids to the aquarium one day this week. Maybe go to the zoo and to those tide pools I was telling you about another day. That way you can get to know them, and they can get to know you for a few days. I mean, I did promise I’d take them hiking, and I know Lola wants to see if she can finally tackle the rock wall out back…”

“Honestly.” You said, interrupting him from the rant he was about to start on to try to politely tell you he wanted to spend alone time with his kids as well. “That sounds great. How about we’ll stay until Tuesday morning? That way you have five baby free days to do all the things we can’t do with them yet. Hiking, rock climbing, jumping off those rocks from the picture in the hallway. Oh, I can see if I can get ahold of Max and see if we can go out on the research boat whale watching. I know HBJ pod should be over this way by now.”

“That’s actually a great idea.” He agreed as he pulled out of your arms to answer the door for your first of many visitors. “I don’t think my kids have ever gone out whale watching so they’ve never seen wild whales up close. And I know Wolf will love all the facts you know about them. He loves whales.”

“Well, I have enough knowledge to entertain him for hours. I love my whales… and I miss them a lot.”

“Well I think this sounds like a perfect spring break for all of us.” He said as he opened the door and said high to one of the professors that worked in your department, his wife, and their kids.

“Alright, babies.” You said to your kids as you reached down, and grabbed Scarlett’s hand. “Wanna go bounce? Let’s go bounce in the bounce house.”

——

“Man, do you go all out, or what?” Your mom asked as she looked around Jason’s backyard at the birthday party, and everything you had spent nearly an entire month organizing. You glanced up as you used baby wipes to clean Celeste’s hands of the remnants of her smash cake while Jason quickly hosed off Willow in the baby pool so she could continue to play.

“They only turn one once.” You reminded her as Jason passed Willow to Kiki to get dried off, you passed Celeste to Jason, Sherry passed you Kai after she had pulled all the cake pieces out of his hair, and taken off his cake covered diaper, and your dad at the very end of the line, was responsible of putting the girls in onesies with the number one and ribbon skirts while Kai was going in a clean diaper and a collared onesie also with the number one on it.

“I think you went a little overboard.” Kiki laughed as she gave her niece a birthday kiss.

“I don’t.” Jason said with a shake of his head. “This is perfect. You have to figure, there’s nearly a hundred and fifty people here. But you couldn’t tell, could you? Not with the way we have everything spread out.” Your family glanced up at your back yard, and you could see them almost trying to count the people that were milling about in your boyfriend’s backyard.

“Why do you think we have a bounce house, and a slide?” You asked as you passed off Kai, and took Scarlett. “And why do you think they are spread out on either side of the visible yard? So that parents watching their kids aren’t piled in one spot.”

“Back doors to the house are open.” Jason said as he turned Kai in the pool, and sprayed off his back. “Gives people the option of going in, and out freely.”

“The food is back by the shed… 

“…which is open for rock climbing.” Jason finished for you as he passed off Kai, and took Scarlett. “I know my ATV’s are out on the trails at the moment because Lola asked if she could take them.”

“She is already back.” You said as you pointed to his daughter on the inflatable slide. He nodded and continued anyways.

“All I’m saying is I have eight and a half acres of land. Bought it fresh out of college when land was still cheap here. I spent years clearing out paths and fencing the whole damn thing in. The floor of my house, and the fence were done with the trees I knocked down, the house was built by the guys I knew in school. I expanded from two rooms to five when I had my family.” He stood up after passing over Scarlett to Kiki and glanced out at his property with a shrug. “I’m just happy it’s seeing love again.” With a small smile, you stepped over to him and put your arm around his waist.

“Well then I take it back.” Kiki said as she toweled off Scarlett. “You guys didn’t go overboard at all. In fact, you’re slacking. Get your shit together.” She said with the straightest face possible as she glanced at you and Jason. “And I call an ATV ride after the party is over. I wanna see the best view you got.” Jason nodded as Lola came running over with a giant smile.

“(Y/N), can I bring the kids down the slide?”

“Sure you can.” You replied as you pulled away from her father. “But you’re gunna need an extra pairs of hands to help them get up the stairs. Want help?” She nodded and ran over to where your kids were waiting some what impatiently for Scarlett to be dressed, too.

“Wanna go slide?” She asked as she held her hand out for Willow’s hand. Your daughter nodded, not understanding what she was signing up for.

“Come on, kiddos.” You said as you began to corral the birthday babies toward the slide with Lola’s help. “Let’s go slide. Yay!”

“God, I love that woman.” Jason breathed as he stood back to watch you play with your and his children.

“You’re not alone there.” Kiki said as she grabbed all the wet towels off the ground. Your boyfriend quickly grabbed them from her hand, and gestured toward the slide with his chin.

“She said she needs extra hands.” He teased. “Go on. Spend with with your nieces and nephew.”

“You go, too.” Sherry said as she took the towels from Jason. “They are basically your kids, too.” He looked over at her with a small smile, and nodded.

“Thank you.” He replied softly as his heart nearly melted in his chest in joy. He quickly moved the kiddie pool off to the side to dump later so the ground wasn’t even more soaked than it already was, and jogged off to help you get the kids up the slide so you would have an extra lap for them to ride down on.

“I approve.” John said as he took a step over to help his wife clean up so you didn’t have to later. “I like him.”

“You and me both.” Sherry agreed as she collected dirty diapers to throw out. “He makes her smile.”

“As long as he only makes her smile.” John laughed as the two of them watched you and Kiki with Celeste between you, and Jason and Kai slide down the slide after Lola and Scarlett, and Wolf and Willow.

“Jesus, John.” Sherry laughed as she turned and head inside. “Sorry to break it to you, but your little girl is in no way, shape, or form innocent any more.”

“Shut up, Sherry.”

——

“Man, what a day.” You sighed as you closed the door after your last party guests. Jason nodded as he tossed the last bag of trash beside the overflowing trashcan in his garage to take it to the dump in the morning so you didn’t have to wait for trash pick up day.

“It was totally worth it.” He said as he went over to start on the dishes before you could.

“Where are the kids?” You asked as you leaned against the counter with a sigh. He shrugged and turned to glance in the direction of the hall that lead to the two kids bedrooms and the two guest bedrooms, one of which was currently set up as a nursery.

“Well I put the babies and their birthday toys in their room with the gate up so my guess is Wolf is playing his Playstation, and Lola is probably either with the kids in their room or watching a movie in her room.” You nodded slowly and pushed yourself off the counter with a tired groan.

“I’ll go get the babies into bed. It’s late so I’ll just worry about baths tomorrow.” You heard Jason huff in agreement as you headed down the hall way toward the nursery first. Your stomach dropped when you noticed the baby gate was wide open and you were just about to yell out to Jason when the sound of Willow’s little giggle came from Lola’s room.

“… and he huffed, and he puffed, and he blew that house down.” Lola nearly whispered to Willow, who blew a small puff of air toward the book and giggled quietly again as you pushed Lola’s bedroom door open. Her once clean bedroom was covered in what seemed like every pillow and blanket in the house and she and Wolf must have dragged the quads crib mattress onto the floor to make a giant pillow fort bed. She and Willow both looked up at you, and Lola shushed you softly.

“She’s the last one awake.” Lola told you as she pointed at Scarlett, and Celeste, who were curled up next to each in a tight ball fast asleep in the middle of the makeshift bed, and Kai, who was sleeping on Wolf’s stomach. “Please can they stay in here tonight? I promise, I’ll keep a close eye on them, and I’ll come get you if anything happens.” You smiled, and nodded your head.

“Don’t stay up too late, OK? Light out after for her this story.” She nodded her head as you crouched down to give your youngest daughter a kiss. “Night baby girl.” With a smile you kissed your fingertips and laid them gently on Lola’s forehead. “Good night, sweetheart.” As Lola continued reading, you backed out of the fort they had made and pulled your phone from your back pocket. You took a couple quick photos of the room and everyone grouped together, before quietly pulling the door closed behind you.

“Look at this.” You said to Jason as you turned your phone toward him with tears in your eyes. “They’re having a sleep over.”

“My God.” He breathed as he dried of his hands to take your phone. He huffed and shook his head with a giant smile as tears welled in his eyes as well. “This…”

“I know.” You responded as you moved to his side.

“This is our family.” He whispered as he put his arm around your shoulder. “Our kids…”

“We’re a family, baby.” You agreed as you rested your head on his chest. “All of us.”

Part 4

[koganphrancis]

WE ARE FINALLY, TRULY CAMLESS!

Season 9 Episode 6 Recap

First and foremost, I want to single out Noel Fisher for being a truly class act and returning to this demon show to give fans what happiness he could-the ONLY happiness a lot of fans have found here, myself included, in a very long time.

Next a serious piece of appreciation to Cameron Monaghan.  I know he worked hard on what little they gave him to do in the past few years, and I’m thankful he had Gotham to work on to actually use his talent while mired down in the stinky swamp this show has become.  In another actor’s hands, I don’t know that Gallavich would’ve been as captivating as it was-without Noel I know it wouldn’t have been, but Cam does deserve credit for bringing the other half of the couple to life-when they were on screen together, they had an undeniable magic happening.

Finally to any of the “fans” that are thinking or posting that we got this actually pretty shitty prison endgame because people pestered the show producers, writers, and actors too much to “bring Mickey back” may I please direct you to watch the early episode (I believe it was in Season 1, but certainly no later than S2) where Lip tells Ian prison must be a gay man’s dream with all the tattoos and unlimited sex partners.  THAT is John Wells’ perception of gay men and it has been since long before he even thought of breaking Ian and Mickey up, let alone bringing Mickey back.  

Personally I’m supremely disappointed this gay couple, like so many others, did not get a free and truly happy ending in canon, even though my friends know I predicted this could very well be all we got in the end.  FFS it’s the year twenty gayteen-couldn’t ONE iconic gay couple be given a nice, normal happy ending?  John Wells is a fucking dinosaur.  He needs to go to a sensitivity training camp run by Dan Levy, Emily Andras, and Ryan Murphy.  

Anyway-my last recap (baring a miracle) of this shit show is under the cut

(screen cap credit: justmikhailothings)

This episode was brought to us by White Castle.  I’d like to think they gave every dime they got from them to pay Noel, but I’m sure it went to the other “big name” guest stars.

Also the show was (disappointingly) written by Nancy “Ratfucker” Pimental, so you know it’s gonna be bad.

The show begins with Ian putting his stuff away up in the attic and claiming he wants to eat a shitload of White Castle.  Sure, whatever.  Everyone is trying to offer ideas of what they should all do on his last day of freedom, but suddenly THIS Ian is talking and making decisions for himself.  WHERE HAS HE BEEN THE PAST 4 SEASONS?  He only appears when Mickey’s about...

Debbie offers to bring him to a gay bar to “get laid” (flashing back to Monica in S3, ugh-it was a bad idea then, it’s a bad idea now), Ian says, “Pretty sure I’ll get laid a lot in prison.”  He says it with a grim expression, but considering how they end the show/who his cellmate is, he should be so lucky.  

Frank pretty much ignores Ian in the scene, and they certainly don’t interact.  Frank recommends Ian should read James Joyce’s Ulysses in prison, but other than the fact that it’s by an Irish writer and it’s extremely long and dense to get through (aka it’ll take Ian some time to do it), I don’t know if there’s any significance to his suggesting it.  

This scene with just a throwaway send off from Macy seems to be in line with John Wells’ vision to have the series fade away with the characters going about their daily lives rather than end, but I really think both Cam and WHM were screwed out of not having a final scene together with just the two of them.  Their comedy timing was always the best out of Macy and all the Gallagher kids.  The lack of respect is just astounding-especially since the show wasted so much time on rando actors/characters we’re never going to see again.

The rest of Frank’s story this week takes place with Liam in tow again and it’s just dumb and boring.

The next scene shows Fiona and Bored looking at an apartment-they’re going to move in together (why?  And when was this decided?  Not that I care, but they could’ve cut a scene of them bickering to show a scene where they arrived at a decision together for once).  It makes absolutely no sense-they have Fiona’s whole place to themselves, why waste $3000 a month living in some other apartment all to themselves?  Just because it has two bathrooms?  Do they shit that much?

And then, ooh, bad news for Fiona-her business partners require her to kick in another 25 grand or their investment will be dead in the water.  I still don’t know how she went from having $50K to invest to $100K, so this new twist is just more bullshit that I can’t care about.  

Then there’s a scene where we have to see Carl’s new girlfriend’s head in Ian’s lap.  WTF.  We need to see Mickey’s head there-or better yet, Ian using Mickey’s perfect thighs as a pillow.  

There’s a couple of boring, unfunny bits of the nun and then the priest (is it supposed to be hilarious that the dad from Full House is spewing out sex scenario names Nancy must’ve googled?) from Kev and Vee’s kids’ preschool with a dildo.  Seriously, Nance, not even close to funny, probably time to put yourself out to pasture, old girl.  This show has used dildos as a sight gag so many times at this point there’s just nothing more to do with them except maybe shove them up the writers’ asses.

Lip’s storyline this week is something out of very, very bad fan fiction: A movie star comes to their house!  Cuz, that happens, okay?  I’m sure studios and billion dollar make up companies don’t run any kind of background check on people they hire to babysit their clients-why would they?  It’s not like a crazed fan would rape/maim/kill the object of their obsession or anything.  ANYONE can be a star minder for one day, surely.  

BORING ALERT: Lip has a couple more running scenes this week, because no one got enough of that last episode.  This week the least they could’ve done was play the Friends theme song over the endless footage where he’s chasing Courtney Cox around on location in Chicago.  

While watching, I was wondering if Courtney’s role was written for her or they just settled for her when Roseanne Barr was suddenly unavailable-the stuff they had her say and do (except for the sprinting) seemed like it was written for a more jaded motherly type-but I’m jumping ahead.  Since we DID get CC, here’s a couple of stray observations.  1. She looks like a rich man’s Emmy Rossum, and 2. was part of the purpose of her storyline to throw shade at Jennifer Aniston?  Her character is named Jen Wagner, and there’s this whole dumb thing where Nancy’s trying to make, “Face it, you’re gorgeous” happen as her make up commercials’ tag line-which was reminiscent of Aniston’s ads for L’Oreal that stated “I’m/you’re worth it”.  

Meanwhile, after Fi gets the devastating news that she needs to come up with more money she tries to get out of taking the new apartment with Bored by lying to him and telling him she smelled mold there-HE RESTORES OLD HOUSES/BUILDINGS FOR A LIVING why does Nancy think that was a clever lie for Fiona to come up with?  How stupid is Fi supposed to be?

Back at the Gallaghers, Ian is practicing self defense moves with Carl and Kelly to prevent someone from raping him at knife point.  Everyone’s flipping each other in these scenes and it just felt like they wanted to give their stunt coordinator (and Cam’s double) a lot of (boring) shit to do this week...Ian’s final scenes being played out with this meaningless newbie (who Carl will probably wind up killing or dumping or both) made me very sad.  I guess maybe it was to build dramatic tension for when Ian’s in his cell later and the door slides open before he turns around.  But it’s lame because the scenes play like he’s JUST realizing prison’s rapey.  

Someone knocks at the door-my heart started racing but it wasn’t Mickey.  A guy who wasn’t in the jail scenes tells Ian Joselito sent him.  Ian starts asking him about the guys he was in county lock up with-WHO CARES.  The guy tells him the couple he’s asking about broke up when one of them got out and Nancy throws in a line about long distance relationships not working.  Joselito sent this Antonio guy to give Ian an “in-depth safety orientation about Beckman Correctional” before they send him up.   

Antonio draws Ian a map of the facility and tells him the areas to avoid, then draws a big circle with Mickey Mouse ears on it and tells him that’s “Disneyland” and he can get all good things there-smooth blowies, weed, Snickers...I’m sure ol’ Nancy thought she was being clever, but it just took me out of the scene hearing Antonio say “Disney” at least three times-reminded me of Cam’s publicity stunt “coming out date” there last year.  

