#op if you ever need meal money hit my line I got you I could never repay your kindness on this day

[mewberii]

Streamer!Scaramouche [2]

thanks for all the support in the first part! i wrote a second part where scaramouche plays genshin + the reader comes in (i tried to make it as gender neutral as possible, so let me know if there’s something off!). you’re a close friend of scaramouche and also a voice actor!

i had been planning this since i wrote the first part, but because i was busy and uninspired i couldn’t finish it. but here it is and it’s actually pretty long (over 5k words...)! i hope you guys will like this!! obviously he’s a little nicer than he is in game but,,, for the sake of the plot + it being a modern au, it had to be done sjnfdskjf

He was selected to play the beta for genshin because of his popularity and tbh he really wanted to play it

The game hadn’t really caught his eye all that much when he first heard about it but he saw how everyone online went crazy over it (plus other streamers who also were selected to play it in early access kept talking about it) and he became more curious to know what it would be like and if it’d live to everyone’s expectations

However he couldn’t really play it until it was officially released because he had a very busy schedule, and when he saw other streams of people playing it he was,,, lowkey jealous because it did look fun

When it was finally released and the game finished downloading and installing, he went live right away

And since so many people were looking forward to seeing him play plus the game was getting so popular so fast, that stream of when he first played hit his biggest milestone of live viewers ever

ANYWAYS skip forward to further into the game

when it comes to the gacha,,,

we’ve established that this boy is loaded. he won’t hesitate to throw some big amounts of money at the game to get every single character and weapon he wants and get their constellations to the max

i feel like he’d make little bets (and it works as a way to thank the chat for the support) like “if i get (insert newest character) in the first 50 pulls, i will gift 50 subs”

he’d be SOOOOOOO LUCKY it’d make everyone who doesn’t play think that it must be very easy to get the 5 stars or that the drop rate must be very high,,,

so in the end he’d have to gift the subs and it’d be funny to see the chat go absolutely crazy because everyone is commenting at the same time trying to see if they got lucky too and got the sub

but the chat goes so fast that they can’t even see their own comment after they send it sNDJGDJSK 

he’d end up turning subs mode on for a while because it goes crazy

and that’s when he’d see people going “I GOT THE SUB-” all excited and he can’t help but chuckle and congratulate them for being one of the lucky ones

probably another game he can use to play with some subs once in a while! they could play co-op and when he’s a very high level he’d go to the worlds of some of his subs with lower level to help them with whatever they need

SO, LITTLE SKIP HERE

this is where i want the reader to slide into the picture

you’d be a voice actor, and also you have been a friend of his for a very long time

he met you even before he started streaming and you were always so supportive of him, as he was of every and each of your dreams

in fact, he would have invited you over more than once to stream with him

people don’t say anything bc they’re afraid of scaramouche banning them (it’s happened before) + they understand it can be disrespectful... but…

some people lowkey ship you two a little bit,,,,,, you didn’t hear it from me. scaramouche don’t ban me----

so one day he’s making another livestream playing genshin (sponsored by mihoyo to promote the newest update and event) and they’re going to release a new character 

AND he has told everyone that you are the voice actor of the new character, who will be introduced in the event and is also getting their own banner

so everyone is very curious of what they’ll be like, if scaramouche will try to get them (obviously he will, he has every single character…. the amount of money he has put into the game…. just thinking of it gives me the heebie-jeebies) 

could he even,,, main them,,,,

spoiler: he won’t because he’ll stay honest till the end (and no hard feelings) but there are other characters that he has built up to the max just like them and still work better with the way he plays but he’ll still find a chance to use them often

he didn’t know anything of what the character you voiced would be like because you wanted to keep it a surprise and he knew his audience would enjoy seeing his first reactions

I think the character you voice in the game would have the role that Scaramouche has in the actual game, and their design would be fairly similar (maybe similar color palette) to the design fans made for him as a genshin character (the one i mentioned that he uses for popup notifs of subscriptions and all!)

needless to say he’d absolutely love their personality and the charisma you showed in their lines

of course when he finally gets them he shows everything about them including all their voice lines and he compliments y/n’s voice acting… that was the first time people suspected that....

mayhaps… scaramouche….

has feelings for you....

it’s in the soft gaze in his eyes,,, the gentle smile on his lips,,, his soft voice when saying “I think this one is my favorite line of theirs”

and just how BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL his laugh sounds when someone comments he should invite you and ask you to do that voiceline live for him and everyone else

he’d jokingly reach for his phone and be like “should i call them? i could” 

(but he wouldn’t because he doesn’t want to disturb you, you may be busy, considering you still hadn’t replied to the messages he sent to you before he started the stream a few hours ago)

if anyone dares be mean to you saying you got the chance to voice act for genshin just bc of scaramouche

or implies that he did something to get you there he’ll get quite mad even tho he won’t speak up about it (he might if enough people say it) 

people can see something shift in his gaze,,,, and he bans them permanently right away

it’d be kinda funny when he does those “reading unban requests” streams and he goes past immediately rejecting people who said those kind of stuff, not even reading the apologies JSNKJFNDSJKGNSDK

some people say he’s too strict about it but literally his stream his rules. people who don’t like him should just not watch him

and people who like him should NOT speak badly about you or doubt your talent and effort, which is what brought you that opportunity in the first place

one day he’d be streaming playing the game, he had been using your character and gathering materials to get their last ascension

and at one point he’d grab his phone and look at the screen for a second before putting it back down and saying he had planned something else for tonight besides playing genshin for a while

then, the doorbell would ring (before he could even close the game-) and it’d be heard from his setup room so people in the chat heard it and they’re all like???

it’s definitely not takeout because scaramouche never orders takeout when he’s on his own, he usually cooks for himself and just orders it when he’s with friends and they all feel like eating something different

actually, offtopic, but i have a feeling he’d be very responsible when it comes to food and like he’d cook himself proper meals all perfectly balanced and all- he could afford having someone cook for him but his house = his privacy and personal space so he’d rather do it himself

it’s like, past 10pm, so no way it would be a package or mail at that time

and then he says “we have a visitor tonight”

and then the chat goes crazy saying “CHILDE” “HARBINGERS” but mostly “Y/N!??!?/PLEASE LET IT BE Y/N”

AND IT WAS YOU!!!!

and omg you brought takeout--------

it had been a while since they had seen you in scaramouche’s stream and you didn’t have your own channel (even though there were many people who encouraged you to open one)

SO everyone was very excited

i feel like scaramouche wouldn’t be the biggest fan of eating on camera so you guys would put the food away so that you can eat it later on your own without an audience

and you two would just spend a while talking to the chat, watching videos

AND reviewing fanart and fanmade content together!! it’d be so cute especially fanarts of the two of you together, little animatics or comics of funny clips or memes from his streams of you two,,,

someone made a little felt plushie of the genshin character you voiced and the way you COOED because it was SO cute

only those who were truly paying attention were able to notice the soft smile on scaramouche’s lips and the way he looked at you as you gushed over how cute the little plushie is and how talented the person who made it is!!

also you’d tell him you saw signora make a stream where she talked to some of her fans on discord individually to give them advice on their life/problems (nothing too serious) and it was very funny and you wanted to do that with him someday

and he’s like “that… could be a huge mess. people could say some crazy stuff” and you’re like “NO but i talked to her about it and she said she got her mods to talk to them first and approve them before they moved them up to the channel where she was to talk to her”

and he’s like “still…….. what if people lie and then when they get to talk to us they say something-”

and you’re like “BOY!!!! DO YOU NOT TRUST YOUR FANS *GASP*” and everyone in the chat is also going “GASP” “HE DOESN’T TRUST US…” “IS THIS YOUR IDOL…..?” “SAY SORRY” (all good fun, obviously he’d love to talk to everyone if he could make sure there won’t be anything disrespectful said)

SO!!!!! you two say you’ll plan to do something like that soon and everyone is very excited, they can already tell it’ll be both super cute and hilarious

before he ends the stream, you two watch some videos together

some are about some upcoming videogames and he talks about them and what he knows and explaining things to you... he is.. so knowledgeable…

the way you look at him as he goes into a little rant about it… cinematic parallels with the way he looked at you before

ONCE AGAIN, people aren’t blind. they notice. but they keep it to themselves bc scary scara (the way i had to resist overusing this one joke with his name-)

so the stream ends and you two walk out of the setup room to go to his living room and eat the takeout you brought while watching something on tv

he apologises because the food is cold now, but you brush it off saying it’s ok, you had missed being on his streams and you two can just heat up the food again

he doesn’t look at you in the eyes as he mutters that you know you can join his streams whenever, and instead just says it as he makes his way to the kitchen to heat the food

you join him in the kitchen soon after and tell him you also bought something for dessert and put it in the fridge already before

and honestly he didn’t know how much he wanted to eat that dessert until it was in his fridge, so he can’t stop himself from sighing and saying “god, i love you”

there’s silence for a second, right as the microwave beeps as it finished heating the food

it feels eternal to him, but you immediately started laughing and said jokingly “of course you do! you’re welcome!” 

he’s happy you took it as a joke because that’s not how he planned to confess (he didn’t plan to confess anytime soon in the first place) but at the same time ?? he’s lowkey offended inside because? you took it as a joke?? is it so unrealistic that you wouldn’t even think that he meant it romantically?

it’s at that moment that he realises that if he didn’t want to confess before, now he does.

he wouldn’t want anyone to know about how he let that slip because he’s sure no one in you two’s friend group even knows he likes you

but you,,, actually,,,,, were actually caught off guard too because scaramouche wasn’t precisely one for words of affection and he showed his care for everyone with his actions

in fact, you had never heard him say those words before but well- it was kinda nice- if only he meant it as you feel it- but he couldn’t, right? who’d confess their feelings so casually while looking at a dessert in the fridge with desire-------

that night, it gets pretty late and to be honest he’s a little too tired to drive you home as he usually would, so he asks if you’d like to sleep over

it wouldn’t be your first time doing so, not even the first time you stayed unplanned, and he had a couple guest rooms that you could use so you accepted

also, staying for longer meant you could keep watching some more of that series with him without worrying about it getting late

or,,,

“actually” you said in a low voice, almost a whisper, since it was getting late and you two had been in complete silence while watching the series “i lowkey still wanted to stream some more”

he scoffs but then lets out a short chuckle, replying in the same volume

“it’s past 2am, who’s going to watch me stream now?”

“i would” have mercy for his poor heart- “but i’d be the streamer too this time so it doesn’t count” 

“what even would we do”

“can we play that co-op game you played with childe? it was so much fun” 

had you not brought it up, he wouldn’t have offered that ever because? if he had recently played it with childe he didn’t want to stream it again and make it feel repetitive for his audience 

(jokes on him because when genshin came out they put up with it being the only thing he streamed for over a week. they’d rewatch any game if it’s you two playing it)

but to be honest, he didn’t really want to stream anymore that day and just wanted to be with you, just you and no one else

he got up from the couch and walked towards the hallway, making you look up to him in confusion for a second, but then started getting excited knowing this meant he was going to let you play it with him

“i don’t really feel like streaming anymore today, but we can still play it. let’s go”

the next day, you two wake up around the same time and make breakfast together

scaramouche i feel is not very talkative in the mornings 

in fact, i feel like he’s just not the most talkative in general. he’s more the type to listen, but it’s different during his streams because he’s doing what he loves and talking about what he loves

and when it comes to you and he talks more it’s because he’s talking to who he loves----

before you’re going to leave and you’re standing at the door about to say goodbye to him, he suddenly speaks up before you can

“do you want to go somewhere tomorrow?”

you raise your eyebrows in curiosity from the sudden request, but then smile at him and nod

“yeah sure! what do you have in min-”

“it’s a date” he said, interrupting you, which was weird enough of him (since he would never interrupt you), but his words were even weirder-

“h-huh?” you felt the heat rising to your cheeks, and scaramouche just repeated his words

on the outside, he looked so casual and just, confident- bUT INSIDE he was actually panicking a little bit 

but just a little bit.

After a moment, you smiled at him again, this time somewhat more shily but also excited for your date!

“I look forward to it”

Just with that, you two knew you had made the first step

You weren’t just friends anymore

You two had hung out on your own many times before, in fact and as it was mentioned before, you two had even slept over at his house or yours many times before

but it had all always been purely platonic, and you guys had never even questioned that aspect of it even after realising you had romantic feelings for each other

he’d spend the rest of the day thinking of what you could do the next day, as if he hadn’t been brainstorming for ideas all night either

i feel like he hasn’t gone in many (if not any--) dates before

solely because he has never been interested in romance plus he had never liked someone or at least, not as much as he liked you

and even when he found out he felt something for you, he just always told himself he was okay with how things were, because he’d never experienced anything beyond friendship and didn’t feel the need to try and maybe ruin the friendship

SO he didn’t have many ideas of what a good date could be

he definitely didn’t want a cliché corny date, but he really didn’t have any idea of what was good enough for a date

(and if for future dates you want something he’d consider a “”cliché corny date”” he’d do it for you and actually enjoy it)

the last thing he wanted was to have to ask you what you could do for your date

1- because he didn’t want to show you any side of him that didn’t look like he always has everything under control and he’s always composed (as if you wouldn’t want to see every side of him, even his most vulnerable sides- you’d have to work on that with him when you two become official)

2- he… kind of wanted to surprise you…..

but it really got to the point where he really didn’t know what you’d like the most (or what he’d like the most too) and what he wanted most over anything else is to not disappoint you in you two’s first date

SO he finally texted you asking if there was anything special you wanted to do (and therefore indirectly admitting he……….. just really wanted to ask you out. so much he did it without thinking of what he’d do if you said yes--)

you didn’t seem to mind, and in fact you were happy he asked for your opinion 

overall, scaramouche was very independent so he wasn’t one to ask others for advice, opinions or anything, much less for help regarding anything

“how long has it been since we last went to the arcade? we could go there! i heard from childe that they added new games!”

and he’s like !?!?!?? THAT…. is…….. the perfect idea

“that actually sounds perfect” he admitted, and the message brought a big smile to your face 

“just don’t get mad at me when you lose at all of them” he sent right after, teasing you, and you couldn’t help but let out a laugh out loud

“the last time i won in your favorite game” you reminded him, and even after he read your message, he took a little bit to reply

(he needed a second to put the pieces of his pride together SJNFKJDS)

“don’t get used to it, it won’t happen again”

“we will see about that” the more you two joked like this, the more excited you got thinking about tomorrow

scaramouche was sure now that it’d be a great first date that you’d both remember forever

the next day, it was almost the time for the date and scaramouche was going to pick you up at your house

i feel like scaramouche would be very fashionable and even in his style he doesn’t try to hide that he’s loaded…

not that he cares about buying cheap clothes, literally he’d say if he likes it and it’s good (aka it’s not cheap because it’s made of something that won’t make it last longer than 3 weeks) he’ll get it

but it just so happens that many times… the clothes he likes most are from famous brands…

AND THIS DAY!!!!!! he’s putting together one of his favorite outfits because it’s a special day

it almost hurts me just how nonchalant he’d look on the outside, making it a little hard to know exactly just how much this date meant to him (because as i said he’s not one to be very vocal about his feelings or even his thoughts)

BUT i trust that you… since you know him well…. can see past all that and you know that this is not just anything casual to him. this is special.

