#no shade to nancy sincerely

[blushweddinggowns]

Part 2 to this!

Eddie had never considered himself to be a lucky person. Could anyone really blame him? For one thing, he was eaten alive last year. And that wasn’t even counting the fact that he had been a twenty-year old, drug-dealing highschooler before he was sent to literal hell. All after witnessing multiple horrifying homicides. 

But now that he had Steve Harrington on top of him, shoving his tongue down his throat like his life depended on it, he felt like the luckiest man in the world. 

Part of him still couldn’t believe that it was happening at all. He had been fully prepared to just play the part of the pining best friend and suffer through his unrequited crush. He even convinced himself that it would slowly disappear after he got off the high of seeing Steve all bloody and gorgeous in an alternate reality.

But it didn’t. It just got worse and worse. Eddie’s crush just bloomed into a full-blown love. Because Steve Harrington was nothing like he expected. Eddie had never experienced this much whiplash when getting to know someone before. Steve went from highschool bully, to a monster fighting badass, and landed on an adorable, snarky goofball who Eddie basically wanted to spend the rest of his life with. 

It had felt like such a long shot when he asked the question. The question that had been haunting him for months, but Eddie couldn’t help but ask. Not after everything he’d seen. At first he thought it was all in his head, just his overactive imagination trying to convince him he wasn’t alone in his feelings. 

But then he started noticing things. Like how Steve was always available to him, even when he had better options open. It was around the third time he witnessed Steve tell a pretty girl, “Sorry, I have plans tonight,” for him to raise a brow. Because the only plans he ever had was doing stupid shit with him. 

It was when he actually rejected Nancy in favor of getting high and listening to music in Eddie’s room that he got optimistically suspicious. It made him pay more attention, the little voice inside his head was getting louder and louder, that told him, maybe, just maybe, Eddie wasn’t the only one in love here. 

So Eddie let himself get a little bolder, terrified all the while but determined to figure out what was going on here. 

It was small things at first, touches that he would let linger. A hand on Steve’s waist when they puttered around the kitchen together, always giving him a little squeeze before he let go. Brushing his bangs out of his face, his hand curling around his ear before pulling away. Resting his head in Steve’s lap when they were sprawled out on the couch, talking about nothing and everything for hours. 

He didn’t miss the way Steve’s cheeks would redden at every touch, or the sweet little smile put on when he thought Eddie wasn’t looking. It made him feel emboldened, and terribly hopeful. 

So he let himself do more, obvious things that were not normal between two male platonic best friends. He waited until night, because despite what Steve said Eddie was not a brave man. At least then if Steve rejected the hell out of him, he’d never have to see his face. 

In theory it should have been easy. They shared a bed almost every night anyway, Eddie always making easy excuses to explain away why Steve didn’t need to go home. 

It was too late, it was cold outside, the trailer was closer to his work anyway, he could still be high from a hit he took two hours ago, Eddie wasn’t above a single excuse. And Steve never complained, he’d just nod along, agreeing to whatever stupid thing Eddie could think of for the night. 

They slept back to back, trying to hold onto some semblance of normal between them. And Eddie would be lying if he said the thought of breaking it didn’t scare the hell out of him, but that didn’t stop him from draping an arm over Steve’s waist one night. He had pulled him against his chest, heart on the verge of exploding as he waited for Steve’s reaction. 

He hadn’t expected him to turn over in his arms, and Eddie had been almost sure that he was doing it to ask him what the fuck he was doing. But Steve just sighed, all relaxed and happy as he snuggled into his chest, wrapping his own arm around Eddie’s waist.  They woke up tangled together, happy and restful. 

They never talked about it, but every night when Eddie opened up his arms, Steve went right into them. And God did Eddie love it, he loved him. And the idea that there was any chance he could be with him and he wasn’t taking it, was killing him. So he took a shot, and asked the question that had been plaguing him for months. 

And it fucking worked. Here he was, vindicated and rewarded with the most handsome, funny, kind boyfriend to ever live. In all honesty, not that much changed between them, considering how they were basically dating back when they considered themselves “friends”. But now there was the added bonus of being able to kiss the living hell out of him whenever he wanted. And the fact that Steve had apparently been holding out on him, because overnight he became the clingest cuddler Eddie had ever had the pleasure of knowing. 

Whether that be hugs from behind, arms draped around his neck in bed, or Steve clambering up into Eddie’s lap whenever the opprunintuity arose. And it was so fucking cute it made Eddie feel like he could die from happiness. And when he returned the favor, Steve would just melt. A hand on his thigh while they drove, an arm around his waist at friendly get togethers, any small touch was enough to make Steve a blushing, gooey mess. 

The whole thing was amazing and Eddie had never been happier. 

There was just one problem. 

For the life of him, Eddie couldn’t stop making him cry. 

The first time, he understood. It had been a bit of a dick move on his end, to force Steve to admit his feelings because Eddie was too chicken-shit to do it himself. He should have thought about that and he'd apologized more than once for the way he handled the whole thing, even if Steve insisted it was more than fine. He just…never wanted to be the cause of that sad, dejected face ever again. 

But then he did it again, completely accidentally. It had been a lazy Sunday morning, the both of them deciding to sleep in until someone from the outside world forced them out of bed. Eddie woke up first, blinking into the late morning light. Steve was draped across his chest, still sound asleep and only slightly drooling on him.

Eddie ran a hand through his tousled hair, completely lovestruck. The small movement was enough to have Steve shift against him, mumbling about it being too early to wake up. But Eddie was already trailing his hands down his back, more than ready to tickle him awake if need be. And it worked, it always worked, because the next thing he knew Steve was batting his hands away, a tired laugh escaping as he finally opened his eyes. 

He groaned as he blinked into the light, pouting up at Eddie as he rubbed his eyes, “You’re lucky you’re pretty Munson. Or I would have kicked you out of bed by now.”

Eddie grinned, wrapping his arms around him a little tighter, “You’d kick me out of my own bed? That’s cold Stevie.”

“My bed now. A consequence of being with me,” Steve laughed, snuggling closer, “It’s in the contract.”

The snarky comment on his tongue died the second Eddie looked down at him. Steve just looked so…relaxed. Unfairly handsome and happy to be there, tracing patterns along Eddie’s bare chest. He was struck with the realization that he wanted this for the rest of his life. Just Steve, with his bed-head and sleepy smile. Eddie had to look away, staring up at the ceiling as he was suddenly overwhelemed by just how much he loved this guy. 

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, embarrassingly earnest, “I think you’re the love of my life.”

Steve was quiet, but he could feel him nodding along as he traced Eddie’s collarbone. For a second, Eddie thought he just hadn’t heard him, and was doing that thing when he pretended like he did. He was a few seconds away from teasingly calling him out for it when he heard it. A soft sniffle, accompanied by a wet feeling, dripping onto him. 

Eddie glanced down, eyes widening at the sight of Steve wiping his tears away, trying and failing to be quiet about it. 

Eddie sat up, slightly panicked as he dragged Steve up with him, “Steve? Baby, what’s wrong? Was it what I said?”

Steve let out a wet laugh, “Not at all. I-fuck, Eddie I think you’re mine too. I swear this hasn’t happened before.”

Eddie was too worried to show how ecstatic that confession made him feel. He held Steve’s face in his hands, wiping away a few tears with his thumbs, “But you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, I swear.” Steve sighed, leaning into the touch, “I’m just being a fucking weirdo.”

“My weirdo.” Eddie corrected before kissing him, the salty taste of his tears be damned. Eddie reasoned that he was probably just overwhelmed, which was normal, considering how Eddie was speedrunning the pace of their relationship. It was a fluke, and that was fine.

But then it happened again. 

It had been a completely normal day, no fights with anyone, no problems at the video store or with any of Eddie’s clients. They were watching a movie on the couch, Eddie’s head resting in Steve’s lap as Fame rolled on in the background. Steve was braiding his hair, absentminded as they commented on the muscial, both agreeing that Robin had really oversold it. 

Though Eddie was a sucker for the New York based movies. He used to dream about running away there when he was a teenager. Working and playing in dingy bars until he was magically discovered and skyrockerted into stardom. But now, at the ripe old age of twenty one, he was much more interested in going wherever Steve would follow. 

He watched the screen, mind wandering as he asked,  “Where would you want to go when we leave Hawkins?”

The hands in his hair paused for a split second before Steve answered, “W-what do you mean?”

“When the kids graduate,” Eddie continued, missing the stutter in Steve’s voice, “We won’t really have any reason to stay here right? It’s probably about time that Wayne got the bachelor pad back anyway.” 

“You…you want to live with me?”

Eddie let out a small laugh, rolling his eyes, “Babe, I don’t know if you’re aware but we kind of already live together.”

He watched the screen, someone whose name he forgot was starting another monolouge, “New York is a bit much, but Indianapolis could probably work. Somewhere with some options, y’know?”

Steve cleared his throat above him, fingers still working in his hair, “Y-yeah. Sounds good.”

Eddie smiled, pleased as he went back to trying to follow the plot. Then he felt something wet hit his cheek. He scrunched his nose up, confused as he shifted to look up at Steve, heart jumping when he realized what was happening. 

“Holy shit, don’t look at me for a minute.” Steve groaned, covering his face with his hands, failing to hide his sniveling, “Seriously, just ignore me.”

Eddie sat up, ignoring Steve’s protests as he pried his hands from his face, “What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing!” Steve insisted, avoiding Eddie’s eyes, “I swear, I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me.”

“Sweetheart, if moving in together is too much to talk about that’s fine-”

“No!” Steve interrupted, voice loud in the small space between them, “I-I mean, that’s not the problem. Of course I want to live with you.”

“I don’t want to pressure you-”

“You’re not,” Steve insisted, grabbing Eddie's hands. He squeezed them, warm and comforting, “Whatever is wrong with me has nothing to do with you, or us. I swear.”

Eddie nodded, even if the worry didn’t fully leave his head. He couldn’t help it, because it just kept happening. Eddie was averaging on making Steve tear up at least once a month and everytime he would insist he was fine. That it wasn’t Eddie’s fault, he was just being a freak. 

It’s not like Eddie minded. In fact he kind of liked comforting him. And it didn’t help that Steve was fucking adorable when he cried. With his scrunched up nose and pretty wet eyes, Eddie was more than happy to be the one to kiss his tears away.  

He just wished he could figure out why it was happening, because despite what Steve said, he knew that he was the cause. It only happened when they were alone together, usually right after Eddie said or did something particularly mushy. He just wanted to know what he was doing wrong. 

It was starting to keep him up at night, and as embarrassing as it was, Eddie was having anxiety nightmares about Steve leaving him for someone who wasn’t making him weep on a semi-regular basis. 

Eddie blinked into the night, waking up from another one of those stupid dreams. He blindly reached over for Steve, his hand hitting the empty mattress with a thud. Eddie groaned, assuming he was in the bathroom, but knowing there was no way he was getting back to sleep without having him next to him. 

Eddie stood, deciding to get some water while he waited for him to come back. He stepped out of his room into the dark hall, cocking his head at the odd scene in front of him. The phone cord was stretched from the kitchen to the bathroom, peeking out through the half cracked door.  

Eddie stopped infront of it, curious as he made out what Steve was whispering through the phone, "Robin, if I cry in front of him one more time I'm going to have to change my name and flee the country."

Eddie snorted behind his hand, quiet enough to not be heard. He leaned in a little closer, fully aware that he should just turn around and not be an eavesdropping dick, but…if he could just find out why Steve kept crying, maybe he could actually do something to stop it. 

"I'm not telling him. I'm lucky I haven't scared him off yet as it is."

Eddie frowned, confused. That didn’t make sense, there was nothing Steve could do to scare him off, not after everything they had been through. Didn’t he know that? 

Steve sighed into the phone, sad and resigned, "I just…I don’t know how much more I can fall in love with him. When he ends it…it's going to fucking kill me."

Eddie could feel his heart stop in his chest. Where the hell did that come from? Sometimes Eddie spent half of his day just day-dreaming about their future, and here Steve was, thinking that he was going to end the best thing that ever happened to him?

"I know, I know. Maybe you're right. I love you too, I'll see you tomorrow."

Eddie backed away from the door, still feeling vaguely ill at what he’d heard. He slipped into bed, pretending to still be asleep when Steve eventually followed. He was back in bed for maybe five seconds before Eddie was reaching for him, tucking him tightly into his arms, like he could cuddle the doubts out of him. 

Eddie could barely sleep that night, mind-racing on what he could do to make Steve realize that he wasn’t going anywhere. It made sense, in the grand scheme of things. Steve’s parents were total shit heads who had no appreciation for the wonderful son they had. The only other person he’d fallen in love with besides Eddie ended up cheating on him, right after drunkenly declaring the fact that she never loved him back. 

And that wasn’t even mentioning his “best friends” who dropped him the second he decided to stop acting like a dick in highschool. Now that he was thinking about it, Eddie was kicking himself for not putting the pieces together sooner. 

Of course Steve would be worried about that. But Eddie wasn’t like them, he’d never be like them. In his head, the only way this relationship was ending was if Steve dumped him, not the other way around. 

If Eddie was extra clingy that morning, Steve didn’t complain. Even if he was making it a bitch for him to get ready for work. Eddie was still draped all over him by the time he was trying to get out the door, laughing at his antics all the while. 

“Someone’s needy today, huh?” Steve chuckled, prying Eddie’s arms away from his neck, “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“That’s not soon enough,” Eddie whined, going as far as to follow him to the car. He kissed him goodbye through the window, not giving a single shit who saw them. Not when it made Steve blush and beam at him. He waved at him as he drove away, a plan already forming in his head as he started his day. 

If Steve had fears, Eddie would just love them right out of him. No reason to make a big deal out of anything, not when Steve was already so embarrassed about the whole thing. He would play it cool, and slowly but surely alleviate all of the anxieties. 

That was the plan, but the plan went straight out the window that same night. Basically the second he laid eyes on him after stepping through the front door. Steve wasn’t even doing anything. Just sitting on the couch, lazily watching TV. But then he noticed him, gave him that bright smile, and the floodgates just opened.

“I love you.” Eddie blurted out, making his way towards him, “Like I really fucking love you.”

