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theinvisiblewoman73 · 8 months ago

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Joel / Reader slow burn

Chapter 6 - The Library

You opened your eyes with a jolt and froze, lying there for a few interminable seconds before you got your bearings and knew where you were. Bed, bedroom, house, Jackson. Just like yesterday. Flashes of your dream came back to you unbidden - smoke, the sound of footsteps in the snow, a boy running away towards the communal house, Erin’s voice becoming lost in the roar of something unearthly. The same dream every night, even though more details were impossible to pin down once your eyes were open.

Mostly you thought of this with relief, because you were terrified of one day recalling the dream in more depth and not being able to get it out of your head. At least this way, once you had risen and started your day, the feeling would ebb away until there was nothing left but the merest shadow of discomfort. That you could cope with.

You were warm under the covers and you knew that it would be cold once you got out of bed, so you closed your eyes, trying to find sleep again, but it didn’t work. Judging by the light coming through the thin curtains, it wasn’t early. You couldn’t make out any sounds coming from the house; it seemed as if everyone was out. The thought of the peace and solitude of the quiet kitchen finally made you throw back the blankets and reach for a warm jumper.

You didn’t really have a particular routine. Sometimes you woke early, sometimes late. Sometimes you dozed on, but mostly once awake, thoughts crowded in and you wanted to be up and about, doing things. Not that you had anything specific to do right now. The town council gave newcomers a month’s grace period to settle in and acclimatise - and used it to find out what skills people had and what they might be best suited to doing in the town. But it was a relaxed process, no one was rushed. You’d seen the others going off to meetings and chats with the town council but no one had yet approached you about what you thought you could do in the town.

You had been told that they would get to you eventually but you strongly suspected it was because they didn’t know how they were going to approach interviewing you; didn’t know where to place you. And you’d be lying if you said that wasn’t a relief.

Part of you knew that you’d have to participate and do your bit eventually, but you were exhausted. The physical tiredness was getting better but you felt like your mind needed isolation. You wanted to interact with people but you just knew you didn’t have the capacity right now. And the people who ran the council all seemed nice but it was like a cross between a kibbutz and the scouts - everybody happy to be productive. You knew you should be grateful, but you felt like being lazy, felt like taking advantage of everything and everyone in the town. Because you’d given everything you had before and it had all been lost.

But at the same time you knew you wouldn’t do that. You’d agree to whatever job they needed you to do, you’d thank them for their generosity, you’d keep all that negativity inside. After all, it wasn’t anyone else’s fault, this. This world, this life. The silence, though, your inability to talk; that was another thing altogether.

A shiver ran through you and you shook your head, trying to get rid of the thoughts that crowded in suddenly. Sometimes you could think about what had happened, sometimes it was just too overwhelming. Pulling on some warm socks, you headed for the stairs, not meeting anyone on the way. The kitchen was warmer, like in Ellie’s house, and while you put hot water on to boil, you thought back to the day you’d spent together the week before.

Thinking about Ellie just gave you a good feeling. You’d never envisioned yourself hanging out with a teenager, but there it was. The person you had connected with the most easily here was fourteen. But there was something ageless about her at times, mixed with something so innocent. Sometimes she talked like a teenager, behaved like one, and then she’d change and be the wisest and most mature person you had met in a long while. And connecting all that was her honesty. She’d never lie to you, you felt, even if the truth hurt. And that was something rare.

How many people had you come across in the last twenty years who had lied, cheated, hurt you? How many times had you lied and stolen and put yourself first at the expense of others? How had the world come to be like this? If you were even vaguely religious, you might have thought of Ellie as something mystical. You shuddered at the thought of how unscrupulous and desperate people would use that aspect of her, but refused to go further down that train of thought. Thankfully Ellie had someone who clearly wanted the best for her.

Which brought you to Joel himself.

The best you could say was that you had mixed feelings about him. The interactions you had had with him hadn’t let you come to any real conclusion. He clearly cared for Ellie deeply and she spoke about him like a guardian; a father, but his angry reaction when you’d stepped in front of his horse had brought you low. The cold feeling of shame that had run through you was hard to forget and his apology had been curt. And yet he had seemed sincere, when he told you he was sorry; had looked you straight in the eye while he said it.

You hadn’t really had time to take much notice of him at the market, except for noting that he was an attractive man, if moody. And all you had seen that day in the street was his anger, harsh and vicious. But seeing him walk into his kitchen, relaxed and at ease, at least until he had seen you - had made you see a glimpse of another side of him.

You had seen then that he was a good-looking man. He was tall and broad, with an interesting face - rugged and weathered but his deep-set eyes were expressive up close. He had moved into your space with assuredness, more physical presence than personality. He gave off the air of a man you wouldn’t mess with, something you’d already been at the receiving end of. You got the feeling that you would need to see him again to fully appreciate the man: he wasn't someone you could easily know.

And his reaction to your scrawled apology and interest in his horse had been intriguing. He’d looked at you as if seeing you for the first time, cocking his head slightly, fixing you with his arrogant stare before looking away.

Then you realised where your thoughts were heading and stopped yourself with a groan. Ugh, Joel was just another fucked up, angry guy who’d probably lost everything and had been letting it eat away at him for the last two decades. You’d seen plenty of people like him. He’d probably lost any loved ones he had in the outbreak or the years after. You’d already seen his anger erupt. Best not to let that happen again. You wanted to keep hanging out with Ellie, but he was someone you’d just have to be wary around.

Remembering Ellie’s enthusiasm about the library got you out of your reverie and you finished your tea in one long gulp. You rinsed out the cup and place it on the draining board before heading upstairs to get dressed, hoping that you could take her up on her offer.

________________________________________________________________

Having a week away from patrol hadn’t really been something Joel wanted but every few weeks it was mandatory to change shift for a few days. He’d been drafted in to help with some repairs, and the skills of his past life as a contractor came back effortlessly to him, even if the energy he’d had then didn’t. Tommy liked to rib him about that - the way he grumbled about his knees and his back - but stuff just hurt more than it used to.

It also meant working with a crew of people and there was always a steady flow of chat and banter back and forth. Usually one of the teenage residents was being trained up, luckily not a job he was ever required to do, but it meant having to keep an eye out in case they were messing up. Back when he’d started out as a rookie on building sites, things had been a lot tougher. You started lowest in the pecking order and did whatever you were told to do. That might have been anything from fetching lunch orders to cleaning out the johns and there was a lot of mostly good natured teasing thrown in.

The young kids who were learning beside them in Jackson could have done with a bit more of that; they were too protected. A part of him could understand that parents here wanted to shield their kids from what they’d gone through, but the world just wasn’t like that any more. Jackson was safe inside its walls, but out there - every adult in the place had seen what was out there and there was no use pretending it didn’t still exist.

This had been his beef with Maria right from the start. She’d hated his negativity and he’d resented her optimism. The change had come when he’d seen her with Jacob; been there when the child came into the world. There had to be some way of looking towards the future or else everything really was lost. And so he had accepted Maria’s optimism, even if he couldn’t bear to feel it himself.

He was half way up a set of scaffolding now, working on a window frame on the old bank. Tommy was up above with one of the trainees, an older teenager who really seemed to enjoy the work. She’d been there before them this morning and eagerly made her way up to the top level with his brother to start work. Tommy liked this aspect of working, had always been able to put people at ease.

He thought of his brother dismounting his horse and reaching out to make sure you had been alright, while he fumed at your clumsiness. The feeling flared up in him again and for a moment he saw that it was something different from anger. But his mind didn’t want to go there and something snapped shut. He focused furiously on the task in hand.

Someone called for Tommy from the ground and he headed down the ladder, muttering for Joel to keep an eye on the rookie and carried on down. The girl was replacing a piece of guttering; Tommy had been teaching her how to remove the rotten piece and measure up for the new section. She would be able to work it out for herself eventually but at the moment she was struggling to fit the new part. He let her work at it for a while and then put down his tools and made his way up the ladder.

“New section’s always difficult to fit,” he told her, not moving to take over, just waiting to see if she wanted help.

“Yeah,” she grimaced, using her bodyweight to try and slot the piece into place, “Am I doing it right though?”

“Yep. On the right track,” he replied, “Just give it another go.” He didn’t want to stand and watch over her shoulder, so he turned away, and his attention was caught by a familiar figure in the street. He could spot Ellie a mile off; knew her form now like the back of his hand, after watching her trek in front of him for months. Her gait, sometimes rhythmical and straight, and then other times jerky and awkward, like she was bouncing with energy.

She was walking like this now, animatedly talking to someone he quickly recognised as you. Intent on listening to her, she made a wide gesture and stopped, so you had to stop too and turn to look at her. He couldn’t hear what she was saying but whatever it was, it made you laugh and you shook your head at her and indicated for her to keep walking. He wondered were the two of you were headed, what you were taking about. He tilted his head slightly, watched in silence as Ellie led you to the library, saw your body language change even from where he was standing.

Ellie had opened the door and walked in, but then turned when she saw you weren’t following her. Joel saw you pull a notebook from your coat pocket and write something, pass it to Ellie. Saw Ellie touch your arm gently and the two of you enter and close the door behind you.

He let out a deep breath, still watching the door. He’d kept a close eye on everyone who Ellie interacted with since they’d come to Jackson, well, as far as he was able. It was just the thing he had to do to make sure she was protected. And he hadn’t got the measure of you yet.

Hearing a stream of curse words from the girl behind him, the corner of his mouth twitched in a controlled laugh, and turned to see if he could help her finish the job. _____________________________________________________________________

The library was really just a shop that had been repurposed with some wooden shelves and a desk in the corner for whoever was on librarian duty that day. Through the back was a larger space with mismatched tables to study at and some threadbare armchairs where people could sit if they just wanted to read for a while. Ellie said that she came in sometime to do her homework, especially in the winter when her house was cold and this space was heated.

She’d been alone at home when you’d called round, not even dressed, even though it was the middle of the morning. But she had sped up the stairs, returning a few minutes later eager to head out. Now she opened the door of the library and headed inside, and you followed, feeling the warmth from the heaters and understanding why people would enjoy spending time there.

The man at the desk nodded to Ellie and she walked over to talk to him. You heard her saying your name and asking about a library card. Memories of Saturday mornings at the local library came into your head. The one in your town had been in an old Victorian building with a large domed entrance and marble stairs leading to the floors above. It had been a place of wonder to you as a child and part of you felt that this makeshift place was sad in comparison.

But that was the way of things now - people tried to replace what had been lost, but it would never be the same, of that you were sure. Still, the fact that people cared enough to gather all these books together to try and rebuild what had existed before, that at least was something. The world now came down to this: a tightrope walk between what was lost and what could be rebuilt.

“Dean’s going to make you a card,” Ellie said, walking back over to join you. “You’re supposed to give a full name, but I explained everything and I said that if you stole any of the books, he could ask me to pay for them but I totally know that you aren’t a book thief. I mean, that would be weird, right? And I know where you live so it would also be a little stupid of you not to return anything!” She finally took a breath and saw that you were laughing.

“Oh man, I babble, don’t I?” she said, rolling her eyes, “I’ll let you look at the books. Peruse the titles.” She headed over to the other side of the room where there were some colourful spines. You had a quick look at the different shelves, getting an idea of what kind of books they had.

You’d loved adventure books as a child. Groups of children getting into danger and solving riddles together. Later you’d been into novels and some science fiction, but these things felt far too serious and dark for you now. There were a lot of thriller novels, and you skimmed over them, and the romance titles with scantily-clad heroines clinging to shirtless men. You actually rather liked those type of books, but couldn’t bear the thought of checking one out while Ellie was with you; you knew you’d never hear the end of it.

Finally you gathered a small pile with some nature books, a science fiction and an old fashioned crime novel. They looked like they might be a nice escape from reality and you’d read the private eye one a long time ago and had liked it. Ellie was already ensconced in one of the armchairs with a comic and you went to join her, settling into the cosy room with a feeling of calm. Thoughts wanted to crowd in, but you opened the book and made an effort to enter the world it presented, and not the one that was in your head.

Ellie clearly also wanted to disappear into a fictional world and managed it almost immediately, her feet tucked up under her. Unfortunately it was impossible for her to disappear completely - every page of her book held something hilarious or astonishing and every minute or so she would guffaw with laughter or gasp or mutter something.

You didn’t care how she read but there were a couple of people trying to read in peace at the other side of the room and after the fourth irritated Sssssh, Dean poked his head into the room and told Ellie that she would have to read without the sound effects, please. Uneasy, you looked up to see his reaction, but he was leaning against the door frame, smiling gently at Ellie, who was still engrossed in her comic.

He turned to you and gave a laugh and a look that told you it wasn’t the first time Ellie had done this and that, although he clearly relished her enjoyment, others didn’t. You got out your notebook.

Why don’t we take our books back to my place. Lunch?

“Great idea,” Ellie boomed, to another chorus of loud Sssssshs from the corner. “I’m famished.”

The two of you checked out your books and Ellie put them all into her backpack while you zipped up your coat. You opened the door and realised that someone was in the way. Pulling up short, Ellie walked into you, pushing you into the back of the man standing in the doorway. You put your hands up in apology, looking away but then heard Ellie.

“Joel! Dude, you are right in front of the door,” she said, and looking up, you saw him take a step back from you, and there was an awkward moment when neither of you knew what to do. Joel cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Were you going in?” Ellie asked and he shook his head.

“Been working on the old bank all morning. Saw you go in before. Thought you might like this for lunch,” he said gruffly, holding up a paper bag. The smell of warm bread hit you and Ellie’s eyes lit up.

“Let’s go before it gets cold!” she said, before obviously remembering that you were heading over to your house. “Oh, we were going to Maggie’s though..” she started and you started to wave your hands, trying to make her see that it was fine if she wanted to go with Joel. But she went on.

“It’s ok if she comes too, right?” she asked, looking Joel square in the face, head and shoulders shorter than him but more than equal to him in intent. You made another attempt to refuse but to your surprise, Joel turned to you looking you straight in the eye. He paused then, as if he was assessing you, the weight of his gaze holding you for a split second until you looked away briefly before looking back to find him still fixed on you. It couldn’t have taken more than three seconds, but the feel of being on the receiving end of Joel Miller’s attention was piercing. You wanted to swallow but found your mouth dry and were just about to turn back inside the library, just to escape that scrutiny, when he nodded his head up, just a fraction, and made a noise that sounded like a grunt of disapproval, but which turned out to be assent.

“Reckon there’s enough for three,” he said with an air of finality that put paid to your attempts to refuse. He turned to walk home and Ellie put her arm through yours and led you along behind him. Not for the first time you wondered if Joel Miller was always the one to decide how things went.

_____________________________________________________

Sitting in the living room after lunch, Joel realised that a feeling of calm had settled over the three of you. Ellie had chattered all the way home, her breath misting the air, arm linked through yours like you were a school friend, and had even dragged you up the stairs to see her room as soon as you all got home.

She seemed relaxed about it, but he knew that showing you her bedroom was a big deal; Ellie was at heart a private person, outwardly gregarious but guarded when it came to more personal stuff. He couldn’t help worrying that she was getting too invested in you as a friend. Decided he would have a chat with her later about getting too close to people too fast.

The meal was relaxed, he and Ellie directed the conversation mostly back and forward between them, but she was good at directing questions to you when they only needed a nod or a shake of the head. Sometimes you wrote things down in the notebook that Ellie always seemed to have on her.

After you had all eaten, he watched you both go through to the living room while he tidied and put things away. When he pushed through the door to join you, Ellie was sprawled out across the sofa while you had one of the ancient armchairs, blankets keeping the chill off as the fire wouldn’t be lit until the evening. You were both reading what he presumed you’d got from the library earlier. Joel lifted Ellie’s legs and sat down, placing her feet back in his lap and letting out a tired sigh. You looked across at him and gave him a small smile before returning your attention to your book.

“You get me anything at the library?” he asked, tapping Ellie on the feet.

“Mmm?” she mumbled, her attention fixed on her book. Joel saw you look over again. Felt you watching the interaction. He tried again, this time tickling the sole of her foot, making her squirm and look up.

“Joel!” she grumbled, “I’m reading dude. What?

“I asked whether you got me a book. You’re both sitting here with new books. Thought you might have something for me.” Ellie pulled a face.

“You have that….that one with the old painter guy and the mysteries and stuff,” she replied. She was referring to a book that Tommy had read and passed to him. A battered copy of The Da Vinci Code, something he’d remembered there being a craze over, before. He rolled his eyes.

“That bad?” Ellie laughed. He nodded.

“Don’t tell Tommy, ok?” He saw your amused expression from the armchair. “You read it?” he asked and made a small sarcastic laugh when you grimaced and shook your head. Looking at Ellie, he indicated you.

“See?” he carried on, “She’s obviously got good taste too.” Ellie didn’t catch the glance that went with the comment, but you did. And he caught your eye before you looked away. Why did he instinctively know you had good taste in books? How did he know you were educated, he thought to himself? What had made him say that with such certainty when only a few weeks ago he’d wondered if you were somehow mentally challenged. He felt himself warm slightly, as if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t.

This discomfort was interrupted by Ellie who swung her bag into his lap and told him to choose one of hers. Rooting through, he discovered that they were all what he would have called comics and looked up at her.

“Bunch of goddam picture books?” he remarked, pretending to be cross but eyeing her with a wink. Ellie raised a disapproving eyebrow.

“Dude, the term you’re looking for is graphic novel. Take ‘em or leave ‘em.” And then he saw her smile in that way she had when she was about to make a joke. She turned slightly so she could see you better.

“Hey Maggie!” she said, and you looked up from the page, “You know Joel’s reading a book about gravity, right?” You didn’t really have time to react, and he was grateful for that; didn’t want to see any hint of disbelief on your face. He just turned to Ellie and said what he always said when she was about to pull out a pun; what he’d done from the first day.

“Ellie, no.”

“Yeah,” she said, her face beaming, even as he sighed and rolled his eyes, “He’s finding it impossible to put down.” Joel saw you draw in your lips in an effort not to laugh, but fail and as Ellie turned again and asked you if you got it, Joel saw your face break into a smile. Ellie was ecstatic.

“Oh man, I have to get Will Livingston, hold on,” she said, jumping from the sofa and making for the stairs. Part of Joel was amazed at Ellie wanting to share the whole book with you, not jealousy exactly, but wariness. What amazed him more, though, was you. The way the joke had finally broken through something, had made your face light up with a smile that he had never expected - an open and delighted expression that made your eyes shine. Now you had your head back against the chair, still smiling. And while Ellie bounded back into the room, you looked over and caught him looking at you, flinched slightly but didn’t look away. Held his glance until you gave your full attention back to Ellie as she came back down the stairs.

After more cherished puns had been shared from the tattered book, Joel saw you stand and walk over to him. You held out a book, gestured for him to take it. He took the volume from you and turned it to look at the front cover. Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.

“This is yours though,” he said, while you stood over him, “Don’t you wanna read it first?” You shook your head and grabbed the notebook from the coffee table.

I’ve read it before. It’s good. But no worries…

You made a move to take the book back but he kept hold of it. Liked the idea of having something chosen for him, not by Tommy, whose taste in books made him wince, but by you. He felt like you would suggest something interesting.

He’d never been a big reader, but had always meant to better himself, especially when Sarah had started high school. The issue had been that he’d usually come in from work exhausted, ready for a shower, a beer and the easy relaxation of some tv show. The irony of the outbreak and the following decades was that because none of that remained, people had been forced to return to the simple things like books, if they could get their hands on them. And Joel could. He’d probably read more in these years than all the time before.

So he nodded, settling into the sofa again, while you returned to your seat. Ellie shifted until she was comfortable again, her feet on his lap. He opened the cover and started to read.

———

Sharing a book with someone always felt strangely intimate. Especially if it was something you had liked and recommended. It felt like a judgement on you as a person, whether the recipient enjoyed it or not.

She’s obviously got good taste. Why did his words give you comfort? What use was good taste in novels in the world that existed now? And yet it made you feel good; it was the first compliment he had given you and you liked it. Surely it was just because it was from one adult to another? Just simple praise which made you feel more than just a person trying to survive. Like there was still room for art and beauty in the world.

And yet there had been something about the fact that this compliment had come from him; from this man. From Joel. You’d sat there, laughing at Ellie’s pun, watched her run up to her room and looked back to find his gaze on you. Not angry, not suspicious, as he had seemed to be up until this point, but just….on you. And he didn’t look away.

You found it hard to name the feeling that this man made you feel in your chest. But you liked it. Goddammit you liked it. Back in your room later that day you just lay down on the bed and groaned out loud. Just muttered to yourself under your breath Don’t fall for a man like Joel Miller, but you wondered if that was really something within your control.

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hannahwatcheshorror · 10 months ago

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YOU'RE NEXT (2011)

💁‍♀️Strong Female Lead

This movie is a romp and a half. You take an awkward family reunion with all the significant others and add murder, what could be better? But in all seriousness this film does an excellent job with not only creativity but uniqueness. There are many hunted become the hunter tropes but this one is special. Really a joy to watch and rewatch.

(TW Flash/Strobing light)

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Erin is going to meet her boyfriend Crispian’s family for the first time and things get awkward when during an argument one of the significant others gets up and gets murdered. This starts the chain of events in which each new person is next (to die). There are creepy guys running around with white animal masks of a sheep, a tiger, and a fox, but for some reason the sheep is the worst one to me because they are supposed to be prey animals. Erin immediately transforms into survival mode but like doomsday prepper style, because it turns out she was a doomsday prepper for a while. Fair enough.

Things are seeming very fishy as we find out that one of the brothers hired the animal masks to kill their family. Erin figures out what we, the audience, know about the shady, shitty brother, who already stabbed his other brother, the same actor from the worst road trip in history from “V/H/S�� (bro cannot catch a break). But Erin is too Australian for these killers and goes wild on them, picking them off one by one. “God, I love you.” I whisper to my computer screen, completely alone, at midnight, when this strong female lead jettisons herself out a second story window to avoid certain death by machete. Watched the scene three times.

When all the baddies are disposed of, Erin sees her love, Crispy, calling the shady brother’s phone to ask if all the killing is over and if they can get their money now… Whoops. Then he tries to tell her that it is sort of her fault that all this happened because she was so talented at surviving and if she had just been more passive and played a good little victim… (barfs) So she stabs Cris! So now he can never try to bribe his way back into her love! Don’t mess with this girl or You’re Next!

-----------------------HANNAH WATCHES HORROR--------------------

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novastargalaxydesigns · 1 year ago

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About the Artist/Writer

Name: Novastar Galaxy

Aliases: Nova (For all), Novsy (Close friend only), Potato (Sorta Brother only)

Date of Birth: 11/14/04

Sexuality: Lesbian

Gender: Demigirl

Pronouns: She/Her They/Them

Occupation(s): TBD (Trying to switch jobs), Digital Artist

~Massive Projects Bound to come with stories~

+ Her Jinx (Arcane AU): A Jinx x Fem!OC Reader (Nova) story where two souls who somehow manage to balance each other find themselves swept up in what could possibly be the downfall of Zaun while falling in love. (Mature scenes and language; mention of drinking and drugs. 16+)

+ The Third Fallen (Hazbin Hotel/Hellavu Boss AU): Follow Mars, once an angel from Heaven as she navigates her fall and her new life in Hell. There she meets the Hazbin gang and some of the Hellavu gang plus new faces. What is her fate? Only time will tell. (Mature scenes and language; mention of drinking and drugs. 18+)

+ Daylight (A Warrior Cats Spin-off): Based on Erin Hunter's infamous Warrior Cats series, I present Daylight. Follow Spottedkit as she navigates a world where her entire life has been set into stone before she was even born. Follow her family as their lives are shaped by their ancestor's legacy. (Dark themes; Mention of death, blood, and gore. 15+)

+ The Lion King Dark Omens: There's peace in the pride lands.... or is there? Set in Kiara's reign, a pair of odd looking orphaned cubs from Zira's pride are found. Adimu and Sefu are oddly light compared to the other Outlanders. But Sefu was determined his sister wouldn't make it, resulting in his banishment. Adimu was raised as the older sister to Kiara and Kovu's cubs, not as heir but the next leader of the Lion Guard. (Dark themes, mention of abuse, blood/gore, death)

~Places to find me where I'm most active~

+ Toyhouse: NovastarGalaxyDesign

+ DeviantArt: NovastarGalaxyDesign

#blog intro #about my blog #novastargalaxydesigns

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gracefireheart · 2 years ago

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Just in a mood to recite some Ryan Parker moments I like for some reason back when I watched NP [which is only during NP 2.0].

I definitely won't sort them in order of when these moments happened, 'cause I have no clue when some of these moments happened in the hours upon hours of content.

While hunting after the man that killed George- a Lost MC biker- with Cat and Paddy, Cat got Ryan to think up a safe word in case Ryan somehow got found by this guy and were about to be in trouble, to which they decided the safe word would be ~princess~.

Another moment connected to the one above was how Ryan would be driving up and down the highway- 'cause the murderer was the Highway Man or something I don't quite remember- on his war Banshee. Some cops were undercover in a truck- trying to investigate this same murder- and were surprised when Ryan of all people are driving quickly up to them, making sure whoever drove the truck was okay as this Highway Man (I think) were also targetting truck drivers.

Another another moment connected to the two above was how- after finally the Lost got that Highway Man with the help of Dundee- Ryan wanted to torture the guy with a god damn lockpick. 'Cause listen, my man's usually a pacifist that rarely uses guns or weapons, but he will fuck you up if you fucked with those he considers family.

Ryan and OTT being trauma brothers friends after the Lost MC vs CKR war, considering they both got kidnapped and tortured by the opposite side in a war neither of them wanted to be a part of but had to be a part of. Also how- during the time the Lost needed mats [materials] for stuff and OTT had a fuckton of it- OTT would only sell his mats to Ryan (in the Lost).

Irwin Dundee helping Ryan get out of the Lost compound ('cause he was accidentally locked in and were starting to panic) after the Yellowjack meeting between the Lost MC and CKR- that happened riiight before that war started.

Rudi standing up for Ryan- during the job interview to become Matthew Payne's assistant- after months of either blaming Ryan for the war (between Lost MC and CKR) or just not wanting to be near him. It was just really nice and satisfying. That and how Ryan ended up knocking out his competitor after (I think) Matthew said the two should have a fight to see who gets the job.

While they were driving their motorcycles after the speeches in the funeral (to the Lost MC bikers that died during that war I keep mentioning), Reid asked Ryan if he wanted to say a speech too back there. Ryan answered how he did want to, but he didn't want to upset Rudi, so he opted against it. And then Reid just telling him how he should've done it anyways, even if it would've upset Rudi. Idk, just the husbandos being comforting to eachother is always so nice to watch.

