#question on the side here I think you once said soph is or started as a country OC too? was/is she nothern ireland?

[fireandiceland]

@breitzbachbea I got your other ask on my main blog but I'll answer it here :)

Soph:

Vietnam:

send me a character and I'll assign them an archetype

[catierambles]

Masks Ch.6

Pairing: The Rogues Gallery (Syverson, Mike, Walter, August, Geralt) x Sophie (OFC)

WC 1168

Warnings: Some threatened violence, I guess

@liecastillo @kmuir1 @ms-betsy-fangirl @kebabgirl67 

They sat there in the living room after Walter finished telling them what she had told him about her fears and the other Alphas she had been with, a tense current running through the air.

“She tell you their names?” August asked.

“I doubt they shared surnames, August.” Walter said.

“Don’t need the last name.” He said, “All I need is a first name, where she stayed, the city, and the time frame. I can get in touch with a contact, cross reference guest lists, and the Alpha registry for the area. I’ll track them down.”

“Then we go hunting.” Geralt growled out.

“Starting with the son of a bitch that compared her to a damn sex toy.” Syverson said, his shoulders tight. Their phones dinged in unison and they pulled them out, looking at the screens and seeing the message in their group chat.

Soph: How bout NO

“Damn, her hearing is scary.” Mike said, not for the first time, and they put their phones away.

“I’m more concerned about how she thinks we’re going to treat her when this is over.” Walter said and there was a collective sigh.

“Sophie,” August said, knowing she was listening in, “Come out here.”

“Please.” Syverson added and there was a pause before her door opened and she stepped out dressed in her pajamas, shorts and a t-shirt covered in sushi motifs. “Come here, doll.” Syverson said, standing from his seat and she went to him slowly, almost as if she were afraid of what he was going to do. When she was finally close enough, he pulled her into his arms, holding her to his chest with a hand at the back of her head. Geralt and Walter got up from their seats, going to them and touching her gently. “There’s not a damn thing in this world that would make us think of you like that. You hear me?” She nodded against him but didn’t say anything, her arms wrapping around his trim waist. A shudder ran through the room that had nothing to do with her heat and she pulled away from him, looking at each of them.

“What the hell was that?” Mike asked and Geralt walked away with a growl, going to the front door and looking out the window.

“Alpha.” He said simply, “Coming up the steps.”

“Stay here.” Syverson said to her and she nodded, going over and sitting on the couch as Mike got up with a squeeze of her knee, walking with the others to the front door as Geralt pulled it open. The Alpha paused as he walked up the steps Mike had cleared hours earlier while Walter had been with her, stepping down one as they left the house, paying no mind to the bitter cold and the fact that most of them were either shirtless or wearing shorts, or both. August was the only one fully dressed, wearing a button-up and slacks.

“Who are you?” He asked and August fixed him with a look that broke lesser men.

“Question is,” He said, “Who the fuck are you?”

“Brandon.” He said, “Wait, you’re the Alphas Sophie lives with?”

“How do you know Sophie?” Walter asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“We were supposed to go to Vegas together, but then the flights were canceled and she hasn’t been answering my calls.” Brandon said.

“Boyfriend?” Geralt asked but he shook his head.

“I wouldn’t call myself that, exactly.”

“Her heat buddy, then.” Syverson said and Brandon nodded. “Well, Brandon, she’s not going to be needing you anymore.” There were simultaneous dings from their pockets, but they ignored them, until more came in quick succession and Mike dug his phone out, looking at the messages, his face falling.

“Guys, check your phones.” Mike said and August glared at him, but they all dug their phones out, seeing her messages.

Soph: BRANDON?

Soph: HOW DID HE

Soph: I NEVER GAVE HIM OUR ADDRESS

Soph: I SWEAR

Soph: ONLY MET HIM ONCE BUT HE WAS CREEPY AFTER SO I TOLD HIM TO FUCK OFF

Soph: HE WON’T STOP TEXTING AND CALLING ME

Brandon looked to the side and sighed, a smile coming over his face.

“There she is.” He said and they all looked, seeing Sophie peeking out the window. “Sophie!” He went to move up the steps again but August met him quickly, grabbing him by the front of his coat and lifting him off his feet, his eyes widening at the murderous look August was giving him.

“Walker!” Syverson snapped but August ignored him. “If you’re gonna skin him, at least do it ‘round back. Don’t wanna haffta hose down the steps in this cold.”

“The only reason why you’re not a stain right now, boy,” August said, “Is because I don’t want to clean the blood out of my clothes. Come here again, call or text her again, and I’ll get over that. Understood?” Brandon nodded quickly.

“Bottom of the steps, August, blood is a pain to clean out of concrete.” Walter said and August huffed, but walked him to the bottom of the steps before releasing him, turning, and walking back up them. They waited until he was gone before going back in the house, Sophie standing in the entryway waiting for them.

“Thanks.” She said simply, “Hopefully he takes the hint.” August advanced on her, reaching out and holding her arms with bruising strength, pulling her against his chest.

“Why didn’t you tell me about him?” He demanded and she jerked against his hold.

“Let me go.” She said but his grip tightened.

“Why. Didn’t. You. Tell. Me. About. Him.” He asked again and shook her slightly. “Why!”

“Because that would be giving the game away, wouldn’t it!” She yelled up at him, “If I told you I had some obsessed Alpha on my tail you all would have figured out I’m AP!”

“I can’t protect you--”

“I don’t need your fucking protection!” She snapped, “I can protect myself!”

“How many others, Sophie?! How many others have touched you that I don’t know about?!” He shook her again, “Answer me!”

“None of your fucking business, Walker!” Bringing her hands up, she broke his grip on her, pushing him away.

“You’re going to give me their names, Sophie. Every single one.” Her hand came up and she shoved a middle finger in his face.

“Eat me.” She said and he slapped her hand away, grabbing her by the back of her neck and pulling her in, his head coming down as he crashed his lips into hers, pushing his tongue into her mouth. She only allowed herself to react to him for a moment before reality crashed in and she pushed him away, slapping him across the face and making his head snap to the side. Sophie left him standing there in the entryway, going back to her room and slamming the door closed.

“Smooth.” Syverson said and they walked around him, heading back into the living room.

[moldisgoodforyou]

nice (iii)

warnings: mentions of sexual content, cursing, hella flirting, these two cannot get enough of each other

wordcount: 7.2k

_______

The rest of the drive was easy - Sophie fell asleep three times, Rafe flicked her to wake her up and entertain him twice, and they stopped to take pictures along the coast when they got lunch in Montpellier, fumbling their way through “bonjour” and “merci” and pointing at the sandwiches in the display case that they wanted. When they finally made it to Nice, Rafe was ready to stretch and take a nap while Sophie was ready to jump into the ocean. So they compromised and went to the beach after dragging their suitcases to their hotel room, towels in hand.

Sophie let him nap for a solid fifteen minutes before she got bored and came out of the water, trying to convince him to come swim. Her method of choice consisted of sprawling on top of him with her hair and swimsuit still soaking wet, effectively jerking him out of his sleep - he just groaned and wrapped his arms around her to bring her tighter. “No.”

“Yes. Come play.” She nuzzled her head into his neck, then nipped at his skin.

“No, Soph, sleepin’.” He protested, a little grumpy, and kept his eyes shut.

“No you’re not, you’re awake now.” She grinned. “Come on, we can go to bed early tonight. You can’t still be jetlagged, that’s impossible.”

“I’m tired, I had to drive the whole way.”

“I would have driven.” She protested, scratching her nails lightly down his chest.

“Yeah, driven us off a cliff. Five more minutes.” He hummed, still not opening his eyes.

“No. Come swim now.” She urged, nudging her head a little higher so her wet hair dragged over his face. He startled, then lifted his head, scowling. “You’re being a brat.”

Sophie only smirked in response. “I can be worse. Come onnnnn, sleep later.”

He sat up a little, sighing. “You promise to actually let me sleep tonight?”

“I swear on my life. I’ll stick to my side of the bed and everything.” She nodded solemnly, rolling off him so he could stand.

“Alright.” He nodded, knowing she wouldn’t keep her promise, and hauled himself up, then offered his hand to drag her up too. She jumped up with an eager grin and he rolled his eyes. “You’re cute.”

“I know. Race you!” She started sprinting toward the water - he strolled leisurely behind her, taking his time to stride in once she jumped off the dock. He swam up underwater and grabbed her around the waist, making her squeal and shove at him. He was laughing as he bobbed up and started swimming, going with her out past the crest of the waves.

After a while of swimming and Sophie trying to float on her back without Rafe snatching her down from under the water, she reached out for him. “I’m tired. Carry me.”

“Wonder why, it’s not like you slept on the entire drive here.” He stretched out his hands toward her to pull her in.

“Did you ever think we’d be here?” She asked him, swimming closer. He raised his eyebrows. “In France? Dunno, I always figured I’d visit Paris one day.”

“No, no.” She swam close enough to bump into him and grinned when he reached down and pulled her legs around his waist, so he was treading for both of them. “Hi.”

“Hello.” He smiled and bumped his nose against hers, beaming. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, like...us.”

“Gonna have to elaborate more for me, Soph.”

She rested her arms around his neck and brought one hand up to play with the ends of his hair, getting longer by the day. “If you’d told me in high school, or even the start of junior year, that we’d be in love and on vacation together in France, just us - I’d say you were insane.”

“Hm.” He nodded, thoughtful. “I don’t know. It might have seemed a little out there, but.”

“But?” She prompted, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to the top of his nose.

Rafe wrinkled his nose in response with a smile, then leaned forward and did the same to her. “I don’t know. I always kind of figured we might end up dating, at some point. Or at least we’d try something between us for a little bit. Didn’t you?”

She tugged on his hair, grinning. “Rafe Cameron, you presumptuous bastard.”

“Answer the question.”

Sophie shook her head. “Honestly, no. I thought you were just flirting with me to be mean, a lot of the time.”

He laughed, shrugging. “What can I say. We’re like magnets, Soph, it’s undeniable.”

“Oh my god.” She rolled her eyes and let go of him, pushing off to swim back to shore.

“What! It’s romantic!” He protested, swimming after her and grabbing her ankle to tug her back. She yelped, kicking in his grip until he let go. “You’re embarrassing!”

“You love me!” He was faster and able to keep up by her side as she swam back leisurely. She giggled, surfacing for air after a long stroke underwater. “I never said I didn’t.”

The two made it back to shore quickly and he wrapped his arm around her, keeping her close as they walked back to their towels. They hadn’t let go of each other since they’d reunited - she held his hand, or he had his arm wrapped around her shoulders, or she’d teasingly hook her ankle around his under the dinner table, sliding it up his calf until he shot her a warning glare. He reluctantly let go just to lay out the towels with a flourish, smoothing hers out for her. “Madame.”

“Monsieur.” She replied, grinning. He flopped down next to her and pulled his sunglasses on to nap again in the sun, while she pulled out a book and started reading. When he began to stir after a half hour of sleep, she glanced over at him. “Rafe?”

“Mm?”

“Have you ever had sex on a beach?”