Steve cocked his head, confused but still happy to see him. He shuffled over for Eddie to sit next to him, “I love you too?”

Eddie shook his head, “I mean I love everything about you Steve. Everything.” 

Steve stared at him, surprise still painted on his face, but Eddie just kept going, aware on some level, that he probably sounded slightly unhinged, but he didn’t care. He needed Steve to understand, “I love how much you care about everyone. I love how you take care of me, and how you let me take care of you. I love how your hair sticks up in every direction in the morning, and how you get pouty whenever you wake up. I love it when you’re bitchy and you make fun of my music. I love it when you get too excited and scream at the TV over basketball. I love the little blush you get whenever I call you pretty. I love all of it, and I want it for the rest of my life. ”

Steve laughed, quiet and nervous as he looked away, ‘What the hell are you even talking about?”

But Eddie wasn’t having that. He grasped his face, tilting his chin up to force them eye to eye. The tears were already starting to form, but Eddie wasn’t worried. He knew what they meant this time, “I’m talking about how you’re the only person I’ll ever want. I’m talking about how I want a life with you Steve. You and no one else.”

The tears were really falling now, and Steve was looking at him like he ripped his heart out, versus perfusing his undying love, “You…you shouldn’t say shit like that Eddie. You don’t know how things will change later on.”

Eddie shook his head, steadfast, “I’ll never not want you. I’m serious Steve. You’re it for me.”

They stared at eachother, Steve searching his face as Eddie kissed his tear-stained cheeks, “I want to believe you.”

“It’s okay that you don’t yet,” Eddie murmured, “I’ll just spend the rest of my life proving it to you.”

Steve let out a weak laugh, pulling away from his hands to hide his face into the crook of Eddie’s neck, his self-proclaimed safe space, “You promise?”

Eddie kissed the top of his head, “I swear.”

It didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen. Their days together became months, months became years. Eddie never went a day without reminding him how much he was loved, Steve stopped waiting for the day that Eddie was going to leave, and slowly but surely, the tears stopped with it. 

It was ten years to that day, ten amazing years with the love of his life, when Eddie found him in their kitchen, making coffee and yawning while he absentmindely stared out the window, just as adorable at thirty-one as he was at twenty. 

He wrapped his arms around his waist from behind, kissing at his neck with a pleased hum, “You believe me now?”

Steve sighed, sleepy and happy as he leaned back into him, “Yeah, I think I do.”

[midnight-fauna]

pretty girl (i'll wear a skirt for you)

A/N: Originally posted on my Ao3 under "TheExtrovertOutcast"

Pairings: Nancy Wheeler/Robin Buckley

Chapter: 1/1

Word Count: 1762

Summary: Nancy dresses up Robin for Pennhurst. Robin does the same.

Ronancetober Day 3: Body/Style Swap

“Academic scholar? She’s giving you an academic scholar vibe? Yeah,” Steve asked, gesturing accusingly to Robin with a raise of his eyebrows. Robin glared at him, shutting the music box in her hands with a small thud and placing it back on the dresser. 

You’re just mad I stole your girl, Robin said with her gaze, boring deep into Steve’s. His eyes immediately widened defensively.

I am not! Steve mouthed back, understanding what Robin meant without her even having to save a word. 

“No, but,” Nancy said, interrupting the two’s mental conversation, “she will.”