Also, Ryan and Reid just driving together in the most ridicolous car the former has [station wagons, drift wagons, small but fast cars, etc.] to "train" new cops in driving pursuits, which will include fun bantering and singing to whatever 2000s pop song they got.

Ryan, Gazz and Lucy's "SHOW ME YOURS TINTS" line when the three decided to go and have some fun doing small crimes together to try not to worry too much about Reid being in the ICU.

Ryan just being drunk with his friends- Erin, Vivi and Luther- and singing pop songs after finding the dreaded E G G.

Ryan doing some racing while Rudi was sitting passenger, to which the latter would encourage the former to spin out the other racers or just make them crash (which Ryan ofc didn't do).

Ryan winning (or getting 2nd place, I can't quite remember) a race despite 1. All of his tires being popped by spikestrips, and 2. Some cop cars being behind him, trying to make his car stop (to no avail).

Watching most gangs just treat Ryan nicely 'cause they either like him as a person, like him as a business man/old lady of the Lost, or just don't want to piss off the businesses he's part of/the Lost and other gangs that like him.

Honestly, anytime Ryan's racing or trying to escape cops is fun as hell to watch.

Can't think of anything else atm, but I might add on more moments when I remember them 🚶

#my thoughts #Ryan Parker #NoPixel

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witchygagirlwrites · 4 months ago

Text

Mine, Yours

Jay Halstead x Voight Daughter Reader (Nicknamed Little Bird/ Birdie)

You're working a case with intelligence and butt heads with Erin yet again which results in a blow up with your dad and the entire unit. After you win the case you finally agree to a date with Jay.

Warnings: Hank and Erin is horrible to Birdie, then well Smut 🤷‍♀️

Your success rate was telling on itself when it came to D.A. Newak. No matter your discomfort working with your dad and Erin you refused to let that interfere with your job. If you were to be the wrangler of the cases they caught then by all means you were going to fucking wrangle. At least you didn’t have to darken the door of the twenty-first daily. It just meant if any case ran through the district attorney’s office with the unit’s name attached it would find its way to your desk and while you always knew your dad ran an active unit you never realized quite how active until you were the one handling the caseload.

You were in your office when your phone chimed and you checked to see it was a text from Justin Dinner with me and Olive tonight? You smiled and texted back Of course. 7? And he replied See you then

You laid your phone down and went back to work. You were supposed to meet Lexi and Meredith around lunchtime to go shopping for Lexi’s spring formal. When Lexi called to ask you, you’d nearly jumped at the chance. It meant the world to you her asking and Meredith making a point to tell you she valued you coming along had honestly nearly made you cry. The Olinskys had always been good to you and Justin but had taken special care with you.

Your phone chimed again and at first you assumed it was either Justin forgetting something or Lexi reminding you but when you checked it was Jay. Just wanted to say good morning. Hope you’re having a good day yeah Halstead was a damn problem. You didn’t want to like him but he was there every time you turned around. He would be offering coffee or just a smile and had stayed true to his word, any time you did have to work shoulder to shoulder with the unit he bodily put himself between you and your dad or you and Erin as much as possible.

Al noticed and questioned you about it. You really didn’t have an answer so you told him the truth. Jay clocked how Erin and your dad treated you and didn’t like it. He hadn’t said much after that, he’d just cut his eyes at Jay and nodded slowly before walking away. You didn’t know what that nod meant, nor did you ask.

Hope you’re having a good day too. Stay safe you texted back and laid your phone down. Being friends with him didn’t hurt anything. He’d opened up to you about how his own dad treated him and Will. Pat and Hank were competing for dad of the year it seemed.

Father issues aside, Jay was actually a pretty decent guy. He had a good sense of humor, seemed to actually enjoy your company and when Justin had asked him just why he was trying to have anything to do with you he’d replied “Man, I didn’t know it was like that with your dad and Erin. I’m not trying to hurt your sister, I’m just trying to make sure someone else is in her corner. I can be at work with her when you can’t and plus if I get into it with your dad you can still have some form of relationship with him after the fact”

Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all, plus he was easy on the eyes. You turned back to the stack of files, determined to get through them so you could have your entire lunch hour to spend with Lexi and Meredith.

“That’s the one Lex!” you agreed with Meredith as Lexi did a slow turn. The soft pink of the dress suited her perfectly. She smiled broadly “It looks ok?” you nodded “Ok? Sweetie, you look beautiful” she smiled “Thank you for coming with us Birdie” and pulled you into a hug. Meredith smiled at the two of you as you said “Of course. Heck, you’re practically my little sister at this point”

___________________

After Lexi’s dress was paid for you, her and Meredith headed out into the mall. Meredith was carrying her dress and she headed to Annie’s pretzels. “Cinnamon sugar?” she asked you and you nodded “Yes ma’am” and laughed when she ran off. Meredith cut her eyes at you “Has Hank even attempted to try to mend things?” you shook your head “Not really. He calls me but it’s so awkward, I have more in depth conversations with people who are on the witness stand” she laughed lightly “Oh sweetie. I don’t know what happened with Hank after Camille. She’d kick him all over Chicago over her baby girl” you smiled “I know. I love my dad, I do but I can’t let it drag me down. Justin is always there for me and Al has always been there, thank you for that by the way”

She pulled you into her side “You’re family Birdie. That’s what family does” you smiled “Also why that dress was half what it was supposed to be” she cut her eyes at you “Voight” and you grinned “She looked so pretty!” and she just shook her head with a laugh “You are just like your mother”

Slapping your boss was not the appropriate response when he told you “Don’t leave the twenty first until intelligence has this case wrapped in a bow” No matter how much you wanted it to be the proper response. Maybe you should take Antonio up on that offer of using his boxing gym? Justin said it was a pretty decent place and Erin thought it wasn’t high class enough for her.

You walked in the door and thanked a uniform that held it for you. “Morning Trudy” you greeted and she smiled “Morning sweetie” and hit the button to pop the gate. The sound of your heels clicking on the steps seemed to echo as if the sound of alarms letting them know you were heading up.

When you made it to the top of the stairs the bullpen was a flurry of activity. Your dad was in his office on the phone, Jay and Erin were gone along with Kevin and Kim. You looked at Antonio and Al “Catch me up?” Al stood up and walked with you to the board “Be my pleasure”

_____________________

You had taken use of Al’s desk with his permission to try to start to form connections to tie in a case and conviction that could be formed to justify the arrest warrants your dad was wanting but so far you simply couldn’t see it. With what he had it was circumstantial at best. A two bit public defender could get this guy off this shit.

Everyone had trickled back in but were doing their jobs around you. Jay walked out of the break room and sat a cup of coffee down on the edge of the desk, away from your paperwork. You cut your eyes up and he shrugged “Looked like you needed it” you smiled “Thanks” and picked up the cup to take a sip as you continued working. You didn’t miss the look Erin shot your way but you were focusing on the case, not whatever she had going on.

______________________

“A.D.A. We got an arrest warrant yet?” your dad asked from his office door and you looked up before waving your hand over what was on your desk “With this? No. This is circumstantial and that’s being generous. You want an arrest warrant? Get me concrete evidence sergeant”

“Oh come on Birdie!” Erin groaned and you stood up straight, crossing your arms over your chest “What now Erin?” she waved a hand towards Jay “If you weren’t so focused on my ex maybe you could figure out a way to get us an arrest warrant”

You felt your jaw clench as you walked around the desk, your heels clicking on the tile floor giving you extra height over her considering you were both around the same height any other time “Lindsay I’m not getting into this with you. You want a damn arrest warrant? Get your ass out there and get me actual evidence I can get a conviction on. I am not taking this bullshit to my boss and risking my neck and my reputation on it. As far as Jay goes,are you that easy you’ve never had a male friend?”

She laughed “I could have him back if I wanted him” you shrugged “I haven’t tried to have him. You’re looking like a damn fool trying to start shit when I am trying to make sure all of our jobs are secure. I have built my reputation on my own merit, not on riding my father’s coat tails unlike you. So back up off of me before I back you up. Don’t think for a minute the nice suit and heels change things sweetie. I’m the Voight, not you. Push me and find out who has the temper”

Your dad reached for your arm “Birdie that’s enough” but before he could make contact you heard Al say “Don’t lay a finger on her Hank. Me and you have never had many issues. Touch her and we’re about to” you cut your eyes at Al before looking at your dad “Well Sergeant. Are you gonna stand here and bitch and whine like your detective or go get me my damn evidence for the arrest warrant? That’s the only way I can get the hell out of here and make your precious golden girl happy”

He held your eyes, a silent challenge but rather he wanted to face it or not you were your father’s daughter. You held his eyes. You could see the anger in Jay’s eyes where he stood just off to the side of the room and slightly shook your head. You didn’t need the rescue. Your dad looked at Erin “You go with Antonio. Ruzek, you’re with me”

The four of them stood to leave so you let out a breath then walked back towards the interrogation rooms, hearing Jay fall in step behind you. “Birdie” you heard him call your name right before you turned and grabbed his arm, dragging him into an interrogation room.

_______________________

You pushed the door closed behind you and shoved Jay back against a wall. His eyes widened as your lips met his. He groaned lightly, his hands attempting to go to your hips but you grabbed them pushing them against the wall, silently thanking the creator of heels for giving you the height needed. You flicked your tongue into his mouth rolling it against his and enjoying the little grunt he gave in response to the move as he pulled at his hands. You knew he could easily get them free. He was giving you this, he knew you needed it.

You broke from his lips to kiss across his jaw then down to his neck, kissing across his pulse point and when you did he pulled his hands out of your grip and they went to your hips, turning the two of you so your back was now against the wall and even with the heels adding height he was still towering over you a bit. Both of your chests were heaving and a lazy smile worked its way onto your face as you saw the fire in his eyes “Birdie, please tell me you actually want me and that wasn’t just about getting back at Erin and your dad because I’m not her hand me downs. If I had met you first I never would’ve looked at her”

You whimpered lightly at his words “Kiss me Jay” he grinned “Yes ma’am” and brushed his lips against yours. This time he was in control of the kiss. One hand came up to grip your chin as he rolled his tongue into your mouth, lazily exploring it as he kissed you like he was trying to memorize the feeling and taste of your lips on his. When you were forced apart for air you grinned up at him “Fuck” he laughed lightly “Let me take you out, please?” you nodded “After this case? Ok?” he nodded and pressed another kiss to your lips “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that” you smiled and pulled him down into another kiss “One more won’t hurt”

Antonio and Kevin ended up being the two to get you the evidence you needed to secure an arrest warrant. When you delivered it to the twenty first you walked into the bullpen, right past Erin’s desk with your head held high to your dad’s office and knocked on the door. “Sergeant Voight?” he glanced up and you held up the warrant “Go roll him up. I can have him indicted by tomorrow morning”

He stood and walked over to take the warrant “Good work” you scoffed “I always do good work” you walked back out into the bullpen and looked at Al “Gear up. You got your warrant” and cut your eyes at Jay before saying “All of you be careful” then walked out.

You agreed on a date with Jay after the case. You got a conviction so now you were climbing in the front seat of his truck to go to dinner. He cut his eyes at you as you slid in and you smiled “What?” he shook his head “You look gorgeous, that’s all” you laughed “I always look good Halstead” a grin split his face “Damn right you do baby” and you felt your face warm “Just drive playboy”

____________________

“You should’ve seen the look on their faces when Justin and Al were standing on chairs in the front row mind you shouting GO BIRDIE at my law school graduation” you laughed and Jay laughed then his face fell “He didn’t even come for that?” you shrugged “I had my brother and I had Al” he shook his head “You are such an amazing woman. How the hell he can’t see that, I don’t know but it’s his loss baby” you grinned “Keep calling me baby and I’d prefer you not talk about my father in the same sentence”

He raised an eyebrow “Oh yeah? What would you prefer?” you stared at him for a second, a smile slipping onto your face “I can think of a thing or two”

You stumbled into the door of your apartment, Jay’s lips never leaving yours as your fingers fumbled with the buttons of his shirt. He kicked the door closed and you locked it as he pushed you back against it, helping you to get his shirt off. You broke away from his lips once his chest was bare to let your hands run across the skin freshly exposed to you “Fuck you’re gorgeous”

He raised an eyebrow “Do you not own a mirror?” and you laughed, turning so he could unzip your dress. When it pooled down around your ankles you stepped out of it and his eyes darkened. You grabbed his hand and walked towards your bedroom.

__________________

The moment you walked across the threshold of your bedroom Jay pulled you back into his arms, mouth working at the sensitive flesh of your neck. You let out a gasp when he hit a certain spot and felt him grin against your skin “Fuck I wish I could mark you up baby” you turned to face him and smiled “Lots of skin you can mark”

He groaned as you walked backwards to the bed, pulling him with you. “Yeah, you may be what kills me Birdie Voight” he pushed you back onto the bed, crawling up your body. He held his weight on one arm and just stared at you for a second “What?” you asked for the second time that night “Trying to decide where I want to start baby” he replied with a grin before crashing his lips against yours. One of his hands slipped down between your thighs, teasing your dripping core over your panties. Your hips bucked up into his touch and he grinned before breaking away from your lips “Lay back for me Birdie”

You nodded and he reached behind you to take the bra off before tossing it. He caught your lips in another searing kiss before moving down your body. When he got to your chest he took special care to suck a few dark marks just below the clothing line then grinned up at you “I expect you to mark me too before tonight’s out” before continuing down your body.

When he got to your hips he slowly pulled the panties down your legs. You eyed the heels you wore, silently asking if he was going to take them off and he grinned before simply settling between your legs. The first flick of his tongue made your head fall back against the pillows, a loud gasp of his name falling from your lips. He groaned against your core and the vibrations made a shiver go through your body as your fingers buried in his hair.

What he was doing with his tongue you weren’t sure but holy hell did it feel amazing. “Please don’t stop Jay” you begged as he sucked your clit into his mouth, adding two fingers in with his tongue and pushing you over that edge. When you came your thighs squeezed around him, entire legs shaking as sobs of his name broke free.

Once you finally came down he pressed a kiss to both of your inner thighs before leaning back to look up at you with a smile “How ya feeling?” “Like I want you to fuck me” you replied and he nodded “I can do that” he stood off the bed and pushed his jeans and boxers off. You swallowed hard when you saw the size of him and he smirked “You ok little bird?” you grinned “I’m ok”

He caught one of your ankles “Want these off?” you nodded “I don’t want to hurt you?” he gently took the heels off, kissing the ankle of each foot before tossing the shoe then he crawled up your body. When he got to your lips he kissed you like he was a drowning man getting a lungful of air. “Baby I don’t have a condom here” “I’m on birth control. Are you clean?” you asked and he nodded “Had a physical a couple months ago” you pulled him into a kiss before whispering against his lips “Then please fuck me”

You felt the tip of his cock teasing at your entrance before he slowly pushed into you, both of you letting out a moan at the feeling. Once he was hip to hip with you he pressed his forehead to yours. “You feel so fucking good” he whispered and you laughed lightly “That’s what I was going to say” he grinned and pressed a kiss to your lips before slowly moving his hips. When you clenched around him, one leg hooking around his waist he nodded “That’s my girl” and gripped the leg around his waist “Tell me what you like or don’t baby. Don’t be shy with me” he urged before rolling his hips into yours, grinning when you moaned “Just like that Jay”

_______________________

Jay’s hips were slamming into yours, your breasts bouncing with the force of his thrusts and his eyes kept moving from your face to your chest. “Prettiest thing I have ever fucking seen” he groaned as he pounded into you. You gasped, feeling another orgasm building and knew you were close. He slipped one hand between you, fingers easily finding your clit and when he traced light circles onto it that building pressure burst and your vision went soft around the edges as your orgasm washed over you. A moan of his name fell from you.

He grunted when your walls clamped down onto him. He thrust into you a few more times before burying himself into you and you felt when he came, coating inside of you and some of it being pushed back out as he fucked you both through your orgasms. A moan of your name fell from his lips as he buried his face in your neck, hips rolling into yours before finally stilling.

You could feel his heart racing against you, right along with how fast your own heart was pounding. He slowly raised his face and he looked almost shy which compared to how he’d just fucked you was such a mood shift it was a whiplash of sort. “Birdie, I really like you” you laughed “I really like you too Jay” he grinned and pressed a kiss to your lips.

After you and Jay were both cleaned up you were curled up to his chest, half asleep and he nudged you with his shoulder “What Halstead?” you asked, cutting your eyes at him and he gave you that grin that made your heart flip “Two things baby then I promise I’ll let you sleep”

You nodded “Ok” he smiled “Am I yours now and you mine?” you grinned “Do you want to be mine?” he nodded “More than anything” you rolled your bottom lip between your teeth “I want to try this. I really like you Jay. More than I’ve probably ever liked anyone” he grinned “Good”

“But my dad and Erin can’t know. If she knows you’re mine she’ll do everything in her power to fuck it up” he held your eyes for a moment then slowly nodded “Ok but if you think she could get me back somehow she couldn’t” you shook your head “Not that baby, she’s a lot worse than that” he didn’t ask for any further explanation and just nodded “As long as I have you I’m happy. Those two can fuck off but can we tell Al and Justin? They’re the important ones to you”

@desimarie12

You felt a smile slip onto your face at him wanting to look Al and your brother in. You nodded “Yeah, we’ll talk to them. Now, what’s the other thing?” he grinned and motioned to his chest “I am unmarked!” you shook your head “You’re ridiculous” he raised an eyebrow “Are you saying you don’t want to mark me?” you turned to swing a leg over his waist, effectively straddling him and he grinned before you said “Oh no I’m going to mark every inch of this gorgeous chest”

Love Deserved

@allisonargent144

@nevaehstreater18

@itsdesiree86

@powellssaturn

#jay halstead x reader #jay halstead smut #jay halstead x you #jay halstead fanfiction #chicago pd fanfiction #chicago pd fic #chicago pd fanfic #one chicago fanfic

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chicago-pd-is-weird · 4 months ago

Note

Hey!! Could you write a Benoight fic please?? Maybe something were Erin is there too I love Dad Hank too ❤🩷💞

Hi Anon! Absolutely! This was fun to write! I will say that I don’t know much about the modern day SVU, so please forgive inaccuracies. (I tried to avoid anything I wasn’t sure about.) I am only on S10, but have watched some later episodes just on TV. :)

Sorry this took so long! I haven’t been feeling well these past few days and work has knocked me out the rest of the week (ugh). Anyways, I really hope you like it and thank you for your patience!!

Find it on AO3 or below the cut!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60025387/chapters/162249583

Olivia walked through the bullpen and into her office, a smile crossing her face when she saw someone familiar sitting in her chair. “I think you’re lost, Sergeant.”

Hank chuckled as he stood up. “Actually, I think I found exactly who I was looking for. How are you?”

Olivia hugged Hank, a smile still on her face. “I’m good. We just closed a big case and put a pedophile away for life. I had no idea you were coming.”

For years, they’d been doing this sort of long-distance relationship “thing.” They’d never put a word to it, but they’d never dated anyone else, either. It was a mutual agreement. They had video calls monthly, asking about cases, updates, and just talking about life stuff. Usually, Hank was in his office at night taking these calls, drinking the whiskey he kept in his drawer. Olivia was typically at home with Noah, always showing Hank how big he’d gotten, and talking about her cases after she put him down for the night. It was comforting, having someone on the outside, someone not too close, and someone who could offer a fresh perspective. They were coworkers, friends, consultants, and most importantly, they were lovers, just not in the “traditional” way.

Hank’s “love” came from sending Olivia followers now and again for special occasions like when she wrapped up a huge case or on her birthday. During Christmas, he often sent a gift, which was coupled with chocolates, and something for Noah. Noah didn’t know him very well at all, but he was referred to as “Mister Hank.”

Hank, on the other hand, loved Noah like his own son, despite the distance. He missed Daniel so much since Olive moved away, and he never got to see him - truthfully, Hank stopped trying after a while, thinking that he was a burden to Olive and Daniel. Hank was made to be a father, however, and took to it easily when Olivia adopted Noah, even giving her tips and advice.

Hank smiled at Olivia, hands on her shoulders. “Good job. I think that calls for drinks tonight.” Hank had learned over the years that Olivia liked words of affirmation. It was one of her love languages.

Olivia laughed. “I’ll take you up on that, but you still haven’t told me why you’re here,” she said, breaking away from him and sitting at her desk, sitting through the paperwork.

Hank shrugged, sitting down across from her and crossing his legs. “I came to visit Erin, figured I’d stop by. I know you’d kill me if you found out I came to the city and didn’t say anything.”

Olivia laughed. “You’re probably right.” She looked through her files, setting some aside, then looking up at him again. “So, you’re going to take up residence in my office the whole day?”

Hank chuckled, checking his watch, then shrugging. “I’ve got time. Maybe we should go get coffee.”

Olivia couldn’t help but smile again. “I’ll take you up on that, too.” She got up from her desk, grabbing her purse and walking with him out of the bullpen, chatting. Some of the people in SVU glanced up, then looked at one another confusedly.

Fin just shook his head. He’d known about Hank and Olivia for years, even though nobody said it out loud. “Back to work,” he said to the others sitting at their desks.

—

Later that day, Olivia was called away to a case, Hank sitting at a diner for lunch, where he was supposed to meet Erin. He had ordered a coffee for himself, waiting on her to get food.

Soon enough, she walked in, his foster-daughter. He missed her. She looked more and more grown up every time he saw her, and especially with that suit on. They made her wear it, apparently. She even had the sunglasses to go with it this time.

Hank stood, greeting her and hugging her tightly. “Lindsay, you look more and more like the FBI every time I see you.”

Erin laughed, shaking her head and squeezing him just a little tighter. “And you look exactly the same. Old Chicago cowboy cop.”

Hank chuckled, sitting down in the booth with her. “How’s the job?”

“It’s been alright. Nothing like Chicago.” She said that every time. Years had gone by and still, she kept saying it, as if she could even remember what it was like being a Chicago cop. It had been something like seven or eight years. Her memories had faded. She was a different person then.

“You’re right,” Hank replied, as it was his normal reply to her saying that. He sipped his coffee, then looked at the menu. “What’s good here? You picked this place.”

Erin laughed. “It’s my guilty pleasure place. I always get a meatball sub.”

“Then I’ll have that, too,” Hank said, pushing the menus to the end of the table and telling the waitress when she came to pick them up.

Erin and Hank chatted on about everything they had going on. Erin had found a boyfriend a few years back who had recently proposed. Hank was proud of her for making her own life, even when it all seemed like it was going to hell. He had been right - Bunny was toxic to her. She had finally realized that after moving to New York. They talked on and on about cases and work, but also about the Intelligence Unit and those who had left or died. Jay, Antonio, Hailey, Martel, Alvin, and so forth. Hank talked about some cases they had, the trouble they’d gotten into, and how they’d gotten out of it. He also talked about possible retirement and choosing a successor.

“You know, I don’t know what I’d do if I retired,” Hank said, shrugging. “I mean, I’d have Adam take over the unit, but really, where would I go? Would I stay in Chicago? Or would I move here?”

“Why would you move here?” Erin said, taking a bit of her sub.

“Because you’re here,” Hank replied with a shrug. “Olivia’s here. We keep in touch a lot. I’d be able to see both of you more often.”

Erin looked him over. She had no idea about Hank and Olivia’s half-relationship. “Olivia Benson?”

Hanks shrugged. “If I couldn’t work anymore, maybe I could still help her with her cases, at least. Support her, you know?”

Erin hummed. “I guess so. I had no idea you two were a thing.”

“We-Well, we’re not, really, we just talk a lot.”

“But you’re mutually exclusive?”

Hank shrugged. “I guess you could say that. But it’s not like we’ve dated or anything.”

Erin laughed. “If it’ll make you happy, you could move here after retirement.”

“I know, but… I’d be leaving everything else in Chicago. Everyone else. Trudy, for one, but also Al and Camille and Justin…”

“You’ll be able to see them again after you die,” Erin replied.

Hank scoffed. “I’m definitely not going the same place as them after I die,” he replied. “Maybe Al.”

Erin laughed, shaking her head. “I’m sure you’ll know what’s right when the time comes.”

—

Later that night, Hank met Olivia for drinks, putting down his credit card for the tab at the beginning of the night. He smiled at her. “Hey, Liv.”

“Hey, Hank. How was your day in the city?”

“It’s good, I met Erin for lunch, then just walked around. It’s not Chicago, that’s for sure, but I’m sure I could feel at home here, eventually.”

Olivia laughed. “Looking to move?”

Hank shrugged as he took the whiskey from in front of him, sipping it. “Maybe.”

“Really?”

“After they force me into retirement,” he replied. “I can feel it coming. They’ve been breathing down my neck for ten years about getting me off the street, but now, they’re bearing down on me for retirement.”

Olivia frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that. I wouldn’t know what to do if they forced me to retire.”

“It’s because I’m a menace,” Hank replied with a chuckle, sipping his drink and not elaborating. “How’s Noah?”

Olivia smiled. “He’s great. I told him I’d bring you to see him. He’s really excited to see ‘Mister Hank’ again.”

Hank couldn’t help but split into a wide smile. “I’d be happy to spend some time with him.”

“You’re great with kids, you know,” she replied. “I mean, my unit works with kids all day, but you’d be excellent at it.”

“I don’t have the heart to work in SVU, Liv. I can barely take those cases in Intelligence. I’d beat the guy to hell if you let me loose on him.”

“Which is why I’d never make you do it, but you do have a talent for it.”

The night went on, the two going to Olivia’s apartment. It was a Friday night, so she didn’t have to be in the next morning, despite being on call.

When they got there, Olivia checked on Noah, Hank peeking in and smiling. After she shut the door, he walked with her to her living room. “He’s adorable.”

Olivia smiled. “Yeah, he is. I’m just glad he’s mine.” She grabbed him a glass of water, sitting with him in the living room. “You know, Hank, if you ever did retire, you’re welcome here with us.��

Hank nodded slowly. “Thanks. I haven’t decided yet… You know, you’re here, and Noah, and Erin… But I’d be leaving behind Camille and Alvin and Justin… Not to mention Trudy would have something to say about it.”

“But she’s married,” Olivia reasoned. “She would be alright without you.”

“I guess so,” he replied, shrugging. “My dad’s in Chicago, too. But I guess, since I become a cop for him, if I couldn’t be a cop anymore, then what’s the sense in staying.” He shook his head as he tried to rationalize it.

“It could be a fresh start with some familiarity,” Olivia replied. “I’m not trying to convince you, Hank, I’m just saying, you’re always welcome here.”

“Thanks,” he replied again, sipping the water as if it were bourbon, not caring that it wasn’t.

