#ok I am super tired and half asleep; I did edit this a few times but it's highly likely I missed something so excuse any mistakes

[beautiful-songbird]

Stranded [2]- A Long, Stormy Night

Pairing: Tae x OC, Namjoon x OC, Jungkook x OC

Genre: fluff, crack

Word Count: 2.3k

Warnings: this is even cringier than the last chapter and you can’t say I didn’t warn you. I also didn't edit this so there are probably typos

Summary: It’s a normal evening. Jin has invited a few of his friends over for dinner, and Namjoon is finally back in town. That is, until it starts pouring. Now everyone is stuck at Jin’s house for the conceivable future. What will they do with their time?

—————

Xia plopped down on the couch. “Jimin said he’s stuck in a traffic jam and probably won’t be back for a while.” She looked up at Jin. “Do you think you have enough room for us all to crash here for the night?”

Jin nodded. “We have another guest room and a few couches. I also have tons of pajamas you guys could borrow if you need them.”

“Great!” Hobi exclaimed. “Now let’s eat, I’m starving!”

They all agreed, and Xia and Jin helped Tae to the table as Jungkook and Hobi put all the food on the table. They are most of the food pretty quickly, but saved some for Jimin, Namjoon, and Xhei. After cleaning the dishes and putting the extra food in the fridge, they decided to watch a movie. Despite the fact that they just ate, Jin and Jungkook insisted on making popcorn, so the did that while Xia, Hobi, and Tae debated what movie to watch. Suddenly, Xia jumped up.

“I forgot to tell my mom I’m not coming over!”

She quickly texted her mom, and soon got a response.

“Oh, thank goodness.”

Tae and Hobi gave her questioning looks.

“She said she figured I wasn’t coming because of the rain.”

“Ah,” Tae nodded. “So, what are we watching?”

“You guys up for a drama?”

◇◆◇◆◇

The five of them crowded around the TV, Jin and Jungkook cramming popcorn into their mouths, and Tae and Hobi doing their own dramatic re-creation of the movie on the couch. Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door, surprising all of them. Jin sighed and paused the movie before going to get the door.

Jimin burst through the door, socking wet, followed by Namjoon and Xhei, who weren’t as wet but still soaked.

“Namjoon, not only do you know the garage code, but you also have a key, and you still insist on knocking?”

Namjoon smiled and pulled three suitcases into the house. “I was too lazy to pull it out.”

Xhei sighed. “Jin, where’s our room? I’m freezing and I definitely need to change.”

Jin nodded towards the stairs. “Up the stairs, first one on the left.”

“Thanks!” She grabbed her suitcase and hauled it up the stairs with her.

Jin turned to Jimin. “I know probably nothing in my closet is small enough for you, but go through it and find a change of clothes before you catch a cold.”

Jimin nodded and ran off to Jin’s room.

“I’m gonna go change too,” Namjoon said before grabbing the other two suitcases and going upstairs.

Jin went back to the living room, finding Xia, Tae, Jungkook, and Hobi all asleep on the couch, cuddled together. That didn’t last long, however as lightning cracked and thunder roared again, waking them all up. Hobi jumped up, kicking Tae’s ankle. Tae gasped.

“Hobi-!”

Hobi’s eyes widened. “Sorry, Tae! Are you ok?”

Tae nodded slowly. “Hey, Jin? Do you think you could wrap my ankle?”

“Hmm…” Jin kneeled down and looked at Tae’s ankle again. “I think the swelling’s gone down enough now that I can.” He went to go find an ankle wrap.

Jimin came out from Jin’s room, practically drowning in the sweater he found. “Jin was right, I’m way too small for this.” He walked over to the couch and joined the pile that was quickly forming.

Namjoon came downstairs and looked at everyone on the couch. “Geez. Jin’s throwing a mass slumber party or something.”

“We’re all stuck here because of the rain,” Xia explained.

“Ah,” Namjoon nodded. He looked at Tae, who had his leg propped up on the table. “Did Tae hurt himself again?”

“You say that like it happens a lot.”

“Eh, he’s pretty clumsy.”

Tae rolled his eyes. “Am not.”

“That’s not what you said earlier,” Jimin quipped.

Tae glared at him while Jimin snickered. Jin than came out with a box that had a wide assortment of ankle wraps in it. He set it on the table before pulling a few out. Once he’d decided which one he wanted to use, he unceremoniously tossed them back into the box, completely missing. Then he knelt down to wrap Tae’s ankle.

“You’re gonna clean that up, right?” Namjoon asked.

“Of course I’m gonna clean up my own house,” Jin replied. “By the way, where’s Xhei?”

“She decided to shower and go to bed.”

“Oh.” Jin finished wrapping Tae’s ankle. “How’s that?”

Tae wiggled his toes. “It’s good.”

“Are we gonna finish the drama now?” Jungkook asked.

“We can finish it tomorrow. I’m tired,” Hobi yawned.

“Yeah, I’m tired too,” Xia said. “But be honest, Hobi, are you really gonna be able to fall asleep with all the lightning and thunder?”

Hobi sighed and shook his head. “Probably not.”

“Don’t worry! I’ll cuddle with you so you don’t feel scared!” Jimin exclaimed, grinning.

“You know what, let’s just all sleep on the couch. That way, no one’s alone,” Tae suggested.

They all nodded in agreement, but Namjoon cut in.

“That’s too weird. I’m going to bed.” He quickly climbed back up the stairs.

Jin came back into the room just as Namjoon ran up the stairs. He gave the others a questioning look.

“He didn’t want to group cuddle,” Tae explained.

Jin laughed. “Oh, we’re group cuddling, are we?”

Jimin nodded. “So no one gets scared or is alone.”

“All right,” Jin squeezed onto the couch with the rest of them. “Do you think we need blankets?”

“Well, I would say no, but I’m kinda cold, so yes,” Xia replied.

“I’ll go get some!” Jungkook jumped up and ran out of the room.

“This is gonna be a long night…” Hobi muttered.

◇◆◇◆◇

Jin woke up and looked at the clock, before realizing something was blocking his view. It was…a foot? He grabbed it gently and pushed it out of his face before looking to see who it belonged to. It was Jimin. Jin glanced back at the clock. It read five-thirty.

I should get up and make breakfast, Jin thought.

He looked down and was met with chaos. Jungkook was on the floor, Hobi was sliding off the couch, and Xia, Tae, and Jimin were all piled on top of Jin. He sighed.

“Guess I’m not getting up any time soon….”

Just then, a phone chimed. However, all the phones were buried either in the couch or under someone. Jin tried digging in the couch, but just ended up getting his hand stuck. He sighed heavily. He looked down at Jungkook, who had just sat up, looking half asleep.

“What time is it…?”

“Five thirty,” Jin replied. “Can you help me? I’m lying on top of my hand, and I can’t move.”

“Oh.” Jungkook stood up and picked Jimin up off the top of the pile. I’ll be right back. I’m gonna go put him in your room.” He was back within seconds and proceeded to pick up Xia. “Can you get up now?”

Jin pulled his arm out and picked Tae up. He got up and places Tae back on the couch, and Jungkook did the same with Xia. They both looked at Hobi.

“What do we do with him?”

“Put him with Jimin. That way when they wake up, they’re not alone. And if you want to go back to sleep, you can go to the guest room.”

Jungkook nodded and picked up Hobi before taking him to Jin’s room. Jin looked at Tae and Xia, who had snuggled together in their sleep.

“You know, they’d make a cute couple.” He smiled and went out to the kitchen to start breakfast.

Jungkook popped his head into the kitchen. “I’m gonna go back to bed.”

“All right.”

Jungkook nodded tiredly and left the kitchen. Right after he left, Namjoon entered the kitchen.

“What’re you making?”

“Hotteok. Would you like to help me burn them?” Jin joked.

Namjoon rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to burn them.”

Jin handed him the spatula. “Prove it.”

Namjoon rolled his eyes again and took the spatula as Jin got more hotteok ready to bake. Namjoon tried to flip a hotteok but broke the spatula and dropped half of it in the pan. Namjoon’s eyes widened as the pan started smoking.

“Jin-!”

Jin sighed. “I told you you’d burn-” His eyes widened as well as he turned around and saw the smoke. “What did you do??”

“I don’t know!”

Suddenly, the fire alarm went off, and Jin hurriedly grabbed the pan and put it in the sink before dumping water over it. Then, they heard a door open.

“Oh no, I think we woke them up,” Jin said.

Jimin walked into the kitchen, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. “Is there a fire?”

“No, Namjoon burnt a piece of hotteok,” Jin pulled the melted spatula out of the pan. “And maybe a spatula.”

“Oh.”

Hobi came out to the kitchen as well. “Why are Tae and Xia snuggled together on the couch? And how did Jimin and I end up in your room?”

“I got my hand stuck in the couch, so Jungkook had to take you guys off of me, and we decided to put you two in my room so the couch was less crowded. Oh, and Tae and Xia just snuggled together in their sleep.”

Jimin smiled. “In their sleep they know they are destined for each other.”

Hobi, Jin, and Namjoon just stared at him.

“Jimin, you need to stop shipping them so hard,” Hobi said, smacking Jimin’s arm.

“Oh, come on, admit it, they’d look super cute together.”

“Well, I mean, he’s not wrong,” Jin replied looking at the others.

Hobi and Namjoon looked at each other before slowly nodding in agreement. Just then, Jungkook walked out.

“I thought you were going back to bed,” Jin said, looking Jungkook up and down.

“I tried to, but then the fire alarm went off, and I couldn’t fall back asleep after that.”

“I’m surprised Xia and Tae slept through it. They’re in the same room as it,” Hobi commented.

“Eh, they’re both pretty deep sleepers,” Jungkook replied. “One time I had to wake Tae up by dumping ice water on him.”

They all stared at him with shocked looks on their faces.

“What? We had to get to school!”

“Ok, but where on earth did you find a bucket of ice?” Namjoon asked.

“Is had just snowed so I just pulled some icicles off the roof and broke them up into a bucket of water.”

“Was that how he caught the flu last year?” Jimin asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“Guys, are we gonna make breakfast or not? I’m starving!” Hobi cut in “And that conversation is way off topic anyways.”

“Well, I’m going back to bed, come get me when the hotteok is done.” Jimin headed back to Jin’s bedroom.

“Is he ever going to take off that super over-sized sweater?” Hobi asked when Jimin left.

“I really doubt it. Last time I lent him a sweater, he never gave it back. Even thought it was four sizes too big for him.” Jin turned to Jungkook. “Take Namjoon out of the kitchen and don’t let him come back out here. If he wants coffee, just make it for him. I don’t want him burning another spatula.”

Jungkook nodded and dragged Namjoon to the living room before returning to make coffee for the two of them.

“I think Tae likes Xia. He’s sitting out there with his arms wrapped around her and just staring at her.”

Jin laughed. “Well, she’s definitely his type, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Are you telling me that Eternally Single Tae has a type?”

Jin nodded. “And if they start dating, you can’t call him ‘Eternally Single Tae’ anymore.”