STILL!!!! he’d try his best to not let the blush rise to his cheeks and show, as well as to not let his voice shake when he complimented that you looked very good

ANYWAYS i think i think Scaramouche wouldn’t be one for big pda

the most he’d do where anyone can see is hold your hand or put his arm around your waist

WHICH IS WHY he’d try to be all smooth (and he would manage) reaching for your hand and lacing his fingers with yours

he wouldn’t make eye contact because then he’s sure it’ll show on his face that he’s getting somewhat flustered, but he’d still ask if you’re okay with it, to which you said yes

the area where the arcade was is always somewhat crowded so when you two were getting there, scaramouche would tighten the grip on your hand a little bit to make sure you wouldn’t let go and you’d be pulled apart by people trying to walk past however they can

you know that if you two got serious about your relationship, he would want to be the first person to share the news with his fans

BUT since he was so popular now, you two lived in a pretty big city and now were at a popular area (+ scaramouche wouldn’t be the type to try and hide his identity because he’s never had people make a fuss when they recognise him)

you were a little worried someone would see you two and maybe take a picture and post it online and it’d go viral before he can admit it himself

because of that, you end up throwing back to him the question he had asked when he held your hand 

“are you sure this is okay?”

your question confused him because he didn’t know what you mean, so he finally looked you in the eyes and waited for you to explain further

“it’s just- what if somebody sees us and recognises you?”

he looked away from you and back at where he was going, taking a few seconds to answer before he just shrugged

“i don’t care”

you softly let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding as you waited for him to say something, and almost missed the way he whispered

“as long as it doesn’t affect you”

for someone who seemed and actually tried to seem to self-sufficient, who appreciated his friends but was also okay on his own because he was absolutely comfortable with himself, he was actually…

more selfless than people would ever know, especially when it came to you

you two would have SO much fun in the arcade, trying every single game many times

this time though, scaramouche won in his favorite game so he lived up to his words

you two won so many tickets you literally didn’t even know what to do with them once you got the couple prizes you were interested in

you bumped into a couple fans of his, so you talked for a while

once again, you were met with suggestions of opening your own streaming channel, and even scaramouche said “i’ve told them that many times too, but they always say they think their streams won’t be fun enough”

and the fans are like “NO!! literally everyone thinks you’re super nice and fun!! of course you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but we’d love it!!”

one of the fans (exaggerating a little as a joke) said “i’ll be your number 1 fan i swear” and the three of you laughed, except scaramouche who just scoffed and smirked 

“i am ALREADY their number one fan. but good try” <- scaramouche in his head. say it outloud u coward.

but at the same time it was a joke scaramouche chill pretty much everyone knows you’re their number one fan……. even though you think you’re so smooth………. they just don’t say anything 

they were very nice and fun to talk to and you knew scaramouche and you didn’t really want anything else from the prizes, so you offered you two’s tickets to them

“we don’t really need these anymore so maybe you’ll have more use for them!!”

they got SO excited, the way their eyes lit up :( scaramouche is convinced you’re an angel but he’s also very happy to see how joyful his fans got because those were more than enough for the prize they really wanted-

so after that cute little interaction and having used up your energy for competition, you two leave and think of buying some ice cream or a milkshake or something to end the date nicely and to enjoy while you walk back home

the arcade was not exactly very close to where you two lived (it was far from your house, but even farther from his-) so he asked if you were okay with walking back or if you two should get an uber or something, to which you said you were okay

walking back with him meant!! a little more time you could spend with him

and he was happy you said that because he was feeling the same way and still didn’t want the day to end

we’ll see more about the kind of things he likes and dislikes if he’s released as a playing character BUT FOR NOW i really get this vibe that he’d LOVE boba tea

i even think he’d?? enjoy tea in general??? classy boy…

SO you two would end up going to get some boba 

it was very touching how, when reading the flavors they had that day, he suddenly and casually went “oh, they have your favorite” and you looked at the one he was pointing at and !!! indeed it was your favorite!!!!!!!

he remembers this kind of details very well

you take the chance to talk some more as you’re walking home

scaramouche asks about your job with voice acting and you tell him that you actually have been recording some new lines for your genshin character lately because in the next update there’ll be an event involving them

he’s looking forward to it but he teases you a little asking if it’s okay for you to spoil him with such information

but it’s okay because it’s not like he’d tell anyone, especially knowing it could get you in trouble

when he drops you off at your house, he has a hard time saying goodbye

literally you’re standing at your door and he’s in front of you, a couple steps away, looking away from you

you don’t say goodbye either, mainly because you know scaramouche is working the courage to say something, and you can also sort of guess what he wants to say

you think of saying it first, but then think that it would make scaramouche proud to be honest about his feelings and confess first

“i’ve liked you for a long time”

you can’t help the smile that makes its way onto your face, unconsciously reaching a hand up to slightly cover it

“i feel the same way” you replied to him in a soft voice

he took a deep breath and exhaled it softly, finally lifting up his gaze and making eye contact with you

it was already dark outside, so you couldn’t appreciate the faint rosy blush on his cheeks well

“can i kiss you?”

your eyes widened for a second, not expecting him to ask and if anything, thinking he’d just step forward and do it

so you were a little embarrassed and caught off-guard to reply properly, so you just nodded and put your hand down as he took the last couple steps and his face was right in front of yours

he’d cup your cheek in one of his hands, feeling the warmth of your skin

you closed your eyes, and he looked at you for a second longer before he finally leaned in and closed the short distance that separated your lips

at that moment you both knew that you had been missing on so much more when you two just settled and were content with your friendship

but!! that was about to change now, so it was all worth it

after that, scaramouche would make clear that this would be the first day of your relationship!! and even if he didn’t say it with words, you could just feel his happiness!!

so!! after that, because of work you two got a little busy the next couple months so dates weren’t very frequent 

or at least, they weren’t dates like the one you first had

but still whenever you two were free he’d go over to your house, or you’d come over to his to play, stream together, or literally just spend time together doing anything

he wouldn’t let people know you two had started dating straight away (if anything, only his other streamer friends -aka you two’s friends in common- knew)

but the day he said it, he wanted you to be there

SO one day you two were streaming and you were currently reacting to one fanart of you two together

so he looked at you and you made eye contact and it was like you two spoke with your eyes like

“do we tell them now”

“let’s tell them.”

so scaramouche would clear his throat and without closing the fanart, he’d say he has something he wanted to announce

everyone was excited thinking it’d be some new project, maybe involving you

maybe some merch??? and the fanarts had reminded him of it???????

BUT THEN he straightforwardly said

“y/n and i are dating”

and everyone goes aBSOLUTELY CRAZY

amidst the chaos, you two catch a comment saying “will you unban the people who shipped you two” and you laugh

and you look at each other like “did you read that one?” “yeah”

and scaramouche is like “yeah, i guess i will have to unban some people”

and when some get unbanned they’re like “fREEDOM!!!!”

and jokingly they’re all like “APOLOGISE!!!!!!!! SAY SORRY!!!” so he just laughs and you join them being like “!!! apologise!!! you banned them for it and!! look at you now!!”

so he ends up trying to hold in another laugh as he mutters a halfassed ‘sorry’ and everyone starts commenting claps and hearts and celebrating that he apologised. now justice has been made.

the rest of that stream suddenly feels livelier and brighter!! you two are laughing a lot and so is everyone in the chat!! 

and also the new genshin event would’ve already just been released that same day so you can talk about some of your experiences with recording or what you thought of it

and scaramouche would let you play it yourself!! (he still hadn’t played it) and it was also the first time you played genshin live!! you’d show people the characters you have and everything and tell them some anecdotes

people would be SHOCKED because you!? don’t have the character you voiced!? D:

and you’re like “yeah… i pulled for them and used up all my primogems and… didn’t get them”

and your banner is back because of the event, so scaramouche won’t let this slide!!!!!!!!!! YOU WILL GET YOUR CHARACTER.

your luck is terrible compared to his so at one point you’ll literally feel bad for how much he’s spending for you to get it

but he doesn’t mind at all and everyone is having fun so!!

and once you finally get them you’re sO HAPPY and everyone in the chat is celebrating

and you think it’s over but scaramouche is like ???? what are you doing?? open the wish page again. you’re going to get them c6.

and you’re like oh my gOD PLEASE NO DON’T SPEND MORE MONEY ON ME FOR THIS

but he won’t listen and he’ll do it

so!!! he’ll always do his best to be the best boyfriend he can be for you!! so you better give him your heart!!!!

[givemethatgold]

Fix’er Upper - Part Twelve

Pairing: Frankie Morales x F!Reader Warnings: Mentions of sex, swearing, mentions of drug use, fluff, smidge of angst? Length: 1.7k Notes: Managed to whip up this bad boy during a quiet moment today and should probably make y’all wait for it but I don’t really do posting schedules (as you’ve noticed) so enjoy. Not beta’d, not proof read, I’ll die on this messy hill.

Series Masterlist

Surprisingly, life didn't change too much after that night. Frankie continued to run his acreage and oversee the making of this year's cider. With some encouragement and support from you, he was starting to expand the business and already had a few pubs in the closest city clamouring to have his product on tap.

Meanwhile, the improvements on the house were nearing an end, for the indoors list anyways. The first thing Frankie had helped you do was to install your new soaker tub, immediately followed by christening it by making soft, slow love to you inside of it.

There hadn't even been any water, your impatience to be close to each other wouldn't allow for that. You had just stripped out of your coveralls, convenient work-wear for people who fucked like rabbits you had to admit, and sat in his lap with your arms and legs wrapped around him. His hands guiding your hips in a slow rocking motion, breathing each other's air as your open mouths hovered in a not-quite kiss, only breaking eye contact when you threw your head back as you came.

Autumn passed quickly and Winter had gripped Vermont, cloaking the countryside in a heavy blanket of white. Christmas was a cozy affair, you and Frankie had been asked to join Jacquie and Mark in their family's merriment. It had stirred something inside of you, watching a functional family laugh, sing, argue, eat, and love with such abandon. 

It was everything you'd dreamt, initially, for your future with Brad. Now? Now you were starting to picture that future with Frankie's face as the patriarch, you just haven't built up the nerve to broach the subject yet. 

You'd started working at the bakery, enjoying the early mornings surrounded by rising dough and sculling back coffees with the adorable older ladies who ran the place. You'd also begun doing the books for Morales Acres and Catfish Brewery. Frankie was a veritable genius but he claimed he had no patience for keeping receipts and tracking numbers.

You had a sneaking suspicion he was playing dumb in an effort to give you more time together but you really didn't mind. Your break-of-dawn mornings at the bakery had you tired, but after a full day of renovating or bookkeeping, you were downright exhausted and ready for bed by eight pm. This, mixed with Frankie monitoring the brewing, bottling, and distribution of his cider and networking at bars and pubs throughout the state meant the two of you rarely saw each other.

All of your hard work in your own house had made you a popular friend to call when someone needed decorating advice, or a helping hand once they realized they couldn't tile their kitchen backsplash solo. You never charged for your time, although payment had initially been offered until work had got around that you preferred a good meal and conversation over money. I mean, sure, you could use the cash but it just didn't seem right. And you loved helping people and making deeper connections with the town you now truly felt you belonged in.

Tuesday evenings had become an unofficial date night for the two of you. The bakery was closed on Wednesdays and bar owners tended to be less interested in business halfway through the week, something to do with the rush of the previous weekend having worn off and the worry of setting up for another one starting to grow.

This meant you could stay up late, enjoy a proper homemade dinner, maybe even watch a movie or share a bottle of wine while soaking in your big ass tub. It usually ended as a sleepover, your house being the preferred location; Frankie's loft was perfectly fine but it did lack a certain homey appeal.

This pattern, this life, that you'd created for yourself was making you happier than you'd ever been in your entire life. You weren't one hundred percent content, not yet anyway, but the path to getting there was on a direct trajectory. You still wanted to finish your college degree, maybe switch it over to horticulture. Building a greenhouse and selling flowers was still a pipe dream but something your heart truly longed for, something that Frankie was constantly encouraging you to do.

"Look, hun," he had called out to you a few weeks ago while supposedly researching the new line of bottles. "There's an auction next county over and they have all this confiscated stuff from a grow op that got busted!"

"What?" You'd made a face and laughed at the absurdity of it all. "What on earth would you use from a pot farm?"

He just gave you a salacious wink as an answer.

Frankie had been open about his past drug abuse and while some recovering addicts may want all mention of it banned from a conversation, Frankie found levity in treating the topic like any other person would.

It had taken you a couple of hours to realize why he'd brought up the auction. It had hit you with a jolt, knowing that he’d remembered your rambling from on top of the Ferris wheel. You didn't realize he'd been listening when you'd told him about your idea of taking over the flower stand at the market once the current couple retired.

Your heart had swelled and there was a concerted effort to prevent the sudden onset of tears from running down your face. God, you loved this man, maybe one of these days you should tell him...

This particular routine was working well for the two of you. It gave each of you your own space to relax, destress, enjoy the shitty tv shows you were too embarrassed to watch in front of another living person. It also forced the two of you to take your relationship slowly, communication being a constant learning curve. You were both really good and telling each other when you needed time alone, when you were feeling stressed or sad. You each had learned the tells for when the other was angry or just hungry, if it was hormones or if there was something that was actually pissing you off.