Fi comes in and asks if anyone has any money (shades of S4 when Ian gave her his Fairy Tail tips) and that she needs 25 grand.  She’s so stupid.  And she’s honestly that out of touch with the family that she thinks maybe one of them has thousands of dollars they could give her?  (although, if she had only gotten to Lip before he tried to buy Xan...)

Fiona tells Ian, “Don’t forget, I’m driving you to prison tomorrow.”  And that’s the last time they see each other.  So much for family, eh, Nance?

A huge time waster of a scene where Kev and Vee pack up all their sex toys and then another drawn out scene of them throwing the stuff off a bridge happen.  Seriously, these are Cameron’s final moments on this shit show-they couldn’t think of anything for him to do?  This was all screen time Cam and Noel could have had, SHOULD have had!

I have to recap this next bit because it was beyond belief unrealistic-Frank steals a bicycle and goes following Katey Sagal and her ex-husband when they leave the hospital in an Audi-and Frank manages to keep up with them all the way to their nice neighborhood that must be some distance away since it was daylight when they left and dark when they get to their door.  Frank.  On a bicycle.  Kept up.  YOU’RE SUCH A DUMB FUCK, NANCY.

Then there’s more White Castle with the money shot of the food and packaging all over the Gallagher kitchen table.  Courtney gets to make a bulimia joke Nancy wrote into the scene.  Hope you weren’t looking for a Guest Starring Emmy, CC.  

Ian tells a “Carl story” about him puncturing his scrotum (on purpose) with a screwdriver when he was a kid.  Carl must have the most mangled dick and scrotum on the planet between his several botched circumcisions and now this.  Kelly asks him if that’s why he has “that scar”.  You know what, Nance?  While some people do in fact find scars sexy, self inflicted ones on scrotums don’t make that list.  

Debbie comes in, recognizes “the chick from the make up ads” having dinner with them.  I’m sorry-having WHITE CASTLE with them.  Now everyone else sees it too, and Kelly insists that CC says “the” line that Nancy made up to make happen-why do they keep trying to make meaningless things A Thing?  

After dinner, Jen is giving Ian advice about prison: “Find a hobby, it makes time go so much faster.”  Ian asks, “Did you learn that from one of your movies?” and she says she did 48 hours for DUI (hey, just like Ethan, Nancy!).  Jen really needed to get into making TP paper mache to get through 2 days?  

Debbie, desperate to make shit about her says, “Maybe I should go to prison too.  It seems like the only way I’ll find a real relationship.”  WHY are they acting like Ian’s going away on a single’s cruise?

Jen says to Debs that’s not true and Debbie says it is, that she’s unlucky in love (when the fuck has she ever been “in love”?)...”men, women...”  

Jen tells her she’s a special woman (how the fuck does she know?) and that she doesn’t want just anyone, she wants somebody “who gets you” and then for the second time in two weeks an older woman, without determining if Debbie is of age, pulls her into a kiss and the others (Ian, Lip, Carl, Kelly) stare like, “WTF?”  The kiss ends and Debbie looks all amazed like she did after the Mel kiss, but then Jen looks at everyone and says, “I played a lesbian once in a movie.”  And that’s what your research into that role led you to believe lesbians do?  Kiss random teens when they’re whining?  Lip starts the “Face it” line and everyone else chips in with “you’re gorgeous” and everyone laughs and I don’t get why it’s funny or even why it’s supposed to be funny.  Seemed like they were trying to drive home the point that ACTORS only PLAY gay characters, but no matter how convincing they seem, they are in reality the much more “preferable” heterosexuals we can feel safe with and really want them to be.  Fuck you, Shameless.

Also, Courtney/Jen is three times older than Debbie-CC is 54 irl and Debs is forever 17 now, so more Kash vibes for anyone who was missing those.  Also perpetuates the writer room’s fantasy that hot young actors would find middle and past middle age folks suitable sex partners.

Fi goes to Patsy’s Pies and there’s another hysterically lame scene where she opens the office safe and is counting out money-I don’t know how much a place like Patsy’s rakes in (or keeps in their safe) but I would think it would take a long time to accumulate 25K in CASH in this day and age of debit and credit cards.  She abandons that bad idea and winds up going down to the docks and drinking with a Patsy’s employee and reciting all her “mo money” problems while he counters with the facts that his car’s been repossessed and that he and his moms are being evicted from the projects.  Then the guy kisses drunk Fi but she tells him she has a boyfriend and that she has to apologize for lying to him (although, really, the underlying implication is she has to apologizing for never seeing that he’s always right about her being a dumb woman who has no head for business decisions).  

Lip and Ian have their last one on one scene.  After the movie star mom for a day leaves, Ian’s fake smoking on the front steps and Lip joins him.  Lip gives him money for his commissary account and Ian says, “I’ll pay you back,” (but not thank you) and Lip says, “No you won’t,” and I’m at home saying, “Lip, why are you being such a dick?”  Ian goes to hand him the lit cigarette, but pulls it away when Lip reaches for it, but then gives it to him and rubs his shoulder.  I guess this is supposed to signal to us that they’ve said everything that’s needed to be said?  Except we’ve been watching and we know Lip is supposed to be a mouthy motherfucker and in the old days they would’ve had actual conversations that they DID NOT have at all-all their conversations this season have been short and awkward.  Ian’s been made into a fucking mute now, even in these final moments.

Their last scene should’ve been in their room, in their beds-Ian can’t sleep and they talk things out in the dark like the brothers they used to be, but no.  Can’t have that.  

The Fiona drama finding out Bored has a wife, kid, and house and then drunkenly smashing up her leased vehicle is so “bad soap opera” I can’t believe this show is still on the air.  If we were supposed to cry for Fiona as her make up  and fake blood ran down her face after her millionth time of being let down by a guy everyone else could see was an ass from the start-well, we just didn’t.  

Next day the Gallaghers are waiting in the living room for Fiona to take Ian to prison.  Kev steps up to drive them all in his truck.

They get there, get out, and Ian looks around, then says to his family, “All right.  I thought Geneva and some of the others would be here but...”  Thank christ they weren’t!!!  The show/Ian wasted too much time on those randos as it was.  However, credit where credit is due-the show got us all the way through this swan song arc without bringing up Terror once!  But I digress, back to our scene.  Carl says, “You can only count on family, dude.”  I scream BULLSHIT at my TV screen.  

Debbie says, “I’m gonna miss you.” 

Group hug.  Kev says, “Don’t get too raped in there, aight?”  Everybody breaks apart, the moment ruined.  Kev says he doesn’t know what to say in these situations (and clearly no one can improvise but Noel).  Vee says, “How about goodbye and I love you?”  

Kev says, “Goodbye, man. I love you.”  

Ian says, “I love you guys too.”  Wasting it on the wrong fucking people!  All of them-except Kev and Vee who never voiced an opinion-didn’t care if went to prison!  

Ian looks at Lip, walks over to him.  “Hey, uh, thanks for being my brother.”

Lip, still a dick, says, “Never had a choice.”  That’s right, bitch-you didn’t get to choose to play the interesting gay brother, you got cast as the dick know-it-all who never cared about anyone but himself.  

During this entire farewell scene I was sitting at home, strangely unmoved.  I felt nothing watching it, probably because everyone was such an asshole about Ian going to prison all season, plus never caring about what he was doing all last season, plus the fact that none of these characters are the characters we first got to know.  It hasn’t been a case of character growth and development, it’s been character assassination and retconning.  

Ian breaks the hug.  “All right.  See you guys.”  He goes to the gate, shows his papers, gets let in through the gate, waves to his family as he walks past the fence, walks into the prison, slaps his phone (wouldn’t he just give that to Lip to hold on to?  Battery’s gonna be dead by the time he gets out) and watch (probably ditto on the watch battery) onto a counter, strips down so we see one last quick shot of his naked ass (what, no cavity search?  And just how long has it been since we’ve seen his unclothed ass anyway?), and a glimpse of the boob tattoo.  

Next we see him in his yellow “I Love You, Philip Morris” jumpsuit, carrying his bedding through the GP.  He’s attracting “fresh meat” attention and Cam actually does a really good job of looking a bit scared while trying to look tough and “don’t fuck with me”-there’s a vulnerability there, but he’s not overplaying it, and he’s certainly not overplaying the fronting.  His acting was really powerful in that scene.  

They put him in his cell and slam the door and he winces a little at the sound, then he sadly looks at his 6X8 foot (or whatever the dimensions are) room, puts his bedding pile on the top bunk and leaves his hands up there and lets his head hang down.  He hears the door slide open behind him again and gets this, “Ugh, here we go,” expression on his face and turns around to see it’s Mickey standing there.

Me at home: Not what I wanted for end game but I’m still thrilled to see the man, the myth, the legend again anyway.  He’s all beefy still from when he was shooting Fonzo and looking good.  

Ian’s looking at him like he’s not sure he’s really there.

Mickey mildly says, “I rolled on the cartel I was working for and in exchange guess who gets to pick where he gets locked up?”  

Ian’s got tears in his eyes now and says, “Holy fuck.”

“Oh hey-I got bottom,” Mickey says as he points to the lower bunk.  Then he walks past Ian and says, “So...you’re on top,” in a bit of a sing-songy voice. 

He flops down onto the bunk, puts his hand behind his head-and check out the gifs closely, especially on Twitter-in the jumpsuit you can see the outline of his dick and it “twitches in interest” as the fan fics say (don’t know if Noel did it by adjusting his thigh, don’t know if it was intentional or what-but it was a sight to see whatever the case).  He does a lip lick/bite combination, Ian’s face lights up a bit and he gives a smile, he crawls onto the bunk on top of Mickey, pinning his hand down while Mickey smiles softly, they gaze at each other a beat, Ian gently strokes Mickey’s cheek, Mickey wraps his free hand behind Ian’s neck, their noses boop, and Ian sort of gently thrusts into a kiss (it was good-definitely had a bit of a sexual vibe to it), which Mickey expertly returns.  It was a very good kiss, tender and loving, but that scene needed words, needed Ian to say SOMETHING to Mickey-needed an “I’m sorry” and a “thank you for always being here for me” and exchanged I love yous.  Neither of these boys are ever told they’re loved!  JFC, nine seasons and the show couldn’t manage to work mutual ILYs in ONCE?  Fuck you, Shameless.  They didn’t even say each other’s NAMES!  

Mickey (and Noel) looked so fucking good lying there-relaxed and happy, finally back with his love where he’s always belonged.  Even when his eyes are closed, they’re perfect.  The angle the scene was shot at, we see more of Mickey’s microexpressions than Ian’s.  

An after the credits began scene of them lying in an afterglow embrace would’ve been nice.  Mickey could’ve mocked Ian’s hair (give us one last “Fire Crotch” you cowards!) and boob tattoo (or offered to fix that for him while they’re in the joint).  

Mickey’s got new ink on his forearm we never see clearly.  Until and unless we’re told otherwise, I’m saying it’s a big ginger root ;)  Bam.  

On a personal note, and not to rain on anybody’s parade, while I believe 100% in Drunk Crew Guy and what he said, I really don’t see us getting another scene in the finale.  This show’s attention span is down to nothing now, and I can’t see them dragging these guys back out now that they’ve given us (shitty) endgame. I don’t think enough time will have passed to let them out of prison by then, I think those final episodes are going to be about Fiona leaving and not Ian and Mickey getting to Mexico-and I can’t really see Mickey being able to go back there now that he’s crossed a cartel.  My feeling is the show filmed 2 possible endings using Noel to choose from-one ending with them in Mexico and the other being the one we got.  They probably ripped off The Shawshank Redemption too much with a Mexico ending and decided to go with this “original” idea instead.  I’d love nothing more than to be wrong, and to get one more scene of these two free and happy.  Cam’s question mark at the end of his farewell post and the fact that I do trust everything DCG said leaves a spark of hope burning in my heart, but hopefully I can back away from endless online speculation and theories about it over the next 5 months.  If it happens, beautiful.  If it doesn’t, at least we got one last look at Mickey and he’s getting dicked down and the love he’s always deserved, even if I hate the fact they’re locked up and will be in danger whenever they’re not in their cell-not to mention this is the shitty way gay love stories get handled in general, but I must not go down that path again in this recap.  

I want to add that Mickey didn’t sound all that “Mickey” in his scene, but maybe he didn’t need his swagger and was being more “real” to let Ian know he had a choice (as always, Mickey didn’t force himself on Ian-he let him come to him).  And kudos to Cam for not doing his hideous Chicago accent for most of the episode.  

There WAS love and chemistry in that final scene.  Just sucks that we don’t get it anywhere else in the show and they wasted so much time last night that could’ve been given to Cameron and Noel.  

But hey, I’m finally free of recapping ;)  While I’m sorry the Gallavich parts are now over, I’m not sorry I can finally quit missing what we used to get while watching what the show now does.  Mickey and Ian are back together now, so, fuck you, Shameless.  

[ailithnight]

Oof, four days and 2700 words later, I’ve finally finished writing this fic based off of @randomslasher‘s post here. Enjoy!

Title: Birthdays Word Count: 2734 Content Warnings: Um, slight angst? Mostly hurt/comfort.

Tagslist: @moose-squirrel05, @didsomeonesayprince, @readeatfightlove13, @anxious-vigil, @theamberrose97, @terminally-anxious

Virgil was pleasantly surprised to wake with the rare sensation of peace and contentment slowing the beat of his heart and keeping his breathing relaxed and even. His eyes strayed to the calendar pinned above his desk and a small smile graced his lips. It was his birthday. While all the sides were physiologically 29 just like Thomas, Virgil had officially formed on this day when Thomas was 8 years old. Were he a real person, Virgil would be 21 and now legally allowed to get drunk. He briefly considered the sensation of drunkenness and decided he didn’t care for it. Alcohol made you do stupid things and say stupid things and sometimes it made you overly emotional and just, no thanks. Virgil will stick to grape Gatorade in a wine glass while sitting fully clothed in a bubble bath. He’d probably be doing that tonight, after movie night of course. It was his own little birthday treat to himself.

Virgil mused over birthdays passed. He never really did much. The lights had barely tolerated him until recently, so it was no surprise they didn’t celebrate with him. And the darks… They weren’t necessarily horrible people. None of them were just inherently evil. But they did tend to live in moral shades of grey, often straying more towards the darker end of the spectrum than the light. More often than not, they caused more trouble than they did good and frequently made Virgil’s job harder. Especially the walking cactus. Ok, he wasn’t really a cactus. But the living embodiment of Thomas’s obsessiveness liked to wear bright green and gel his hair to sharp points in a dozen different directions. He was trying to look like an anime character. Virgil thought he looked like a cactus. When he kicked in, it was hard to get Thomas to get any work done, no matter how much anxiety he funneled into the man. It usually just ended up paralyzing Thomas with worries and that only drove him to sink further into mythical worlds in a vain effort to avoid his responsibilities. Inevitably, Virgil would have to go confront him. Confrontations with the darks usually ended in blood. Again, moral shades of grey. Not evil, but not really good either.

But despite their moral ambiguity, all of them agreed to give Virgil one present for his birthday. For one day a year, Virgil could live with the peace of mind that none of the darks would go around stirring trouble. There would be no confrontations, no blood and bruises, no need to protect Thomas from them. It wasn’t much, but Virgil didn’t mind. In fact, as far as Virgil knew, that was a normal birthday. It’s not like he had a frame of reference to say any different. Of course, Virgil knew when Patton, Roman, and Logan’s birthdays were. He had been informed in no uncertain terms to cause no trouble on those days, to which he happily complied. Even on Thomas’s birthday in years past, he spent those days holed up in his room, making himself as invisible as possible. And none of them had had a birthday since Virgil had been accepted, so he didn’t really know what was normal. He did kind of figure there would be something, since causing no trouble was just normal life for the lights. Still, going down that morning, Virgil didn’t have high expectations.