“I know. I won’t be able to make fun of him for being the only one who’s never had a girlfriend anymore.” Jungkook shook his head “My glory days will be over. So sad.”

“Oh, stop being dramatic,” Hobi said. “Namjoon’s the only one who’s dating anyone at the moment anyways.”

“That’s not true. I’m sorta dating that one girl,” Jungkook replied.

Hobi grinned. “Say her name.”

Jungkook scowled. “But I can’t pronounce it correctly.”

“Say it,” Hobi pressed.

“Nope.”

Hobi shook his head.

“Hey, American names are hard to pronounce!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have chosen an American girl to like then,” Jin suggested.

“I didn’t choose to like her!”

“Who?” Xhei asked as she entered the kitchen.

“Jungkook’s girlfriend,” Jin replied.

“Jungkook has a girlfriend?” Xhei asked, surprised.

“You say that like I’m a child,” Jungkook complained.

Jin laughed as he flipped one of the last hotteok. “Can someone go tell the others that breakfast is almost ready?”

Hobi nodded. “I’ll go do it.” He left the kitchen to go collect everyone.

A few seconds later, Namjoon popped his head back into the kitchen. “Can I come back out now?”

“Yeah, Jungkook had your coffee,” Jin motioned towards Jungkook. “And is Xia awake yet?”

“Nope,” Namjoon responded as he sat down. “And Tae didn’t want to wake her.”

“Oh, that boy had a crush,” Xhei commented, sitting down next to Namjoon.

Jin laughed. “You’re the third person to say that in fifteen minutes.”

Hobi came back in a few seconds later, practically dragging a half- asleep Jimin. He sat Jimin down in a chair and smacked his face softly. “Come, on, Jimin, wake up.”

Jimin groaned. “I don’t want to.”

“Come on, Min, wake up. We have hotteok,” Jungkook said.

Jimin was about to complain again when Xia came into the kitchen, dragging Tae with her.

“Good morning, sleepyheads. Breakfast is ready,” Jin smiled at them.

“Ooo, you made hotteok?” Tae asked. Xia helped him to the table and sat next to him.

“Looks good,” she commented.

“Oh, I didn’t tell you guys last night!” Xhei suddenly exclaimed, causing everyone to look at her. She held up her hand, revealing a sparkling ring. “We’re engaged!”

—————

Taglist: @jiminie-and-his-pinky-finger @taehoneycheeks

[satoruvt]

for now; forever -- teaser

pairing → kwon soonyoung x reader

word count → 1316 (full fic is ~9k!!)

genre → mostly fluff? a solid amount of angst ↳ tags: ooh boy. firewatch au, banter, like a little bit (a lot) of pining, strangers to friends to... something, FLIRTING, reader’s kinda fucked up but its ok, hoshi’s weird and endearing (as always), a tiny bit of hurt/comfort, minghao best boy, soonyoung is very sweet it makes me want to cry

synopsis → after an unfortunate burnout that lands you in every critic’s negative and all-seeing eye, you decide to take a break from the one thing you know. you’re not sure if you’ll find what you’re looking for out in the middle of the woods - if you’re looking for anything at all - but at the very least, soonyoung will make the hunt a little less lonely. 

warnings → there’s eventually a forest fire that leads to an evacuation but it’s not super detailed, mentions and descriptions of creative burnout/breakdown

a/n → AHHHH!!!! so excited to finally tell yall abt this ive been working on it for about a month now <33 the teaser is just like an honestly solid section of the fic itself, so. idk yeah!!!! i’m very excited i loved working on this i still have some editing to go but the full thing will be out soon <333 hope you enjoy!! let me know what u thought!!!!

DAY ONE.

So. You’re… out here, now.

Save for the bugs you have to swat at every fifteen seconds, the outdoors don’t seem that bad. The weather isn’t too hot (yet, your mind reminds you) and there’s something about the color of the sky that makes your heart constrict in your chest. You can’t tell if it’s good or bad, but given your luck recently, you’re hoping it’s not a warning for the coming months - God knows you need a break. The weight of the journal in your bag feels heavier than any of the camping gear you brought with you.

You debate texting Minghao that you’ve made it to the park safely, but when you check your phone after deciding yes, you see the words no service instead of the familiar lines of a signal. It’s not that big of a deal - you’d told him when you left that you probably wouldn’t have service at all - but a little part of you feels the tender shake of anxiety at the thought of not being able to contact your best friend. 

He was the most worried out of everyone when you told him you were leaving for the summer. You can’t really blame him - it was abrupt, you saw the flyer at the grocery store and took it - but after what happened… doing something felt, feels, better than sitting around and waiting for nothing to happen. Waiting for a healing you aren’t sure will ever come, at least not completely.

“Is this really…” Minghao had started upon first entering your apartment after getting your text. Clothes were thrown all over your bedroom floor in an attempt to pack. “Do you need to do this?”

The tone of his voice told you he wasn’t going to try to stop you, that he just wanted to make sure this was what you needed, what was best for you. You had only nodded, sitting down on the edge of your bed to fold clothes and pack them into your suitcase.

“I just don’t want you to run away from it all,” Minghao said softly, sitting next to you. “You’ll need to face it eventually.”

“Is escaping really such a bad thing?” You asked, looking at Minghao. He gave you the look he did when you said something stupid, and if you weren’t still so wired from everything, you might have laughed. Instead, you sighed, placing a pair of pants into your suitcase. “I just need some time.”

Before you can face it, before you can come back, before you can write again… you still don’t know. Minghao had placed a kind hand on your shoulder to tell you there was no rush.

It’d taken no more than two days for you to get everything ready - including buying some apparently necessary survival equipment from Target. In a matter of a few hours you had gathered everything up, texted some other friends and your family that you might not be available the next few months and then… you left. 

(Your manager was pretty pissed off that you left so suddenly, but she was also pissed off at you when you told her you needed a break for at least a few weeks, so you’re not really offended.)

You take one last longing look at your car before locking it, pocketing the keys, and starting on your hike.

The hike takes almost the whole day. 

You think you almost cry when you finally see the watch tower you’re supposed to be staying in, your legs barely able to hold the rest of your body up. The hike wasn’t hard, really - long, though, and for someone who usually spends a work day sitting at a desk, you’re surprised you’re still alive. You find the little lock that holds the keys to the tower at the bottom of the stairs, fastened onto the railing. It takes a few seconds for you to enter the code you’d been given earlier, relishing in the soft breeze the cools the sweat on your face and neck. The sun is just barely starting to set beyond the mountains, a beautiful sight that you can’t properly focus on because all you want to do is pass out. You’re pretty sure you almost do on your way up the stairs.

The cabin at the top of the tower is pretty scarcely furnished, save for a few basic necessities (a gas stove rests on one wall, a small desk opposite to it by the door, a mini-fridge, and a bed in the corner plus what looks like a map table in the center of the room). It’s a little weird, a feeling caught between the nostalgia of moving into a new place and something you can’t quite name, but you figure you have a few months to make it all a little more comfortable.

For now, though, you feel like you’re on the last leg of your energy. Your mind is saying eat, sleep, eat, sleep on repeat and you have to agree with it, so you change the sheets on the bed, take down the boards over the windows while you wait for the macaroni from the Kraft box to cook. You end up eating a few forkfuls of poorly-made mac and cheese before crashing.

When you wake up, it’s to gentle static and a semi-clear, unfamiliar voice. It takes you a minute to remember where you are and what you’re doing, too disoriented to even think about the voice, but then - oh. Forest. Watch tower. Escape. Okay.

“Yo, Cottonwood! Am I coming through okay? Pick up your radio!”

Right. The voice. Radio?

“Come on, I saw you get in yesterday, I know you’re there. Unless,” a gasp, “you died! Oh my God, this is like a horror movie… and I’m next!”

You manage to wake up enough to locate your radio (a walkie-talkie resting on a charger on the desk) and, after a few seconds of gentle struggle, work it. “Not dead,” you say, then clear your throat because your voice does not sound good right after waking up. “I mean… almost. But not dead.”

There’s barely a moment of hesitation before the person on the other end hoots, apparently excited. “Arisen from the dead! Brought back to life by none other than the legendary Hoshi!”

A brief thought crosses your mind about having to listen to this guy all summer, but you quickly shoo it away. You won’t have to deal with it for the whole three months, right? “Who… who is Hoshi?”

“Me!” The voice answers, sounding a little too smug. “But it’s really just an alias. You can call me Soonyoung. I’m at Twin Peaks tower, west of yours!”

You spin around your cabin, looking through the windows cluelessly - how long have you been asleep, it’s practically afternoon - until you see a very small silhouette of another tower in the distance. You nod, then realize Soonyoung can’t see you. “Oh. Cool.”

“Aren’t you gonna tell me your name?” Soonyoung asks, but his tone is light, breezy. You blink, reciting your name to him in a daze. “Pretty! So, what brings you out here?”

You weren’t expecting that question. “What?”

Soonyoung giggles into the radio. “Everyone comes out here for some reason. Like… Jihoon says it’s ‘cause it helps him write music. And Joshua loves the outdoors, so… what’s your reason?”

“You…” you start, not exactly wanting to tell a stranger the reason you ran away from everything you know. “Do you normally ask this many questions?”

“Yeah!”

You feel yourself sigh, already tired again.

“I… just wanted to get away for a while,” you end up saying. A half-truth. “I live in the city.”

“No way,” Soonyoung gasps excitedly. “Me too! I wonder if both of us have ever been walking and, like, passed each other without knowing…”

This isn’t exactly what you had in mind when you thought of escaping.

[ain-t-bovvered]

Epiphany 4

read first ACT 1 

EDIT:  @waywardbaby​

Summary: Less than two years later, you finally passed the men of letters’ initiation and, finally, you now set foot in America eager to be reunited with the Winchesters. But if Dean thought that you spent your days only with your nose in books and hands in monster’s guts, he was dead wrong. Your mission? Something that the British branch tried and failed miserably,  or at least that’s what they told you anyway.

Pairing: Dean X Reader

Characters: Dean, Sam, Castiel and Jack

Warnings: slow burn guys…slow burn. Also, some fluff, humor, feels and angst

Legs starting to give in. 

Chest burning with every ragged breath you took.  

Blood pumping and buzzing in your ears. 

Everything was moving in slow-motion. Finally, you reached the doors of the barn, you and your team slamming against them.  They gave in easily but no one was prepared for the scene that was transpiring in front of your eyes. Tony was hanging from his wrists, bloody and unconscious, the glowing blue son of a bitch still feeding on him. You shuddered and bit down a whimper. While the other two took charge, you stayed behind, gun pointed, hands shaking.

This was not your first hunt but it was the first where you had to use a weapon and the first where one of your team’s members had been captured. You watched helplessly as the djinn struck down your colleagues and that was your cue. You raised the gun and fired.

One, two, three shots.

You missed the head all three times.