The thing you each seemed to struggle with was expressing the softer side of the relationship. Neither of you appeared to have the Words of Affirmation love language skill, yet you both craved to hear it. You showed how much you cared for Frankie with your acts of service; helping him with the boring side of the business, baking, deep cleaning the loft, even scrubbing out the massive fermenter in the Catfish Cider warehouse.

Frankie, on the other hand, showed his love through physical touch. At first, you had assumed it was a staking-his-claim kind of thing but then you noticed how he'd do it all the time. A hand on your lower back while walking, caressing your hand with his thumb when driving in the truck, carding his fingers through your hair while you watched tv.

This week's date night found you at his place, relaxing in the loft after a busy workday. You were making dinner while he 'helped' by sneaking bites of the prepped ingredients, arm slung around you with a hand in your back pocket.

"What're you looking for?" He asked, taking advantage of your distracted searching through his cupboards to sneak a few more pinches of grated cheese.

"A can opener!" You replied, exasperation raising your voice an octave. "I could have sworn I saw a white one around here somewhere..."

“No, pretty sure that one's yours. I don't think I have one?"

"Frankie," you deadpanned "how did you survive as a bachelor without canned food?"

"I ate a lot of take-out?" He looked indignant at your laughter, "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Can you stop judging me long enough to eat some burritos?"

Smoothing his playful scowl with a kiss, you sat down at the counter and enjoyed your first meal together of the week.

An idea was formulating in the back of your mind, though, and you barely tasted anything. As the evening progressed, the idea grew and you were liking it more and more. The final straw was you not having a toothbrush in his bathroom anymore, having forgotten that it had fallen off the counter and into the trashcan the last time you'd spent the night.

Using his, with a strange mixture of distaste and nonchalance, before making your way over to the bed, you began to plan how the conversation could go:

Hey Frankie, so you know how I have a big house all to myself? Yeah... And it had everything we need in it? Yeah... And there's more than enough room for two adults to store all of their things? Yeah... And I wouldn't have to use your toothbrush ever again? Yea- wait what? I think you should move in with me.

It wasn't very romantic but it was the most likely, considering your dynamic. Just as you were crawling into bed and snuggling under the arm he'd raised to allow you to get closer, his cell phone rang.

"Hello? - This is he. - Yeah, biological. - Oh god, when?"

The immediate change in his tone from questioning to horrified caught your attention, sitting up to face him you grabbed his free hand, silently letting him know you were there for support.

His eyes were out of focus and a panicked expression was slowly morphing his face as the conversation went on, but he gave your hand a squeeze back in acknowledgement.

"Yes, in Vermont. Do you have my address? - Okay, good, good...okay - When? - I'll have something ready. Umm... does she... does she remember me? - Oh. Okay, thank you."

Slowly lowering the phone from his ear, Frankie sat staring into nothingness for what felt like hours. His side of the conversation and the way he was reacting had you rattled. You could guess as to what was happening but weren't sure if now was the right time to pry.

"Babe? Is, is everything okay?"

Silence.

Gripping his hand tighter and rubbing his back you sat with him for a few more minutes before trying again. You didn’t want to push him but your heart was constricting in your chest from nervousness and concern for him.

"Can I get you anything? What do you need?"

His hand was now completely dead in yours; eventually, he turned his head towards you, eyes never fully focusing, and shook his head.

"I- she- fuck... I think you should go.”

Part Thirteen

[yespolkadotkitty]

Take What You Need

A special treat for the lovely @keeper0fthestars - a flimsy excuse to get railed into next week by Francisco Morales.

Warnings: SMUT. Porn with a flimsy nod to plot. Word count: 2300

Thanking @alwaysbethewest and @songsformonkeys​ for the beta!!

“All right! You heard the man, wheels up in thirty!” Redfly shouted across the small airfield. “Catch some sleep, eat, do whatever, but I want us all in that helo, in thirty.”

“Copy that,” Pope shouted back, heading off towards the thick bushes surrounding the hangar and aircraft. Ironhead followed, probably to try and talk some sense into him. Ironhead had always been the most sensible of you all.

In fact, it was William who had spoken up for you when Pope suggested you come along.

“She’s good with a rifle,” Ironhead said calmly. “And her Spanish is decent. Way better’n mine and Benny’s, anyways.”

Redfly - the infuriatingly traditional conservative middle-class American man - had ummed and aahed, and you knew it was because you had a vagina. 

But here you were, and you’d taken out two of Lorea’s guys from the roof with your rifle, so Redfly could suck your metaphorical dick.

The man in question loped back to the other side of the airfield, towards Pope’s informant, and started to talk to her about something.

“This is a clusterfuck of epic proportions.”

You turned at that voice. A little raspy, a little husky-edged, it sent a shiver up your spine. Always had, and probably always would.

Francisco Morales shook his head when you turned to look at him. His ballcap - dirty, soft - was pulled down low over his head. Hair the colour of milk chocolate curled out from underneath it. He met your gaze, and his own hazelnut eyes were so, so tired.

“It could’ve gone better,” you agreed, letting your eyes trail down his long, lean frame - a little soft in the middle, but you’d always liked his tummy.

Francisco - Catfish to you all, because during special ops training, he’d caught one almost the size of himself - was an enigma of a man. Soft, sometimes. Hard, sometimes.

You’d known him five years now, and during that time you’d seen him pull the trigger a foot from a man’s head without wincing, and you’d seen him comfort a three year old girl left homeless in a war zone, his voice soft, his touch gentle. The yin and yang of him fit, somehow.

Catfish scoffed. “Not sure how it could’ve gone any fucking worse.” He ripped off his cap, and your eyes were drawn to a deep cut on his cheek.

“What’s this?” You automatically reached up to touch his face. His tanned skin was rough under your fingers as you traced the edges of the healing wound. “It might scar.”

Francisco grunted. “Like that’s a concern right now.”

You grinned, dropped your hand. “It’ll be sexy. The scar, I mean.”

“You think?” He laughed without humour, wrung his cap in his hand, and you saw how drawn his starkly handsome face was, the patchy scruff around his jawline grey in places. God, had you thought about kissing that almost-beard, stroking your fingers over his bristly chin. “I wish being sexy was what worried me most. I’m fuckin’ losing my shit here. The scales are off the charts, the helo will never make it to the ocean-” he swore a stream in Spanish, and stuffed his hat back on. The frustration steamed off him in waves.

“Fish.” You braced your hands on his shoulders, looked up into his face, twisted with anger and fear. “We’ll be okay. We’ve had worse than this.”

“Yeah, but we’ve never had worse with you,” he bit off, shrugging off your touch and pacing away, shoving his cap back on, his hair curling at the edges. “Jesus fucking Christ, if anything happens to you, I’ll-”

“Fish!” You shout to be heard over the noise of the aircraft prep, the wind, the sound of Redfly and Pope’s informant arguing. “Nothing will happen to me. You saw me take out Lorea’s guys. And I saved your ass on that mission in Istanbul.”

Francisco shifted, adopting that hands-on-hips stance he always did when he was thinking. “I know.”

“Then what? I’m not a porcelain doll, Francisco.”

And you saw it. His eyes went hot when you used his full name. Hot and sort of.. Dark. Like he wanted to drag you into that hangar and bend you against the corrugated metal wall and rail you into next week.

And boy, you’d let him.

“What?” you challenged. He needed this release. Whether it was shouting at you or whether you wrestled until the fight had gone out of him, he could not fly that helo with your lives and that money at stake in such a state.

He muttered something in Spanish. Your command of the language was very good but his voice was pitched too low for you to make out the syllables.

“Oh, you wanna go?” You lifted your fists in a mock fighting stance. “You ever hit a girl, Morales?”

“There’s always a first time,” he gritted out humourlessly.

You danced around, goading him. “Maybe you’re afraid I’d kick your ass.”

Fish scoffed, and you could see the tension in his shoulders, in the line of his back. He was a loaded powder keg, seconds from a bloody explosion from the heat, the stress, the shooting. “Stop it.”

“Make me.”

You saw the moment his eyes changed - went dark again, and you turned, running for the hangar.

You heard him bark out a laugh as he pursued you, his long legs eating up the terrain. You ran flat out, reaching the hangar in under a minute, Fish hot on your heels. The minute he barrelled through the door you slammed it behind him.

“What the fuck?” he asked, confusion parading over his face - somehow even more alluring when he was dirty, tired, stressed.

You yanked him close and kissed him. It was the first time, and all the times you’d thought about kissing him, an inaurgural kiss, it was never like this. It was in your shitty home town, under some trees, or under the bleachers of the old high school, or by moonlight at the drive-in.

It took a second, and then Francisco was kissing you back, his lips fierce, hard, the kiss almost painful in its intensity. He tasted of terrible coffee and the beef jerky you’d all forced down, and you licked into his mouth, tangling your tongue with his, and the flavour of his little groan was divine.

“We don’t have long,” he whispered harshly. “What - what do you want?”

Your breath was coming in pants. He smelled of clean sweat, the outdoors, and the spring rain, and you were wetter than you’d ever been. This close to Catfish, you couldn’t cope with the well of desire, too long ignored. “You can’t fly us like this, Fish. In this state.”

His hands clenched on your hips. “What?”

“Relieve the pressure.” You slid a hand down his body, cupped him, felt his erection like steel in velvet. Your blood fired. “For us both.”

“Shit.” Francisco leaned down, rested his forehead against yours. “I’ve fucking dreamed of this. But not… not like this, like you’re a cheap fuck. You’re not. You’re… everything.”

The words shook you, and you pressed your lips to his, drinking him in, loving him, like you’d loved him nearly five years, and always been afraid to rock the boat.

Well, now the boat had run aground and it was time.

“You can show me that when we’re safely back on American soil, soldier. For now…” you yanked him close again, pressed your palm to his cock. “Take what you need. Give me what I need.”

“Fuck,” he bit off, and then he was kissing you like a starving man falling upon a banquet, all tongues and teeth and Frankie, and you pressed as close to him as you could.

“How long do we have?” you panted out.

He shot his cuffs, checked his watch. “Quarter hour.”

“Then make every minute count, Morales.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he breathed. And he got on his knees in front of you, pulling at your jeans.

Your heart leapt into your chest at the first brush of his breath on your bare legs. Frankie rolled the denim down, ghosted a kiss over your underwear.

“You would not believe, baby, how often I’ve jacked off to the thought of having you,” he whispered.

“Fish, if you don’t do something, I swear to God…”

He took off his cap, passed it to you. “Wear this for me.” After you slapped it on your head, he pulled your hand back down, thrust it into his hair. You tugged him close as he yanked your underwear down and proceeded to fucking feast on you.

You’d never experienced Frankie like this. Near feral, his tongue licking at you like you were his last meal, his favourite food, a longed-for treat. He used his hands - hands you’ve wished were on you, inside you - to spread you so he could spear his tongue inside you, nip at your clit, write his name with his tongue, whatever the fuck he was doing, it felt like Heaven. 

“Stop. Stop,” you whined, pushing at his hair. “Want to come with you inside me.”

He looked up, those cocoa eyes dark and hot and irresistible, and then he was on his feet in a hot second, and he spun you around to face the wall.

“Hold on to something, baby,” he muttered against your neck before he sank his teeth into the sensitive skin at your pulse point, the tiny hurt only making you wetter.

The sound of his belt buckle being undone and the shove of the denim down his thighs was loud to your ears.

“Please,” you gritted out, arching your back.

Frankie slid a palm down your naked butt, and you heard the growl in his voice when he said, “Sweet girl. When we get back on US soil….” And then he positioned himself and slid home in one smooth, hard thrust, and you gripped the hangar wall hard and cried out at the pleasure and the stretch. He kept going until he bottomed out, curses in English and Spanish falling from his lips in that husky baritone made for pure sin, and then as you groaned in satisfaction, he curled a hand around to your front and rubbed you in maddening circles.

“We don’t have long,” you warned, muscles already fluttering.

“Fuck. Won’t take long. You feel too good. You’re so fucking tight. How - how do you-”

“Fast and hard,” you instructed, and you felt him twitch inside you at your words, heard his moan. “I wanna feel you tomorrow, Francisco.”

“Oh fuck,” he grated out, and then he pulled almost all the way out before slamming back in. The force was just what you needed, and you cried out at the wonderful pressure, the push of him inside you, the texture and shape of him. Better, harder, larger than you had imagined.

You spread your legs as much as you could given the  denim around your calves, and Frankie fucks you hard, keeping one hand on your hip and the other at the apex of your body, strumming you expertly.

“Wish we had more fucking time,” he rasped into your hair, pressing a frantic kiss there. “Sweet girl. You feel like heaven. Always.. Knew.. you would.”

“The things I’m gonna to do you when we get home,” you shot back, and pressed your hips into him. “Oh God, more, please.”

He upped the tempo, and the sound of your bodies slapping together was obscene. His fingers circled your clit once, twice more, and you flew off that sweet cliff edge, crying out his name and burying your face in your elbow to muffle the sound.

Frankie’s hips faltered as he gave you all he had, thrusting into you at a punishing pace before his hips stuttered.

“Two minute warning!” Ironhead yelled from outside.

“I want to feel you come inside me, Fish,” you whispered over your shoulder.

“Fuck.” And he tumbled over the precipice too, hips shaking. You felt him jerk inside you, felt the hot surge of his climax, and he pressed down hard on your clit, triggering another little orgasm for you, too.

“Jesus. Fuck.” Frankie leant his forehead on your back, panting. “Christ.”

“You gotta get some more swear words, Morales,” you said, but your breath hitched too, and you wiggled your hips, making him shiver.

He pulled out, zipped up, and then took care putting your clothes in order. When he tugged you close for a kiss, you tasted yourself.

“First fucking chance I get,” Frankie rasped, his lips in your hair, “I’m gonna take my sweet time doing everything I want to you. With you.”

“Then get us over those mountains, Francisco, and I’m yours.” You nip at his bottom lip, then sprang apart when Redfly yanked open the hangar door.

“Fuck’s sake, Fish, we thought you’d gone AWOL. It’s go time.”

“Copy that,” Frankie shot back. You let him leave first, glanced down to admire his ass in those jeans. 

And you thought, with single-minded determination: We just need to get over these mountains. Then Francisco Morales would be all yours.

Redfly looked at his departing back and then turned to you, eyes narrowed. “Why are you wearing Fish’s hat?”