 “Good morning, Virgil!” Patton greeted cheerily as his dark strange son appeared in the kitchen. Patton was pleased to see a calm smile grace his son’s face.

“Morning, Dad,” Virgil responded with almost equal cheer, albeit in a much softer tone. Patton noticed how calm and happy Virgil seemed to be. It was a rare, but immensely joyous occasion. Patton wasn’t sure what could be causing the uplifted mood, but he wasn’t complaining. If there was one thing they had all learned about Virgil by now, pointing out changes in behavior was probably the quickest way to stop those changes. So, Patton kept his mouth closed. Logan and Roman must have both caught on as well.

“And how are you on this fine day, Green Gay?” Virgil snorted at the nickname.

“Pretty sure I’m purple. If you’re looking for green, talk to Obsession. But, I’m pretty good. How about you?”

“Glittery as ever.” Logan sighed.

“Roman, glittery is not an adjective to describe emotion.”

“It is if that’s how I feel.”

“You can’t feel glittery. It is like saying you feel shiny.”

Yep, that’s how I feel. Shiny and sparkly and glittery.” Virgil wasn’t bothering to hide his snickers at the light-hearted debate.

“Argue semantics later you two. Breakfast time!” Patton walked over with two plates, setting one in front of Logan and the other in front of Roman. Logan reached for the jar of Crofters but Roman flashed his hand forward and grabbed it first.

“Nu-uh. If I let you at it first, there won’t be any left for the rest of us.” Logan looked down, flushing slightly pink.

“That’s… fair.” Roman laughed, Patton and, surprising all of them, Virgil joined in. After a beat, Logan laughed as well. Patton went back to the stove to grab the other two plates as Virgil sat down.

“You go the extra strip of bacon today, Kiddo.” Patton set the happy pancake man in front of Virgil, whose grin seemed to stretch a bit wider.

“I love it. Thanks Pat.” Patton’s confusion was mounting, but he filed it away to think about later.

“My pleasure. Everyone dig in.” The sound of eating filled the kitchen.

 Logan had noticed Virgil’s odd behavior today and while it perplexed him, Logan didn’t want to risk making Virgil uncomfortable by pointing it out. But he did want to keep an eye on him, maybe decipher the cause without alerting Virgil. So, he grabbed a couple books from his shelf, one he had read before and one he had been meaning to loan Virgil anyway as he thought the anxious side would enjoy it. Then Logan went off in search of his fellow left brain.

Logan found Virgil in the recliner in the commons, listening to music with his eyes closed and looking so content, Logan almost didn’t want to disturb him. But it was made moot point anyway when Virgil opened one of his eyes to give Logan a quizzical look. Logan extended the hand holding the book for Virgil. Virgil removed his head phones and Logan took the opportunity to offer an explanation. “I wanted to loan this to you. It is a fascinating book I think you may thoroughly enjoy.” Virgil took the book gingerly, looking between it and Logan for a moment. Then a smile split his features.

“Thank you, Logan. I promise to take good very care of it. Thank you so much.” Logan nodded, not for a second doubting Virgil’s promise. He noted the similarities between Virgil’s behavior at this moment and his behavior at breakfast while Virgil put his head phones back on and leafed through the pages, that same smile sitting on his lips as if it were a permanent fixture now. Logan walked over to the sofa and sat down, opening his own book and beginning to read. Virgil began reading as well and they spent the afternoon like that, silently reading in each other’s company. Every now and then, Logan stole a glance at Virgil, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. While Logan couldn’t seem to discern the cause of Virgil’s elevated mood, he could at least deduce that it was genuine and was able to mentally cross off the less than pleasant theories he had developed.

 Roman was gleeful and excited. He and Thomas had had a most productive day together. Thomas was incredibly relaxed, which he confused the man until Roman recounted how calm and happy Virgil had been that morning. Thomas had asked why and, though Roman too wished to know and perhaps be able to replicate the event in the future, he did not have an answer, and so kept Thomas’s focus on the next Sanders Sides script. After the heavy weight of the last few videos, Roman was definitely feeling something lighter and happier. Maybe Christmas Caroling? The holiday was fast approaching. Yes, Roman liked that one. Of course, that wasn’t the only idea they had saved. Roman and Thomas made sure they had a sizable list that Thomas could run by Joan. But Roman really liked the idea of Sanders Sides Christmas Caroling video. He really hoped that would be the one Thomas and Joan settled on. Already, he was nearly bursting with ideas for it. Of course, they could wait. It was dinner, then movie time. And Roman knew exactly who should get to pick the film tonight.

“Virgil, why don’t you pick the movie?” The addressed side looked up from watching Patton make popcorn and gather drinks. Roman’s heart stuttered with the way Virgil’s whole face lit up with a smile. Roman could swear he looked like a kid on Christmas morning who just unwrapped their first present and found out it was exactly what he wanted.

“Hm… how about Lilo and Stitch?”

“A capital choice!” Roman boasted.

“Satisfactory.” Logan commented.

“Great choice, Kiddo!” Cheered Patton as he came in carrying a tray of snacks. Virgil’s smile grew. The movie passed mostly as per usual, Patton getting emotional, Logan mummering about scientific inaccuracies, Roman singing any time there was music (even if he was just singing the instrumental) and Virgil watching quietly enraptured, sometimes stealing glances at the other sides on the couch with that smile making his whole face look young and soft and innocent. When the movie ended, Roman was about to suggest another when Virgil stood and stretched.

“I’m turning in for the night guys. It was… it was a good day. Thanks. Try not to stay up all night. You know it keeps Thomas up. Good night.” Virgil was up the stairs before anyone could form a response. Roman was the first to speak.

“Does anyone have any idea what was up with Virgil today?” Patton shook his head and Logan opened his mouth to respond.

“Based on my observations, it seems Virgil was experiencing decreased levels of anxiety and increased levels of happiness. I have eliminated the possibilities that he is faking it or somehow intoxicated. I also doubt that this is the quote unquote ‘calm before the storm’ during a depressive episode as previous experience with Virgil in depressive episodes indicates he is usually less expressive and more reserved. I have considered the possibilities that he is better rested, better hydrated, or both. I also noticed a distinct lack of trouble from the others that might be playing into Virgil’s decreased anxiety, though how he would know that they were not up to something is beyond me. Then again, Virgil’s relationship with them is somewhat less tenuous then ours, so it is possible he knows something we are unaware of.” Logan’s response was a bit long winded, but Roman felt he got the gist of it.

“Basically, you don’t know, but it’s probably nothing bad.”

“Correct.”

“I guess as long as it’s nothing bad, we don’t really need to get involved, do we?” Patton asked. “I mean, he might have just been having an exceptionally good day. Maybe he had a good dream.”

“It is a possibility. But yes, I believe ‘butting in’ when Virgil has not indicated he wants us to know may be inefficient or even counter-productive. It is likely best that we leave well enough alone until there is evidence that we need to intervene for Thomas or Virgil’s well-being.

 Upstairs, Virgil had turned on some music, run his bath, and summoned his drink. He sank into the warm water with a contented sigh and a single thought in his mind. “Best Birthday Ever.”

 It was several weeks before the lights had any sort of answer to that one day of odd behavior from Virgil. They don’t even remember how the topic came up. The previous events became quickly over-shadowed by the new information that soon came to light. But somehow, a normal dinner conversation had turned to birthdays and Patton had oh so innocently asked, “Virgil, when is your birthday? I need to mark it on my calendar.” A perplexed expression crossed Virgil’s face.

“Like, 3 weeks ago?” The sound of eating ground to a halt.

“What?” Patton asked, emotion cracking his voice. “W-we missed it?”

“How could we not celebrate our dear Edge-Lord’s birthday?!” Roman bemoaned.

“Unacceptable,” Logan declared, “This oversight must be rectified.”

“Guys, wait,” Virgil called their attention, “We did celebrate, remember?” All eyes turned to him and Virgil felt anxiety creeping up the back of his neck. He looked down, partially alleviating the sensation. “I-I mean, Pat made me a p-pancake face and gave me the extra bacon. Logan, you- you loaned me a book. It was really good by the way. And Roman let me pick the movie. The others stayed out of trouble like they always do. And I got to relax in the bath. See? We celebrated. It was great. Easily the best birthday I’ve ever had.” Virgil had a small smile on his face as he recalled the day. But when he looked up again, the others had a range of expressions. Patton looked sad. Roman was incredulous. Logan looked skeptical. A pit began to open in Virgil’s stomach as he wondered if he had done something wrong. “What?”

“Virgil,” Logan breathed out. “Is that… your idea of a birthday celebration is a few kind acts and no trouble from the darks?”

“Yeah.” Virgil watched their expressions closely, the pit growing and anxiety twisting to despair. “Is that… wrong?” Silence hung in the kitchen for a moment. Suddenly,

“A BIRTHDAY IS SUPPOSED TO BE FESTIVE!” Roman shouted lividly, startling them all. Virgil flinched back from the sudden noise and a few tears slipped free of Patton’s eye lids.

“S-sorry. I d-didn’t, I don’t, I-” Roman’s expression softened as he listened to Virgil’s stuttered attempt at an apology. Patton got up and walked around the table to give him a hug.

“No. No, sweetie. You- you’ve not done anything wrong. It’s just, a birthday is supposed to be special. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I don’t- It was special, Dad.” Patton’s hug did wonders to ease the fear and despair in Virgil’s chest, though the emotion was just replaced by immense confusion.

“Virgil,” Roman spoke much softer this time, pitching his voice to be low and calming. “We didn’t know. We didn’t know it was your birthday.”

“You didn’t?”

“No,” Logan stated. “Those were just, normal things, a normal day.”

“Oh.”

“It seems we still have much to learn about you Virgil. And as much left to teach you.” Logan looked to be contemplating something serious. Patton pulled back and looked into Virgil’s wide eyes with his own misty ones.

“A birthday should be a party,”

“With cake and presents!” Roman interrupted.

“It’s supposed to be a celebration of all past years and all the years to come. It is supposed to celebrate you for existing.” Virgil’s eyes began growing misty as well as Patton spoke. “We are so sorry, Kiddo. For ignoring you. For neglecting you. For not making sure you had a proper birthday celebration. You deserve so much more than you’ve gotten and we want to make sure you get it.” It’s times like these that reminds everyone that Patton is more than the happy emotions. The sadness in his voice, the guilt, and the anger Virgil knows isn’t pointed at him. He wants to reach out and comfort the father figure. So he does, both of them leaning into each other’s necks.

“It’s okay, Dad.” Virgil mumbles.

“No, it’s not. But it will be.” Patton speaks with fierce determination that sparks something calm and happy and hopeful inside of Virgil.

 Three days later, Virgil came down to the most elaborate set up he had ever seen in the commons. Even the darks had been dragged out of their respective lairs to join in the festivities. They looked awkward and out of place. It was obvious they had no clue what was going on. Patton made sure to get all of their birthdays too. No one’s birthday in the mindscape never went uncelebrated again.

[its-ok-to-smile]

Some memorable scenes from Avengers: Infinity War

(and some of my thoughts)

{Spoilers beneath cut. Apologies to those on mobile, you’ll have to blindly scroll}

[Note: not a quotes will be verbatim]

The desperation in Loki’s voice in the distress call.

That whole opening scene, GOD DAMN!

We didn’t see them, but there’s a good chance, Valkerie, Korg, and Meek are dead as well

Like Thanos whole thing is that he kills half of wherever, so maybe he took a fraction of them prisoner, but STILL!

“We have a hulk”, reminds me of when the first Avengers came out, Chris said at some carpet interview he wished Loki was an Avenger

Some people were wondering why Heimdall sent Hulk to Earth, I personally thought it was that he was sent to warn them

HEIMDALL! LOKI!(I’m glad I got over my crush on him, I would’ve been ever more distraught than I already was)

Thor just clinging to his brother as the ship blows up, he’s lost everything, he’s broken.

‘‘You don’t believe in worldly possessions[...] Well maybe I can tell that to the Deli people and they’ll make you an ethereal sandwich.

Tony and Pepper talking about having kids! Also, matching jumpsuits!

Science bros hugging!

“Your embarrassing me in front of the wizards”

Hulk is scared!

“Cause a distraction” “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!”

“Ain’t you kids ever seen a spaceship before”

But it can’t be a good sign if they’re getting the Stan Lee cameo out of the way so soon

“Whats going on?” “This guy wants to steal a necklace from a wizard”

Russo Brothers: “Ok look, we’ve got enough character in this movie as is, so Wong, you’re done now”

“I can’t be a ‘Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man’ if there’s no neighborhood. That sounded better in my head”

“The kids seen more movies than me”

THE GUARDIANS!! (Seriously their introduction was awesome)

Pretty much all the Guardians agreeing that Quill has put on weight

“This is a wake-up call[...] Gonna get a couple dumbbells” “You can’t eat dumbbells Quill”

“Thanos desecrated Xandar” does that mean Irani and Rhomann are dead as well?

Apparently they didn't have raccoons on Asgard, but they did have rabbits, which looked enough like raccoons to be mixed up

“Swear on your mother” “Ok”

FINALLY GOT A PETER/GAMORA KISS!

“How long have you been there?” “An hour”

I think this was the first time we ever heard Drax refer to his daughter by name(He said his wife’s name in GOTG2)

“I told you to go left”

Peter loves Gamora so much, he’s willing to live without her because of his promise to her

‘Groot’ is an Asgardian elective

Love how the series messes with expectations, such as Dwarfs being the closer to the size of Frost Giants

Groot stepping up to the plate and making the handle

Steve having a total Batman moment with that train

Alot of people pointed put that he ditched the star on his chest and the ‘A’ on his shoulder, but i don’t think anyone mentioned that he never wore his helmet either

Not gonna lie, when I saw promo art for Natasha, my first thought was ‘TRAITOR!’ (I have red hair)

“Arrest them” “Yes Sir” *hangs up”

So that’s why Clint and Scott weren’t in any of the promos

‘‘There’s an Ant-man and a Spider-man?”

“WHY IS GAMORA!!

“Is Footloose still the greatest movie ever?” “It never was” >:O

I know it’s horrifying, but that was a really cool perspective shot they did with Nebula

Thanos knew that torturing Gamora wouldn’t make her tell him where the stone is

Thanos: “I’ll just leave this woman, that I literally turned into a killing machine, in a room with just one guard”

I was actually nervous that the cloaked figure was Death, and they had decided to make her a man, but then RED SKULL!!

After so many movies, I thought they decided not to do anything with that cliffhanger.. but NOPE

PLEASE don’t let that be a permanent death, Quill has lost enough already, and obviously Gamora deserves so much better

“We can’t just wing it” “That’s kind of our whole thing”

“Tell them how you saved the galaxy with a dance-off”

“I was thinking the Olympics, or a Starbucks”

Rhodey trolling Bruce on Wakandan customs

[...]“And a war veteran whose 100 years old”

Steve and Bucky hugging!

“Why didn’t you just reprogram the synapses to work connectivity?” (pause) “Because we didn’t think of it..”(plus Vision’s expression when Shuri says it)

The look Okoye gives Bruce when he trips

Jabaris war cry(and they keep doing it throughout the battle)

The respect from M’Baku to T’Challa, considering how they used to be

“This is the end of Wakanda” “Then a glorious end it shall be”  “WAKANDA FOREVER”

“Why was she up there the whole time?”

Okoye+Natasha team up!