Robin looked over to see Nancy proudly holding the most ridiculously feminine dress she’d ever seen. It was a blush shade of pink and absolutely covered in frills. From her spot on the other side of the bedroom, Robin could already tell how uncomfortable and itchy the fabric would be on her skin. “Oh… please tell me that you’re joking,” Robin groaned. 

~~~

Unfortunately for Robin, Nancy was not joking. 

Robin eyed the dress with disgust as Nancy took the seat beside her on the bed. Steve had left the room, finally allowing the girls a taste of privacy. It was the only upside to the whole ordeal. 

“Robs, come on, it’ll just be for a few hours,” Nancy reasoned, taking Robin’s hand in hers and placing their intertwined fingers in her lap. Since the shitshow at Starcourt Mall, the two girls had begun to get to know each other better. Once winter had rolled around, a Christmas movie night had left the girls a little too close to one another. Nancy had reached up and kissed the whipped cream off Robin’s lip and the two had been history ever since. 

“That thing” - Robin pointed at the dress - “is going to suffocate me.” 

Nancy raised an eyebrow. “So, you have a problem with a dress collar but not my hands around your-”

“Nance!” Robin interrupted her, her face reddening immediately. 

Laughing, Nancy stood up, hoisting Robin up with her. “C’mon. As much as I adore seeing you in your suits, misogyny requires you wear a dress so we can meet with Creel.” 

At that, Robin’s face lit up, causing Nancy’s to immediately scrunch up with suspicion. She knew Robin only got that look when she was planning something. 

A delighted grin spread across her lips, Robin rushed over to her backpack and began rustling through it. “If I have to wear that cocoon of death-”

“That’s a bit dramatic.” 

“- I think it’s only fair you try on some of my clothes.” Robin emerged with a handful of denim and flannel. “Deal?”

“Robs, we have to go soon-”

“You can change right back, ‘promise,” Robin insisted, hands raised in a show of sincerity. “It’ll be fun! It’s like… a style swap! Freaky Friday but just with our clothes!”

“Freaky… Friday…?”

Robin gasped dramatically. “You haven’t seen Freaky Friday?! Nance, that’s a classic! That’s it - after we kill this demonic motherfucker, I’m absolutely forcing you to watch it.” 

“Fine, we can… do a freaky Friday… whatever the hell that means,” Nancy said, feigning annoyance, but her little smile broke the facade. 

Robin squealed excitedly, clapping her hands together and hopping around the bedroom. She rushed up to Nancy and gave her a peck on the lips. “You first, your majesty.” 

With a huff, Nancy began slipping off her sweater vest. She let it fall to her mattress, starting on the buttons of her collared shirt. Robin couldn’t help but stare in awe, watching her girlfriend like it was the very first time all over again. 

“Keep looking at me like that, Robs, and we might not be back downstairs for another two hours,” Nancy said calmly. Robin immediately flushed at the words, covering her face with her large hands. Her rings were cold against her hot skin. 

“I wouldn’t be entirely opposed to that,” Robin mumbled, peeking between her fingers.

Nancy turned back and smiled at her, walking to the closet and hanging up both the shirt and the vest. “Trust me, I would love nothing more, but unfortunately it’s on us to save the world once again.” 

Robin forced her gaze away as Nancy shimmied out of her skirt, knowing damn well looking would be all too much for her and she’d be a wreck the entire time at the asylum. She expected that having a gay panic over her “colleague” wouldn’t be the best impression for the facility director.

She heard the rustle of fabric and turned back around to see Nancy in her torn jeans, bending down to roll the too-long pant legs up to her ankles. A little inhale lodged in Robin’s throat at the sight. 

“Nancy Wheeler, you’re gonna be the death of me,” Robin confessed. 

“I know.” Nancy came over to Robin, looking up at her with her doe eyes as she shouldered on the oversized flannel, only buttoning two-thirds of the way up. It left the pale skin of her throat and upper chest exposed, a stark contrast to the plaid, dark blue fabric. “I take great pleasure in that, trust me.” 

All self-control left Robin’s system at that point, leaning down and capturing Nancy’s lips in hers. Her stomach fluttered at the little groan that arose from her girlfriend, muffled by their kiss. It was near-dizzying the way every time she kissed Nancy, it felt like their first. A part of her brain still couldn’t wrap around the fact that the Nancy Wheeler, the most beautiful girl in Hawkins, was her girlfriend. She chose Robin. She saw past all of Robin’s awkwardness and clumsiness and chose her.

A soft, manicured hand slid up the nape of Robin’s neck, teasingly tugging at sensitive strands. Nancy’s other hand moved down to grip the cloth of Robin’s striped shirt, pulling her down closer. God, Nancy was a whole five foot four and still had Robin completely and utterly under her control. 

“Please,” Robin begged into the kiss, nearly fucking whimpering when Nancy pulled away, a smug smile tugging at her lips.

“Your turn,” Nancy murmured. She stood on her tiptoes, grip still clutching onto Robin’s collar. Robin could hear the amusement in her voice when she whispered, “I get to see you be a pretty girl for me, Robs.”

That was all the motivation Robin needed. 

She practically leaped out of her clothes. Her whole goddamn body seemed to alight with a blush when she caught Nancy staring unashamedly. 

“Your freckles are so pretty, sweetheart. You really are my whole galaxy, aren’t you?” Nancy’s eyes flicked up to meet Robin’s, who could only nod quickly, at a loss for words. How the hell was she supposed to reply to a compliment that beautiful?

Nancy picked up the dress, smoothing her palm over the top to rid it of any lingering wrinkles. “C’mere, let me help you.”

Robin obeyed without question, standing in front of Nancy and carefully using her shoulders as support as she stepped her legs into the dress. Her breath caught in her throat as Nancy dragged the fabric up, fingertips tracing her bare skin as she went. The gentleness was still foreign to Robin and a small part of her wanted to burst into sobs. Nancy treated her with unbelievable tenderness, slipping on the dress’s straps and carefully turning her around so she could pull up the zipper. She turned Robin back around and clasped the buttons in the front before stepping back and looking at her in awe. 

“My pretty girl,” Nancy murmured, almost only to herself. 

Robin stuffed down her ego and did a little twirl for Nancy’s sake. It was immediately worth it when she heard the melodic sound of Nancy’s delighted laugh. 

“Jesus Christ, it’s… uh, it’s definitely breezy,” Robin noted, awkwardly sitting down on the bed and tucking the skirt down around her. 

Nancy laughed again, crossing the room and grabbing a bag. “Well, your flannel is actually quite comfy. I quite like this switch.” 

“It looks better on you, anyway,” Robin said sincerely, breath hitching when Nancy clambered into her lap, knees on either side of Robin’s thighs. “Oh, uh, shit, hey… there?”

Amusement sparked in Nancy’s warm eyes. “Hey. Mind if I put some makeup on you?”

“Keep calling me your pretty girl and shit, Nance, you can do anything to me,” Robin rasped, voice cracking at her girlfriend’s name. She was a complete mess. 

Nancy kissed Robin’s forehead. “I’ll keep that in mind.” 

Holy shit. 

Placing the pouch to the side, Nancy began rummaging through it, emerging with a large makeup brush and a peach-colored container. She opened it to reveal packed-down powder. Robin’s makeup knowledge didn’t extend much farther than mascara, so she eyed it with curiosity. 

“Blush,” Nancy answered for her. “I was considering foundation, but it’d be a crime to accidentally cover up any of your freckles.”

Robin relaxed completely when the touch of fluffy bristles caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned into Nancy’s touch, moving one hand to mindlessly play with her girlfriend’s curls. She felt heavenly as Nancy continued to do her makeup, letting herself completely submit to the simple commands - “hollow your cheeks”, “part your lips for me”, “hold still” - and the following praises - “such a good girl for me, Robs”, “so pretty”, “you’re doing so well”. 

She didn’t even realize how much time had passed until Nancy was gently nudging her shoulder. “Robin? Baby? Hey, you okay?”

“I’m wonderful,” Robin mumbled hazily, feeling completely safe and loved with Nancy so close to her. She reached forward to kiss Nancy, but a gentle grip on her chin stopped her. 

“Mm-mm.” Nancy shook her head. “You can’t kiss me right now, Robs. I put lipstick on you.”

“Nevermind, I’m actually on the brink of death,” Robin groaned dramatically, flopping onto her back, taking Nancy down with her, who immediately burst into a fit of giggles. 

“Hey, I still have to get changed too,” Nancy complained light-heartedly, hitting Robin’s arm with no real strength behind it. “Let me up.”

Robin closed her eyes again, smiling deviously as she held Nancy close to her chest. “Nope. You’re mine now. The world can save its own ass.” 

Both of them knew that Nancy was quite strong and could easily pull herself out of the hold, but she didn’t. It made Robin’s stomach flutter. 

“Fine, two minutes of cuddling,” Nancy said, placing a kiss on Robin’s jaw. 

“Ten,” Robin countered. 

“Three.”

“Eight.”

“Four.”

“Seven.”

“Five.”

“Six.” 

Nancy chuckled, burying her face into the crook of Robin’s neck. 

“Alright, Robs, six minutes.” 

[dxsole]

WRITER BASICS. meet the author.

ALIAS / NAME. Dex

BIRTHDAY. May 6th

ZODIAC. Taurus

HEIGHT. 5'6"

HOBBIES. painting, yoga, writing with y'all, listening to music, and rock collecting

FAV. COLOUR. pink! all shades; dusty rose and bubblegum and neon pink and cerise and watermelon—

FAV. BOOK. I don't really read as often as I used to! as a kid i would eat libraries whole but now not so much :S I don't think I really have a favorite one anymore but shout out to The Door in the Lake by Nancy Butts for 100% sticking in my brain after reading it when I was like, 12, and being the inspiration for my oc Kidd's story.

LAST SONG. The Less I know The Better - Tame Impala

LAST MOVIE / SHOW. The Shining / Professor T

RECENT READ: The most recent book I've actually read is a book on rocks!!! I learned a shit ton!

INSPIRATION. cliches. I love em. nothing is original and everything is repeated so I'll be doing my own rendition and having a ball. i have your stereotypical rom-com, clumsy girl next door in my back pocket. I've got your dr. jekyll and mr. hyde modern day au. I've got the evil ai. I've got the flamboyant serial killer with a gimmick. I've got the weird art student. I've got the clueless alien. I've got the 'i know a guy' guy. I've got em all. because i always love those people in movies and shows the most!!

STORY BEHIND URL. désolé means sorry in French (and is also a Gorillaz song I really like) and if there's one thing you won't hear coming out of the OG oc's (Didi) mouth, it's that. At least not sincerely. it's also the one apology you'll get from me for my mess of a blog.

TAGGED BY: @devilmass // thankies~! :3 TAGGING: @ofgentleresolve, @bruisedconscience, @losinmortalesperdidos, @id1eyouth, @violeteyedkiller, and anyone else who wants to do this~!

[starsarefire824]

The Pact

Chapter 19: The Sticky Sweet Memories

“Hey,” he says, forcing a smile on his face and trying to ignore how Will’s eyes look to Sam for support. It dawns on Mike for the first time that maybe he has been a topic of conversation. The thought of that makes an embarrassed heat creep up his neck and he instinctively steps closer to Max, the back of her shoulder pressing against his chest.

“What are you guys up to?” Max asks in a friendly tone.

“Nothing really,” Will says, rocking on his heels and his shoulder brushing along his cheek the way Mike has come to learn is something he does when he’s uncomfortable.

“Melvaud’s is closed today,” Sam continues, his hand massaging along the small of Will’s back again, ever so quick and light. A gesture no one walking by would really take note of. “So we thought we’d come check out the parade. I haven’t been since I was a kid.”

Sam smiles and it’s sincere and Mike thinks the worst thing about Will’s “friend” is that he makes it really hard to hate him. “That’s cool,” he replies, biting his lip. “I gave Nancy a ride. She is helping Hawkins paper with their float. She’s been obsessing over it all summer.”

“Jonathan told me,” Will says with a knowing smile.

Mike rolls his eyes playfully, “Typical Nancy.”

That earns a chuckle from Will, who blushes and covers his mouth.

Max gently elbows him in the stomach and it jolts Mike out of whatever halfwitted stupor the site of Will has thrown him into. He frowns and clears his throat and he notices how Will’s eyes flutter anxiously, suddenly observing at his feet. “Alright,” Mike announces awkwardly. “Uhm—we gotta go–but it was good seeing you.”

“Yeah, you too,” Will says quickly, pushing gently against Sam to keep walking.

“Will you guys be at the carnival later?”

Max glances up at Mike as they shift forward. “Yeah,” she says with a smile, then glances back over to Sam. “Dustin mentioned he was going. We might meet up with him later.”

“Okay! Sounds good.”

“Bye Mike,” Will says, his sunlit hazel eyes making it impossible for Mike to drag his gaze away. His name is so soft on Will’s lips it makes his heart flutter in his chest. It makes him want to sigh with happiness. It makes his fingers itch to pull him close, his long arms wrapping around his back and sinking his face into the crook of his neck, breathing him in. He imagines brushing his tongue along his bottom lip as he walks away, tasting the briny sweetness of Will’s skin.

“See you later Will—” he breathes with a smile, and then he’s being tugged away roughly, tripping over his huge feet and pushed into the shaded alleyway. Max shoves him roughly up against the wall. The cool brick scrapes along his back, and he stares down at Max who’s glaring at him. “What the fuck are you doing?” She hisses.

The smile is torn away from his face. “What!” he gripes.

Max pulls a face like he is the biggest moron that’s ever walked the planet, gesturing towards where they were standing as if to say, isn’t it obvious? “Oh I don’t know! Maybe just obscenely flirting with Will right in front of his boyfriend?!”

Mike rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest exasperatedly. “I wasn’t flirting, Max.”

Max gawks at him. “Oh okay,” she taunts, her eyes wide with disbelief. “Sure.”

“I wasn’t flirting , Max!” he hisses back. “Besides, didn’t you see the way Sam was touching him, the way Will was looking at Sam? They’re obviously in love. I’m beginning to think we should just cancel the camping trip. What’s the point?”

Max glances up at him with sarcastic skepticism. “Mike, you might be the biggest idiot I’ve ever met.”

Mike squints at her. “Yes, so you’ve told me.”

“I think Will’s in love with you as much as ever! He obviously misses you. And he was most definitely flirting back.”

Mike falters. “Wait, really?”

Max shoves him in his chest again. “Yesss you moron! Oh my god. You have to go through with confessing to him now. It’s like--painfully obvious!”

Mike bites his lip as he thinks on it. Maybe she’s right.

Then Max grabs his hand again. “Come on. It's here!” she huffs, pulling him back out into the crowd just as the boisterous parade rolls by.

[pxiye]

––   @nancyedrew ✧ * :      it is unkind of me to try and play a trick on you.

          Wings grow tired, sick and ill and weary from flight,  more withered now as what may very well be a direct result of the slight given her by her dear companion.  Exhaustion simmers to anger,  a consuming fury that nearly rips her apart at the seams.  Might she turn red by the way she fumes!  A trick,  on her?  

          It should be understood that fairies are clever beasts,   but awfully prone to misunderstandings   (some more cynical scholars may relate it as malicious twisting of words,  willful confusion)    –––    darling Tink,  filled with malice?  Her heart quivers at the thought.  She misunderstands with all the sincerity in the world,  believing Nancy’s words to suggest that she was fully set on playing some terrible trick on a poor,  defenseless pixie;   one thrust out of her element, at that,  having found herself in the backyard of a terribly curious young girl whose keen eye proved a fateful match for Tink’s own poor skill in disguise.

           Brows knit furiously together as she flits from one shoulder to the other,  expending the little remaining energy she might hold,  arms crossed and stare deadly.  Well,  as deadly as a creature as small as a feather may be.  With the strength of an ant she stomps her feet against Nancy,  a string of unflattering insults escaping her in rapid form,  albeit only in the incomprehensible language of the fae  (sounding out in a wondrous, cacophonous chorus of bells).     ❝  ✦ *゜✧⋆⁺˚｡　・✧ *゜゜・． *✧⋇  –––– !    ゜゜....   ✦ *゜✧ ! ❞

           Of course, the shouting does so horribly take it out of her, and with an enthusiastic final ringing she settles down in a lump on Nancy’s shoulder, sitting down and appearing more tired than anyone might’ve in the history of the entire world.  Wisp of a thing turned awfully languid, she exaggerates the motions of yawning and pats at the base of Nancy’s neck, right at the edge of her shirt collar.  Take me in,  then,   she thinks,   but knowing this to be near impossible to speak,  she must do her best to mime it.  Hands raise above her to block out the light of the sun,  and she squints as if pained   –––   her other hand moves to fan herself before collapsing,  a melodrama enacting in parts:    part one,     the damsel in distress!     part two,   the death of the dear lady!     A final gasp is had as she throws her hand up towards Nancy before feigning a fainting spell,  huddled up in the small of her companion’s shoulder.  A single eye opens to peer out,  checking if her performance warranted her a spot in the shade   (better yet,  the cool of a human’s home!).

[winterlovesong1]

sweetheart

For @kazs-rietvelds and her finale spec post that I couldn’t get out of my head. It’s not exactly, but it’s the general idea...Also on A03

-/-

She’s clasping onto his hand, clammy fingers woven through with his unnaturally cold ones as he lays still on his back, eyes closed, next to her on the couch. Bess mixes up the ingredients for the ritual amongst scattered ancient text in the next room and the others stay nearby, but not too close. Because they know. They always have it seems. So, they give her space to be alone.