The Djinn laughed sickly and moved towards you, hand on your neck, slamming you back against the wall, the smell of Toni’s blood and of the straw all around you, assaulting your nose, sharply. The guns slipped from your sweaty grasp and your breath hitched in your throat when the thing brought its face up to yours. As its cold breath spread on your skin, you had time to see the others wasting no time getting Tony free.

The Djinn followed your gaze…

“Wait…!” 

You quickly turned its attention back to you, buying them time. 

“How about a deal, yeah?” You nodded slightly at your colleagues who nodded back and shifted toward the exit, “…my friend is a bit battered, huh? I’m fresh…just had a nice meal and I’m sure you can smell me.”

The tattooed, glowing monster looked at you interested and took a long sniff, slowly dragging its nose along the nape of your neck. And fuck, that was gross.

“Listen…how about I take his place?” 

You watched as your friends looked at you one last time before running out. “I mean, I know what you do, staying in a dream-like state in a beautiful fantasy sounds awesome. I’m tired of all of this, anyway” you said, trying to gesture with your arms. 

The creature looked at you suspiciously. “Your friends are gone and they left you here.”

“Yeah …I know…some friends right? And now you have no midnight snack …so, deal?”

The Djinn smiled viciously and pinned your hands over your head, licking your neck up to your ear. Yeah, scratch the previous notion. This was way worse, you thought, biting down a sound of disgust.

 “Yeah…” it said purring “... you could work too,”  he said tossing you on a pile of hay. Your stomach dropped.

Shit! Hell no!

You tried in vain to retrieve the knife you had hidden in your boot but the monster was faster and your arms were squeezed into a steady hold. You froze, a chilling wave of fear running inside you as your mind prepared to go to its happy place, and you could already see green eyes looking at you softly.

“Oh, don’t worry...” the djinn snarled, almost offended,“... I’m not going to lower myself like you humans do. Your disgusting bodies mean nothing to me. I just prefer…” it continued, dragging you by your wrist and hauling you up in Tony’s place, your body dangling a few inches off the ground “…my meal spicy. You see…. you humans have these little things called pheromones rushing in your blood when I craft a special kind of dream” he purred, lips sliding in the inside of your thigh, “... and they are just delightful”.

You squirmed again in repulsion. “Don’t worry, I’ve read your mind. You’ll love what I’ll create for you” and before you could feel the intense pain running down the inside of your thigh, you lost consciousness.

You re-opened your eyes, feeling drowsy, warm and snuggled. Stirring to stretch your limbs, you heard a muffled groan. 

Oh god! 

You tensed again and that caused another moan near your ear. Looking down you saw two muscular arms, clad in plaid, wrapped around you. Your legs were trapped and you tried to untangle them but the movement made your lower body rub against the warm one behind you. The body stirred, and you stopped breathing when an arm slid down and sneaked under your sweater grazing your skin. A big, warm, calloused hand drawing circles on your ribs. You whimpered as you registered ahead buried deep in your hair, soft warm whispers of breath brushing on your skin. The head nestled into your back, something hot and hard pressing into you, a leg brushing between yours, rubbing just in the right place and in the right angle. Your body arching into the touch without even a second thought.

You heard a groan and your eyes widened. Dean?

His breathing was shallow and regular. He was still sleeping. Was he…dreaming…  about you? What was that?...a dream…? But it felt too good. Too real. You gradually wriggled around, turning to face him. And boy, was that a vision. 

Wait..why is this so familiar? 

His hair was messy, sticking up all over the place, nose almost squashed in the pillow and his mouth slightly open. Golden sunlight danced on his skin, and you knew how warm it was, feeling his hands on you. Eyelids fluttering and lashes grazing his cheeks.  You could count all his freckles and lines, the temptation to trace them making you bite your lips.

The deja vu feeling settling in your heart, making you feel calm. Relaxed. You knew how this was going to go down and you were more than fine with it.

Gently brushing his eyebrow with your fingertips, you softly drove them through his hair. He exhaled and nuzzled his face deeper into the pillow, a satisfied smile tugging at his lips. 

A smile threatened to break your own face and something pulled at your heart. In spite of everything else, you felt so comfortable that you thought you could easily let him smother you, right here and right now, falling asleep again.

Maybe …

No, you sighed.

With regret, you removed your hand, his face frowning at the loss, an emotion that intensified when you slowly traced his eyelashes with your finger. His eyes twitched, fast,  under the eyelids. You felt him awakening. He started moving his hand away, but it was too slow and in the wrong direction. It moved to the side instead and when his rough palm grazed against your nipple, the feeling aroused a stifled moan, your body, once again, arching involuntarily into his touch. You opened your eyes and looked into his.

“‘Morning” he beamed brightly at you and brought down his face to kiss you.

Your eyes widened, shocked. 

Wait! This… this was different. 

It was not what you remembered, but you responded enthusiastically, your entire body pressing against his.

“Hey…someone’s feeling frisky this morning huh?” he nuzzled your nose with his, chuckling low, as he embraced you, grazing your jaw with his lips, placing an open wet kiss in that perfect spot on your neck and you moaned clutching his- there was no shirt, his chest was bare.

Yes! Definitely different!

Actually ….he was completely naked. You pushed against him to look down at yourself.

“Why are you naked? Why am I naked? ”

“…so we don’t lose time in the morning to get out of our clothes,” he said hungrily, covering you with his perfect and very naked body. 

What the fuck was happening? 

“Wait …wait…shouldn’t we be looking for your brother?...and I have to go to school”

He looked up at you, stopping what he was doing, which was unfortunate because it was something spectacular.

“Gross, keep my brother out of our bed, and school...? Are you still sleeping?” his voice purred again before you could say anything, his head disappeared under the sheets and whatever you were going to say was quickly forgotten.

“Y/N?” Sam’s hand waved in front of your face and you blinked. “You okay? We lost you there for a bit”

“Err...sorry, where was I?” you asked, shaking your head

“You were telling us how you stupidly offered yourself as a Djin's midnight snack, zoned off right after that” Dean said, harshly.

“Ah…uhm…yes, anyway. That’s where I got the scar...” you let the phrase float there not really wanting to continue it. You saw the gears moving in Dean’s head and when it clicked, the look on his face made your blood freeze. Sam saw it too.

“Dean?” 

Dean’s stare was hard, jaw clenched. “She has a scar on the inside of her thigh,” he said without moving his eyes from yours and you wanted to look somewhere else so freaking bad. Sam’s brain got to the same conclusion as his brother’s and he almost looked at you in the same way. 

“Did -” he started gently, “Did the Djinn…?”

“NO!” you quickly said, raising your voice. “No…God, no. I - I thought it would but, no, never did.” They relaxed a bit. “The feeding scar is there because…” you blushed deeply “…because it liked the ...um, the blood...spiced up”

Sam’s eyebrows shot up and he cleared his throat “...Oh..!”

Dean looked at his brother.

 “What…?” Sam looked at him and then at you, looking anywhere but at them. “WHAT?” Dean repeated, impatiently.

“Dean…I don’t thin-” Sam tried to be considerate.

“…Horny!... Dean…he wanted my blood filled with horny hormones, so it made sure it gave  me plenty of ...fun.”

Covering half your red face with your hand, while Dean looked at you with his mouth open, you shot him a glare and he closed it. Clearing your throat you continued. “Um…ok, so I eventually realized that I was in the dream and knew what I needed to do, but waited so that the team would come back. I just lived the fantasy until I was free from it. And that’s why I don’t like to use guns when I need to be super accurate, ok?” you said in one breath.

“Still…Y/N, you need to learn,” Sam said concerned. “I… we… can help you. Dad taught us when we were just kids. We can teach you, too.”

“... I don’t know Sam…I like my crossbow…”

“If you want to hunt with us, you can’t always use that. When we go back to the bunker we are going straight to the shooting range” Dean interrupted you.

“Fine, “ you said crossing your arms and leaning back.  

“Don’t expect too much, though. Just a heads up there for ya!”

After Sam announced that he was going to the bathroom and to order another round, Dean stayed silent, drinking, until he looked up, his brow furrowed.

“Wait ...how did you know it was a dream?” 

Of course, Dean had to ask that! Of course!

“Because I knew,” you said trying to avoid to answer. 

Dean smiled smugly. “What was your fantasy about?”

“A lot of ...stuff.” 

“When did you realize?” he pressed.

“First day. The first day of the fantasy, which was probably faster in the real world.”

“How...?”

You blushed and rolling your eyes, “you really won’t stop annoying me about it, am I right?” 

The stupid smile he had on his face gave you the answer. Well, what the hell? It’s not like you were a teenager anymore.

“I knew because your brother was missing…kidnapped by a witch…” you said slowly, watching as it dawned on him, “... and you didn’t want to get out of bed…and off of me…” you said hiding behind your empty bottle as you fake drank from it.

You saw him poorly hide a pleased smile and you felt your face be on fire. “And what were we doing, exactly?” 

Oooh, you could just slap that smug face!

“Oh, I don’t know. What do you think?” you said, sarcastically.

“Was I good?” he said leaning in.

“...You were…very generous” you smiled anyway, remembering it.

Dean chuckled amused. “How much time passed before they rescued you?”

“Four or five days, I think. Probably a week or something” you shrugged.

Dean's face fell, “…you were that long in the Djinn’s fantasy?... How far you lived your dream?”

 “Oh my God!! Are you, freaking, kidding me? Again?” you huffed, rolling out of bed, Dean snoring peacefully beside you. You padded across the room that looked bigger than usual. The cries grew louder and you hoped that Sam wouldn’t wake up too. “Yeah, yeah I’m coming. Which of you started it this time? Huh?” the cries muffled, hearing your voice. “I know it was you,” you said as you picked up the infant girl. “Such a fussy one, took it all after your father, you know?”

You balanced her on one arm and picked up the other who stopped crying the moment he was in your other arm. The girl tried to latch on you, “I’ve just fed you two hours ago! You are definitely Dean’s spawn.” You sighed, sitting down on the armchair.

“I heard that!” Dean’s sleepy voice came from the bed. You heard him shifting and his steps coming closer. 

He stood in the doorway for a fraction of a second, his eyes glowing softly as he was taking in the image of his family. Realizing that you were trying to feed them, he left his spot and moving closer, bent down to kiss you. 

“They have your attitude, though,” he said, taking them from you so you could bare your chest and placing them back in your arms but not before making stupid ass faces at them, earning a fit of little giggles. 

“You can go back to sleep Dean, I got this.”

“If you can’t sleep, neither will I. We made these two troublemakers, we deal with them together,” he said massaging your shoulders from behind. Your eyes prickled watching him looking down at you and at them with such doting eyes, that you almost wished no one could come to your rescue. You hadn't even thought of this happening. Well, you had always wanted kids and that’s what the djinn gave you. 

The sick motherfucker.

All of this could end at any given moment and you were exhausted trying not to get too involved. But…how could you not? You loved them. They were your babies, fake ones sure. Dean’s too and they were going to disappear…any minute, now. This Dean was going to disappear, too. You choked out a sob watching them yawning with their tiny, little mouths.

“...What happened, why are you crying?” he asked, turning to look at your face.