Then Wanda joins in! (my gay heart couldn’t handle it)

“That was gross”

*Thor shows up* “Oh now you’re screwed”

“I am Groot” *Places hand on chest* “I. am. Steve Rogers” 

Bucky just picking up Rocket and doing a spinning machine gun attack

“I am so getting that arm”

“Yeah you look a Thanos” 

I remember after the credits started, I heard the guy next to me say, “All that could have been avoided if Quill hadn’t punched Thanos’’ But that is Quill’s character, he’s always been emotion-driven, it was because of his emotions that he saved the day in both of his movies(Illogically grabbing the stone, using his ‘heart’)

“I’ve got you! And you! I’m sorry I don’t remember your names!”

“If you throw another moon at me I’m gonna kick your ass”

+++++((Now the sad stuff))+++++

Wanda having to kill the love of her life, just for it to be pointless

“Steve?”

Wanda didn’t even seem to care when she died

When T’Challa went to help up Okoye, I was expecting her to ‘dust’, but then he did, the look of pure horror/confusion on her face

Rhodey searching for Sam(also just how they were constantly looking out for each other in the battle)

I see alot of people saying how sad it was Tony watching his adopted son die(and while I agree) I feel like they’re looking over the other adopted son dying scene: Rocket and Groot

The way Groot says his line almost like question but also with a hint of fear to it(As with every movie, props to Vin Diesel, for being able to portray so many emotions with one line) And Rocket just quietly going "No, oh, no-no-no”

Steve just saying ‘Dear God’’, anyone else think he was starting to pray

What’s going to happen when Rocket finds out he’s the only one left

“There was no other way” anyone else suspect that was Dr. Strange admitting that there was never a future where they won.

Peter sounding so scared when he knew what was coming, the way he was just clinging to Tony, hoping he could fix it.

That scene with Thanos sitting on the hill reminded me of that quote from someone’s dream-Obama: “To become God is the loneliest achievement there is’’

Maria and Fury still working together

Dust-censoring

The after credits/Captain Marvel teaser was cool, but I will admit I was a little disappointed, cause I was expecting/hoping it would be Coulson

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

All the original Avengers are still alive(Hawkeye is unknown)

Everyone thought Steve and/or Tony would die, possibly Tony would die saving Peter, how wrong we were...

I suspect everyone who dusted will come back, due to several of them having sequels planned.

I also think Gamora will come back(though that’s more of a hope), like maybe they’ll use some excuse where, only she can be revived, cause she’s the only one whose body is intact.(Heimdall and Loki blew up, the stones may be destroyed, so Vision might not come back)

Where is Shuri? Last we saw her was when Vision was attacked, I feel they would have shown if she dusted. They’re obviously not going to get everyone back right away, so that leaves her as the next ruler of Wakanda

I assume all the movies planned to come out before the next part will be set before this, but I wonder how the TV shows will work around it. They can’t all go on a X amount of years hiatus (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was setting up Thanos’ arrival, so they certainly can’t pretend their a couple years behind)

[misterrnobody]

[M4A] [DISCORD] M/M GAY ROMANCE M/M (optional plots included)

Hello! I’m currently looking for someone who’s interested in writing a gay romance with me (don’t care about your actual real-life gender). My preferences are drama, angst, slice of life and so on. For writing, at least 2 paragraphs, proper English, third person only and the quicker you reply, the better (though different timezones are totally okay and real life comes first!). All I ask if that you don’t just disappear on me. If there’s something you don’t like; just tell me. I’m an adult and I can handle it. Expect me to do the same. Character-wise, I’m looking for characters around the age of 25-38. I also require a real-life face claim. I’m into writing with pretty masculine characters, both in appearance and personality.

I include NSFW content, for this reason, I require roleplay partners to be 18 years old or older. As for sexual content; my characters do not take the “top” position.

Due to the fact, a lot of people have had me waste my time writing starters only not to reply; I ask that you write the first starter purely for me to see that you’re serious about writing.

I’ve been roleplaying for 8 years on various platforms and am rather proud to say that people always seem to be amazed by the stories I come up with!

I have a preference for OC’s, though I have 2 ships I’m willing to write out (possible plots below. If these don't interest you we can write something else);

Hephaestion x Alexander (which would be in an ancient setting unless you prefer a modern one).

Visual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qLzu4ondZU

and Colin Farrell x Jared Leto. (Seriously, you’d make me really happy if you’re into one of these ships : )

I also really don’t mind having a good conversation next to the roleplay itself!

We can either write on here or through discord (the latter being my preference). If you’re interested, please shoot me a chat or pm message.

Plot for Jared and Colin: They meet when they’re both trying to become actors as they play a small part in a movie. Colin used to be an alcoholic and is still drinking at that point as Jared goes along in it. While doing small acting jobs on the side the two of them spend their time partying, drinking and Jared even does drugs here and there. They stay at hotels and sleep with women at every chance. One night, they don’t manage each find a girl to sleep with and end up rather sexually frustrated in their hotel room as Jared suggests in a drunk mood that Colin could just fuck him instead which actually happens. After that, they’re basically too busy with each other to even notice others, though they never call it a relationship or tell each other they love each other even though they do. Eventually, Colin decides he wants to better his life and stops drinking which is rather hard with Jared still constantly drinking. He eventually manages to stay clear for 3 months when Jared slips alcohol into his drink in a drunk mood which causes him to fall back into his addiction. He gets so awfully pissed with Jared he tells him he never wants to see him again and with that, he takes his leave. Years later, Jared finds himself in a deep depression and in a wheelchair due to an accident that’s unknown to the public. (In this time period, you could decide yourself what life events shaped Colin). The idea is that there are options for him to walk again, but he just can’t be bothered to pursue them despite the fact it might be too late eventually if he waits. One of his actor friends throws a massive birthday party and the theme is to dress up as a character you played or are to play as Jared dresses up as Rayon (the transgender woman from Dallas buyers club). That movie is on the schedule for “when he walks again”. Basically, Colin thinks he sees a lady sitting all bored by himself and when Jared seems rather confused that Colin is even talking to him he realizes that the “lady” is Jared and assumes that the wheelchair is part of the character. They engage in a somewhat awkward conversation and Colin gets a little annoyed with Jared’s I don’t care attitude as when the man asks him to get him a drink, he gets pissed. Jared worded it weirdly meaning a glass of water and Colin doesn’t know he can’t walk himself so he literally starts about “how the hell can you ask a former alcoholic to get you a drink” and tells him to walk himself putting him on his feet only for Jared to fall down because well, he can’t actually walk. That lands them in Colin’s hotel room who eventually manages him to get the surgery needed and helps him through the process which causes them to bond and slowly fall in love again. That’s basically the main line of events I have up until now. Feel free to change anything haha.

Plot for Alexander and Hephaestion: Basically, Alexander is around 22, the king of Macedon and a little bit of an ignorant asshole feeling as if he's entitled to everything as he's royal. He never questioned everything his father told him. He doesn't have to be kind. He doesn't have to consider peoples feelings for he is a king and for example: slaves are to be obedient. So imagine that a grand party is thrown as there's a slavery auction. Hephaestion, in this story a slave, is part of what is offered and seeing Alexander is the king he is entitled to look through the slaves first and claim those he wants to work at his palace. Now all slaves are obedient until he stands in front of Hephaestion as when he grabs his arm to check for muscle (as you see in the movies ;p) the man simply janks his arm free and dares to spit in the king's face. Instead of hanging him Alexander punishes Hephaestion by making him his personal slave. Actually getting to know him Alexander starts to question if he's wrong to see slaves as a mere object for Hephaestion has personality and might even be more intelligent than some of the men in his personal counsel. He becomes sure of it when Hephaestion challenges him to a fist fight when soldiers are training and when he wins; it proves to him that slaves aren't all that different. Basically, we would turn it into a romance. It would include a whole lot of character development, especially for Alexander. He could change rules of slavery and allow Hephaestion to choose his own career path as he eventually does become a commander and so on? Now men being with men was actually normal back in the day where they are from, but for a king to be with a slave would cause some backlash and so on. We could add things or if there’s something you don’t like leave things out and kinda see where it goes after that slave auction.

OC Plot 1: A has been living on the streets for several years. His father made him leave home after seeing him kiss another guy. A started out with the money he saved and ended up in drugs business. A drug deal went wrong, he leaves the city and does not deal drugs again because the chance of running into the people he got in trouble with is too big. Once again going against everything he stands for, he finds himself standing at the street corner one night ready to sell himself to the first person that shows interested. That is B comes in, a rich man who takes a liking to men but can’t openly sleep around because gay rumors could be bad for business. He takes interest in A and takes him home, offering him a to stay with him in his condo, as well as good pay, if he’s available for sex at all times and A agrees, now having a roof above his head and not having to eat from trash cans.

The idea is that the more time they spend together, the closer they get. B, who’s rather selfish, starts to care about A more than he likes. He sees he’s lonely at home; he gets him a dog. He doesn’t have anything to do; he decides to put him in college. What’s interesting is that their lines are already blurred from the beginning, so what’s just kindness? What's part of the arrangement? What’s a hint at love? : )

OC Plot 2: Characters A and B used to be best friends throughout their entire childhood and high school career. In their senior year, people really start to comment on how close they are and the rumor begins that they are a gay couple. B really dislikes this because he is in love with his best friend and has not come to terms with it yet, to the point where he ends their friendship. A, who is a closeted gay man in love with his best friend is not only hurt by that decision, but also feels like B never truly accepted him. While B stays popular, A becomes kind of a loner and all is good until a picture of A kissing a guy goes around the school. B doesn’t really do anything about the bullying and eventually, A just disappears and there’s no track of him.

Years later, B moves to LA/NY due to a new job. At this point, he’s come to tears with his sexuality. One night when he’s at the station, he finds a familiar face putting down a sleeping bag and approaches A asking what he’s doing on the streets. A is rather rude and refuses help as he’s far from the happy cheery person he used to be. B soon finds out that A pays security a small amount of money to sleep there every night and starts with giving leaving him food at the place he knows he will sleep, though A doesn’t accept anything else. That is until one night when B walks home, he sees A get beaten up and after coming in between he takes the man home despite his protests.  A doesn’t tell him much, though it becomes clear that the picture in high school caused his father to find out about his sexuality resulting in him being kicked out of the house. Feeling somewhat responsible for that event, B offers A to stay with him until he’s financially stable enough to provide for himself and A accepts after a lot of ensuring though it proves to be rather hard as A never graduated high school. B covers the costs to get him a proper education as A starts to open up more as they grow closer again as they eventually fall in love again.

OC plot 3: A and B have been chatting and calling for 2 years, though A has never wished to video chat, saying he’s shy and despite disliking not being able to see it, B accepts it. They’ve never declared what they have a long distance relationship, but they’re well on their way. B is an (interesting sports) player and thinks A is involved in the same sport. He’s doing well and playing an important game 6 months from now and has invited A to come to support and see him in real life for the first time. Though before it gets to that, B saves up enough to go and meet A when A confesses that.. not everything he said was true as he is not the guy in the picture. B doesn’t give him much time to explain and gets angry, then blocks him on all social media. 6 months later, after the important game, B finds a bag with the various things he’s sent A over time in the locker room and when he asks who left it and one of his teammates mentions a guy in a wheelchair. Missing the interaction with A, B tries to find him and eventually does and when A gets frantically upset and starts apologizing he decides to finally listen to him and finds out that A did play the (sport of choice), but got in a car accident right before they started chatting and ended up in a wheelchair. Being in a bad shape, he used a picture of someone who looked like him and assuming he’d play his sport again after getting therapy for his legs, he decided to not mention any of that at all only to find out that his family could not afford to put him through the therapy needed. B needs some time to take it in and forgives him, then proceeds to try and help him himself, asking his parents to pay for A’s therapy with the promise he will pay them back after he finishes college. Basically, A starts living with B in his apartment close to campus and they develop love based on truth this time.

(Swimming would be cute, as B could swim with A even if his legs don’t work).

[nickireadstfc]

The King’s Men, Chapter 10 – [Andreil Intensifies]

In which Mission Fix the Twinyards finally kicks off, Nicky values the important things in life (ice cream), Andreil have a Consent Talk, and oh, also the Foxes rule. Natch.

Sounds good? Then it’s time for Nicki to read The King’s Men.

After the game is before the game, so the team kicks off this chapter by sorting through the aforementioned applications for new recruits. This goes well by pretty much everyone but Kevin, whose Exy Elitism is making him kind of a little bitch.

             Kevin insisted Wymack put out a second request, to which Wymack demanded Kevin be a little more accepting of strikers who hadn’t been raised to be champions.

Exy-actly.

No offense, but chill, my man.

             Neil didn’t have the experience or insight to argue with Kevin, but he quietly clung to one of the choices he’d made and refused to let it go.

Okay, but do we ever find out who Neil recruited?

I need to know this for reasons.

REASONS.

             Abby stepped in when the argument got too loud and banished Wymack and Kevin to opposite ends of the locker room.

Bahahahahaha. Love me some good Fox mom moments.

In other news – Mission Fix the Twinyards has finally commenced!

Apparently, all is takes to get them to cooperate is to have them shout emotional murder confessions in each other’s faces. Who would have thought.

             “One of these days I want you to tell me how you roped Katelyn into it.”

             “I asked,” Neil said.

             “There goes that ‘asked’ thing again,” Matt said. “Does it mean something different where you come from?”

             “Most of the time, yes,” Neil said.

             The unexpected honesty startled a laugh from Matt.

Same.

Also, a laughing Matt is a wonderful Matt. In this household, we like all our Foxes laughing and happy, thank you very much.

However, of course, one counselling session isn’t enough to fix years and years of Twin Teen Trauma (even if it’s with Betsy and her magical cocoa powers), so the brothers still aren’t exactly BFFs, as the kids say.

             Wymack looked from one to the other. “Is this going to be an ongoing thing? I need tot know how to plan around you.”

             “No,” Andrew said.

             Aaron flicked him an irritated look. “Yes.”

BahAHAHA.

Wonderful.

In a rare occurrence, the Foxes get a night off, which everyone takes as an excuse to kick back and relax.

In Kevin and Neil’s case, this means marathoning Exy games and taking notes like fucking nerds.

Nicky, once again, manages to be my fictional voice in this universe:

             “It’s Friday night and this is how you’re entertaining yourselves? Give me a break! Think about something else for a while, would you? Like ice cream.”

SAME, MY DUDE.

Nicky, in a brave attempt to distract Neil’s nerdy ass (as we all know, all hope is lost on Kevin), tries to convince him to go to the store with him, which of course – works?

             Neil looked at Andrew and thought about Nicky’s worried appeal last fall, the warning that one day Exy wouldn’t be enough on its own. (…) Neil built his life around Exy after his mother dies because he needed something to live for, but Neil wasn’t alone anymore.

BITCH I’M CRYING.

I am SHOOKETH.

And all of this over ice cream.

The food of gods, my guys. The food of gods.

Also: Nicky apparently isn’t on Andrew’s insurance policy anymore and doesn’t have the keys to the new car either? Which means Andrew didn’t just give Neil permission to use his car, but gave it only to him?? What kind of gay FUCKERY????

I can’t believe I’m really out here having feelings about car policies. What the fuck has this book done to me.

Speaking of gay shit!

You thought we were done with a little angsty kissy-kissy on the rooftop?

SHIT NO.

THERE IS MORE.

             “Question,” Neil said, “when you said you don’t like being touched, is it because you don’t like it at all or because you don’t trust anyone else enough to let them touch you?”

HELL yes, this is what I am about.

Give me that sweet sweet consent talk.

             “It doesn’t matter to a man who doesn’t swing,” Andrew clarified.

             Neil shrugged. “I don’t because I’ve never been allowed to. The only thing I could think about growing up was surviving.”

Hell yeah again for Neil not having a Gay Freakout over this <33

Only like, a General Life Anxiety Freakout, but when does he ever not have that one.

             Maybe this was why this was in that gray area of what was acceptable. It didn’t matter that Andrew was a would-be sociopath or a man; the idea of Andrew was so intertwined with the idea of Neil’s safety that this too was a means of self-preservation.