****

Tagging the Pedro pals: @emmy-dandiliom918​ @thirstworldproblemss @cinewhore @poenariuniverse​ @keeper0fthestars​ @scarlettvonsass​ @casually-introverted​ @knittingqueen13​ @phoenixhalliwell​ @10-96dispatcher @buckstaposition​ @agirllovespasta​ @songsformonkeys​  @gamingaquarius​ @mstgsmy​  @synystersilenceinblacknwhite​ @dornish-queen​ @maxphillipswasright @winters-buck​ @mourningbirds1​ @pascalitomorales​ @mrsparknuts​ @alldatalost​ @abuttoncalledsmalls​ @mrschiltoncat​ @auty-ren​ @heatherbel​

it’s 10.45pm my brain has failed if I left you off I apologize!!

[ldouble]

Slumming It | Kevin Atwater X Reader (Chicago PD)

summary: When pulled into an undercover op for the Intelligence Unit, you couldn’t be more excited. The only person who catches your hesitation is your boyfriend. A lot is unsaid in the bullpen, your relationship being one of them.

gif is not mine :)

“You keep looking at me like that and they’re gonna know you’re slumming it with a uniform.”

Your words were punctuated by the complete zip of the knee high leather boots. But it wasn’t till the hell smacks the concrete of the locker room does Kevin look up at you, unimpressed with your statement.

You tilted your head at him, hoping it aided your humor. All it did was send the little eye contact held fleeting.

“I’m not slumming it with a uniform.” Kevin shook his head toward the ground, until he realized what he just said. “I’m not slumming it with you, either.”

Your hands found the other boot, a sigh escaping your lips at how much the tight fitting accessory is going to fit. “You’re tripping up, Atwater,” It glided up with little effort, giving you the chance to cross your legs and look across the room. “I can see Ruzek getting on your ass already.”

“Can you stop with-”

“Or is Halstead sending a sly smirk at you?”

Your light heartedness has no place in the backlit changing room and even little place in a situation like this. Joking about your boyfriend’s friends finding out about his relationship, with you standing there dressed like a hooker, all while working an undercover op...you should’ve stuck with commenting about how the color of the dress did absolutely nothing for your eyes.

Still, Kevin would’ve found a way to call you out. He was quiet but that just meant he spent more time listening. He was done with your ill timed jokes.

“Sorry.” You bit your lip, knowing you pinched a nerve. You didn’t know what to worry about more - the way you just embarrassed yourself in front of a member of the Intelligence Unit or how you insulted your boyfriend.

You hated that the latter took priority.

You found Kevin’s eyes, too dark to read. But the look he was giving you - an analytical gaze mixed with what looked like frustration with the furrow in his brow - had you resorting back to your go-to.

“We uniforms aren’t used to working anyone other than a partner.”

You could hear the worry in your voice growing as each word entered the space. If the tone didn’t solidify his assumption, the choked laugh you gave did it. Nothing said “Can I do this?” like a meek laugh.

Girlfriends worried.

Cops did no such thing.

Straightening your posture you released your hair held in a tight ponytail. Shaking it out, you offered a smile. “Having your team at my disposal just got to my head for a second.”

Kevin pursed his lips, his arms crossed defensively over his chest. He looked great, done up in his own undercover wardrobe. Of course, his wasn’t as extreme as yours.

You were pretending to be a hooker. Short dress, fishnet stockings and heels that were nearly half your height. And that wasn’t including the heel. You hadn’t looked in the mirror after Trudy bombarded you. The amount of lipstick you could just feel on you made you want to wipe it off.

Kevin on the other hand was just supposed to be him. Tall and handsome, a drink of water to fit in right among the elites of this Hookah Bar you were raiding. Minus the badge, you could’ve sworn this look of a blazer and dark jeans had made an appearance at your front door. As well as your bedroom floor at one point or another.

He walked forward, hands finding your shoulders gently, his eyes pouring into yours. He took your breathe away. Or maybe that was the anxiety creeping up on you.

“We’re not at your disposal. We’re on your side.” You couldn’t help but lean into his palm as it crept up your shoulder. “We have your back.”

“Better you than this dress.”

Again, he didn’t find it funny. You sighed, nodding in all seriousness. “You have my back.”

Giving up on the idea of convincing him with a look of complete and utter confidence (you were saving that for the mission) you strode past him, grabbing the furry white jacket off the end of the bench.

On your way, you gave him some of the rope to tug at.

“That easy to tell I’m nervous?” You asked, slipped the fur over your shoulders.

He followed your steps, the pink handbag looking teeny in his grasp. “You uniforms got no damn poker face.”

You chuckle at that, feeling better with him in a joking mood. It was forced, you could tell by the way his tongue was sticking out between his lips, but you didn’t call it out. Humor came to everybody in their own ways. Yours was easier to cling to.

“Yeah, well without a uniform I’m sure it’ll get better.” You accepted the bag, twirling it in your fingers.

“Better?” Kevin asked with offense. “Gonna be the best. Why else would we bring you up?” He whispered in your ear as you made your way to the garage.

You pretended to think for a second before turning around, tiptoeing backwards and tracing his collar.

“For you to oggle me.”

The sound of the door opening snapped you back to reality. This was work. You might’ve been pretending to be a hooker but you weren’t on the job yet. Definitely not with a colleague who you would never do such a thing with.

Kevin caught the door, holding it open for you. As you walked past you gave your best respectable-just-another-day-in-the-office smile. But upon his next words, it was hard to keep it up.

“Like I’d show them I’m slumming it with you.”

----

Slumming it, you were definitely not.

You had quested the expensive dress placed in your locker. Why did a hooker did a $500 piece of clothing that barely covered her ass? Because as a high class hooker, expensive taste breeds....expensive tasters.

Men. With money.

But there was only one man you wanted.

He had money, sure.

But he also had guns.

A whole warehouse and business of illegal firearms. Chicago, ever the “Heart of America” was this guy’s selling point. Everything shipped here and then shipped out.

But a man he was. A man with needs. Expensive needs on short time. Besides, he had cash to burn. Made sense he booked it to this club, paid for a girl, had his way with her, and then was onto a business deal with a couple AK-47s by dawn.

Lucky you, getting a front row seat to it all.

You really hoped all you got was a seat. You really didn’t want to have to go to bed with this guy.

Jay would hopefully make sure of that. Imploring a deal on this guy’s “night out”. Who could resist making some money while spending it on something as pretty as me?

You gulped, remembering your first date with Kevin. He paid for the meal, quoting something similar. He couldn’t believe I had said yes to going out. He insisted on paying.

Tough as nails he was in his bullet proof vest. Beneath it, a teddy bear with manners of every mother’s dream.

“Aye, mami, how you doing?”

You turned to the fourth? fifth? guy who approached you, resisting the urge to roll your eyes. He was security, like every other guy who had hit on you yet, and not your target.

They really thought protecting their bosses wasn’t their job. Trying to catch the runner ups was their priortiy.

“Looking for something a bit better than that.” You heard Ruzek say over the comms.

“She’s got standards,” You looked over your shoulder toward Kevin, posted at a table near by. He sent a quick wink before finishing his statement. “As every girl should.”

“High ones, too.” You whispered.

You knew he was rolling his eyes, more so at you chiming in than your hint at your secret boyfriend’s height, but missed it since your view became full by another presence.

“Hi to you, too.”

Bingo.

You smiled at the man you had waiting for all night. One glance at his opening jacket, shimmering from the gun strapped in on both sides, and you knew this was the one. You’d been studying his face for weeks, of course. But nothing said arms dealer like...arms.

Arms that you felt wrapping around you.

Arms that you had to embrace.

It wasn’t the guy that had you nervous. Or the situation. Hell, you felt fine pretending to be a hooker. You had your team behind you.

You also had your boyfriend watching. That’s what made you resistance to accepting the embrace, taking in the fluttery whispers, and nodding at the invitation to his booth.

It was one thing to go undercover and flirt. A whole other when doing it in front of the one person you were undercover with and wanted to flirt with.

You were a cop first, you reminded yourself as you sat down on the plush velvet sofa. You were a cop, you repeated at lips found your neck.

Where the hell was Jay? Swooping in to make this deal? Get you out of this?

“Hey man, hate to intrude here.”

You froze for the first time at the sound of that voice.

A voice you loved to hear. But not here. Not with some other guy all up on you.

The dealer let his grip loosen on you and as he turned toward the newest addition to the booth you got your first clear look at it.

Your secret boyfriend.

Currently playing an undercover role he was not assigned to. All while you were undercover as a hooker attempting to get in good with a well known criminal.

The rest of the team was having just as much of a frenzy on your ear piece. Out of the corner of your eye you saw Jay panicking, not so much as ten feet away.

Kevin must’ve beat him to it.

Something told you it wasn’t the want to be the bad guy. Rather, break up the bad guy and you.

He had your back. Too much this time.

The target felt the same way, attempting to shake him off and coming back to you for more.

Your eyes met Kevin’s - more hallow than earlier - over the shoulder of the suspect. It sent you freezing again. What were you to do? Blow cover to save a relationship just as hidden? Or keep this going and lose something you never would’ve really had?

“I like seeing you work.” You giggled, gently pushing him off of you. Your eyes glimmered with fake admiration (really anxiety bubbling up) but it did the trick. You didn’t even have to use your line about how you would work for him later.

Taking the bait, he spun and began chatting with Kevin.

Unfortunately, he liked his work and play mixing. A hand found your leg, circling your knee. Kevin’s gaze never left the dealer’s but you could tell it was killing him. The toothpick, which had been loosely hanging out his mouth earlier, was now being gritted together so loud you could hear it over the music.

What was more obvious than his clear discomfort? The hand sneaking its way up your leg. No amount of disco lights or smoke from nearby bongs could hide the manly grasp on your thigh.

Even when he lifted your skirt up you couldn’t flinch. He was so close to admitting it all. He’d skimmed the numbers and the details but if Kevin pressed a little bit harder...

“Tell me more.”

Kevin’s eyes had swiftly found the connection on your leg. It wasn’t obvious enough for concern but his tone was. It was distant. Unfocused. Everything a dealer didn’t want in a deal, no matter the environment.

“You don’t seem interested in enough.”

“I am.” You giggled.

Damn. You were too quick to jump. He gave you a disapproving look and you could see it all falling. Everything you had worked for. Gone because you were trying to protect this case more than your real relationship.

“Not as much as me, girl.” Kevin spat.

He caught both of your attention’s, scooting closer. “I want armory. I know you have it. I can swear on the things you’re gonna do to this girl tonight, you can get it to be by tomorrow.”

OK, you weren’t the only one putting work before romance.

The thought scared you for a second but you had more to worry about. Most importantly, the feverish squeeze of your thigh that bloomed from the exciting prospect of a business deal.

The guy said it himself, shaking hands with Kevin and giving all the details we needed for a case.

You were stunned how good this was going. It was all falling into place.

Kevin seemed just as shocked too, sitting there silently...which was very unlike the bold player he was pretending to be.

Of course, no story has a perfectly happy ending.

The fault in the plan, the lack of calling out the safe word to trigger the team flying in.

The word slumming (your choice) barely crossed your mind before the guy’s lips were on yours and he was hurting you with such force.

You felt trapped for what felt like eternity (with your boyfriend looking on at least) but what was really seconds before he was ripped off of you.

“Get your hands off of her!” Kevin threw the guy on the ground, the gun in his belt loaded and aimed at his head.

He looked back at you once his hands were up, breathing heavy. OK, it had messed with his head as much as yours.

A little too much, though.

Because the next thing you knew, Kevin was kicked to the ground and the dealer was grabbing his own gun.

Thankfully, you were wearing a uniform more fit for the job.

In seconds you clashed with the arms dealer, hitting down hard on his hand to realize the gun in his grasp while simultaneously grabbing the other pistol from his pocket. Just as you lifted it up to aim it, Kevin was forcing him onto the booth, hands behind his back.

“Chicago PD!” Had just left your lips as the rest of the team came by. You breathed out, no longer having to play it cool.

Kevin was also given a break when Jay came in to take him away. In two steps he was in front of you, releasing the gun from your hand and pulling you close.

“I’m never letting you out of that uniform ever again.” He muffled into your head before tipping your chin up.

You smiled, cutting the distance between your lips till they grazed his when you spoke. “You can try all you want but I know you love seeing me out of it.”

Kevin pulled your close, squashing whatever space lay between you two.

“Woah, what’s going on here?” Ruzek called out with a holler, bringing you both to reality.

Out of the corner of your eye. you saw Kevin stumble a hand flying over his head as he thought on his feet.

You took a step forward, a hand on Kevin’s chest. “Kevin is slumming it with me, a uniform.”

Laughs erupted from the team, Voight shaking his head.

Kevin saddled up beside you, pulling you close once again.

“How many times I gotta say I’m not slumming it with you?”

“A million. “You shrugged. “I did have to lower my very high standards for-”

You words went unfinished as his lips found yours again.

You didn’t mind, thought. There’d be another undercover case sooner or later. You could tell him then how it was you who lucked out.

The End

[ladywinchester1967]

Thin Walls

Pairing: Dean Winchester X OFC

Warnings: This is straight smut, damn near no plot. Unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it), oral (female receiving), masturbation, little bit of praise!kink.  

A/N: This one hit me out of the blue, so I hope ya’ll enjoy! I did read over this carefully and if some mistakes slipped through the cracks....my bad. All pics are NOT mine, all credit goes to the OPs. 

Characters: Dean Winchester, Unnamed OFC, Sam Winchester.

It had been a long hunt, ghouls seemed to be getting too smart for their own nasty good, but, at long last, they were able to finally kill it thanks to her idea to use a dead body as her own cover so she could knife the creature in its face. On a “good hunt high” they made their way to the closest bar where she was able to hustle some pool and score a few hundred bucks from some unsuspecting college kids.

“So what're you gonna do with the money?” Sam asked, glowing with pride and excitement for his friend.

“I'm gonna spring and get my OWN room for the night.” She said excitedly as she counted the money.

“Your own room, why?” Dean asked.

“Sometimes a girl just needs her own room okay?”

“For what?” Dean asked, he didn’t like the thought of her being in a room without him or Sam there.

“To do things,” she said “girly stuff.”

“Like what?” Dean asked

“Dean, let it go, it’s just an extra room and she earned it.” Sam said.

“Sam, it’s fine.” She insisted “Ya know, paint my toes, eat a bucket of chicken in one sitting, watch four straight hours of Fixer Upper. Who knows?”