—

The next morning, Hank was up before Olivia, slowly inching out of her bed and leaving a kiss on her temple. He got dressed, deciding to sit out on the balcony with another glass of water, watching the sun rise.

When six-thirty rolled around, Hank could feel a set of eyes watching him. He turned to the doors, smiling as Olivia came out in her robe. “Hey, stranger,” she said.

Hank chuckled and watched her sit down. “Hey there.”

“You know, I don’t use this balcony often enough. I’m so terrified Noah’s going to fall off of it. I should sit out here more often in the mornings.”

“It’s the perfect amount of space,” Hank replied. “Or, it would be great for dancing, assuming we moved all the furniture inside.”

Olivia smiled. “And who would take me dancing on a balcony?”

“Well, I could think of one person, but he would do it in the moonlight.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

The two took in the fresh air, Hank reaching over and taking Olivia’s hand. Maybe he could get used to this.

#chicago pd #chicagopd #hank voight #cpd #sargent hank voight #sergeant hank voight #law and order svu #olivia benson #Olivia benson x Hank Voight #Hank Voight x Olivia Benson #Benoight #anon ask #anonymous #detective erin lindsay #erin lindsay

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enchantedblackrose · 3 years ago

Text

Not Pretty

Gif credit @haileyupstead

Jay Halstead/ Fem Reader Partner, mentions of Kim and Erin.

Summary: You and the other girls from Intelligence are sent to a nightclub, but the bouncer won't let you in.

Warnings: No canon timeline. Some swearing, feelings of not being pretty. A dude calls you ugly. Largely unedited but I'm tired of looking at it.

Author's note: I really thought I had such a good idea. Then I sat down to write this and omg this is just...idek. I'm sorry? It's nothing like I thought it would be. And I'm seriously doubting posting it. Huge thanks to Resa for talking it out with me otherwise I'd still be stuck hahaha

A contribution to @resanoona 's 3k Fiesta bingo! Square filled: Hurt Feelings

Not Pretty

"Not you," dripping with disdain and a sneer while the onlookers snicker, echoes in your mind as you sit on the bench in the locker room at the precinct, momentarily sidetracked from gathering your belongings.

You shouldn't be feeling like this. Sad. Defeated. The sense of utter failure lingering over you. You and the team made the bust. And yet all you hear is that bouncer's voice.

‐

Of course it's a frigid Chicago night as you stand outside the nightclub with members of your team undercover and underdressed. Your knee high boots help conceal your credentials as well as your backup piece, but your left little toe is already numb with pain and you're positive your heels are going to blister. You tug the bottom of your dress as if that will magically make it grow longer.

Kim playfully swats your hand. "Stop fidgeting."

"This dress is tiny and it's freezing," you stick your tongue out and she laughs at you.

"Yes, well in lieu of making your dress longer or warmer, try to relax," she offers you a tentative smile.

Through your earpiece, your partner's voice rings out, "She's right, y/n. You look...fine. just concentrate on the task." Feeling chastised, you scowl in Jay's general direction. He's somewhere in the crowd of people in line for the club in case there's trouble before you even get in. He somehow manages to catch your eye, before you plaster on the fakest of smiles.You turn to Kim just as Erin bounces up to you both, hooking her arms through Kim's elbow and yours. "Ladies! Let's get this started."

Laughing with each step, feigning flippant attitudes, you and the girls walk past the line, straight to the bouncer by the door. He barely glances up from his clipboard.

"Name?"

"You won't find our names on your list, but-"

"End of the line," he barks.

"Please," Erin pouts.

"He's just doing his job," Kim says. He looks up, appreciating the recognition. "We'll go," but none of you make to move. His eyes rake over your bodies. Erin acts as if she's about to move, but then tilts her head slightly.

"Are you Rob? Because my friend, Cassidy, was here two or three nights ago and she said you had all the right moves," she says, dropping the name of her CI.

He laughs, "You lot know Cass? That girl is wild. You party like her?"

"Harder," you say with a cheeky smile.

"And longer," Kim winks.

She and Erin giggle. You laugh a little late and very awkwardly. Rob moves finally granting entry.

You all move to go in, but he stops you.

"Not you," He sneers. Erin and Kim halt. "You two can go in. She has to wait." They scoff and protest, but he's unwilling.

"Sorry no uglies." You feel your heart plummet; his words sting no matter how badly you wish they didn't. But even though you're hurt and angry, your face remains neutral. A group of smug girls on the other side of Rob snicker and point in your direction. Another wave of dejection hits you and you shove your emotions down again.

"Rob!" Erin scolds, but he shrugs, unabashed.

"It's fine," you force a smile, not wanting to waste any more time. "Go and I'll meet you inside." Kim, you can tell, is conflicted. Erin isn't happy. You wink and before you're even walking away, Voight's in your ear, instructing the other two to continue on as planned and for you to wait in line with Jay. You can't help but roll your eyes. Of course you were going to go wait with your partner. There was nothing left for you to do but wait. This whole night was going down as one of your worst.

Jay is towards the back of the line with only a few people behind him so no one is bothered when you take a place by his side.

"Do you want my coat?" His offer is genuine, but you hardly notice.

"No, I'm not cold anymore." It's true. Your anger is enough to warm you. You huff involuntarily. Jay notices how you don't look him in the eye.

He watches you carefully as to not earn your attention. Your jaw is set tight. Y/e/c eyes unblinking, fixated on up ahead. Your tongue presses to your cheek. Arms fold across your chest. Your order to join him has clearly irritated you.

Minutes pass by with the line never really moving. Jay notes how you look down at your dress. You ran a hand over it to unnecessarily smooth it out. You shift uncomfortably in your boots. Jay starts to think maybe there's more to your bad mood. It wasn't just Voight, but that asshole bouncer, too. Jay's jaw clenches tightly. He starts to put a hand on your shoulder when you both hear the order to move in.

"Chicago PD, you guys need to leave!"

"Get outta here." Together you and Jay clear all civilians before entering the club.

Erin's CI had given incredibly accurate intel. Plenty of arrests and drugs were seized. Lives were no doubt saved.

"Hey y/n, we're gonna go to Molly's for celebratory drinks," Kim's voice is extra soft, weary even, sensing your bad mood, but not knowing the best way to approach you. "You coming?"

"I already have plans," you lie with ease and a cheery smile a bit too big to be sincere. "Thanks though!" Kim looks like she wants to press on, but ultimately decides against it.

As she walks away, you sigh. If she and Erin hadn't teamed up with you, if you had attempted to get in the club alone, would the team still have made arrests and confiscated all the drugs? It was unlikely. Moving fast was key and you would have been forced to wait in that line. And while it had been Erin's CI providing some crucial facts, this had been your case. You couldn't even get into the club because you're not pretty. Hot tears prick your eyes. You hastily wipe them away.

Your club dress lays angrily thrown in your bag. Your boots too. Now sporting sweat pants and your PD tee, you remain on the bench, waiting for the laughs and voices of your colleagues to die down. You give extra time even, not wanting to catch any of them in the parking lot. But even when the silence settles in, you don't move. You're alone for five minutes when a voice comes from behind you, startling you.

"What are you doing?"

Your hand flies over your chest. "Jeez, Jay. I thought you left with everyone else." You let out a breath.

"Why aren't you at Molly's?"

"I told Kim. I have plans."

"I don't think you do." He crosses his arms over his chest as he comes to stand closer to you.

Annoyance sets in. You zip shut your go bag before standing up and slamming your locker door close. "Well I do, so if you'll excuse me…"

Jay doesn't budge. "No. Because you're lying and I want to know why."

"I don't appreciate being called a liar."

"I don't appreciate you taking me for an idiot. Your only plans must be a large pizza at home on your couch alone because you don't go out in sweats, except to the gym. And you never go there on Friday nights. So tell me. Why are you letting what some idiot said bother you?"

You're beyond stunned by just how well Jay knows you. It reminds you how much you love him, not only as your partner, or a friend, though you would never, ever, confess it. Tonight being the perfect reminder, you're not enough.

But his astute knowledge of you, has left you feeling vulnerable and angry. You need to get away. From him. From work. From your emotions.

"I'm not talking about this with you. Now move."

"No."

"Jay, I swear-"

"What are you going to do?" His frustration with you seems to grow with every second. Those normally light eyes of his are turning dark. His voice is slightly raised.

You've seen Jay mad before, but not with his anger directed at you. It only seems to fuel your temper. "Why are you being such an ass about this?" You snap.

"Why are you being so stupid about this?" He shouts.

Your eyes widen in disbelief. "Don't fucking yell at me and do not call me stupid."

"I'm thinking you might be if I'm right and you're all upset because some lowlife bouncer said-"

"Oh for fuck's sake! I'm upset because what he said is true. I'm not pretty. I look nothing like the other girls. It's not like I haven't noticed. This isn't about just one guy. It's about me. I never get hit on when I go out. I never had a lot of dates when I was younger. It's fine. There's so much more to life. It just stirred up some bad feelings. And this sounds silly to you, I'm sure, but there it is, Jay. Your partner isn't pretty. And it almost cost us the case! I almost cost us the case because I'm not pretty," your voice breaks at the end. Tears threaten to spill, But you stiffen your lip instead. You look Jay in the eyes.

He's shaking his head. "You're wrong. You're fucking beautiful, y/n."

You don't think you heard him correctly, "...What?"

"I," he pauses, nervously licking his lips before continuing, "You're my partner and I know it's inappropriate, but I just," he sighs, like he's losing an argument with himself, and then with one step towards you he closes the space between the two of you. His mouth is on yours, tongue begging for yours.

Once you have time to react and reciprocate, he gently pushes you into the lockers, deepening the kiss. His one hand rests on your hip. The other cups your chin, desperate to bring you impossibly closer. Your hands stay at your side, unable to process what is happening. The only thing you're able to do is kiss Jay back.

A moment passes before he pulls away. His kiss has left you breathless and feeling dazed. When you finally manage to look him in the eyes, you see his face is much more relaxed now.

His tone is gentler, too. "It's unfair how beautiful you are. Your face is so soft and lights up every time you smile. Your eyes twinkle after you've been laughing. And you're smart. You're good despite all the bad we see. And you're sexy, y/n. When I saw you dressed for the assignment tonight, I-," he doesn't finish the statement, rather a pink tinge spreads across his cheeks.

"But you never said anything. I didn't know…"

"Now you do. Maybe you'll see it for yourself now." Between his kiss and his words, you can hardly think. Jay takes your silence as an opportunity to apologize. "I never meant to call you stupid, but I really didn't. It was implied that I thought you were being stupid, and though there's a difference, that wasn't cool either. I honestly couldn't understand you being hurt by someone's words, especially when they were so wrong. I had no idea you had no clue how pretty you truly are or that your feelings about this stem so far back. I didn't get it and I'm sorry y/n."

"It's fine, Jay. I don't exactly go around broadcasting my insecurities."

"I could've been more sensitive."

"Maybe. That kiss helped a bit," you quip, finally feeling more like yourself.

Jay's grin is almost smug. "Oh yeah? Well in that case, since I know you're not doing anything, how about we get a pizza, take it back to my place and then later I'll show you just how beautiful you are to me?"

Wordlessly, almost like you still can't believe what's happening, you nod. Jay takes your bag in one hand, and intertwines your fingers through his with the other. Hand in hand you leave the precinct.

#jay halstead x reader #jay halstead x you #resa.3kfiestabingo #jay halstead x y/n

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broadstbroskis · 4 years ago

Text

take my hand, wreck my plans | william nylander

a/n: if you’ve been around this blog for a while, you’ve probably seen me talking about “willy fake dating fic” for quite a bit now...well here she is! settle in for a long read (the longest i’ve posted in one go before) and i hope you enjoy reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it! so so so much love to literally every single person who cheered me on while writing this, but extra special thanks to @denis-scorianov and @danglesnipecelly for all your love and support

also shoutout to my girl tswift for the title, evermore still slaps

word count: 21.5k

It’s right in the middle of the busiest hours of the day when Steph’s text comes in, which means Aubrey barely even reads the message. She sees the words dinner and Friday and responds that she’ll be there, and then goes back to trying to fix the clusterfuck of code that one of her coworkers messed up earlier in the morning before her project has to get sent off to a client at the end of the week.

By the time Friday comes around, she’s only just managed to fix the code but the project is finished enough to send off as a first draft, so Aubrey races over to Steph and Mitch’s place after work, knowing she looks frazzled as hell from the look on her best friend’s face the minute she enters their kitchen. “Sweetie.” Steph says, then bites her lip.

The feeling is mutual to Aubrey, because she’s giving Steph the same once over that Steph’s giving her. She’d arrived from the office, which took casual Friday to the extreme, in her favorite leggings, denim jacket, and converse- still enjoying the last bit of summer before Toronto turned to fall. Meanwhile Steph was dressed up for the evening in jeans and a flowy top. Her hair was done, her makeup looked beautiful; nothing about her screamed casual dinner at home. Certainly not like the messy ponytail Aubrey was rocking, after running over from work.

“Wine?” Mitch offers, breaking the silence, and Aubrey nods immediately, forgetting entirely about...whatever is going on here in favor of the alcohol she’s been needing since she arrived at the office today.

Mitch pours a glass and offers it out, but honestly, fuck that; Aubrey reaches for the bottle instead and takes a sip. “Nope, listen, these motherfuckers-” And then, she cuts herself off abruptly as she catches sight of the single most beautiful man she has ever had the pleasure of even having in her field of vision, leaning against the counter.

“No, go ahead.” Blondie grins, and fuck that, of course, he’s got the most beautiful smile too. “These motherfuckers, what?”

“Fucked up a huge project at work this week.” Aubrey finishes, pretty lamely, compared to how heated she’d started that sentence.

“Gonna start throwing that at Matts.” Blondie grins again. “Anytime he fucks up a pass to me. This motherfucker.”

“Heh.” She laughs, lifting the wine bottle in a cheers-esque manner, and then, not knowing what else to do, she takes another large sip.

Blondie is still grinning when Aubrey brings her bottle back down and Mitch is doing a very poor job of hiding a laugh, but it’s not hard to see that Steph’s making murder eyes that Aubrey pointedly ignores, so Steph turns her attention away with a sigh. “What’s up, Will?”

“Oh, uh, Matts and Alison nominated me to see if there was anything we could do to help.” Will says smoothly.

“We?” Mitch raises an eyebrow, at the distinct lack of we that arrived with Will.

“Well.” Will shrugs, like that should explain everything, and maybe it does, because Mitch only snorts.

“We’re okay.” Steph jumps in. “We’ll all be out soon.”

Will nods, and leaves Aubrey with one last grin, before he turns and heads out towards their back patio, which must be where dinner is taking place, but as soon as the door shuts behind him, Aubrey turns to round on Steph and Mitch. “What the fuck?”

“Me, what the fuck?” Steph, her best friend since grade school, knows exactly what she’s talking about. “You, what the fuck?”

“This was a setup?”

“You didn’t know?” Mitch cries, turning immediately to his girlfriend and looking incredibly offended.

“Yes she did!” Steph defends. “I literally texted you: Mitch has a single friend we think you’d get along with if you’re interested. Are you free friday for dinner? We were thinking of having you all over. And you said: sounds good I’ll be there.”

“Well, in my defense, work was a dumpster fire this week and I really only skim-read that text.”

“Well now I know why you showed up like that.”

“Rude, Stephanie.” Aubrey sticks her tongue out at her best friend, grinning immediately afterwards, because Steph’s her best friend and she’s the only one she would let talk to her this way. “Just for that I’m not using a glass the entire night.”

“Not like your first impression could get any worse.” Steph deadpans.

“Meh.” Mitch shrugs. “It’s Willy. He’s done way worse.”

Steph sighs, pinches the bridge of her nose, and then looks over. “Could you use your one free hand then to take a second bottle of wine out then please? For the rest of us who’d like some, to share?”

Aubrey grins. “Gladly.”

That this was meant to be a setup couldn’t be more clear to her as the three of them make their way out to the porch with more drinks and some snacks. Mitch and Steph have dragged some of their comfier patio furniture around the firepit; there’s a couple curled into each other on one of the couches, an empty one with Mitch’s favorite type of beer on the table next to it, and one seat open on the couch that’s occupied by Will.

Aubrey shoots Steph a look as Steph practically leaps back onto the empty couch, and then she slips herself into the empty seat next to Will. That level of distinct lack of chill is really her thing, thanks Steph.

Steph merely grins back, formally introducing her to everyone around them. And okay, their friends are cool- like Aubrey knows they are; she’s met more than a few of Mitch’s hockey friends before. She’s many-a-time fifth-wheeled dinner with Mitch and Steph and Matt and Syd. She, Mitch, and Steph still had a group chat going with a bunch of Mitch’s old teammates from the Knights. Hell, Strome and McDavid had joined Mitch in playing with her and Steph on their families’ summer softball team last summer.

But she just can’t seem to understand what they see in Will that they think he’d be good for her. Like sure he’s nice enough, and obviously good looking, and like, yeah she has a good time while she’s there, but like, sparks? Nothing.

Regardless of the lack of sparks between them, it is a fun night, and she curls up in one of the guest rooms in Steph and Mitch’s that night, fully planning on laughing at them the next morning.

Except, the next morning, Mitch is already gone for practice and Steph’s first question is, “So when are you going to see Will again?”

Aubrey frowns. “Uhh I don’t know. Probably whenever you have us both over for dinner again?”

Steph frowns back. “What?”

“What what?”

“You didn’t, like, give him your number? Make plans? Anything?”

“Why would we?”

“Because he’s perfect for you?”

Aubrey gives her a look. Was Steph even at the same dinner that she was? They, like, barely interacted; Will chatting more with Auston and what’s-her-name or Mitch and Auston, and her with Steph pretty much the entire night. “Perfect for me? Seriously? That’s the guy you think is perfect for me?”

She huffs. If Aubrey didn’t know her best friend better she’d think she was offended, but, well, she does. “Yes!”

“No!”

“I mean, at least give it a shot!” Steph needles.

Aubrey pulls a face. “Why? So we can break up and make things super awkward at anything you and Mitch throw for the rest of your lives? No thanks.”

“I’m telling you.” Steph says. “Perfect match.” But she drops it after that, suggesting brunch, an offer that Aubrey immediately agrees to.

-----

It’s a quick stop for Aubrey to pop home to change and pick up her roommate, Erin, before the three girls head over to what’s long been a favorite brunch spot, laughing as Aubrey and Erin watch Steph fire off a series of snapchats to Mitch featuring her bottomless mimosas- her favorite way of asking to be picked up on his way home from practice.

Erin laughs so hard she almost snorts mimosa out her nose as Aubrey and Steph recap dinner from the previous night, but once she recovers, she hits Steph with a look. “I am begging you to invite me to this next time, solely so I can watch the two of them interact.”

Aubrey gasps as Steph laughs. “Rude!”

Erin giggles, beginning to recount the date she’d gone on last night-her fourth with this guy from the gym she belongs to-and Aubrey finds herself nodding along with Steph in all the right places, as friends should, happy that Erin’s happy, especially after her shitty last boyfriend, and eager to meet this guy for more than the five minutes he’d shown up at their door.

Her story is interrupted-for Aubrey, at least-by the vibration of her phone, and she checks the text from an unfamiliar number, rolling her eyes when she sees the message.

hey this is will, followed by an amount of emojis that could only actually be from Mitch.

hi mitch. She sends back.

lol. Comes the response. sorry.

you don’t have to apologize for mitch. i’m familiar

Will reacts to that with a haha and then it’s a while before she checks her phone again, enjoying brunch with her girls and laughing at the look on Mitch’s face as he comes to pick Steph up and realizes he’ll be driving her and Erin back as well.

he’s really found his place between annoying and relentless. Will’s texted, when she checks again a little later, at home on the couch and pleasantly tipsy, deciding what to Netflix with Erin.

that’s his sweet spot. Aubrey sends, and then points halfheartedly at The Office on the screen, well on her way to a post-brunch nap.

-----

Aubrey knows Mitch and Steph well enough to know that’s not the end of it, and sure enough, the subtle (and not so subtle) hints keep coming. But luckily, training camp is about to begin, and so even if they do keep coming, Mitch, and by extension, Will, are both too busy for Mitch and Steph to push anything too crazy on her and Will.

Until suddenly the season begins, and even though things are still crazy for them, suddenly they’ve got days off or afternoons free and she finds that the subtleness of the hints becomes gradually less subtle.

jesus fuck. Will sends one afternoon and she laughs at it immediately, even as he continues typing. tell steph i’m sorry but mitch had to go.

She laughs loudly, which earns her a look from her nearest coworkers. right there with you.

considering just lying and telling him i already took you out last week to just get him off my back jfc.

tried that already. knew i was lying right away. Aubrey sends back. She appreciates him trying, but come on. That was like, the first thing she tried.

well, Will sends, and then those annoying three dots appear and disappear about four times, before he finally finishes. let’s just go somewhere then and get them off our backs.

time and fucking place. She replies.

-----

Aubrey meets Will at a bar that’s close to her work, a couple days after that text exchange, just in time for the end of happy hour. He’s got a drink in front of him already, that he quickly finishes when the waiter comes to take her order, so he can order another one while she orders one of her favorite cocktails, before it becomes full price again at the start of the next hour.

“You know, I thought Mitchy would have been more…” Will trails off, looking thoughtful, but then continues after a moment. “Smug, when I told him we were going out tonight. What’d Steph say?”

“Oh don’t get me wrong. They’ll be smug to each other.” Aubrey tells him, confident that the two of them are at home right now boasting about the fact that they were right. “But if they think we’re actually on the same page now and they say anything that I hear, that would be the end. Downward tailspin, cut my hair six inches, new tattoo, you name it.”

Will laughs. “So it’s like that?”

She nods. “A little lacking in some impulse control.” She holds her thumb and index finger up to him, with about 10cm of space between them, to show him just how poor it is, and Will laughs again.

“Guess I’ll just have to wait for a nice, big I told you so tomorrow.” He says.

Aubrey snickers. “One a day for the next few weeks more like.”

Will shrugs. “Meh, I’ll figure something out to give him a taste of his own medicine.”

“We should.” Aubrey nods absentmindedly, as a comment she’d made to Steph right after the initial dinner comes back to her.

“Should what?” Will frowns.

“Give them a taste of their own medicine.”

“Where are you going with this?” Will asks curiously.

Aubrey grins, as the idea starts to form. “A tragic break up to make things so awkward for the two of them that they’ll regret setting us up in the first place.”

Will pauses for a long moment, but then he grins and leans toward her. “I’m listening.”

-----

Steph is bouncing when Aubrey walks into their weekly Thursday barre class. She’s sure she knows why, but Aubrey gives her a strange look anyway when she slides in next to her. “What?”

“What?” Steph repeats. “Seriously?”

Aubrey laughs. “Use your words, Stephanie.”

“Bitch, you know what I want.” Steph says, which makes the woman in front of them turn and give them a scandalized look.

Aubrey giggles. She’d really just wanted to annoy Steph a little but that was totally worth it all. “Yeah I know. It was good. Like whatever.”

“I hate you so much.”

“I’m going to see him again!”Aubrey protests. “What more do you want from me? I’m not going to like, profess my undying love for him after one date. I’m not Mitch.”

“It was like, our fifth date, and he didn’t profess his undying love for me! He just said he loved me!” Steph huffs as Aubrey snickers. She laughs about it now, they all do, a thing she teases both of her friends about, but she vividly remembers the panic Steph had been in coming home from that date.

“Well.” She says, grinning. “I guess I’ve got four dates to go then. Or maybe Will does.”

“Will’s too chill to do anything like that.” Steph decides, just as their usual instructor enters. “Ridiculous shit is definitely more your move.”

Aub thinks back to her date with Will the other night, where they’d carefully crafted an entire narrative to start this fake relationship, and fights back a grin, because she’s pretty sure Will can be just as ridiculous. He just does a better job at hiding it.

-----

Just after noon one day, a few weeks into her arrangement with Will, Aubrey’s phone buzzes and she more than welcomes the interruption from the current project she’s working on.

need a favor. Will’s sent, followed immediately by, please.

sure, what’s up?

His name pops up on her screen next and Aubrey frowns, swiping to accept the call. “Hey.”

“I’m downstairs.” Will says and she frowns, both at the skipped greeting, and at his words.

“Of my office?” She blurts.

“Yeah.” Will says, like it’s the most casual thing in the world, and Aubrey pushes her chair back abruptly.

“Uh ok. I’ll be right down.” She’s already pushing the button for the elevator, waving off the coworker calling after her, asking if everything’s okay.

Will’s waiting outside, with two cups of coffee in hand, and even though he’d said that he was, Aubrey’s still kind of surprised to see him. He passes her one of the cups in his hand and she takes it, thanking him as she does. “So what’s up?”

“I need a favor.” Will says, starting to walk, and Aubrey follows easily, sipping on the latte he’d brought her.

She laughs. “You said. What do you need?”

“The team’s got this thing on Friday.” Aubrey gives him a look, because she knows what the thing the team has on Friday is, Steph’s been talking about it for a few weeks now, and it is not as casual as Will is throwing it out to her right now. “And I think I need you to come with me.”

“Do you though?” Aubrey says. “Do you really?”

“I tried for you not to.” Will admits, shooting her a grin, which she appreciates. “But, well, it’s a thing I would have brought any other girlfriend to and then Mitchy opened his mouth too…” He trails off.

“So find a dress.” Aubrey sums up.

Will nods. “Please. I’ll pay for it.” He adds, but she brushes it off.

“If we’re still stuck in this for Blue and White, you can buy me a dress then.” She grins, and Will returns the grin.

“Deal.”

-----

Fixing her curls one last time in the mirror by the door, Aubrey grabs her clutch and runs downstairs to meet her Uber. She’s late, not like super late, but more so than she’d hoped to be, even after texting Will that she was running behind with work and that she’d have to meet him at the venue probably, if he didn’t want to be late.

She shoots off a text to him when she gets in the car, letting him know she’s on her way, and makes polite chatter for a few minutes with her driver, leg bouncing anxiously until he pulls up to where she needs to be.

Will’s standing outside the door when she pulls up, like he’s waiting for her as if this was an actual date, looking at something on his phone in the meantime, which gives Aubrey a minute to take a peek at his suit. He looks good; she might not have any desire to actually date Will, but she can absolutely admit to both herself and anyone (including Steph) that he’s probably the most objectively attractive human she’s ever met, and the suit only ramps that up. It’s custom made, perfectly fitted, a navy blue that brings out his eyes, and maybe a little more casual than some others she’s seen but in a good way.