“ I’m…I’m just so happy.” you lied. He embraced you and you breathed him in deeply. He smelled like you remembered but at the same time something was different, and you used that to not forget that this was just a dream. His hands traveled down your body and cupped your ass, lifting you up, you locked your legs behind him as he walked back to the bed where you both fell, his hands already reaching to undo the buttons of your pajamas shirt, his mouth hot on your neck. You desperately reached to grab the string of his sweater pants, pulling him down and you gasped in his mouth when you felt how much he wanted you. This was all fake, but….you really didn’t care right now. Your hips grinding, him groaning, you grabbed his head and lifted it to your face, kissing him deeply and pressing yourself against him with need. His bottom lip caught between yours, thrusting his hips into yours low and hard you moaned letting him go to whisper in his ear, “Dean Winchester, fuck me right now and don’t be gentle about it “.

He looked at you, eyes darker than you have ever seen, he smiled, “what’s this all of sudden?” he said getting rid of his shirt and pants and fuck yeah that’s hot, “not that I’m complaining, but..” he chuckled when you squirmed to get out of your underwear, “just wanna make sure” he helped you with that, throwing the pants somewhere behind him,“everything’s ok down here ? I mean... don’t want to hurt you “ he said kissing your hip-bone and slowly moving down.

“Dean…” you growled grabbing him by his hair.

His little throaty laughter vibrated against your skin “As you wish ….”

“Y/N!”

Caught daydreaming again!! Damn it!!

“…what happened in the dream?” Dean asked, sounding troubled.

“Nothing much. Why?”

“….you look like you are about to cry…”

You lifted your hand to touch your face, and sure as hell, it was hot and fat tears threatened to fall. 

“It’s ok really. Just got a little … carried away…” you said fiddling with your pendant.

“ …how long?”

“How long what?” Sam said putting down three new bottles between you two.

“How long, Y/N?!” Dean insisted.

Your eye twitched. Was it Dean’s mission to get under your skin? Because he, damn well sure was crawling under it real fast. Silently fighting with your eyes, you just knew that Dean wasn’t going to lose this one. Groaning, you arched your back on the chair before letting your head fall limp. 

“Almost two years …” you murmured.

“Two freaking years?!” he said shocked. “How far?” he added without thinking. You looked at him with hollow eyes, then up at Sam, and back at Dean.

“Long enough for Sam to... um...to become Uncle Sam.” 

Sam, who was still walking around the table to get to his chair, stumbled and kicked it. The noise of the furniture falling and rolling on the floor filled the heavy bubble of stunned silence around you. Your eyes steady on Dean, his face motionless, but his eyes… 

God…! His eyes were screaming.

His hand gripped the bottle, knuckles whitening and suddenly you couldn’t breathe.  “I- I need some air.” 

You slowly rose from your seat and took a few steps back. Dean’s eyes didn’t follow you. They seemed fixed on where you were seated before. Sam tried to follow you but a flick of your hand stopped him. “I’m okay. I’ve dealt with it. Just…” you didn’t say anything else and went out.

The table was silent, Sam was nervously looking at Dean who was still frozen in his seat.

“Dean…maybe you shoul-”

“-aby..” he whispered. “A friggin’ baby,” he said louder and Sam winced. “She –” he had to stop to calm himself, his fist slowly closing over his mouth.

“She was lucky the blue asshole was a dumbass.” 

He turned his eyes towards the door you had gone out through. 

“Damn kid!” he whispered, scrambling to get up and following after you.

The chilled air of the night filled your lungs as you took long breaths, calming yourself down. It’s not like it was a fresh wound. In the beginning, it had been hard to come back to reality. You had to physically mourn what you had lost, even as fake as it had been, but you were ok now. 

“Ouch!!” 

You slammed into someone’s chest as you turned to go back inside. 

“This is becoming a habit I don’t like,” you said rubbing your nose. You looked up and there was Dean. “Oh…um… hey!”

“Y/N ...” he began.

“Don’t! I’m ok! ” but you saw his expression. How he was trying to find the right thing to say and most obviously, failing. 

“I am, really!” 

So, he closed his mouth again, a fleeting shadow of pain registering in the green of his eyes. You didn't want this. It wasn't his fault. Laying a hand on his arm you tried to speak in a steady tone, “Ok, listen. I’ve dealt with it. It was difficult, nasty and rough and yes… I miss them, but that’s all they were…fake. And I’ve made peace with that. So let’s just drop this. You wanted to know about my scar, that’s the story. Now, can I just go back inside and drink my ass into oblivion? “.

His mouth opened and closed and then he babbled, “them?”

“…twins” you very quickly explained and grabbed his hand. “Come on, let's celebrate the hunt. Don’t forget, you have to buy me drinks” you said, glossing over his dumbstruck expression and dragging him inside. Sitting down, Sam had ordered something stronger, and if that ain’t the Winchester way… He looked at you and it was as if he said everything with his eyes and you smiled back.

“A - and then… I had this idea… listen to me!  You remember the light bomb of those British idiots, yeah? Well, I put that idea into darts. From that, I just did the same thing with whatever” you snorted into your glass, which was depressingly empty again. You looked around squinting, eyeing Sam’s still full glass, “so now we have witch killing darts, angel darts, demon trap darts, silver, iron and salt ones, vamps ones and so on…” 

You knew you were babbling, you could hear your own slurred words, your face felt hot. “I’m hot…” you mumbled, stretching languidly over the table. You heard their muffled chuckles and it reached your ears like cotton. Your chin came to rest lazily on your hand, watching them with glazed eyes.

“I think she's had enough Dean.”

Offended you scoffed at Sam, “What?...shh...” you leaned toward him, clumsily pushing your fingers on his lips missing the target and squashing his nose instead.  “Shhh Sam….” you giggled, patting his face, “Sam, shut up”

You touched your face. It was indeed hot. “Why is it so hot in here ?” You asked and stripped out of your flannel shirt and threw it in Dean’s face and while you had him blinded you snatched his glass and gulped it down.

“Hey, hey you…! Ok!! That’s enough, now.” Dean grinned, standing up and picking you up by the elbow.

You allowed him to lead you out of the bar and to the car, probably because you would have otherwise crawled there but they didn't need to know that. The fresh air of the night hit you right in the face like a punch to the stomach. Suddenly, your head spun and you stumbled forward.

“Woah!" Dean caught you before you could hit the ground.  Yeah, the whole escorting thing had been a great, fucking idea. Head was buzzing and he sure said something but fuck if you heard that.

Did you care, though? 

Yeah right… 

More importantly, there was a real, firm, warm chest against your cheek, his smell hugging you. Without thinking and definitely without realizing it, you nuzzled your face in it, arms sneaking around his torso, locking behind him. Next, you pressed yourself to him, closing your eyes and sighing contentedly.

“Dude, she’s trashed“ Sam chuckled. Dean tried to pry your hands away but you moaned in protest. He fished Baby’s keys from the pocket and threw them at Sam. “Really?...”

“What do you suggest, Sam…? Drive with her on my lap?” 

Sam shrugged almost wanting to see that, but Dean’s frown convinced him to stop even thinking about it and went around the car to the driver seat, sliding you in.

Dean started walking and that, you decided, you didn’t like at all so your arms went around his neck and you jumped up, crossing your legs around his waist.

“Son of a b-” 

He started to walk again with you, lazily, draped on him. “A monkey! I can’t free myself” he said, waving his arms at Sam.

“Just sit in the back, man. It’s not a long drive”

Feeling the shift of his body again you let yourself be maneuvered, settling on just being sitting across his lap, legs draped on the seat, nose nuzzling his neck, his short beard scratching your face, and your arms still hanging around his neck. You fell asleep lulled by his hand slowly drawing circles on your back.

“Don’t you fucking dare to puke all over me or Baby, you hear m-she fell asleep.” 

“She drank almost as much as us. I’m surprised she’s not been sick all over you.”  Sam looked in the rear mirror, at his brother, cradling your slumped form. “You know, Dean...that smile right there… That's something I haven’t seen since Lisa and Ben”

“Sam-”

“No, really! What’s the problem? She clearly likes you a lot - Dude! Don’t roll your eyes at me…you know Djinns read minds, remember?”

“Yes but...”

“She consciously stayed in that for 2 years, going as far as” he waved his hand, “ -that!. She could have escaped any minute and she stayed, knowing all of it was fake and that it would end at any given moment. If that’s not telling you something I don’t know what else can”

“But you..”

“I care about her, okay? But...” his eyes fell softly on you “... she reminds me of Charlie, sometimes”.

Dean stayed silent for a long moment, looking down at you while you mumbled something in your sleep.

“I can’t let what happened to Charlie happen to her….I can’t go through that again”

“I know that, but with or without us, she’s still going to do what she wants. You prefer she does that here, with us or back with her people on the other side of the world?” Dean didn’t answer. He leaned into the seat and closed his eyes.

Once at the motel, Sam helped his brother open your door and he called dibs on the shower, disappearing in their room. Dean sighed and closed the door behind him with his foot, carrying you. 

“You’re so hammered”  he chuckled.

“... mmnot “ you mumbled in the crook of his neck. You felt really, really good where you were. In fact, you didn’t want to stay anywhere else but there, wherever it was. Dean put one knee on the bed, mattress sinking under both your weight. As your body touched the cool sheets, you shivered and your hold on him tightened. Dean tried to pry your arms open.

“Come on. Be a good girl now, let go” he said softly in your ear.

“Bad choice of words...” chuckling drunkenly, you pulled down hard.

“Ooof…” Dean fell face flat on the pillow beside your head. He immediately shifted to get off but you kept him in place, burying your head in his neck. Yeah.... really loved that place, you thought.

“Mmm, stay” you mumbled, your lips grazed from the base of his neck to under his ear. He shivered against you, breath catching on his lips.

“Y/N…” he said, trying to free himself again. The bending of your knees kept him there and he sank down on you and shit that felt awesome. Your lips continued their path to his jaw. You felt him panicking over you and he propped up on his elbows. 

“What are you doing?… Hey, you ok?” he asked, searching your eyes.

“What do you think I'm doing? do I have to draw it for you?” giggling, you trapped his hips between your legs, and fuck yeah he groaned. He tried to say something but you stopped his mouth with yours, the thing you wanted to do since he first spoke to you the day you had arrived. He froze for just one second and then melted into it, sighing as the tip of your tongue swiped his bottom lip. Soon, his own lips moved enthusiastically in dominance and you didn’t protest. 

Not one bit. Especially, when he parted yours, deepening the kiss. His hand traveled up your sides, drawing your curves and sneaking under you, he lifted you against him, sliding you higher on the bed. You hands slipped under his many, too fucking many, layers and Jesus Christ his skin’s hot, your nails dug in it. Something like a grunt resounded in his chest, both his hands followed your example and sneaked under your top, his fingers digging. All of this while his mouth was paying attention to a particularly sweet spot under your jaw. You felt his eat shit grin after the filthy desperate sound you had made.