That’s… kind of poetic, actually.

Damn, Josten.

             “I trust you.”

             “You shouln’t.”

             “Says the man who stopped.”

Ohhhhhhhh, you clever boy, you.

I LOVE this.

Please know that I am giggling gleefully, almost manically, during this entire exchange.

             “So are you completely off-limits or are there any safe zones?”

             “What are you hoping for, coordinates?”

             “I’m hoping to know where the lines are before I cross them,” Neil said, “but I’m open to drawing a map on you if you want to loan me a marker.”

Bless these boys and their sass at all times.

Also DID I MENTION HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS CONSENT TALK I DON’T THINK I DID.

Seriously, this is so, so important and so, so wonderful.

             “I’m still waiting for a yes or no I actually believe,” Andrew returned.

             “Yes.”

BITCH, YES.

             “It’s fine if you hate me,” Neil said.

             It was the truth, if a bit of an understatement. So long as Andrew was only physically attracted to Neil, this was safe to experiment with. Neil’s death wouldn’t be more than a faint inconvenience to Andrew.

My boy…

Yeah right. A faint inconvenience, my entire fucking ass.

             “Good,” Andrew said, “because I do [hate you].”

Again – yeah right, my entire fucking ass.

             “Stay,” Andrew said, and leaned down to kiss him.

And the next part I’m sparing you all because this is, frankly, unholy.

I want to quote everything.

I want to quote nothing, and let us all treasure the absolute gloriousness of the following makeout session in peace.

Because honestly – I read a lot, and I read a lot that has kissing in it, and this is still one of the best, most real, most heartfelt-without-being-tacky descriptions of kissing I’ve ever read. All the kudos to you, Nora.

I am way, way too invested in this pair by now. Holy shit.

All good gay things come to an end, though, and eventually Nicky comes back, diverting the good gay things with ice cream and horror movies.

But – our boys don’t quite walk away from their, ahem, encounter quite as unscathed as they’d like:

             Andrew had stayed by the door after letting Nicky in. Thinking that Andrew needed space and time to regroup the same way Neil did almost wrecked Neil’s attempts to get his neutral façade back together.

This is the most beautiful shit I’ve read all chapter, what the fuck.

Any time we see indicators of Andrew not being an Emotionless Void With Arm Bandages, I gain +5 years to my life expectancy.

Phew. We survived the gay shit once again, folks. What’s next?

Oh yeah.

SPORTSBALL.

More specifically, Neil and Kevin have an argument about whether to be a Technical Mastermind Player, The Very Best, Like No One Ever Was, or whether to be an Intuitive, Impulsive Heat Of The Moment Player, Because Fuck You Kevin.

Basically, Kevin wants to bone the perfect game, while Neil wants to bone the suspenseful game.

Oh, guys.

(Watch me revive year old memes at all times, watch me.)

In related Sportsball News – the Foxes have their first death match coming up!

And apparently they’re… Crushing it?

             When the Foxes hit the court February 9th, no one was expecting the fight they brought to it. (…) The sportscasters were shaking their heads in amazement.

             “I’m not entirely sure who we’re looking at now or what they did with last year’s Foxes, but they’ve completely blown me away.”

BITCH, ME TOO.

Also hah, we almost made it exactly to the date again – three days late, but this is still such a nice touch to be reading this in almost real time.

             “This is the kind of synchrony you’d expect from top-notch schools. A few weeks ago we all laughed when freshman Neil Josten said the Foxes were raring for a rematch with the Ravens. No one’s laughing now.”

Hell fucking YEAH for my children. I am such a proud soccer mom.

Exy mom. Whatever.

             The seniors exchanged a long look, exhausted and triumphant. (…) The girls came to Palmetto State University knowing it’d take work to salvage that sour reputation and knowing Wymack was their only ally. (…) Despite every loss and every roadblock, they’d made it, and now they were finally getting the nod they deserved.

Uhm, YOU GUYS IMMA CRY.

Honestly, this bit right there just got to me. These three fought so hard, wading through patriarchal bullshit every day of their lives and going on still, and now they finally fucking made it, and we get to see them as a unit, standing proud.

More love towards our Fox girls always, y’all.

TREASURE THEM WITH ME.

(Also, did I mention I’ll be cosplaying these three ladies with two friends of mine at a con here in Germany next month? With full jerseys? And did I mention I’m hella excited? And does that heighten my feelings over this bit hardcore right now??

Absolutely.)

Back to the death match – hey, remember last book when Andrew actually gave a shit about Exy for 0.2 seconds and pulled some really sweet stunts?

Apparently, our boy has decided to up his Giving A Shit game to 0.3 seconds now, because I manages to give Neil a goal shot by – hold on – making Nicky take a red card for fucking flooring a dude, taking the penalty shot, deflecting it like an absolute badass, and clearing the ball all the way up the long ass court.

Holy shit, my dude. Do I want to see what you’re like when you give 0.4 shits, or even one (1) entire shit?

Unbelievable.

Also, there is a description in there of Neil running “like his father was on his heels”, and if that isn’t the funniest, most unexpected bit of gallows humour I’ve seen in this chapter I don’t even know.

             [As the match went on] Andrew stopped every shot on goal and bounced a couple rebounds off the strikers’ helmets just to rile them further.

Andrew, I love you.

And of course, what happens as soon as Andrew moves so much as a little finger?

             The buzzer sounded on an eight-three win. They’d dominated their first death match and were on to round three for the first time ever.

HECK FUCKIN’ YEEAAAAAHHHHHH.

Sadly, even though he may give a tiny bit more of a shit on the court, as soon as the game is over Andrew is back to being his angsty self. Shame.

Petition for their final game to be the one that finally gets through to Andrew, please.

However, Nicky more than makes up for his mood.

             “Can you believe it?” he asked, amazed. “We are such hot shit sometimes!”

Nicky, never change. <3

When they go back to Wymack And Abby’s for a mandatory team celebration, there is another bit of Quality Nicky Content that had me in absolute hysterics:

             Matt commandeered the sound system in the other room. Nicky and Allison argued with all of his choices and each other, but they didn’t sound serious so Neil didn’t intervene.

I cannot, cannot stress how much I love this.

PARTY DJS NICKY AND ALLISON. GIVE ME THEM SWEET FANARTS NOW.

Brb, making a playlist instantly.

Neil, sadly, isn’t super hyped about choosing the latest bops, and goes in search of his boyfriend instead, who he finds sitting on a car gazing into nothingness – as one does when one is Gay, Angsty and Dramatic.

             “We won,” Neil said. (…) “Would it kill you to let something in?”

             “It almost did last time,” Andrew said.

YIKES.

Hope your foot tastes good, Neil, because you just put it real nicely in your mouth.

             “You sound like a wind-up doll with only one topic,” Andrew said. “I have nothing to say to you.”

             “If I talk about something else, will you talk to me?”

             Andrew quirked a brow at him. “Can you talk about something else?”

Oh, burn.

One last thing before we go –

             Halfway across the lawn his phone went off. Neil was annoyed enough to answer tonight’s “28” in his inbox with an “Enough”.

             No one responded.

Seriously guys, what the happ is fuckening.

If you like what I do here and you want me to continue writing fun things for you, why not buy me a coffee? Every lil bit helps, getting me through uni and all that jazz. Thanks so much!

[an-nekopf]

Titular: Roses and the camellias

Categorize: Love, Drama, Hurt/Comfort.
Fandom: Batman, DC Comic’s.
Thematic: Yaoi
Relationships: [Jason Todd/Timothy Drake] Resumen: «Jason had fallen in love often did not know how to manage to say his feelings without fear of rejection, even resorting to the help of Dick, Will achieve what is proposed or suffer imminent rejection?»    —You must be joking ...- said the robin rebellious to the oldest of the Robins, showing a grimace of disgust until he released a grunt in protest. For the acrobat that only gave him more reasons to stay engaged in what he did, according to his experience as casanova.    —Please, Jason, this is the most normal-defended the eldest of the brothers, while holding his hands to his hip-, or tell me, what did you plan to shoot or give him as a joke? -the silence flooded the place, since the gypsy caught the black sheep and the family's rebellion in his initial idea of ​​how to conquer or be noticed- You must be kidding, is it really, Jaybird? - the older man scolded him angrily.    —Shut your fucking mouth, Goldie, and let's finish this, I [...]-insult him, already annoyed, and then go to the door of the apartment. Grayson hid himself right in the intercession wall of the corridors of the apartment complex, and peeked at his second brother while sending good vibes. Jason took a deep breath before reaching out to knock on the door, but stopped a few inches away from this as he bit his lower lip with nerves and anxiety, shook his head and started circling the place until Finally I took something of value and was going to try to knock on the door of a new account, but it opened and the owner of the department was surprised to be face to face with the mercenary, while he was eating it nerves. —Jason, did any problem happen with Bruce, again?-Tim asked with a small smile, after coming out of his surprise. For the child it was normal for the mercenary to come to his apartment, and even more so to be his psychologist when Bruce and Jason argued over anything. —I, this ... I wanted ...- began to stutter without knowing exactly what to say by having the little boy in front of him, so much was his nervousness that he did not notice what he said or tried to say but his words were entangled with each other . The third Robin looked at him without understanding anything at all, what the mercenary was trying to say and if he could see a small bouquet of roses and camellias that the eldest hid. —Let me guess, -said Tim cutting the roll to Jason, and taking up the word him- you go to your first date and you are nervous for not knowing what to do- he said more as a statement that asks the one with the white lock, while leaning his body against the frame of the door-, anda tell me who is the lucky one, the conosco? Do not tell me, is it Rose Wilson?- The younger one continued, asking the older man some joy. Jason was silent for a moment, thinking the words of the child and was then decided to accept the words as ideas of this, but as if his mind did not count by his tongue, it was released and said almost in a whisper: —It's not a girl ...- He turned his gaze to the floor and cursed himself internally to his damn sincerity, and did not want to look up to see Tim's face, believing that he should have a grimace of disgust and repulsion over him. —Well ...- said the child breaking the small silence that formed, Jason looked up and replied his word almost with annoyance and some embarrassment- No, do not think wrong it's just that ... Woah, I had my doubts about your orientation, I see that I was not wrong to think that you were gay or bisexual, considering that you spent some time with girls ...- Tim explained calmly, gave him a smile before continuing to talk- But I'm glad, that the great Red Hood wants to have a relationship, that's progress! Now, come here tiger ... - with total enthusiasm. Tim arranges the older clothes until he removes a small oil stain on his face with his thumb, and tried to accommodate the rebellious hair of this when he finished gave a couple of tips to the mercenary and what not to do throughout the appointment , but Tim could not stay long with the antihero, had an appointment with his friends Bart and Conner at that moment and was already late, so in the end after all his talk he said: —Only be yourself, not another person but you will make the boy believe that you are someone else and you will suffocate when trying to maintain it -he advised and watched as the other nodded slowly, almost depressingly, so Tim could and on tiptoe He kissed the jaw almost near his right cheek. Look, Jason, if that idiot rejects you, he's losing a big guy with a huge heart, and if it happens, you can come to my apartment and watch a movie marathon and ask for pizza, and maybe I'll let you get drunk until you faint, okay? said in a loving and consoling way, and received an affirmation from the opposite- Take care, call me to know how it went, Goodbye, Jaybird! - He said as he left for the stairs saying goodbye with a smile and a gesture of hand. Jason stood in front of that robin's door, until he leaned his back on it and cursed himself for being such a coward and not declaring himself, he allowed himself to tap his head lightly with the door while he growled and muttered curses; On the other hand, Dick came out of hiding and was in his place to try to comfort him but only gave more options to the style of saving or cutting into bits and blows to a dog, but abandoned that idea and only hit the acrobat with the bouquet of flowers until he got bored and left the battered bouquet on the floor of that apartment complex. He spent all day in the mansion, avoiding the acrobat at all costs and came to threaten with a gun in hand what he left in peace, and he stayed at Alfred's side in the kitchen, being the butler his counselor and psychologist in murdered his piece of blackberry pie with his fork. When the night began to appear in the skies of Gotham, the mercenary realized the day off and went on his motorcycle to the juvenile's apartment complex, where he climbed the stairs and reached the top floor of the place where he found it. the corridor was only a few flower petals of the old bouquet he carried, he gave a long sigh before agreeing to the boy's apartment and knocked on the door waiting for the other to open the door, I did not have to wait long for his luck. —¡Jay! Well, that does not matter, ¡come on! Ask for the pizza and beer in the fridge in case you want it to happen while letting the mayor go inside his apartment and he would call the phone for the food. Jason entered the nice and cozy apartment, gave a sigh and thought it was convenient for a beer to the kitchen and after taking out the tin he went with the edge to the living room, but he froze when he saw something that he thought was an illusion or a dirty trick, exactly on one of the shelves where Tim keeps a glass vase inside this is the battered bouquet that exactly has that same morning; he stayed in the place where he could read and write, he did not know what to do at that moment, until his hands did not respond and they released the beer can that fell on the floor and made the noise to get Tim's attention, which Admission to the stay worried —Jason that happens, I heard a noise and ...- I do not finish speaking because he was interrupted by the voice of the anti-hero. —[...] What are you doing with that"? - He said while pointing to the battered flowers, which rested in the beautiful glass vase. Tim's blue eyes, traveled to the bouquet and unconsciously gave a smile but what he did not expect was how the mayor approached the vase willing to wish the flower era and the fear to believe that the child picked them up only for the last time. —Wait, Jason! Please do not misunderstand it, do not do it, do not listen. Robin, and ran to where Jason was at that time, making the auras are saved, that this destroyed the vase, the moment he took it out of the vase, the small, broken bouquet, or that you dare, ruin that bouquet, Jason, -said Tim seriously, leaving the glass object in another safe place while looking at the older one. —Do not! I'm doing it, right! -Jason screams enraged, while the flowers are between their hands and shake them violently and beside themselves. Tim stayed in his place, analyzing the situation in a calm way seeing how the other one walked like a caged and aggressive lion from one side to the other. Drake got bored and caught the time in which the shot to the floor and was about to kick, but Tim avoided it and away from it. , the complaints did not wait for the antihero while ranting all kinds of curses against Tim, Dick even Titus; while the young detective is surprised by the ears and crouched on the floor and picks up the bouquet, giving a sad look to see that the few flowers that survived the mayor's first attack in the morning and were shattered and with several of its petals Fallen Jason raised the words for a moment to see the look that the child gave the battered flowers, and a twinge in his chest was not expected by the part of the brunette with white strands, and this increase to hear the sad voice and almost disappointed she said in a whisper: —Now I got to throw them ...- With that said the little boy was getting ready to leave the living room to throw away the battered flowers and maybe, maybe this way the mercenary's anger diminishes but what the boy did not expect was, that the other will take him by the arm and pull him to attach his back to his chest and then caught him in a desperate hug, did not give Tim time to replicate his action or to say something of the same kind because the mercenary came forward and said: —I'm sorry- the surprise flooded Tim's face, while his hands still held the battered bouquet. He felt Jason hid his face between his neck and collarbone, and he could swear that he felt the other smell his neck and leave a small and chaste kiss on his skin that gave him a tingling chill. —I forgive you, but the next time you come you can bring me another bunch of flowers and maybe I'll give you a kiss as compensation, because now you're punished-Tim told him calmly and relaxing at the proximity of the second Robin, while he felt another little kiss on his neck that I take a small laugh. —Wait, a second ...- Jason reacted instantly while he was taking off the boy, who turned to see what happened to the other now, with a raised eyebrow- You, you knew, all this time and I did not you said it! And to make matters worse, you played with me-looking accusingly at the third Robin who just gave him a funny smile of triumph, and just when he was going to say something again Tim took it by the collar of his jacket and pulled it to to be almost of his same height and to give him a small kiss, which left him stupid for a moment. —Only say that, in one of your drunkenness you declared me and you even took me out to dance-Tim declared with amusement, shortly before giving another kiss on the tip of his nose to Jason who was still stupid and somewhat ashamed. The rest of the night they spent together watching television like eating pizza and popcorn, until Tim let Jason spend the night in his apartment but he stayed sleeping on the couch instead of the bed with the little boy, it was a great step for the now couple, although in the morning the mercenary would complain of back pain for the furniture; and with the bouquet, because it returned to the place where it belonged, that beautiful glass vase. _____________________________________________________________________ the spanish version is in the link here, where many of my chats come from, in case you want to have a look at them: https://my.w.tt/qPvL4EnJoO

[michael-hearteyes-wheeler]

Growing Strange

[1]

Chapter 2: The Beginning Of The End

(AO3)  (FF.net)

High School.