His choice in suits makes her feel better about what she’s wearing. Aubrey’d been trying to work off what Steph was wearing, while making sure that what she'd picked out wasn’t overly fancy for the evening or too similar to what Steph had already chosen, ending up in a knee length dress with a sheer high neckline.

“Hey!” She smiles, catching his attention, mildly disappointed that he doesn’t even flinch in surprise, only looks up as smooth as can be and returns her smile.

“Hey.” He slips his phone in his pocket, reaching out for her hand.

“Fuck, I’m sorry.” Aubrey says immediately, that terrible feeling of letting anyone down instantly relieved when Will waves her off.

“You haven’t even missed the entire cocktail hour.” He says and she feels her eyes widen as he nods solemnly. “Yeah, it’s like that.”

“Our first stop better be to get me a glass of wine.”

Will laughs, pressing the button for the elevator. “Wouldn’t dream of it being anywhere else.”

Will refreshes his own drink as well, and selects a red wine for her after Aub hems and haws over the options for a minute, a choice that she almost can’t bring herself to take a sip of once the glass is in her hand, for fear that she’ll never be able to drink another Malbec again, guessing this one is well out of her price range based on name and bottle appearance alone. (She takes a sip anyway, it’s as delicious as she’d expected).

Will’s smiling, as if waiting for her reaction, like there’s not a wine she doesn’t like (well, chardonnay, but like, even that she’ll drink if it’s all that available). “Should we do this?” Aubrey asks him, ready to watch him be roasted by teammates for the evening, and he nods, hand moving to the small of her back, leading her deep into the crowd.

But for all the shit he claims to have taken recently about her, they must be on their best behavior, out in public. Everyone he introduces her to is nothing but friendly; the few people she’s met before this event greet her with smiles and open arms, welcoming her into the fold.

“Are you sure these are the same teammates you warned me about?” She asks Will, when they have a minute to themselves, just finishing up a long and very nice conversation with Justin Holl, Jake Muzzin and their wives, and thinking of the series of texts he’d sent her this morning about “all these assholes.”

“They’re being nice, just for you.” He insists. His arm is still at her waist; it’s barely left there all night.

“Ugh, so I grew up with seven siblings and I’m not even going to be able to use the skills I got from that to throw down?” She jokes. “What was the point?”

Will actually stops walking for a second, drawing her into him quickly when she stumbles, not expecting the abrupt stop in walking. “You have seven siblings?”

Aubrey nods, wondering if she should bother getting into her family dynamics right now, and settles for a short version. “On my mom’s side, yeah. My parents divorced when I was a baby, and they both remarried. My brother and I have more siblings from both of them; it’s just like a whole thing with my dad.” She winces.

Will’s grinning again, though, like he didn’t even catch it, and he points to himself. “One of six.”

“Oh my god!” She blurts out excitedly, before she can help herself. There’s not many people she knows with sibling counts even close to hers, step and half siblings including, let alone a family like Will’s. “See, you get it!”

“Get what?” She hadn’t even realized that Mitch and Steph had approached them, until Mitch pokes in nosily.

“That younger siblings are actual monsters.”

“You talk to your sisters everyday!” Mitch frowns, because he doesn’t get it; he never has.

“Yeah, your point?” Aubrey gives him a look as the others laugh around them. “That’s literally what having younger siblings is, and you just don’t know it because you are one.”

“Shots fired.” Steph nudges him.

“You’re the younger sibling too!” he nudges her back.

“Mmm, traditionally, Aub and I count all our siblings together, soo.” She trails off, laughing at the look on Mitch’s face.

Aubrey’s nodding; their families had grown up so close that it wasn’t uncommon to see Steph and her sister hanging around with Aubrey and her brothers, from the time they were children, all the way until today. “That’s why when Cam starts driving me crazy when she’s here next weekend, I’m just dropping her at your place. Basically the same thing.”

“Ohh, so she’s definitely coming?” Steph asks, eyes wide.

Aubrey nods. “Confirmed it with my mom today, I’m going to meet her halfway.” She pauses for the briefest of seconds. “Want to come?”

“Yes! Coffee on the way?”

“Obviously!”

“Yeah, Will and I are definitely going to sit this one out.” Mitch nods firmly.

“You weren’t actually invited, but okay.” Steph pats his shoulder mock-comfortingly. “But we should all do dinner when we get back!”

It takes everything in Aubrey not to show the internal panic on her face. She’s insanely close with her sisters, despite the age gap- she’s close with all her siblings, the brothers that she’d grown up probably terrorizing their parents together and the younger ones that terrorize them all now. It was probably unrealistic to think she could make it through “dating” Will without him meeting any of them, especially knowing how close Steph is with them too. “Yeah, that would be fun.”

She feels Will squeeze her side gently, almost comfortingly, but before they can get much further with this conversation, someone’s coming around and asking them to find their seats for dinner, so they split off to their tables, with promises to make plans for the following Friday over the next few days.

-----

Will’s quiet on the drive home after dinner, in his very expensive car, which is fine because Aubrey spends that time marveling over it. Like, she knew he was boujie, but, wow.

“Is your sister staying all next weekend?” Will asks, abruptly interrupting Aubrey’s caress of the soft leather of the seat beneath her legs.

“Hm? Oh yeah.” She nods. “Cam’s been a super pain since Kayls started high school this year since she’s still back in junior high, but worse since Kayls just got invited to her first high school party and it’s next weekend.” She sees Will’s wince out of the corner of her eye and laughs. “Oh my god, you don’t even know the half of it! When I texted Cam to invite her up next weekend, she was like why would I want to come hang out with a bunch of old people like you anyway?”

Will’s laughing and Aubrey’s jaw drops until he shares, “When I was home last summer, my youngest sister made me drop her off at a friend’s house three doors away because I wasn’t cool enough to be seen with.”

She actually laughs at that- if Will, an actual professional hockey player, isn’t cool enough to be seen with, then who is?- but the attitude is so familiar. “They’re super close, Kayls and Cam, and like I kinda get why Cam’s being super annoying about a lot of shit. Like, I know she feels like she’s being left behind. But god, does she have to take it out on the rest of us?” She shakes her head, clearing both the thoughts and a piece of hair out of her face. “It’s just the age, my mom and I talk about it all the time. They’ll be nice again in a few years.”

Will glances over at her briefly with a look of panic on his face, before flicking his eyes back to the road. “That’s not really a comforting statement. As someone with three younger sisters,” He clarifies. “Not someone meeting yours this weekend.” Aubrey giggles. “But actually, I was wondering what your plans were with her on Saturday night? If you wanted tickets to the game for you guys?”

“Oh!” Aubrey blinks in surprise. “That would...that would actually be really nice. She’d like that.”

“Yeah?” She can hear the smile in Will’s voice.

“Well, she’d like the flex on all her friends on Monday.” Aub admits, knowing that her sister could probably care less about actually seeing a Leafs game. “And on the boys, they’d be super jealous.” At his glance, she clarifies. “Cam’s a triplet.”

He mutters something under his breath and she giggles again; she’s pretty sure that was Swedish and she can guess what it was. “But they’re not coming?”

“Not this weekend.” She confirms. She is definitely not hosting all three of Cam, Tyler, and Danny for the entire weekend. No way, no how. “But once they find out you’re offering tickets? I’m sure my phone will be ringing.”

“You know where to find me.” Will shrugs, pulling up in front of her building. “Thanks for coming tonight.”

Aubrey grins at him. “Fooled Steph and Mitch no problems.”

It feels like it takes a second for the comment to register with Will, but when it does, he returns the grin. “Yeah, no problems.”

-----

Steph waits until they are well on the road to meet her mom and both sisters (because in a surprise twist that everyone saw coming, a high schooler got grounded and a party was cancelled) sitting in stop and go traffic, before bringing up what Aubrey knows she’s been dying to ask. “So how’s Will?”

“Fine?” She responds, before she remembers that she’s supposed to know these things and hastens to finish. “It’s been a busy week with like, work and this shit, but like, he’s good.”

Steph makes a noise, like she’s unsatisfied with that answer and Aubrey gives her a look after she’s braked with the masses, waiting for it to pick up again. “But, like, how are the two of you?”

Ah. Ok. So that’s what this is about. “We’re good.” She assures Steph, absolutely certain her best friend is going to see right through her. “Just like, figuring shit out, you know? It’s still new.”

Steph’s nodding. “I mean, it wouldn’t be if you’d just gone out when Mitch and I first brought you to dinner…”

“Stephanie.” Aubrey says warningly, picking up speed, probably with too much hope that the traffic has cleared.

“Fine!” Steph laughs. “I know, I can’t say I told you so to you or you’re going to panic and break up with him and probably dye your hair and get bangs or something, but like. I’m super happy for you guys. You were so cute last week.”

“What?” Aub says blankly, because she really doesn’t have much else to say, but it doesn’t seem to matter, because Steph’s on a roll now.

“Like, Will couldn’t take his eyes off you the entire night.” She continues. “It was super cute; he kept, like reaching for you, you kept finding him.” She taps Aubrey’s leg excitedly. “Ok, I know I said I wouldn’t, but I’m too fucking excited and I knew you’d be perfect for each other, I knew it.”

“Oh, look! There’s a tattoo place right at the next light.” Aub says loudly, even though she has no intention of getting a tattoo right now- all four of her tattoos were impulsive decisions and the three threats she’s made since she’s gotten in the car feel like far too much thought, not to mention the time crunch they’re on to get back for dinner-but it does serve as the threat she intends. Steph clearly has no desire to try and talk her out of getting one today and switches the topic to something she just saw on the Insta of one of their friends, which lasts them until they pull into the parking lot that’s serving as the meeting point.

“Aub!” For all that Cameron pretends she’s too cool for everything, just like every 14 year old Aubrey can remember, she throws herself at Aubrey the second that Aub and Steph get out of the car.

Aub squeezes her back, wondering when she got so tall. “Hey Cammie.” Cam swats at her as she pulls back. She hates that nickname, the one that Aub and her three older brothers have called her basically her entire life, but they’ve never stopped, no matter how much their youngest sibling had begged. “Where’s Kayls?”

“Here!” Kaylee huffs from next to their mom, who’s chatting with Steph, has been since she hugged her the minute she got out of the car.

Aubrey’s eyes narrow, taking in the sibling who looks most like her. “Is that my sweater?”

“No.” Kaylee says too quickly to be true. “Are we ready? We have dinner plans, right?”

“Meeting Aubrey's new boyyyyfriend.” Cam sings, and Aubrey shoves her hand in her sister's face.

“Not if you’re going to act like that, we don’t.”

“Girls.” Their mom pauses, mid-reach for Aubrey, to give her youngest two daughters a full-on mom look. “Be nice.”

Aubrey laughs at the looks on their faces, before clutching at her mom. “Hi momma. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Her mom squeezes. “Thanks for this gift.” She whispers and winks because Aub knows that her mom loves all eight of them dearly, but these two in particular are driving her nuts right now. “See you Sunday, at Luke’s.”

“Bye, I’m sure I’ll call you ten times before tomorrow!” Aubrey waves at her mom as she gets in her car, sliding back into the driver’s seat of her own, where Steph, Kaylee, and Cam are chattering to each other as they buckle their seatbelts.

It’s just as she’s pulling back onto the road that Kayls gasps. “Aub, I think I forgot to pack toothpaste.”

“Ohh, me too!” Cam realizes.

Aubrey exchanges a look with Steph quickly. It’s not looking promising that she won’t be making a call to her mom, to talk her off the ledge.

-----

“What do you mean, you didn’t bring pants?” Aubrey rubs her temples as she stares at her sister.

Kaylee shrugs. “I forgot to pack them.”

“I forgot shirts.” Cam calls from the bathroom, where she’d just showered. “Can I borrow one?”

“Did you bring anything?” Aubrey asks wearily. “Toothbrush? Underwear?”

“Of course I brought underwear.” Kaylee huffs, sounding legit offended, like she didn’t forget to pack pants on a weekend trip away.

“Well excuse me for thinking you might not have, since you didn’t bring anything else!”

Her phone buzzes on the nightstand again; it’s got to be the third or fourth time, but she’s honestly been so caught up in her sisters that she hasn’t had time to check. “Just, like, grab whatever from the closet. We’re already late.”

Sure enough, it’s Will texting, letting her know he’s downstairs. be down in a few, She responds, not bothering to go into the whole pants story. “Girls! Three minutes!” She grins at their shrieks, packing a couple things into her purse and laughing to herself as she listens to them get ready. “Kayls! Cam!”

“We’re ready!” They rush out together, Kayls dressed in a pair of her favorite jeans and Cam in one of her favorite sweaters-how they always manage to find her favorites is ridiculous-but they don’t have time for her to make them change.

“Ugh.” Aubrey just says instead, ushering them out and locking it behind her. “Come on, Will’s been waiting.”

“Will’s here?”

“Yes?” She frowns at the two of them. “Where else would he be?” But Kaylee and Cam are already giggling to each other, enough for her to roll her eyes to herself as she leads them out to Will’s car, knowing it’s definitely too much to expect them to just be cool.

“Hey.” Will greets, as she slips into the passenger seat.

“Hi.” She returns, smiling at him.

“Uh, hi?” Cam says impatiently from the backseat. Will laughs, but Aub gives her a look.

“It’s been literally two seconds. Could you, like, chill?”

“Nope!”

Aub side-eyes her again, but turns back to Will. “These are my sisters, Cam and Kaylee.” They greet him eagerly, a sentiment he returns, and then spends the entire car ride to the restaurant where they’re meeting Steph and Mitch at answering every question they ask with absurd patience.

“Oh, I smell garlic.” Kaylee says, once Will has dropped his car off with valet.

“It smells delicious.” Aub corrects, because it’s definitely heavy on the garlic, but it smells heavenly.

Will smiles over at both of them, though Aub’s not sure if he means it more for Kaylee or her. “This is one of my favorite restaurants.”

“Really?” She blurts out, before she can stop herself, and he nods, reaching for her hand.

“Great food.” He confirms. “Come on; Mitch and Steph are already here.”

That certainly serves to get her sisters moving-all her younger siblings have stopped being impressed by Mitch but they still love seeing him just as much as they love seeing Steph- and they push their way into through the doors quickly enough that Aubrey rushes to catch up to them, not trusting them alone, and tugging Will along with her.

Cam and Kaylee have already found Mitch and Steph, already chatting away with the two of them, like they didn’t just see Steph two hours ago in the car, and Aubrey and Will slip into the last two seats at the table.

“You good?” Will nudges her as they sit.

Aubrey nods. “Yeah. Pretty good.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Pretty good.”

“Well, Frick and Frack may legitimately drive me crazy this weekend but.” She shrugs. “We’ll see.”

“What happened to dropping them off with Steph if they drove you too crazy?”

She laughs. “God, if only, Will. If only.”

“Will!” Kaylee interrupts, looking up briefly from her menu. “What’s good here?”

“Will! What’s this mean?” Cam adds and Aubrey takes a deep breath, even as Will looks like it’s his absolute pleasure to walk them through the names of some of the different dishes on the menu.

“Wine, please.” Aubrey requests from the waiter, the second he arrives at the table. “Literally, anything you’ve got.”

But Will waves that off, ordering a bottle of red for the table, in perfect French. “Show off.” She grumbles at him quietly and he grins at her from over the top of Cam’s menu, before he goes back to helping her out.

From her other side, Steph’s hiding her own smile, or rather, doing a very poor job at hiding one. “What?” Aubrey presses.

“Nothing.” Steph says. “Just happy to be having dinner all together.”

“Well that’s bullshit.” Aubrey calls her out, at the very blatant lie; Mitch snorts into his hand to cover his laugh. “But always happy to be having dinner with you too.”

Steph beams, clinking her wine glass with Aubrey’s the second the waiter fills them both. “Again, tomorrow, pregame?”

Aub looks over at her sisters, who have moved away from asking Will menu questions and are, instead, asking him questions about the bun in his hair. “Assuming you aren’t bailing me out of jail instead? Sure.”

-----

Aubrey Dupont: we’re going to do apps with steph pregame but want to say thanks again for tix tonight! want to do dinner again with us after if you’re free?

Will Nylander: i’m free dinner sounds good 😁 it’ll be late though once I get out

Aubrey Dupont: that’s fine! Id say breakfast but we’ve got to leave pretty early tomorrow to get to my brothers to knock a wall down!

Will Nylander: ….holy shit cam was serious

Aubrey Dupont: 😂😂lollll yeah they’re opening up the dining room and living room! We’re all going out to take the wall down, we’re supposed to meet Steph and Mitch and then head out

Will Nylander: lol does mitch know? he booked us a tee time Sunday

Aubrey Dupont: stfu he did not😂 lol he probably just doesn’t want to get iced that early

Will Nylander: haha what??

Aubrey Dupont: hahaha the first time steph brought him home to meet our families, it was my parents Christmas Eve party, my brothers iced him like three times in the first hour. He was so trashed he couldn’t even walk back next door to Steph’s house.

It’s just like a thing we do, all our siblings and he was not prepared for it at all 😂

Will Nylander: sooo if I left one in his locker this week, how much trouble would you be in?

Aubrey Dupont: lol a lot but it’d be worth it, you should 100% do that

Mitch Marner: we’re knocking down a wall tomorrow wtf why didn’t you tell me? I’ll brave a Smirnoff to knock down a fucking wall. What time are you and Will picking us up?

Will Nylander: i fucked up, sorry

-----

“That’s really cute!” Zach Hyman’s wife smiles as she hands Kaylee her phone back.

“Thank you.” Aubrey mouths to her, as Cam and Kayls flock to the phone to check out the pictures she’s taken of them, and Alannah smiles at her knowingly. Aub’s sure she’s got sisters of her own.

“I’ll see you soon.” Alannah promises. “We should do dinner soon, the three of us, next time the boys are out of town.” And then she’s pushing her way toward Zach before Aub can respond to anything.

“Not a word.” Aubrey says warningly to her sisters, as Steph snickers, thinking of how picky the two of them are about pictures almost always.

“These are actually really cute though.” Cam says, like she even means it.

“Yeah, she did good.” Kayls adds, sliding her phone back into her purse.

“So happy they meet your standards.” Steph says dryly.

“They are the ones to meet.” Kayls flips her hair and it’s all Aubrey can do to fight back a laugh. She honest to god forgets how funny they are sometimes, when they’re driving her as crazy as they are now.

“You’re too much.” Aubrey tells her and Kaylee grins, looping her arms around Aub’s shoulders and squeezing tightly. “Okay, now you’re really too much. You’re suffocating me; get off! Look,” She nudges Kaylee away, noticing quickly that Mitch has appeared recently- without Will, but with Auston-and tries to draw her attention there instead. “Mitch is here, bother him instead.”

Kaylee peers over. “Honestly, who even cares about Mitch? I’d rather bother Will instead.”

Mitch’s jaw drops as Steph and Auston laugh, but Aubrey feels the tension immediately in her shoulders. “Jesus Christ, could you just say thank you to Will so he doesn’t think you’re a literal monster like the rest of the world does?”

“Thanks, Will!” Kaylee and Cam chorus, and she glares at them right up until she feels a presence at her side and realizes he’s actually right there.

“It was great to have you guys here this weekend.” Will smiles at them, sounding absolutely sincere, not a hint of sarcasm.

“We had so much fun.” Kayls is already gushing before Aub can even turn her death glare to her.

“What’d you guys do today?” Will asks her and again, it’s the sincerity that gets Aub, like he actually cares to listen to her sisters tell him about the brunch place that she and Steph took them to this morning, the stores they hit afterwards, a few of their favorite spots, before they had to go home and get ready for the game.

He’s sweet and attentive, asking all the questions that he should and nodding in all the right places. “You guys still want dinner?” He asks, probably as soon as he can find a time to interrupt. He’s got to be absolutely starving after that game.

“Yes.” Aubrey answers for them all; she doesn’t really care what her sisters actually have to say on the matter. If Will’s hungry, they’ll eat right now whether they want to or not.

“Can we go back to that bakery we went to earlier, first?” Cam asks, and Aubrey straight up glares at her, but before she can even say no, Cam’s already whining to her. “Oh my, god, seriously? Stop, Aubrey!”

“Ryan, like, swears you’re fun; I just don’t see it.” Kaylee adds, about their brother, the one just younger than Aub.

And like, Aubrey knows they’re just trying to get under her skin, but like, Jesus Christ. “That’s because Ryan’s an actual adult and whenever you two come up here I have to be your literal mom, because you forget to bring toothbrushes and pants and use manners!”

“Take like four deep breaths.” Will says, in that chill way he is about basically everything, and immediately Aubrey feels her glare swing over toward him. That’s basically being told to calm down and there’s literally nothing fucking worse than that, doesn’t he know that?

Probably not. He’s probably never been told to calm down in his life. Jesus, what was it again that made Steph think he was perfect for her?

Mitch, probably recognizing that Aubrey’s about to lose it, pulls Cam into his side for a one-armed hug, mentioning that he’s starving, which at least cues Kaylee into the fact that Will might be too. “Yeah, dinner does actually sound good.” Her eyes flicker over to Will first, before landing on Aubrey, and only when Aub sees the flicker of remorse in them does she actually take that breath that Will had mentioned.

“What time are we meeting in the morning?’ Steph asks, and Aub knows she’s looking to smooth over any potential blow up.

“9:22.” She deadpans, laughing at Mitch’s face.

“It’s supposed to be a nice day!” He protests. “I wouldn’t have made a tee time if you two had told me we were knocking down a wall! I had to hear it from Willy! What’s this shit?”

“Kicked out of the group chat again.” Aub shrugs, even though she knows well and truly that he hasn’t been- and won’t be again until sometime early spring, when someone does it symbolically for a day as they do every year.

“I’ll kick you out of the group chat.” Mitch says childishly, as Steph tries to collect him, Auston already ready to leave, and promising Aub that they’ll make plans later that night about the next morning.

“Will, where do you want to take us tonight for food?” Kayls asks, as they part ways in the lot.

Will looks a little startled. “Oh! Uh, what-where do you guys want to go?”

“We want to go where you like to eat.” Cam says. “We’ll eat anything.”

Will looks at her for confirmation and Aubrey nods; none of them are picky eaters. “Sushi?” He suggests and both girls nod excitedly, racing off towards Will’s car. “See?” He nudges her as they walk to catch up. “They’re fine.”

She glares up at him; he bumps her again and then again, repeatedly until she smiles. “They’re not awful.” She agrees, especially now that they’ve reminded her just how nice they can really be, at times.

Will’s grinning, matching her own smile. “I know you love them.”

“Don’t call me out like that, William.” He mimes zipping his lips and she laughs. “Ugh, you dork. Let’s go eat.”

-----

Kayls and Cam are in peak hurricane form, only barely dressed and nowhere near packed and ready to go, when Will texts to announce that he’s arrived to pick them up in the morning, so Aub just responds with her apartment number and tells him to come up.

He arrives at her door a minute or two later, with a guest in tow. “Mitchy invited him.” Will explains sheepishly, as he and Auston make themselves at home at the breakfast bar in her kitchen.

“Sorry to just, like, crash.” Auston adds.

Aubrey blinks at them. She feels like Will, of all people, should know better. “There’s legit eight of us; we adopt strays all the time.” He cracks up at that; they both do actually, and she smiles, just as Kayls shouts something about Cam stealing her leggings, from where they’re still in her room gathering her stuff.

“They’re not even yours!” Cam shouts. “Aubrey, tell her I got them first.”

“Well I was planning on wearing them!”

“Well you didn’t say that!”

“It’s just like being at home.” Auston says, smiling fondly enough that Aub laughs. “Make sure you check the straightener before you leave or they’ll fight about who forgot to turn it off in the car.” And then she straight up cackles; that’s a fight she knows well.

Auston and Will are both laughing as well, even as she hears her sisters shout for her. She ignores it, running her hands over her temples and turns towards the cabinet. “Coffee?” She asks them, and they both laugh as a muffled shout can be heard.

“Please.” Will says and Auston agrees so she pours mugs for them both, making idle chit chat, interrupted occasionally as they wait for her sisters to finally appear and be ready to leave.

They do, eventually, far later than Aubrey would have liked, and late enough that she’s grinding her teeth about it, loud enough that Will nudges her gently when she passes him to get her coat. He’s right though, it’s not like they’re in a rush to get out to her brother's house, but she’s anxious enough by that point to get moving that she doesn’t even realize what Kayls has taken from her closet to wear until they’re all climbing into Will’s backseat. “Oh my god, what are you wearing?”

“They’re literally yours!” Kayls snaps back and that’s not a lie, but it’s not what Aub’s got issue with either. It’s the absurdly clashing patterns in her leggings and oversized long-sleeve.

“I never wear them together.”

“That’s because your fashion sense is basic a-f.” Kayls pronounces each letter individually and Aub knows, she knows that Will and Auston are laughing at the look of disbelief on her face, even if she can’t see them. “You should take some tips from Will; his is on point.”

“Thanks, Kayls!” Will beams at her through the rearview mirror.

Aubrey ignores him. “Will’s homeless, that’s why he dresses like that.” She deadpans, which he protests immediately even as Auston cracks up.

“You’re not homeless.” Cam says to her, and it’s the fake innocent thing that does it for Aub. “Will could live with you.”

Aub pulls a face even as Auston just laughs even harder and Cam stares at her like she’s waiting for an actual answer. “Walked right into that one.” She mutters to herself, as Will meets her eyes in the mirror. He’s fighting back a grin; she can see the laughter in his eyes. “Will, coffee at the next Tim’s, please?” She’s going to need one to get through this.

Will’s full on grinning now, but he pulls off at the next exit in search of coffee and hands over his credit card before she can even object. The rest of the ride to her brother’s house feels like it passes in a flash, Kayls and Cam tumbling out of the car to greet Luke practically before Will’s even put it in park.

The only thing that stops Aubrey from having a complete heart attack is the immediate sense of calm she feels from no longer calling herself in charge. Luke’s here; he can deal with this shit now.

She feels Will laughing at her as they exit the car. “I thought you’d be more nervous.” He says, as they walk toward her brother, side by side, with Auston.

She snickers. “For what?” And then leans herself into Luke for a hug. “Hi!”

“Jesus, what’d you give them before you brought them here?” Luke returns the hug.

“Literally anything that would shut them up.” She says, dead serious, and then introduces Will, and Auston, almost as an afterthought.

Luke is friendly and welcoming, like she knew he would be. They’ve never had the overprotective sibling relationship she hears about from people. They’re too close in age, only a year apart in school; or too close in general, sharing too much as they grew up shuffled to their dad and stepmom’s every other weekend for their court-mandated time. She’s never doubted that he has her back, but he lets her live her life, no matter how stupid the decisions she might make (though he’s certainly not shy about telling her when he thinks she making one).