Dean rolled his eyes and said

“Whatever, just check in before you go to sleep.”

“Yes MOM,” she chided him “I’ll be sure to do that.”

Luckily the hotel room had extra rooms and she got the one right next door to Sam and Dean to give Dean some piece of mind. As soon as the door slammed behind her, she let out a deep breath and absorbed the complete and total silence.

“Ah yes,” she thought “this is good.”

She stripped out of her dirty clothes and stepped into the shower, letting the water soak her from head to toe. She took her time washing her hair and body, which she never did. There were usually 2 guys wanting a shower too so she always kept them short, sweet and to the point. Scrub, rinse and get out. She was suddenly restless and knew what she needed. She changed the setting on the shower head to a concentrated stream and smiled. She pointed the direction straight down and then sat down. She let the stream hit her clit and she let out a sigh. The warm temperature and the direct line to her most sensitive spot sent a wave of pleasure rolling over her body. She closed her eyes and moaned her mind immediately picturing Dean between her legs. She could almost feel his arms holding her legs open as he devoured her pussy with moans and sighs. She let out a sigh herself as the picture in her mind got clearer.

“Fuck sweetheart,” she pictured Dean saying “you’re so fucking sweet.”

She let out a moan as, in her mind, he let his tongue roll through her folds and his fingers teased her clit and her entrance. His fingers pushing inside her as he played with her clit and smirked.

“Ohhhh god Dean,” she moaned “Yes, fuck Dean!”

The real Dean was just finishing washing his hair when he heard a moan. His eyebrows raised, wondering if Sam was sick or something and that’s when I heard it.

“Ohhhh god Dean, yes fuck, Dean!”

His mouth dropped open as his cock sprang to life. He waited and heard it again.

“Yes, oh my god. Dean, oh Dean!”

When he realized it was coming through the remarkably thin shower wall, he smirked and couldn’t help but picture her pleasuring herself. Intrigued, he listened harder as he heard her moans and sighs mixed with his name come quicker. The sensation made his cock pound harder as he resisted the urge to touch himself. If she wanted to moan his name, he was gonna make sure it was done properly.

Meanwhile, in her head, Dean was devouring her, eating her out as if she were his last meal.

“Fuck!” She moaned, she wanted nothing more than to grip his dark hair and thrust her hips up into his face. She moved her hips up and slightly to the right, the water hitting her just right until she saw stars. She let out another moan and let go, coming harder than she ever remembered doing. She quickly pulled away from the water, the sensation being too much on her over sensitive core. She took a few minutes to come down from her high and smiled. She felt good, better than she had in a while. She supposed she should feel guilty about picturing her best friend eating her out, but no one would ever know. She smiled and kept that dirty fantasy in the back of her mind for later if she ever needed it.

After her shower, she slipped on a clean pair of underwear and wrapped up into a towel before going out into her room. Much to her surprise, Dean was sitting on the couch waiting for her.

“Couldn’t leave me in peace for thirty minutes could you?” She teased.

“Something like that,” he said, his eyebrows shooting up “I was taking a shower.”

“Okay,” She said as she walked over to her bag “So was I, do you want a medal or something?”

“No, but you should get one.” He said as she rummaged through her bag, her towel rode up just enough to where he could see the curve of her ass.

“For showering?” She asked “Jeeze, do I smell THAT bad and you two are just too polite to say anything?”

“No,” Dean said with a shrug “it’s just that you put on a hell of a show. That’s all.”

It felt like she’d been hit by a lightening bolt. He couldn’t have heard her. Could he?

“Show? What show?” She asked as she straightened up, her could feel the blood pulsing in her cheeks.

Dean stood and walked up behind her and gently touched her arm.

“Sweetheart,” He said as he leaned into her shorter frame “if you wanted me, all you had to do was say so.”

She turned and he saw her face was bright red.

“You?” She asked as she clapped a hand over her mouth “Oh my god!” “You HEARD me?”

“Every word,” he said, wearing his legendary smirk “every moan, every sigh.”

“Oh fuck.” She said, her heart in her throat “I was-shit-I didn’t think-oh fuck-Jesus Christ-I’m so,” She said quickly and then she realized what he had said “wait. All I had to do was say something?”

He nodded

“Sweetheart, I wanted you since the day you stumbled into my life.” He said.

They had literally run into one another at a watering hole for hunters. She hadn’t been paying attention to where she was going and had taken a misstep and fell into his chest.

“Dean, I,” She said and he captured her chin in his thumb and forefinger.

“You what?” He asked gently, his green eyes soft. She parted her mouth and then pressed it to his. The kiss rocked her to her core, his lips were more delicious than she had imagined, he tasted like coffee and spearmint gum. He moved his mouth over hers, giving her bottom lip a bite. She moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck, letting her towel fall to the ground. He used his free hand to pull her body right up against his and reveled in how warm and soft her skin was. He quickly bent down and picked her up, her legs wrapping around his waist as he carried her over to the bed where he laid down on top of her.

“What were you thinking about in the shower?” He demanded as they kissed.

“You,” She told him through their endless steam of kisses “going down on me.”

He quickly took her panties off and pitched them to the side.

“You won’t need those.” He said as he kissed his way down her body. He stopped to lick and suck on her nipples as she gripped the soft spikes of hair on the top of his head.

“Jesus!” She cried as he let go of her right nipple with a wet pop. He picked his head up and winked at her as he kissed down her belly, his hands going down the sides of her body. He opened her legs and groaned.

“Fuck sweetheart,” he said “are you always this wet around me?” She bit her lip and nodded as he gave her a smirk. “I would’ve done this ages ago if I knew.”

“Now you know,” she told him “so what’re you gonna do about it?”

“You’ll find out.” He said with another devilish smirk. He ducked his head down and let his tongue explore her folds, winding through them as she arched her back and her head flew back.

“Oh Dean!” She cried out as she gripped his hair “Fuck Dean, that feels good!”

He didn’t answer as his mouth enveloped her pussy and sucking on it hard. She let out another pleasure filled cry as his tongue darted in and out of her. He flicked his tongue just inside her as she started to rock her hips into his face. He then buried his head between her legs, his tongue pushing inside her as his fingers found her clit and worked it back and forth and then in slow circles.

She was seeing stars, this was better than her imagination could have ever come up with. He moaned and sighed, his free hand gripped her thigh so tightly she was sure there would be bruises in the morning. She moved her hips faster as his mouth enveloped her pussy again and gave it another hard suck.

“OH GOD!” She cried as she rode his face “Dean! Yes, Dean!”

He growled between her legs and moved his tongue from side to side and then in figure eights as she climbed higher and higher.

“Just like that baby,” she moaned “oh yes, just like that! I’m gonna, oh fuck, gonna, AH!”

“That’s it,” he moaned “give it to me.”

She cried out loudly and with a lust filled moan, she let go, the orgasm ripping through her as her body shuttered. Dean lapped up everything she had to give him and then pulled back, grinning.

“Oh my god,” she said breathlessly as he kissed along her waist and belly “that was incredible.”

“Better than touching yourself in the shower?” He teases and she gave his shoulder a light smack.

“Don’t knock the shower head okay?” She asked “it gets the job done.”

“Shower head huh?” He asked as he kissed between her breasts and then her collar bone “I’d like to see that one day.” He kissed her neck and she grinned and kissed him, feeling his long, thick cock against her leg. She reached down and stroked him through his jeans, making him moan into her mouth.

“Fuck sweetheart.” he moaned

She quickly unbuckled his belt and stripped him out of his jeans and t-shirt. He pulled his boxers off and she lined the head of his cock up with her soaking entrance.

“You like that huh?” She asked as she flicked the blunt head of his cock through her folds.

“Shit!” He cried and pushed inside her. The delicious burn of being stretched by him roared through her body as she cried out loudly.

“Oh god, Dean.” She moaned “yes, fuck, you feel so good!”

He latched his mouth on to hers, got on his forearms and knees above her and started to move. She placed her feet flat on the bed and arched up into him as he smoothed his fingertips through her damp hair. Their moans and sighs filled the room as they moved faster, their skin slapping together.

“Fuck,” Dean moaned in her ear “you’re fucking gorgeous.”

She slid her hands up his back and pulled him closer, wrapping one of her legs around his waist.

“Dean,” she moaned “oh god, Dean!”

He bucked his hips faster into her as she clenched around him, her smooth channel gripping him tightly. He gasped and moaned as he bit the outer shell of her ear, making her whine.

“Dean, Dean, oh fuck Dean!” She cried as she dragged her nails down his shoulders.

“Fuck!” He cried as he slipped a hand down her body and rubbed her clit into harsh circles, making her whine against his lips. “Come on, come for me, come for me sweetheart.”

She let out a scream and came crashing around him. He grunted and let go deep inside her belly, letting out a moan.

After some time, they crawled under the sheets and laid side by side. He gently kissed her forehead and gently stroked her shoulder.

“Thank god for thin shower walls eh?” He chided her and she laughed.

“I know that’s right.” She said as she tilted her face up to his and kissed him again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hope you guys enjoyed that!! I always love to hear from you, so your kind feedback is always welcome. All my tag lists and boxes are open so if you want to chat, say hi or jump on any of the tag lists, let me know!!

​​The Squad:

@waywardbaby​​​​​​​​​ @waywardnerd67​​​​​​​​​ @familybusinesswritingbro​​​​​​​​​ @ain-t-bovvered​​​​​​​​​ @mrswhozeewhatsis​​​​​​​​​ @unholyqu33n​​​​​​​​​ @dacleverfox​​​​​​​​​ @emoryhemsworth​​​​​​​​​ @bobasheebaby​​​​​​​​ @myinconnelly1​​​​​​​​​ @mogaruke​​​​​​​​​ @imma-winchester-addict​​​​​​​​​​ @purpleskiesandcherrypies​​​​​​​​​ @dean-winchesters-bacon​​​​​​​​​ @animerose96​​​​​​​​​​  @roonyxx​​​​​​​​​​ @snffbeebee​​​​​​​​​​ @ezilyamuzed​​​​​​​​​​ @srsllydunnodoncare​​​​​​​​​​ @latetothewinchesterparty​​​​​​​​​​ @emilyshurley​​​​​​​​​​ @atc74​​​​​​​​​​ @midnightsilverafterdark​​​​​​​​​​ @adoptdontshoppets​​​​​​​​​​ @biawol​​​​​​​​​​  @spaceystacey123​​​​​​​​​​ @bella-ca​​​​​​​​​​ @clo-heda​​​​​​​​​​ @closetspngirl​​​​​​​​​​ @thekatherinewinchester​​​​​​​​​​ @maddiepants​​​​​​​​​​ @idreamofplaid​​​​​​​​​ @love-those-boys-in-flannel​​​​​​​ @flamencodiva​​​​​​​​ @blueberrykushlovexoxo-blog​​​​​​ @sandlee44​​​​​​ @tumbler-tidbits​​​​ @rainbowsinthestorm @deans-baby-momma​​​ @algud​​ @maui137

Dean/ Jensen:

@spnbaby-67​​ @akshi8278​​ @deanscarlett​​​​​ 

[buckyscrystalqueen]

Half Blood, Whole Heart: Part 23

Pairings: Jax x Reader, sister Winchester!reader- SOA/SPN Crossover

Warnings: Swearing, fluff, angst.

Word Count: 2,087

A/N: So I decided to repost my novel- the story that someone stole from my old blog and put up on Wattpad. PLEASE don’t be an asshole and steal my stories. It CRUSHED me when it happened and almost ran me off Tumblr.

Half Blood, Whole Heart Masterlist    Aesthetic by @ravenangel33​

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

“Who’s swinging first, Jax or Dean.” You looked up from the blood drenched rounds you and Sam were loading into magazines with gloved fingers and looked at your brother. Dean was going through his own training session with Jax and Opie while you all waited for Jody to come back from recon. You shook your head and looked back down.

“Neither. Jax knows how mad I would be if he hit Dean unprovoked and so does Dean. Ope might. While Dean and him were friends when he lived with me, Ope sees Jax as a brother. Best friends since childhood. I’ve seen that man break another man’s jaw with one punch for talking shit to Jax at the club.” Sam’s eyebrows flew to his hair line and he chuckled as he leaned closer to you.

“Shit… maybe he should swing first. Knock Dean off his high horse for a bit.”

“Bro, I would pay money to see that.” You joked as you loaded the last round. 

“Dean! Be nice to your brother-in-law and his friend.” Jody snapped in her ‘mom-voice’ as she walked back up the path. Dean went to interject and she held her hand up. “They both look like they can handle themselves. Don’t need you up their asses.” You and Sam both snorted laughter as you took the full magazine from Sam and pulled your rifle toward you.

“Shut up.” Dean snapped at you and your brother.

“Do I need to mom-voice you, too, De?” You teased as you shut the tailgate of your truck and threw your gloves into the back.

“Don’t push it.” Knowing he hated to be ganged up on, you smiled at your oldest brother and bowed your head toward him in surrender.

“Alright. Three entrances; front and right side and an open loft. It’s pretty high up.” Jody informed everyone as they picked up their weapons.

“High, as in two, six foot four guys can’t push you and (Y/N) up there?” Dean asked.

“It may be a slight stretch.” The oldest Winchester nodded slowly before looking around.

“Alright. Jax and I on the side, Sam and Ope take front. Get the girls in the loft first then throw a rock or something toward the side. 5 count and go in.” All of you nodded in agreement as something began to irk you. Your brow furrowed and you shook your head.

“Something is off…” You said as the group started heading toward the barn.

“You know, it really weirds me out when you do that so don’t.” Dean said; far past brother mode at this point. Jax waited to walk with you and you shook your head.

“Just, stay close to Dean. I can’t…” With a small nodded, he shushed you and wrapped his arm around your shoulders.

“I know. It’s gunna be alright. I’ll be careful.” You nodded as you cocked the rifle in your hands and tried to ignore the annoying twist in the pit of your stomach. As the barn came into view, you forced yourself into hunter mode. Dean and Jax headed toward the right side of the barn quickly as Sam and Opie ran in front of the doors and made a cradle with their hands.

“Go first and find a spot. I’ll pass this up.” Jody whispered as she took your rifle. You nodded and stepped into their hands. At the end of a whispered three count, you were hoisted into the air. You grabbed the edge of the loft easily, heaved yourself up and took a look around. The decrepit building was dimly lit by the sun slanting through broken spots in the wood paneling. The platform you were standing on was short and while you could see a lot of the barn below you, you couldn’t see a single vamp.