He was suddenly wide awake, whipping his head over to look at her. “Have I ever had what?” He repeated, sure he was going a little delusional. “What on earth are you reading?”

Suddenly she remembered the story that Brooklyn had told her when they first met, about the Bahamas, and shook her head. “No, actually, never mind.”

“No, no, wait, was that a suggestion or a question?” He prompted.

She shrugged, noncommittal, but she felt a familiar unease settle in her stomach. “Don’t really think I want to get arrested in France.”

He reached over and curled his hand around her ankle, tugging a little with a grin. “Who says we’ll get caught? It’s Nice, baby, half the people here are already topless. And you’re not, I should add, which is basically a crime of its own.”

She scowled, swatting at his hand when he teasingly pulled at the bikini string tied at her hip. “No, Rafe, it’s a bad idea. I shouldn’t have asked.” She couldn’t stop thinking of Brooklyn’s smug smile when Sophie had nearly choked on her wine after she called it “making love.” It irritated her to no end knowing that for nearly every first she’d have with Rafe, he had already had it with someone else.

“Hey.” He frowned, sensing her discomfort. “What’s wrong?”

She huffed a little, keeping her eyes trained on her book. “You did it with her. Right?”

“Her?”

Sophie wrinkled her nose. “Your ex.”

“Oh. That’s why you’re upset?” He slid her hand up her leg, trying to be reassuring. “We didn’t.”

“You didn’t?”

“Have sex.” He paused, wincing as he corrected himself. “On the beach, I mean.”

“Oh.” She sat back a little. “Have you ever? On the beach?”

“Not on the beach.” He gave her a sly grin. “Not sure if I’d want sand in certain places, but I’m open to trying anything once.”

She set her book aside, rolling over on the towel to look him in the eye. “Was she your first?”

“Um. No.”

“Well?” She prompted.

He rubbed the back of his neck, taking a second to answer. “You remember Alexandra Harper?”

Sophie gasped, completely caught off guard. Of course she remembered Alexandra Harper - she’d gotten in a fight with her at school, in the locker rooms, when she was talking about how easy Rafe would be to hook up. “Her? Seriously?”

He shrugged, growing a little embarrassed. “Yeah. Senior year, some party at Top’s house.”

“Gross.” She shuddered, absorbing the information for a moment. “Okay, so how many?”

“How many...?” He repeated, unsure if he even wanted to venture into that territory.

“Yes. How many girls have you slept with? Or hooked up with?”

He paused, feeling like he was being set up for a trap. “What do you consider hooking up?”

Her nose wrinkled and she crossed her arms. “If she had your dick in her mouth. Or vice versa.” She paused, thinking. She wasn’t quite sure why she was pushing for this information, honestly, maybe it was just another test of trust - though that certainly wasn’t something she needed to test with Rafe, of all people. “I suppose fingers count too.”

“Do you really need to know?” He hedged, reaching for her hand to try and relax her a little, but she only budged away stubbornly. “Like, does it really matter if at the end of the day, I’m dating you?”

“Well, I suppose not, but. I’d like to know. Mine’s five.”

“Five!” He balked, not expecting as high a number. “I thought you said you’d only hooked up with one guy before me!”

“All the way, just two. Five if we’re going by my definition. Obviously you’re included in both.” She clarified primly, looking down her nose at him. “Go ahead. Your turn.”

“Fine, mine’s four. How many dicks have you sucked?” He frowned, growing more jealous by the second.

She blushed at his vulgarity and didn’t answer, just pushed her sunglasses back up the bridge of her nose and picked up her book to read again.

He abandoned his towel and crawled on top of her, ignoring her noise of protest as he plucked the book out of her hands and set it aside. “Tell me.”

“No.”

“Tell me.” He repeated, grazing his fingers up her side. She giggled, squirming under him. “Rafe, no!”

He grinned, repeating the action, and nipped at her collarbone, only regretting it a little as he tasted sunscreen. She tried shoving his head away, laughing as she hissed, “Quit, we’re in public!”

“Just tell me!”

“No! You’ll get a big head.” She argued, knowing she’d given herself away.

He paused, grinning. “It’s just me?”

She just shrugged and nudged at his shoulder, trying to get him off.

“Sophie.”

“Yes, it’s just you, happy?” She rolled her eyes as he puffed up a little in pride. “Why wouldn’t you just tell me?”

“Because.” She blushed again, grabbing the book to cover her face. “I didn’t want you to think, like, oh, that makes sense.”

He laughed, reaching out and pushing her book down so he could see her. “You’re not serious?”

“I am! It’s a real concern, it’s like, scary when you’re face to face with one for the first time.” She insisted, laughing. “Especially yours, it’s bigger than I’ve seen -”

“You mean it?” He practically glowed, a little too proud of himself, and she kicked at his leg, rolling her eyes.

“Shut it. I just didn’t want to seem like I didn’t know what I was doing!”

“No, please, go on about how big my dick is.” He smirked and she rolled her eyes, swatting him with the book again. “You’re supposed to say you couldn’t tell that I was clueless.”

“Trust me, baby. There was absolutely no issue there.” He grinned, leaning back onto his own towel with his hands tucked behind his head.

She hummed, satisfied. “You said yours is four?”

He made a noncommittal grunt, pulling his sunglasses back on.

“Do I know them all?”

“You’ve met Alexandra, and Brooklyn, and this smoking hot girl from back home...” He started, trying to hide the grin threatening to tug at his lips.

She frowned, setting her book down again - at this rate, she’d read five pages. “Who? Did she go to my school?”

“She did.” He confirmed with a nod, still not looking at her. “Super cute. Can’t believe you don’t remember.”

“Do you have another descriptor besides just smoking hot? Where’d she go to college?” She scowled, wracking her brain to think of who else had dated him in high school - and why the hell was he describing anyone but her as smoking hot, after all these years -

“Ohio State.”

“Rafe Cameron!” She smacked him with the book, making him yelp. “Jesus, woman, watch it, I’ll bruise!”

“You asshole.” She accused, not meaning it in the slightest. “I hate you.”

“You don’t.” He grinned, grabbing her hand to press a kiss to the back of it. “The fourth was a touron, summer after freshman year of college. That’s all.”

“Oh, I hooked up with a touron once -” She started, and he held his hand out, shaking his head. “Nope. Don’t need to know.”

“But you just told me.”

“Because you wanted to know. The last thing I want to hear about is you with other guys.” He insisted, stealing her book away and tucking it back into her tote bag. In all honesty, he was kind of dying to know, but more so he could find all the boys and have a pointed conversation with them and figure out why the hell Sophie was so hesitant to commit to anything, ever, and what they’d done, but that was a topic for another day. “C’mon, let’s swim again. You’re looking red.”

“I should put sunscreen on again, probably.” She reached for her bag and he shook his head, standing and offering his hand. “Come swim. You’ll be fine.”

“Says you, looking like a tan Hercules out here, some fucking Greek god.” She scowled, accepting his hand and letting him drag her up. “It’s seriously unfair that you look like this.”

He grinned, chest puffed up proudly. “Go on.”

“C’mere,” she murmured, reaching up on her toes to kiss him. He kissed back for merely a second before lifting her up abruptly and hauling her over his shoulder, starting to run toward the ocean. She squealed, pounding on his back. “Rafe Cameron, if you don’t -”

The rest of her protests were abruptly cut off as he tossed her off the dock into the water, following with a graceful dive. He surfaced next to her, laughing as she came up sputtering. “Couldn’t resist.”

“Fucker.” She scowled, pushing her hair back into place.

He grinned and smacked a kiss to her cheek. “I have one question. Just one.”

“I feel like I’m not gonna like this.” She reached out and combed her fingers through his hair, trying to arrange it how she wanted.

“I’m the best, out of all five. Right?”

“The best boyfriend? Yeah, no doubt. I only dated two others of the five anyways.”

“No, not that.” He wrinkled his nose, feeling the little green monster of jealousy rise up again. “Like...sexually.”

“Oh.” She pretended to think for a long pause, longer than he expected, and he frowned. “Sophie.”

“Hold on, still deciding.”

“Sophieeee.” He whined, reaching out and circling his arms around her waist. “Tell me.”

“Well, there’s lots of factors, you see -” He finally caught the hint of a smirk on her lips and groaned, snapping her bikini string. “Stop, just say it.”

She leaned closer and brushed her lips against his ear as she spoke. “It’s you, dummy. It’s always going to be you.”

“Even if you sleep with Liam Hemsworth?” He grumbled. She made him watch the Hunger Games series once and he refused to watch it again, not wanting to hear her commentary again on how hot he was.

She giggled, pressing a quick kiss to his jaw, loving how he automatically tipped his head back for more. “I don’t think that’ll be happening, baby.”

“Better not be.” He squeezed her butt under the water and made a small hum of appreciation when she pressed another quick kiss to the column of his throat.

“Someone’s desperate.” She teased and pushed away from him a little, making sure the water was deep enough to tread.

He raised his eyebrows. “You were asking how thin the hotel walls were earlier. I don’t think you have any room to talk.”

Sophie gave him a mischievous grin and glanced around the water, noting it was pretty sparse of a crowd. “Do you have pockets in your swim trunks?” She swam out a little further away and pulled slowly at the string tied loosely around her neck, holding up her top.

“Yeah, why -” His eyes nearly bugged out of his head as she let the bikini fall from her neck and untied the string on the back too, then swam close and handed it to him. “Here. I don’t want to lose it.”

“Sophie.” He uttered, a little strangled.

“Is there a problem?”

“Not at all.” He mumbled, not taking her eyes off her for a second. “Who are you?”

She frowned, swimming back toward him and crossed her arms over her chest, losing her faith in her bold idea by the second. “What do you mean?”

“I mean this, the leather jacket, speaking a new language...” He struggled to explain it, thinking. “It’s like I’ve never seen you so confident before.”

“Oh.” She brightened, giving him a small, shy smile and a shrug. “It’s okay?”

“I love it.” He declared, giving her a grin in return. “I love seeing you like this, so sure of yourself.”

She wasn’t, not nearly at all, but his perception of her made her beam. “I’m trying.”

“You’re killing it. I’m proud of you.” Rafe held up the bikini top with a grin. “What happens if I lose this?”

Sophie fixed him with a glare. “If you lose it, I’m making you take off your shorts in solidarity. You’ll get a sunburn on your dick.”

He laughed loud, shoving her top in his pocket. “A sunburn on my dick, really? I think it’d be tan. Really complete the look.”

“No. I don’t want anyone else getting to see it.” She argued, swimming close enough to shove his shoulder lightly.

“Okay, so should you put your bikini back on?” He countered, trying his best to keep his eyes trained on hers and not anything lower.

“You just said you liked it -”

“I like your confidence, not necessarily other guys looking at you -”

“Well it’s not your boobs to decide about -”

“Alright, well it’s not your dick -” Rafe started and she raised her eyebrows, reaching down and palming him under the water. “We sure about that?”

He nearly groaned at the contact, pulling his hips back. “You cannot do that to me when you’re topless and we’re surrounded by people. You really can’t.”