“Fitz and Steph and Mitch here yet?” She wonders, as they walk inside, the chatter between her sisters and sister-in-law already evident.

“Running late.” Luke says. “But Ryan’s upstairs sleeping. He stayed last night.”

She grins at him, contemplating running up to wake him, but in the end decides against it, settling for following the sound of her sisters’ voices into the kitchen. Rachel’s standing at the counter, setting out snacks and listening patiently as Kayls and Cam detail their entire weekend to her.

“-Will got us tickets for Saturday’s game-”

“-we ate at this amazing sushi place-”

“Rach!” Aubrey interrupts, tugging her sister-in-law away from Kayls and Cam, who are talking over each other. “Come meet Will.”

Rachel sends her a grateful look and immediately turns her bright smile at Will and Auston, introducing herself to them both and offering them drinks. By the time that she, Luke, and Aub finish getting drinks for everyone, Ryan’s coming downstairs, rubbing a hand over his face sleepily, and the introductions begin all over again.

Then Aubrey and Steph’s parents come in with her two youngest brothers, which cues another round of that, and then finally, Steph, Mitch, and Fitz roll in, which has Aubrey cackling when Auston leans over and whispers. “You didn’t tell us your brother is Little Fred?”

“What the fuck are you on?” She frowns at him, but Will’s got the same look on his face.

Will nods over at Fitz, the stepbrother who’d been in the same grade as her growing up and one of her best friends for about as long as she could remember. Said brother is currently trying to mess up Cam’s hair with one hand, while fighting one of her triplets, Tye, for the last danish. “He’s come out with us a few times, I guess with Mitch? He looks like Fred.” She gives the two of them a look. Literally the only thing her brother and their goalie have in common is red hair. Will shrugs. “Little Fred.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” She declares. “The bar is so low.”

“Must be.” Ryan nudges her side. She hadn’t even heard him come up beside her. “Dating you and all.”

She flips him off and he grins; Ryan’s actually the sibling closest in age to her, with the way all their birthdays work out, but from Luke to Ryan, all four of them are close and when Steph and her sister were added in there as well…well, the group chat gets chaotic.

“Hey!” Her mom snaps her fingers at them. “I don’t want to see any of that today.” And Aub can feel it in her face, the look she’s giving back to her mom, like certain that she’s not serious, because, honestly, has she met any of them? She peeks over at Ryan; he’s fighting back a laugh and that’s all it takes for her mom to lose it, the seriousness on her face quickly turning into a laugh.

It’s enough to get them all moving though, toward the wall they’re going to be tackling today, where they’re divided into teams by her stepdad and Steph’s dad, the only two who competently know what they’re doing.

“Ohhh!” Cam says immediately drifting towards the power saw. “Can I use this?”

Will pulls it away from her hands before she has the chance to even touch it and Aubrey’s calling out to her stepdad. “Mike! Are we stuck with these people all day?”

“Yes.” Her stepdad calls back; he’s already showing Tye and Danny how to demo their end of the wall.

Aub looks at Will and immediately mouths, “I’m sorry,” but he’s already loudly laughing at her. She kinda hates that he’s laughing at her, but she hates even more how contagious his laughter is.

-----

It’s a little past dinner time and Aubrey’s exhausted, too tired even to take her empty pizza plate to the kitchen trash can from where she’s sitting on the family room floor.

Around her, the rest of her family is in a similar state. Ryan’s actually asleep on one end of the couch, and on the other end, Auston’s half-heartedly grumbling at Derek Carr and the Raiders, while Steph’s lying across Mitch’s lap on the other side of the room. It’s about as quiet as they’ve all ever been, even Mitch and her sisters, which is how she knows they’re all exhausted.

Next to her, Will’s been quietly munching on a plate of fries since he finished his pizza a while ago. Aubrey reaches over and steals one from him. “Hey!” He protests.

“You’ve had the whole plate!” She thought she ate a lot; she honestly doesn’t know where he puts it all. “I just wanted a couple!”

“A couple?” Will repeats and Aubrey nods with a grin, reaching out and swiping another one from the plate. “Keep this up and we’re going to have to stop for second dinner on the way home.”

“I could probably eat again by then.” She rationalizes, stealing another.

Will laughs, sliding the plate over a few inches toward her, and Aubrey grins triumphantly. It’s quiet for a minute, or mostly quiet, the only sound for the next minute Auston moaning about a fumble, and Kaylee and Cam asking a question about it and then giggling to each other about it before they even get a full answer to it.

It’s Auston’s perplexed face that reminds her and she nudges Will as she goes in for another fry. “Hey.” She bumps him again, grabbing his attention. “Thanks.”

Will hums, sounding almost confused, and glances over at her. Every time Aubrey thinks it’s impossible for him to be more good looking, he proves her wrong; and always doing the most innocent things. He’s just looking at her, with this tiny little smile, but the light’s catching his eyes and they look impossibly blue and gentle, so soft like the rest of him does right now, in a way he almost never publicly is. “For what?”

“For putting up with my sisters all weekend and their increasingly ridiculous comments.”

Will laughs and he’s so close that she can feel the vibration. He’s leaning back against the wall again, but his head’s tilted a little, just barely leaning against hers, and Aub leans into it a little as he starts to talk. “My two youngest sisters play this game, every time we go to the airport, yeah? After we’ve said goodbye and everything. It’s like this competition between them, for who gets the last touch. And they’ll like chase me down as far as they can until I get to security, back and forth between the two of them…”

Aubrey’s already giggling, picturing the scene. “Same shit, different day,” She summarizes the weekend.

He flicks his finger across her nose and she giggles again. “Bingo.”

-----

It’s only when they’re back in the car and on the highway back toward Toronto after stopping for sushi for a second dinner that Auston says, sounding entirely too casual to actually be casual, “So, like, what’s really going on here with you two?”

Aub feels her stomach drop and it takes everything in her not to look at Will, who of fucking course, plays it enitrely cool. “What do you mean?”

Auston leans forward, from the middle seat in the back, which he’d generously offered to take so that she could sit up with Will even though she’d insisted he’d want the leg room up front; she’s starting to wonder if there was more to it than that. He gestures between the two of them. “It’s just, like, not how you usually are with girls.”

Will’s head whips back to look at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He demands.

“Will!” Aubrey hisses. “Eyes on the road.”

Auston’s cackling as Will turns his attention back to driving, but continues to eye him up through the rearview mirror. Aubrey twists in her seat; she can still stare him down. “So anyway,” He continues. “There’s that. And then, I mean, I was in the car with him when you literally texted him your apartment number. That was pretty sketch.”

Aub swings her gaze over to Will. “It came over Bluetooth.” He defends.

She pats his thigh. “Stick with hockey, kay?”

He laughs, and when she looks back at Auston, he’s laughing too, but he’s also got this thoughtful look on his face. “So anyway, what’s going on?” He presses.

“Steph and Mitch.” She says finally, after exchanging another look with Will.

“Ah.”

“That’s it?” She frowns at him. “That’s all you have to say?”

“Well, I mean, I’m sure there’s more to it, but like, I have met them before.” Auston grins when she and Will both laugh. “So what’d they do now?”

“Do you have an hour?” Will drawls.

“I have beer upstairs.” Auston offers, since they’re basically pulling up to his apartment, and since Will looks over at her for confirmation, Aub barely even takes a second before agreeing.

“Any wine?”

-----

It’s actually kind of crazy how relieving it is for someone else to know about her and Will, outside of the two of them. Aubrey hadn’t even realized how much it was weighing on her until it’s not, until the three of them had spent three hours laughing about it, recapping the entire thing and then just laughing about nothing.

She notices right away that it's equally relieving to Will, that the two of them will drift over to Auston when the team does something together, or that she’ll get a snapchat from one of them from the road that features Will and Auston off doing something ridiculous.

Steph calls her out on it one day, when the two of them are at a game one night. “I did not introduce you to Will for the two of you to spend time with Auston.”

“You ditched me last night!” Aubrey protests, but really, Steph’s not wrong. That was one time, because Mitch’s brother wanted to introduce his new girlfriend to them, and she’s been out here avoiding invites like it’s her job.

Steph continues like she didn’t hear a thing. “I introduced you to Will so that we could have great couples’ friends and hang out all the time, so why aren’t we?”

“I thought you introduced me to Will because we’d be perfect together?” Aubrey bitches and Steph gives her a look, so Aubrey promises that she and Will will do dinner with her and Mitch again soon.

Dinner soon, to Steph, apparently means that weekend, and Aubrey finds herself in Will’s car again, with a bottle of wine and a plate of dessert, driving out to Etobicoke on Friday night. “I like that I’ve claimed this seat now.”

Will laughs. “What?”

“It’s always set where I want it to be!” She grins. “Perfect leg room!”

Her phone buzzes as Will laughs again, but it only takes a quick glance at the screen to click back out of it. “You okay?” Will asks.

“Huh?”

“You just got real quiet, real quick.” He says, turning onto Steph and Mitch’s street. “Everything alright?”

Aubrey huffs out an aggravated breath, trying to decide what, if anything, she wants to say. “My other dad is being...my other dad.”

“Oh?” Will parks in their driveway and she huffs out another annoyed sigh as her phone buzzes in her pocket, knowing it’s just her half-brother again with more shit about their dad.

“He’s like…” She gathers her stuff and tries to find the words as they walk inside. “I don’t even know. Everybody’s been freaking out since some lady tagged him in a bunch of pictures on Facebook last week but my siblings are at dinner with him right now and they asked him about it and he told them he’s not seeing anyone.”

“Wait, seriously?” It’s the first thing Steph says to her; Aub’s been bitching to her about the whole thing for a week now and she’s more than familiar with her issues with her dad.

“Yes!” She cries. “My sister asked if he was seeing anyone, he said no. I guess one of the boys asked if he’d taken any trips lately, because of the pictures, and he said no. So he’s just straight up lying and I don’t know why!”

“Maybe,” Will says. “He’s not actually lying.”

Aubrey pats his arms gently. “You’re new here, so I’ll let that terrible thought pass.”

Will looks taken aback but she can barely spare a thought for that as Mitch says, “Maybe he got secret-married again and is just waiting until you’re all there to tell you-OW!” Steph elbows him hard and he grins anyway. “What? I’m just saying!”

“I already went to therapy once this week, Mitchy.” Aub mock-glares at him. “I cried for three hours and only didn’t dye my hair blue because Steph came to pick me up for the game. I don’t need to go again. Keep that shit to yourself and get me some wine.”

Mitch laughs; he’s equally familiar with her post-therapy routine and her feelings for her dad. “Alright fine.” He says, but there must still be something on her face because Will’s hand comes to rest on her shoulder right after that and he rubs it gently for a minute before he comes to sit next to her.

Conversation turns lighter after that- to Mitch’s brother’s new girlfriend, who Steph liked and Mitch thought was only okay and then to Will’s sister’s new boyfriend, who he hates-before they’re all more focused on food and a game later in the evening.

It’s easy to ignore her phone buzzing when Aubrey and Mitch are dominating Steph and Will at Codenames (or calling cheaters, because Will and Steph most definitely are), but much harder to ignore in the car when she and Will are alone again, and Aub barely even notices when Will doesn’t make the turn for her place, instead just driving straight to his place.

“Oh.” She says quietly when he finally parks and they’re in the garage, instead of just pulling up out front of her building, like he has been recently.

“Didn’t want you to dye your hair blue tonight.” Will deadpans and Aubrey laughs, surprised that it’s kind of watery.

“Fair, it was definitely a risk.”

Will smiles at her gently. “I’ve been told my guest room is supremely comfortable.”

Aubrey raises her eyebrows; she can siphon out the source of that one. “I hear your brother has pretty shitty taste.” She says and he laughs, that loud one he’s got that she can’t help but smile at because it sounds so ridiculous, but Aubrey’s already getting out of the car, ready to follow him up before he can see.

Will’s condo is pretty much everything she expected- a lot of modern pieces, a lot of white, very Scandanavian- but there’s plenty of Will in it as well. A lot of family pictures. Some hockey stuff-both Leafs and Team Sweden-but not an overwhelming amount.

She’s still looking at some of the pictures (he looks so much like his mom) when he returns with a couple glasses of wine, and she accepts hers with a gracious smile. “Thank you.”

“We’ve been at this long enough for me to know that wine’s your thing.” He jokes and she laughs.

“I meant for bringing me here.” She shoves at his shoulder; annoyingly enough he doesn’t even move. “I definitely would have done something stupid.”

“What are friends for?” Will smiles and there’s that annoyed feeling again, maybe even more so than just a minute ago, tugging at her stomach, for really no reason. They are friends now, in pretty much every sense of the word. They hang out, they text, they do all kinds of things. It’ll actually probably be hard for her, to not be friends with him, or at least pretend to be, when they have to ��break up” for a bit to annoy Steph and Mitch.

“Yeah.” Aubrey says and it just sounds off so she takes a sip of her wine right away so he can’t see whatever her face is doing. “If you were really my friend, you’d let me borrow some sweats to sleep in. You know. Since you kidnapped me to bring me here.”

“Ohh, I don’t know if we’re that close.” Will says, but he’s laughing as he walks toward his room so she knows he’s kidding.

It’s a pretty quiet night between the two of them once they make themselves comfortable, just chilling on the couch and watching Netflix, and Will’s not stingy with his pours so Aubrey pours herself into his guest room a little tipsy, and maybe that’s why she texts him from bed. You were right, your guest bed is pretty comfortable.

*Supremely* comfortable. Told you so 😜

-----

Aub’s still in Will’s absurdly comfortable guest bed when her daily FaceTime call with her sisters comes in and she answers it without thinking. “Hey.”

“Where are you?” Kaylee asks immediately. “That’s not your room-oh my god, are you at Will’s?” She blurts and Aubrey wants to smack herself.

“That’s Leafs stuff!” Cam exclaims, popping her head into the frame. “You never wear Leafs stuff! Oh my god, do you live there now?”

“Back up, calm the crazy.” She’s cutting off this spiral before they’ve got the story of her and Will eloping spread to her entire family.

Kayls pouts. “You never let us have any fun.”

“I do not want a call from Grandma this afternoon asking me why I got married to the blond hippie from the Leafs because you two can’t keep your mouths shut and she saw one bad picture.”

Cam’s jaw drops in outrage. “That’s so rude, we would at least send a good picture out! Like she’d know how hot he really is; there’d be no need to google and accidentally come across a picture of him in a Sugo hat.”

That’s it. She’s up for good now. Aubrey throws the blankets off herself and sits up off the edge of the bed, rubbing her temples in hopes it’ll make her tiny hangover headache go away. Limited success. “You googled him?”

“Of course we googled him!” Kayls says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Aub, oh my god, he’s got-”

“I’m leaving this room right now.” Aubrey warns; she’s already at the door. “Stop talking about him like he’s not here.”

Cam immediately launches into a story about a couple of the girls on her field hockey team and something that had happened at practice after school yesterday, a story that she’s still detailing when Aubrey walks into the kitchen to find Will also looking into his phone with a fond look on his face as a loud jumble of voices shout back to him in what she can only assume is Swedish.

“Coffee’s back there.” He points, greeting her with a smile. “And mugs above it.”

“Thank you.” She’s pretty sure, from the expression on his face, that he knows how much of a lifeline that’s about to be for her.

“Hi Will!” Kayls calls and Aub glares at her, but Will calls back a greeting in return before returning to Swedish, but definitely in an argumentative tone.

It’s a couple more minutes of that-listening to Will speaking in Swedish and going through her usual morning nonsense with her sisters-before Will lets out the smallest groan and then looks at her. “My sisters want to say hi.”

“Oh.” Aubrey says, surprised more than anything.

And before she can really say anything, Cam adds. “Yes! Then we can talk with Will!” Which is how she finds herself sitting next to Will with his dog curled in her lap, both their phones in front of them, speaking with her sisters and two of Will’s sisters.

It’s pretty much maximal chaos, but when they both end their calls a few minutes later, Aubrey’s still smiling as she runs her hand through the dog’s fur and Will’s laughing to himself. “Mmm, good luck to you.” Aub nudges him, easy enough to do since she’s still sitting flush up next to him. “When they’re in town next month. They’ve probably all followed each other on Instagram by now already. Best friends in no time.”

“Gonna be busy with games.” Will says weakly. “Practices, media things. Think it’s gonna be your problem.”

“Like hell.” She laughs, shaking her head when he joins in and doesn’t stop. “Oh my god, that was not that funny!”

“Just thinking of all the ways they’re going to torture us when they’re all together after they’ve spent the last month talking shit about us in a group chat.” Will says, somehow still laughing about that, because he’s literally the most chill person on the planet. Like of course he’s not even bothered by that.

“I don’t have enough food in me to deal with that thought.” Aubrey declares, laughing decidedly less at the thought of actually meeting Will’s family. In person. Where they’ll have to actually see her and see what a farce this is. “Feed me.”

Will shrugs. “Let me change and we’ll grab brunch.”

Aub looks down at the very large sweats she’s borrowed to sleep in. “We’ll stop first, yeah?”

“Depends on how hangry you are.” Will calls back, already walking away.

She pulls a face at his back at that one. She’s actually pretty hungry, but like, she’s not dumb enough to go out to brunch with him in a walk of shame. Not when there’s already a group chat forming about her on Instagram. She doesn’t need Leafs Twitter coming for her too.

-----

It’s easy to settle in a routine from there; meeting Mitch and Steph for dinner a few times, joining Steph for games and then leaving with Will for a second dinner after, and easily splitting off to spend time with her own family and friends or catching up with them when Will is off on road trips.

It’s so easy to settle into a routine like that, a relationship routine, that she lets herself get lulled into a false sense of security, the message from her dad catching her off guard completely one day.

“What’s wrong?” Will asks, when they’re at dinner after a game. It’s their thing now; pick a restaurant and grab some food right afterwards before he drops her off at home. It’s a nice way to wind down actually; she usually looks forward to it.

Tonight though, Aub has been uncharacteristically quiet since they met up and she was a downright bitch earlier when she and Steph were fighting about something. Like, she knows they’ll forget all about it tomorrow, but still. She owes her best friend coffee at the least. “Hmm?” She looks up at him, barely hearing his question.

“What’s wrong?” He repeats, giving her a look before she can fight him against answering.

She pushes her food around a little-very uncharacteristic for her, and she can tell even Will’s picked up on that. “My dad wants to meet us all for dinner this week, which means he probably did get secret-married again.”

“Oh.” Will makes a face and Aubrey returns it, laughing when he contorts his even worse. “And that’s-I mean-again?” He finally settles on and she nods, ready to drop this bomb.

“It’ll be wife number six, but secret wedding number three.” She says, delighting in the way his jaw drops. “This is just, like, what he does; he just announces he wants to have dinner with us and then shows up and is like and here’s my new wife, like it’s super casual, and then we all wonder why I need therapy when he’s out here hiding wives and families like it’s a fulltime job.” She finishes, only realizing how heated she is about it when she looks up to find Will staring at her with wide eyes.

“Um.” Will starts.

“Sorry.” Aub hastens, flushing.

“No!” Will says. “No, don’t apologize at all, you can, like, share whatever you want. I just...I got like half of what you just said.” He gives her an apologetic look. “Missing a big chunk of this story.”

“Right.” Aub nods, pretty proud of how calm she sounds. Dr. Seth is going to be so impressed with her next week. “Sorry. We haven’t talked about the two secret families he was hiding when I was growing up. Ok, I’ll back up.”

“He what?” Will cries, but Aub waves him off, diving into the whole history of her dad, her half-siblings, and her step-moms...as well as their various divorces.

“...and that brings us to now.” She takes a sip of her wine thoughtfully; Will has long since drained his and refilled. She’s pretty sure she didn’t miss anything. “And dinner that’s going to be an absolute disaster.”

“Do you want me to come?” Will offers.

“No!” She says immediately. That’s like-god, that’s the worst idea ever. They do not need to get her greedy father involved in this, who’d take one look at Will and see dollar bills. She’s accepted that she can’t change the way her dad treats her (after many years of therapy); she’s got another dad who loves her and it’s not fine the way her dad doesn’t remember her birthday or what she does for work or pretty much anything important about her, but it is what it is. But like, she’s not going to subject Will to it. “It’ll be-fine.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You think so?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “But thanks anyway.”

Will purses his lips. It’s clear that he doesn’t love that answer, but he doesn’t say anything more on the subject, asking her instead if she wants to split a dessert, as if he doesn’t already know the answer to that question, and Aub, grateful for the change in topic, even agrees to let him pick this time.

It’s a rare gift.

-----

Aubrey knows she had a little too much to drink at dinner with her dad, but she’s not so drunk that she can’t recognize that this is Will’s door she’s standing in front of, knocking loudly and repeatedly.

She has only a moment to contemplate that-that it’s here she chose to come to after yet another disaster dinner, instead of Steph’s or her brother’s or back home to her own place-before Will’s opening the door, the confusion passing quickly over his face when he realizes it’s her.

“Hey.” He beams and steps back, silently inviting her in, but Aub doesn’t want him to go further away from her. That’s why she came here. “Whoa, hey!” Will says, as Aub steps in the condo and presses herself against him. “Are you-” He lets out a strangled choke as she tiptoes up and loops her arms around the back of his neck. “-okay?”

“Peachy.” She says, pulling him down to kiss her.

It’s not really a great kiss; Will’s kissing her back for a moment, and then pulling back. “Wait-”

“No.” She whines, leaning in for another, and he does it again, caught up for a moment in kissing her, but then it’s like his thoughts catch up to him and he breaks it.

“Aub, we shouldn’t- we aren’t-”

And like why shouldn’t they? They’ve been doing this fake relationship for a while now and not able to hook up with anyone else because of it. He’s objectively the hottest person she’s ever seen. There’s no reason that’s coming to her right now that says she shouldn’t. “We’re friends now!” Aubrey says, running her palms over his shoulders. God, why weren’t they doing this the entire time? “Right?” And Will nods, slowly, but it’s a nod, “It’s fine, friends hook up all the time.”

“You really want this?” His thumb brushes her cheek as she nods and only then does he pull her back in for a kiss.

-----

If Aubrey thought Will’s guest bed was comfortable, it’s really got nothing on his actual bed. She rolls over, curling into the pillow a little more and opens her eyes to see the sliver of sunlight coming through catch the edge of Will’s face, that one piece of hair that’s sticking up that should be unattractive, but is totally not.

It’s really just unfair.

The sound comes from behind her and Aub jumps when she realizes it’s Will’s alarm going off. It seems like it barely even fazes him; he just reaches across her and silences it; his arm falling across her when he drags himself back.

“Hi.” She smiles.

“Hi.” Will laughs and it lights up his whole face; she can’t help the hand that comes up to trace over his features. “Come on, that’s not fair.

“What’s not fair?” Aubrey asks innocently, trailing her nails down his chest.

He groans. “I have to go. Skate.”

“You don’t have to go.” She pouts and he groans again.

“You’re making it really hard to have to.”

“Good.” Aubrey giggles, only stopping when Will shuts her up with a kiss.

“Really hard.” He repeats as she rolls her hips into his.

“Fine.” She sighs, flopping onto her back, and she knows the move does exactly as she’d intended when his eyes go right to her chest. “I guess I’ll just have to stay here in bed until you get back.”

“Please do.” He insists, leaning over to kiss her again. “Fastest skate ever.” Will promises.

“You can’t control that.” Aubrey reasons, even as Will’s shaking his head at her while he climbs out of bed.

“Fastest skate ever.” He repeats.

She can’t really confirm or deny that it is; but when he does return, pulling her out of a doze by jumping on top of her, there’s coffee on the table for her too. It’s cold by the time she gets to it.

-----

“You guys are being weird.” Steph comments one night, as Aub’s cheering after Will scores a tie-breaking goal.

“What?” Aubrey gives her a look. “What do you mean?”

“You and Will.” Steph says, like it should be obvious. “You’re like-” She breaks off, making a noise of frustration.

“You’re in the honeymoon phase.” Alannah supplies helpfully and Steph lights up.

“Yes!” She cries and Aubrey glares over at Alannah but she merely smiles back. “But it’s like, you’re back in it? Like, you weren’t for a while and now...you can’t take your hands off each other again!”

Aubrey doesn’t really know what to say to that. She’s not denying that she and Will have been all over each other ever since that first night they slept together. She can’t even remember the last time she went to her apartment for anything more than to pack clothes and she’s lost track of the number of times she’s reached out for him only to find Will already reaching for her.

But before? She can’t think of any moment where they were ever like they are now. Like there’s too much space between them even when she’s right next to him. Or this pull that brings her toward him no matter where he’s at.

But she doesn’t...she doesn’t know what to say about that. Because it’s not like anything has changed between them. They’re still friends; they still laugh and joke as usual, still gossip about their friends together, are still just waiting to drop a big break up on Mitch and Steph.

Nothing’s changed, even if maybe, she thinks, something has.

So she shrugs at Steph and says, “We’re just happy. Is that so bad?”

Steph beams and leans her head against Aubrey’s shoulder, and like, Aub knows that’s exactly what she’d been hoping for since she introduced her to Will, but Aubrey still feels like something wasn’t right about what she said.

-----

Aubrey tugs on the Nylander jersey that drapes over her frame as she and Will walk into the hospital conference room. “Are you sure about this?”

“It’s tradition.” He grins. “Stop playing with it.”

“That’s what she said.” She says as dryly as she can, managing to keep the face until he laughs, and then she cracks up with him.

That’s how the two of them walk into the conference room where the team is meeting; laughing so loudly that everyone stops what they’re doing to turn and look, but she and Will only get a bunch of fond smiles before everyone turns back to their own conversations.

Steph gives her a knowing look when they approach hand in hand, which Aubrey ignores pointedly. “You didn’t warn me we’d have to actually go things wearing this dumb jersey when you plotted to get us together.”

“Oh I didn’t?” Steph says innocently as Mitch and Will sputter in protest. “Must have slipped my mind.”

“Dumb jersey?” Will nudges her.

Aub shrugs, looking up at him with a cheeky grin. “It’s a little big. Might have some trouble getting out of this thing.”

Will grins. “I’m sure some help can be arranged.”

Mitch feigns gagging. “There are children around.”

Wills hand drags up her side briefly-too briefly- as he grins at Mitch. “Where, Mitchell?” But he backs off and Aub does too, both of them catching up with teammates and wives and girlfriends around them.

Or they back off a little, but Aub still finds herself drawn int0 his orbit, especially once they start splitting off into groups to move through the hospital to go see the kids. His hand will brush against hers as they move between rooms; she’s bumping her shoulder against his arm comfortingly as they talk with parents.