A virtual battlefield of gossip, and social tyranny. More peers, bigger classrooms, sadistic teachers, nastier bullies, stricter hierarchy, and somehow even worse school lunches.

The party readied themselves with their best weapons at the forefront: El and Max. El could kick anyone's ass, she proved that well enough, and Max could talk her way out of any situation.

They were as excited as they were fearful. Being another year older meant more freedom. They were closer to driving, to getting jobs, to becoming adults and achieving their goals. More rigorous classes meant that studying might actually be a challenge, one they were eager to take on. More elective options meant Will could take ceramics and drawing, and that Dustin could finally be the light tech for theater. Mike was pleased to learn the AV club needed a new president, and Lucas was considering trying out for baseball. Max was just stoked that the schools quad had great curbs and hills for skating on, and El was glad she shared almost all of her classes with her friends.

Puberty hit the group like a brick wall, especially the boys. Dustin's chubby cheeks were replaced with slightly more angular ones, and all of his teeth had come in beautiful and straight. Will was more or less still pretty shrimpy, but his deep and wide set eyes, and finally outgrowing his bowl cut made him strikingly handsome.

Probably the most noticeable differences had been in Lucas and Mike. Lucas was no longer gangly and baby faced. He had become muscular over the long summer months of lawn mowing and hedge trimming. It earned him a lot of attention from other girls at school, but Max could scare them away with a well placed scowl. Max herself had developed a beautiful rosy tan, and her hair was brighter than ever. They were a gorgeous couple, unafraid to stand up for each other, and not even slightly concerned about hiding their public displays of affection.

As for Mike, he had spouted like a weed. By the time Winter of 85' rolled around he was pushing 6' and still growing. It got the point where El had to stand on her tiptoes to kiss him (not that she cared). His rounded face had become chiseled, and his fluffy hair had become erratically curly. The only thing that never really changed where the sprinkling of freckles on his cheeks that El would trace whenever they held each other.

El herself was earning more attention from others in school. El was beautiful, painfully so. She always had been, but now that she was older, and her baby-face had faded, it was ridiculous. El never really seemed to care or even notice, but Mike sure as hell did. He would see the way boys gawked at her, and wrap his arm a little tighter around her waist in the halls. Or whenever someone would be leering over her at her locker, he would run up from behind and surprise her with a kiss.

He got picked on. People would ask him how he ever got someone like El, and in truth, he didn't even know. She was just so perfect. So funny, and nice. So thoughtful and insightful. So compassionate, and intelligent. It made his head spin to think that he was the one that got to hold her hand, and walk her home, and love her.

But whenever he would start to doubt himself, she was always there. To reassure him, and let him know exactly how she felt. To her it just made sense. Mike, The Party, all of them. They were the perfect friends, and it was painful to even to imagine something splitting them apart.

It just seemed to unfathomable.

One huge upside to being in highschool, is the freedom that comes with being old enough to get a real job, and drive a real car.

Lucas and Max both monopolized the lawn mowing industry. All of the old and lazy people in Hawkins had sharp, grassy yards, and meticulously groomed gardens thanks to them. When Max turned fifteen she got a handed down car from her step dad that meant way more adventures. The little orange hatchback broke down a lot, and most of her money went right back into it. But man, did she look cool driving up to school with El by her side.

Will took a part time job working with his mom at Melvald's. He enjoyed greeting customers and was one of the friendliest cashiers the store had ever had. Plus his mother was over the moon that they got to carpool and she could see him more. He spent most of his money on sketchbooks and the hottest new thing in the music technology: CD's.

El and Dustin worked part time at the library. Which mostly consisted of them hiding in less frequented sections to read returned books rather than actually putting the books away. It also meant Dustin could finally buy the big 1970's VW van he had wanted since he was little. It made for a lot of great camping trips and long drives to the city.

Mike worked at the local movie theater some days, and at the Radio Shack other days. He famously spread himself too thin, but he couldn't pass up the perks of getting free movie tickets and access to the latest technological advancements. When he turned fifteen his parents got him a sensible car that made for a lot of date nights and long talks with El out on romantic scenic overlooks.

Jobs aren't always fun, but when the benefit is making out in you new car after being able to pay for a real dinner, it's hard to complain.

As they got older, and time wore on, that obliviousness to pain faded. It seemed like one by one, they all had their demons to face.

Like when Max's step brother got kicked out during her sophomore year.

She had gone home with Lucas one afternoon in late fall. Hand in hand, and laughing with each other without a care in the world, they walked in on utter chaos that left the red-head reeling for months afterwards.

Billy and Neil, practically tearing the house apart in the fight to end all fights. Plates smashed, the TV broken. Her mother crying in the bathroom. They had turned to leave, when Billy turned on her. Or rather, on Lucas. He pinned him against the wall and screamed that Lucas was the one tearing their family apart, and that he was getting Max into trouble. It was baseless, of course, but in Billy's mind, Lucas was who he needed to take his anger out on.

Max watched from the sidelines and screamed and slapped at Billy's arms and shoulder, begging him to let Lucas go. He did, but not until Lucas had a black eye and a busted lip.

Billy got kicked out, and Neil forbid Max from seeing Lucas anymore, as if that would solve whatever demented issues he had. With Billy gone, Neil's aggression shifted towards Max's mother, and even worse, sometimes to Max herself.

She never let her families backwards view of her relationship affect the way she left about Lucas. Hiding their love from her parents just made everything more exciting. It meant sneaking out, it meant Lucas hiding in her closet or under her bed when her mother checked on her while he was at her house late at night. It meant long car rides out of town and into the hills where no one could see or cared that they loved each other.

Will's demons came for him too. All his life he had this secret burning inside of him. A secret he could only tell El, and eventually Max because he knew they wouldn't care. It ate him up inside. Feeling like there was something wrong with him, or that the people he loved wouldnt understand, or would leave him once they found out. He became distant, detached, vacant, and haunted. Filling more and more sketchbooks with eery looking images of his own internal struggle.

His mother tried to get it out of him, tried to let him know that she would love him no matter what secret he might be hiding, but Will was too scared. He would sit in silence in class and look out the window, and try to push his feelings aside. The feelings of warmth and infatuation with the boy who sat in front of him in History. The one with the silky brown hair and the charming smile. The one who laughed whenever Will would make a joke under his breath that he thought no one could hear. The one who was dating a pretty girl, the way Will thought he was supposed to.

El and Max pleaded with him, begged him to open up. That his friends would understand, that nothing could change. All he could do was promise he would think about, and wait for the right moment.

That moment never came. Not until it had festered inside of him and grown until it was bigger than he was, and he was bursting at the seems.

They were all sitting in Mike's basement. Mike and El on the couch, sharing a blanket and bowl of popcorn, Lucas, Max and Dustin lounging on the floor in a heated debate about Multi-universe theory, and Will, sitting alone at the table trying to draw and feeling like he was falling into a hole.

"I have something to tell you!" He blurted, face red and voice trembling.

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, and turned to face their anxious friend. Max and El shared a knowing glance and smiled at him reassuringly.

"You have to promise that you won't hate me after I tell you. You have to swear." Will's voice was intent.

"Of course we promise, Will, we could never hate you." Mike gave him the same assured smile that El had.

"Okay..." Will took a deep shaky breath and closed his eyes. "I... I like boys... The way i'm supposed to like girls... Im gay. And I want to be able to share this part of myself with all of you because I don't think I can keep fighting it anymore."

No one said anything. Will kept his gaze at the ground, terrified to make eye contact. Terrified to see whatever expressions of disgust splayed across the faces of his best friends. A beat passed, and Will felt like he was going to burst in tears when Dustin of all people finally piped up.

"I'm proud of you Will." His voice was soft, not a common occurrence for him, and his eyes were kind. Will looked up to meet his gaze with a look of surprise.

"You... you're proud of me?"

"I know that cannot be an easy thing to open up about, but i'm happy you finally did." Dustin smiled back at him.

"Wait... finally?"

"We have... Kind of all known for awhile." Lucas added with a small voice.

"You did!?" Will shot El and Max accusing glances but they shrugged.

"We always figured I guess, but we wanted to let you come to us with it whenever you were ready." Mike beamed at his smaller friend.

"So you don't hate me?" Will's voice was thick with tears.

"We could never hate you, Will." Mike leaned forward to place an reassuring hand on Will's knee.

That night marked one of the biggest admissions in The Parties history. Another notch in the belt (so to speak) tying them together, binding them with faith and trust and unwavering love for each other. Will never worried about hiding things from his friends. None of them worried about hiding things, actually. Not anymore.

As the years progressed, and sophomore year turned into Junior, and another blissful summer turned into fall, that love never failed to grow. Sometimes strange, and sometimes crooked, but they grew.

Mike and El often seemed like the culmination of that devotion. A pair of best friends who read each other with mere wordless glances. Blissfully supportive and loving of each other no matter what circumstances they found themselves in.

Childlike admission of liking, and blushing at hands and gentle kisses turned into deep fiery love. Promises to stay together forever, whispered in the dark at night, in the passenger seats of cars, in each others rooms when they should be home sleeping. Innocent daydreams about being friends for the rest of their lives become a daunting and even frightening realization. Playing games and messing around became study, and planning a future as it sprawled out before them.

Kissing became routine. Loving each other became a given. Being in love became... difficult to understand.

That was when the final blow struck. The one that cut deep into their hearts. The one that seemed like they could never fix it, not even as a group, not even as lovers, because it was bigger than they were, and it meant more than they knew how to cope with.

It was the Summer of 88'. The summer before senior year. The last summer they would ever have that didn't have strings attached.

It was the summer of 88', when the fires started.

It had been small at first. Just a brush fire that got a little carried away when a farmer further up the river was burning what was left from his crops the months before. Just a standard burning, the kind he had done a thousand time before. The kind that every farmer does every season when it's time to clear out the fields before winter. It would have been fine. It should have been fine, but it wasn't.

It was an exceptionally dry summer, and one of the warmest on record. Couple that, with just the right wind speed, blowing in just the right direction, and within hours the entire forest surrounding the eastern side of his property was engulfed in hot orange flames.

You could smell the smoke for miles. El woke up out of her midday nap, curled up in Mike's arms on the couch in his basement to the smell. Together they ran through the house, checking every inch to make sure it wasn't them that was burning. When El finally looked outside, she saw the flickering of ash falling just out the window. Like snow. Like the most ominous, and heart-wrenchingly terrifying snow on a hot summer's day.

Mike flipped on the kitchen radio and listened in on the reports, that the fire was spreading fast, that firefighters were already on sight, that it was moving too quickly. El called Lucas, who had Max and Dustin at his house. Dustin called Will, and the Party convened at Mike's house less than 15 minutes later. It was like some strange unspoken plan passed between their eyes as they watched the ash fall, and Dustin choked on the smoke, and it burned Max's eyes.

They all wordlessly hopped in Mikes car, and drove west, towards the woods. The streets were mostly empty, save for the handful of other people standing on their lawns, shielding their eyes from the sun and staring into the sky. Mike stopped the car at the end of a long forgotten logging road deep in the wood, about 2 miles from where the fire was currently ravaging.

They got out of the car, all still in the suspended silence, and crossed through the woods the way they had a million times before. Following the same deer trails, stepping over the same mossy logs, and around the same boulders. The smoke was worse in the woods, and it was hard to imagine that every piece of ground they touched might soon succumb to the same fate as the woods further east.

They reached the same small bend in the river, where it was shallow and narrow, where they used the same log to cross that they had since they were children. The moss was word down slick from years and years of use by The Party, and other teens in the area. It had once been a place where El and Max would sit and swing their legs, while their boyfriends splashed around bellow. It had once been a place where Will laughed so hard that he fell from atop it, and sprained his wrist. It had once been a place where it felt like nothing could ever go wrong.

Once on the other side, it was a 10 minute walk to the top of a cliff that overlooked the entire town. Trudging silently, moving quickly, just short of running to the perch. El was the first to reach the peak. Just as suddenly as she stepped out of the tree line, the entire valley came into view, as well as the river that tore through it. Her voice caught in her throat when she saw the flames burning on the other side.

Lucas climbed into a tree with his binoculars. Max and Dustin sat on a tall boulder, watching the fire helicopters dropping water and extinguisher across the landscape. Will, Mike and El stood on the edge of the hills slope, looking down at the chaos bellow. Even miles away you could feel the heat. You could smell the smoke. You could choke on it.

There were tears in their eyes as they watched the fire burn away the memories they had made in those woods. The one they had all played in growing up. The one that sheltered them on rainy hikes. The one that served at a meeting point for sneak outs. The one that held them when they camped. The one El and Mike shared their first kiss in.

It was hard to tell through the smoke, but El made out the clearing that the tree was in. Their tree. The one with the initials and the physical representation of their bond. She could see the fire dance dangerously close to those trees. They sat in silence, waiting and watching, holding each other and pacing. It felt like the end of the world. It felt like the apocalypse. As they saw birds fleeing, and small groups of deer bounding into the water.

Eventually, the clearing, and their tree, were consumed.

Once the fire reached the river, it was easier to keep in from spreading. The wind shifted in their favor, pushing the flames into the water. Helicopters continued their downpour, sirens could still be heard in the distance. It seemed small, once it was all almost said and done with, and the sun began to set off to their right, and the smoke had cleared enough that you could actually take in the sight of the damage.

Everything was blackened, the air felt hot, but it was mostly over. So why did it feel so painful? It was just a tree, and they would love each other without it, so why did it scare each of them so badly? Why did it feel like the beginning of some ending? Like their story was coming to a close?

Because symbols are powerful things. And you put a lot of faith in them even when you don't mean too. Because losing the forest they had grown up in, felt like losing a friend.

There was a somber energy that blanketed the town after the fire. Two volunteers were in the hospital, and a firefighter from the next town over died when he walked to far into the woods. The landscape for miles were blackened on the outskirts of town. 1280 acres of farmland and forest demolished. Four barns and a historic farmhouse gone.

Nothing in the party changed directly. They still saw each other everyday, and hung out every weekend, but it was becoming clear that their childhood was over.

There was a day, right before school started, that that fact became all too clear for El.

Sitting in Mike's basement, reading lazily as she lounged on the floor, her head resting in his lap as he studied. She moved her book to look at him and smiled. He often bit his lips when he focused. She saw the crease in his forehead as he hastily erased another equation he couldn't quite figure out. He had taken summer courses, something Max referred to as 'Top tier nerd behavior', but El was proud of him. Mike has determined to always push himself, to always learn and grow.

He groaned and erased something, and flipped back through his textbook.

"Hey, why don't you take a break. We can go get ice cream or something and you can clear your head." She reached up and twisted her finger around one of his messy curls.

He smiled back at her, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I can't El, I have to finish this right now or it will be late."

"It's not due until tomorrow at like... noon. You can take a little break." She poked her favorite freckle on his cheek but he was already looking back at his paper, only grumbling in reply. "Come ooon, Mike, summer is almost over, you have worked so hard, lets go goof off for a little bit."