“Looks empty.” You whispered as you crouched down and reached out of the open door to grab your gun. Your senses were on high alert as you laid it down next to you when suddenly, someone ‘tisking’ you from the shadows behind you sent ice water through your veins.

“Don’t remember ordering take out but I’ll never turn down a free meal.” You grabbed your rifle and spun toward the sound as the loft doors slammed closed behind you; trapping you in darkness. Your heart stopped as your eyes fought to adjust.

“Now! Go now!” You screamed as the woman’s footsteps ran toward you at an inhuman speed. You thanked God for your fast reflexes as you fired off a round into the unknown before you. You heard a female scream as the body hit the ground. The doors flew open below you with a bang, but as the barn was filled with light, you instantly wished for the darkness again. With giant, fang filled smiles, at least 6 vampires came out of the shadows and advanced toward you. Without thinking, you stood up and ran forward.

“Someone catch me!” You shouted as you leapt out of the loft with your rifle clutched to your chest. Jax had only seconds to get under you and you both collapsed to the ground from the impact.

“I am not OK with that.” He gasped as vampires appeared to pour out of the wood work; dancing along the shadows on the edge of the barn and leaping down from the loft.

“Yea, no fucking kidding.” The barn turned into gory chaos as the five members of the hunting party stood in a circle of sunlight around you, attacking vamp after vamp as they lunged toward the group. The sound of blood curdling screams and shouted directions were muted by explosive gun fire. You fired round after round at every vamp you could to slow the monsters down; the power of your rifle and the close proximity doing a lot more good than originally expected. 

The bloody fight felt like it lasted forever as more and more vamps fought to kill their next big meal. Your pulse pounded in your ears as you fought to stay alive and to keep your family safe. When the last stumbling vamp hit the ground; his body a good six inches away from it’s now rolling head, you cycled the last empty shell casing of your last round.

“Jax, get her out of here. We’ll clear it.” Dean said as he pat Opie’s arm and pointed toward the stairs. Your husband didn’t wait to be told twice as he grabbed your arm and spun you toward the door. He took your rifle for you as he guided you up the path next to him in an adrenaline fueled fog. It took almost a full minute before the severity of how close of a call that was fully hit you.

“Jax…” You whispered as your stomach turned; the reality that you were seconds away from losing your life and your sons twisting in you like a knife. You ripped your arm out of his grip and he turned around as you threw up. You barely heard the clatter of the weapons he was carrying fall to the ground over the sound.

“It’s alright, babe. It’s over.” He soothed as he pulled your hair out of the way. You shook your head as tears began to pour.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” You sobbed between heaves; the guilt of agreeing to this hunt in the first place eating away at you. He didn’t say a word as he stood by your side; checking for any injuries or bites and gently rubbing your back until your stomach finally settled. Once you were done, he handed you the bloody weapons and picked you up bridal style to carry you back to the truck.

“I’m not sorry so you shouldn’t be either. They would be dead if we hadn’t shown up. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like how it went down and so help me, I will tie your ass to a chair if you ever think you are hunting while your pregnant again. But end of the day, we did our job and we are both OK.” You nodded wordlessly as he put you down next to the truck. You tossed your gun and the machete into the bed of the truck, not paying any mind to the blood that drenched them and your body. You heard the flick of Jax’s zippo and you looked over at him. You took in his blood soaked clothes and the small bits of flesh and blood in his hair and short beard and a small bubble of laughter broke your upset mood.

“You look like a horror movie victim.” He smiled around his cigarette and pointed at you.

“You don’t look much better, babe.” With a small shrug, you reached out and quickly snatched his cigarette; dancing out of reach as you took a drag.

“I almost died.” You said as you handed him back the cigarette. “I call that grounds for a drag, pregnant or not.” You walked back and dropped the tailgate of the truck.

“I will say this… that was one epic jump.” You giggled as he sat down next to you.

“Sorry, if I hurt you.” He shook his head and exhaled as he handed you the cigarette.

“You didn’t. Knocked the wind out of me though.” You passed him back the cigarette and smiled as you looked over at him.

“Do you realize we both literally fell for each other?” He smiled and leaned over to give you a chaste kiss.

“Had to make it cheesy.” You laughed and laid your head on his shoulder as he took your hand in his.

“I thought it was a cute sentiment, thank you.” You could hear Jody’s voice coming up the path and you picked your head up to look over at them.

“Final count was twenty-two vamps.” Sam called out as they headed toward you looking just as battle worn as you and Jax. “Winchester family record.”

“You guys OK?” Ope asked as he pulled out his smokes and lit one.

“Yea, we’re good. Little shell shocked.” You responded as Jax got off the tailgate. You could see the anger in his eyes and you quickly stuck your leg out to keep him back and prevent a fight.

“Look, I’m glad everyone’s all good and shit worked out, but I need this to be said officially. Do not call (Y/N) for a hunt while she’s pregnant again. That was way to fucking close and when she says shit feels off, listen to her. She does that shit all the time and she’s always right.” 

“No, totally agreed.” Sam said quickly as he purposely took a step forward in front of Dean who you both knew was quick to pop off when he was confronted. “I made a poor judgement call and it won’t happen again.” You reached out and grasped Jax’s shirt sleeve to pull off your guard dog.

“Hey, let’s just go back to Bobby’s, get cleaned up, have a few beers and call it a night. Call to check up on Lyla and Tommy and have Crowley come check the baby?” You suggested to the group as you used your legs to turn Jax away from your brothers.

“I already called Cas for that. He’s gunna meet us at Bobby’s.” Dean said as he walked over to the Impala and popped open the trunk. You rolled your eyes at your brother’s disliking for the demon but didn’t say anything.

“Well thank you all for your help. You guys have a good night; I have a hot bath, Netflix and a bottle of red calling my name. Keep in touch, boys.” You all said by to Jody as you jumped off the tailgate and snapped it closed.

“Be nice.” You scolded softly as Jax lead you to the cab. He laughed as he opened the door.

“That was nice.” You climb in next to Opie who chuckled as he tossed his cigarette butt out the window.

“That’s Jax nice.” He said as your husband got in behind you. Your friend looked you over with concern. “Are you OK though, really? That was a pretty far jump.”

“Brotha… she literally fell for me.” Jax said as he started the truck as the Impala roared to life next to you.

��Really? You call me cheesy and then steal my line?” He shrugged as he got on the main road behind the Impala.

“It’s a cute sentiment.”

Part 24

[canaryatlaw]

ok, I need to get this post written and get to sleep because I’m way tired. Today of course was another awesome day, to finish off three awesome days of the weekend. My alarm went off at 7:30, 15 minutes to get out the door since I was gonna do my make up in the car, then 15 minutes to walk to Jess’ place at 8 (it doesn’t usually take that long, but I try to budget in extra time incase I run into some complications). Got there, got in the car and headed off to HVFF. This convention center is off by O’Hare, which is pretty much in the northwest corner of Chicago, so a bit of a drive even for those of us who live on the north side as we do. But we got there in pretty good time then tried to figure out will call to get our tickets. I had a VIP badge because I bought it on sale for super cheap sometime last summer, even though it was a two day badge and I only ended up using one day because I wanted to be at C2E2 with Caity yesterday, lol. So I got whisked off to a special VIP line because we got into the show floor a full hour and a half before the general admission people. So I got in and looked around, there were a few celebrities out but not all that many, and not many of the vendors were open yet, so I decided to venture over to the “Walker Stalker” side of the con, which is a whole Walking Dead con basically, Chicago is apparently the only city that does HVFF and walker stalker together, but it was basically an entirely different space with its own vendors and celebrities. I was going over there because one of the celebrities they had who’s apparently on the walking dead is Sarah Wayne Callies, also known as Sara from Prison Break. She was the only celebrity on my list that Jess didn’t want to also meet, so I figured I’d get her done while I was alone. We had to wait a little bit, I struck up a pleasant conversation with the woman in line behind me who had also not watched any of the walking dead and was getting this autograph for a family member, so it was nice to know I wasn’t the only person who felt soooooo out of place there, lol. literally have not ever watched an episode and I’m not terribly interested in doing so, but Prison Break, so here I was. Once she came out the line started moving pretty quickly, so I got up there pretty soon. She was super lovely, I told her I had mixed feelings about a possible season 6 because I just wanted the writers to let them have their happy ending they got at the end of season 5 and not make their lives more miserable, which she thought was very valid lol. She said it wasn’t confirmed yet (apparently “Dom talks like it’s alright a done deal when it’s not even written”) but they should know soon. So that was a nice pleasant interaction. After that Jess had gotten in with the general admission people, so we went to hit up Emma Dumont from the gifted. I’m not going to share too many details of the interaction because part of it involves a surprise for a friend, and even though I don’t think she’s on tumblr I don’t want to risk her somehow finding out and ruining the surprise. But basically Emma Dumont is the COOLEST. Like, I obviously adore Caity and think she's awesome, but like, for someone who’s not my favorite I think she had the best fan interactions of any celebrities I’ve meet so far. She was so chill, she spent so much time talking to every person on line, and at one point wanted to edit the sign stating her autograph schedule because it said she was supposed to take a break and she didn’t want to, so she crossed it out and just wrote “NO BREAKS” across it and it was so so funny. She was such a delight, and the surprise portion of the interaction went over SO well, I had no idea how she was gonna react, but it was legit the best case possible, so I was very thrilled with that. After that we decided to go to Franz table and chat with him, he didn’t have much of a line so we got up there pretty quickly. I had him sign my legends poster, which now has his, Brandon’s, Caity’s and Dom’s autographs on it. When I was talking to him I was saying how sad I was when they wrote Jax off and that I really didn’t like how they did it, with all the press surrounding Victor Garber leaving and then he was written off without so much as a warning, and he was like “yeah, you’re not alone in thinking that” haha but I told him I was very much looking forward to seeing him return in the finale tomorrow. After him we went over to Katrina’s table, she hadn’t come out yet so we waited for a little bit until she came out. We decided to split a selfie, and then each get polaroids with her because they’re doing the adorable little polaroid pictures for $10. We also wanted to talk to her about our idea for the photo op later in the day, because the actual photo op is so rushed there’s really not much time to explain something like that. So we brought up the appropriate meme and showed it to her, and she was totally in for it and thought it was great, so I was happy about that. After that we took a break for lunch for a bit, then wandered around the vendors and artists until about 1:30, then got in line for Emily Bett Rickards, since she was coming back at 2 to start signing, her general admission line was crazy long, but luckily there were only two people in front of us in the VIP line. Jess wanted to meet her because she wanted to get her Felicity funko pop signed for her brother. She took until like, 2:15 to come out, but we got to see her pretty quickly. She was very sweet, and I’m not at all insulting anything about how she acted, but you could kind of tell she had had some bad experiences with fans doing really awful things and just how that can make someone have a lot of hesitance about this stuff. Her board of prices for stuff also stated *no hugs please* at the bottom, which just tells me how bad previous interactions had gone that she would now need to post that. Apparently this was one of the first times she was even doing selfies. So I felt bad for her over all of that, but she was lovely and sweet and I have no complains about her behavior. After that we went to the bathroom so Jess could change back into her Ava cosplay for the photo op. We stopped at one of the booths and I got a green shirt that says “star city archery club” because why not. We then went to the booth that had some wigs on display and asked about a blonde one, because we wanted the photo op to be easily identifiable to people. I did manage to find a blonde wig that I was actually alright with how it looked, so that was a win. It doesn’t really look like Sara’s current white canary hair, but it actually looks a lot like her season 2 of Arrow Canary wig, so that works. Then we went over to the photo op area and ran into some bitch Jess hates which we had to act civil towards and make awkward small talk, but I mostly just stared her down the whole time, lol. Once we made it into the photo op area we got called in pretty quickly, we showed Katrina the meme again so she would know exactly what to do (it’s the distracted boyfriend other girl meme if you didn’t see me reblog it earlier) so we got into those poses and oh man, it came out so awesome, I loved it. Jess snapped a photo of the print out, not even the digital copy, and posted it on twitter and it now has like, 700 likes lol so my mentions have been blowing up all day about that, which is cool. After that we ran back to Katrina’s booth just because we wanted to show her how it turned out, and she loved it and hugged both of us and was just generally very sweet. We were more or less ready to go at that point, but Elodie Yung’s table was pretty much empty, so we kinda worked our way in there and were just like “I don’t have any money left but I wanted to say I love you and you’re awesome as Elektra” and she was very sweet. After that we headed out, walked over to the parking garage and then through that to where there are some attached restaurants, because apparently if you eat at one of the restaurants they’ll validate your parking. So we went to a cute little place where we had a nice meal, Jess had the biggest plate of nachos I’ve ever seen, so she wasn’t quite able to finish all of it, lol. After that we headed home, she dropped me off and I just took the costume off, got into comfy clothes, and sat down to binge some tv. I watched the episode of Riverdale that was first on the list of episodes I’d missed, and I was really like.....I don’t find this very interesting, which is kind of a shame because Madelaine Petsch was at the con today and I did get to see her from a small distance. Oh well. At 7:30 I turned on Brooklyn 99, which was excellent of course, then started to finally start Rise, which I watched the first 3 episodes of, and I have to say I really like it so far. I know it’s supposed to be based on true events, but the Glee parallels are like, REALLY obvious, the teacher is completely Schuester 2.0, they recruit the football player, the threatening football coach, and just stuff like that. but it was definitely excellently cast, Auli’i is incredible of course, and the girl they cast as Gwen, when she did the “soft” version of purple summer, I was seriously getting chills- like the depths they went to to cast that character is nuts, and they did it very, very well. So I’m looking forward to watching more of that. And yeah, then I got in the shower and got ready for bed and here I am, did I mention I’m TIRED?? So I’m going to sleep now. Goodnight dolls. Happy start of your week.

[mnranger5]

Summer Vacation 2019, Omaha, Denver & Beaver Creek/Vail, 7/7/19 – 7/14/19

By: Daddy, Ashlynn, Brianna, Scarlett & Felicity

As we sat in the hottub on our final night in the gorgeous mountain resort, we asked the kids, what’s your favorite vacation we’ve taken as a family?  Runner up answers included Yellowstone, Disney and Chicago.  But overwhelmingly, the consensus #1 family vacation the Blaniels have taken is the vacation we were currently on!  Yep, Dyan and I struck vacation gold again!  Here’s how we got to that consensus!