It’s not very subtle, but they don’t need to be. Except…

“What is going on?” Auston hisses at her, in passing, as he’s about to step inside the room Will’s just about leaving.

“Nothing.” Aub says innocently, but Will reaches for her hand when he leaves, opting for a fist bump with Auston instead, and Auston’s eyes widen, but Aubrey tugs Will along before he can say anything. “Come on, let’s grab some water real quick!”

The diversion doesn’t last long; Auston catches up to her only two rooms later while Will’s in talking hockey with a little girl and she’s waiting outside, leaning against the wall. He joins her, looking in as well for a moment, before looking over at her. “This is a terrible idea.” Auston says flatly.

“You were on board with it!” Aubrey hisses, trying to keep a smile on her face.

“That was before I realized you guys were sleeping together. Now it’s going to backfire and go to shit.”

Aubrey frowns. “Why?”

“Why?” Auston repeats, like he can’t even help himself. “Oh my god, you don’t even-” He stops abruptly.

“Don’t even what?” She prompts, when it’s clear he’s not going to continue.

But he doesn’t continue. He just rubs his temples for a minute and mutters under his breath. “Fuck me, how do I have to be the smart one here?”

“Hey!” Aubrey protests, offended. “I am always the smart one.”

“Not right now.” He says cryptically. “And it’s hard to tell who’s being dumber: you or Willy.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Aubrey frowns, but Auston’s already walking away. “Auston!” He ignores her. “Auston!”

“Hey.” Will’s reaching for her arm gently. “What’s wrong?”

Auston’s out of sight now anyway. “Nothing.” She shakes her head, clearing her thoughts and then looks up at him. “Next room?”

-----

“What are you doing Friday?” Aubrey looks up from scrolling through her family’s group chat; Will’s peering at her from across the island.

“Nothing.” She says, after thinking about it for a minute. “What’s up?”

“We play my brother on Saturday.” He says and the shoe doesn’t drop until he adds, “So my parents and sisters are coming in for a bit. Watch the game. Do early Christmas. Hang out a bit.”

“Oh.” She bites her lip. It shouldn’t-it shouldn't be weird. He survived a whole weekend with her sisters, he’s met her entire family; they’ve gone out a few times with varying numbers of her brothers since then. It just...feels weird now.

Will eyes her carefully for a second but continues. “They come in early Friday morning and I made dinner reservations for that night, if you want to come with us.”

He says it super casually, the way he is about pretty much everything, but she knows him well enough now. There’s a little hopeful tone at the end of it, almost like a question even though it’s not phrased as one. “Yeah.” She says, and even though she’s already nervous about this dinner that’s literally days away, it’s worth it to see the smile grow across his face. “I’d love to come with you guys.”

“They’ll be excited.” Will says, which really undersells just how excited his sisters actually are when they do roll into town later in the week.

Daniella throws herself at Aubrey the second she walks in the door, chattering excitedly about meeting her, and spending the weekend together, and dinner that night, all before Aubrey can even put her purse down. She doesn’t know what her face is doing but whatever it is is bad enough that Will says something to his sister in Swedish and follows it up with a glare when she giggles something back to him.

It works though; Daniella detaches herself, but she does stay close, almost bouncing along next to Aubrey as she steps further inside. “Come on.” Will nods toward the kitchen. “My parents are in here.”

Fuck, his parents. She takes a deep breath. “Cool.”

He grins. The panic must definitely be showing on her face, but his sister just keeps talking through it- Aubrey can relate- or Daniella just doesn’t notice it in her excitement. But Will does, still grinning at her, and she brushes against him purposefully with her shoulder as she goes to follow Daniella, only for him to grab her hand as she passes.

“You don’t have to be nervous.” He squeezes her hand and the only thing that stops her from frowning is his sister. It’s kind of a harsh reminder of the circumstances that she is meeting his family under, the details behind what’s happening here, and that someday-probably soon even- they’ll go back to...well, she hopes that they’ll at least still be friends.

Even if they stop hooking up.

Danielle goes right up to Stephanie in the kitchen, the two of them whispering to each other in a way that immediately reminds Aub of Kaylee and Cam, enough that she has to fight back a laugh. But it’s Will’s parents that really draw her attention. Michael and Camilla are exactly how she’d pictured from every story Will’s ever told her, full attention on her as soon as she and Will enter the kitchen.

“This is Aubrey.” Will introduces.

“Hi!” She smiles, hoping it’s bright and warm enough to hide her nerves.

And it works- or more likely, Will’s parents are as perceptive as he is- because they jump right into chatting easily with her.

She loves them immediately.

They’re warm and friendly, like they’re welcoming her, even though they’re the ones who spent hours on a plane recently. Will’s mom- Camilla, she insists- draws her into a conversation about her family right away- “William told me you have many siblings as well.” “Mum!” “Mum, they’re the best!”- which keeps them going for a while until Michael reminds them they have a reservation to keep.

“You can keep talking at the restaurant.” He teases Camilla, who’s glaring at him. “Some of us are hungry!”

She rolls her eyes at him- a look that is so similar to one Aubrey’s seen Will make a thousand times- but it serves to get all of them moving. They do keep talking at the restaurant, Camilla shoving her own son out of the way to pull Aubrey in the seat next to her, and Daniella sliding in the seat on her other side before Will can grab it, only for him to mutter something to her in Swedish, sending her quickly sliding over to the next one.

Dinner seems to fly by but it’s actually a few hours later that they’re returning home, pulling out a bottle of wine for a night cap. Aubrey’s just about preparing to go home to her own place before Will’s mom stands up and kisses the top of her head, right in line with all her own kids, promising to see her in the morning, and then the night wraps up and Will’s pulling her into his room, like it’s any normal night.

“Are you-” She trails off abruptly as Will walks right to the closet, like no strange thing. But, what did she even want to ask? Are you sure you want me to stay? It’s not going to be weird if I do?

“What’s up?” Will pops his head out of the closet.

“Nothing.” Aubrey shakes her head, moving to brush her teeth. She’s not even sure she knows where that question was going; she can’t explain why tonight feels weirder than any other night that she’s climbed into his bed before.

It does though, and that’s made even more evident by the way she tosses and turns once they climb into bed and turn the lights off, settling in on what’s become her side of the bed, right after she brushes her teeth and runs through her nightly skin routine.

It feels like it shouldn’t be so hard to sleep- it’s been a long day, following a long week, preparing for Will’s family to arrive, but she can’t seem to get comfortable and her thoughts are racing.

She rolls over again, facing Will this time, only to find him looking at her with amusement. “You okay?”

“Can’t sleep.” She admit, biting her lip

Will grins, pulling her close. “I can fix that.”

“I’m not having sex with you while you’re parents are here!” Aubrey hisses.

“No?” Her breath hitches as his fingers dance lower down her stomach and then-

“Will!” She laughs, as he gently pinches a ticklish spot.

“Shh!” He’s grinning, she hates him so much. “My parents are-”

“Don’t say it.” She says, surging up to kiss him so he can’t finish that sentence. God, she hopes his walls are thick.

-----

“Stop.” Aubrey hears Will right outside the door. “Go away.”

She can hear one of his sister’s respond, but the actual words get lost in the chaos of her own sisters’ FaceTime, which she’s wrapping up as she lies in bed. It’s loud enough outside that she knows Will’s family is awake already, bright enough that she probably should get up, but she’s too comfortable to make herself move.

“Daniella!” She hears, followed by something in Swedish just as the door opens and a blonde head pokes in.

“See! She is awake!” And that’s all the warning she gets before Daniella is jumping up right next to her.

“Daniella!” Will snaps again, but Aubrey’s already sliding over to make room for her.

“She’s fine.” She assures him, wrapping her arm around Daniella’s shoulders as she cuddles in close.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Daniella says to her brother, not bothering to pull herself away from Aubrey’s iPhone screen, where she’d barely wasted a minute before jumping into chatting with Kayls and Cam.

Will’s leaning against the dresser and shaking his head in amusement, watching as Aubrey manages to finish up her call (a task much harder with Daniella in her ear, calling just as much nonsense back as her sisters do), but there’s a soft smile on his face that Aubrey almost can’t bring herself to look at, so she starts twirling her hand through the ends of Daniella’s hair.

“I can’t believe you two.” Daniella huffs, and she’s so much like Will, just loving her hair played with; Aubrey tries to hide her grin because she knows he’d fight her on it if she had to say it out loud right now. “Not even inviting your sisters here for the weekend.”

“Why would we invite ourselves into that kind of roast?” Will says dryly. “The two of you are bad enough.”

“Like you’re not going to talk about us anyway,” Aubrey adds. “I’ve seen the receipts.” She teases. “I know you talk about us on instagram.”

“You talk about us on instagram?” Will demands immediately.

“No.” Daniella says, unconvincingly.

“They talk with my sisters every day.” Aubrey whispers to him and laughs when he turns his outraged face toward his sister, who avoids his gaze completely.

“Seriously?” Will cries.

Daniella shrugs. “We have a lot to say.”

“I’ll give you a lot to say.” Will says, mock-threateningly, before throwing himself on the bed on her other side and poking his finger in her side until she’s laughing so hard that she’s begging for him to stop. He does, after one last poke, which Daniella returns with a pout. “Go get dressed.” Will nudges her. “Or Aubrey’s going to go to brunch without you.”

“Aubrey wouldn’t do that.” Daniella says confidently, standing to leave. “She’s nicer than you.”

Will barks out a laugh. “Is she?”

Both Nylanders turn to look at her, just as she’s swinging her legs out of bed and Aubrey shrugs. “I wouldn’t leave your sister behind.” She says, grinning when Will laughs and Daniella’s got her phone out of her pocket before she even leaves the room.

-----

Will and Alex are close. Aubrey knows this. She knows they talk pretty much everyday whether it’s texting, Facetiming, or even actual phone calls. They’re brothers, sure, but more than that; they’re best friends.

And maybe that’s why it’s hard not to shrink under Alex’s gaze the second they meet. It’s not that he’s not friendly when Will introduces them, returning the smile she gives him.

It’s just that his gaze feels piercing in a way that none of the rest of his family did. It feels like Alex sees through all of her but more than that; he’s studying all of her and doesn’t like what he sees.

God, she doesn’t know what she’s going to do if Alex doesn’t like her.

She tries to be bubbly and bright, more listening than contributing to this conversation that’s mostly just brothers catching up. She knows that dinner later, and at their early Christmas celebration tomorrow, will really be when she gets to make her big impression on him.

“Willy!” John Tavares calls, looking apologetic about the interruption.

“Be right back.” Willy pats her arm gently before jogging down the hall and now Alex’s full attention is on her. Now she can’t help but shift her weight from foot to foot, even as Alex smiles at her. “So, Aubrey, huh?”

She fights back the urge to bite her lip. “Yup.”

“It’s exciting to finally meet you.” He grins and Aubrey’s jaw drops a little. “Will talks about you all the time.”

“He-he does?” She asks quietly. It’s about the most unexpected thing Alex could have said to her.

Alex bursts into laughter. “Uh yeah.” He says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, but before she can press anything further, Will’s back, slinging his arm around her shoulders and squeezing her into his side tightly.

“Ready for second dinner?” Will presses a kiss to her temple.

“Always.” Aubrey leans into him, ignoring the knowing look that Alex is sporting currently and the feeling in her stomach that doesn’t quite feel like butterflies.

-----

Aubrey tries to give it a few days after the Nylander’s leave town, hoping the feeling in her stomach will calm itself, but when it’s been a week and it hasn’t settled, she’s forced to admit that she’s going to need outside help.

Can you let me in? She sends, when she’s sure she’s outside the right door.

Open. Come in.

She frowns at the response, opening the door. “I don’t love that!” She calls as she walks deeper in the condo. “You should really-” She stops abruptly, as a blonde whips her head around to glare at her and Auston stares at her wide-eyed. “Oh!”

“Oh?” The blonde repeats, kind of mockingly, but also seething, and Aubrey doesn’t really know what to do, so she looks over at Auston, who’s pointedly avoiding both of their eyes. “Unbelievable.” She shakes her head, shoving past Aubrey and only when the front door slams does she hear Auston breathe.

“What the fuck?” She asks him immediately, “You could have just said no, it wasn’t a good time to come over!”

“I wanted her to leave!” He protests. “I tried everything! She even volunteered to come take Felix on a walk with me!”

Aubrey cackles, barely managing to compose herself at Auston’s glare. “Well, go and get his leash. We can walk and talk.”

She gets quickly distracted by Felix’s excitement for a walk, snapping like twenty pictures on her phone, before Auston finally prods her about the reason she even wanted to meet today. “So what’s up?”

She takes a deep breath. “Am I in love with Will?”

“Are you in love with...are you fucking kidding me?” Auston responds immediately, looking at her like he had that day they were at Sick Kids- like she’s completely missing something that everyone else knows.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes.” She says reasonably.

“Oh my fucking god.” He says, sounding distressed. “Don’t you have, like, a therapist for this shit? How did I get drafted for this?”

“I mean, yes, I do, but I haven’t gone into the details of it with Dr. Seth before this and I don’t think an hour would cover it.” She says; she’s thought about that already. Auston rubs his temples. “Stop that.” Aubrey chides. “Your hairline is bad enough.”

“Well you’re not helping!” Auston cries. “Jesus Christ, am I in love with Willy? Where the fuck have you been?”

“Egypt, I guess.” She says and he stares at her flatly until she explains. “Denial?”

“Fuck off, I hate you so much. Oh my god.” He groans. “Willy would have laughed so hard at that, fuck you.”

The worst thing is that she knows he would have. He’d have laughed and laughed and laughed, his eyes crinkling and his smile bright and warm, so loud that she couldn’t help but join in.

“Holy shit.” Auston says quietly, watching the smile on her face. “You’re really in deep.”

“Ugh, yes.” Aubrey groans, covering her face. “I hate it. I hate these feelings. I hate not knowing. I hate-”

Auston cuts her off, choking out a laugh. “Not knowing? Not knowing what?” And then he chokes again, once he looks over at her. “Not knowing if Will-” He stops abruptly looking like he’s got a secret that he shouldn’t be telling. “Come on, you aren’t this dumb.”

“You’re being serious?” She says quietly, looking over at Auston hopefully.

He avoids her eyes, bending down for a minute to pet his dog, but Felix absolutely betrays him by trying to run towards a new smell on a nearby bush, giving him absolutely nothing to look at instead of her. “I mean, come on.” Auston gives her a look. “Don’t make me say it.”

“Did he say it?”

“No.” Auston shakes his head, tugging gently on Felix’s leash to turn around. “But Aub, really? He brought you to meet his whole family.”

“He met mine too.” She reminds him. “And so did you!”

Auston shakes his head. “You...you just don’t see how he looks at you.”

Aubrey bites her lip, but she can’t resist asking. “How does he look at me?”

Auston doesn’t even have to think before he responds. “Like the rest of us aren’t even in the room.”

“Oh.” She says quietly, looking down at the ground. Felix is just trotting away happily, like Aubrey’s entire world hasn’t been flipped on its axis.

Auston, at least, seems to recognize the effect of what he’s said. “Look, even if you’re not ready to talk with him, just, like, look at the guy. You’re not in this alone.”

She’s definitely not ready to say anything, but, well, she could give that a try. Just try and see what Auston sees.What everyone sees apparently. “Alright.” She agrees.

“I won’t say anything.” Auston adds. “You two can figure this mess out on your own.”

“You’re the best.” Aubrey declares, leaning up to kiss his cheek.

“I know.” Auston smirks, pulling Felix’s leash out from under her feet.

“Jerk.” Aubrey laughs, shoving his shoulder gently. “If you didn’t have the second best dog in the world right here, I’d push you harder.” She crouches down to scratch Felix’s ears, only for Auston to pull him out of her reach.

“Second best?” He cries, outraged. “Nuh-uh. You don’t get to pet my dog after that kind of disrespect.”

“I just ranked your dog above Zeus!” She protests. “But Pablo’s my boy.”

Auston releases his hold on the leash a little and Felix trots over toward her arms as he teases, “I thought we just agreed Willy was your boy.”

“Yeah, well,” Aubrey scratches behind Felix’s ears, smiling as his tongue lolls out. “Man’s best friend.”

-----

Will’s acting funny when Aubrey sees him the next day.

She only catches him for a few minutes before the game, when they briefly cross paths at his place when she goes to pick up a jacket she left there, and she doesn’t know how to explain it, but something just seems...off.

It’s like...he barely looks at her when she’s in there digging around what’s become her side of the bed and then he brushes past her, muttering something about how he needs to go and for her to just lock up whenever she’s done, which would be fine, except he usually waits for her if she’s around when he leaves so they can walk out together.

Something’s just off.

“Are you sure you didn’t fight about anything?” Steph frowns at her, later that night. “Even like a small, stupid thing that maybe you brushed off? Because you do that.”

“No!” Aubrey swears. “At first I thought he was just annoyed about the book, because the book I’m reading right now takes place in Sweden, so like every few pages I ask him if it’s real? Or what it’s like?”

“God, you must be the most annoying girlfriend.” Steph giggles.

“Don’t even, I know everything about you and Mitch.” Aubrey pokes her and Steph giggles again, admitting defeat. “But no! He wouldn’t even look at me! Something’s up!”

Steph purses her lips. “That is weird.” She admits. “It’s very...not Will.”

“No!” Aubrey cries. “Will doesn’t sit and let things stew! He doesn’t care enough about what people think about him for that.”

“So why is he acting like this then?” Steph asks and Aubrey blows out a frustrated breath.

“I don’t know!” She says. “And I just want him to tell me what’s going on.”

The rest of the game is fairly uneventful for the two of them, slipping quietly out of their seats after the win and chatting between themselves and a few other friends as they all wait. One by one, the boys all make their way out of the locker room, and Aubrey frowns as even Auston and John walk out, stopping briefly to chat with her, before even they go, until finally, finally, Will steps out, his face flickering when he sees her.

“Hi?” She says, a little annoyed.

“Hi.” Will says, like nothing’s just happened, like he didn’t just do a double take of the worst kind at her mere presence.

“What’s wrong?” She frowns, reaching out for him and gently sliding her hand on his forearm.

“Nothing.” There’s no other word for it; Will flinches.

“Will.” Aubrey breathes as he shrugs off her arm.

“It’s nothing.” He repeats. “I’m just tired.” Which is so clearly a lie and she frowns, ready to call him out, but he reaches for her hand and says, “Let’s go eat,” with such finality that she doesn’t really know how she’d bring it up.

All she knows is that his hand feels cold in a way it never has before and the silence they sit in at dinner is like nothing she’s ever felt with him, even before they started sleeping together.

-----

“Merry Christmas!” Cam throws open the front door dramatically before Aubrey, Will, Steph, and Mitch have barely even shut their car doors. “Come on, you’re late!”

“Oh boy.” Aubrey mutters and she hears Steph and Mitch laugh.

Will, however, is as quiet as he’s been all drive up to her parents for their annual Christmas Eve party- as quiet as he’s been all week, as he’s been since whatever happened- and it makes her wonder why he even came. She’d told him he didn’t have to come if he didn’t want to; he’d just given her this tiny smile and asked her what time they had to pick up Mitch and Steph.

“How are we late?” Steph asks, as all four of them start yanking off coats and scarves the second they walk in the door. “None of the neighbors are even here yet!”

Cam huffs at that bit of logic and turns on her heel, walking away from them as they laugh, which cues Aubrey’s brothers into their arrival. Tye and Danny poke their heads around the corner of the wall, calling for Mitch immediately to show them how to do something on a new video game, but right away they’re thwarted by their mom. “Later.” Mitch whispers to them, as Tye and Danny grin, following the four of them into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, they find Aubrey and Steph’s moms working in tandem- the way they always have on Christmas Eve- to finish the appetizers and set food out. They stop only briefly to greet their daughters and their daughters’ boyfriends, and to direct them on where to put the desserts they brought, before they’re shooing them all right back out.

“Dads in the basement?” Steph asks, like they all don’t know the answer already, and Danny nods, leading the way down the stairs, where Fitz and Ryan have already started a beer pong game against Mike and Tom.

“Shotty next.” Mitch calls, while he waits for Aubrey and Steph to say hi to their dads.

“You gonna be able to walk back next door?” Fitz snorts out a laugh.

“That was one time!” Mitch protests. “Nobody warned me how much drinking there was on Christmas Eve!”

“It’s like we hadn’t spent the last four months together before that.” Aubrey deadpans, focusing more on watching Will greet her stepdad with the same enthusiasm as he had her mom, and her brothers, and Cam.

But then, he comes back to her side, and when she goes to tangle their fingers together, his hand stays limp, just kind of letting her do what she wants, not returning the gesture at all, instead of pulling her closer like he used to.

“Guess I thought you two were the anomaly.” Mitch teases. “Then I learned I’d have to bring my A game all the time.”

“Yeah buddy.” Tom says, looking over at his daughter’s boyfriend right after he sinks Fitz and Ryan’s last cup. “Who’s with you?”

-----

By the time Mitch and Will get demolished in beer pong, Aubrey and Steph are fighting back a laugh at their dads’ light buzz already going and the neighbors have started to arrive, which brings a temporary pause to pong play for more introductions.

The neighbors all love Will, which, of course they do. Aubrey’s not surprised at all. He’s funny and charming and personable, just has this air that draws people in, and every one of her mom’s friends finds her at some point after they meet Will to gush about how wonderful he is.

“Yeah.” Aubrey says, almost helplessly to Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Morris, as she watches Will with Kayls and Cam across the room. “He’s pretty great.” They smile knowingly at her, Mrs. Jones winking as she passes, leaving Aubrey to watch them with a fond smile on her face.

It’s Will who notices her staring first, because of course it is. Kayls and Cam are oblivious to everything around them. He catches her eye, still laughing about whatever they’re talking about, and there’s a second where his smile grows when he sees her, a second Aubrey feels a grin growing across her own face.

And then it all stops abruptly as something flashes over Will’s face, and as quick as the grin was there, it’s gone.

Aubrey frowns and watches as Will returns to talking with Kayls and Cam again, but notices the smile on his face seems forced now. She wants...well, she doesn’t know exactly what she wants, but she’s tired of not knowing what’s going on with him.

“Hey.” Fitz nudges her shoulder. “It’s too early for you to be sad about going to your dad’s tomorrow. Come take a shot with me.”

“I-” It’s not that. She starts to say, but stops herself. Today’s not the day to try and tease out whatever’s going on with Will. Whatever it is could wait until after Christmas. “Yeah, sure.”

Fitz grins, leading her over to the makeshift bar, corralling a few friends as they go, but by the time he starts pouring, the crowd around them has gotten bigger. Will’s standing next to her, but the space he’s left between them feels so purposeful, and it only makes Aubrey frown as she listens to Fitz’s Christmas toast, as he cheers to a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, to good friends and great family. “And a way too cool future brother-in-law.” He jokes. “Don’t fuck this up, Aub!”

“Yo!” Mitch protests loudly as Aubrey feels the breath get stuck in her chest.

She can’t even look at Will, so tense she can hardly bring her shot glass up to her mouth. The alcohol barely even burns and she knows it’s not because she’s too drunk to taste it; the numbness of her brother’s comment still stinging, and it’s well after she’s deposited her shot glass on the counter that she realizes, “Where’s Will?”

Mitch frowns, looking behind them. “He was right here, wasn’t he?”

Aubrey nods slowly, trying to stand on her toes and search for him. “Can you just-” She starts.

Steph’s right on her wavelength. “You look up here; we’ll check downstairs.”

Will is nowhere to be found on the main floor, so she heads upstairs and finally finds him in the room they’d thrown their bags in earlier. “Hey.” She breathes out a sigh of relief. “There you are.”

“Here I am.” Will says quietly. He’s in front of the taller dresser, looking at the bulletin board covered in pictures from high school and college- one of the few relics left in the room from when it was hers before her mom refashioned it into a guest room.

“I’m sorry about Fitz!” She blurts. “He didn’t mean any-”

“We should be wrapping up soon, right?” Will says abruptly, interrupting her.

“What?” Aubrey frowns, shocked. That is...not at all what she thought he’d say.

“This?” He gestures between the two of them. “Like, Mitch and Steph definitely think we're a thing. Can call this off soon?”

“Um.” Aubrey tries to breathe but something’s definitely restricting that ability. “We…what?”

“We can stop this pretending.” Will says, like it’s obvious, and Aubrey feels her stomach drop. This...this was all pretend to him. “Do that break up that’s going to crush them. The whole reason we did this.”

“Right.” She swallows the lump in her throat. “Uh yeah, we can do that.”

Will shrugs. “Cool.” He says, and then turns and walks away, leaving Aubrey standing there wondering where exactly she went wrong.

-----

“Ok.” Steph snaps her fingers and only then does Aubrey look up from the Leafs vs. Calgary game that her best friend invited her over to watch that she’s paying absolutely no attention to- and hasn’t actually been able to focus on all night. Her best friend is standing in front of her, holding a new bottle of wine, and looking concerned. “I’ve asked for your glass like four times now. What’s going on?”

Aubrey bites her lip and holds her glass out. If she’s going to do this, they’re both going to need refills. “I have to tell you something.”

Steph frowns immediately but fills Aubrey’s glass and then her own. “Uhh, ok? What’s up.”

Aubrey doesn’t know whether she needs a deep breath or a sip of wine to settle her nerves. She goes for both. “Will and I aren’t together.”

And maybe...maybe that was the wrong way to phrase it, because Steph’s face just falls. “I’m so sorry, babe.” She says, reaching out and rubbing Aubrey’s arm. “I really thought-” She shakes her head and Aubrey’s still trying to figure out what she said wrong, what she can say to make her see what she really means. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Aubrey says and Steph looks like she wants to reach for the wine bottle and pull her in for a hug at the same time, until she continues. “No, I mean; Will and I aren’t together now because we were never really together at all and no, I’m not okay either, actually, now that you mention it.”

Now Steph frowns uncertainly, like she doesn’t know what to say. And that look? The one on her face right there? If it didn’t feel like her heart was already breaking, she’d be cherishing that look.

Now she can’t even enjoy it.

“You’re going to have to explain this one to me.” Steph says, her voice carefully neutrally.

So Aubrey does- beginning with the night that Mitch and Steph had had them over and her and Will’s plan to get them to stop nagging, to when they’d started sleeping together, to how it felt like they were together for real and on the same page, right up until they weren’t.

“I wanna be so mad at you right now.” Steph says, after a long silence.

“You should be.” Aubrey admits. “I would be.

“Well, you’re making it really hard looking so sad.” Steph glares. “And being so dumb.” Aubrey’s jaw drops, even if the callout is probably well deserved. “Will looks at you like you are the center of the universe. He looks like his entire day has gotten better every time you walk into the room. For God’s sake, he willingly met your dad on Christmas last week! You cannot honestly tell me you think he doesn’t really want to be with you!”