 (with him)

 She rubs the inside of his palm aimlessly with her thumb, trying to focus in small circular motions on how she’s always known his touch to be - tender and sincere - but above all warm. Her eyes get lost on his figure as she practices the habit, imagining what she can’t feel now, but dreaming she’ll be able to feel it again - because he’ll be ok she tells herself. He’ll be safe again and she won’t have to clasp onto his hand like she’s the one who’s life force depends on it. She can hold it somewhere by the sea, fingers intertwined loosely as they graze by each other, before he turns to her and affirms his want to hold her hand. She can hold it when they walk side by side as the waves drift to and frow and a light breeze gets caught in her hair.

 She won’t have to latch onto it inside a stuffy building that holds too many secrets and doesn’t give her enough room to breathe.

 And so its then as she tries to find a wisp of air, that her mind strays from imagining and reiterates the reality of the situation - that she was here in this house with him because he was next, he was the next cursed victim. Which is when the tremors start once more in her wrist and she tries to disguise them through her tracing of his skin.

 It’s been worse in the last hour - her shakes - they come and go almost as frequently as him drifting in and out of consciousness- when he drifts away to sleep or…

 (she doesn’t let herself think it)

 “Natchmensch…” he mumbles through a faint breath he had stored in his lungs, his eyes remaining closed through his murmured speech.

 “Shhh…” trying to sooth him in his weary state, but only making her own pain worse as she mistakenly whispers out, “rest, just rest…”

 She can feel her heart step closer over that invisible ledge as she stifles back a sob. But then his eyes flutter and she’s met with that outstanding blue color. Swiping quickly at her cheek with the back of her free hand, unaware if tears has fallen or not, but ridding them all the same.

Because she’s the strong one, she has to be.

(for him)

 But then as she focuses on him, it’s softer, if possible, the blue in his eyes, than the last time he was awake. And as they drift over her, it’s almost as if he’s recalling a memory at her presence - a good one - because the right corner of his mouth curls up ever so slightly. And her first thought is he shouldn’t use so much strength - he shouldn’t use it over her - but then her chest swells absentmindedly at the sight because she always did love his…

 “I’ll never leave you, sweetheart…” his own hold now being the one to tighten, his fingers finding their groove in between hers because he’s making sure she knows - it’s not just a memory he’s repeating - it’s not just words that were exchanged between those who’s love had been cut short - it’s a promise that theirs won’t - that he’ll be there and that their love will endure. And suddenly there’s a flash of something different crossing his face - it’s not pain or exhaustion or weakness  - she wants to call it certainty or conviction - but how can that be when he’s lost so much, she’s barely clinging onto hope as it is, how can he…

 “I’ll never leave you…sweetheart…” his words whispered once more as his eyes drift back closed.

  Her heart nearly stops right before…

 His eyes spark open and it’s him again - but it’s not the odd pure softness of before - it’s the lightened blue she’s come to realize as her shade.

“Hey, Nancy, it’s ok” his voice slightly course as he gains clarity in his eyes and volume in his speech - like he’s returned from the somewhere he’s been for the past few seconds and is trying to regain his footing, “I’m here.”

 “I know,” placing her other palm at his cheek hoping he knows she’s not going anywhere either.

 He takes a beat to look at her - and she wonders what he’s memorizing - if it’s how she now has a pink tint to her eyes, how her cheeks are blotched with the trails of her tears, how her bottom lip can’t stop trembling despite her trying to force out a smile.

And she wishes it was different. That what he was seeing wasn’t her despair. But she never could lie to him.

(she never would want to)

 And after a moment more, he closes his eyes, settling back into sleep. And only then after his eyes drift shut does she whisper out, “…sweetheart,” the word choked out through the start of another wave of tears. But she hopes he hears it. She hopes he knows that she believes him.

 (no matter what her love wasn’t going anywhere)

[lion-hearted-wolf]

Electric Blood

My 2nd entry for the Cyberpunk 2077 Prompt Event @cp2077promptevent

Prompt: 15 April – dialogue: “Here. See/feel how much I want you.”

Pairing: Alt Cunningham / Johnny Silverhand 

Note: Alt Cunningham’s a rockstar, Johnny Silverhand too. They met in college, started two different bands, but still keep in touch to exchange ideas about songs and… do other fun things. It’s a bit of a random story, written only following the prompt’s mood, and veeery different from what I expected.

The “take your broken heart” quote isn’t mine, of course. The song Alt’s singing is “Kandy Krush” by Kim Wilde, idk why but I’ve always thought about her while listening to it.

Smut under the cut. Read at your own risk.

(Thanks to @spectrum-nebula for her translation and beta-reading work, and for being the wonderful creature she is.)

“I only feel alive when I sing.”

Alt smokes her cigarette, for the last time before it runs out. She shakes it to get rid of the ashes, then throws it in the ashtray. The ink is drying up, a sentence still uncertain: it would take very little to erase it, replace it with another, less fragile feeling, but it’s alright. It’s sincere. She had promised herself before she started singing: never tell lies about yourself. If anything, change the words to express a feeling, but never erase it.

Take your broken heart, and turn it into art.

And she knows a little something of broken hearts.

She rubs on her temples: he asked her to open for the next Samurai concert, and no matter how many times she repeated herself it doesn’t mean that much to her, that it’s just an offer like any other, in the end she can’t stop thinking about it. Because Johnny is just like that: a summer storm, a hurricane passing by once and leaving you counting the damage for weeks. A damn distraction she cannot do without. A cocky smile, metallic fingers always brushing against her side in the same way after they have sex, as if they’re searching for a trace left long ago. Lips tasting like alcohol, like rattled off promises kept one time of out ten, yet beautifully enticing. The powerful voice with which he improvises for her the lyrics she’s written only a few hours ago, filled with rage and an energy he pours out between the sheets while touching her. She’s known him for a lifetime, and another life wouldn’t be enough to get used to him.

She sighs, knowing far too well she’s gonna end up in his arms again after the concert, the same way it’s always been: there are scripts that, no matter how edited and rewritten they can be, lead to the same ending. So it was for the first one, when from the front raw she would catch every single glance he threw at her between one refrain and the other, as so it was for the last, when she waited for him in the dressing room and they had sex, passionately, barely closing the door without even thinking about Kerry and Denny and Nancy out there and Henry who’d surely come by to drink something after he finished signing autographs for his groupies…

You’re the safe place I come back to every time, he had whispered once, head laying on her chest. She would gladly give away half the money she’s earned throughout her career to know if he was sincere or not.

And then the concert comes, and she’s on stage with the girls, first tuning their instruments, a moment after singing in front of a cheering crowd, people pushing each other and screaming their names. Rogue’s eye sparkle, fingers tight around the guitar. Alt breathes in, closes her eyes, then reaches out for the mic. It’s all there, that instant the audience stops, waiting for the song to start, hundreds of faces holding their breath, anticipating that moment they’ll never forget. When her voice starts singing, with a hint of hesitation she manages to conceal after the first notes, the roar is back with even more energy.

There’s a light there’s a light there’s a light in your eyes tonight…

Johnny is there, backstage, waiting: his eyes never left her for a minute. He watches her moving on stage, leaning down, and touching the fingers of the nearest spectators while delivering the last note to the audience and Rogue finishes her solo. He peers at her, throwing glances that say everything without speaking. Those eyes keep promising something, and perhaps this time they’ll oblige: asking her to open for that concert has to mean something, right? He waits for her to come down, under the stage, and brushes her side again, in the same spot, then tilts his shades to take a better look at her. He’s smiling.

“Good luck, Silverhand.” She’s breathless: never holding back when she sings, and that’s part of what made her irresistible in his eyes, she just knows that. She always gives her everything, one hundred percent, because she couldn’t, wouldn’t do otherwise. He smiles again, fingers lingering on her hips. Denny is looking at them, but who cares? They already know everything, after all, it would be impossible not to notice.

“See you later.”

And here’s the promise. She licks her lips, but only because they’re dry, and she urgently needs to drink. Another lie. She nods at him and he does the same, then glides towards the dressing room. Rogue knows everything, there’s no need for more explanations: she’ll find a way to tell the other girls. After all, they too need their post-concert time to unwind a little.

The dressing room is dark and quiet, perfect to think. She only turns the lights from the wall mirror on, then drops on the black leather couch. She waits, as she always did, this time with certainty of a reward: it’s only a matter of time. She just needs to wait for the roaring crowd to calm down, for the last notes to run out in the darkness of the room, for Johnny to lay down his guitar and walk away from the mic to say goodbye to the audience by waving his hand, as he always does. Then she needs to count the sound of his steps, holding her breath as they stop in front of the door and the doorknob turns and he enters a place they can finally be alone.

Until he’s in front of her, so real it makes her tremble. Finally, all to herself.

She breathes in his scent with a bit of arrogance, holding to his shoulder while he kisses her neck, taking her clothes off and helping her do the same with his. It’s a hurried and urgent homecoming ceremony, where every word is barely murmured and it’s suddenly lost among fingers brushing, grasping, holding to each other and letting go a moment after. The safe place he comes back to every time, the space he can truly let the mask he wears fall, and finally be himself.

He brushes a strand of hair from her face, kissing her again and lifting her leg to adjust it around his waist. Alt breaths in his scent again, intoxicated by that contact, back against the cold wall, fingers on his face. So close, so close, so hers. At least for a little while. An illusion that, for now, will have to do.

“Here. Feel how much I want you.”

His voice is hoarse, warm, and breathless: it’s weird he still has enough to talk. How many times was she about to confess she adores him, that she’d listen to him talking about small things for hours or even singing happy birthday to you or any other nonsense, being able to just listen to him would be enough, until she’s tired of it (and it’d never happen). Complimenting him only to be silenced by a kiss, in the aftermath of sex where everything is funny, and every single thing looks beautiful. Enjoying that sex without thinking about what comes after, because what sense does it make ruining everything before it’s over? Thoughts flow while she tries to stop them from filling her mind, and Johnny’s organic hand – not the metallic one, the warm fingers of his right hand – takes her hand and places it between his legs. As she brushes against his erection, a moan escapes his lips.

She was also about to tell him how much she likes his moans, and maybe she will, sooner or later. Maybe later, when they’re done again and in the aftermath of sex, maybe next time. She likes the idea of leaving him hanging, of always having something different to confess him: it adds a little magic to those encounters. It gives her a reason to mark on the calendar every single day separating her from the next concert. Something to anticipate with joy.

He takes her while brushing her hips once more, laying kisses on her neck that get more and more desperate and soon turn to bites, sinking his fingers in her skin while she breathes in, holding a little moan at first and then letting it go, following his pushes with her hips, leaving little white half-moons on his back with her nails. She climaxes a moment before he does, her sweaty leg still searching for a contact but inevitably slipping down, muscles delightfully numb. If she only had the strength to murmur even a single syllable, she’d propose him to move to the couch to start again, but figuring out what will happen within even a few minutes is impossible with Johnny, and maybe it’d make no sense or…

Until he lifts her up, carrying her right to the couch. And while he slides on top of her, surrounding her in a warm and sweaty embrace that smells like both of them, he leaves her enough time to feel incredibly happy.

 He never mentioned loving her voice, but maybe the way he looks at her while she improvises her songs means much more than she could think. Maybe. Those careless caresses, the way he leans his head on her chest and falls asleep after tracing random figures on her skin. His songs. There’s much more to him than he wants to show, beneath that thick skin of a person who does nothing more than shout to the world how much it’s going down the drain.

Sometimes she wonders if she’s the only one who noticed that.

She thinks about it again later, when they make love slowly, once again, after the fire has gone out and their gestures become slower and measured. The hotel room she followed him to is large, smells good and there’s even a soft carpet she can sink her feet into. She can’t help but wonder what it would be living together for more than a week, having a home to come back to and fill with music and more words.

Morning comes, always too soon, leaving the concert and its exciting confusion behind and a new date has been already scheduled, and the girls are waiting for her to add more songs to their setlist, maybe even with a new unpublished work. He’s sleeping, head sunk in the pillow: better leave before he wakes up. Her eyes linger on him for a while and – even if she doesn’t know how – she manages to stop herself from caressing his face. So calm, so far from that life. He doesn’t even look like the same person but, after all, she loves him for what he is. She wouldn’t know how to do without that feeling.

She gets up slowly, collecting her clothes and putting them on, trying not to think too much about what’s going to happen next: by now she’s learned how little that helps with living the present, how much it can poison her days. She smiles at his sleeping silhouette, picturing in her mind his expression in the moment he’s going to find the note she left for him, squeezed in a corner of the wall mirror and signed with a simple A. under the lyrics (a confession, more than an actual song) she drafted while he was sleeping, and smiles.

“It’s all here… see how much I want you.”

[sh1tbird-shantytown]

this is a little thing i’d like to call “The Letterman Game” and it is completely and utterly random. so. enjoy!

===

“I can’t love you,” Tommy said. And that didn’t surprise Steve in the slightest. Tommy had other people to sucker up to; he had Carol. And sure, Steve had plenty of other people to daze around with, but Tommy was just about his favorite person in this town. 

Steve played along though, “Who ever said that I needed your love?” He expected Tommy to turn a pink and walk away, but that didn’t happen.

Tommy’s lips thinned and he shined in the summer sunbeam angelically instead, “Don’t play around now, Steve. You’ll only feel worse afterword.” 

Steve blinked back the prick he felt at the corners of his eyes, “Don’t assume things, Tommy. Just because—”

Tommy placed a heavy hand down on Steve’s shoulder, “Just because you’ve gotten cheated on three times now? Steve, I’m no rebound, I’ve told you that.”

Steve shoved Tommy’s arm off and shuffled back, dizzied, “It’s been four months, I think I’ve gotten over Nancy and I’ve definitely forgotten all the rest by now, Tommy!” He tossed his hands up into the air when Tommy made a move to move closer, brow pinched in concern. “It was just a simple thing, you know? I came to tell you that I care about you and if you finally wanted to get your head out of your damn ass. Then, I would try. Tommy, I’m so tired of you trying to deflect my feelings like your own aren’t apparent. So go, go to Carol like you always do and forget about little ole Steve Harrington. Because he’s just a pathetic little rich boy who doesn’t see the world as it is right?” Steve turned his back, not allowing Tommy to get the chance to see the tears that were about to fall. He was done. 

“Steve, come on man!”

“Zip it, Hagan. Because I know more of what’s in our world than you’ll ever even comprehend. And it sucks,” he spat out and jogged the final steps to the parking lot. 

To hell with childhood sweethearts. Honestly.

===

It wasn’t long after the “fallout” that Tommy was fawning about Billy Hargrove and their new buddyship. Unfortunately for Tommy Hagan, Billy Hargrove took a rather keen liking to Steve Harrington instead. So, Billy and Tommy didn’t actually spend much time together.

Steve and Billy became the new duo; hung out at the community pool for the few last weeks it was still open for the year. Got real close. 

“Tommy’s annoying as hell,” Billy kicked his foot out and splashed water onto Steve’s own bare leg as they sat by the edge of the pool. Their feet in the water just barely too cold water. Only an inch or so apart with their hands in their own laps and shades covering their eyes. “I don’t know how you managed to tolerate his constant whining.” 