 7/7/19

We were on the road by 6AM.  We weren’t traveling in an airplane, train, RV, transit van, or even Dyan’s SUV.  Nope, we rented a minivan for this excursion.  We picked up the van a day earlier so that Dyan and I could get everything loaded up the day before.  That made our morning departure so much easier – and less stressful!

Day one was a nice little drive down through Des Moines and over to Omaha.  We arrived at lunch time and quickly made our way into Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo.  We did a summer vacation here four years ago, and it was absolutely, hands down the coolest zoo we’ve ever been to.

So, when we told the kids this was our first stop on the summer roadtrip, they were super excited. 

We explored the east side of the zoo, making sure we hit the Lied Jungle, Wild Kingdom Pavilion and Scott Aquarium.

Afterward, we made our way over the Hubbard Gorilla Valley, Orangutan Forest and the tiger and leopard habitat.

But the exhibit all the kids wanted to see was the African Safari area where you can view it from the air on the “Skyfari” Chairlift.

The rhinos, giraffes, zebras and lions were all in sight as we sailed across the park on the skyfari.  The kids favorite animals were:

Ashlynn: Deerbra - half deer, half zebra

Brianna: Sharks

Scarlett: Fennec Fox

Felicity: Aligators

Aidan: Gorilla

All Kids: Baby Orangatan

Prior to leaving, take one guess what we ended up doing?  GIFT SHOP!  The kids wandered the gift shop picking up every stuffed animal in the store.  Everybody wanted a stuffed animal, but nobody wanted to spend their own money.  So, Dyan and I did what we always do which is let the kids save their money, and we bought everybody new furry friends!!

By late afternoon, the temps were sweltering.  The kids needed some aquatic relief, so we headed back to the hotel and swam in the pool while deciding on dinner.  Dyan and I were trying to find a fun pizza joint when the kids unanimously voted (while in the pool) on Pot Belly and Cold Stone Creamery.  Both locations were less than a mile from our hotel.  Kids for the win.

Later that evening, we all went swimming again, complete with a very intense game of Marco Polo.

 7/8/19

The second consecutive morning, we were on the road by 6AM.  Denver-BOUND!  Outside of Omaha, Nebraska doesn’t have much to offer in terms of sightseeing, entertainment or roadside stops.  So, the kids did blew through their iPad batteries in record time as Dyan did her best to keep the kids screens charged with the two chargers we brought.  It was a carousel of iPhones and iPads rotating throughout the van.

We rolled into Denver shortly after 1PM.  Made a quick lunch stop at Chipotle before taking the kids out to Red Rocks.  There was scattered thundershowers in the area, but we timed it just right to miss most of the rain. 

The kids played around in the amphitheater area and posed for pictures in the rock formations just outside of the concert venue. 

The kids were adamant that they wanted to return here if Taylor Swift ever played a show at Red Rocks!

We then made the quick trip over to Golden, CO, to get checked into our hotel.  The kids swam in the pool for about 20 minutes before a big storm blew up on us and forced us back to the room.  No big deal!  We needed to get ready for dinner anyway.  After the rain had passed, we walked around the town of Golden checking out the gift shops and grabbing dinner at Woody’s.  Woody’s is a great little restaurant Dyan and I discovered on our trip here in 2014.  Delightful pizzas, and ice cold beer.  

Dyan and Jake for the win!  Of course, we followed up dinner with ice cream from Golden Sweets.

 7/9/19

This was the big day.  The day we’d finally reach our main destination for the summer vacation – VAIL, CO!  After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we were back on the highway, heading into the mountains.  The drive from Denver into the mountains never gets old.  Full of mountainous scenery and old mining towns, the interstate whisks you up, up and away into the snow capped Rocky Mountains.  About 45 minutes into the trip, we hit the Eisenhower Tunnel at Loveland Pass.  Once through the tunnel, we began the long steep downgrade into the Summit County Valley.  About 1/3rd of the way down the pass, the van started to vibrate a bit as I applied the brakes on the steep slope.  Not thinking anything of it, I continued to brake to keep my speed in check.  About half way down the pass , the van started shaking when I applied the brakes.  Something wasn’t right – but I wasn’t sure what was going on.  We continued.  We passed a sign that said something like, be cautious, you aren’t to the bottom yet.  At that exact moment, an overwhelming burning smell filled the cabin of the van.  I looked at Dyan.  We were both confused.  I braked hard and the van shook almost violently as I pulled her over on the shoulder.  The brakes were burning up.  Apparently, I had been applying them a bit too much, a bit too often.  Oops.  We sat on the shoulder, Dyan and I questioning, “What do we do?”.  Although neither of us said it, I know we were both imaging the worst case scenario where the van’s brakes went out leaving us with escalating speeds as we broke loose down the mountain desperately looking for one of those “Runaway Truck” ramps.  Thank God it didn’t come to that…

After about 5 minutes, the smell began to subside and we got back on the road.  The remainder of the drive through the mountains we much more uneventful now that I was aware of the touchy brakes in the minivan.  We entered into the Vail Valley around 9AM.  Vail Mountain is enormous as it towers over I-70.  It certainly looked like it would be one heck of an adventure during the ski season.  About 10 minutes past Vail is the town of Avon, which is at the base of Beaver Creek Ski Area – also a quaint resort tucked back in the mountains.  Sticking out high above the trees was our massive European-chalet-style resort, the Westin Riverfront at Beaver Creek.  The resort facility on it’s own would be spectacular, however, when you add in the setting of the snow capped mountains in all directions around it, the property is remarkably breathtaking.  How are we so lucky to be able to stay in a place fit for a king?

We couldn’t check into the property yet, so we headed into the gated mountain village of Beaver Creek, a short 2 mile drive up into the mountains.  

We browsed the gift shops and got a delicious fresh berry crepe at Rimini for us all to share – it didn’t last long.  But at $14/crepe, this was not going to be our lunch spot!

Back at the resort, the valet attendant recommended the Avon Bakery & Deli for lunch.  It was only a couple blocks away, so we could walk.  When we stepped inside the restaurant we could immediately tell this was no regular Subway or Potbelly.  Nope, it was ALL ORGANIC with bread straight out of the wheat field.  It was the kind of place that frowns on Pepsi and Coca Cola products – instead they produce their own small batch craft colas (complete with paper straws).  It’s definitely where the hippy, green, liberal, vegan, organic crowds congregate to “organize” and drink specialty coffee that is procured through community co-ops.  And it was pretty chaotic. There was a long counter, like at a fast food joint.  Behind the counter, there must have been a dozen people “working,” but really only 2 were actually doing anything.  The rest appeared to be sluggishly coming down from their pot high from the night before – afterall, the weed is legal in Colorado!  In front of the counter was a very small lobby, that was packed with loiterers who appeared to have skipped 1st grade when they learned the social skill called “line formation”.  There were people standing everywhere in the small lobby, some waiting on food, others wondering whether it was their turn to order, a few waiting for tables and many snaking their way through the crowd to the pop refill station.   Well, we entered like a tornado.  Picture five hungry kids on the brink of hunger meltdowns amongst pretentious tree-huggers that probably don’t care for kids to begin with.  Priceless. 

And speaking of priceless, the menu was priceless too.  We ordered 3 sandwich meals and 4 kids meals (flat meat hoagie w/ chips and a pop).  The bill was $130.  WHAT!?!  Kid meals turned out to be $14 and adults were $20.  For lunch meat!  Should have stayed at the Crepe stand!

After lunch, we rendezvoused back at the Westin and spent a couple hours enjoying the pool and hot tub.

Our big event of the day was whitewater rafting on the Lower Eagle River.  Late in the afternoon, we arrived at our river outfitter, Lakota Guides, where they quickly sized us for splash jackets, neoprene boots and helmets. 

We had about a 20 minute bus ride down river to the Wolcott BLM Campground.  Our group of about 40 people were divided up into 5 rafts. The Blaniels got their own raft!

The sunshine was sweltering, but the water temps were paralyzing.  When we booked this excursion in February, Lakota Guides indicated this river began taming in early July, and by mid-late July would have so little water that rafting closes.  The average water flow on the river is about 250cfs (cubic feet/second).     In a typical spring/summer, we’d be hitting the tail end of the snow meltoff, which should run closer to 1,000cfs.  But…..this winter/spring was a rarity in terms of how much snow Colorado Rockies got.  With data going back to 1882, Colorado had 60% more snow this winter than an average season.  In the middle of July, the peaks of the surrounding mountains were all snowcapped.  And due to the extreme heat over the past couple of weeks, the snow melt had intensified.  The waters were roaring down the mountains and flooding the normally trickling creeks and rivers.  The current was running about 3,500cfs.  The river was so ferocious, Lakota Guides called us a week earlier to inform us the minimum age requirement for our float was being increased from 6 years old to 9 years old.  Whew, Brianna would barely squeak by with 3 months to spare!

We boarded the raft with our guide, Byron.  Byron guided for many years on the Colorado River but has been retired from guiding for a couple years.  However, when the Lower Eagle River flooded in the past few weeks, and the rapids gained national attention due to the extreme runoff, he jumped out of retirement for the chance to guide on this intense stretch of river. 

The first 10 minutes of the float were relatively benign – a good stretch to get acclimated to the raft and paddle.  The water was ice cold as it was the product of melted mountian snowpack a mere 12 hours earlier.  Byron encouraged some playful splashing.  Brrr. 

As we proceeded down river, the rapids got more intense.  Not sure it was the vertical drop in the stream as much as how long the rapids were strewn out.  We were ripping from one rapid to the next with no real break in between.  It was awesome.  Unfortunately for me, I seemed to endure the brunt of the rapids.  Sitting opposite of the guide, the front right corner of the raft seemed to meet every rapid head on, soaking me in the icy water.

For the second straight year/vacation, the kids did as little as possible to actually help get the raft in position to take on the waves.  Instead of paddling, they were screeching with enjoyment as they splashed each other and rode bull on the front of the raft.  We had struck vacation gold.

As if the day couldn’t get any better, later in the evening we drove back up to Beaver Creek where they were showing a movie under the stars at the base of the ski hill.  We spread out blankets and brought snacks.  

By the end of the movie, we had all retreated to the fire pit viewing area as the chilly mountain temperatures set in. 

 7/10/19

This was our most adventurous day of the trip as we were spending the entire day using out Mountain Adventure passes at the summit of Vail Mountain.  The adventure passes were pretty sweet, and certainly a vacation highlight for all of us.

The excursion started with a 10 minute gondola ride to the to Eagle’s Nest.  The summit was covered with outdoor family activities.  

First up, the Forest Flyer Mountain Coaster.  Its like bobsledding on rails.  The ride lasts about a minute, but sends you flying down the mountain at speeds over 40mph.  The vertical drop of the coaster is 3,400 feet.  That is a bigger drop than nine Welch Village ski runs (360 ft.) stacked on top of each other!  This would proves to be such a family favorite, we came back to ride a second time later in the afternoon.

Next up was the Bungee Trampoline, which also was a favorite, and experienced twice during our stay.  Who knew doing flips on these was so difficult!

The third activity of the day was the ropes course.  Aidan and Ashlynn braved the Gore Range Adventure Course scaling and crossing obstacles suspended by cable more than 30 feet in the air. 

By this point, the kids started to split up, as not everybody wanted to do the same activities.  

Brianna and Felicity did the Game Creek Zip Lining Tour before joining Scarlett at the Paramount Peak Climbing Wall.

Then they all did Eagle’s Nest Tubing and the Marmot Mini Kids Tubing.  

Even though the kids tubing was for a younger crowed, our kids loved getting sprayed with water on the hot summer afternoon.  For how hot it was, we were surprised to see see piles of (dirty) snow on the ski hill.

Before doing some second and third passes on the adventure course, we had a great sit down lunch at Eagle’s Nest Restaurant.  And by 4PM, we were exhausted.  The sun and altitude were getting to everybody.  We needed to cool down and get back down the mountain.

Once in Vail Village, we found Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream, and a fountain in the middle of the village.

Later that evening, Dyan got the girls all dolled up and we went out for pizza.  

Since it was such a beautiful evening, we got some great pics of the kids around the resort.

7/11/19

Pool Day!  We were at the pool by 10AM, staking claim to front row at the pool – a very highly coveted location.  While the kids frolicked in the pool, Dyan and I picked up Starbucks and a grab bag of candy for them.  They literally played in the pool, ALL.  DAY.  LONG.

That night, we went to the Beaver Creek Rodeo, which was a lot of fun for the kids.  

There was candy, face painting, pony rides and even a calf chase (for prizes) where the kids got to go out into the rodeo.

But the unexpected highlight of the night was an evening dip in the pool.  As dusk settled in, storm were springing all around us, but our resort seemed to dodge most of them.  We all sat in the hot tub and reminisced about our favorite and least favorite vacations.  When we asked the kids what their least favorite family vacation had been, Ashlynn put it best when she said, “I wouldn’t call any of our vacations bad, it’s just that some, (Disney) are better than others.”  All the kids agreed, this vacation IS the BEST.  Dyan and I tended to agree.  Being at a 5-star resort with the kids is a dream come true, and best of all, the kids are finally at an age where they can begin to appreciate the significance of this kind of vacation.

Out of nowhere, the clouds opened up and began downpouring on us.  What would have been the end of the night for most families turned into just the beginning for us.  The kids shrieked as the cold raindrops poured down on them.  But we had no plans to let this “rain on our parade.”  We played right though the thunderstorm.  We swam in the pool for 3 hours that evening, until it closed at 11PM.  There was a flag banner than stretched across the pool.  We spent well over an hour taking running jumps into the pool, trying to touch the flags.  It was an absolute riot.  It was my favorite night of the vacation.  Sadly, it was also, our last night at Beaver Creek…

 7/12/19

…But our vacation was not over.  Nope, not in the least, we had a few more things to do and see.  Our morning started off with a huge, delicious, breakfast at Northside Kitchen.

Next stop, Keystone, CO.  This is the ski area Aaron and I skied at in March.  We arrived a couple hours early, so we spent some time shopping around the ski village and feeding the gigantic rainbow trout in Keystone Lake.