“I’ll put the bikini back on before I get out of the water.” She offered, smirking at how easy he was to turn on.

“Deal. That thing you said earlier, about sex on the beach?”

“Yeah?” She cocked her head in question.

“I bet we could find a private spot…” He grinned as she rolled her eyes, almost immediately. “Oh my god, Rafe, I was just asking. If you’re that desperate I’ll fuck you before dinner -”

“Jesus Christ, Sophie, you can’t just say things like that.” He pressed his fingers to his temples and glanced up at the sky as if he was searching for an ounce of strength.

“Why not? I will. We can try the shower, it looked big enough for both of us. The bed was comfy too, though I don’t think I could get the automated curtains to close in front of the window - but hey, if you’re into that -”

“Fucking tease.” He bit out. “You’re being mean.”

“No, baby, being mean would be touching you and then not letting you finish.” She countered, trying her best to hold back a grin. “I’m never mean.”

“You are. You’re a brat sometimes.” He caught her around the waist and pulled her in, kissing her forehead. “But I love it.”

“Careful what you say, you’ll only encourage me.” She grinned and tipped her head up, catching his lips in a kiss.

______

As much as Sophie insisted they had to make the most of every minute of their vacation, she couldn’t deny that his argument of “I promise I’ll bring you back here” was compelling.

After a long afternoon out at the beach, they returned to their hotel to take a nap and get ready for dinner. His eyes widened when she stepped into the hotel lobby, finally out of the sun. “Um, Soph?”

“Yeah?” She felt a little queasy, and unreasonably hot still for being in the air conditioning.

He gently pressed his hand to her shoulder, surprised when she didn’t flinch away. “Does that hurt at all?”

“Not really. Why -” She cut herself off as she extended her arm, realizing it was on its way to turning red. “Oh my god.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Rafe reassured her quickly, but looked a little worried. “We’ll go run you a cold shower - well, maybe a bath - and you’ll be fine.”

“I can’t believe I forgot to reapply sunscreen - didn’t I tell you to remind me?” She lamented, sighing. He shook his head and gave her a small smile of regret. “No, but we know now. We’re doing your architecture tour tomorrow anyways, you’ll have just enough time to recover for our next beach day. Promise.”

He was full of promises, she’d learned, and he always kept them. Every single time. Sophie wondered sometimes if it was his way of compensating for failed relationships, like how his dad had always promised he’d be at his next basketball game, or he’d take him out on the golf course or come up for the next parent’s weekend. She leaned against him in the elevator, realizing she felt a little faint.

“Don’t fall asleep on me, baby.” He murmured, setting his arm around her shoulders and squeezing a little too hard, and she winced. “Ow, Rafe.”

“Sorry, sorry!” He carefully removed his arm and took the bag from her shoulder, deciding not to comment on the angry mark it left behind from burnt skin. He was glad he’d switched them from the hostel - as much as she had wanted to fight the idea, he was right that the luxury of their own shower and bathroom was worth it.

When they got into their hotel room, he instructed her to lie down, pop some ibuprofen, and then ran her a cold bath. Her eyes widened as she saw the marks left behind as she untied her bathing suit. “Oh, fuck.”

“It’s okay! It’ll be fine. You stay here, and I’ll be back in - oh, twenty minutes. That’s all.” He nodded and kissed her forehead, letting her slip into the bath alone. He grabbed his wallet and phone before heading back downstairs, and he practically begged the front desk to buy a bottle of aloe lotion after-hours and the whole box of their complimentary black tea, then paid the janitor to give him a roll of paper towels. He made it back to the room in fifteen, knocking twice before letting himself into the room.

“Rafe?” Sophie called out, tentatively.

“Just me!” He called back, busying himself with heating up water to make the tea.

“I feel really shaky.” She confessed and he frowned, rushing into the bathroom. He placed his hand to the back of her forehead then dipped his finger in the water, nearly ice-cold as she’d turned up the temperature. “You might have sun poisoning.”

“You’re not serious?” She frowned, but grabbed onto his arm like it was difficult to sit up.

“Do you feel like you might throw up?”

“...No.” The hesitation in front of her answer was enough to tell him otherwise.

“Okay. Let’s dry you off and then we’ll see how you feel.” He held out the towel and helped her out, carefully wrapping it around her as she shivered. “S’okay, I got you. Sarah had this once, but I have a trick and you’ll be better tomorrow.”

“It’s unfair that you’re fine.” She grumbled, reaching up and pressing a finger into his muscled chest. He was a little pink, but that was all.

“I think I’ve been burnt enough that I’m used to it.” He reasoned, guiding her back into the room and had her sit down on the end of the bed while the tea was steeping in the fridge. “Can you pull on your underwear so you’re a little more comfortable?”

“Seeing me naked doesn’t do it for you anymore?” She quipped.

He rolled his eyes - if she paid more attention, she could see him half-hard in his loose shorts. “Not when you’re about to be sick.”

“Not gonna be sick.” She muttered stubbornly as she carefully pulled on a pair of underwear from her suitcase, then lied down on her stomach on the bed.

“Hope not.” Once the tea was strong enough, he pulled a decorative bowl from their nightstand table and dumped out the fake seashells, rinsed it, then poured in the tea. He started soaking paper towels in it then carefully wrung them out and laid them across her back, so they covered every inch of burnt skin.

“Where’d you learn that?” She asked, resting her head on her arms.

“My mom used to do it if we got burnt when we were little. It helps a lot.” He replied, pressing a kiss to her shoulder when he finished and laid next to her so she didn’t have to crane her neck up to see him. “I’ll change them when they dry.”

“You haven’t told me much about your mom.” She told him hesitantly after a moment of silence.

He shrugged. “Not much to say. What’s your mom think of all this?”

She was a little disappointed he didn’t open up more, but got the hint - and she felt like she might throw up at any second, so maybe it wasn’t the time for a serious conversation. “All this?”

“Of our trip.”

“Ah. I think she’s jealous.” She grinned teasingly at him. “Always tells me how you’re the ideal match, whatever that’s supposed to mean.” Her grin faded a little. “I’m sure your dad thinks the opposite.”

“I don’t care what my dad thinks.” He told her, firmly, but all she could hear was the fact that he didn’t deny it. She nodded once. “Yeah. Okay.”

“You know, I think your dad and I really got along. When I was home, at least.” He told her a little shyly, a hint of doubt creeping into his voice.

She nodded, smiling. “He likes you. Thinks you’re cool.”

Her dad had said much more than that - he’d told Sophie that Rafe was a good kid, really respectful, a hard worker and he deserved this internship. He’d also asked, with a little too much eagerness to his voice, if Rafe would like to come home with her for Labor Day weekend, when they had their first little break in school, and would he like to come golf with him and Sophie? Also, if he and her mom came up for a football game, would Rafe like to hang out with them again?

She wasn’t quite sure if Rafe was ready for the “my dad wants to be your best friend” talk so she left it at “he thinks you’re cool.”

Rafe nodded with an eager grin. “That’s cool. He’s cool too, I mean. I like hanging out with him.”

“I’m glad.” She reached out her hand for him, locking her fingers with his. “I love you.”

“I know, angel. I love you too.” He beamed, the way he always did when she told him those three simple words.

“I’m happy my family likes you.” She told him, rubbing her thumb back and forth over the back of his hand. “Good for our future...our future us.”

He held back a smile but gave her an amused glance. “Our future us?”

“You know what I mean.” She scowled at him and he reached out and smoothed his thumb over the bridge of her nose, making her relax. “I don’t. Will you tell me?”

“I just mean, like, in the future. After college, what we’ll look like, you know? I’m just glad my family likes having you around.” She struggled to form a complete sentence, not sure how much she wanted to tell him - that she’d thought about being married to him and living with him, and just the little domestic things of sharing the day together.

He beamed, stroking his thumb over her cheek. “Future us…you mean getting married?”

She shrugged, trying to seem cool about it. “Yeah. I can see it.”

“I can see it too.” He grinned, wide. “Sophie Cameron.”

She blushed, biting her lip. “Okay, okay, don’t get ahead of yourself.”

He laughed, unable to shake the bright smile on his face. “Are you feeling any better? You need water.”

“A little, yeah, I think the bath helped.”

Rafe got up and refilled her water bottle, handing it to her so she could take a few sips. “I got aloe from downstairs too, so I can help you put that on once the towels dry. I promise, your burn should basically be gone by tomorrow.”

“You’re too good to me.” She murmured, glancing up at him.

“Nah, you deserve it.” He grinned and pushed the water bottle at her again. “Do you need me to go find takeout somewhere? I don’t know if that’s a thing, but I can probably convince someone. If you’re not feeling up to going to get dinner.”

“No, no, I’ll be fine -” She pushed herself to sit up and suddenly squeezed her eyes shut as she felt a wave of nausea pass, curling into herself. He frowned and gently pressed her back down to the bed, then pulled the top layer of sheets over her where the paper towels weren’t. “I’ll go find something. Will you be okay here or do you think you might be sick? I can figure out delivery - well, maybe, I don’t speak any French -”

“Rafe. I’ll be okay, I can go.”

“No you can’t. Stay here, I’ll have my phone, call me if you feel like you might throw up and I’ll be back before you can blink.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re being dramatic.”

“No. You need to take care of yourself.” He set the water bottle by her side and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I want that empty when I’m back.”

“Okay, Mom.” She grumbled, but made no protest. Rafe nodded and left, not without another backwards glance to make sure she’d be okay.

He returned thirty minutes later with a pizza box in hand and a bottle of rosé tucked under his arm. “Success!”

“Impressive.” Sophie was upright now, wearing a pair of his boxers and one of his shirts that she’d stolen at the beginning of the summer. The color had returned to her face - the only part she’d remembered to reapply sunscreen on - and she’d chugged a bottle and a half of her water.

“You look like you’re feeling better. Doing okay?” He set the pizza box on the bed, despite her protest, and greeted her with a gentle kiss.

“Yeah, much better. I’ll need you to put aloe on me before bed though.”

“That can be arranged.” Rafe grinned and presented her with the wine. “Look. Only the finest for m’lady.”

She rolled her eyes and shoved at him with a grin. “Europe is making you a sap.”

“Nah, I just missed out on you this summer, so I gotta lay it on thick.” He uncorked the bottle and took a swig, then passed it to her. “Drink up. Not too much though, you’re still dehydrated.”

“How much was it?” She took a careful sip, then nodded, impressed.

“Only about fifteen euros.”

Sophie flicked open the pizza box and inhaled, grinning. “Excellent choice.” After a couple seconds on her phone, Rafe got a notification on his from Venmo. She’d sent him half for their dinner, like they’d talked about long before he was even in Europe.

“Soph.” He frowned. “What the fuck is this.”

She picked up a slice and raised her eyebrows, speaking around a mouthful of food. “Huh?”

“Trying to pay me for half?”

She swallowed and shrugged. “Yes, that’s what we agreed on, months ago.” (They hadn’t agreed, not in the slightest. She’d insisted she was paying for her own everything, he’d immediately said no, and the debate lasted about five minutes before she was taking her top off to end the conversation. She’d called him with other ideas in mind, anyways.)