Steve sighed and tilted his head at the shimmering water, “He was my best friend since we were kids, I whined with him.” Billy chuckled and Steve allowed himself to grin, “And he’s not that bad, he’s a good friend when he wants to be.”

Billy scooped a floating bee out of the water and tipped it over onto the concrete, “When he wants to be doesn’t aline well with when I want him to be.”

Steve watched as Billy pushed the accumulating water puddle away from the drying bee carefully, “I guess I never noticed that we might have been the wrong fit for each other, he was never all that with me. He was there when it mattered the most though.”

Billy’s finger twitched, “You really liked him didn’t you?”

Steve snorted and watched their sunlit reflections dance along the water, “Yeah, but that was a while ago. I can see a lost cause when it’s right in front of me, and he wasn’t in it enough for me to keep trying.”

Billy nodded, “Not all pairs are meant to stick forever.” The bee stood up and Billy sat up straight to catch Steve’s eye. He smirked suddenly and whispered, “I have an idea, Stevie. You in?” 

Billy’s curls fluttered in the breeze like wings and Steve tucked one away with two fingers, “All in it for you, Bills.” 

===

Billy didn’t actually have a well developed plan, just a spur of the moment decision really. But he did have a question that needed answering that Steve didn’t like the sound of. 

“Do you still sincerely care about Hagan? Because if he reacts the way I think he will and you do, you’re going to be in a bit of a rut, Harrington.” 

So, Steve thought it over in a relative one moment and responded, “He could break is arm again and I wouldn’t give him the time of day.” Billy was completely silent for a moment and Steve kept his decisive face clear as day.

Billy smiled all excited, “Oh, baby, I haven’t gotten into shit like this in a long time,” he opened the Camaro trunk and started moving things around. 

Steve stayed behind the lid of the trunk, leaned against the back door, and raised a brow, “Define shit.”

“Drama that doesn’t involve Sally and Dean, that shit,” Billy grunted as something heavy thudded against floor of the trunk. “Fun shit, where we get a good, mostly innocent laugh, and Tommy dearest doesn’t get a chance to see what hits him.”

Steve raised his other brow and giggled lowly as he traveled around to Billy’s side, “What do you have planned, Inspector Gadget?” Billy responded by lifting up a blue letterman jacket with a big ‘A’ patch on one side. Steve smiled at the fact that Billy actually owned one, “Cute.” Billy’s grin grew so big his teeth showed, and then he turned it around so that it could be seen that big, bold, white, blocky letters crafted out ‘HARGROVE’ on the back. Steve gaped at it, “What are we gonna do with that?”

Billy draped it over Steve’s shoulders and admired as he slithered his arms in the sleeves, “Hot damn, Harrington.” Billy’s eyes roamed, “Blue is definitely your color. You think Hagan’ll get a kick outta this?”

“We are not,” Steve whispered but popped the collar up anyway.

“Oh, doll,” Billy purred and leaned in flirtatiously, “Yes, yes, we are.” Billy’s eyes glowed, “We’ll leave him in the dust.”

[urdearestmom]

brain damage

i’m back again y’all and just wrote this piece... a bit of a scene study from that scene in 3x06. basically what i wish mike had said 

also the middle part is mostly conjecture but some of it is bits that you can hear in the actual scene if you strain your ears and ignore nancy and jonathan talking over it

also DISCLAIMER i do not hate max!! i really like her actually but she was really pissing me off with this whole bit because she just does not have any basis for understanding mileven's relationship and so her advice doesn't always directly apply. she had good intentions but BRUH. anyways i could go on a whole rant about max vs mike in season 3 but i'm not gonna do that right now lmao

It’s pretty silent in here, El thinks. It always is, but tonight it’s… strange. Almost as though it’s empty. Why can’t she find them? She’s been sitting in her room for the last half hour trying to locate any of the flayed and although she can’t see it, she knows there’s a growing mountain of bloody tissues next to her on the floor. She’s starting to think that she might need to give herself a break for a little bit.

Her friends are in the living room waiting for her, and she knows they’re all anxious to find out what she might see. So far, absolutely nothing. The only thing that happens is that every so often she hears a bit of a voice. It’s just there, tickling the edges of her consciousness, and she could tune into it if she wanted to… but she’s already identified it by the cadence of the noise as Mike’s voice, and she’d said she wouldn’t spy on him. She’d done it once and he was clearly upset by it. Although they aren’t really back to how they were before, El misses him more than she lets on, and she doesn’t want to make things worse by spying again.

Outside, Mike is getting close to yelling. He sincerely hopes El can’t hear him because he is once again fighting with her new best friend.

“It can’t be good for her to be in there for this long,” he exclaims, pacing in front of her door.

“Mike, you need to relax,” says Max, looking disdainfully at him.

“What if she gets brain damage or something?!”

“Oh shit,” interrupts Lucas, looking between them. “Is that like, a real thing?”

Max scoffs. “No, it’s not. He made it up. Mike doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” she adds, raising her eyebrows defiantly as if daring him to refute her.

“Oh, and you do?! ” He retorts. Her facial expression alone is pissing him off. It’s so self-righteous, as if she knows anything at all about him or how he thinks and feels.

“No,” she says quickly. “But I think El does. See, that’s the difference between you and me. You think you know everything!”

“I don’t know everything,” he fires back. His hands are balled into fists and he’s starting to shake. “But I know her.”

Max snorts. “You’re just mad she wants to be her own person. You can’t deal with other people not doing what you tell them to.”

“What do you think this is, Russia? I’m not some dictator, okay? I’m just trying to protect El!” He says angrily. This is getting more and more ridiculous by the second. Max doesn’t know the first thing about what he can or can’t deal with and acting like she does is striking his last nerve. Mike can feel the familiar boil of rage deep within him coming to a rise.

“The only person who knows anything about El’s powers is El,” says Max, with an air of finality.

Mike crosses his arms in an attempt to get himself in control of his emotions. “So if that’s true, what makes you think you have any more of a say than I do?”

She splutters for a moment and it’s so satisfying that Mike almost smirks, but it drops quickly when Max rises from her seat and stalks over to him.

“I don’t,” she seethes, poking him forcefully in the chest. “But she does, and you need to back off .”

“I’m not even on! ” He yells, throwing his arms up and pushing her away. He realizes his statement doesn’t actually make any sense but… whatever. At this point, it’s not like it matters. “She won’t listen to me! Because you put ideas in her head! You know she absorbs every new thing people tell her and you pressured her into dumping me!”

There it is. It’s out. It’s what he’s been thinking since it happened. He knew he’d messed up big-time by lying to El, but he never would have expected her to dump him over it. And the look on Max’s face as she stood by and watched had said everything he needed to know.

Max’s face is turning an alarming shade of pink and Mike thinks that he probably matches her. “I didn’t pressure her into anything, she decided! What is your problem with letting El decide things for herself?!”

“I don’t have a problem! At least I didn’t before you inserted yourself where you didn’t need to be!”

“All I did was give her choices!”

Mike takes a deep breath to retaliate, but then lets it go and turns away. “You don’t understand. Just- fucking leave me alone.”

Lucas is still staring at them; Mike can feel his friend’s eyes on his back. Why isn’t he agreeing? He was there when El- he knows what she can push herself to.

Max makes an angry noise. “Fine! It’s not my fault you can’t be wrong!” She walks toward Nancy and Jonathan and Mike follows, preparing to convince everyone else that this is a stupid idea. “Okay, can you guys settle an argument for us?”

Nancy looks hard at them, her eyes searching Mike quickly before flicking back to the girl next to him.

“Who do you think should decide El’s limits… Mike, or Eleven?”

He sees red. “The way that you framed that is such bullshit. ” Why is he the villain here?!

Her braids whip around her face as she turns to him. “It’s not bullshit, Mike, this is your whole problem! And it’s also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass!”

“El dumped you?” Nancy asks incredulously.

Mike throws his arms up again. “Yeah, because she’s conspiring against me! She’s corrupting her!”

“N- enlightening her!” Max throws back. “The fact is, she’s not yours. She’s her own person, fully capable of making her own decisions.”

“She’s risking her life for no reason!” He shouts.

“No reason?” Says Nancy. “Mike, the flayed are out there doing god knows what-”

“Killing, flaying,” interjects Lucas.

“Transforming into monsters,” adds Will.

Mike glares at them. Not helping.

“And El’s not stupid,” Nancy continues, shaking her head. “She knows her abilities better than any of us.”

“Exactly, thank you,” Max says victoriously. Mike closes his eyes. He cannot believe this is how this is going.

“And she is her own person-”

“Exactly!”

“With her own free will-”

“Exactly! El has saved the world twice and Mike still doesn’t trust her-”

At that he has to interrupt. There’s no way he’s letting Max flip this around. “You wanna talk about trust, really? After you made Eleven spy on us?!”

Max looks down, giving herself away.

Lucas stands up behind him. “Wait, what?”

Mike whirls to face him. “Oh, she didn’t tell you this?” He says sarcastically.

“No!”

“Your girlfriend used El’s powers to spy on us ,” he spits.

“No, no, no,” Max interjects. “I did not make her, it was her idea. And why are we even talking about this, seriously?”

“Yeah,” says Will. “Who cares?”

And now Mike’s annoyed at Will too. Will has no idea what is going on in Mike’s head and he’s not ever going to understand why he feels the way he does. Just the same as the rest of the Party will never really relate to Will’s struggles because they weren’t there, Will wasn’t there for theirs either. He didn’t see what she did-

“I care!” Says Lucas, and finally Mike is glad someone seems to be on his side. Thank God for small blessings.

“Yeah, I guess girlfriends don’t lie, they spy,” he says, turning back to Max at the last moment so she can truly see his ire.

“We were just joking around,” she defends.

“Would it have been so funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?” He asks.

She wrinkles her nose. “You weren’t!”

“But what if I was?!”

“Then gross!”

“Seriously, Mike?” Interrupts Nancy, and all of a sudden this has become like one of those moments where he just wants to strangle her for talking before he’s done. She does it all the fucking time and like, he guesses it’s probably part of being siblings but it leaves him fuming more often than not.

“I’m just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven’s powers,” he says carefully. This is where he needs to get his point across. He desperately needs someone to understand that he’s not trying to be controlling or police what El does or doesn’t do, he’s just trying to save her from herself. He couldn’t do it the first time, but by God if he isn’t going to try now.

“Have any of you noticed Lucas is the only one not disagreeing with me?” He asks.

Max huffs. “Lucas doesn’t have anything to do with this. This is your prob-”

“Lucas has everything to do with this!” He roars. Mike has absolutely had it up to here with her and turns on her a final time, shaking again. “You weren’t there, Max! None of you were. Except Lucas. You don’t know what she’ll do..” His voice trembles.

Lucas seems to understand what he’s getting at and lays a hand on his shoulder. Mike flashes him a grateful look. He still has a hard time thinking about that night, much less talking about it. “She vaporized herself in front of us. I tried to stop her and she did it anyway.”

The room is silent now, the only sound being the TV static from El’s bedroom where she’s still holed up. Mike takes a breath.

“It’s not that I think El doesn’t know her limits,” he says. “I just know that she doesn’t care about them. She’ll die overexerting herself before she lets something hurt one of us.”

He looks up at everyone, Jonathan and Will looking oddly similarly out of place and Nancy with her eyes trained on his face as she listens. Max isn’t looking at him. Good , he thinks. Maybe that made her feel guilty.

“How would you feel if you knew firsthand El didn’t care about dying to save her friends, huh? Wouldn’t you be worried about her?” He directs this at Max specifically, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “You guys are treating her like some kind of machine, and she’s not a machine. I still have nightmares about that day all the time.”

The room stays silent, almost as though everyone is holding a breath and waiting for him to start yelling again, but he’s not going to. He doesn’t have any energy left to expound on this topic. If Max wants to keep making him the bad guy, then whatever. He has more important things to worry about.

“I just-” He starts and stops, wondering if this is the right thing to say. “I don’t want her to die looking for the flayed when they’ve obviously vanished off the face of the Earth, so we can we please just come up with another plan because I love her and I can’t lose her again.”

Now it’s almost as though all the air has actually been sucked out of the room. Maybe this wasn’t the right time to reveal the depth of his feelings, but Mike really didn’t know what else he could say that could possibly make them understand his position. Lucas’ hand on his shoulder squeezes for a quick second and then lightly taps him as Lucas moves his arm back.

Nancy shakes her head. “I get that you don’t want her to hurt herself, Mike, but she’s already in there. There’s not much else we can do.”

“What’s going on?”

Everyone whips around to face El coming out of her bedroom doorway. Holy shit, did she hear what he said? Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit-

“Nothing. Nothing!” He says quickly.

“Just… family discussion,” adds Lucas from behind him. Mike can feel the smirk in his voice without even having to look at him.

“Oh,” says El, and suddenly Mike really wants to hug her. But this isn’t the time. He looks away.

“I found him,” she continues.

“Found… who?” Nancy asks.

“Billy.”

[scenearoundtown]

Harrison Held’s SceneAroundTown -

I have been reflecting a lot over the past 2 weeks about the Burt Reynolds Monument Unveiling at Hollywood Forever last month…

I went back a few days ago to visit and enjoy the serenity of the cemetery.  Burt was a wonderful guy - a true super star I had the pleasure to know.  He was larger than life but down to earth and very talented in front of the cameras and behind the scenes too.  He had a great sense of humor and wouldn’t take BS from people.  He was a great guy - he was human, he wasn’t perfect, and he had many crises to conquer in his sometimes very complex lifetime but as he is often quoted “No one else had more fun” and he did.   My friend Dan Tirman was one of his students at his theatre in Jupiter Florida and was very fortunate to be there.  Burt loved to teach and was excellent at it.  As his former wife beautiful Loni Anderson talked about at the dedication her relationship with Burt continued after their tumultuous divorce and they reconciled and were friends. She is very sweet, sincere, intelligent and down to earth.

Both Loni and their son Quinton spoke eloquently at the private ceremony attended by an intimate group of people who knew Burt and loved him.

Tyler Cassity, president of Hollywood Forever, spoke first and then unveiled the beautiful bronze bust designed by Caroline PM Jones.  Burt’s longtime manager Erik Kritzer also delivered thoughtful sentiments, and a warm message from Burt’s niece Nancy Lee Hess was included.  Thank you, Burt, for making the world a better place - you are missed.  You touched millions of people around the world for decades and you were very talented.  After the gathering, we joined several hundred fans on the Fairbanks Lawn to watch the premiere of Network Entertainment’s “I Am Burt Reynolds” a great new documentary directed by Adrian Buttenhuis that I highly recommend.   My friends Ruta Lee and Elaine Dupont also attended the exceptional long to be remembered evening as did Stefanie Powers.   "I had the joy of working with Burt several times" notes legendary Ruta, “Our every meeting, work or social, was loving and laughter filled!  Spending a few moments at Burt’s Monument, at Hollywood Forever, was another touching visit with him!    It was also very special to share the memorial with two ladies that were prominent in Burt’s life…  my beautiful good friend Stefanie Powers and his former wife Loni Anderson who is lovely inside as well as out!  The evening was a beautiful tribute to gifted Burt Reynolds by his many celebrated friends and FANS!!!" 

Much to my surprise when I woke up the next morning, I discovered Associated Press had used a photo of my hands holding the programs to tease the story globally - I am honored, and still surprised and amused, the photo is now part of Burt’s famous legacy and I am honored.  

As I mentioned earlier, my friend Dan Tirman was one of Burt’s acting students in Jupiter, Florida and loved it.  He noted ” I had the pleasure of being a company member and student at the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theater Training “BRITT” during the 1994-95 season…  Burt played an instrumental part in each of our lives as a teacher, mentor and friend.  One day he gave me a Tuck and Patty CD with specific songs marked for me to listen to that he felt would encourage me.  I gave him a CD of the late great jazz singer Jimmy Scott, and he told me he had brought the whole cast of Evening Shade to see Jimmy perform.  I was a bit older than the other company members, so Burt and I could talk about the stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era with relish.  He told me Lucy (Ball) was always happy and that she was a triple Leo. 