Our big adventure of the day was horseback riding through the Arapaho National Forest.  After arriving at Keystone Stables, we all got assigned horses:

Ashlynn: Angus

Brianna: Peanut

Scarlett: Scout

Felicity: Rio

Aidan: Teddy

Dyan: Rocky

Me: Hack

We bought a 90 minute trail ride through the national forest.  I’ve been on a few trail rides in my days and they’ve run the gamut of good to bad.  Some are just walks along a dirt path which can get pretty monotonous.  Keystone Stables had a different kind of ride in mind for us. One that would test our abilities of riding horse while climbing the side of a mountain in one of the most picturesque national forests in the country.  To say it was anything less than phenomenal would be straight up inaccurate.

The ride started with a gentle stroll through the pasture toward the base of the mountain.  This would be the only chance we’d have to get acclimated to the horse.  We quickly ventured into thick forest and steep, uphill terrain.  At times, the trails were so narrow, our horses had us brushing up on trees and rock ledges.  We climbed over 2,000 feet up the side of the mountain as we moseyed along switchbacks and across avalanche slide areas.  And for some reason, Dyan and I got the problem ponies.  It seemed as though Rocky hadn’t gotten enough lunch.  He kept stopping to eat the grass, which was a “No-No” in the national forest.  No amount of pulling the reins was going to stop his afternoon snack.  And Hack also had an issue.  He’d act like a pokey puppy creating 20-30 yards between us and Dyan/Rocky before going into a full blown trot, almost gallop in an effort to catch up. Our guide noticed this one occasion and asked me to keep our speed in check.   Oopsie.

The ride down the mountain was probably more fun than the ride up had been, because we had to do a lot of leaning back to help keep the horses speed and balance in check as they ventured down the steep terrain. The kids absolutely loved the trail ride and grew quite fond of their equestrian companions.  After we got home from the trip, we asked the kids what their favorite excursion was on the trip.  Trail ride.  Unanimous. Vacation Gold!

We made the hour drive back to Denver, with a picturesque stop at Loveland Pass.

But before the night was complete, we had another special treat for the kids. Dinner.  But not just any dinner.

Our reservations were right at 6PM.  Our venue was the iconic, Buckhorn Exchange! The kids went crazy over all the stuffed animals in the place.  We played a cutthroat game of “I Spy” pointing out the most obscure and unique animals in the restaurant.  

When it was time to order, the kids went with some unique plates too.  For starters, we all shared the cheesy rattlesnake dip, which was an absolute hit. EVERYBODY tried it!  

For dinners, Aidan got a Buffalo ribeye and Scarlett they Buffalo cheeseburger.  Ashlynn and Brianna ordered ribs while Felicity wanted chicken fingers.  Dyan and I split the filet and quail dinner. Everybody enjoyed their meals, however, the quail was nothing to write home about.

After dinner, we spent the evening at the downtown Sheraton hotel, rooftop pool.

 7/13/19

The morning started off with a 1st breakfast at the Sheraton Club Lounge.  We met the manager in the lounge, and he was quite impressed with the kids behavior among the group of business travelers enjoying a quite breakfast.  He called down to the main hotel kitchen and had them prepare some giant, fresh, warm, gooey, chocolate chip cookies!  They were absolutely delightful.  After checking out of the hotel, the kids had their 2nd breakfast at Krispy Kreme, right next door.  The sugar would be running high today.

The drive to Omaha should have been super long, and boring, but we came up with a new game.  As the kids played on iPads, Dyan and I started a competition.  The good ‘ol A-Z game.  Simple rules, find a license plate or word that begins with A before progressing to B, then C, and so forth.  The game got feisty as Dyan pulled way out ahead when I could not complete the letter “Q.”  Eventually I did, and came back to beat here at the very end when she was stuck on “X.” But it didn’t stop there.  We then decided to make it a team effort to do the same with numbers.  A daunting task.  The challenge would be going from 1-100, and then completing A-Z.  We’d have today’s and tomorrow’s drives to complete the challenge. It started out easy.  One through nine was a piece of cake.  But things got way more difficult once we reached double digits.  The game was full of frustrations.  We must have passed a dozen signs for Highway ”25” in North Platte, but we unfortunately were stuck on number 24.  We scoured the sides of semi’s, road signs, speed limit signs and gas prices.  Midway through the day, Aidan decided to join the game, AGAINST us.  He caught up in a hurry when we stopped at Sonic for lunch and he counted 1-28 on the drive-up stalls.  Lucky. By the time we reached Omaha, we were both in the 60’s, setting us up for a challenging ride home tomorrow.

That evening, we went to Oklahoma Joe’s for BBQ dinner before retiring to the hotel to let the kids unwind with the Lion King movie.

7/14/19

We reached the final day of the vacation. We spent the morning back at the Omaha Zoo checking out some of the attractions we had missed earlier in the trip. We went to the Desert Dome & Kingdoms of the Night.  The Desert Dome is such a cool attraction, but we had never been to the Kingdoms attraction.  It’s housed underneath the Desert Dome and the dark stairwell to get there is quite unassuming.  But wow, did it ever pop a punch!  It’s basically a nocturnal animal exhibit, so it’s very dark.  But wow, the exhibits are so amazing.  The snakes, alligators, bats and other creatures make this a must see.

We did a couple other exhibits before packing up and getting back on the road for home.  We continued playing the numbers and alphabet game.  The kids had lost a little interest, but Dyan and I were going strong.  I swear, some of the number took over 30 minutes to locate, and when we did, we had some loud celebrations and high fives.  The kids, and passer-byers, must have thought we were crazy.  By Des Moines, we had reached the 80’s.  Just outside of Des Moines, we hit a lucky stretch of numbers and we wrapped up with 1-100 around Ames.  Back to the alphabet.  We needed A-Z before we got home.  While we thought this part of the game would be easier, it ended up be more difficult than we thought.  Interstate 35 is not the heavily traveled semi-truck route that I-80 is.  Less semi’s means less signage.  But, we did have billboards on our side.  Signs like Dairy Queen, Wanamingo, Xpress Scripts helped us seal the deal.  Just outside of Fairbault was the “Zumbrota Mazepa” sign.  That was the “Z” we needed! We found the 126 total signs were looking for!

Around 5PM, we pulled up to the house.  After 2,146 miles, it was home sweet home!  Another remarkable trip in the books.

[noprepracing]

When you hear the term “all in “you usually think to poker tournaments or betting like that, but not normally drag racing. When it comes to Ronnie and Emerald Pace they are the exception, they are “all in” in this lifestyle now and will do everything to make it work. This is their only way of life right now and we couldn’t be more thrilled and excited for their dedication and what is to come this season. Ronnie was born in Georgia then moved to Weatherford TX when he was 10-11 years old. That’s when and where he met Emerald. Now I’ve heard of high school sweethearts, but junior high sweethearts is a whole other level of sweet swoon goals, like a made for TV movie. She caught his eye walking down the hallway and near he gave himself whiplash. It’s been like that ever since, turning heads and making others love jealous. They are a true ride or die pair. Emerald and Ronnie have been together for 32 years and married for 28 of those years. They have two children and 4 grandbabies in total. Ronnie has been into cars all of his life, he remembers being about 8 years old at his grandpa’s house where his grandpa and uncle were working on a Chevelle with a 4 speed. “They threw me in the back seat and I’ve been in love ever since.” It’s been a nonstop journey with and no plans of stopping. Most guys have a main job and then racing comes next, but not for Ronnie. He had a small concrete business but had to let it go to pursue racing full time. This is what we mean when we say they are “all in”, it is not just a metaphor. During the events Emerald is his rock, not only does she look fabulous lining him up on the starting line, but she whispers words of encouragement, helps calm him down at the light, plus she does all the computer work for the car. She isn’t afraid to get dirty, looks out for him in case someone tries taking advantage of his kind and trusting nature, “she’s my right-hand man and I couldn’t do it without her.” Emerald is someone to look up to that doesn’t get nearly enough recognition for us female race fans. Ronnie is old school and a die-hard street racer who happens to love JJ the boss and loves the heads up style of racing. Not so much a fan of all the other ways to do a street race like taking the hit and so on. He currently has 4 cars, 71 black Nova, 71 green Nova, 68 Nova, and a blue 71 Nova and a partnership with a 67 Camaro. Many people wonder how Barefoot Ronnie got his name, well here is the quick story. Ronnie was at a street race many years ago with Street Outlaws, he was on the line backing up, and Big Chief starts knocking on the window. “Damnit boy where’re your shoes at?” Ronnie replies “I don’t wear em.” “You’re going barefoot?!?!, ok then, Barefoot Ronnie it is.” Thanks to Big Chief years prior to the nickname stuck and here we are today. When Ronnie’s car caught fire on TV, Chief and Shawn were the first ones to reach out to him to check and see if he was ok and needed anything. It’s things like that, that aren’t shown on TV all the time, and solidifies that this sport is truly a family. Sometime after that Ronnie received a phone call at 11 pm on a Thursday night asking if he could make it to a No Prep Kings event. Of course, he jumped at the chance and worked all hours of the night to make it to Oklahoma for Friday night at 7 pm. He made it there with one minute to spare at 6:59 pm for the drivers meeting, which was his first time ever down an actual drag strip and his first time on NPK. He lost to Barry Nicholson in the first round. He’s still learning how all of this works, using the tree instead of a hand drop or a flashlight, and selling shirts at the events to help make it to the next race. It’s all a learning curve for them, this time next year look out! It took Ronnie and Emerald a long time to agree to do the show, they were so afraid of losing their credibility of street racing. Ronnie is the type of guy who will drive around looking for a street race, it’s the adrenaline and thrill of it all, as it is with most of the drivers. In the very first Street Outlaw season, his goal was to get the 66 Chevy Nova on TV but not him. Ronnie explained that when they saw the cameras coming around, the entire family would hide out of view in the trailer. One race against Doc, Ronnie’s brakes went out, he went through an intersection, jumped the tracks and ended up a ¼ mile deep into a cornfield. Luckily everyone was ok. Emerald and Ronnie are always looking to improve themselves in every facet of this lifestyle. She’s always nervous for what he is about to say while the cameras are on. In terms of boasting themselves up, they don’t. They are a very quiet couple who does not brag or trash talk about a soul out there. The social media accounts are simple and they let the car do the talking for them. A purest approach which is extremely appreciated in the eyes of the fans. Although there was one time Ronnie beat Kye Kelly, which is his grandson’s favorite driver, he had to call his grandbaby and tell him who he sent home. The Pace family has such a kind mentality and a humble spirit. They get along with everyone on the circuit and has deep admiration for the majority of them. It’s no secret that Ronnie and Emerald don’t come from a lot of money aren’t ballers in the sense of fancy trailers, spare parts or team members. When the couple says they are “all in to do whatever it takes to make this work”, they mean it. He works on his own car, does his own paint and body work. They love to travel and to see as much as they can while on the road, but it doesn’t come easy. One time headed to a race in North Carolina they ran out of fuel, they had no money or no credit cards. Ronnie jumped out and started panhandling, doing anything he could, even offering to sell his personal belongings. Luckily someone pulled in at the gas station and recognized him and filled his tank. We need more people like that in this world. After making it to the race event, they survived off of selling shirts, shared value meals and copious amounts of sandwiches. This life is a hard one to try and live, but with the help of this racing family they couldn’t have made it at times. The pair have a special thanks to James “Doc” Love, Joe “Dominator” Woods, Ryan Marin, and Cali Chris Poncia, who helped them with anything they could including groceries. The Pace’s owe them so much and will always have their backs no matter what wherever they are. On top of the many thanks, they have for the drivers and their families they also owe their gratitude to Mark, Bobby, and Darren at DMB Motorsports in Delaware/Maryland. Without them they would not even be at the point they are now. A highlight of Ronnie’s career was when he wasn’t even racing. He went to a different racing event and through the pits he heard his name being shouted. It was Clay Millican, and he wanted to take a picture with Barefoot Ronnie, a real street racer, which took Ronnie by surprise. His dream car is a 69-70 Superbird with a big ol’ wing on the back. He is also currently pursuing his dream job of driving and hopes that it will eventually pay off. Most people make a judgment about their favorite tracks by the racing surface, but they also take into consideration the tracks accommodations. Since the pair has a small travel trailer without sleeping quarters or water, they look for warm water to use to freshen up. They have a window unit for A.C. in the trailer, use a hair dryer for heat all the time (even at home), and a torch to make grilled cheeses. With that being said Norwalk is at the top of their list. Despite hardships, it has not made them jaded, in fact, because of all this, they are even more thankful for the fans and opportunities they have before them. Ronnie’s huge heart shows when he meets and greets every person he can that comes to see him, they love hearing all the stories about the people and how they got there and stories about their own cars. He will never say no to a signing or a photo op, and if you can’t afford something of his, just tell him, don’t steal it, he’ll most likely just give it to you because he knows what it’s like to go without. Ronnie and Emerald at one point turned their living room into a workshop for fans. They have over 100 pieces of random car bits and parts and signed each and every one of them. Just like B-Rad Brad Eglian, Ronnie also hands out hot wheel cars to the children when they come around to his pit. “The fans mean everything to me, if they stop coming, we stop racing, we’re so incredibly lucky to be a part of this”. When, not if the day comes that Ronnie and Emerald start to make it big, their dream is to help others. Visiting children in the hospitals, bringing other guys with them to brighten up the kids day. Show them that dreams do come true in this world. He would also love to start a raffle somehow at the beginning of the season for the younger crowd. He would like to build a car and at the end of the season hold the raffle for it. It’s a way to get the younger generations involved and help start them off so the sport doesn’t die out. He would also like to send his momma on a vacation as well. After traveling and racing, the couple loves to come home to their family and momma and daddy, to have a Sunday dinner with them, and play cars on the floor with those grandbabies they love and miss so much. Not many people realize that this lifestyle isn’t all flashy lights, cameras, and a huge bankroll. We forget there is off camera things happening, friendships being made, and non-blood families coming together to help one another out. Ronnie and Emerald Pace prove to the world that there is still hard work and dedication that goes into family, the sport, and trying to make dreams a reality. We may not know which car for sure he will show up in, but look for the shirtless, shoeless guy in the pits, and if you can, bring him some ice cream, he’ll be our best friend.

The post Going ALL IN with Barefoot Ronnie and Emerald Pace appeared first on No Prep Racing NoPrep.com.