“We didn’t agree, we left the argument unfinished because you were trying to distract me by getting naked on FaceTime.”

She smirked. “Yeah, and it worked, didn’t it?”

It took her a moment to realize he wasn’t kidding, that he was actually a little upset. “Sophie. I’m serious. I said I wanted to cover meals on this trip.”

She bristled, setting her pizza down. “And I said I wanted to split it. I’ve saved up for this, Rafe, let it go.”

“I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal for you.” Despite his annoyance, he took a seat next to her on the bed and pressed his thigh to hers, always needing to be close.

“Of course you wouldn’t understand.” She muttered, not making eye contact.

“So explain it to me.”

She took a deep breath, knowing they were venturing into dangerous territory. “I don’t want to fight.”

“We’re not fighting. Just having a conversation.” He retorted back, with a little too much of an edge to it.

She hummed in affirmation, though she looked skeptical. “I’ve worked my ass off for this entire summer since I was eighteen. My freshman year, one time, I was about to break my budget just by buying a pack of Oreos at the store. So the fact that I’m even able to pay for this extra trip after my study abroad scholarship means a lot to me.”

“I know you work hard, I’m not discrediting that at all. I just -“ He let out a frustrated huff. “I don’t know why you won’t let me take care of you.”

“First off, I can take care of myself -”

“I know that, but I can still help you -”

She sent him a pointed look and he took a breath, letting her talk. “You just took care of me, with my sunburn and getting me dinner. That’s more than enough. I don’t need - or want - financial help.”

He mulled it over for a second, frowning. “But I have the money, Sophie, just let me help so you don’t have to stress.”

“I don’t want your dad’s money!”

A short silence hung in the air between them as they stared at each other, both a little in shock at her outburst. She blushed a little, embarrassed. “Rafe, I…”

“It’s a trust from both my parents that I just got when I turned 21. Does that make a difference?” He asked evenly, trying to keep calm.

“Not really.” She murmured, biting her lip. “I didn’t mean to yell. I’m sorry.”

“So the problem is my dad.”

Sophie grabbed the bottle of wine and took a sip, then handed it to him. “Is that really a surprise to you?”

He took a considerably large swig, then passed it back. “No. I’ve tried, you know that?”

She went to re-cork the bottle and he stopped her, taking the bottle back but handed over her water bottle. She gave him a grateful smile and took a few drinks, then nodded. “Yeah. I know you’ve tried, I saw how you tried at your Christmas party.”

“It’s just.” He leaned into her side, frowning. “He’s insistent that this is a fling, he forgets your name on purpose, he keeps talking about when I’m with someone more suitable and when I’m taking over the family business -" Rafe felt his throat getting tight and his voice growing shaky as he got more and more frustrated. “All I want is you. He doesn’t care that you make me happy.”

As much as she didn’t want to hear all of that, she knew it all already. “Hey, shh, it’s okay,” she soothed, combing her fingers through her hair. “I know you’re trying your best with him. He’s just not willing to listen.”

“I’m not going to let you go just so I can make him satisfied.” He was fully cuddled into her now, his hand wrapped protectively around her thigh and his head on her hip. “I’m not trying to pay for things to show off, you know -“

“I know, I know.” She affirmed, stroking her hand down his back. “I never thought that.”

He hummed, closing his eyes for a moment in bliss as she rubbed his back, then flipped onto his back to look up at her. “I’m just thinking, when we live together -“

She nearly choked on her water bottle and set it down, raising her eyebrows. “When?”

“I mean… yeah. I have that job offer with my internship for after graduation and you’re staying in Columbus for grad school, I kind of just assumed…” He trailed off, offering her a cheeky grin.

Sophie paused, considering. “I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

“Oh. You haven’t?”

“No, I, um.” She took a moment to collect her thoughts. “I kinda thought you were going to work for your dad and we’d have to do long distance again. I mean, you’d just always said that was the plan…”

“Right, that was the plan, but then you told me to try for the internship and I really liked it. Apart from, well, y’know.” He smiled up at her. “I actually think I could do more.”

She smiled back, proud. “Of course you can. I’m glad you’ve changed your mind. You want to live together?”

“Course I do. Don’t you?” He heard her stomach rumble and grinned. “Sorry to interrupt dinner. Hungry?”

“S’okay. I’m kind of starving, though, can we eat and talk?”

He nodded, sitting up and took a slice from the box. “You didn’t answer my question.”

She took her own half-eaten slice, taking a bite before responding. “I think I’d like to live together, yeah. It makes sense.” She paused, scowling. “My mom might kill me, but I bet my dad could convince her.”

“Your mom doesn’t like me?”

“No! No, not that.” Sophie excused quickly. “She likes you, a lot, but she grew up with super strict parents and I think she thinks we’re in separate beds this whole trip.” She smirked, nudging her knee against his. “It’s scandalous.”

“Oh, right.” He nodded, already going for another piece of pizza. “So...would we need to stick to your budget or mine?”

“We can split rent, something reasonable. When I get my real job, I’ll have a decent amount of money, just. Being a TA doesn’t pay too much. My parents help me a little with rent at school.” She considered. “If we need a little more for a better place, I can pick up another job or something.”

Rafe frowned, elbowing her. “I’m not going to make you work overtime when I can help us out.”

“We’ll come to that when we need to start looking for places in spring.” She dismissed and he grinned, glad she was fully on board. “Sounds good to me.”

“Baby?”

He beamed, loving the pet name. “Yeah, angel?”

“I don’t know if I want to know this, but. Do you know, roughly, how much you have in the trust?” She bit the inside of her cheek, hesitant.

He paused, mulling over his answer before responding. “Um, let’s put it this way. I could get away with not having a job.”

“Like...for a few years?”

“Um. No.”

“Oh.” She mumbled. “So you could get away with not having a job...ever.”

He nodded, offering her the wine bottle. “Yeah. But that’s why I’d like to spend a little bit more on you sometimes, because I will have a job. Obviously some of it is invested, and I’ll set aside a college fund for my kids eventually, but. I like treating you to things.”

She took a long swig from the bottle, grimacing after. “I know you do - fuck, that’s getting to me.”

Rafe laughed, taking it back. “I can tell, your face is getting a little red.”

“Shut up, is not.”

“Is too. C’mon, eat one more slice at least and then I’ll put the aloe on you, crispy.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, taking her third slice of pizza. “You gonna give me a massage?”

“Depends, do I get one too?”

“Only if yours is good enough.” She teased, kicking at him.

“Does mine come with a happy ending?” He grinned, laughing when she flipped him off. “I think if you touched my shoulders they might peel off completely.”

“Your mouth would be sufficient,” he quipped under his breath and she rolled her eyes, tossing her crust in the box and tossed the empty box toward the trash can on the floor. “You’re annoying.”

“You’re more.”

“Jerkface.”

He grinned. “Hot stuff.”

“Slam piece.”

“Smokeshow.”

“Sugar tits.” She giggled when his jaw dropped in protest. “I don’t even have -”

“Yes you do! You have a great rack. It’s hot, don’t worry.” She assured him, poking at his chest.

“Take off your shirt.” He reached over, tugging at the hem of it.

She rolled her eyes. “Rafe, I am not comparing the size of our -”

“No, dummy, I have to put on the aloe.” He rolled his eyes and held up the bottle. “Calling me a slam piece, honestly. You’re a brat.”

Sophie grinned and pulled off her shirt, trying to go slowly and be seductive but winced when it hurt to raise her arms. “Ow! Fuck, help.”

“Yeah, that’s what you get.” He teased, but smacked a kiss to her forehead anyways before helping her wrestle off her shirt. “You don’t feel sick, right?” He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, then got behind her to smooth the cool lotion over her shoulders.

“No, I feel way better.”

“Good.” He grinned, nudging his nose against her cheek. “Hey. Guess what.”

“Mm.” She tilted her head back, trying to catch his lips.

“You’re my favorite.” He slid his hands down her arms, then tapped his finger against her ring. “Don’t forget it.”

taglist: @whoeveniskendall @kkmaybank @karsinner @outerbanksbro @outerbankspreferences @randomficsandshit @jailcalledlife @tovvaa @moniamaybank @illbesafeforyou @dontjinx-it @freddymaybank @jjmaybankzz @g4bster @oopsiedoopsie23 @babygal-babygal @thecuthoney @babeyglo

[trinisgayforkimberly]

Wildmoore prompt 🤗:

Ryan and Sophie are arguing and Sophie accidentally says something alluding to her hooking up with Renee.

-OR -

Ryan, Sophie, & Renee are all in her office talking about bat trophies or whatever and Renee says something that makes Ryan realize she and Sophie hooked up. - Take it wherever you would like from there.

Your writing is great btw !!

first of all, thanks for the prompt. second, thank you, that means a lot. and, um, third, i wanted to post this before the episode tonight cause i've already seen the sneak peek and i am not okay. so with that being said, i hope y'all enjoy. Open to prompts.

So Sophie and Renee slept together. No big deal, Sophie thinks as she picks up all her articles of clothing thrown around on the floor. She’s 65 percent sure that one of her socks is tangled in Renee’s sheets, but she’s willing to sacrifice the sock over having Renee wake up and start questioning her on what this all means. Sophie has the furthest clue, to be honest, her sleeping with Montoya was merely a distraction to a long day. Without her resources from the Crows or her own personal database of all cameras here in the city, searching for a secret assassin was not easy. Her relationship - if she could even call it that - with Ryan was once again up in the air, and to make matters even worse Sophie’s ego was tending a pretty big bruise. All in a day's work, she thinks.

She had been so sure in her connection with Ryan, had felt so intune with the other woman that when it really came down to it, she was left feeling like some idiot for even thinking Ryan would care about her - or her sister - enough to actually help her. Instead the other woman had chosen someone she barely knew over her.

Everything felt like it was slipping from Sophie’s control. Hell, she thinks even her sanity is next on the list to go. And then in came Montoya, with her sexy swagger and an invitation to a good time. She wants to blame the few shots of tequila she had taken before she had slammed Renee against the wall, but if she were being honest, she knew Renee was an easy option.

Not to say Renee was easy, cause who was she to know, but nothing was complicated with Renee. There weren’t any unsaid feelings or longing stares across a room. Renee didn’t make Sophie question everything she knows. It was all clear and precise, and part of her can’t really blame herself for wanting to sleep with Renee anyways. She wasn’t anything with Ryan. She was a free, single woman with a lot of time on her hands, and if she just so happened to sleep with someone, then good for her; and If sleeping with said someone in order to release some of her stress makes her feel like she’s in control again, then terrific. Mission complete.

She’s out of Montoya’s place in seconds, closing the door behind her as quietly as she can before she finishes putting on her jacket. She looks at her phone and realizes how late it’s gotten. The trek to her apartment is not far, but the cold air outside bites against her skin, making her wrap her jacket tighter against herself as she begins her journey. She’s just about to insert her key into the lock when she hears something on the other side of the door. She takes her gun out before she turns the key once it's in the lock, her senses on high alert as she tries to assess the situation. For all she knew it could be Alice messing around again.