“Dean …” you breathed out, panting, not that you were calling to him. You just wanted to say his name, let it dance in the space between your lips, and on his skin, “Dean…” you whispered again. He stilled suddenly, like your voice had startled him, his head shot up and you were suddenly looking into his gorgeous eyes. His gorgeous, stormy, troubled eyes.

You lifted to kiss him but he pushed you down gently, protesting and you saw him smiling, bitterly. 

“What’s the matter?” you purred, trying to bring him down again, but he stopped your wrists, firmly, “…not like this…” he whispered, cupping your cheek with his hand and you looked at him with big, shiny eyes trying to focus. It seemed you couldn’t keep them open.

“Uhm, like what?” you mumbled, nuzzling your face in his palm, closing your eyes. He let you down on the pillow gently and stood up. He took off your boots and you curled on your side mumbling nonsense. He chuckled and covered you with one of the spare covers that were stored in the closet. Placing a glass of water on the bedside table, he sat beside you, watching you already be asleep.

As he caressed your hair, you smiled in your sleep. He kissed your forehead, lingering before switching off the lights and walking to the door, gazing at you again before closing it behind him.

Throat feeling like sandpaper, tongue so dry it hurt, you groaned at the pounding in your brain, that felt like a set of fists banging on the door.

“Y/N, wake up!!”

Funny, you thought, sinking even deeper into the pillow. Now, even your brain was talking to you. 

Two more bangs.

Ah shit! It was, indeed, the door. 

“It’s open” you croaked with your face deep in the pillow. The door opened with a nasty, and loud as fuck sound, the latter followed by a set of heavy, fucking footsteps which you felt all over your frontal lobe, you hid your head under the pillow.

“Ah no… Come on!! Time to go, Sleeping Beauty”

You felt hands tugging your pillow and your grip tightened when two sets of chuckles came from above you.

“Can you chuckle silently, please?” you hissed shifting away from the offending sound. The covers you were under were caught by something and suddenly your underwear covered ass was attacked by the crisp morning air. You heard two loud gasps, your own squeal, and your head cleared, just like that.

“Where are your pants?!?” you heard.

You sat on the mattress, stretched yawning, grimacing at whatever died in your mouth.

“Who the fuck sleeps with pants?” You rubbed your eyes and your vision cleared. The two brothers were turned around as if you were all living in the nineteenth century and seeing a woman in her underwear was a sin or something. Laughing, you threw the pillow at them, “It’s just underwear guys, come on!”

You jumped out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom, leaving the boys awkwardly looking around the room.

“We brought you coffee. Figured you needed it.” Sam said. 

Your head popped out of the bathroom, the toothbrush hanging from your mouth and a brush in your bird nest hair. Your nose scrunched up eyeing the three tall paper cups.

“I told you she’d made that face,” Dean said grabbing one of them and sitting on the bed, picking up your pants and throwing them your way. You tried to say something, snarling back but you almost made the toothbrush fall.

After you were presentable enough and the lower part of your body covered in jeans, you heard your stomach growling in angry protest. 

“God, I need to eat something,” you said trying to lift Darcy’s case. When it slipped, Dean caught it in time and you saw he was trying to complain “…you don’t want me to get car sick …”

“... Let’s go get you breakfast”

That had been so easy!

“What can I get? What is the American breakfast cure for a hangover ??? “

“Green smoothie”   

“Bacon,” they said in unison.

“Bitch…gross” 

“Jerk!”

Your eyes rolled and you smiled behind the menu letting them bicker over nothing, like always. God, you had missed them. You had missed these moments. The HQ gave you unlimited time here, at least until you reached enough hunters. But the thought of going back made you anxious. You really didn’t want to go back and it’s been bugging you since you had arrived. The waiter came to take the orders and you decided on a fruit smoothie and some bacon and eggs. Dean went for pie and that was the obvious choice. You wondered if he could ever go for something else and Sam asked for a coffee refill.

“Hey cute accent, where you from? ”

“Huh?” you blinked confused when -you squinted your eyes, trying to read his tag- Mark, the diner-boy talked to you, completely ignoring Sam and Dean, “uh…what?”

“I've never seen you around here before. What are you doin’ after?” 

You tried babbling an answer, all flustered by this forward attempt at flirting.

“I… no.  I - I’m just… I was… I had a job…here”

As he was about to continue, the cook yelled at him. “Quit hitting on customers and give me the orders!” Mark winked at you and left.

“Wow…smooth, Y/N “ Sam snickered.

“…that was embarrassing… first thing in the morning…I can’t” you said, looking out the window, pouting. Dean stayed silent looking very intensely at his turned off cell phone.

“Anyway…” you said, grabbing the boys attention, “In the next few days, after the rest of my things have arrived, would it be okay if I asked you for some of your hunter  friends’ contacts?”

“Sure, why? “ Sam asked, grabbing Dean’s phone and turning it on, scrolling through the contacts.

“Well…I was thinking…  if it’s alright with you…” you swirled a lock of hair around your fingers “…that maybe I could …I don’t know…pay them a visit?...so I could start doing what I was sent here to do…” your voice became small.

“Err…” they started.

“...it’s a problem right?... I know, I hate this part, I sound like a saleswoman! Ugh!” your forehead met the table.

“No, no, Y/N! … it’s not that. You know…we, um…”

“American hunters don’t like being told how to do their job” Dean finished for Sam.

“Yeah….that”

“Oh ...but I’m not here to change that…”

“…yeah but still…they’ll be stubborn, and coarse and rude…” Dean chanted.

“Aaw Dean… are you worried about my feelings?” you extended your hand, touching his arm. “It’s ok! I can take a bit of hostility"

“That’s not w-”

“Here you go, guys!” Diner-boy put down the food and then leaned into you “sooo…you free tonight or you have to ask permission from your uncles here?” he asked nodding with head towards their direction but not actually looking at them. 

Well, that’s just rude, you thought snorting just a little bit, and you could see a vein throbbing on the side on Dean’s temple. 

“I’m sorry, how old do you think I am?” you asked leaning into him too. Dean twitched.

“I don’t know, my age, I guess.”

“And that’ll be…?”

“18…?”

You snorted, picked up your smoothie, wrapping your lips slowly around the straw and looking up at him while you took a sip.

“He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man. And he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man…..” you smiled, straw caught between your teeth "…I am not for him.” He looked at you confused, trying to wrap his mind around what you said. Then his boss called him again and he went back to his work, the confused look most probably imprinted on his face for the days to come. 

“Quoting Shakespeare to scare the youths away now?” Dean chuckled pleased. You watched as Sam turned to look at his brother with raised eyebrows. 

“What ?... I read.” Dean shrugged.

The ride back was faster than you remembered. Mid-road you started to doze off, Dean lowered the music and you fell asleep lulled by Baby’s purr. The road for Dean seemed twice as long, his mind racing.

“I’ll talk to her once at the bunker” he whispered to Sam, who just smiled and looked out the window

[nikatyler]

When I finished my exam today, I was really excited and full of energy but now all of that is gone and I’m starting to see how stressful this day has actually been. I’m so incredibly tired! I went to bed at 11 pm yesterday, fell asleep quite quickly, woke up again at midnight. I slept until 4 am and then I kept waking up and falling asleep in what I believe were really short intervals. I don’t know which of these nightmare scenarios I had were actual nightmares and which ones I came up with thanks to overthinking. It was some crazy shit - one of them, probably the craziest one, I actually shared on twitter yesterday. For a little bit, I was worried that I would wake up without the ability to read or write. And even though I know that’s impossible, I was so worried and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Thing is, my anxious perfectionist brain always jumps to “either you do well on this or you die” mindset. Which then leads to me being stressed out days before and doing crazy things because of that. Just to name a few: I unfollowed a lot of blogs because following so many was driving me insane. I muted a bunch of people on twitter and called it self care even though it was probably just petty. Last but not least, I’m generally more mean and insensitive than I usually am these days and I hate that but also, I just can’t help it. (hey please if I was mean to you, don’t give up on me, it’ll get better again I swear) So yeah, fun times. Can’t wait for it to be finally June so all of this is over. 

To quote my favourite musical: hold your breath and count the days, we’re graduating soon, college will be paradise if I’m not dead by June.

Onto those replies now.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “So…I was just casually setting up another scene, posing the sims and...”

This is DESTINY of this generation - trying to die (hard)

Just wait for when I focus on Regan. That girl is...going in her parents’ footsteps. I swear it’s not my fault. Seriously. I would never want for any of my important legacy sims to die.

Okay well, I might have planned to kill off Tyler at one point like year and a half ago but we don’t talk about that. Ever. Not since that dumb “one year with Rose triplets” thing. Don’t worry about it.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Unfortunately, it didn’t help. Again, sims logic. Don’t question it....”

NO MIRACLE NO

Miracles shouldn't die!

How dare you!

When I said "don't return to aliens" I didn't mean "die instead"

pxelblobs replied to your photoset “Unfortunately, it didn’t help. Again, sims logic. Don’t question it....”

Noooo Miracle!

I knew that sims could burn to death if the weather is too hot and everything, but it has never happened to me and I certainly didn’t expect it to happen now. I was freaking out. That was not how I wanted her story to end.

Then I went to twitter and asked people what they want me to do, but before the poll ended, I actually decided that nope, I can’t do this, she has to stay alive. By the way, if I remember correctly, people voted for leaving her dead. Sooo...yeah.

harmoniouspixels replied to your post “WAIT HOLD UP IS MIRACLE LIKE DEAD DEAD”

I guess I wasn't paying too much attention until this ask BUT MIRACLE'S DEAD WTF

Lmao I can see this happening to me. In fact, it has definitely happened to me before - just casually scrolling down my dash, not paying attention to anything (which is why I never go to my dash anymore) at all and then suddenly I realize - wait a minute, when did that sim die?! What did I miss?

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “Yeah well, Adam, maybe you could’ve done something when you still had...”

Will Smith voice: It's rewind time

I laughed so hard at this because I literally made the same joke a few posts later. Great minds think alike! *let’s pretend I’m a great mind ok, at least for a few seconds*

treason-and-plot replied to your post “WAIT HOLD UP IS MIRACLE LIKE DEAD DEAD”

This game is so cruel

Yup. 

It couldn’t have happened to like...I don’t know. Esme during the uni storyline. Or Fred during James’s storyline. Guys, do you remember Fred the mustache guy? Good old times.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Adam: “Hmmm, I wonder what I should do?”

I just thought... IT'S A BEACH THERE IS PLENTY OF WATER AROUND

I KNOW

THAT’S WHAT BOTHERED ME THE MOST IT LITERALLY DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE

*slow clap for sims logic*

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “At least she gets a nice gravestone…I guess. Aaand the dog is useless...”

:(

simlovinggirl replied to your photoset “At least she gets a nice gravestone…I guess. Aaand the dog is useless...”

I can't believe she died this way! :'(

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Miracle baby oh my god I’m so sorry I didn’t want this to happen I’m...”

:( :( :(

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “Miracle baby oh my god I’m so sorry I didn’t want this to happen I’m...”