It was easy to be happy around Burt. A bit of an eccentric, Burt liked to give us midnight acting classes…  That meant, scene study class with Burt began at midnight and lasted until 6 a.m.  He philosophized that a condition of extreme sleepiness would make us more natural and honest.  He’d say we’d be too tired to “act”.  The midnight classes were fantastic and special.  We had so much fun being too tired to act, and Burt was a fine acting instructor.  We all learned a lot about being authentic in a scene.  One of the perks of being under the tutelage of Burt Reynolds was the pals he invited to give us classes.  Charles Nelson Reilly, Anne Wedgeworth, Jose Quintero, Dom Deluise, and other important theater masters brought us great instruction and insight.  At our graduation ceremony, Burt was accessible, warm, and genuinely happy to spend time with our families and friends.  He and my mother hit it off quite nicely.  He kept trying to tell her how I made him smile and laugh while she kept telling him how good and healthy he looked.  Burt became like family and even years later, on seeing him on a set or an event, he always retained that welcoming sweetness.  Burt was a generous man who took pleasure in “giving back” and providing opportunities to young artists in support of their creativity, goals and dreams. He found great reward in that and we shall love him for it, always".  

My friend costumer Juliet Hyde White adds “When I was early in the Costuming business, I worked on games shows back in the early eighties.  Loni and Burt were both on one I did, called Win, Lose or Draw hosted by Burt Convy…I took care of her clothes and helped her get dressed.  I was probably 19-20 years old and they were the King and Queen of Florida back then.  And he treated her so.  He was lovely, and so was she, and made everyone feel comfortable and important. Good memories indeed!  Burt was a real gentleman and treated her like a Queen, it was very apparent, even to me at that young age.  I have vivid memories recalling this and how they were together.  Once Burt came walking by our little wardrobe working area, quite a brisk walk with his cigar in mouth and said "Don’t ever take up cigar smoking, it’ll kill you”.  It was a serious message but he was so funny!“  

My late great columnist friend Army Archerd loved Burt and was very loyal to him.  I remember Army visiting Burt once on location - it was Hollywood Royalty visiting Hollywood Royalty.   Army was, and is, my entertainment reporting columnist idol and I was really pleased when he mentioned me in his column when I was hosting a local broadcast of a TV show about Katharine Hepburn, which featured director Mark Rydell, Karen Sharpe Kramer, and Kat Kramer "Aunt Kate’s” namesake.  Kat & I ran into Burt once when he was out for dinner with his close friend Charles Durning at West Hollywood’s trendy AGO - We gave them postcards for the show…  “plug plug plug”… that’s Hollywood. Karen appeared on an episode of Gunsmoke with Burt but weren’t in scenes together.  The family of the late great Hollywood filmmaker are very enterprising…  daughter Jennifer Kramer stars in and wrote the very impressive film short Nakusa, and sister Kat Kramer is getting raves doing stand-up comedy! Burt’s handsome monument is located on the north side of the pond under a tall palm tree and is reminiscent of his beloved Florida.  Kudos to Hollywood Forever’s Tyler Cassity and his staff for all their hard work and dedication! 

My friend legendary Hollywood actress Mamie Van Doren also wanted to sing Army Archerd’s praises… “Army was the first columnist I met when Universal introduced me as Mamie Van Doren.  The moment we met we became fast friends.  He always wrote good things about me, and he was drop dead handsome.  I couldn’t wait for my next interview with Army.  He was a trailblazer for all the Hollywood pundits who came after him.  Army was simply the best!"  Still drop dead gorgeous and active, Mamie is very pleased to be part of Rapper Casanova Ace and DJ Staunch of Staunch Moderates new album The First Realm which also features music giants Doobie Bros., Steely Dan’s Jeffrey Skunk Baxter, and Tears for Fears.  The album shares the movement’s story through music with Input by Lou Ferrigno and Barry Goldwater Jr.  and features amazing guitar solos by Jeffrey Skunk Baxter.  It is now available on all major streaming platforms.  Visit www.StaunchModerates.org - Thank you to Edward Lozzi & Associates Public Relations for this exciting news! 

"I’d like to thank the Academy…  the Academy Museum that is” and Finn Partners for the invitation to attend their breathtaking dedication and official ribbon cutting ceremony last week attended by civic and cultural leaders and officers of the Academy Museum and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  It was truly fantastic and upbeat and filled with joy and good will.  Immediately following the ceremony, the Academy Museum opened its doors to the public and welcomed its first visitors.  Bill Kramer, Director and President, Academy Museum and Academy executives and staffers have done a tremendous job creating the museum which was a dream of the Academy for over 90 years.  The dedication began with remarks from Mr. Kramer, followed by remarks and a beautiful uplifting spiritual blessing from Jimi Castillo, Tongva Spiritual Leader, followed by Virginia Carmelo, Tongva Community Leader,  Dawn Hudson, CEO, A.M.P.A.S., David Rubin, President, A.M.P.A.S., Effie T. Brown, Producer and CEO, Gamechanger Films, Colleen Bell, Executive Director, California Film Commission,  Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Councilmember Nithya Raman, Council District 4 and Ted Sarandos, Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer, Netflix. The Academy Museum, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, is housed in the former May Company building at the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire.  Congratulations - it is beautiful and remarkable and I look forward to visiting many more times and dining at Fanny’s which is named after the legendary Fanny Brice.   

Actor Producer David A.H. White, another one of Burt Reynold’s proteges from his Evening Shade days, continues his winning streak with his highly successful God’s Not Dead We the People faith-based film series.  I attended the impressive well-acted premiere of We the People last week directed by Vance Null at the Universal Hilton and look forward to their next premier of Love on the Rock on October 13th, which will also be a birthday celebration for glamorous actress producer Kiera Reid.

David A.R. White notes “We are enormously proud that this film is being released through Digital C Digital.  I feel audiences will respond well to this latest installment in the God’s Not Dead franchise and we are elated that we can have a world premiere outside and will be following all CDC and Los Angeles County Covid-19 safety guidelines and protocols”.  The movie was produced by Pinnacle Peak Pictures, formally Pure Flix Entertainment.  Adds Kira Reed Lorsch, star and co-producer of the film “I loved working with David A.R. White on Beckman. So, when he asked me to come to Malta for director Matty Shapira’s Love on the Rock, after a crazy 2020, I did not hesitate to say yes!"  The film also stars Steven Bauer, Jeff Fahey, Lauriane Gillieron, Matthew Marsden and Vincent DePaul.  Thank you, Roger & Lynn Neal PR, for the invites - I always love attending your events!

Chaplin Keaton Lloyd Alley was dedicated at the end of September and was a great day for Hollywood History lovers!  The historical event was presented by Hollywood Heritage and well MC’d by Sam Taffel.  Kiera Chaplin flew in thousands of miles to honor Grandfather Charlie Chaplin. Keaton Talmadge, Buster Keaton’s granddaughter & my friend Suzanne Lloyd, Harold Lloyd’s granddaughter also appeared.  Actor Keith Coogan, grandson of the late great Jackie Coogan, also attended.  Thank you, publicist Margot Gerber, for the invite. It was fun hanging out and joking around with Charlie Chaplin well played by Pharoah Kingsley.

The famous alley filmmaking location was where Chaplin’s The Kid (1921), Buster Keaton’s Cops (1922) and Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last (1923) were filmed - you can’t get any greater than that!   Brian Curran, president of Hollywood Heritage shared remarks as did film historian John Bengston (who discovered the films had been filmed there), Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, David Totheroh, as did proud granddaughters Keaton Talmadge, Kiera Chaplin and Suzanne Lloyd.  

Beloved popular comedienne Judy Tenuta says "For the last 6 months I have been kicking cancer’s ass!  Thanks to God, my great doctors and all my Love Buckets, for all your loving messages!  It did happen!  I cannot wait to return to my home away from home:  the beautiful Hollywood Museum for their Halloween Gala!  Of course, I will be in costume, so you may not even recognize the Goddess!  But I will be so happy to hug founder, Donelle Dadigan, Harlan Boll, Roger Neal and all my Museum friends who have been sending love for my full recovery!  Yes, I’m kickin’ cancer’s ass!  It could Happen."  This is the best news ever and we are looking forward to seeing you soon Goddess!  The beautiful Hollywood Museum is located at the corner of Hollywood and Highland in the historic Max Factor Building and is a must see!

Celebrated food publicist and Hollywood resident Leo Pearlstein just turned 101!  The man who created and ran the highly successful California Cheese, California Eggs, California Turkey etc. campaigns is very sharp ….  "My family held a small party for me on my 101-year Birthday!  It’s good to be alive - I appreciate my life, my family and all of you who sent birthday wishes to me!  Cheers to another year on this earth - the best is yet to come!” One of his many accomplishments is the fun star filled book Celebrity Stew with a forward by the late great Steve Allen.  Leo shares the greatest stories and his family in Russia is from the same town my Grandmother was from called Bialystoc - who knows, we may even be related!

I attended Juliet Landau’s A Place Among the Dead premiere which kicked off the NoHo Cinefest Friday night.  Juliet stars in the well-made and thought-provoking film which she also directed. She won best actress and best director at Lady Filmmakers Festival previously.  Juliet and British husband, soul mate and collaborator Deverill Weekes, are a great talented cinematic couple for the 21st century.

SceneAroundTown Flashback - It’s hard to believe that 10 years ago this month that late great novelist Jackie Collins was the special guest speaker at the opening of the new West Hollywood Library.  Time sure does fly.  Sadly, Jackie lost her private battle with cancer and left us much too soon.  She was a nice talented and inspiring lady - always very approachable and missed by many.

Hollywood radio host Jody Hamilton had done a terrific cover of Stay Away, Baby Jane written by Chesney Hawke - she sings beautifully.  The track was produced by her husband /musician Lonny Paul. Comedian Bill Devlin stars as attorney Chris P. Poultry in a hilarious Jollibee Chicken Sandwich commercial – Congratulations!

Ever the optimist, Madonna’s cl“ass”ic moment on Jimmy Fallon leads me to believe, “The breast is yet to come!”

Harrison Held a longtime Discover Hollywood Magazine contributor was honored recently to receive the Excellence in Journalism Award from Clinton H. Wallace’s Cote d'Azur Webfest Cannes for his magazine series Hollywood & the pandemic in Classic Images Magazine.  He is hosting Memories of Marilyn which will accompany singer Kassandra Carroll’s Marilyn Monroe tribute album.  All proceeds will go to the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital and Hollygrove which was the orphanage Marilyn lived in. Photos by HH Billy Bennight, Clinton H. Wallace

[ziracona]

claud/jake/dwight anon here! maybe i’ll just go by wisteria since i’ll be popping up in your askbox from time to time :D

shippy hcs would be wonderful! i was referring to them as an established poly relationship post fic; i actually saw the comment where you were talking about how claudette can fit into different relationships and thought that was so fitting (and such a testament to the beauty of her character, but thats another long winded ask to send another day). once again, thanks for putting out ILM into this world. it’s a joy to read, reread, and treasure <3

Alrighty Wisteria! 

Also I’m glad because I initially read it that way and was halfway to answering when I was like ‘wait,’ but my instincts were correct haha.

Claudette/Jake/Dwight is an interesting poly ship. It’s funny, because obviously both of them love her and she loves both of them. Just, I don’t think her priority has ever been having a romantic relationship, and neither has theirs. I also think it just kind of...wouldn’t occur to Dwight or Jake that that was a thing. Like, they know about polyamoury, they know it exists. But I feel like straight up there’d like, be an escape anniversary party or something, and she gives them both super heart felt gifts she clearly loved to make, and they’re both touched, give hugs, pass her their own sweetly made things, last little group hug, she’s like “Love you guys” and as she runs off to go give out other gifts to other loved ones, Jake’s super sincerely like “You too,” and Dwight’s like *looks at him, looks at her, smiles* “Yeah. Love you.” and she’s gone, and someone who they were chatting with before (probably Meg, Nea, or Ace) would joke something like “Why didn’t you two just also marry Claudette? You’d be such a happy trio” casually offhand, and they’d be like “Haha yeah!  ... ... ... haha...yeah.... ? (O_O);” type thing that would have to happen, because otherwise they just like, wouldn’t think about it. 

Once they did, though, I feel like it would definitely be the same event that clued them both in, so they’d both be like “Hmmm” at the same time, and pick up on that, and talk first, and be like “...Yeah, I mean. Maybe? But would she even be comfortable with that? Is it weird?” And Jake, who has the most secure identity in this area, would not really have any issue from the get-go and would mostly be like “Boy am I stupid for this never occurring to me once”. Dwight would need more time to think and talk stuff through and figure himself out, but is a lot more comfortable than he was. Claudette would be the last one. They’d both approach her at some point, and it would be incredibly awkward and kind of a disaster despite the fact they practiced and thought they had a gameplan, and she’s just like, “What? ...What?” and confused, and she’s a very worry-prone person, so she’d be like “Oh no, did I do something? Is this bad? Do they just feel bad for me? Since I’m not dating and they want me to feel included? Is this a bad idea? What do I even actually want?” and since she’s got the least experience dating, she’d take the longest to think things through. Would talk to Meg, and Quentin, and Philip, and her parents, and Ace. And they’d all help, but Meg would be the most help. Because Meg’s simple. She’d just say, “Well, do you want to be dating them both?” and Claudette would be like, “Well. I don’t know. I love them. And it might be nice to have a romantic relationship with someone I love someday. But I don’t know if this is how I want that, or if it would be good, because I have no idea what this would look or feel like,” and Meg would be like, “Well then why don’t you just like, go on a few dates/hangs like you’re dating, and see if it’s fun and good, or uncomfortable and bad, and if you three all feel like it fits and makes life even better, go for it, and if it turns out to be a mistake like that time Jake and I really thought we’d get some hella traction making out, then say ‘Well that was awful lol. Friends it is!’ and Susie and I will take all of you for drunk lazer-tag.”

And that works, because well, it’s more sensible than any amount of introspection without experience, or thinking, or worrying is. So they give it a go for like a week, and it’s awkward as hell for like the first fifteen minutes, but this is a trio of people who’ve known each other so long and been so fundamentally entrenched in each others’ lives for years, and love and trust each other so completely and deeply, it really can’t be that awkawrd, and everyone has prepped best they can, and kind of laugh at themselves, and just like, spend the day at theme park, and get food, and laugh and talk about life like always, but just this time with a kind of romantic shade, and it’s nice. And there’s a lot of days like that--not all so big, more just, at home, hanging out, doing whatever. And it is weird, because none of them has done this before, but. It’s also fun. And none of them have any weird kind of favoritism insecurities, because they were already pretty well and equally entrenched in each others’ lives before, and it’s fun. Jake is strategic because he’s kind of the planning mind behind this, and gets advice from Meg, and they marathon a lot of Leverage with only Jake knowing this is a sneaky ploy to help the other two get more comfortable, because there’s just not a ton of good filmic poly trio rep, but damn if that show hasn’t got a great one. 

I think the trial period just kind of hits the end of it’s week and Jake and Dwight are like “So do you want to keep going?” and she’s like “...Yeah. : ) “ and so they do, and it’s like that for a while. They all move at their own paces, and in their own clearly discussed (and, as well as they know each other, usually already mostly known) comfort zones, and it’s fun, and nice. It also helps that everyone else is not just supportive and chill, but most of them are like, goofily into it.

They’ve been dating for like, four months before any of them explicitly calls it that officially. But it’s cute. Jake wants it to be official so he gets people anniversary gifts and then is kind of embarrassed but more pleased with himself, and it’s very cute and goes over well.

Everyone puts in work to figuring out how to keep this healthy and good, since none of them had a lot of preexisting knowledge for being with multiple people. They all do that their own way. Claudette spends hours and hours doing research online and checking for tips from people online, and really works hard to be a good girlfriend, and it’s very sweet. Meg and especially Quentin both have no real idea how to help her, but clock a lot of hours trying and doing pretty good. So secondarily do Nancy and Susie.