When she opens the door and sees the dark figure pacing in her living room, she huffs before she drops her gun to her side and sighs with relief. What was Ryan even doing here?

“Who said you could come in?” Sophie says with a gruff as she goes back to close her front door, taking off her jacket and hanging it in the coat closet.

“Your door was unlocked?”

“So the lies continue,” Sophie replies with little amusement, stopping behind her couch as she looks at Ryan with impatient eyes.

“Come on, Soph.” Ryan pleads, “I told you everything I can.”

“‘Can’, Ryan, meaning you know more and aren’t telling me!” Sophie counters, crossing her arms over her chest. She watches Ryan frown at her, brown eyes looking panicked, almost as if she were being caged in.

“Because it’s not safe!”

“We’ve had this conversation before Ryan,” Sophie says with another tired, frustrated huff, shaking her head as she looks down at the material of her couch. She ran her finger over the back of the couch, collecting the small amount of dust there. She should really clean. “And if you don’t mind I’ve had a long night, and could really use some sleep.” Sophie continues, turning around to face her bed. Sophie thinks it can’t be that hard to tell what she means. She’s wearing the same clothes she had on all day; she’s sure her hair is all types of messed up no matter how many times she tried to run her fingers through her hair on the walk home. Sophie’s pretty sure her makeup isn’t in the best shape, and her shirt’s been half tucked - something she had noticed on her way home, but was too lazy to fix.

Sophie doesn’t know what changes, just that she can feel it in the air, the way the tension seems to sizzle and crack despite their distance. She turns to see hurt and anger in brown eyes before they go emotionless, Ryan’s lips stretching into a thin line as she straightens her back slightly. Sophie’s not sure what to do or what to say. How do they move forward without admitting everything between? Why does she even feel inclined to tell Ryan the truth? This is what she meant when she said Renee was easy. There was none of this.

“Marquis,” Ryan says, her tone even as Sophie watches her figure. “He’s dangerous and he needs to be stopped. The more you know, the more at risk you are.”

“Why couldn't you tell me that before?” Sophie asks, unsure of how to feel herself. Ryan had been so adamant about not telling her, about keeping her safe, but for what? They both knew what Sophie was like when on a mission. With or without her she will find her sister’s attempted murderer.

“Jada warned me to keep this from the people I care about,” Ryan responds with a shake of her head, “and she’s right - I shouldn't be telling you this. Believe it or not, I care about you, Soph.”

Sophie steps closer towards Ryan, the couch still between them. “We both know I can protect myself, Ryan.”

“Sue me for wanting to keep you safe.” Ryan retorts, raising her hands before she lets them fall at her side.

“Will you stop that?” Sophie exclaims suddenly, groaning as she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She feels like they’re about to start arguing again, Ryan taking small steps towards the couch. Why do they keep dancing over it like this?

“Stop what?” Ryan asks incredulously, her arms out in front of her as her shoulders roll back slightly.

“This!” Sophie says as she points between them. “The arguing and the misunderstandings! I'm right here, Ryan, I've always been right here, but you keep pushing me away.”

“Sophie,” Ryan says into the space between them, their eyes locked in a heated stare.

“You know, Renee was right about one-”

“Renee?”

Sophie’s eyes widen slightly, the words caught on the tip of her tongue as she realizes her mistake. Ryan was never meant to find out; not because she wanted to keep it from her, but because she was already aware of the small grudge the smaller woman held against Montoya. Sophie admits making Ryan work with her mother’s killer is definitely a way to get on her bad side.

Sophie’s eyes snap to Ryan’s lips when she hears the humorless laugh escape from between them. Sophie watches as Ryan shakes her head with an incredulous look, turning around so that her back was now facing her. Something churns uncomfortably in the pit of her stomach, a small ounce of regret of having given in to her impulses the minute she had shared a look with Montoya. Sophie tries to remind herself that she’s single - no strings attached - she had no reason to feel guilty about sleeping with Renee, and yet, here she was. Now knowing about Marquis and only half understanding why Ryan wouldn't just let her help, Sophie gets why Ryan kept this from her. If the situation were reversed, she knows she would have done the same.

But see, Sophie thinks, they’re always lacking some level of communication, everything getting lost in the slight touches and the long looks. They would have avoided this whole mess had they just been honest and talked to each other.

“Ryan,” Sophie rasps, her voice barely a whisper as she gets the other woman’s attention, watching as she turns with dark brown eyes staring back at her intensely. As much as Sophie wants to use her words, Ryan seems to read her from across the room because one second she’s standing near the glass door of her balcony, and the next she’s swept Sophie in her arms, their bodies flush against the other. It’s the closest they've been since they were almost killed by Professor Pyg, and Sophie can’t help but whimper softly as their faces seem to lean forward simultaneously.

“I’m sorry for pushing you away.” Ryan whispers into the space between them, warm breath tickling against waiting lips. Ryan has the worst timing for wanting to talk.

“I’m sorry, too.” Sophie says with a labored breath, her eyes focusing on the plump lips in front of her. “I should have given you more time to explain.”

They hover against each other, almost as if the other were afraid to make the first move. Not one for patience, Sophie surges forward enough to inch them closer before she whispers, “I really like you Ryan Wilder,”

Ryan smiles that blinding smile Sophie likes so much before she can’t help herself and closes the distance between them, their lips brushing slowly against the other. Ryan leans back slightly, enough to look at Sophie, who still has her eyes closed, before she says, “I really like you, too, Sophie Moore.”

[corie-the-writer]

Won’t Let Go - Chapter 9

Chapter 9 Karma. That was what Jay realized was happening with a person from his past showing up. He had not even realized that the woman from his past that he had met overseas did not actually file the signed divorce papers. He had tried to chase after Sophia but Noah sped her away in his slick blacked out Audi. Jay had immediately tried calling Sophia as he watched the tail lights of the car and watched as she threw her cell phone out the window. Jay ended up shouting a few curse words before heading back inside to find out if the woman was still inside. Demanding the next morning they go to the courthouse to file for divorce once and for all. It had been nearly two weeks since Jay had seen or spoke to Sophia. He had tried stopping by the bar, already knowing her work schedule but Stella had informed him that she had taken a vacation from work. Jay had went to her father Christopher Herrmann, who had gotten into his face, warning him that if he didn't fix what happened, he would torture him for the rest of his life. No one would tell him where Sophia was staying, and that left him completely unsettled. Jay had come down with the routine to stop by Molly's every single night after he had gotten off of work to see if Sophia would turn up after the first week. The second week Jay would do the same thing, even on his days off. "Come on man, let's go get a beer." Ruzek clapped a hand over his shoulder as he approached his truck, "I'm buying." Ruzek added climbing into Jay's truck, making sure he wouldn't get out of it. "Invasive much." Jay grumbled as he climbed into the truck and started it up, heading to the familiar bar yet again. Jay knew that he was a short fuse, even the few cases they had since the night everything turned to hell. Jay drove the short distance and parked his truck, not really feeling up to sitting around with a bunch of people without knowing where Sophia was. Walking into the bar, Jay didn't bother looking behind the bar or on the floor to search for Sophia. He had just headed straight for the table where Kevin and Kim were waiting for them and sat down. Jay made the choice to drink one beer and then would leave. Stell had brought them a round of beers and Jay was playing with the label of the bottle, half listening to Kevin tell jokes while Kim and Adam laughed. Jay took a drink of the cool liquid and nearly choked when he had heard a man calling Sophia's name across the bar. "Sooophiiaa...can I get another round?" Jay's head shot up to the man speaking near the end of the bar, slurring his words, and then his blue eyes immediately scanned the bar to see Sophia grinning at the older man. "Chuck, I think you've had enough to drink." Sophia spoke back over the music, "I don't really want to explain to your wife why she had to come get you this late." Sophia added. Jay watched as she let out a laugh at the man dramatically rolling his eyes, his eyes scanning her face to make sure that she was un-harmed. Sighing in relief when she looked to be perfectly fine. Her deep blue eyes turned to Stella and then directly to him and he watched as she froze for a moment. Jay could tell that she was getting ready to bolt, and he found himself moving from the chair and heading directly towards her. "Soph..." Jay reached her arm just in time to stop her from escaping up the stairs to her apartment, "Please..." Jay nearly begged and watched as Sophia's shoulders relaxed. "Don't you think you should be more concerned with your wife?" Sophia nearly sneered but kept composure of her face. "I can explain that. I can explain everything." Jay gave her arm a gentle squeeze, "Please..." Jay frowned deeply. "You have five minutes." Sophia declared pulling her arm out of his hold and headed up the stairs to her apartment. Jay had waited a moment before following up the stairs and stood behind her as she unlocked the door and opened it. Jay walked in behind her, shutting the door and then looked around the living room to see that most of her things were gone. "You're leaving?" Jay questioned. "Four minutes." Sophia moved towards the small kitchen and leaned against the counter with her arms crossed over her chest. Jay followed her and leaned against the opposite counter facing her, "I know that looked really really bad, but it's not what it looks like." Jay started out, "Back when I was overseas, me and a bunch of buddies went to a bar and got wasted, like black out wasted. I met Amy there, and we got the bright idea to get married." Jay explained, "The next morning I woke up realizing what I did and went to find her to get divorced. We signed the papers, I had to leave so she promised to get the papers to the courthouse, and I never saw her again until that night." Jay explained, "I swear to you, I didn't know that we were still married. When she told me what had happened, the next morning we went to the courthouse and got the papers filed." Jay finished. Sophia watched Jay intently explain everything and then watched as he slowly pushed himself away from the counter and walked towards her. His large hands going on the counter tile, trapping her in. "Don't you think that is something you should tell someone, especially when I love you's are exchanged?" Sophia questioned, "Like hey, I had a really drunk night, ended up getting married..." "Honestly babe, I forgot all about it until she was standing right in front of me." Jay answered, "You know, sort of like out of sight out of mind?" Jay questioned but continued to speak, "But we did go to the court house and I am officially divorced." Jay stated, watching as Sophia gave a nod in understanding, her arms still wrapped around her, "I'm sorry for how I reacted with him coming to town." Jay added with a small sigh, "I just...I got inside my own head once I saw what he looked like, realized that he was the man from the photograph you had, and started questioning what sort of life I could give you." Jay spoke lowly, embarassed by admitting the truth, "Then I got a weird feeling and opened the can of worms into his life. It was wrong of me to do anything like that without talking to you first and telling you how I felt." "I get it..." Sophia sighed, "I'm hurt that you didn't trust when I said that I left when I realized what was going on, then she showed up and it just felt like more secrets so I ran." Sophia mumbled. "Where did you go?" Jay questioned then looked over his shoulder to see her living room practically empty, "And where's all your stuff?" Jay chuckled. Sophia glanced towards the living room and then back to Jay, "I had Noah take me to my parents house. I stayed there for a couple of days while Noah helped me sell a few of my art pieces, and I decided to find a house to buy." Sophia explained, "It closed over the weekend so I've been moving stuff into it." "That's great!" Jay smiled to the woman looking down to her, "Can we just...can we pretend like the last two weeks didn't happen?" Jay questioned, "I've been so fuckin' out of my mind about everything. It's made me realize just how much I love you." Sophia looked up to the man getting ready to respond when she heard Noah's voice calling her name as he walked into her apartment. Sophia looked to Jay to see his jaw clench for a moment, not moving his arms from the counter on either side of her. "Darling, is everything okay here?" Noah questioned eyeing Jay. "Yeah, everything is fine Noah." Sophia answered looking to the ex, "Can you give us a minute and I'll meet you downstairs?" Sophia questioned and watched as Noah mumbled a very well before heading out of her apartment, "Sorry, Noah is taking me to deliver the last of the paintings." Sophia turned her attention back to Jay and paused for a moment, "As much as I want to forget the past two weeks, it happened and we can't forget that." Sophia commented. "Soph..." Jay felt like his heart was going to break in his chest. "I do know that I love you more than I've loved anyone, but we have a lot of talking to do, because I refuse to be in another relationship with secrets." Sophia explained, "I shouldn't be too long delivering these paintings, if you want, you can go to my new place and wait so we can finish talking?" Sophia offered. Jay immediately nodded his head and watched as Sophia moved his arm to go to the small kitchen island to grab her set of keys, and pushed a key off the ring, "Here.." Sophia handed him the key and then grabbed a sticky note and jotted down the address, "Just let yourself in and don't mind the mess I've been trying to unpack as I unload." Jay gave a nod and watched as Sophia went to walk away and he couldn't help but to grab ahold of her and pull her towards him, his large hand cupping the curve of her neck and crashed his lips to hers.