������ poor miracle

The only thing I really enjoyed about this is that these posts fell on the weekend before April 1st. I know this isn’t something to be laughed at...but the timing was so perfect. If I had planned this, it wouldn’t have worked.

Then again, let’s be real, I wouldn’t have planned this. This is just cruel.

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “Worry not, Adam. The Grim Reaper might be cruel but I’m the one who’s...”

Whew I'm glad she's still alive

simlovinggirl replied to your photoset “Worry not, Adam. The Grim Reaper might be cruel but I’m the one who’s...”

PHEW!!!!!

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Worry not, Adam. The Grim Reaper might be cruel but I’m the one who’s...”

Yay!

I’ve never been more excited to quit without saving

whysimstho replied to your photoset “Lydia: “Sorry I’m late! I didn’t mean to, I promise. Siblings got in...”

"Oh yeah and my mom died in an alternate reality but it's cool, it's cool."

I mean, she’s definitely heard about all the crazy shit that has happened to her family over the years, so maybe it doesn’t seem as a big deal to her anymore.

It’s been a while since I last said Roses are a mess but they really are a huge mess lmao

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “cloudberry-sims: ???: Sorry but you can’t read that book yet! Stone:...”

Zillah will most likely appear after I finish Strangerville!

Yay! You don’t have to rush though, as long as she appears one day, it’s cool. It’s just a little sad when I spend a lot of time working on a sim and then the person who requested them never uses them.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “This girl is no longer on fiyah, fiyaaaaah”

Next time you try to die don't do it, okay?

Oh trust me I’ll keep an eye on her from now on

It’s what Caleb would have wanted

wait did I just make myself cry thinking about this

dreamsongsims replied to your photoset “I’m still not sure why she’s doing martial arts. Like yeah, I wanted...”

That moment when you just can't remember what your plans were for your sim! I have that a lot. LOL

I guess I do kinda remember the purpose for the story, the problem is...I don’t actually understand why I did it that way?

create-a-sim replied to your photo “someday i’ll be famous and you’ll have to admit you were wrong.”

Wow, this looks super cool!

Thank you! I really enjoyed working on this. It’s just one of the many outcomes of my “Tyler gets famous” headcanons, which by the way are one of my favourite things to think about these days.

onemoreordinarysimblr replied to your photo “Am I late to the party?”

Very cute!

alfalfalegacy replied to your photo “I had to do another one.”

This is a nice looking room!!

berrysweetboutique replied to your photo “I had to do another one.”

They're too fun and this is way cute ♥

Thank you guys! I really enjoy the idea of this. I’m definitely not done with this trend yet! ♥

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photo “please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh i could recognize...”

Oh it sucks that that person isn't around anymore(( losing friends is always hard

Btw, the edit is really cute!

Yeah...I was going through my old posts yesterday, saw some asks and got sad about this again. I miss talking daily to a person who was so much like me in so many ways. I don’t want to go into details but yeah...never thought I could miss a person I’ve never actually met and here I am.

desira-sims replied to your post “�� ��?”

I feel ya on the bands. My music tastes seems to go from one extreme to the next.

It’s so hard to limit yourself to just one genre! I don’t understand how some people can do this. Well, I don’t actually believe such people exist...everyone has their “guilty pleasure” and no one will change my mind.

desira-sims replied to your post “I associate you with Ross and Caleb :D (i really need to catch up on...”

This is 100% me.

It’s clear, if a sim wants to be the mascot of my blog, they have to be a bisexual disaster.

I mean, when I look at myself, that makes sense. I myself am one big bisexual disaster.

mellowaliens replied to your post “Tomorrow, I’m taking my first graduation exam. It’s a writing one, so...”

Good luck hon!

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “Tomorrow, I’m taking my first graduation exam. It’s a writing one, so...”

Good luck! ❤️ You can do it!

desira-sims replied to your post “Tomorrow, I’m taking my first graduation exam. It’s a writing one, so...”

Good luck!!! Sending positive vibes your way.

whysimstho replied to your post “Tomorrow, I’m taking my first graduation exam. It’s a writing one, so...”

Good Luck!

audrey-rosewadsworth replied to your post “Tomorrow, I’m taking my first graduation exam. It’s a writing one, so...”

GOOD LUCK

audrey-rosewadsworth replied to your post “Tomorrow, I’m taking my first graduation exam. It’s a writing one, so...”

I BELIEVE IN YOUUUU

poisonfireleafs replied to your post “Hey hi hello guess who survived the exam? It went better than I...”

Good luck tomorrow :)

*hugs* Thank you so much guys. ♥

desira-sims replied to your post “Good morning guys, I'm still freaking out about the exam. I'm taking...”

Just take deep breath and don’t stress too much. You’ll do great on the exam.   Congrats on your milestone!

I started feeling so much better when I left home. I went out and I was like okay, I can’t do much about this anymore, can I? And then I met up with my friend at the bus stop and we just talked and suddenly I wasn’t scared anymore because I realized we’re all in this together - the two of us, the rest of our class and all the other 80 000 (or something) students in our country who were taking the exam as well.

My biggest problem was that the exam started at 12.30 and ended at like 2.30 pm. If it had been in the morning, I wouldn’t have had so much time to worry about it. Thank the lord that’s the case with the English exam tomorrow, it starts at 8 am which is an okay school time for me - on a normal day, classes start at 7.50.

Also, thank you! ♥

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “Hey hi hello guess who survived the exam? It went better than I...”

Yay, congrats!

desira-sims replied to your post “Hey hi hello guess who survived the exam? It went better than I...”

Woot woot!

mellowaliens replied to your post “Hey hi hello guess who survived the exam? It went better than I...”

Good luck and congrats!

Now I’ll have to wait for the results...that’s gonna be fuuuuuun.

By the way, people are already making memes based on the topics and I enjoy that. People who didn’t take the exam can’t understand, but it’s really funny, I swear.

simlovinggirl replied to your photoset

awwwwww! ♥ ♥ ♥

They’re definitely among the cutest couples I have in my game right now! ♥

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Courtney: “Uhh…” Regan: “Wait. You…you guys? You’re like…” Felix: “Not...”

Well I kinda shipped themXD

I must admit that I didn’t at first, but then I noticed it could work. Whenever Regan said something bad about Felix, Courtney defended him, and so I thought...what if they went to uni together? Could they fall in love? Turns out they could :D

[skinflesh97-blog]

Coping

Road trip prep. Kids, you're in charge of  the cookies.

My alarm went off at 4:00am—an abrupt wakeup after finally finishing packing just three hours earlier. I snoozed it once…..ok, twice, and then we shoved the kids (still half asleep) into what little space was left in the loaded car, and headed west. It was a lonnnnnnng drive across Nevada—driving into the wind the entire way, dust blowing onto our roadside break of turkey and cheese. 

Thanks to the Internet and a few pointers from friends, we had a couple “ideas” where we may want to set up camp for the next four nights-we are not usually great at making FIRM plans….we are more “general idea” kind of people. You could say we are almost always winging it.  We headed down a 10 mile dirt road towards what we knew would be THE. MOST. AMAZING. campsite ever—in the trees, right on the lake, perfect. We were tired, hungry, and ready to get settled. Last fall we bought a little pop-up trailer—we figured as often as we camp, it would be nice to get out of the elements occasionally. We have loved it so far—we are always able to find secluded places to park it off the beaten path and keep away from crowds; we had planned on this time being the same.

We could faintly see the clear blue water through the trees, and were relieved and happy to have finally arrived after a full day in the car. But then we pulled up and saw what seemed to be a “local’s only” party….and we were definitely not invited. A few cars and tents scattered around near the water’s edge—no room at the inn—and here’s the kicker, the only place to turn around was occupied by several cars. And we were pulling a trailer. Whoops. 

Robby handles these situations much better than I do—we slowly drove through—every head turned. He laughed and waved like we were in a parade “we’re from out of town. Obviously. We didn’t know this place was so popular”. I sat in the passenger seat sweating and sinking lower and lower in my seat, wondering how we were ever going to get out of this place with nowhere to turn around. We inched our way through the trees—Robby maneuvering our set up  (that all the sudden seemed like a TRAIN in such tight quarters) and finally managed our way out, using a 57 point turn. We peeled out and kicked up dust as we sped away—except totally opposite of that, because the trailer only allows us to go so fast—and laughed all the way back out to the main road. At least we gave the locals a good laugh, right!? We didn’t want to take our chance down anymore unknown roads, so we put our tail between our legs and headed towards a campground.

California!

We got camp set up around ten—it was 45* in Lassen, and we were still in flip flops and shorts and really too exhausted to do anything but crawl into bed and crash. So we chose sleep over dinner and called it a day. 

We took our time waking up the next morning, ate eggs and bacon until we couldn’t eat another bite, and loaded up our packs to head out.. We spent the next three days hiking, paddling, fishing, exploring volcanoes, and completely disconnecting from the outside world. No phone service, no work, no emails to respond to, no worries really—except how stinky our armpits were and how tangled our hair was getting--it was truly the best.

We always manage to find winter in summer.

As we packed up one evening after a day on the lake—fitting kayaks, fishing gear, granola bar wrappers and tired kids into the car, an older gentleman came over—he and his wife were from Los Angeles and driving through the area. He struck up a conversation about our day. “How was the lake? (perfect. empty.) How was the fishing? (more fishing, less catching.)”, and what really struck me, “and your kids LIKE this stuff? How do you make them do all this? How do they cope without their Playstation?” 

“Well…..this is kinda...what we DO. They like to play outside—we actually go camping all the time”. 

“You mean, you just go out into the woods?” 

“yep”………….. 

If we were living in a cartoon world his eyes would have popped out of his head and his jaw would have hit the ground. 

“Huh.”

end scene.

we had the lake to ourselves.

This conversation really got me thinking. As I type this, we are driving back after eight days on the road. We are exhausted—both physically and mentally, tired of camp food, and absolutely filthy—our best “shower” was soaping* up in a river, hoping the icy cold current would rinse away some of the grime. I miss my animals and my garden, yet  I’d happily continue on down the road—I am happiest when I’m out exploring somewhere new. It’s who we are, it’s what we do, and it’s PART of the reason my kids can “cope without their Playstation” (which by the way, we didn’t tell the guy we didn’t even have one.) 

But, it’s only part of the reason—I realize that our particular lifestyle is not for everyone, and that’s ok. But there ARE other ways to keep kids from being completely dependent on screens, gadgets, gizmos, and the need for constant stimulation and entertainment.  Here are a few of my ideas: (I'm not saying this is the only way to parent, it just seems to work for us:)

Don’t buy them screens/gadgets/gizmos/etc. Hey that’s easy—and cheap! My kids are not this special breed of children who have no desire to glue their faces to something plugged in. But it’s a lot harder to do when they don’t have access to it. They don’t have their own phone or ipad, and we have an old xbox with 4 games that they can earn time for on weekends after all their chores are done--it's GREAT bribery!  (ps. I think Minecraft is a GREAT game! So much creativity to unleash!) Do they ask for all the above mentioned stuff? Do they say “but alllllllllllll my friends have ______” They DO! And guess what I say? “I don't care!" And occasionally I like to throw in things like "because I'm the mom and I say so", and then I feel super legit. I realize that as my kids get older, this one is unavoidable, so we will:

Set limits. Maybe you are a cooler parent than me and your kids have a gadget or two. Great! But they don't need to have it in hand alllllllll the time. I started an Instagram account so my kiddos could post the pictures they take and share them with cousins and grandmas and grandpas (and mostly so we could print more Chatbooks!) I log them in so they can post a few photos, we look (together) at what's going on with our cousins, and then I log them out--no time wasted mindlessly scrolling, and no wondering what garbage they saw on Instagram. But they feel connected to their cousins who live far away--win win! When they want to use the computer they have to ask--I want to know what they'll be doing. 