I’m pretty sure eventually they’d have another wedding, legally official or not--and not because any of them really feel a need to, but because they think it would be fun and Claudette should get to dress up too, and tbh it would be cute. I feel like Meg, Ace, and Susie are major factors pushing for this. 

All of their parents think it’s a little weird, but their kids were missing for like 4 years getting tortured in hell, and they’re all reasonable people; they don’t say shit. Also, they all like all the other parties involved, so they’re like “Rat’s don’t understand these things” (this is a Muppet Christmas Carol inside joke I use all the time even though only like 4 people get it but I hope it makes some sense from context lol), but figure they don’t really have to to be happy their kids are happy and loved and doing well.

Meg is like “Fuck why didn’t we think of this. Why have I been supporting it when I could have nabbed her for me and Susie?” and Quentin doesn’t say shit but he thinks very loudly, “I know, right? Nancy and me are over here like ‘same hat’ fml,” but genuinely they’re very happy for the three of them and with the relationships they have. There’s just a lot of love to go around.

While there’s probably some kind a wedding eventually, definitely about as soon as they start dating, Jake and Dwight start calling her their wife. She’s flustered and like “But I’m note! I’m just your girlfriend.” and Dwight’s like “Yeah, but that makes it sound weirdly unbalanced,” and Jake who looked this up for this moment is like, “Well, by Quebec common law marriage standards, you actually are our wife--we cohabitated for over three years in the realm, so,” and Dwight’s like “whoa for real?” and she’s just like : o   But it kinda helps and she accepts it. The downside is Nea hears the story and tells Meg and together they start just fuckin calling all their realm friends their spouses goofily 24/7 when they want shit like “David, my wonderful strong husband, can you pleeeeease get me a sodie from the fridge? : D <3″ and it’s very funny but it’s also pure chaos. Like, so much more than usual.

[10bestsunglassbrandsformen]

10 Best Sunglass Brands For Men

The Best Shades Brands to Purchase Before Summer Shows up:

Tune in, I could reveal to you that "shades are the ideal last little detail to any mid year outfit" or that they're an "simple approach to add a fly of character to your warm climate looks" however let's go, who are we joking? The genuine and just motivation to wear shades is that they look so screwing cool.

The sheer measure of pictures accessible online of trendy superstars hindering in shades (that I might have spent the better piece of an hour looking through "for research") is shocking. Has any one extra enlivened more individuals to assembled such gigantic fits?

I'm an enormous promoter for wearing your shades all year, inside and out. I have a companion who regularly shakes shades out around evening time and he generally appears to pull it off with panache. (Also, by companion I mean me. Indeed, I'm that fella. I'm a dick. Ideal to meet you, as well.) 

Recently I've been truly feeling colored shades (I have a couple gotten into my front pocket as I compose this—y'know, for crises), and when any Nosey Nancy inquires as to why I'm wearing shades inside, I disgrace them quickly by saying my eyes are forever hindered from consistent openness to each screen I own and now I must choose the option to look way cooler any place I'm (for confirmation, see: Nicholson, Jack).

1 Carrera

Carrera has been making its particular hustling propelled shades since the '50s, and years and years after the fact it got a definitive blessing: procurement by Safilo, probably the greatest name in the business.

2 Warby Parker

The DTC dear and jealousy of financial backers the world over acquired its standing as the best quality level for advanced disruptors by not holding back on the subtleties with regards to its shades.

3 Ray-Ban

Beam Boycott is the first and last name with regards to shades, with the inventory of now-signature styles to back it up. In the event that Travelers were adequate for Tom Voyage in Dangerous Business, they're certain as hellfire sufficient for you now.

4 Oakley

Oakley's shamelessly brilliant wraparound conceals offer precisely the perfect measure of over-the-top oomph for this time of maximalist menswear, and the brand's exemplary styles are beginning to look genuine strong right about now, as well.

5 Moscot

Moscot's been in the shades game for a moment at this point (and by brief I mean longer than a century), and the fifth era (!) of Moscot relatives presently work at the organization. Any name that moves that degree of reliability merits looking at.

6 Garrett Leight

Garrett Leight stops by the shades exchange sincerely. The child of Larry Leight, the author of Oliver People groups, Garrett dispatched his own namesake mark in 2011 in the wake of getting familiar with everything working for his father's organization, and today makes probably the best shades around.

7 Tom Ford

Not many true blue design brands have figured out how to turn into a strong asset for shades other than for Tom Passage. It helps that the fashioner himself is once in a while seen without a couple nowadays, and that he's his image's own best minister.

8 Oliver Peoples

Oliver People groups' shades make you consider sun-soaked California days and the apparently unlimited chances of a long summer end of the week. Is there any preferred underwriting over that (other than for perhaps an especially essential American Psycho holler)?

9 Persol

Persol is a definitive in Italian extravagance shades. The brand was an undisputed top choice of Steve McQueen's since the time the Lord of Cool appeared at the arrangement of The Thomas Crown Undertaking shaking a couple of the brand's 714 shades (a style that currently bears his name).

10 Celine

As innovative overseer of Celine, Pheobe Philo changed the once-sluggish French style house into a basic sweetheart profoundly (and I mean profoundly) darling by knowing ladies all throughout the planet. Philo left her position a couple of years prior, however the in fact unisex shades she presented are still near, and stay probably the most ideal alternatives for people the same.

[ordinaryschmuck]

Top 20 BEST Animated Series of the 2010s-15th Place

The fifteenth place is a tie, primarily because both of these shows are equally good, in my opinion. Some of you might disagree with me, but to that I say-

ALL ABOARD THE HATE TRAIN!

CHOO CHOO!

#15-We Bare Bears (2015-2020)/Big City Greens (2018-)

The Plot(s): Both shows involve an unorthodox family trying to fit in with what’s considered normal. In We Bare Bears, it’s three brother bears (Grizz, Panda, and Ice Bear) trying to fit in with modern society. And in Big City Greens, it’s a family of farmers (Cricket, Tilly, Bill, and Gramma) trying to adjust to city life after the family farm got sold due to low profits. In both shows, these characters make new friends, go on wacky adventures, and learn that they’ll always be okay as long as they’re together.

Aside from that brief description, I can sum up these shows in two words: Charmingly simplistic. There’s no intense continuity, no ongoing story arcs, or even an evilly evil villain hoping to take over the world...for the most part. These are just two different shows, with two types of families trying to get by in life. And honestly, it’s those families that make these shows work.

The dynamic between the bears in We Bare Bears is what makes the show so charming to watch. These three actually act like brothers (from what I’ve been told. I, unfortunately, don’t have brothers), and seeing their brotherly bond does nothing less than putting a smile on my face. Plus, the loyalty they have for each other is downright heartwarming, especially when the series flashes back to when they were kids.

And while I can’t entirely say that the Green family has the same amount of charm to them, there is one thing that I love. And that’s the fact that (kinda spoiler warning) they are an almost complete family in a Disney cartoon, with both parents being a prominent role in the series. Yes, Bill and Nancy are divorced, but that doesn’t mean Nancy isn’t around for her kids. She shows up frequently after her introduction and even gives off an impression that she’s a semi-good mom. In fact, Bill and Nancy seem to still have a level of respect for each other despite missing their old spark. It’s almost as if the writers are trying to say that not all divorces mean the destruction of a family, which I can respect. Because it can teach kids to not be afraid of the “D” word (kinda spoilers over).

But it’s not just the main characters that shine in these shows. The members of the supporting cast in We Bare Bears have a level of likability and depth. Chloe is often outgoing and laid back when she’s with the bears, who fails to make any other connections due to being a child prodigy. Ranger Tabes is often audacious and enjoyably energetic while also taking pride in her work and feels hurt when she thinks she’s not taken seriously. Then there are Charlie and Nom Nom, who have a level of charm to them. Despite being intended to come off as annoying and unlikable. Even the background characters are impressive due to the diversity of cultures and races that a viewer can see in each episode.

As for Big City Greens, the characters do not really have any depth outside of the main cast. What you see is pretty much what you get with most of these characters, aside from maybe Gloria, but even then, it’s only on occasion. Big City Greens also dodges showing diversity by having everyone be a shade of bright pastel colors. But I give credit to the show for having the first gay couple in a Disney cartoon...even though they get dropped by season two and are never fully confirmed as gay. Which pales in comparison to Luz and Amity from The Owl House, but it was at least a start! Sometimes, you gotta take baby steps before taking leaps ahead of the game. And don’t get me wrong, while I still prefer characters who have depth, that doesn’t mean I hate the characters in Big City Greens. Everyone does their job of adding to the story and making audiences laugh. In fact, making audiences laugh is what I would say Big City Greens does better than We Bare Bears.

Now in fairness. We Bare Bears is pretty funny from time to time. However, when it comes to which series makes me laugh the most, I have to pick Big City Greens. The first few episodes alone had me laughing much more than most of We Bare Bears' first season. It also helps that the show has a very random sense of humor elevated by the show’s energy. But I'll give it to you that comedy is subjective, and there are a couple of jokes that don’t work in Big City Greens. The best example is when the show lingers too long on a joke that didn’t really work as much as the writers thought it did. But that does not change the fact that Big City Greens is still a pretty funny show.

However, while We Bare Bears lacks comedy, it more than enough makes up for it with charm. This show is downright delightful to watch in almost every episode. Rarely do I feel anger when watching this series (which I wish I could say about previous/future entrees), and it has everything to do with the cast. I wasn’t kidding when I said that even intentionally annoying characters have a level of charm and likeability to them. In fact, the only bad episodes are when they begin to act uncharacteristically cruel and selfish. Mostly because those words could not be farther from a definition of We Bare Bears.

However, if I had to pick out the major fault that We Bare Bears have, it’s the fact that the show plays things a little too safe. For instance, whenever the show tries to go dark, it is pretty tame compared to other shows. The best example is how nearly every dangerous predator in this series somehow looks adorable. Wolfs, snakes, and even cougars (the big cats, not the middle-aged women) are somehow drawn to be cute and cuddly. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want a show to make kids think that dangerous woodland creatures like these are something you could just give a belly rub. I understand that this is a kids' show, but Big City Greens not only has the same rating, but it’s on the Disney Channel. And yet, it feels like that show has bigger cajones than the series formerly on the same network as Regular Show. That is not a good thing.

Going back to Big City Greens, I can sum up every problem I have with this show with one character: Cricket Green. Now I don’t entirely hate Cricket...but I’m willing to bet other people will. I can tell that the show is trying to make him a lovable little rascal that’s sort of a mix of Bart Simpson and Timmy Turner. But in the end, I think he causes more damage than either of those characters have in their entire lives. Cricket claims how sorry he is at the end of every episode, but I doubt he learns his lesson. We Bare Bears has a similar problem with Panda, but even when Panda is at his most selfish, he doesn’t do anything harmful to anyone but himself (except in the episode “Braces," but we don’t need to talk about that). Plus, even when he does go a tad too far, Panda’s voice actor (Bobby Moynihan) does a great job at making Panda seem sincere when he’s apologizing for his actions. Not to mention that Bobby gives a sense of realism and relatability with most of Panda’s lines. Then there is Cricket’s voice actor, Chris Houghton, an adult man trying to voice a child. I understand the logic behind using an adult over a kid (this happens more times than you think), but I feel like I would get the impression that Cricket is an innocent kid who doesn’t know better if he actually sounded like a kid.

In the end, neither of these shows are really that impressive compared to others. Thankfully with good comedy, charm, and great characters, they still manage to be really good for all ages. So while We Bare Bears and Big City Greens may not be as big as any other show in the last decade, they’re still good enough that you might just bear it!

(Two for one! I told you I would make up the embarrassment that was Dan Vs.!)

[silverynight]

Beautiful lines

Chapter 1

Newt is nervous… Well, he’s usually feeling that way when it comes to interacting with people (there are a few exceptions of course) but this time is slightly different.

He doesn’t know how to act like Tina’s boyfriend… Although his friend assured him it’s not a big deal and that they actually don’t have to change a lot about their behavior; they’re good friends and people are not expecting to see them kissing in front of them all the time.

It’s okay… He tells himself, besides… Tina needs this and Newt really likes her, he can do this for her.

“I could ask someone else if it makes you feel uncomfortable,” she had told him to which he responded by shaking his head.

“No, it’s okay,” he had said. And it truly was.

Tina had told one of his co-workers she was seeing someone in an attempt to get rid of said person; she didn’t think much about it then, it just happened. The problem was that there were more aurors around when she told that lie and now everyone wonders who the man is.

She told him they could pretend while he was there in New York and then she’d tell them later they broke up.

But actually… Now that he thinks about it, he doesn’t have a problem pretending to be with Tina, he’s not seeing anyone at the moment.

Well, the only problem is that he doesn’t want to ruin it now that he’s in the city, he’s not usually good at acting.

He sighs, looks at MACUSA’s building, holding a copy of his book close to his chest, excited… He can’t wait for Tina and Queenie to read it. Later, he’ll have to pay a visit to Jacob as well.

The truth is that he’s missed all of them; it has always been difficult for him to make friends so he appreciates every single one of them.

Newt sighs and takes a step forward but he immediately bumps into a man who’s obviously in a hurry. When the magizoologist turns around he recognizes the man though.

“Sorry, Mr. Graves!” He smiles shyly at him and realizes he’s made a mistake when the Director blinks at him in confusion.

“Do I know you?” Graves gets closer and the magizoologist’s face turns into an interesting shade of red and the embarrassment fills him completely. He narrows his eyes, staring at Newt’s face like he really wants to look for his features inside his memory. “I don't–I am sure I’d never forget someone like–”

“You don’t know me,” Newt mumbles, feeling as the blush spreads down his neck. “Not really… I’m sorry… I–I’m Newt Scamander.”

Something clicks inside the Director’s head because he nods at Newt.

“I assume you met Grindelwald,” he comments, voice turning almost feral at the name. Newt doesn’t blame him, the dark lord almost killed him.

“I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to–”

There’s something about Newt’s mortified tone and distressed expression that makes Graves relax because he’s suddenly smiling gently at him.

“It’s alright,” he assures. “Let’s start again, shall we? I’m Percival Graves.”

Newt shakes the man’s hand, feeling as the relief spreads all over his chest.

“You can call me Percival… After all I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for you.”

“Your aurors saved you,” Newt reminds him. “I just told them where to look.”

“You also were the one who knew it wasn’t me when the incident in New York happened.”

Newt does a dismissive gesture with his hand, which he regrets almost immediately when he sees Graves looking down at the book in his hand and eventually… the case.

“Mr. Scamander…”

“Newt,” the magizoologist corrects him, hoping the Director doesn’t mention anything about his babies, but of course that’d be asking too much.

“I’m really grateful… I truly am, but I can’t pretend I don’t know there are dozens of illegal creatures inside that case… I’m the Head of Magical Law Enforcement after all–”

“I’ll be here just a couple of days!” Newt cuts him off, hugging his case against his chest. “You won’t see me again, I promise!”

Graves grimaces at that last thing almost painfully, although it’s so quick Newt thinks he has imagined it.

“Hey, you don’t have to go… And you can stay as long as you want, Newt,” he puts a hand over the magizoologist’s shoulder; his dark eyes are kind. “No one is going to touch your creatures, I’m just trying to say you should get a permit for them. In fact, I can give it to you if you come to my office…”

“Oh!” Newt’s relief turns into a full smile that makes Graves blink and stare for a couple of seconds. “Thank you!”