[morizoras-cave]

Robbed (Request)

Jake Gyllenhaal x gn!teen!co-star!reader, Tom Holland x gn!teen!co-star!reader

Genre: angst, fluff

Request Description: hi! I'm absolutely IN LOVE with your work and was wondering if you could write a Tom Holland x teen!costar!reader and Jake Gyllenhaal x teen!costar!reader. Whilst hanging out together, the reader chooses to go out alone at night to buy food and ends up getting mugged. She doesn't come back for a while, so Tom and Jake leave the hotel to find her crying on the side walk. They take care of her and are super protective and there's just a lot of fluff. Tysm!

Warnings: robbing, violence, threatening, language

(A/N): hey so reader doesnt buy food but rather pads for their friend :) 

“Come on, Harley! Whaddya doing?” 

Yes, not even two minutes into the mobster movie you were watching, had Jake decided to put on his Italian accent and yell hopelessly at the character. Thirty minutes later and he was, unsurprisingly, still doing it. You and Tom exchanged glances and laughed at him, because although it was mildly annoying, it was also viciously funny. 

“Wait, no! They can’t kill Harley?” Tom complained, looking up from his phone to realise Harley was, in fact, dying. 

“I know. I’m so bummed out,” You sighed and stuck your hand in your bag of sour gummies. 

You, Jake and Tom, being the leads for a new movie, had been working together for several months. Over the course of filming, you’d gotten into the habit of hanging out every Friday (which was originally a way to stop you from going out and being irresponsible).

It was one of those hangouts you now found yourself in. Just relaxing after a hard day of work with your pals. 

“Man, this movie sucks, dude,” Jake said, this time uncloaking his voice of the Italian mobster accent. You and Tom both nodded. You were about to suggest playing some board games, when your alarm, that traumatising and reality crushing tune that woke you up every morning, blared throughout the room. 

Your brows furrowed and you picked it up. The message that was displayed on the screen, was put so eloquently: ‘you need to go buy pads for lily. im like 100% sure you fucking forgot, you idiot’

“Nya, shit,” you mumbled and quickly turned off the alarm. 

“What’s up?” Jake asked, shuffling in his chair. You sighed and started gathering your things and your jacket. 

“I’ve gotta go buy stuff for my friend,” you said vaguely. You never thought of periods as embarrassing, but you knew Lily, your best friend, was a very private person, and she probably wouldn’t appreciate you telling two of the biggest Hollywood stars on the planet, that she was at home bleeding to her death. 

“Buy stuff?” 

You rolled your eyes, “It’s female-friend stuff. It’ll take me, like, 20 minutes to buy it and bring it to her. Don’t worry about it.” 

Jake and Tom exchanged glances, chewing on the idea. “Alright, but be back quick, because I think we should play Monopoly instead of watching the only good character in this movie die.”

“Done deal!” you said and with that you were out the door. 

At first, everything went just as you expected it to. You went to the store that was 5 minutes away and bought some pads (and some chocolate because you’re a nice person) for Lily. You exited the store, and decided to walk behind the store to get Lily’s house faster. 

“Don’t fucking move, dipshit.” 

Admittedly, a pathetic opening line of a robbery. That didn’t make the knife you felt being pressed into your side any less scary. Looking to your right, a man, your attacker, was standing. 

He was pale and skinny and had a long beard. His eyes were crazy, wide open and twitching. He was smiling, too. He pressed the knife a little harder, causing a whimper to escape your lips. 

“I just want your money. That’s all I want,” he was trying very hard to look into your eyes, but you couldn’t stand his. You chewed your lip, wondering what to say. 

“I- I don’t have any-”

Given the situation you found yourself in, maybe you shouldn’t have been so shocked at this, but the slap and the sound and the rippling pain that all came at once, sent a gasp and tears spilling over your eyes. 

“Wrong, bitch! Give me your fucking money!” he pressed the knife harder, you swore it was drawing blood. You tried shying away from it, but he had a firm grip on your shoulder. 

“Okay,” you whispered, shaking hands reaching into your pockets to pull out your wallet. “Okay, okay, here.. Here..”

You pulled out any and all cash you had, probably all summing up to be about 35 dollars. 

“Good, kid,” he patted your head like he was your uncle, like you were old friends, and then removed the knife from your side. You heard him running away, but you couldn’t be bothered to look where. Your legs wobbled and you collapsed right there on the side walk, doubling over and starting to cry.

Meanwhile in the Gyllenhaal household, Jake and Tom were growing pretty impatient. 20 minutes had passed. They’d set up the Monopoly game and even picked the characters. Now, they just sat and waited.

21, 22, 23, 24, 25 minutes passed, and they just waited. 

“This isn’t like them,” Tom finally spoke up. He’d been resting his head on the wooden table and blowing air on his shoe-character, trying to make it fall over. 

“I know! I’m trying to text them, but they’re not answering. Should I call?” 

They looked at each other. Then the time. 30 minutes had passed. “Yeah, call them.”

Unsurprisingly, you didn’t answer (seeing as you were crying on the sidewalk with a small cut in your side and a slapped face). 

“Something’s wrong,” Jake decided. Tom nodded too. 

That was how they decided to go out and look for you, going to the nearest grocery store in their coats and sunglasses and scarves. You were nowhere to be seen inside the store (although, Tom did confuse you for an old lady for a moment). They went outside. 

An unnerved feeling churned in their stomachs. Tom led them to the path near the road, but the crunch of their steps on the asphalt was halted. Jake heard a sniffle. It was so faint, he wasn’t sure he was right, so he grabbed Tom’s shoulder harshly and halted him. 

Sure enough. Sniffles and sobs. And so the boys jogged behind the building, and heart beating nervously, they saw you there on the side walk, crying and shaking alone. 

“Y/n!” 

You snapped your head up. Your face was puffy and eyes shiny. You wiped them furiously, but only making yourself cry even more.

“What happened, holy shit, are you okay?” 

And you fell into Tom’s arms, whilst Jake rubbed your back comfortingly. You retold the shaky story of how this man had mugged you, and how he’d had the knife in your side, and hit you. And how scared you were.

When you first said you’d been mugged, Tom’s eyes widened in shock. He leaned back to look at you. His arms tightened and his jaw clenched. You felt Jake stop rubbing your back for a moment. You turned your head and saw him pulling out his phone. 

“It’s okay now, N/n. It’s okay. You’re safe now, we got you. He can’t hurt you, alright?” Tom whispered lovingly. Jake had left your side to call the police. You had calmed down then, terror still roaming you skull hauntingly, but you were no longer crying, and your heartbeat was steadying. 

“I was just so scared. He could’ve done anything..” You whispered and shook your head. Trying to shake the feeling. 

“I know, I know. It’s okay to feel scared. But I’ll protect you now, Jake too. He won’t hurt you. He can’t.”

You nodded. 

The police arrived shortly after and you told them exactly what had happened. Jake, being the oldest and most responsible of the two, helped you with each question and each part of the process. 

Turns out, the police knew the guy. It wasn’t the first time he’d done something like that to teenagers. He was caught pretty quickly. 

Still, even though the fucker was in jail, you couldn’t help but feel scared. Tom and Jake never let you go to the store alone anymore. Not even in the daytime. But you liked that. You were pretty sure if they weren’t constantly going with you, you wouldn’t have gone at all. 

You had nightmares every once in a while. But Jake always came to your hotel room to comfort you. And when you felt like you were being overdramatic, he’d always convince you, you weren’t. 

You got over it (mostly) eventually, but you knew you wouldn’t have been able to without Tom and Jake. It felt good to know that they were willing to do so much for you without getting nothing in return. It felt good to have friends. And you’d return the favour any day for them. 

___________________________

Tag List:

@hera-the-writer @marvel-madness @40srogcrs @whatthefuckimbisexual @snarky–starky @garbage-potato @lozzypoz321 @allthecreativeonesaretaken @missamericana713 @rororo06 @shady80smusicsingercolor @ireadfanficforfun @deephideoutmilkshake @rae-is-typing @sophs-library @herecomesthewriterwitch @alicedanganh @eviemarvel @idk123906​ @xiumin-girl99​ @frostedgiant

[dazedkatsudon]

Hiii skyyy! Newbie around here! First of all nice to meet you! I'm really really glad that I made it to your blog 😊 so... I saw your request were open and also Soph cute ask about a first date with kuroo ( that what brought me straight here) and I was wondering wether I could ask about how a first date with iwa would be, please?

Thank you so much if you decide to write this down! 😊

➥ omg hiii!! nice to meet you too!! i'm glad you made it here heheh ^^ and tysm for requesting! i really liked writing this and i hope you'll like it too bby!! (๑>ᴗ<๑)

First Date w/ Iwaizumi Hajime

the first thought that ran through iwaizumi's mind was: "can i really do this?"

he's been debating with himself for about an hour now, whether he should finally ask you out today or not.

you've been on his mind the whole day ever since he overheard one of your friends gushing about some guy who asked you on a date but you rejected.

"iwa-chan," oikawa whined as he tossed the ball over to the ace. "are you still hung up on that?"

iwa almost didn't catch it, his focus completely thrown off. "huh? what are you talking about?"

oikawa rolls his eyes and gets another ball. "i'm talking about y/n and the fact that she's rejected every guy who wanted to ask her out."

oikawa has known of iwa's crush on you since 1st year but not once did he talk about it. now, 2 years later, iwa still hasn't made a move on you and it was getting annoying for the setter.