“He told me he wanted to stop!” Aubrey cries. “He was the one who said we should do the breakup!”

“Well if you don’t want to, then tell him!” Steph dares.

“Stephanie.” Aubrey frowns.

“What?”

“I can’t do that!” Aubrey hisses.

“Why not?” Steph pours another glass of wine for herself and then passes the bottle over. Aubrey accepts eagerly. “Did Will tell you why he wanted to stop this...dating thing?”

“...no.” Aubrey sighs. It’s another thing that’s been driving her crazy.

“So ask him.” Steph says plainly. “And tell him you don’t want to stop.”

Aubrey bites her lip nervously. “But what if he says no?”

“Honestly the worst thing that happens here is that you still break up.” Steph says gently. “But this really just sounds like a matter of you two actually needing to talk about where you stand. Will’s not a mind-reader, Aub; he can’t have known you didn’t want to stop things, especially if this was all your idea in the first place.”

Ugh, she’s right. “I hate everything about this.” Aubrey sing-songs. “Including the fact that you even introduced us.”

Now Steph grins. “You do not hate that we introduced you. You just hate feeling vulnerable.”

That’s too accurate to address, so Aubrey flips her off and reaches for the wine again.

-----

Will picks her up for the Leafs annual New Year’s Eve party and it’s unfair because no one should look that good dressed in black pants and a sweater, but there’s Will waiting by the car with a beanie on his head and a pea coat left open, for maximal torture is the only reason Aubrey can think of.

“Hi.” She breathes, running across the street to him as best she can in her heels.

It takes him a second to respond. “Hi.” He says finally, opening the door for her. “You uh, planning on blinding us all tonight?” He teases, once he slides into the backseat of the uber with her.

Aubrey giggles at the lame joke as she looks down at her glittery skirt. It’s such a lame joke but she’s just so relieved he even made it. That they still have dumb things to laugh over. “Hmm, over-under on how many of us are wearing something sparkly tonight. 10?”

“Over.” Will answers immediately and she giggles again.

The ride doesn’t take long so it’s only a few minutes before they’re pulling up to the club, where they run into Travis Dermott and his girlfriend exiting their uber at the same time. “Nine more.” Will whispers in her ear, as Kat turns to greet them, and they both catch sight of a sparkly tank under her jacket.

“Hush.” Aubrey bites back a laugh, but only barely, before she pulls Kat in for a hug. Inside is about as loud as she’d expected but once they all step upstairs into the VIP section roped off for them, it’s easier to hear, easier to think, and easier to breathe.

Or at least, it is for a moment. She can feel Will’s eyes on her from across the room, where he’s at the bar ordering drinks for the two of them, and she and Kat have gone to say hi to more people.

“So, uh.” Steph says, in lieu of hello. “I don’t think Will’s being weird anymore.”

When Aubrey turns and follows Steph’s eyes, Will’s still looking at her, unashamed in his gaze or getting caught. He winks back at her, grinning when she smiles at him. “No.” She says slowly. “I guess not.” Steph just grins at that, kind of smugly, and Aubrey huffs at that, turning away to greet Morgan and Tessa behind her.

It’s not long before Will returns with drinks, still grinning as he pulls her immediately to the dance floor. He pulls out some of his most ridiculous moves and Aubrey laughs, harder and harder the more she drinks, and then finally falling against him after he and Mitch attempt the Toosie Slide together.

“Why are you laughing?” Will demands, wrapping an arm around her waist and taking her hand, leading her into some weird kind of slow dance, even as the song changes into something by The Chainsmokers.

“I just like seeing you like this.” She grins.

His brow furrows. “Like what?”

“Just-” She doesn’t know how to explain it. How open he is right now, how loose and easy and warm he looks because he’s just able to be himself, and how happy she feels to be with him, especially when he’s like this. “Just happy, I guess.”

Will grins again and presses a loud kiss to her temple, that she barely has time to giggle at, because he says, “Always happy to be with you,” like it’s the most casual thing in the world.

And Aubrey gasps in shock, but she doesn’t think Will even notices, because he’s dipping her back over his arm right after that and then she’s too busy laughing again.

-----

Steph flops down on the remaining couch seat and ignores the look that Auston sends her in favor of fanning herself with her hand. “Sure.” He says dryly. “I’ll move over a little.”

“Would you? Thanks.” She snickers and he shakes his head fondly at her.

“How about you?” He looks over at Aubrey. “Gonna squish me in the corner even more?”

Aubrey’s already settled herself on his other side, on the edge of the couch. “Nah, I’m good here.” She bumps her shoulder against his.

“Is it even possible to squish you in the corner?” Steph muses.

“Why are you squished in the corner?” Aubrey asks, confused. “What, you couldn’t find a date for New Year’s?”

“I make it a point to not bring dates to holiday parties.” Auston says and Aubrey’s jaw drops.

Steph’s snickering into her palm though, so it’s clear this particular brand of assholery isn’t unfamiliar. “Holidays and events.” She cackles. “Keep those expectations low.”

“Although now that I know that all it takes to make a girl leave is to just have you walk in my house the next morning…” Auston trails off thoughtfully.

Aubrey shoves at his head, ruffling his hair on purpose, but she can’t help but laugh along with him. “Don’t you fucking dare. I’ve got better things to do than that.”

“Like what?” Steph says, too innocently to be real. “Will?”

“I’m leaving.” Aubrey stands, as Steph and Auston both laugh. “I don’t have to listen to this.”

“Is noon good tomorrow?” She hears Auston call after her, while Steph cackles next to him. “How about 12:30?” She flips him off over her shoulder, without looking back, instead pushing her way around Fred and his new girl, to find Will where she’d left him at the bar with Mitch.

But at the bar, she finds only Mitch, who’s looking a little confused. “Where’s Will?” She asks.

“Um.” Is all Mitch says and Aubrey frowns immediately.

“Mitch, what happened?” Aubrey says flatly and Mitch caves right away.

“I don’t know!” He says. “We were just ordering drinks, watching you guys, everything seemed fine, and next thing I know, he was walking away!”

“Well where did he go?” She asks impatiently, barely waiting for Mitch to point before she’s shoving her way through the crowd.

It feels like she circles the entire building before she finally finds Will, and it’s more like she happens to run into him than she actually finds him, which just annoys her even more, enough that she grabs his hand and pulls him outside to a spot far enough away that it’s quiet enough to talk.

It’s not quiet- it’s still New Year’s Eve and there’s people all around them going up and down the street- but it’s far enough from the door that they can’t feel the music anymore, at least.

Will’s staring at their hands, still linked, but he’s not saying anything, and even though she’s the one who dragged them out into the cold, he’s the one who started acting weird in the first place, and she feels her annoyance grow. “I thought we were having a really good time tonight?”

Will sighs. “We were.” He pauses. “I was, at least.”

“Ok, I was too.” Aubrey says slowly. “So, what happened?”

Will sighs again. “Look, it’s fine, like this was never supposed to be a thing with us, yeah? I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at me. I’ll get over it.”

She’s so confused. “Get over what? Why are you mad?”

“I saw you,” Will says. “Coming out of Auston’s one morning. I was driving past, after practice on my way home.” He shrugs, almost casually, but she can see in his face how hurt he is. “And like, we were never supposed to be a thing.” He repeats and she frowns. Why does he keep saying that? “So I’m not mad at you and I can’t even be mad at him. But I saw you and Matts together and I knew I liked you more than you liked me.” He shrugs again, trying to play off his words as light as casual, but Aubrey’s trying to put the pieces together of what he said. “I know you’d rather be here with him tonight, but that’s why I can’t do this anymore.”

“Oh my god.” She breathes. “You’re so dumb.”

“Hey!” Will protests.

“We’re so dumb.” She corrects, because, really, it’s the truth. “I was at Auston’s that day because he was the only one who knew about us at the time and I needed to talk to someone about if I’m in love with you!”

Will doesn’t move for a second, the longest second of Aubrey’s entire life. “Where, uh, where’d you land on that one?” He asks, like he’s kind of nervous for the answer.

And Aubrey can relate; there are butterflies in her stomach, even though she’s positive she knows how this is going to end now. “Pretty strongly in favor for.” She says and Will beams, that bright smile that lights up his entire face. “I didn’t get to tell you earlier, but I’m always happy to be with you, too.”

“That’s good.” Will says mildly, and Aubrey grins, waiting for the rest. “Because I really love seeing you smile like that.”

Her jaw drops a little. She’s not upset about what he said at all; it’s just so not what she expected him to say. And in that moment of silence, Will grins down at her once more, before leaning down to kiss her.

-----

It’s late the next morning by the time Aubrey tumbles out of bed, yanking a t-shirt of Will’s over her head. Will’s been up for at least an hour already, and she kisses his cheek as she passes, giggling as he lightly pats her ass in return.

“Coffee’s still warm.” He says.

“I still love you.” She teases. “That’s not changing just because you kept the pot warm.” Will flips her off and returns back to the game he’s playing on his Switch. “Have you seen my phone?”

“Near the front door.”

Most of her stuff is still by the front door, thrown hastily down when they’d come in late last night. Her phone’s still got a little battery left, filled with messages from late last night and earlier this morning, but one in particular catches her eye.

Steph LaChance: i told you so 😉

#william nylander #william nylander fan fic #william nylander fanfiction #william nylander imagine #Hockey Fanfiction #hockey fanfic #nhl fanfiction #nhl fanfic #nhl imagines #hockey imagines #my hockey fics

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dontcare77ghj · 4 years ago

Text

Inked

Natasha x reader x Wanda

"You know those cause cancer, right?" Mal asked, entering your office. "And you're gonna stink out your office."

"The window's open." You shrugged, exhaling slowly and sending the smoke out the open window. "And you and I both know, cancer isn't something I'm scared of."

"Yeah, yeah, death licks your boots." Mal rolled her eyes, blowing a strand of blue hair out of her eyes. "Anyway, I'm going on break, Blaine's with a customer, and we've got a walk-in."

"I'll handle it." You promised, putting out your cigarette. "You going to pick up Erin?" You asked the younger girl.

"Yeah, I'm gonna drop her off with a neighbor. May offered and wouldn't let me refuse." She told you.

"Well, here. Get Erin something sweet for me." You said, shoving a twenty into her hands.

"Y/N, I can't." Mal started, trying to give you the money back.

"I insist." You cut her off. "I want to be her favorite aunt." You shrugged, forcing her to curl her fingers around the money. "Go, get your kid, and give her a hug for me."

"Will do, boss." She nodded before leaving.

"Hi, welcome to SkinPolish. How can I help you?" You asked, entering the main room to see the back of a man. He was looking over the walls of the store but turned at your entrance.

"Just so you know, I'm not here to get stabbed a thousand times," Clint told you with a grin.

"I think your day job provides you with enough of that." You joked, wrapping your arms around him. Clint chuckled as he returned your hug, pulling you close. "It's been too long, geezer."

"I know, you've got at least four more tattoos since the last time I saw you, you hoodlum." Clint teased you.

"It's been two years, Clint. Some of us had to change our identities." You reminded him, pulling back. "What are you doing here?"

"I need your help." He told you.

"Blaine, watch the shop." You said without taking your eyes off the man before you.

"You got it, Y/N!"

"Follow me." You told Clint. You led Clint out of the front of the store and into your office. "Clint, I left when SHIELD fell. I handed in my clearance and took off." You said, lighting another cigarette. "I'm not doing any more work for them."

"Don't be like that." Clint groaned, sitting on your desk.

"First off, get the fuck off my desk. Where are the manners Laura shoved down your throat? And secondly, I can't come back. Fucking HYDRA was running SHIELD for years, and none of us knew. All our information was in their hands. Who knows what they took? I have people I care about, Clint. I can't risk anyone's lives." You told him.

"I'm not asking you to do anything for SHIELD. I'm asking you to help the Avengers." Clint explained.

"Even better, a more public job." You scoffed. "Clint, we're friends. We've been through a lot. I get why you're here, but why the fuck would I risk the people I care about for another mission?"

"Argentina." He said simply.

"That is a dick move, and you know it." You groaned, finishing your smoke.

"I do know it, but I have to use it. We need your help." Clint said, rising from your desk to stand in front of you. "We need your help, kid. I wouldn't be asking if I had another choice."

"Fine." You relented after a minute. "When do you need me?"

"Tomorrow," Clint told you. "I'll pick you up." He added before going to leave.

"You don't know where I live." You protested.

"Yeah, I do." Clint corrected you. "I'll see you at nine." He said, and with that, he was gone.

"Fuck me." You sighed, rubbing your hand across your face.

"Remind me why I agreed to this again?" You asked, watching as the Avengers Compound grew closer through the window.

"Because you love me," Clint responded cheekily.

"Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart." You rolled your eyes. "You never even told me what I'm needed for."

"Briefing's in half-hour," Clint told you. "Which gives you enough time to get acquainted with everyone." He added as the car slowed to a stop.

"You know how I feel about crowds of people."

"It's not a crowd. It's the team and Maria. You're fine, kid, I promise." He said.

"Fine, let's get this over with." You sighed, unclicking your belt.

"Avengers!" Clint called as the two of you moved further into the maze of a building. "I have a surprise for you all!"

"Is it a unicorn?" A male voice asked as you both entered what looked to be a meeting room.

"Even better. Gentlemen, and Wanda,"

"Smooth Barton." A redhead coughed.

"This is Y/N L/N." Clint continued his introduction. "A specialist in all fields, especially disguise, and the only reason we might do our job today."

"Oh, so I'm doing your work for you again, Barton? Nothing's changed, I see." You commented.

"Hey! That's not true! Name one time that's ever been true!"

"I can list fifty off the top of my head." You said, raising a brow at him.

"I can add sixty-seven to your list." The redhead piped in. "Natasha Romanoff." She introduced herself.

"Pleasure Agent Romanoff." You smiled. "C'mon Barton, formal introductions, please."

"Yeah, Barton. Introduce us."

"Y/N, this is Tony, Steve, Bruce, Thor, and Wanda." Clint gestured. "Are you all satisfied?"

"Not particularly, since you still haven't told me what you need my help for." You said, crossing your arms.

"You haven't even told her that. Jesus Barton." Wanda snorted.

"I was getting to that. I was waiting for you all to meet." Clint whined.

"Well, we're met." You said, taking an empty seat beside Natasha. "C'mon, what am I doing here?"

"There's a gala tonight," Natasha said, handing you a file. "A man named Jayden Reeds is going to be in attendance. Reeds has stock in several large companies, but that's just a front. Reeds actually has ties to HYDRA and deals in human trafficking. From what we've gathered, Reeds kidnaps people who will seemingly not be missed. They're then delivered to HYDRA bases around the world and never heard from again."

"Am I here to kill him? Because I can get behind that." You said, shaking your head.

"Wait till you hear the rest," Clint told you.

"There is a possibility Reeds also has his own collection. He's been spotted with several women who have all disappeared shortly after."

"What's the connection between them?" You asked.

"They're all French brunettes."

"So let me guess, my job is to go undercover tonight and see if he takes the bait. And when he does, I bring him in."

"Bingo Boingo," Tony told you.

"Well, I guess I better find a long sleeve dress. Oh, and maybe a wig."

"You know, if I didn't know better, I would have assumed your accent was real myself," Wanda commented later that night.

The mission had gone as smoothly as could be. Reeds had fallen for your act believing you to be a young French brunette on vacation in America's busiest city.

You hadn't even needed to corner him as he'd followed you into a woman's bathroom with two other men.

You hadn't given any of them a chance to move or say anything before you had them unconscious on the ground.

Now you were heading home, still decked out in your gala gown, with Natasha, Wanda, Clint, and Tony.

"It's not that good. No matter how much I practice, even my Italian's better than my French." You shrugged.

"Not that good?" Tony snorted, glancing at you in the rearview mirror. "Sweetheart, if I weren't engaged and I met you in Paris, I'd take you back to Hotel Plaza Athenee and show you a time."

"Cute, Starky boy, but you're not my type."

"I'm everyone's type."

"Sorry, hon, but I like women." You told him. "This is my stop." You added as Tony pulled over.

"You live here?" Natasha asked, looking around the neighborhood in distaste. You could understand her aversion to the area. Any one of your neighbors would move in an instant if given the choice.

"Yep." You said, unclicking your belt. "Been here since SHIELD crashed."

"Did SHIELD pay this bad?" Tony questioned you.

"SHIELD pay wasn't great, but it was something. I saved most of it, but a lot of it went to making sure Y/N Smith, the tattoo artist from the wrong side, wasn't connected with Y/N L/N, SHIELD agent." You shrugged. "Didn't see a point in moving after." You added. "This was fun. We should do it again sometime." You said, sliding out and holding the door open.

"We'll give you a call if we need someone to do all the work for us." Clint nodded.

"Great. Come by the shop if you ever want a free tattoo. Clint knows where it is."

A part of you was sure you wouldn't see any of the team again. They led much more busy lives than you did, and their schedules were forever changing.

So imagine your surprise when Natasha and Wanda entered your shop the next day just to simply chat. And they continued to do so for a week. Sometimes Clint would come, Steve had popped in for a few minutes while on a run, but Natasha and Wanda visited every day.

On the seventh day, the two came in at one in the afternoon with Tony.

"Hey, Tony. I didn't know you were coming to lunch with us." You said, continuing to lock up the shop. "I'll be ready in a couple minutes."

"Great, but there's been a slight change of plans," Natasha said, watching you closely.

"As long as foods still involved, I won't be too bothered." You shrugged.

"Food is involved. It's just going to take us a while to get to it." Tony cryptically informed you.

"Guys, I'm running on twenty minutes of sleep and caffeine. Please, no cryptics." You sighed, narrowing your eyes at the three.

"Relax, we're not trying to hurt your head." Tony chuckled. "We have something to tell you."

"But first, step this way, away from any possibly hidden weapons," Natasha said, gesturing you forward. "No-one should get a knife to the head because they shocked you."

"Haha." You rolled your eyes, walking forward. "For the record, I did that once. And Clint caught it." You added. "What did you three do?"

"Technically, Tony did it," Wanda said, pointing a thumb at the billionaire.

"Real smooth, Sabrina." Tony scoffed. "Alright, yes, I did this, but I did it out of pure kindness."

"Did what?"

"I've had all your stuff moved out of your apartment. I've had it moved into a spare room in the Compound," Tony announced.

"Put it back, Tony." You demanded, crossing your arms. "My things aren't yours to touch."

"You live in a shitty neighborhood." Tony defended himself. "You have eight security systems of your own just to keep yourself safe. You won't find a new place of your own volition, so I found one for you."

"Tony, you moved my things into the Avengers Compound." You sighed. "I'm not an Avenger."

"Yet." Tony cut you off. "You are more than qualified to join the team. The way you helped us the other night, the way you took those men out and got the information quicker than we would have done. You can be an Avenger."

"I'm not risking those closest to me." You shook your head. "I gave up Y/N L/N when I left SHIELD. I have people in my life now, civilian people, who could get hurt because of me."

"Than don't let them," Natasha said. "I've been through your records, know how many people you helped and protected. Protect those you love just as you did all the strangers. You can still lead this life as well as one where you can protect people again."

"At least try temporarily," Wanda suggested. "Give it a month trial period and see if you can remember what it feels like. If it doesn't work out, you don't have to do anything you don't want to. And if it does work, you can join our team. Please." She added, giving you puppy dog eyes.

"Fine. A trial period." You sighed, pushing your hair back. "But no more using those eyes. It's evil, and you know it." You said, pointing at the witch.

"Yes, she does." Natasha smiled, putting her arm around her girlfriend's waist. "C'mon, there's a car waiting to take us back to the Compound."

"Where Tony ordered lunch," Wanda added, putting her hand out to you to take.

"At least he did one thing right." You joked, taking her petite hand.

"Hey!"

You had been staying at the Compound for almost a month. There were four days before the end of your trial period, but you hadn't made your decision yet.

There was still a part of you that thought it would no longer be safe for the civilians in your life if you joined the team. If you entered the Avengers, you might have to give up this identity and everything and everyone that came with it.

But there was something about being around the team that ignited a spark within you. A spark you long thought had burned out. You longed for adventure, for that adrenaline rush that came with being undercover and the pride you felt at helping someone.

You were torn between two worlds. Torn between two personalities.

"Jesus Christ, you smell like an ashtray," Natasha complained as she suddenly appeared by your side. You snapped out of your daze just in time to see Natasha take the smoke out of your hand and take a drag for herself.

"Didn't know you smoked." You commented, watching her exhale the smoke slowly.

"I don't. Not anymore." Natasha shook her head. "Just couldn't resist."

"Don't expect me to kiss you until you brush your teeth," Wanda said, skipping into the room and crossing her arms as she stared at the two of you. "I want a tattoo." She announced, staring you dead in the eye.

"Okay. Do you want me to find a parlor for you in the morning? I have a couple friends who owe me a favor or two." You suggested.

"No, I want you to do it," Wanda told you firmly. "As soon as possible if you would."

"And you're sure about this?" You asked, raising a brow. "You're sure you want a tattoo and that you want me to do it?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"Alright, then. Follow me." You said, leading the two back into the Compound and into your room.

"You have a gun and inks in your room?" Natasha asked, looking your makeshift parlor over.

"Yep. Set it up the night I arrived, gave myself this the next." You said, lifting your shirt to reveal the healing tattoo on your hip.

"Geez, you know most people drink a bottle of scotch to welcome themselves to a new place? Not give themselves a tattoo." Natasha informed you.

"Probably." You nodded, beginning to set up your station. "Okay, Wanda, what did you have in mind?"

"I want the words, 'Ty namnogo bol'she' to wrap around my wrist," Wanda said, tracing around her thin wrist with her finger.

"Alright, I can definitely do that. But you might have to write it down for me. My Russian's not that great." You informed her.

"We'll have to work on that," Natasha said as Wanda began to write it down.

"Alright." You began after Wanda handed you the spelling. "Let's get started."

"I love it." Wanda smiled, watching as you gently wrapped her wrist. "It's perfect."

"I like to do my best." You grinned, putting the last of the tape down. "Make sure that stays moist. And do not scratch it under any circumstances." You instructed her as you began to shove your equipment away in plastic tubs.

"You need a better system," Natasha commented. "Yours is kind of a mess."

"I'll update my system when I change this room around." You said, looking around the nearly bare room. Everything you owned was in plastic tubs or bags. You hadn't been bothered to unpack yet.

"Does that mean you're planning on staying?" Natasha asked. "Have you made your decision yet? To join the team or not?"

"Not yet. I'm still trying to decide." You sighed, leaning against the wall. "I like not giving a shit. I like waking up in the morning and paying too much for a shitty cup of coffee. I like going to work and being around people who've never had to see the shit we have. I like not having to feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders, but I miss it.

I miss being a part of a team. I liked saving people. I enjoyed going on missions, creating new personas to get what I needed done. I miss being around people who've seen the shit I have. Who know what the weight of the world feels like.

Now I don't where to go. What I need more in my life." You told them.

"We told you, you don't need to pick one world," Wanda said, standing from her stool. "You can still save people and drink over-priced coffee. You can still be with people who share your trauma and be with those who don't. You don't have to pick one world."

"Can we help your decision along by us asking you out to dinner?" Natasha asked, breaking your pensive silence.

"Excuse me?" You asked, for once being taken aback by another person. "I think I went temporarily deaf there. Can you repeat yourself?"

"Let us take you on a date," Natasha repeated slowly. "We were thinking about dinner and wine and then a night at the opera." She said, causing your nose to scrunch up without thought.

"She's kidding." Wanda giggled. "Actually, we were thinking we get a couple beers, order a pizza, and watch a movie in our room."

"Can I pick the movie?" You asked her.

"With your crappy taste, no." Wanda shook her head.

"Okay, now she's kidding," Natasha said, taking three steps forward to stand beside her girlfriend. "Of course, you can pick the movie."

"And this wouldn't hurt your relationship?" You asked tentatively. "I wouldn't ruin what you already have?"

"You could only add." Wanda smiled.

"So, what do you say? You wanna go on a date with us?" Natasha questioned you.

"I'd love to."

"Go away.” You groaned, rolling away and under the covers into Natasha’s body.

“Wakey, wakey. Up and at ‘em you two.” Wanda ordered, pulling the blankets off the pair of you.

“Wanda!”

“Both of you will forgive me when I tell you I have coffee.” Wanda rolled her eyes, sitting on the bed beside you.

“The overpriced kind?”

“What other kind is there?” Wanda asked. “C’mon sit up or no coffee for either of you.”

“Alright, alright, we’re up.” Natasha said, sitting up with you on her chest. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

“I love you.” You groaned after taking the first sip of your steaming beverage.

“Are you talking to me or the coffee?”

“Can’t it be both?” You shrugged before grabbing her hand and kissing her palm softly.

“As long as there’s love for me too, it can.” Natasha told you.

“I love you too, Nat.” You promised, kissing her collarbone.

��After today’s meeting, I want you to give me a tattoo.” Natasha announced. “I don’t care where is is, but I want ‘YA zasluzhivayu lyubvi’.” She told you.

“Alright then. I like this plan.” You smiled, looking up at your girlfriend. “You know I think I’m due for some new ink myself.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you can choose for me.” You shrugged. “I trust you both, always.”

Once, you left SHIELD and it’s lifestyle behind. And then one day Clint Barton walked into your shop and brought you back into it.

He brought you back to the life you missed and brought you to Natasha and Wanda.

Remember all Taglists are open as are requests.

Taglist

@rvgrsbrns @smilexcaptainx @hopingforbarnes @starlingelliot @piper-koko-barnes-rogers @jelly-fishy-babie @skeletoresinthebasement @agent-barnes40 @reann-loves-sebstan @skadikh @summergeezburr @buckybarton03 @sunshinepower17 @bindythedemon @natasharomanoffismywife @keenmarvellover @bbybarness @storiesbystarlight @buckybarnesplumwhore @bromieeeomieee @marvelmenarebeautiful @niki-is-a-thing @pauloonig @abyssiniapleasant @beautybyfire @officalmarvelbaby

Natasha Romanoff Taglist

@natasha-danvers @5aftermidnight @ohfuckno

All women Taglist

@imnotasuperhero

#natasha romanoff #natasha x reader #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x you #wanda maximoff #wanda x reader #wanda maximoff x you #wanda maximoff x reader

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sunlight-moonrise · 5 years ago

Text

The Price (Reid Imagine)

Summary: Reader is a technical analyst for the BAU. She did not expect to be smitten by the resident genius.