The Director just nods, suddenly finding himself unable to think what to say. They both get inside the building and Newt is so happy he doesn’t notice the curious looks MACUSA’s workers direct at them.

“So Newt…” Graves clears his throat and starts rubbing the back of his neck as they walk inside the elevator. Red, the goblin, looks at them with curiosity, but doesn’t say a word. “Maybe you should tell me more about your creatures… So I can redact the document properly. I need to know how dange–”

“They’re not dangerous,” Newt says immediately and sees the man sigh, although he looks like he’s trying to fight a grin.

“Of course they’re not,” Graves chuckles, finally giving in and purposely ignoring the shock he sees on Red’s face.

***

“A Nundu?” By the time Newt gets to talk about his Nancy they’re in Graves’s office already and the Director has heard about half of the creatures he has in his case; the first couple of times he looked like he was about to have an aneurysm but now he just pinches the bridge of his nose and exhales. “Right, of course you’d have a Nundu… At least tell me this is the last one.”

“Oh, not at all!” Newt smiles, amused; it’s so contagious Graves can’t help but grin in return despite of himself.

Graves keeps writing down the names of the creatures and listening to Newt with interest, in fact, he’s not sitting on the chair behind his desk, but the couch at the corner of the office, next to the window, right beside Newt. He’s so close Newt can feel his thigh touching his. It’s weird, but he’s not uncomfortable, somehow talking with Percival Graves feels like talking to an old friend.

He feels safe and warm.

When Newt finishes, Graves starts writing everything he needs for the permit and before signing it, he looks back at the magizoologist.

“I was thinking… Later, when I finish here we could… I mean if you’re available I’d like you to–”

“Mr. Graves,” Tina opens the door, well… Actually, she just pushes it completely open, because it wasn’t really closed.

The Director almost growls at the interruption.

“Newt!” She says, grinning from ear to ear despite of the glare her boss is throwing at her.

The magizoologist jumps into her arms, absolutely happy.

“I see you met Mr. Graves…”

Weiss walks in the office at that moment and Graves huffs.

“Has everyone suddenly forgotten to knock?” He grits his teeth, irritated. Newt thinks he now misses his kind smiles from before.

“Sorry, boss! I just wanted to give you my report,” Weiss says, eyeing Tina and Newt with curiosity.

“And I came here to inform you the President is ready for the meeting,” Tina adds and Graves nods, although he looks like he has a headache now.

He rises from his seat and puts the permit in Newt’s hand and manages to brush his fingers against the magizoologist’s skin.

“Here’s your permit, Newt.”

“Thank you, Percival!” He beams.

Percival? Weiss mouths at Tina like she can’t believe it. Although she quickly decides to think about that later in order to focus on the other auror.

“So, this is the one, huh? You really make a cute couple,” she says, loud enough for Graves and Newt to hear. The first freezes on the spot, expression unreadable on his face while the magizoologist blushes to the tip of his ears.

“Oh, yes,” Tina says, completely relaxed. “This is my boyfriend, Newt Scamander.”

Graves clears his throat and Newt realizes he’s completely serious now, there’s none of that glimmer he saw in his eyes a few hours ago. He wonders if that’s because he’s trying to focus completely on his work now.

“I think this is not the time to socialize,” he says and both aurors nod at the same time. He’s already walking to the door, although he stops and looks back at Newt. “It was a pleasure.”

“The pleasure was mine,” the magizoologist says sincerely and Graves seems like he wants to say something else, but then looks back at Tina before he walks away.

“Newt, this permit is for all your creatures!” Tina says after a while, almost in shock. She had taken the document when Newt was distracted apparently.

Weiss looks over her shoulder, curious and her eyes open wide then.

Newt doesn’t see why that’s so surprising, Graves promised him it’d be for all the creatures in his case.

“And for a whole year!” Weiss mumbles suddenly.

That’s weird, he remembers mentioning Graves he wasn’t going to stay long.

“Perhaps he made a mistake,” he offers, but the two aurors are already shaking their heads.

“I don’t think so,” Tina observes the document, intrigued.

“Well… If it wasn’t a mistake then it means he just wanted to be kind,” Newt comments, smiling at them, but the women still look in shock.

MACUSA really is an odd place.

***

Read the complete fic on my Patreon.

[biillyhargroves]

Fluff prompt! Billy survives Starcourt and Steve visits him in the hospital, bringing some silly stuffed animal or whatnot that Billy begrudgingly adores (almost) as much as his boyfriend.

i and love and you(fic requests open)

It was an impulse buy.

Steve had been in the waiting room, pacing back and forth and back and forth as double doors opened to doctors beelining toward waiting families. Joyce had sent Jonathan and Will home with Nancy and Mike, herself and El lingering to see the chief. Lucas and Erica had been picked up by their frantic parents rather quickly. Dustin stayed with Steve as long as he could, but soon enough his mother swooped in with a million questions and tearstained cheeks. Robin, for her part, had called her parents and told them that she was fine and that she was staying to support a friend. They had wanted her home, but she managed to buy a few hours time with the promise that she’d call with updates. In between check-ins, she made vending machine runs while Steve stared at the operating suite doors and Max attempting, for the fifteenth time, to reach her mother. 

When Susan and Neil Hargrove finally showed up, Neil fuming and ready to lay into the police still milling about the waiting room compiling statements and Susan fretting and fussing over Max, Steve secluded himself in the corner. 

“You okay?” Robin asked him, plopping down and tossing a bag of peanut M&Ms in his lap.

“I don’t know,” Steve mumbled. 

“Is that his gold star family?” Robin asked, jutting her chin toward the Hargroves. Neil was shouting at a young police officer while Susan tried to get him to back off and Max sat cross-legged in an uncomfortable plastic chair, watching the doors the way Steve had been and perking up at every doctor and nurse that walked by. 

“Yup,” Steve sighed. “They’re aces.”

“They look it,” Robin said. They both got quiet, and Steve fiddled with the bag of candy in his lap. Robin watched him for a few silent moments before she said, “You want to take a walk?”

One look back at Neil Hargrove filled Steve with the immediate need to run, and so he said yes, and they found themselves wandering toward the gift shop with all of its Indiana keychains and get well balloons.  Steve had absently plucked the little teddy bear off a shelf as he walked, not fully realizing he was holding it until Robin pointed it out.

“You gonna give that your boyfriend, Casanova?”

“What?”

“The bear, dingus.”

“Oh.” Steve had shoved it back on the nearest shelf, feeling somehow embarrassed to be caught with it, but Robin scooped it right back out with a smile that looked some shade of sincere. It was a little brown bear with Get Well Soon embroidered in white thread on its right foot. It wore the somber expression of all stuffed animals and its little paws touched over its chest. Robin pushed it into Steve’s hands.

“You should buy it,” she said. “He’ll like it.”

“You don’t know Billy.”

“Maybe not,” she shrugged, “but it’ll make him think of you.”

And so, on a whim and Robin’s encouragement, Steve paid for the little bear. 

The Hargroves were gone when Steve and Robin returned to the waiting room. The cops were, too, and so were all the government officials mixed among them. Steve and Robin parked themselves in the same two chairs and shared bags of vending machine candy until the Hargroves bustled past them, Max dropping a note written on a stolen Post-It note as they did. 

ICU. Rm 185. Sedated. Stable. 

“You don’t have to stay,” Steve told Robin, but she shook her head.

“You’re my ride,” she told him. “Take as long as you need.”

And so Steve snuck past the recovery rooms and the nurse’s station outside the Intensive Care Unit with the little bear in hand. Room one eighty-five was in the back corner of the unit, and Steve slipped inside as the nurses checked in on other patients. 

The first thing Steve noticed, after his eyes adjusted to the dark, was how small Billy looked. There were tubes and wires attached to him- there was a mask over his mouth and nose and wires stuck to his chest, IV lines snaked around his arm. The bed itself seemed to swallow him whole, blankets piled on top of him, cover up any inch that wasn’t already wrapped in bandages and gauze. The sight of him made Steve’s heart sink. 

“Shit,” he whispered. He stared at Billy for a long while, right up until he heard a nurse walking by the room and had to duck into the corner so that she wouldn’t see him. When he was sure he was safe, he crept to Billy’s bedside and sat down. He gingerly touched Billy’s hand, terrified that any contact might hurt him, and he blinked away the tears that he knew Billy would mock him for if he were awake. “I, uh...I got you something,” Steve said softly. He looked down at the bear still clutched in his free hand. “It’s stupid. I know you’ll make fun of it. But, I don’t know...A friend told me...It’s not important. I just wanted you to have something from me.”

Steve left the bear with Billy that night, and the next morning Max covered him by swearing that she had given the bear to Billy. It sat on the windowsill of Billy’s room in the ICU, and then later in the medical-surgical unit. It had caught Billy’s eye once he was moved, and Max told him that Steve had gotten it for him. He’d scoffed and called Steve a dork, and Max pretended not to see the soft blush that crept into her brother’s cheeks. When Billy was finally discharged, he made Max grab the bear for him. 

He’d never mentioned anything about it to Steve, and Steve had been too embarrassed to ask him about it. Max had told him that she explained everything to him, that Steve had visited him every night and that he wanted Billy to have the bear so that he’d think of him, but Billy never brought it up with Steve, so Steve left it alone, too. He left it alone and pretended not to see it tucked onto a shelf in Billy’s bedroom. It sat there among cassette tapes and empty cigarette boxes, never moved. 

Years later, as they are moving boxes into the apartment they could finally afford, Steve found the bear in a box with a framed photograph of Billy with his mother and a Metallica record that Max had once given him for his birthday. He’d nearly forgotten about the bear. He hadn’t seen it in years, not since Billy had healed enough to start venturing outside his house and they resumed their nighttime sneaking at the Harringtons’. He was sure that Billy had gotten rid of it, that it would be thrown away with the junk he purged while moving. 

Steve carried the little bear from the bedroom to the living room, where Billy was swearing at the coffee table he was trying- and failing -to build.

“You kept this?” Steve asked him, holding up the bear.

“Kept what?” Billy snipped, sounding annoyed. He looked up with furrowed brows, but his features softened when he saw the stuffed animal in Steve’s hands. He made a sound that was something like a sigh and something like a laugh and he shook his head. “No shit, I kept it,” he said.

“I thought you’d think it was...I don’t know, corny or something.”

“It is corny,” Billy said. He turned his attention back to the coffee table, the leg of which Steve was sure he’d snap if the screw didn’t go in right this time. “You’re corny,” Billy mumbled. “That’s why I kept it.” 

“Yeah?” Steve asked. “Really?”

“You gonna make me say it?” Billy asked, still not looking at him. 

“Say what?” Steve said, genuinely dumbfounded. Billy glanced up at him from his spot on the floor.

“That I love you and your stupid bear, idiot.”

And maybe his words were a little harsh. Maybe Billy was a little rough around the edges. But he loved Steve, and he carried that stupid little Get Well Soon teddy bear around for years because he loved Steve, and that is all that mattered.

[winterlovesong1]

Halloween prompt: Nace pumpkin carving. We all know Ace's art skills suck so his pumpkin would have no recognizable design. Nancy's is super nice and well done.

Here is prompt number two from a kind anon, who coincidently enough, sent in a prompt that was basically Nace + Pumpkin Carving again (thanks universe, real funny) - but actually this person provided some guidelines to work within so this was actually a bit more on the fluff leaning side than the other story I wrote for this same prompt. I hope you enjoy!

flicker of autumn light

Summary: To calm the disgruntled customers, George thinks of something to brighten up The Claw, get in the spirit of the season.

-/-

Nick suggests it in an off handed manner, casually joking after a trying dinner shift that maybe the customers would ease up on their complaints if the restaurant was decorated a bit more.

George does not take this as a joke. She takes it as a challenge.

(she thinks Nick should have known better)

(he’s learning)

read the rest below the cut or read the rest at A03

“Everyone will carve one,” she says a bit demanding as she forcefully sets a pumpkin in front of each of them upon a white canvas cloth that covered the outside picnic benches off the side of the restaurant.

 “We’ll display them in the front windows and put name tags in front of them with the staffer than carved them,” she’s smiling, not out of joy, but out of the satisfaction that despite Nick starting this whole idea as a farce, everyone was going to have to endure some seasonal antics. Though she enjoyed this time of year and her hometown traditions, the more antiquated rituals like carving pumpkins she could care less for.

  “It’ll be…what did you call it, honey?” Almost sounding sincere before recalling, “oh yes, community building,” the last of her phrase heavy with sarcasm as it weighs itself down into the air.

 She can feel the eyerolls and groans resounding and smiles even wider.

        Nick is the first to finish his, expertly sculpting the face of a skeleton into the skin just from memory.

  George is less than enthused that her fiancé not only finished first, but left her behind to go check on the delivery orders for the week.

   Bess is second to complete, but she did a more paint by numbers approach, using a stencil and colored markers to draw upon the skin of the pumpkin rather than carving. She hopped off to go display her witches’ hat next to Nick’s skeleton.

  George forfeited soon after Bess skipped away, citing as the manager, she wasn’t obliged to provide a pumpkin for the display.

    “New rule,” she proclaimed as she huffed away.

         This left Ace and Nancy sitting next to each other on the bench finishing up their forced art projects.

   (well, one of them was finishing, the other had yet to start)

  (ok they both weren’t nearly done)

    “You need some ideas?” she suggests rather innocently, trying not to sound too confident in her own set of skills, which were admittedly lacking, but at least she was further along than him. She had at least started sketching an outline upon the surface, he had yet to pick up a marker or carving knife or as her eyes glanced down at his empty hands in his lap...anything really.

  “I have an idea, I just…” his voice trailing as he dips his head a little, a shade of pink gracing his cheeks.

 Since when did his lack of art skills become a source of embarrassment?

  Her mind wanders to a carefully crafted sketch of a fish, and she wants to smile at the memory, but he’s still not meeting her eyes and her display of joy at her happy memory might seem out of place so she holds back and instead, knocks her shoulder against his and finishes his thoughts for him.

  “Know where to start?”

  He lifts his eyes back up to her and he’s the first to smile so she allows herself to let her happiness show, her lips drawing up into a grin as she offers again, “here let me help you.”

          It takes them about an hour to finish - she's not sure the exact span of time as it all occurred in between unrestrained laughter and bubbly giggles, tangled amongst now this is how I do it and now you try, surrounded by pauses and stops of  her stolen glances, watching him concentrate on his art, of her noticing him glancing over at her from the corner of her eye while she pretended to work on hers.

       “I’m impressed you guys,” George exclaimed, arms folded as she stood back overviewing the line up of pumpkins on the front windowsill. "Maybe we should do this every year?” she suggested, turning over her shoulder to her friends scattered about the dining area.

  And in union from their own places about the room, they all affirmed, “I don’t think so.”

         They prepared for the start of the lunch shift, the first customer breezing through the door with the ring of the bell attached to the top echoing its jingle. As they gathered in the kitchen, they peered through the serving window at the young professional woman, dressed in a well ironed pencil skirt and tailored blazer, look over at the windowsill, a small smirk gracing her features at their various sculptures before her eyes went back to seeking out a waiter.

  When Bess came back with her order, Ace was the first to tentatively ask, “so which one did she like best?”

  She wrinkled her nose and in a spark of pride, cheered, “actually, it was yours.”

       She left to take the drink order to her table and as the metal doors swung behind her, George walked away with Nick, though not admitting, he pride was a little hurt, leaving Ace at the stove and Nancy leaning herself against the counter beside him.

  He turned to her from his workstation, a pink hue shading his features, and sheepishly expressed his gratitude, “thank you.”

  She took in the moment, his eyes full of sincerity at how she helped him carve what in the end was a pretty decent ghost, and something swelled inside her, the emotion not one of satisfaction or a job well done as an expert pumpkin carving teacher, but something else, something resembling...

 She leaned her back further against the edge of the counter and tucked her hands into her apron pockets. Gathering a bit of bravery in herself by looking quickly at her sneakers, before meeting his eyes again, she replied, “anytime.”

  (she really hoped it was sometime soon)