"you know, if you're never going to try, i just might," oikawa smirks and this pulls iwa's attention towards him. "i mean, who can reject me?"

iwa knows what he's talking about. every girl in seijoh has fallen for oikawa's charms at least once over the years.

thinking about this, iwa snickers and looks away. it surprisingly left a bitter impression on him. is he really going to let trashykawa ask you out before him?

upon seeing iwa's sour face, oikawa laughs and approaches him, patting him on the back.

"i'm kidding iwa-chan~" he pokes his tongue out. "and besides, i think we know who y/n really wants."

as if on cue, iwa suddenly sees you walking past the open doors of the gymnasium. he immediately feels his breath get taken away but before he can think twice, oikawa has already pushed him in your direction.

he slightly trips on his feet and almost bumps into you but he catches himself.

you jump in surprise. "oh! iwaizumi!"

hearing your voice calling his name had him blinking. what just happened?!

he quickly shoots a glare towards oikawa before turning back to you.

"ah, y/n!" iwa smiles and awkwardly waves at you. "what are you doing here?"

iwa mentally slaps himself. what kind of stupid question was that? you go to the same school.

"i'm on my way home," you laugh.

but that's a lie. your house is on the other side of the campus but you find yourself passing through the gym every day just to get a glimpse of iwa playing.

"oh," he chuckles. "well.. uh.. get home safely."

you smile and nod, turning to take your leave.

iwa sighs but then he feels a smack on his shoulder.

"if you don't do it now, you're going to regret it," oikawa's voice filled his mind and before he could react, he's being pushed forward again.

"wait y/n!"

you look back to see him running after you. "hmm?"

"um.. i was just wondering," iwa puts his hands in his pockets and looks to the side. "why... did you reject all the guys who asked you out?"

the question surprised you and it was evident on your face.

"ah no! i didn't mean–" his eyes widened as he waved his hands in front of him.

sighing, he looks into your eyes and finally asks, "what i wanted to say was... if i were to ask you on a date, would you also say no?"

there's a long pause and iwa scolds himself internally for being so awkward. but then he sees you smiling, your small giggle filling his ears.

"i thought you'd never ask," you sigh.

"w-what?"

"to answer your questions, i've been rejecting them because i was waiting for you. and no, i won't reject you iwaizumi."

the way iwa's eyes lit up had you laughing again but your moment was interrupted by oikawa shouting in the background, telling iwa it's time for practice.

"yeah i'll be right there!" he smiles. "i'll see you tomorrow then? around noon?"

you eagerly nod and then you go on your separate ways.

that night, you were both restless, tossing and turning around in bed because you were too excited.

when the next day came, you were up early, preparing yourself for the date and iwa was doing the same.

he never thought he'd ask oikawa to lend him clothes (he said he wanted to look good but oikawa just told him to be himself which was actually a pretty good advice)

your date consisted of going around town, trying different food, and window shopping. iwa had asked you beforehand what you'd like to do and you told him there's nothing really specific that you'd like.

so that's how you settled on watching a movie together, wanting to take a break from walking around all day.

oh how nervous you both looked when the lights dimmed. and your hands kept on brushing against each other while reaching for your shared popcorn.

but honestly, you were both so happy right then. no words could explain it.

iwa may not have been able to hold your hand in the theater but when you were on your way home, he found an opportunity to do so.

the city was busy tonight, with lots of cars passing by. and just when you were about to cross the street, iwa just swooped in and held your hand.

"it's dangerous," he simply says, trying to act cool and nonchalant but you knew he was nervous, with the way his hand was slightly shaking.

"thank you," you smile and squeeze his hand to let him know it was totally okay.

when you arrived home, you were smiling from ear to ear. iwa had been such a gentleman throughout your date. well, he always has been.

just before you parted, you took a deep breath and said, "i don't usually do this on the first date but," you lean closer and place a soft kiss on his cheek. "you're special, iwa-chan."

ah, that nickname. that cute nickname that seemed even cuter when you said it.

he's smiling now, cheeks heating up from your kiss.

"you're special to me too, y/n," he takes your hand and kisses it. "right from the start."

that night, you both said your good byes but with the promise of a next date in the following days.

and just as you went inside your home, you swore you saw iwa jumping and smiling from ear to ear before he disappeared from view.

taglist: @akaashirin @animatedarchives @justcafewriter (special thanks to nikki for betaing!! ily bby~)

[evitachristine]

Anti-Hophie Rant

So I finally finished reading One True King, and this is what I have to say. It’s long. 

WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Before I get into this, just a small warning: If Hophie is your OTP and embodiment of perfection, this text is not for you. I will not argue with anyone, alright?

To start this off, in my opinion OTK is the weakest of the series. It just feels like a connection between the last book and the fact that Tedros has to become the King. Some might argue that the second book was the worst, well, I disagree. It’s not just because Hophie happens here, but I kind of believe that when the internet spoiled to me that my hated ship was going to happen (because I had to wait until the book comes out in my country), I was expecting more from it. That I would actually be convinced it’s meant to be, which didn’t happen. Also the execution of some characters (Ahem...Merlin) was just...why. It seemed to me that there were a lot of other fan services in this book, apart from Hort and Sophie getting together, but more about that later. 

 I need to remember this for good, and next time I become a fan of something, I will avoid its fanbase. I do not mean to offend anyone, but a fanbase can really ruin a platform, especially when the platform is still developping and the fanbase is influencing it, which I believe did happen a lot with SGE. I will not deny that a fandom can improve such thing - that is definitely true as well - but sometimes the line between improving and ruining is slim, and if it doesn’t ruin the platform, then it might ruin a couple of fans’ experience of it. 

Now to the point of me hating Hophie.

As I mentioned in my previous post, and above. When I discovered the fandom and found out that people are shipping Hort and Sophie, I asked myself “But why? Sophie doesn’t like Hort.” and I kind of thought this was a joke or a meme ship. I always ship characters where both sides have at least a visible bit of attraction towards each other. Whether its friends to lovers or enemies to lovers. Hophie, until the last book and half, was not the case. It was a typical example of unrequited crush, Sophie once only used Hort to make Tedros jealous. But if my mind isn’t tricking me, she was always disgusted by him and even during their first encounter, he attempted to harass her! And the fact that “they were still kids back then” is not an excuse to me. 

Allow me to make a slight turn from SGE. When I was about 8-10, my mum took me to see an opera called Turandot. I will not bother you with opera, but long story short: A princess is very beautiful and a lot of men want to marry her. So she is giving everyone three questions, if they answer incorrectly, they are executed. Everyone are getting executed until a prince in disguise arrives and is in love with her, answers all questions correctly. Princess doesn’t want to marry him tho, so he asks her to guess his name and if she succeeds, he will gladly die. The princess doesn’t feel love at all and doesn’t want to fall in love. She believes she is a saint. Then in a dramatic duet the prince kisses her and ALL OF SUDDEN the princess falls in love with him. 

Whew. Sorry, I tried to make this as short as possible. I remember asking my mum after this: “Why is the girl always forced to love the boy?” Little me didn’t like this idea of a “magical kiss” already, lol. Mum’s answer was “Because it was written by a boy.”, but that’s not even my point here. Do you see the pattern? Girl keeps refusing guy but in the end he still gets her. THIS RIGHT HERE is the main reason why I hate Hophie. It reinforces the stereotype that if a guy is persistent enough, he will get the girl even if she said no a million times. 

Another note I’d like to say about this, and I’m going to receive hate for this opinion. I started book 1 when I was 16. Now I’m in my early twenties and I get that most SGE readers are still teenagers. The age of crushes, clumsy love experiments, etc. OK now I sound like a grandma. But I think this is where Hophie stems from. Everyone are seeing themselves in Hort. Your crush doesn’t like you back, his crush doesn’t like him back. Something like Éponine in Les Misérables. If Marius and Sophie both fall in love with the person who likes them, it’s like the crush of the fan does. Can we call this the Hort-Éponine complex? 

Aside from that, I believe that people who already experienced both sides of unrequited love (like yours truly grandma, right here), meaning Sophie’s side of it, are less likely to support such ships. 

I will now dive into the OTK “resolution” of this pairing. First let me just say, this book made me, if not hate, then at least strongly dislike Hort’s character. The first half of the book and even a some time after before he finally gets with Sophie, his character is disgusting to me. He is so obsessed with her, even while he’s still dating Nicola. As in my previous post, it’s like a huge part of his character is only “I LOVE SOPHIE”. While he’s still with Nicola, he never fails to mention “his FRIEND Sophie”. I will now paraphrase because I read a translation, not the original, but even when Hort’s singing to the guards to distract them so Agatha and Tedros can sneak into the Library, he sings something along the lines “Girlfriend Nikki and friend Soph”. I’m not sure if this was meant to convince the reader that Sophie ending up with Hort is a good idea, but with me, it did the exact opposite. 

In general, their “romance” feels extremely rushed to me. Compared to Sophie’s previous love interests, regardless of who they were as people, these two have zero chemistry. It seems as if Sophie decided to settle because there was no other guy for her. And the description of her suddenly being in love with him, as mentioned above, is another of those “magical kiss” stories. It is hardly believable and kind of... shallow. 

There even were several moments when Rafal was mentioned. In COT, when the protagonists wanted to flee Camelot but Sophie decided to stay, she saw Hort flying to her and she mistook him for Rafal. Goodness. Even in OTK there were a few moments when it seemed that Sophie still has issues from that relationship. Very few, but they were there. 

Therefore I refuse to believe that the reason for this was anything other than to satisfy the majority of the fandom. In addition, the entire book feels like one huge “fan service”, as other ships are “sailing” as well. We have Hestadil and Bogden/Willam, but these two are at least believable. Hestadil started, even tho inconspicously, two books ago, and it resolved naturally. And beforehand they were close friends, so there’s that. As for the boys, they were side characters, so we can only think that all resolved while they were off the scene. 

To sum it up, I thought of three different endings I’d prefer for Sophie. 

On the first place, this was mentioned several times by other people, is that she should have stayed on her own. That happened in TLEA, but this time, really. I hated that OTK made it seem that she really needs a partner. Yes, love, but heck... is romantic love the only thing that is out there? How about friendship? Content with oneself? Pursuing hobbies that you love? Freedom? Come on. Awesome characters that end up single AND ARE HAPPY should have more representation. And I think Sophie would have been amazing like that. 

On the second place I have two things. First, Sophie with a girl. Only I’m not sure who. Maybe Nicola, or Betty if she survived. Or maybe, people might hate me for this, but... Dot? I don’t ship it but I think it could have been cute. Maybe they would start off getting closer as friends and the rest would be left up to the reader’s imagination.

The other preferable ending I have at second place was originally on the third place, but some weird nostalgia overcame me when reading OTK and I had to move it up. People will hate me. But if Sophie should end up with a guy, it should have been Rhian. Yes, I know what you are thinking right now. But think about it. That guy really believed he was Arthur’s son. Imagine if he found out the truth. Something tells me it would be really hard for him at first, but in the end, if he found out that Japeth really only wants Aric, he could’ve joined the protagonists. In my opinion Sophie had the best dynamic with him, before it all spiralled downwards with snakes etc. Maybe he could pretend to help his twin but in the end... I believe I read something like this somewhere on Tumblr as well. Also this kind of feels as if it could have been Soman’s original plan before he turned to pleasing the fans. Or maybe I’m just fantasising too much.  Regardless of how much you’re cursing me right now, I believe Rhian deserved better and shouldn’t have died. After all, he was the better twin. 