A/N: This is my first time writing a fic as well as my first time writing smut. I’d like to thank @spencer-reid-in-a-pool for beta reading my work (you’re a gem and I’ll fight for you). Also a quick thank you to @imagining-in-the-margins and those in the discord for being so welcoming and helping me with this. The fic is inspired by @erin-bo-berin Sweet Cheeks.

Category: Fluff and Smut

Content Warnings: Oral (female receiving), fingering, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, rough sex

Word Count: 6.0K

Masterlist

There are a lot of things I enjoy about this job. The salary is decent. My coworkers are pretty cool. I get to interact with a sexy genius from time to time- you know, the usual that comes with being employed by the government.

I started as a technical analyst for the BAU a few months prior, working alongside the one and only Penelope Garcia with assisting the rest of the team behind some computer screens. Coding and hacking is second nature to me so the job is not too difficult. It was either this or facing some years in jail because I couldn’t cover my tracks fast enough. Looking at mangled and mutilated bodies on a weekly basis is better than prison.

I get along rather well with the team. I pretty much call everyone by a term of endearment, much to Garcia’s delight. It was one of the things we had in common and helped us get along with one another much faster. I sometimes can get carried away with the innuendos, but Garcia welcomes everything I say with open arms.

I typically save my more sensual remarks for the doctor. I remember the good old days when he used to be so tongue-tied by my actions. Now my words barely surprises him.

A voice broke my concentration. “What got you thinking so hard, angel?” I turn towards the person, a smile already adorning my face. Lo and behold, Dr. Spencer Reid has graced me with his delectable presence.

“Would you believe me if I said that I was thinking of you Doc?” He had a small smile on his face. I could pretty much categorize all the smiles he uses because of how often I stare at him. I mean, it is a tragedy to not stare at such beauty. This particular smile means that he is content and comfortable.

“May I ask exactly what it was that you were thinking about?” he asked.

“I cannot share the sordid details of my mind with you just yet darling. You’ll just have to use that beautiful mind of yours and conjure up something imaginative.”

He let out a small laugh and helped me carry the files I was juggling. My eyes immediately went to his hands. The things I’ll let those hands do to me. I bet only one is needed to perfectly wrap around my -- No bitch, focus. We got a case to present in five minutes. Right, right. Work now, daydream later.

We entered the conference room, where the rest of the team was already sitting at the round table, waiting for us. I gave out the files with Spencer’s help while Penelope started up the monitor.

“You guys are staying local but time is of the essence” she informed us. The TV lit up with four pictures of young boys. “We have a kidnapping case at Stafford County.”

“Were they kidnapped at the same time or place?” asked JJ as she skimmed over the report I handed out earlier.

“No” I said as I pointed to the two younger boys on the screen. “Jacob Rivers and David Hall were taken from their respective homes 48 hours ago” I then pointed to the two slightly older boys “Benjamin Harris was taken 12 hours ago at a park and Scott Turner was taken from the mall less than 6 hours ago.”

“Do these boys have anything in common?” Morgan asked out loud.

“Other than physical appearance and age group, these boys don’t have any similarities. They didn’t even go to the same school. As a matter of fact, David Hall was home-schooled.” replied Garcia.

“Garcia and I couldn’t find any common ground in the families’ educational, economic, or social backgrounds either” I added. “Once you guys take off, we’ll do a further dive into their personal histories.”

“The UnSub is already escalating, kidnapping from a private home and kidnapping from a crowded area within hours of each event is fairly drastic” Rossi stated.

“Maybe the Unsub is on a time frame? They could be feeling pressured and desperate” Emily questioned, trying to come up with some kind of initial profile.

Hotch already started standing up. “We’ll know more after analyzing the crime scenes and talking to local PD. Let’s head out.” The rest of the team followed, gathering their files and making an exit towards the door while Garcia headed for our office. Spencer lagged behind a bit and I already knew why. We have a little tradition of bidding farewell to one another before he takes off for a case.

I stood next to him, bumping my shoulder against his upper arm. “Don’t miss me too much while you are out there.”

“The more you remind me I have to leave, the more I want to stay here.” he grinned.

I snorted at his words, knowing that he was full of shit. There is nothing more that Reid loves than being out in the field. “Go be a hero and come back to me in one piece pretty boy.”

“Yes Ma’am.” he replied as he went to follow the team towards the elevator.

I swear that boy is immune to my teasing now. I miss seeing his face become flush, but I also enjoy the playful repartee we have now. I remember the first interaction I had with Spencer quite vividly. It truly was a comical moment.

“Everyone this is (Y/N) (Y/L/N). She will be working alongside Garcia.” Hotch stated as he introduced me to the team. I have already met him and Penelope prior to being presented to everyone else.

“Derek Morgan, pleasure to meet you.” Whoa. If tall, dark, and handsome was a person, Morgan would be fit for the role. He offered his hand, which I immediately took.

“The pleasure is all mine” I replied with a wide smile.

I directed my attention to a much older gentleman. “David Rossi” said the Italian man who reminded me of a mob boss.

“Charmed to meet you.” I shook his hand, surprised by the strength behind it. Those older bones are still working for him.

Next came the petite blonde, whose figure I was both envious and enamored with. “Jennifer Jareau, but everyone here calls me JJ for short.”

“In that case, please call me (Y/N/N).” I shook her hand, and became even more envious with how soft her skin was. She has got to tell me her secrets.

I focused on the brunette with shoulder-length hair. “Emily Prentiss”. My God, I think being attractive is a requirement for this team. She offered her hand to shake and her grip was firm. Note to self, forget about Rossi; don’t get on Emily’s bad side.

“Nice to meet you.”

I turned to the final individual and was blown away by his beauty. Yup, my previous thought has been confirmed. Only good-looking people are allowed pass these doors. His bone structure looked like it was sculpted by Roman artists. His body was lean and slender, reminding me of a runner’s physique. My eyes stared up to the softest hazel eyes I have ever seen.

“Dr. Spencer Reid.” he introduced. I offered my hand immediately, wanting to feel his skin against mine.

“(Y/N) (Y/L/N), but you already knew that,” I said softly, my hand still out. He just stared at it as if it was an anomaly.

“Uh-the amount of pathogens passed through a handshake is astounding. A high five transmit half the number. But even then, a kiss is much more safe.” he quickly stated as he nodded his head. I almost didn’t catch any of it. Partially because of the rapid speech, partially because I was staring at his lips.

“Hmm, that’s news to me. However, if a kiss is what you want…” I lowered my hand and took a step closer to him. My eyes slowly moved from his eyes to his mouth and then back up. He took a slight step back.

“N-N-No, that’s not—I-I mean that —uhh...” His face was flushed and his tongue shot out to run against his lips. His eyes quickly darted across the room, seeking some help. I felt a sense of pride knowing I made this man flustered.

“I’m just teasing Doc.” If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was frightened by me. Maybe he was, but the blush on his face and the way he kept staring gave me further information on him.

“Don’t mind Reid,” Morgan said, coming to the young man’s rescue. “He has a thing with germs.” He finished, a smirk plastered on his face. Well, I hope he soon develops a thing for something else. Or rather someone else.

I was just about to make another sly comment when Hotch interrupted. “Back to the case at hand.” He gave us all a pointed look. Right, I am at my first day at work. I’ll focus on hot doctors with hotter smiles and the hottest face at my own time.

“Yes sir,” Garcia stated, as she started pushing buttons on a remote. The TV turned on and pictures of three different women showed up on the screen. They all looked to be strangled to death. “You guys are needed in Toledo, Ohio.” Garcia goes on to describe the case while the team starts the early stages of conducting a profile.

“Wheels up in 30.” Hotch says and the everyone disperses. Garcia walked up to me and handed me some documents from the case file.

“C’mon cupcake, we gotta do some preliminary work to get the case going much faster.” I followed her to what she called the “bat cave”. I scanned the small room and immediately fell in love. Computers and monitors littered almost every inch of the place. I saw a lot of colorful knickknacks displayed on one side of the desk, knowing already who they belonged to. The area was endearing and had a cozy feel to it.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding. This place is a dream come true.” I am sure she can hear the awe in my voice.

“I know, right. Wait until you actually use it girlie, the framework on these things is out of this world.” I sat myself on a chair nearby and rolled in front of a screen.

“Alrighty. You can do some background checks on these girls while I gather more information from the police reports. Let me know if there are any commonalities among any of them. We’ll relay that info with the team.”

“Gotcha babe, I’ll have the information ready ASAP.” I responded, already typing away on the computer. I’m already starting to like it here.

*Later that day*

Garcia and I haven’t found much in common between the victims of the crimes, much to our dismay. I was left in the office to continue searching for important information on the girls while she went to fax some data to the precinct when the phone started to ring.

I quickly answered and put it on speaker. “(Y/L/N) at your humble service. How may I serve you?”

“Oh-uh is Garcia around” replied a high-pitched voice, which I immediately recognized as Reid. I don’t know whether or not I should be insulted that he wanted Penelope or pleased that I probably still have him flustered.

“She’s a bit pre-occupied at the moment. But rest assured I can find whatever you need Doc. Especially if you ask nicely.”

“Uh-I need you to pull up information on the mothers. We think they were all in the same sorority, however not necessarily at the same time. We need a list of all the members of the sorority from the time the mothers joined with a 3-year pre- and post-graduation.”

“No problemo sweetness. Anything else I can do for you? I have a lot of other services that can be helpful.” I stated, a teasing tone in my voice as I already set up my search.

“No-no, that’s all. Um thanks.” I can already picture the blush coating his cheeks as he stammered his response.

“Alright love, call me back if you need anything. Or if you change your mind.” I hung up the phone and started organizing the list in front of me.

And from then on, I have enjoyed pretty much all the moments I had with the BAU. It took some time, but Spencer now has accepted and even returned my little flirtations. We often get compared to Garcia and Morgan. But with a lot more sexual tension, at least on my end. I have to remind myself from time to time to calm down before I combust in the middle of a conference room or the bullpen. C'est la vie.

I made my way to the cavern of all things amazing and settled in front of my computers. Pen looked at me with a knowing expression on her face. “You’re gloomy.”

I pouted as I put my earpiece on. “I am not gloomy, I am horny,” I rebuked.

“How long has it been since you got some?”

“I’m not sure but it feels like I have not gotten any since the Stone Age,” I groaned out.

“I don’t know why you don’t just tell him how you feel,” she pointed her pink glittery pen in my direction, “I bet he would fuck you right here if you let him.”

And there goes my thought process, as always, overtaken by Spencer Reid. “Babe, please. This is not helping my situation.”

“Just telling you how it is.”

●●●

We have been sitting in front of these screens for hours. The team has made some progress but they’re missing an important piece to fit the puzzle. Garcia has been looking into the background of the neighbors when I heard a small stomach grumble coming from her direction. I let out a laugh as she huffed out “I am going to grab a snack from the breakroom, you want anything boo?”

“If it ain’t alcohol or chocolate, I don’t want it.”

“Noted,” she said as she left the room. I really hope she finds a couple of cupcakes or something.

I continued trying to get information on these missing kids when my headpiece played the Doctor Who theme song, informing me that Einstein was calling in. “Goddess of knowledge and wisdom at your disposal.”

“I didn’t know I had Athena at my fingertips.” How is it possible that nine words have short-circuited my brain just now? Is it the voice or the way he basically called me a Greek Deity? Probably both.

Of course I slyly responded, “Oh my Hephaestus, you have all of me at your fingertips.” I heard a chuckle and I immediately knew it belonged to Morgan. A slight blush crept onto my cheeks when I heard a random voice asking why Spencer called his girlfriend in the middle of a case.

“I should have mentioned that you were on speakerphone.”

“Naughty boy, you know I charge extra for groups.” Now this was followed by some choked out noises and a bunch of giggles. I could only assume the whole precinct was amused by my antics at this point.

“Can you ever forgive me?”

“I can, for a price.”

“A price?”

“Yes, a price that I would inform you of in private. Now the reason for your call…” I drew out. Thank goodness Garcia wasn’t here. I don’t need her looking at me as if I am a phone sex operator.

“I need you to check foster children between the ages of four and eight within a 25-mile radius. We are looking for a homosexual couple that were looking to adopt but were rejected. The names should be on multiple applications among different sites. Let me know what you find.”

“I’ll have that information at the palm of your hands soon” Meanwhile, I am over here wishing that I was at the palm of his hands.

“Thank you, my Goddess” I can’t help but smile when he says things like this. Since when were the roles reversed in our friendship?

“Anything for a gorgeous worshipper. TTYL.”

Garcia chose that moment to walk back in while I had this silly grin on my face. She stared at me and I already knew what she was going to say.

“If you don’t have a piece of chocolate or a cocktail on you, I am not talking.”

All she did was laugh at me.

●●●

The team was able to find all four boys safely. The UnSubs were a male couple who wanted to adopt but kept facing discrimination against the agencies. It is a shame that they felt they had to resort to kidnapping in order to have a family.

Now Garcia and I are scanning the notes the team faxed to us earlier today. They informed us that they would be back here in half an hour or so.

“Shoot, I didn’t think it would take this long to scan these damn files.” Garcia murmured. I looked over at her and saw a small stack of documents that still needed to be put into the system.

I walked over and grabbed the pile from her. “Go, I’ll take care of it from here doll.”

“Are you sure? I feel bad. You did your portion of the work already.”

“Don’t you have to be at the rehearsal in 20 minutes? How is the theater going to operate without their main lead?” I placed the documents on my side of the desk and moved to gather Garcia’s belongings. I picked up her purse and jacket before handing it to her, quickly pushing her towards the door. “I got this, think of it as an IOU.”

“Yes, yes, yes, I owe you big. Thank you sugar, see you tomorrow.” Garcia hurriedly exited the door and headed towards the elevator.

I looked towards the papers, a low groan leaving my mouth. The faster I go through this, the better.

●●●

I was just finished implementing all the documents into the computer when I heard a knock at the door. I turned around and saw Spencer’s head peeking through. “Evening handsome, to what do I owe this visit?”

“Garcia passed by me a while ago and informed me you were in here finishing some extra work. I wanted to check on you; see if you needed my help.”

“Thanks Doc, but you’re a few minutes too late. I already finished scanning the files. Besides, you’re not the best with technology, much less these computers.”

“Maybe not. But I am a fast learner and I pay close attention to detail.” Either my ears were playing a trick on me or Spencer’s voice lowered an octave or two.

I remembered what Penelope said earlier today and decided to just go for it. “I could collect on that price from earlier.” I leaned against the desk and stared into his eyes. C’mon Doc, pick up the hint. Rather, pick me up instead.

“Well I was thinking that I can get you dinner.” he said, a hint of excitement in his voice.

That’s great, but not what I had in mind. “I was hoping for something else” I looked into his eyes, then slowly trailed my eyes downwards. Kiss me. Kiss me. Touch me. Lick me. Fuck me. Kiss me.

Unfortunately, Spencer is not a mind reader. He lowered his head and looked slightly dejected. “Oh well umm—would you prefer to go to a theater?” Oh Doc, you sexy, naïve, intelligent, innocent man. I guess if you want something you have to do it yourself.

I sat on the edge of my desk. “Come here Spencer.”

His head perked up, slightly intrigued since I rarely call him by his name. He walked to where I was sitting but there was still space between us.

“Closer, I don’t bite.” Unless you want me to.

He moved closer to me and I was able to rest my hands on his shoulders. Thankfully the height of the table let us be more at level with one another.

I made sure to look into his eyes as I said “I am going to kiss you. If that isn’t something you want, tell me now.”

He was speechless. His mouth was moving but no sounds came out. If the circumstances were different I would have appreciated seeing his rattled expression once more. I waited a few seconds, but he still has yet to say anything.

“Spen-mmh” before I knew it, his mouth was upon mine. He gently cradled my face as his lips moved against my own. My eyes closed as I felt nothing but bliss. As cliché as it sounds, I was in paradise because of this kiss alone.

His tongue peeked and swiped against my lower lip, trying to have a taste of me. I was more than happy to grant him entrance, a moan leaving my body as his tongue touched mine.

All parts of me were trying to feel him. I had one hand in his hair while the other grabbed onto the back of his shirt. My chest was pressed against his while my legs lazily wrapped around his midsection. His scent was intoxicating to me. It was a coffee-like smell as if he just walked out of a café. He tasted so sweet, all I wanted to do was keep his mouth on mine. But my body needed air so I slowly pulled away.

He tried to catch his breath as his forehead rested against mine. “So you don’t want dinner?”

“Doc the only thing I am hungry for right now is you. We’ll get food afterward, alright?” Spencer nodded his head while licking his lips. My eyes hungrily followed the action and I just had to get another taste. I pulled him towards me, his hands once again holding onto my face. He was much more dominant with this kiss, and I was more than willing to give him the control. His hands then trailed down to my hips and pulled me closer to his pelvis. I jerked against him and was rewarded with a groan.

He squeezed me tighter as his lips broke away from mine once more. He placed a peck on my lips, then my cheek before trailing down my neck. I felt my body heat up as I released a small moan. Fucking hell, he is going to be the death of me and we barely did anything.

Spencer started to lightly nibble on my neck when I pulled him back by his hair. “It is summer and I am not wearing a turtleneck in 80° weather. If you’re gonna give me some hickeys, they better be on my chest.” He murmured something that I couldn’t quite comprehend before undoing the buttons of my blouse.

Hell, I am not the only one who is gonna be undressed so I started unbuttoning his dress shirt as well. It was a race to see who would get the other’s shirt off first. Of course I lost because my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. But when his warm lips kissed their way towards the middle of my cleavage, I felt like a fucking champion.

I tried my best to shimmy out of the sleeves of my blouse while Spencer attempted to take my bra off, his lips still leaving a love mark against my chest. Once we got rid of the shirt and the bra, his mouth immediately enveloped one of my nipples.

“Fuck” I yelped loudly, “a little warning next time Doc.”

“Sorry” he muttered as he continued to suck on my breast while palming the other between his dexterous fingers. That had to be the most insincere apology I have ever heard from him. An idea came across my head. I slowly removed his shirt, watching it pool on the floor. I then raked the nails of one hand across his chest while the other pulled against his hair. Hard. He retaliated by lightly biting my nipple. Fuck, the plan backfired. Abort mission, abort the damn mission.

Spencer let out a small chuckle as he pulled away from my breast, an audible pop leaving his mouth. My hands went to his face and I moved him up to look at me. His eyes were dilated and his mouth was swollen. His face was flush and he was taking deeper breaths than usual. He looked so beautiful like this.

He had a dorky smile on his face and I realized that I said the words out loud. I felt my face heat up fast and he swiftly commented “I’d never thought I’d see you be so thrown off because of me.”

He rested his hands against either side of the desk and just looked at me. “Shut up and kiss me.” I hissed, already missing the warmth of his skin against mine.

“Where do you want me to kiss you?” he asked. I was about to reply when he interrupted “Do you want me to kiss you on your lips? Or maybe you want me back on those beautiful breasts of yours?”

Have mercy on me, I never believed Spencer Reid could make me so wet just with his words. Sure, I thought of it, but I didn’t believe it would happen to me.

“Maybe you want me to go lower. Should I place my lips on that pussy of yours?” Oh my fuck, I never want this moment to end. I nodded my head so quickly, I could have sworn I given myself whiplash.

“I want to hear you say it,” he breathed out.

“Yes, yes, please. I want you to eat my pussy. Please.” I begged. Dignity be damned.

“That’s my good girl” How is it possible that he went from the dorky adorable doctor to this assertive, stimulating specimen in a matter of minutes? I didn’t think he had a sensual bone in his body. But I am glad to be proven wrong.

Spencer lowered himself to his knees while I clumsily attempted to rid myself of my skirt and panties. I lifted my lower body up as he pulled the clothing off of me. Penelope would have a field day if she knew that I was sitting butt naked on the desk with Spencer Reid between my legs. Hell, I am having a field day knowing this.

Spencer, being the teasing bastard that he has been for the past few minutes, started kissing my legs first. “That’s not where I said I wanted you to kiss me” I huffed out.

“Hush” was all he said as he continued the slow trail up, making sure to alternate between each leg. I was already breathing as if I have ran a marathon, my patience was waning at this point. Finally, he made his way to where I needed him most. He put his hands on my thighs and pushed them further apart.

My hands landed on top of his head, playing with the curls. “You’re comfortable down there Doc?” I snickered, loving the sight of his head between my legs. All he did was nip my inner thigh harshly. I shrieked at the action. I’m starting to think this man has a tiny biting fetish.

I wasn’t ready for when his tongue parted my folds. I squeaked as he teasingly lapped the arousal that had formed the second he walked into the room. I tried rolling my hips but his hands made me stay put on the desk. I never knew he could hold me down like this. I couldn’t even be mad because the pleasure he was giving me was incredible.

Spencer continued to tease me, his tongue never going where I needed it most. He made sure to explore as much as possible as leisurely as possible. “Spencer, please” I cried out. He let out a small hum, the vibration causing a shiver to rack my body.

His tongue finally entered me, much to my delight. No amount of imagination could have ever prepared me for the things this appendage can do to me. He continued this soft, flat movement that was driving me crazy. My hands tightened in his hair, hoping he would go a bit faster.

“You taste so good princess, I don’t want this to end.”

“That’s my Queen to you” I jested. He didn’t like that since he responded with a resounding smack against my outer thigh. Ouch, note to self, Spencer doesn’t like being teased during sexy times. Hmm. On second thought, continue to tease Spencer during sexy times.

I felt his finger probe my entrance, moving up and down before pushing inside of me. I let out a distressing whine as he started slowly moving his finger in and out of me, curling as he did so. His mouth was on my clit, sucking and kissing it as if he has done so all his life.

My body started heating up and trembling. I tried, and failed, to roll my hips against the movement. “Spe-Spencer” I wailed. He didn’t relent.

Spencer entered a second finger into me as his tongue gave small, flickering motions against my bundle of nerves. I had to move one hand to my mouth to prevent any loud noises from being heard outside the room. Shit, did we even lock the door?

That thought immediately left my mind as my core started to tighten. Spencer must have known that I was getting close to my orgasm because he moved his fingers more diligently within me. I felt his fingers curl as they pulled out, I felt his tongue lick thoroughly against my pearl, I felt my ecstasy rising within me. It took one more deep press of his fingers and a harsh suck for me to come all over his face. I bit down on my fingers as I moaned out loud.

“That was so much better then what I imagined” I panted out, the words barely coming out comprehensible. I had a giant smile decorating my face.

He pulled his face up, a smug grin gracing his face. “Is this what you were thinking about earlier this morning?” he taunted. I couldn’t even give him a smartass remark because I was too busy trying to come back to reality. He pulled his fingers out and held them in front of my face.

“Open” he ordered. I complied and he pushed his fingers inside of my mouth. “You look so pretty when you follow instructions well. See how good you taste.”

I pulled my head back, taking his fingers out of my mouth. “I bet I taste a lot better on that tongue of yours.”

He tangled his hand in my hair and pulled me to a kiss. I immediately opened and welcomed his tongue against mine. I was right, I do taste better on him. I let out a deep moan and pulled away far enough to gently bite down on his lower lip.

He looks at me, that devilish tongue of his running against his lower lip before entering my mouth once again. With his lips still on mine, he picked me up and move to sit on my desk chair. It was nothing short of a miracle that we managed not to fall on the floor.

I placed my hand on top of his erection through his slacks and he drew a quick intake of breath. I started palming him as I grinded myself against him. I pulled back as I whispered, “I need you, Spencer”.

“Y’know this is the most I have heard you call me by my name in any given moment we have been together.” He unzipped his slacks and pushed down his pants and boxers as much as he could with me on top of him.

I looked down, finally being able to see his cock. Is it possible to get aroused further through sight alone? Because I think I creamed myself again. God, I wish I could show him my oral skills, but we’ll save that for another time.

“Would you rather I call you by something else?” I asked, attempting to move my lower body so that it can align with his cock. I say attempt because Spencer currently had his hands on my thighs again.

“No, I like the way my name sounds as you moan it out. Don’t hide your pleasure from me this time.” He maneuvered my legs to rest upon the armrest on either side of the chair, leaving my pussy wide open for him.

I gave him an incredulous look. “Are you forgetting that we are at work?”

He started rubbing the tip of his cock against my lower lips. “I didn’t forget. I just don’t fucking care.” And with that, he slowly penetrated me.

We both groaned at the intrusion. He gradually started entering me as I adjusted to his size. Inch by inch, he gave me all of him until he was buried to the hilt. I took a moment to savor the feel of Spencer inside of me before I started grinding against him. He took that as a hint to begin thrusting.

He started slow, taking his time and having us enjoy the feeling of one another. ��Your cunt is so fucking tight” he hissed into my ear and I gave out a loud whine.

“That’s because you have such a big cock, Doc” I managed to moan out. He smacked my ass before grabbing each cheek tightly in his hands. “I want you to call me by my name” he grits out.

“Spencer, baby please give it to me. I’ve been waiting for this Spencer, I’ve been waiting for you.” He started kissing my neck once more and my eyes started to closed. I wanted to focus on the pleasure he was giving me.

He tightly grabbed me, moving my hips along with his thrusts. I was close to being pushed over the edge once more. The only sounds occupying the room were our moans and skin smacking against skin as we chased our pleasure.

“Open your mouth” I heard him say. I opened my eyes to see his thumb positioned over my lips. I let out a small whimper as I sucked his digit earnestly. I made sure to coat his finger with a lot of saliva, knowing exactly what he was going to do with it when it was out of my mouth.

He pulled his thumb out and immediately placed it on my clit. I gave out an embarrassingly loud sob as he started moving his finger against me in soft circular motions. I placed my lips on his neck, trying to muffle the noise coming out of my throat.

Spencer quickly grabbed my hair and pulled my head away as he started to slow down. “How many times do I have to tell you that I want to hear your pleasure?” In that moment, Spencer controlled my mind, body, and soul.

“I’m sorry Spencer. I’ll be your good girl, please don’t stop.” He returned back to the previous pace and thrust into me even harder. We both started chasing our orgasms, not being able to hold back any longer. He was pounding into me relentlessly and I was loving it. I am sure that I am going to be sore after this.

“Come for me (Y/N), I want to feel this tight cunt squeeze around my cock.” Say less, I am already ahead of you. My eyes were rolling to the back of my head and I felt my pussy pulsate around him. With one last motion against his thumb, I cried out his name multiple times as I climaxed.

Spencer whispered my name as he continued pushing into me, chasing his own orgasm. He thrust a couple more times before quickly pulling out, spilling himself over my stomach. I panted as I laid my head against the crook of his neck. His fingers thrummed a slow rhythm upon my lower back.

“So about that dinner... do you want to get Indian food?”

“Yeah, I can go for some samosas right now.”

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