Have other options. As much as I wish we could--we can't spend 100% of our time outside. We are a movie loving family and movie nights are our favorite, but I hate the tv always being on--it's such an easy "out". We've had a scorcher of a summer, and some afternoons we have to hide out in the house to beat the heat, but we are making sure to do lots of reading, writing, and artwork instead of letting the tv constantly entertain us. 

Don't start them so young! I will probably ruffle so many feathers by saying this, but I honestly can't believe how many babies and toddlers I see with a screen in their hand--the grocery store, church, restaurants--everywhere. I somehow raised my babies without a screen in hand (they weren't even invented yet.) And when I say that, it sounds like I raised my babies in the 1800s and just let them play with tumbleweeds, but really it was just a few years ago, I promise. Was it hard to go to Target with a 4 year old and 2 year old? OH MY GOSH IT WAS THE WORST! But did I somehow manage without attaching them to a glowing screen? I DID! And there were a fair share of public meltdowns, tantrums, whining, complaining--because guess what, they are KIDS, and that's what kids do. But if we stick an iPad in their face (and pretend to be ok with it because it's "educational"), just so we can have a peaceful grocery store experience, how can we expect them to learn to function in real life without that constant stimulation? (I ran out of breath reading that last sentence, did you?) 

I am absolutely not a perfect parent, and I pray every day that I'm not screwing these kiddos up too badly.  But I do work ridiculously hard to make sure my kids get dirty, breathe fresh air, do chores, don't rely on screens for constant stimulation, know how to be creative, have original thoughts, and entertain themselves. I would love to hear YOUR ideas on how to better keep kids connected to the real world, and not rely too much on electronic interaction. 

They seem to be coping just fine.

*I mentioned we soaped up in the river--it was the BEST, and I recommend it (but watch out for people coming down the hill--you'll have to run for cover in your skivvies). We use THESE SOAPS  --they are biodegradable and don't mess up the water and vegetation :) **I also mentioned Chatbooks! Do you get these? It's a subscription that I use through my Instagram (you can also create books without IG, but it's so easy and brainless to do it how I do). Every 60 photos I post it sends me a notification that my book is ready--then I can edit captions, take out photos, or do NOTHING, and it will send my photo book automatically--each book costs $8. We LOVE them, and look through them so often (we've been getting them for the last 2 years)--they are great little scrapbooks. If you aren't yet using Chatbooks, go sign up and use the code SHEENA to get 20% off your order now through the end of the month.

SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Source: http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2016/07/coping.html

[nickelnumber91-blog]

Coping

Road trip prep. Kids, you're in charge of  the cookies.

My alarm went off at 4:00am—an abrupt wakeup after finally finishing packing just three hours earlier. I snoozed it once…..ok, twice, and then we shoved the kids (still half asleep) into what little space was left in the loaded car, and headed west. It was a lonnnnnnng drive across Nevada—driving into the wind the entire way, dust blowing onto our roadside break of turkey and cheese. 

Thanks to the Internet and a few pointers from friends, we had a couple “ideas” where we may want to set up camp for the next four nights-we are not usually great at making FIRM plans….we are more “general idea” kind of people. You could say we are almost always winging it.  We headed down a 10 mile dirt road towards what we knew would be THE. MOST. AMAZING. campsite ever—in the trees, right on the lake, perfect. We were tired, hungry, and ready to get settled. Last fall we bought a little pop-up trailer—we figured as often as we camp, it would be nice to get out of the elements occasionally. We have loved it so far—we are always able to find secluded places to park it off the beaten path and keep away from crowds; we had planned on this time being the same.

We could faintly see the clear blue water through the trees, and were relieved and happy to have finally arrived after a full day in the car. But then we pulled up and saw what seemed to be a “local’s only” party….and we were definitely not invited. A few cars and tents scattered around near the water’s edge—no room at the inn—and here’s the kicker, the only place to turn around was occupied by several cars. And we were pulling a trailer. Whoops. 

Robby handles these situations much better than I do—we slowly drove through—every head turned. He laughed and waved like we were in a parade “we’re from out of town. Obviously. We didn’t know this place was so popular”. I sat in the passenger seat sweating and sinking lower and lower in my seat, wondering how we were ever going to get out of this place with nowhere to turn around. We inched our way through the trees—Robby maneuvering our set up  (that all the sudden seemed like a TRAIN in such tight quarters) and finally managed our way out, using a 57 point turn. We peeled out and kicked up dust as we sped away—except totally opposite of that, because the trailer only allows us to go so fast—and laughed all the way back out to the main road. At least we gave the locals a good laugh, right!? We didn’t want to take our chance down anymore unknown roads, so we put our tail between our legs and headed towards a campground.

California!

We got camp set up around ten—it was 45* in Lassen, and we were still in flip flops and shorts and really too exhausted to do anything but crawl into bed and crash. So we chose sleep over dinner and called it a day. 

We took our time waking up the next morning, ate eggs and bacon until we couldn’t eat another bite, and loaded up our packs to head out.. We spent the next three days hiking, paddling, fishing, exploring volcanoes, and completely disconnecting from the outside world. No phone service, no work, no emails to respond to, no worries really—except how stinky our armpits were and how tangled our hair was getting--it was truly the best.

We always manage to find winter in summer.

As we packed up one evening after a day on the lake—fitting kayaks, fishing gear, granola bar wrappers and tired kids into the car, an older gentleman came over—he and his wife were from Los Angeles and driving through the area. He struck up a conversation about our day. “How was the lake? (perfect. empty.) How was the fishing? (more fishing, less catching.)”, and what really struck me, “and your kids LIKE this stuff? How do you make them do all this? How do they cope without their Playstation?” 

“Well…..this is kinda...what we DO. They like to play outside—we actually go camping all the time”. 

“You mean, you just go out into the woods?” 

“yep”………….. 

If we were living in a cartoon world his eyes would have popped out of his head and his jaw would have hit the ground. 

“Huh.”

end scene.

we had the lake to ourselves.

This conversation really got me thinking. As I type this, we are driving back after eight days on the road. We are exhausted—both physically and mentally, tired of camp food, and absolutely filthy—our best “shower” was soaping* up in a river, hoping the icy cold current would rinse away some of the grime. I miss my animals and my garden, yet  I’d happily continue on down the road—I am happiest when I’m out exploring somewhere new. It’s who we are, it’s what we do, and it’s PART of the reason my kids can “cope without their Playstation” (which by the way, we didn’t tell the guy we didn’t even have one.) 

But, it’s only part of the reason—I realize that our particular lifestyle is not for everyone, and that’s ok. But there ARE other ways to keep kids from being completely dependent on screens, gadgets, gizmos, and the need for constant stimulation and entertainment.  Here are a few of my ideas: (I'm not saying this is the only way to parent, it just seems to work for us:)

Don’t buy them screens/gadgets/gizmos/etc. Hey that’s easy—and cheap! My kids are not this special breed of children who have no desire to glue their faces to something plugged in. But it’s a lot harder to do when they don’t have access to it. They don’t have their own phone or ipad, and we have an old xbox with 4 games that they can earn time for on weekends after all their chores are done--it's GREAT bribery!  (ps. I think Minecraft is a GREAT game! So much creativity to unleash!) Do they ask for all the above mentioned stuff? Do they say “but alllllllllllll my friends have ______” They DO! And guess what I say? “I don't care!" And occasionally I like to throw in things like "because I'm the mom and I say so", and then I feel super legit. I realize that as my kids get older, this one is unavoidable, so we will:

Set limits. Maybe you are a cooler parent than me and your kids have a gadget or two. Great! But they don't need to have it in hand alllllllll the time. I started an Instagram account so my kiddos could post the pictures they take and share them with cousins and grandmas and grandpas (and mostly so we could print more Chatbooks!) I log them in so they can post a few photos, we look (together) at what's going on with our cousins, and then I log them out--no time wasted mindlessly scrolling, and no wondering what garbage they saw on Instagram. But they feel connected to their cousins who live far away--win win! When they want to use the computer they have to ask--I want to know what they'll be doing. 

Have other options. As much as I wish we could--we can't spend 100% of our time outside. We are a movie loving family and movie nights are our favorite, but I hate the tv always being on--it's such an easy "out". We've had a scorcher of a summer, and some afternoons we have to hide out in the house to beat the heat, but we are making sure to do lots of reading, writing, and artwork instead of letting the tv constantly entertain us. 

Don't start them so young! I will probably ruffle so many feathers by saying this, but I honestly can't believe how many babies and toddlers I see with a screen in their hand--the grocery store, church, restaurants--everywhere. I somehow raised my babies without a screen in hand (they weren't even invented yet.) And when I say that, it sounds like I raised my babies in the 1800s and just let them play with tumbleweeds, but really it was just a few years ago, I promise. Was it hard to go to Target with a 4 year old and 2 year old? OH MY GOSH IT WAS THE WORST! But did I somehow manage without attaching them to a glowing screen? I DID! And there were a fair share of public meltdowns, tantrums, whining, complaining--because guess what, they are KIDS, and that's what kids do. But if we stick an iPad in their face (and pretend to be ok with it because it's "educational"), just so we can have a peaceful grocery store experience, how can we expect them to learn to function in real life without that constant stimulation? (I ran out of breath reading that last sentence, did you?) 

I am absolutely not a perfect parent, and I pray every day that I'm not screwing these kiddos up too badly.  But I do work ridiculously hard to make sure my kids get dirty, breathe fresh air, do chores, don't rely on screens for constant stimulation, know how to be creative, have original thoughts, and entertain themselves. I would love to hear YOUR ideas on how to better keep kids connected to the real world, and not rely too much on electronic interaction. 

They seem to be coping just fine.

*I mentioned we soaped up in the river--it was the BEST, and I recommend it (but watch out for people coming down the hill--you'll have to run for cover in your skivvies). We use THESE SOAPS  --they are biodegradable and don't mess up the water and vegetation :) **I also mentioned Chatbooks! Do you get these? It's a subscription that I use through my Instagram (you can also create books without IG, but it's so easy and brainless to do it how I do). Every 60 photos I post it sends me a notification that my book is ready--then I can edit captions, take out photos, or do NOTHING, and it will send my photo book automatically--each book costs $8. We LOVE them, and look through them so often (we've been getting them for the last 2 years)--they are great little scrapbooks. If you aren't yet using Chatbooks, go sign up and use the code SHEENA to get 20% off your order now through the end of the month.