He was ignoring her at this point, but she wasn't going to give up. She rolled off of him and sat up, wrapping her arms and legs around him from behind like a koala (as he so often called it). She rested her chin on his shoulder and looked over his messy notes. It made her head spin just from looking at it. She was always more of a literature buff, and his crazy mathematical physics always blew her mind.

"Miikkee" She drug his name out. "Michael." She hugged him harder and poked his sides. "Mike Wheeler if you don't stop looking at that paper I will tickle torture you until you pee your pants like that one time."

Finally he dropped his pen and pinched the bridge of his nose. "First of all, we were ten. Second of all, I really need to study and you are being super distracting and its making me mad."

"You usually like it when I distract you." El teased, thinking fondly on all the times she had saved a stressed out Mike from his own frustration.

"Okay well now isn't one of those times. Can you please get off of me?" His voice was uncharacteristically cold.

El scooted away from him and shifted to sit across from him on the floor. "Why are you being so rude? It's literally just homework. For a class you didn't even have to take."

"Because I want to get into a good college and extra classes like this look good on college applications." Mike had fully shoved his papers away from his lap and was looking at her with the exasperation usually only reserved for Lucas and Dustin.

"Mike, you are the smartest person I know. You don't need to stress yourself out so badly over one stupid class. You will get into a great school with or without going and taking a break with me. Besides, that's an entire year away." El felt her own temper start to come out. She wasn't exactly the post patient person in the world, and Mike was almost worse than she was.

"El, we can't all live at our parents house forever."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means, that im stressing about this because I want to get out of here as fast as I can. I just want to be able to go to a school that I love, and leave this shit town behind. I'm sorry you can't understand that."

Her jaw dropped. Sure things in Hawkins weren't the best. And sure his parents made him feel suffocated and isolated all at the same time, but it wasn't that bad was it? Not enough for him to be blowing up and fuming over this.

"Whatever Mike. i'm going home. Get the stick out of your ass and call me when you realize you are being ridiculous." And with that El grabbed her bag and walked out of the basement door.

She waited at the edge of his yard for a few minutes, despite the heat and humidity. Usually whenever they got into arguments like this, Mike just needed a second to realize he was being hurtful and would come apologize. But he never came out. She stared down the hill at the closed basement door and felt her blood boil until she turned on her heels and stomped home.

It was just a little argument. Maybe they had both said some things that were uncalled for. El tried to rationalize it until she was blue in the face. But he never called, and she went to bed feeling like something had broken.

She realized they were not kids anymore. That maybe Mike was right, and she really just didn't understand. It felt like something was changing. Like the beginning of the end.

Tagging: @el-themage @mileventwentyfourseven @claudia-henderson

[shadyscroller2]

stages of christmas

tags: BBC Sherlock, Christmas fluff, mutual pining, snow day, Christmas tree, jealous Sherlock, Harry Watson appearance, Sherlock Holmes Has Feelings, first kiss 

Summary: Sherlock and John are spending Christmas together after Mary has run off with David, while carrying David's baby. After that whole fiasco, Sherlock feels pressured to fix things again with John, but how can he do that when Sherlock's more than certainly fallen in love with him?

READ ON AO3

1- A Phone Call

"I'm telling you, Harry," John said, balancing his phone on his shoulder while holding a biscuit. "I don't think I'm going to be able to make it to your house party. I'm spending Christmas with Sherlock this year."

He could hear his sister, Harry, scoff on the other end of the line. "Are you serious?" she said with disbelief. "You're choosing your boyfriend over your own little sister?"

John rolled his eyes insufferably, taking the phone from his shoulder and into his hand so he could speak clearly into it.

"Sherlock is not my boyfriend," John stated firmly. "I've told you that before."

"Yes, I know, I know, you're not gay," Harry said breezily, and John could practically see her wave her hand sarcastically. "Not necessarily, anyway."

"What? Necessarily? What do you mean by that ?"

"Nothing, nothing," Harry was obviously smiling. "It just takes one to know one, you know? Especially since I've read your blog."

John furled his eyebrows. "My blog?" John asked. "What's my blog got to do with anything?"

Harry sighed wistfully as if she was talking about her favorite movie. "It's just so romantic, Johnny. I mean, the way that you talk about him. It's the kind of the way I would have talked about Clara."

John shook his head. "Right, we're getting off topic here, Harry," he interrupted, confused as to why he was even talking about this with his sister. "Bottom line is, I'm spending Christmas with Sherlock. Platonically. "

"Aw, come on!" Harry whined stubbornly. "My party's going to be great. It's on Eastcastle Street. Just a train ride away."

"Yes, I know," John replied noncommittally. "I'll try to make it."

"Right," said Harry in a knowing tone. "That is if your husband even wants to socialize with other people,right?'

John ignored her insinuations this time. "Right, it's just that we were planning on having some of our friends over from Scotland Yard on Christmas Eve. I just don't think that I'm going to have the time."

"Okay, fine," Harry said. "But just so you know, my party's on Christmas Day. The day after yours. So if you're not too hung over on eggnog or some of that delicious whiskey you've got over there, then drop by at the party. We'd love to see you over here."

"I'll think about it."

"Good. Well, I've got to go now, need to get to work. We can talk later, though, can't we?"

John smiled over the phone, a small smirk on the speaker. "Yes, definitely. I'll see you later," he said.

"See you, Johnny."

John pressed the 'end call' button, and he slipped his phone away into his pocket. He drank his tea carefully, looking out into the snow that was falling steadily right outside his window.

2- Winter Wonderland

The snow had stopped after a few hours, leaving a white blanket over the landscape of the street. Cars plowed through, pushing the snow aside, and pedestrians left footprints behind as they bustled around the city with their Christmas shopping. Lights twinkled from shops, and Christmas trees towered over busy ice rinks.

Sherlock rolled his eyes, wrapping his scarf tighter around himself and stuffing his gloved hands underneath his arms.

"Why are we out here again?" Sherlock asked, looking around the park with distaste, and at the snow that seemed to be covering the entire thing like a blanket.

John turned to Sherlock with a slightly annoyed look. "Because we haven't been out of the house in three days, Sherlock," John told him. "And it's just days before Christmas and I want to experience the winter."

Sherlock resisted rolling his eyes in the boredom of it all. "Do calm down, John," Sherlock droned. "Winter will be lasting for ages."

"Not Christmas." John pointed out, looking up at him. "Besides, these lights won't be out forever, and you know that Christmas has got a certain feeling to it. I'd like it if I wouldn't miss it."

Sherlock stuffed his hands into his pockets. He did have to admit that John was right about that. Christmas did have some sort of spirit about it, and if Sherlock wasn't the logical man that he was today, he would almost describe it as magic.

It was the first Christmas after Mary had left John, and had taken her ex-boyfriend (now current) David's baby with her. All that remained of her was the painful bullet scar on Sherlock's chest and an obvious deep pit of regret in John's.

Now less than a year later, John and Sherlock had patched up their friendship, and they had gone on without another word, without another glance at their past. It was as if everything was back to the way it was.

Except, it wasn't.

At that moment, Sherlock looked over at John, who had gone quiet and was looking at the scenery around them. Children were participating in snowball fights, yelling and screaming with glee. Parents looked on, dressed warmly in scarves and coats, smiling happily at their children from afar. Couples walked hand in hand, kicking playfully at the cold snow, and beaming at each other with bright eyes and soft smiles.

Sherlock couldn't hold back a surge of emotion that went straight through him as he looked down at John, strolling through the park. It was something that had been happening quite often for a long time, almost since the day they had met. Something was different about John, something that made Sherlock feel inexplicably drawn to him. And Sherlock dared to think that John felt the same way.

It really was no secret that Sherlock cared for John and that John cared for Sherlock. It had always been some sort of understanding between them. But it was John that would occupy most of Sherlock's thoughts, and it was John whom Sherlock would do anything for.

Sherlock shut his eyes and shook his head at himself, trying to release his stupid thoughts. Stupid emotions.

"Hey, you alright?" John asked, looking up at Sherlock with concern, and it was then that Sherlock realized that he had been staring at John and shaking his head. "Do you want to go home?"

Sherlock stuffed his hands into his pockets. "No," he said. "Let's just get out of the park."

John looked at Sherlock a moment and nodded, stuffing his own hands into the pockets of his coat and walking off of the sidewalk.

"So where do you want to go?" John asked. "There are shops at the corner over here. We can grab a coffee or something. Warm ourselves up."

But then Sherlock's phone chimed, and Sherlock pulled his phone out from his pocket. A text had appeared on the screen. A text from Lestrade.

An old woman has been robbed on Delancy Street. Everything's been taken.

May need your expertise on this one.

"Who is it?" John asked, looking up at Sherlock from the corner of his eye.

"It's Lestrade," Sherlock replied, snapping his phone shut. "It's a case. Someone's been robbed."

"Maybe we could go. We haven't had one in weeks."

"It's a robbery, John. It's a five at most."

"Doesn't matter. Someone's been robbed at Christmas. I'm going. Where is it?"

Sherlock looked at John, and couldn't help letting himself stare into the other man's eyes. John was so fascinating, so thoughtful; Sherlock found himself having to restrain the urge to pull John in by his lapels and kiss him right there in the snow.

"It's two blocks over." Sherlock finally said after a moment. "Just across the park."

John shrugged his shoulders, a smile coming to his face. "Well, let's go, then. I'll text Greg we're on our way."

3- Oh Christmas Tree

Hours later, after the case, John opened the door into the flat, shaking his head in disbelief.

"No. I don't buy it, Sherlock," John declared. "The woman knows exactly who robbed her."

Sherlock nodded as he shut the door with his foot. "She's hiding something, obviously," he said, and John turned to face him.

"Do you think she's trying to fool us, or...I don't know, maybe just senile?"

Sherlock stalked over to the couch and flopped his entire body down on the cushions.

"No, definitely not, if her wardrobe and her living state were anything to go on," Sherlock replied indifferently. "It's likely that she knows exactly who committed the crime but just wants the attention. I just need time to think."

"Well, while you do that," John said, shaking the keys in his hand. "I'm going out to get a Christmas tree. Our Christmas party's in a few days, and we haven't even gotten around to it yet."

"Our Christmas party?"

"Yes, Sherlock, remember?" John said with annoyance. "We're bringing the Yard over on Christmas Eve. I brought it up to you two days ago."

"Oh yes, I must have forgotten."

"You're a prat, you know that?"

"Yes, I'm aware."

John chuckled. "Right. I'm out. I'll be back in a bit."

As John left the flat, Sherlock closed his eyes, listening for the sound of John's footsteps as they retreated down the seventeen steps of the building. Then the door closed, and John was gone.

Sherlock inhaled deeply. Pressed his fingers together. Closed his eyes.

Then the world faded away.

A couple of hours later, Sherlock exited his mind to the annoying sound of the rustling of leaves, and grunts of struggle and frustration. He quickly sat up, wondering where the commotion was coming from.

Then that's when Sherlock realized that the noise was coming from right there in his living room, and John was the one causing it.

A tall Christmas tree was set up in the middle of the room, with lights strung together at the base, a rope of bright orbs coiled at the floor and wrapped halfway up the tree.

Sherlock tried to hold back from chuckling as he watched John try to stretch his small body to the top of the tree so the lights would reach it. It looked comical, like a little hedgehog trying to climb a tree.

"Come on." John was grumbling, trying to whip the lights upward to compensate for his short height. "Just hang already."

Sherlock got up from the couch, a smile coming to his face. "Here, he said, laughing. "Let me."

John turned around as if startled to hear his flatmate's voice, and he conceded defeat.

"Fine, yes, thank you," John said, handing the lights over to Sherlock. "Just...just twirl it around the leaves."

Sherlock reached his long arms above him, easily reaching, and he dragged it around the tall tree.

"Why did you get it so tall?" Sherlock asked, amusement still in his voice. John let out a laugh.

"I haven't got a clue," said John, holding back a grin. "It looked a lot shorter down at the shop."

This somehow sparked a laughing fit, and soon they were both giggling hard, and it took Sherlock a lot of effort to keep his focus on the lights. The energy in the room immediately felt considerably lighter, and Sherlock's eyes fell on John's.

But then Sherlock's foot caught in the rope of lights that hung down on the ground, and Sherlock tripped, nearly falling forward, dropping the lights tangled in his hands. Quickly, Sherlock tried to lean back to steady himself, but he leaned back much too far. His fingers slipped as they tried to grab on to the mantlepiece.

Then John immediately lunged forward and caught Sherlock in his arms, and Sherlock immediately grasped at the back of John's neck, stumbling on his feet, trying to keep from falling to the ground. John's arms held him tightly.

"Sherlock." John breathed from above him. "You okay?"

Sherlock looked up at him, and suddenly he realized the position that they were both in. John practically had his arms wrapped around Sherlock's waist and torso, keeping him up, and Sherlock had his arms draped around John's neck and shoulders, their bodies pressed flush together.

Suddenly, everything was very quiet, and time seemed to slow down. John visibly gulped, his Adam's apple nervously bobbing as he stared down intensely into Sherlock's eyes.

Then that's when Sherlock realized he still had yet to answer John's question.

"No, no, I'm-I'm fine." Sherlock croaked, and his hands inexplicably tightened on John's shoulders. John cleared his throat.

"Right, okay, good." John rasped. "Right. Let me, um..."

John slowly helped Sherlock to his feet, John's arms still wrapped securely around Sherlock's waist, and Sherlock's still around John's shoulders. Their faces were inches apart, so close that Sherlock could feel John's breath hot on his cheek.

"Thank you," Sherlock said awkwardly, not quite knowing what else to say.

John nodded his head vigorously, suddenly acting quiet, as if he was at a loss for words.

"It's all...fine," he said, looking up into Sherlock's eyes. "Any-" he cleared his throat. "Anytime."

Neither of them moved away, and Sherlock found that he was having a lot of trouble breathing. Because their arms were still around each other, and neither of them had found the need to move yet.

Then the sound of a phone ringing broke the air like a knife, and Sherlock's face reddened. The noise was incessant, like the sound of a screaming child.

"I should...probably get that," Sherlock said, immediately putting distance between them.

"Right, yeah," John said, snapping his hands away as if he had been touching fire. "It's-it's probably Lestrade about the case."

His heart still pounding, Sherlock took the phone from his pocket and flipped it open, and took the chance to walk across the room and as far away from John as possible.

4- A Christmas Party

John pulled the cookies out of the oven carefully and closed the door with his foot. Smoke rose up from the baked goods, spreading a delicious aroma around the room. John inhaled deeply, quietly.

"They smell good," Sherlock said suddenly, and John looked up to find him leaning against the doorpost and watching John.

John cleared his throat. "Right, well I hope so," he said. "Our guests are going to be here any moment."

Unable to meet Sherlock's eyes for any longer, John looked away, trying to focus on setting the cookies on the burner.

"Need help?" Sherlock asked, pushing himself from the doorpost and walking over to John. He stood several feet from him, with Sherlock obviously holding himself back out of wariness.

"No, no I'm good, thanks," John said, a little too quickly. "You can...um...just make sure everything is clean for everyone else when they arrive."

After a long moment, Sherlock stepped farther away, walking across the kitchen. John let out a sigh of relief, relaxing his tense shoulders.

It had been like that for the past few days, ever since the Incident had happened. With the Christmas tree.

John hadn't been able to think of anything else except Sherlock dipped in his arms, catching him in just a moment in time, in the middle of the air. After they were interrupted by Greg's call, they had investigated the case together. Since then, they both moved cautiously around each other, as if they were trying not to set off a bomb.

John shook his head in an attempt to free himself of his thoughts, and he pulled out the tube of decorative icing for the cookies. He just wanted to take his mind off of the whole thing.