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Source: http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2016/07/coping.html

[opepin]

march: week 4

20: lots of cramping and gas going on lol. well, i rushed in the morning because i stayed in bed 10 minutes after my alarm rang. then the red line had some delays, but i still got to work before 9:30 am, ahah. it was a pretty chill day in the office. i ate lunch at my desk because i had a call when everyone else was eating :< craii. i ordered daniel’s bday present and also managed to print out the amazon return label. i kind of lost fuel one hour before the day ended because of my stomach and cramps, but it’s okay! it happens, haha. i got home at like 5:30 pm and then snacked a bit before doing my 45 minute cardio workout. then i made rice and headed upstairs to shower. i had to bring all of my shower and skin care stuff to the bathroom x__x; it was a nice shower though because the shower head is 2x as strong as ours for some reason. hopefully, that gets fixed too.

kevin got back and we went ot bj’s to pick up croissants. he really wanted them. we devoured two on the way back and then he went to shower while i prepped the veggies. LOL and then i made a mistake where i threw out the white ends of the chives when i wasn’t supposed to and then i took them out of the garbage (was pretty clean) and washed them like 30x times. i was going to lie to kevin about them but then i broke down and told him what happened and he couldn’t stop laughing at me. if baby brain exists does period brain exist too? LOL. kevin finished cooking and then we ate and watched an episode of ‘how to get away with murder.’ then kevin washed the dishes and we headed up to brush our teeth. kevin gamed for the rest of the night and i laid in bed nursing another tension headache until i fell asleep at like 1 am.

21: i woke up with the tension in my neck and shoulder and our shower was still getting fixed so i worked from home. we woke up to the maintenance guys’ knock on the door and they said they would come back in an hour or so because we were still in bed. so then we slept for 30 minutes more and then went upstairs to brush our teeth. the wifi in the suite still didn’t work so kevin sent me the information while he commuted to work. we ate breakfast and then stopped by the front to sign a card and drop off some money for our maintenance and cleaning staff appreciation thingy. then i headed upstairs and changed and brought my stuff to the suite to work. i recorded some videos and then caught up with phil. i got the ‘ok’ to start implementing some of my changes. i’m so excited! then i ate lunch and looked at headsets. i realized that kien and haowei are getting pro gamer headsets LOL. cole suggested the arctis 5 and i might get it. we’ll see.

i went back down to the apartment and finished editing videos and ended my day with a call. then i washed dishes, put on rice, snacked on a croissant, and did an hour workout focusing on obliques. kevin came home a bit later than expected because he was working on a problem. i went to shower while kevin cooked dinner. he got really dried out and tired while cooking so he went to shower after cooking while i watched ‘reign’ and tried catching a good tapu koko. i’m hoping to catch a tapu every other time i game LOL. i didn’t catch one at the end of the day though. we ate and watched two? episodes of ‘how to get away with murder’ and then kevin washed dishes and then we brushed our teeth together upstairs. i finished watching ‘reign’ in bed and then went to sleep at 1:15 am? kevin stayed up debating stock market things or something ahah.

22: i actually didn’t need to rush in the morning. i got dressed before brushing my teeth because i had to go upstairs to the suite to brush my teeth and then ate breakfast and i was on the train at 8:34 am! i met sultan for the first time in person and met our new front end dev, joe today. it was a really quiet office -- only the marketing team and product team were in the office. it was a productive morning. i ordered the arctis 7 in white for my headset for work and then i worked on tutorials. everyone online was busy so i just worked and listened to music. the day went by pretty quickly. we scrambled at the end of the day because of an issue that we really needed to solve together. it was fun doing that and figuring it out. i left at like 5:15 pm after cleaning up things with phil for the client and then i met kevin at the train station :) he made it just in time to get on the train!

i told him about my day and when we got back, i watched ‘jane the virgin’ while trying to catch a good tapu koko. i was close twice but one wasn’t timid nature and the other didn’t have perfect speed :< my hand was cramping so i quit and i cleaned up the bathroom. kevin made stir fry potato slivers and braised chicken with mushrooms for dinner. mmm. the potatoes were hella spicy but when we put more salt, it tasted better. we watched 3 episodes? of ‘how to get away with murder.’ there’s so much sex this season .__. LOL but we’re getting to the good part now. we stopped so i could exercise. oh, our water pressure for the shower is perfect now! it’s waay stronger. kevin took a nice long shower and after my workout, i cleaned the kitchen. i got irritated at kevin for not vacuuming when i asked him to and when he did it, it was half-heartedly. :/ but he cooked today and he just showered so i just re-vacuumed spots and swiffered the floors before showering. i was still a bit irritated but it was dumb to get mad at him for it. so i waited for him to finish up gaming and then went to sleep when he did :)

23: i almost forgot my lunch today but i went back and got on the later train because the train just left as i got on the platform ;( i shared the weird tasting totaste green tea biscuits in the office and steve’s reaction was the best. everyone else said it was alright. diego surprised me and said it tasted like olive oil and he wasn’t disgusted at all. hmmm. oh, diego came into the office without me bothering him to come in :P yay! i was pretty productive today. i had a few long meetings, but it was alright. i ended my day with a meeting that kind of went over in time so i had to jump off, pack up, and then go to the chocolate shop with cole. i got chocolate covered gummy bears and dark chocolate peanut butter cups. cole bought the gummy bears for me because of all the snacks i’ve given him -- thanks bro! T^T i made it to south station 2 minutes later than kevin -- i broke my winning streak ;( ahaha.

we got home and played pokemon and cuddled and watched tv while the rice cooked. we made super easy omurice and then continued watching tv and gaming. mmm. it felt like a friday. we stopped at around 11 pm, kevin washed the dishes, and i did 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of back workout (15 minutes with dumb bells). idk if it’s gonna work because maybe the weights are too light? we’ll see. then i showered and ko’d in bed. mm i wish it was friday, but i’m also working from home tomorrow so nbd! i also caught a pretty good tapu koko! tapu lele is so hard to catch T^T my next challenge... p.s. i love talking and hanging out with everyone at t7. everyone is great and so funny. i’m so grateful.

24: my upper back was in so much pain when i woke up, ahha. kevin got up later than usual because i was still in bed (wfh). :) i got myself up eventually and then made breakfast and recorded videos. i also weighed myself in the morning and i don’t talk about this a lot but i’m so happy and proud of myself for pushing myself physically and getting to my body/health goals, BUT this morning i was 117/118 lbs and 19.7% body fat. yaaaasssss! my “previous goals” were to lose all the weight i gained (i was at like 130 lbs last year), and then get to 20% body fat. my now goal is to maintain this body fat or if i’m feeling bored, go further without changing my diet so it’s solely dependent on how hard i work out. it feels so good to eat whatever i want and stop when i know it’s too much and then work it off and get stronger. i’ve stopped being so dependent on calorie counting and just knowing what foods and portion sizes are good for me. i think i’m pretty close to having a good understanding of how much i should eat everyday and what it will do to my body. i’m getting there and i’m always learning about myself and about food of course ;D

anyway, then i ate lunch and ate some chocolate. mmm these dark chocolate peanut butter cups are the best. i talked to cole and dropped some food knowledge while he had some down time haha. phil told me to take the day easy after 3 pm because sultan and byron had off time today. so that’s what i did! i recorded 5 videos (record!) and then spent a good amount of time uploading pictures on facebook. i took a day off from exercising because my upper back was killing me. instead, i played pokemon for the rest of the day with kevin. we cuddled on the couch while watching tv and playing pokemon the rest of the night. we didn’t even cook dinner because kevin had happy hour and ate sliders and wings so i just baked some chicken nuggets. we took a break to shower and then play some more in bed and then went to sleep pretty late...like at 3:30 am or something...LOL

25: kevin woke up earlier than me and made breakfast. by “earlier” i mean like he woke up at 11 am and i got up at 1 pm LOL. it was a cloudy day so i didn’t feel like recording my 2min showcase... i skipped the meal because i felt full and we went to the movies to get tickets to see ‘logan.’ the 7:20 pm time was totally booked and same with ‘get out’ so we got tickets for ‘logan’ tomorrow at 7:20 pm. :) then we drove over to ‘oh my tea’ and i got the pudding, grass jelly, and boba milk tea drink (this is my second favorite drink there, especially for like a dessert kind of day) and kevin got the strawberry lemonade. i didn’t like his drink. Dx we devoured our drinks before we even got back home. well, kevin finished as we walked into the apartment... kevin tried making general tso’s chicken...it was a spicy af half failure -- tasted too salty and not sweet enough. the spice was too much as well...

while kevin did this, i nluu proofed our kitchen (haha i really enjoyed doing this). then i washed the fleece blankets. we ate, watched some tv, and then kevin left to go climb. i finished getting all of the pokemon in moon though!!! i just need kevin’s kartana -__-” so then i switched over to finally playing ‘bravely default.’ daniel got this game for me for my birthday like forever ago. it was hard getting into it but now i’m hooked. i watched ‘reign’ while playing this and then when kevin got back, we had a quick dinner and tv session and then i continued gaming. i stopped myself at 10 pm to do the intense 60 minute kickboxing video i found a week ago and then showered and continued gaming in bed until 3:30 am again LOL. omg, that work out killed me and reminded me that rest days should be light workout days and not “i’m not going to move anywhere for the whole day” days... the circulation in my legs and arms made me scratch everywhere and it was not pleasant but the work out felt good.

26: we woke up at 12 pm, kevin played pokemon and i played bravely default in bed until 1 pm, kevin made us breakfast, and i recorded my 2min showcase video. i hope it doesn’t turn out too bad? i don’t feel real motivated this week, but i’ll do my best to keep on schedule. then i did some internet errands, figured out our meals for this week, i started laundry, and then we went grocery shopping. we thought we were done early until kevin wanted to get fermented foods for congee and then we forgot to get vanilla mochi.... then we went in circles looking for chocolate syrup at rochebro’s and then we finally made it to bj’s where the express line was kinda long x__x; we made it back, put away all the food, transferred the wet clothing into the dryer, and then kevin realized we forgot to get garlic so he left to get garlic, i washed the dishes and prepped for dinner. luckily, the recipe was quick and we ate before heading out to see “logan.”

whyyyyyyyy?! i cried haha. it was a damn good movie and the little girl is a beast. <3 me and kevin had a semi-argument about character design for females vs male when it comes to “mutants” and things like that on the way back. i folded clothes when we got back, ate the mochi with some chocolate syrup, curled my hair, and then did the 45 minute cardio video. then i showered and brushed my teeth and got into bed. i stayed up until almost 2 am watching videos and waiting for kevin to finish watching the dota game. then kevin woke up at 2:30 am because he couldn’t sleep due to the fact that our upstairs neighbors were blasting music and talking loud af. kevin actually went upstairs and knocked on their door and no one answered... he also sent an email to deco to complain and then he fell asleep with earphones... i think he was listening to dota commentary LOLOL.