But as John was unscrewing the cap of the treat icing, he glanced up at Sherlock, who was sitting still with his eyes closed in his armchair, thinking intently. His face was still, smooth, calm, and ultimately very attractive.

John swallowed the emotion in his throat. Why did it have to be Sherlock Holmes whom he was attracted to? Why did it always have to be Sherlock, with his perfect face and his perfect hair and his perfect -

The icing cap suddenly broke beneath John's hands and the tube squeezed, making the contents spill all over the table and just-finished cookies.

John swore loudly and immediately ran around the table to grab paper towels to clean up the mess. The icing had gotten all over the floor, like sticky concentrated soup spreading along the tiles.

Then suddenly, Sherlock was kneeling down on the floor with John, pressing a wet towel in a helpful attempt to mop up the mess.

"Sorry," John sighed, his eyes cast to the floor. "Accident."

"It's fine," Sherlock said, looking up at John briefly.

It was silent after that, the two men just scrubbing the floor as efficiently as possible, trying to get the sticky frosting out of the pathway.

John looked up, stealing a glance at Sherlock for a quick second, and then immediately cast his eyes downwards. He curled his lips as if it would keep himself from saying or doing anything stupid to worsen the tension between them.

After half a minute had passed, John moved to look at Sherlock again and was shocked to see that Sherlock was already looking at him.

John stopped scrubbing. He stared back, his eyes delving deep into Sherlock's intense orbs.

Neither of them moved for a long moment. They were very close to each other, kneeling on the floor on their hands and knees. The silence was deafening; like they each wanted to say something but couldn't.

Sherlock looked at John like he was trying to figure him out, like John was a fascinating puzzle, messing with his mind, trying to find out what John might do next.

John licked his lips, an unconscious move, his nerves buzzing inside of him.

"Sher-"

A loud and obnoxious knock came just then, followed by Mrs. Hudson's high and excited voice.

"Boys! Yoo-hoo!" Mrs. Hudson called through the closed door. "Your guests are here!"

John shut his eyes tightly. "We'll be right there, Mrs. Hudson!" John called back.

He opened his eyes again, and met with Sherlock's gaze, staring back at him hard. Then he stood up, making his way to the door, leaving Sherlock alone on the kitchen floor.

Lights decorated the mantles, and the flat was filled with merry decorations and the delicious smell of cakes and biscuits. Lestrade was standing with Molly Hooper and Sally Donovan, drinking eggnog and hot chocolate, chattering indistinctly by the fireplace.

Sherlock stood to the side, his violin in hand, softly playing Christmas carols over the conversations. His eyes seemed to always gravitate to John, who was smiling and laughing with a pretty new officer from Scotland Yard. She was leaning far too close to John for Sherlock's liking, and her smile was flirty and absolutely disgusting.

Sherlock quickly turned away from John, his body heating up with jealousy, and he could feel his heart sink. He stood facing the window overlooking Baker Street, where the snow was coming down hard, covering the entire road with a thick layer of white.

There was a knock at the door, and John immediately stood up to answer it. Sherlock watched, and he saw the female police officer shamelessly check out John's arse. Sherlock gritted his teeth.

John opened the door, and when he saw who was standing there, his jaw dropped. He opened the door wider.

"Oh my god," John said to the new guest. "You came."

"Merry Christmas, little brother!" Harry Watson greeted enthusiastically. "What, did you think I'd miss Johnny Boy on Christmas?"

John laughed heartily, and welcomed her in. "Everyone! This is my sister, Harriet!"

Everyone immediately gave a loud cheer, crowding around John and shaking Harry’s hand. Most of them hadn’t even known that John had a sister.

Everyone except for Sherlock, of course.

Sherlock watched heatedly as everybody crowded around his own flatmate, and his own flatmate’s sister that wasn’t even that pretty. Sherlock angrily stared, his violin clutched tightly in his hands.

Sherlock crossed the room in record time, swinging his coat over his shoulders.

“Right, I’m going out,” Sherlock muttered to himself, and he rushed forward toward the door.

Sherlock saw Harry come up to him, her arms outstretched. “Sherlock!” she was saying. “Nice to finally meet you! John’s been on and on--”

“That’s nice, get out of my way,” Sherlock ordered her, and he shoved her aside more forcefully than he’d intended. She gave a soft grunt as she hit the wall, and she stared after him with affrontation.

“What the hell?” she bit off, and John looked up.

“Sherlock!”

Sherlock was already out the door by the time John had grabbed his own jacket and tugged it on, running down the stairs as he followed Sherlock out into the snow.

The detective was already stalking down the street and trying to wave down a cab when John came up to him, his fists clenched.

“Sherlock!” John called after him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting a cab,” Sherlock snarked. “What do you think?”

“I think you’re being a prat, is what I think!”

“Oh, do calm down, John, it’s not healthy to get so worked up.”

“It wouldn’t be healthy if I punched you in the face right at this moment.” John snapped back. “Now apologize to my sister!”

“Why would I?”

John huffed a sharp breath. “I thought you were better than this, Sherlock.”

“Well, clearly, you were wrong. Like you usually are.”

John gritted his teeth. “Where is all of this coming from?”

“It really doesn’t matter, does it, John?” Sherlock glanced at him. “But then again, I suppose you already know what that feels like.”

“Shut up, Sherlock.”

“No, it seems like this Christmas really painted it out for me. You would rather chat up a storm with that cat-owner police officer than with me, and invite all of these people to our flat without really planning ahead.”

“Sherlock--”

“Do you know what your sister has been up to yet today, John? Because I could tell from the smell of the pubs of London all over her coat, clearer than her severe case of halitosis that’s been brewing in her horrid mouth for years. I can see her recent and disappointing affairs through her poorly groomed hairstyle, and the sloppily-wrapped presents in her gift bags.”

“Sherlock Holmes, I’m warning you--”

“But your sister is just the beginning, isn’t it? No. Because you never saw it. You never see any of it. I’m the one that’s the genius, and I never needed you John. There’s nothing wrong with me, because all I want this come Christmas is for you to be gone!”

The words came out before Sherlock could think, and he wanted to grab himself and stop himself before he could say another word. But it was already far too late.

John had frozen right in his spot, his face completely lax and devoid of emotion. Sherlock could recognize John’s soldier complexion anywhere, and Sherlock realized that he’d really made a grave mistake.

“Fine.” John finally spoke. “Fine. If that’s how you really feel, Sherlock. I’ll go.”

“John--”

“No. Don’t.” John held up a hand. “You’ve really gone too far this time, Sherlock. Not to worry, though. I’ll be gone by Christmas morning. Then you can get your bloody stupid holiday wish.”

Sherlock watched as John walked back into the flat, and he couldn’t help but flinch as the door slammed shut after him.

5- Merry Christmas

Sherlock sat alone in the dark flat on Christmas Day, the sun setting behind him as it slowly sunk into the horizon. He sighed, bringing the cigarette closely to his lips.

John, as promised, had left as soon as the sun rose on Christmas morning. He didn’t bother to take his presents with him, or to give any to Sherlock. It was an empty flat all day as the holiday passed by.

Sherlock blew out the smoke calmly as he lay in his chair, staring deeply at John’s empty one. He traced the pattern with his eyes, studying the unique color and appearance like he did when John was there.

But it was no use. Sherlock’s mind kept returning to his estranged flatmate, the one that he had ultimately driven away.

It was wrong. It was so wrong.

Sherlock sighed heavily, feeling his eyes become warm with moisture.

All he ever really wanted was for John to be happy, and he hated himself for getting so carried away. If only he wasn’t in love with John Watson, he wouldn’t have been so scared and let his emotions overcome the power of his mind.

The realization hit Sherlock so hard that he let out a gasp, and his eyes flew open as if he was just shot.

Oh god. That was it.

He was in love with John Watson

Sherlock drew his hands to his face in absolute frustration and pity for himself.

How could he have been so blind?

Sherlock jumped up to his feet, shrugging on his coat again, bounding down the stairs as he tugged it on over his shoulders.

Sherlock had to tell him. He just had to. That was the last thing he’d do before anything else could occur. Sherlock had to tell him.

The cold air slapped Sherlock in the face as he opened the door, and Sherlock could only lift a hand against the strong wind as he made his way down Baker Street.

He pushed people aside as he rushed down the sidewalk, his coat billowing behind him as he panted with exertion.

“Eastcastle, Eastcastle…” Sherlock muttered to himself. “The street. Must find the street.”

He must find John.

Sherlock ran through the streets of London, fighting past fast-going cars threatening to run him over, and ‘DONT WALK’ street signs flashing in his eyes.

He didn’t care. He couldn’t care less.

Only John was what really mattered.

Sherlock searched left and right, his eyes scanning the entire sidewalk area, looking for that one address.

Then he found it.

The address number glowed on a big red door, decorated with just a simple wreath and ornaments that complemented the otherwise bland object.

Sherlock took a deep breath, carrying himself over to the door. He wasn’t even sure what he was meant to do; he just knew that he didn’t want to spend another Christmas moment without his John.

Sherlock rang once, anxiously. Then he rang twice.

Three times.

Then he resorted to knocking.

The door finally flew open, making Sherlock’s heart jump with soaring hope.

“Right, is John there?” Sherlock asked.

It was a woman standing at the door, no older than twenty-five, looking at Sherlock like he had grown five heads.

“Um, well, I don’t know a John,” said the woman. “Unless you’re talking about Harry’s little brother?”

Sherlock nodded. “Yes. Yes that’s him. Can you just...tell him that Sherlock’s here to see him?”

“Margaret, what’s the commotion out here…” Harry looked once at Sherlock and quickly pushed him away.

“Harry, wait, please.”

“Sherlock Holmes. You’re not welcome here.”

“I know, I know, and I apologize for shoving you—"

“Shoving me?!” Harry shouted. “Give me a break! I’ve gotten worse from Johnny when I stole his action figures when we were little rug rats!”

“Then what’s—"

“I’ll tell you what you did, Sherlock!” Harry interrupted with a sigh. “You broke my brother’s heart.”

“I what?”

“He loved you, you know,” Harry responded. “And then you go and you say all those mean things to him, and you expect him to forgive you so quickly?”

Sherlock looked down at the ground. “I don’t expect John to do anything more for me.”

Harry looked at him incredulously. “Then why are you here?”

Sherlock inhaled sharply. He looked at Harry.

Then his face fell as John came into view, looking between Harry and the door, his eyes landing on Sherlock.

John and Sherlock stared at each other for what felt like ages, leaving Sherlock with nothing to do but forget what he was meant to say.

“Sherlock, answer her,” John said, his voice soft. “Why are you here?”

“John, I…” Sherlock paused. He swallowed. “I‘ve just got something to tell you and I’ve got to say it quickly.”

John ushered. “Go on, then.”

Sherlock looked to Harry, and she nodded. Harry left without another word.

John watched her leave, his brows wrinkling as he tried to put two and two together. “I don’t understand Sherlock. I thought that…”

“I was wrong, John.”

Sherlock looked at him, and John looked back in shock. He stepped down from the door sill, closing Harry’s door behind him.

“Well that’s new.”

“Just...please, let me speak.”

“Okay.”

Sherlock walked closer to John, trying to gauge his flatmate’s expressions. The snow fell around them like a flurry of ice, surrounding them until they were the only ones left in the world.

“John, listen, um…” Sherlock paused. “For a long time now, you were always considered my only friend. And for that I appreciated you, because you helped me with everything that I worked for. Even if you were just an average goldfish.”

“Jesus Christ, Sherlock,” John said rubbing his face. “Can’t you just say you’re sorry? Something that actually means something? For God’s sake, cut to the point, without leaving me—”

“I’m in love with you.”

John froze in place, looking up at Sherlock in absolute shock. Sherlock shifted into his feet, staring into John’s eyes with sheer desperation.

“What did you just say?” John croaked.

“I said,” Sherlock repeated softly. “I’m in love with you. John. Watson.”

“What?”

“It’s a bit of a revelation, I know,” Sherlock whispered. “But I realized it today when I had spent all of Christmas with myself and all I could think about was having you there.”

“I can’t believe this.”

“I know.”

“You’re in love with me?”

“Obviously.”

John let out a disbelieving laugh, and Sherlock chuckled too, a burst of air from his nostrils. He looked at John tenderly, furling his lips in anticipation.

John whispered, “I don’t know what to say.”

“I understand if you don’t want to see me again.” Sherlock murmured towards him. “I just realized that it’s Christmas, and it’s more of a time for miracles than any other time, so I just thought—”

“Sherlock, shut up.”

John grabbed his face and kissed him, making Sherlock startled as he stumbled on his feet. He felt John’s hands come around to steady him, and Sherlock kissed back, his arms coming around John’s torso.

The kiss was deep and cold, with John’s lips taking full advantage of Sherlock’s lavish and supple ones. Sherlock moaned into his mouth, clutching on to John’s jacket to assure himself of reality.

John was the first to break for air, and Sherlock gasped for breath. John laughed, his hands curling into Sherlock’s hair.

“You really do love me, then, don’t you?” John asked, looking up at him.

“Yes.” Sherlock said desperately. “More than I can express.”

“Well, then,” John huffed a laugh. “That’s the best news that I’ve heard in a long time.”

“So you do—"

“Yes, you bloody prat, I’m in love with you too.”

Sherlock kissed John again, chasing the laughter from the shorter man’s lips. John wrapped his arms completely around Sherlock’s neck, drawing them both closer. Sherlock grinned against his mouth, and John let out another laugh.

A couple of minutes passed by as they both finally made up for lost time in the middle of the empty sidewalk, with Sherlock wrapping them both in his long coat, and John burrowing himself into Sherlock’s chest.

It was a while before they pulled apart, and they finally noticed the rest of Harry’s guests staring out of the window with tears in their eyes, cheering hysterically.

John blushed, thoroughly embarrassed, watching Harry cheer harder from the open window.

“That’s my brother!” Harry cried, throwing her arms up in celebration. “That’s my brother, I tell you!”

Sherlock laughed too, grabbing onto John’s hand, and feeling incandescently happy.

6- Epilogue

“TWENTY-EIGHT! TWENTY-SEVEN! TWENTY-SIX!”

“Sherlock, it’s starting!”

“You don’t have to shout, John, I’m right here.”

“Well sometimes you’re bloody easy to miss.”

“Impossible, John, especially since I’m tall enough to hang you on the bloody Christmas tree.”

John rolled his eyes lovingly at the detective next to him, and Sherlock smirked down at him, leaning down and pressing a small kiss to the doctor’s lips. John chuckled against him.

“Oi! Get a room!”

“People do eat in here, you know!”

John grabbed a piece of his sandwich and hurled it at Greg and Harry, who immediately ducked to miss it. They laughed as they continued to sip their eggnog.

“Save it for New Year’s, John,” Sherlock scolded, but his face was wide with a smile, his eyes shining like the Christmas lights in front of them.

“Make me, you prat,” John laughed, his hand pressed against Sherlock’s back.

“TEN! NINE! EIGHT!”

“SEVEN! SIX!”

John then leaned forward, feeling Sherlock look down at him, feeling John whisper the rest of the countdown against Sherlock’s lips.

“Three...two…”

Sherlock smiled, and he finished it with a soft breath.

“One.”

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!!”

John leaped forwards, allowing Sherlock to catch him in a hug and kiss him, both of them laughing into it like a couple of children. Both of them had tears in their eyes, but they’d never, ever say so.

“I love you.”

Sherlock grinned happily. “I know.”

Harry started singing first, and then Greg followed, in singing “Auld Lang Syne” at the top of their lungs. The rest of the guests immediately joined in, swaying to the music.

“Should old acquaintance be forgot…”

“And never brought to light…”

Sherlock leaned his forehead against John’s, closing his eyes as he basked in the man’s warmth.

“Happy New Year, John.”

“Happy New Year, Sherlock.”