As for Hort, well, before OTK I didn’t really care for his character, I didn’t dislike him but he wasn’t my favourite. I simply wished him well hoping he’ll get over Sophie so he can be happy, either with Nicola/someone else, or on his own. After the last book made me resent him, I’m not sure. He could have died, but I know that is cruel. 

He could have been slowly realising that he doesn’t need Sophie, his love would fade away, maybe Nicola could break up with him in the process, then they would get back together, at a natural pace, realisation, etc. Or they wouldn’t, or they wouldn’t break up at all, just separate on different missions, and then reunite and realise they were truly meant to be together all along. 

Whew, if you made it here, congratulations. If you read this as a Hophie shipper, I’m not taking away your opinion. I just needed to let this out. Hope we can respect each other. 

...But I still kinda wish we could get another version of OTK where Hophie doesn’t happen. 

[lame-adventures]

Authors Note: So I know this is more than a week late but I got really busy and haven’t had a chance to publish it until now. I considered abandoning this, but I want to make it apart of holiday themed series. Enjoy!

A perfect Halloween

October 31st, 2020 - A Muggle Quarantine AU

“Oh bloody hell.” Lily murmured to herself, taking in the messy sight of her bathroom. “James! Harry! Get your butts in here.” She stuck her head out the bathroom door and hollered down the hallway.

“Yes love?” James Potter said, clambering down the hallway, holding his two year old daughter at his waist.

“What is it Mum?” Harry asked politely, hoping to avoid an overly-dramatic scolding from a nine-month pregnant Lily Potter.

“Someone care to explain?” Lily said, gesturing to the mess scattered throughout their bathroom.

Wet towels sat in piles on the floor, a whole roll of toilet paper was wrapped across the sink and shaving cream had been sprayed into the toilet itself.

“What the-?”James began, stopping himself from cussing in front of his children.

“Mum you’re a nutter. I would never.” Harry began lamely, rolling his eyes.

Lily eyed him suspiciously, her thirteen year old boy had been known to stir up quite a bit of mischief. And being quarantined inside for the past eight months, had spurred a new level of prankster in the boy.

(Of course it didn’t help that her husband egged on their child every chance he got.)

“Harry James.” James began sternly, his daughter shyly nuzzling her head deep into his shoulder. “This is too far.”

“I didn’t do that.” Harry whined, “I’m not a bloody child.”

“Oi. Language!” Lily snapped at him, she crossed her arms delicately on top of her protruding belly, and tapped her foot anxiously.

“Well? Who did this then?” James asked, setting down the two year old Sophie.

“Why doesn’t Hannah ever get this sort of inquisition?” Harry asked, referring to his eleven year old sister.

“Why are you using words like inquisition?” Lily asked while James bellowed down the stairs for Hannah to join them upstairs.

The Potter’s were, of course, a very rambunctious bunch. Constantly bugging each other and playing childish pranks. But Hannah took after her Mother, the same brightly colored ginger hair and vivid green eyes. Childish pranks were not Hannah’s forte, and her eyes went wide at the mess of the bathroom once she finally met the rest of her family upstairs.

“Oh,” She said, somewhat sheepishly, eyes turned downwards. “That was Sophie.”

“Soph?” James asked incredulously, the two year old in question cowered behind her Mother’s legs.

“Yup it was all Sophie. I saw her a little while ago, before you guys got up.” Hannah tattled.

“And why? In Gods name,” Lily began lowly, “did you not stop her?”

“Or get us?”

“Not my responsibility,” Hannah said firmly placing her hands on her hips.

“Han.” Harry said lowly. “You know this isn’t fair to Mum and Dad.”

“Well Dad kept yelling at me for being a tattletale.” She replied, a knowing smirk growing on her face. It was true in fact, that James had scolded her several times over the past few months for consistent need to tell her Mum and Dad whenever Harry did something slightly wrong.

“Welp. I’m going to put Soph in time out.” Lily said, bending down slightly to pick up the two year old who now sat innocently on the floor, sucking contently on her pacifier and purposely ignoring the conflict in front of her.

“You got this?” Lily asked James, before walking down the long hallway to their shared bedroom.

Lily heard yelling and groaning behind her as she shut the bedroom door, eyeing the armchair that sat in the corner of her bedroom. It had a pile of clothes on it, and with her free arm, Lily pushed the clothes on to the floor and set the squirmy toddler down.

She squatted as best as she could, with her large tummy in the way, and met Sophie’s eye level.

“You do not play in the bathroom.” Lily spoke sternly. “You do not make messes.”

The toddler stared at her mother, suppressing a smile as she sucked on her pacifier.

“This is not funny Sophie Lynn Potter.”

Sophie squealed in response, and Lily groaned loudly in frustration, standing up and pulling the pacifier out of Sophie’s mouth. This prompted the girl to begin screaming, and Lily walked towards her dressing table in agitation.

Her baby sat low inside her, kicking a sore spot near her ribs all morning, and Lily was in no mood to put up with screaming a two year old and bickering children.

It was the morning Halloween; normally her kids would be bouncing with excitement at the thought of classroom Halloween parties, and a night of trick or treating. Unfortunately this year, their new normal involved isolation inside their home while the world raged on outside in a mix of political chaos and a health crisis.

Lily still shudders thinking back to March earlier that year, in the same week the world had shut down and Lily had found out she was pregnant with her fourth child.

For the safety of both her and her unborn baby it was decided Lily would not leave their home at all, lest she come into contact with the virus. And Therefore, Lily has not left her home in eight months.

She looked sadly into her mirror, and took in her worn down appearance. At 33, Lily was at the typical age in which one would have babies. She was always attending some sort of baby shower event for her work colleagues, so getting pregnant at this age was completely normal. Of course she and James had done things a bit out of the normal when they started their family. James was at university, working on being scouted by some of the national football teams, while Lily was working towards a degree in journalism. They had only been dating for eight months when Lily fell pregnant for the first time. They were terrified of course, having a child so young, with so many unknowns of their future hanging in front of them. But once Lily gave birth to Harry, and she held him in her arms for the first time, they fell in love with the baby boy.

James earned a spot on Manchester United’s team, as a second string forward, and Lily got a job as a political commentator for BuzzFeed England. They bought a three story townhouse in the bustling downtown area of Manchester and got married on a chilly Halloween night, soon after they learned that Lily was once again pregnant.

Hannah was born, and for eight years the young family of four lived boisterously and happily. Her friends fawned over her children, and her co-workers cooed in delight when she announced once again she was pregnant when she was 30.

Sophie joined the Potter family in May, albeit her addition was unexpected, and Lily’s children were thrown for a loop with the shock of having to share their parents. Sophie was welcomed with so much overwhelming love that the youngest Potter quickly became spoiled with attention.

When the world locked down, and the five Potter’s learned that they would become six, Lily had been shaken with anxiety this time around. Frustrated with her government, growing bored with being home bound and irritated with her kids constantly yelling, Lily felt like crying.

She buried her face in her hands, and felt her baby kick her gently on the inside. She smiled softly, with as shitty as 2020 had been, there would definitely be a good ending for the Potter family.

James walked into the room, and pointedly ignored the screaming two year old. James and Lily quickly learned that the best way to deal with Sophie’s tantrums was to not give her the attention she was acting out for.

He walked around the side of the bed and wrapped his arms around Lily.

“Happy Anniversary love.” He said, kissing her cheek. “I’m sorry our kids had to start the day out like this.”

“Eh,” she shrugged, sinking into his arms. “I’d be bored without the chaos.”

She moved away from him, peeling off the large tee-shirt she had stolen from him years earlier and threw on a bright orange sweater. A big pumpkin displayed proudly across her belly.

“I made Hannah clean up, Harry is supervising.”

“That’ll end well I’m sure.” She laughed, throwing her hair up into a sloppy ponytail.

“You still up for our plans tonight?” He asked, scooping up Sophie in his arms once she finally stopped crying, and sitting down in the arm chair. He picked up the remote and flicked on the Telly to the morning news.

“Yes, It’ll have to get done soon anyways.” She said, patting her tummy, and smiling when she felt a small kick near her hand. The baby was due in two weeks, and they had yet to put the nursery together.

With four children, their house would quickly become crowded and James had taken to several quarantine projects in effort to make more room for his family. He began with converting the upstairs attack into a room for Harry, complete with his own Telly, a new gaming system and a mini fridge. James then began the task of converting Harry’s old bedroom into a nursery for the new baby.

They had decided to wait on the sex of their child, and opted to paint the bedroom yellow. Marlene had come by a week prior and painted a mural of characters from Lily’s favorite book to read to her kids, Winnie the Pooh.

Harry and Hannah would be spending the evening at the Weasley’s and James’ Mother would be stopping by this afternoon to pick up Sophie for an evening of spoiling, giving James and Lily some much needed alone time. They had incredibly exciting plans, of eating take-away and preparing the nursery.

Soon enough, James had declared he was taking Harry and Hannah to the market to do a little bit of shopping, and Lily sat at home with Sophie. She planted the child in front of the Telly in her bedroom, whilst Lily sat on her bed, editing her latest article for Buzzfeed. This was the last article she had to write before starting maternity leave, and she was hellbent in making it one of her best ones yet.

Her back ached, and she sighed as she noticed Sophie beginning to get restless. Quarantine had been rough for everyone, and being locked up with a whiny toddler began to take a toll only Lily’s nerves.

She slammed her laptop shut and sighed out in frustration, taking in the sight of her daughter. The girl mimicked her Mother, with curly red hair and freckles skin. But she took James' playful smile, and his aptitude for mischief. It wasn’t Sophie’s fault that she misbehaved so often of course, she was bored. Two year olds needed to be out exploring the world, and Sophie was locked inside with her anxious parents.

When the shut downs began, Lily was still required to work. Most days, she was shut away, writing articles and having conferences over zoom. James hasn’t worked since March, and he was tasked with entertaining the kids most days.

Thankfully Harry and Hannah could occupy themselves with school, and once summer came around they got to see their friends again.

But poor Sophie rarely got the sole attention from her Mother anymore, and so Lily took this as an opportunity to spend some much needed one on one time with her youngest daughter.

They made sugar cookies, and the rest of her family came home to find Lily and Sophie sitting in a mess of orange icing, surrounded by dozens of pumpkin shaped cookies.

James presented Lily with a bouquet of sunflowers and she squealed in delight when Harry gave her a box of chocolates and a card.

“It’s from all of us.” He said nonchalantly. “Happy Anniversary.”

James grinned, rustling Harry’s hair and pointed towards a framed photo on the wall next to the stove. It was of James, Lily and Harry as a baby. The day they got married.

“It’s a shame you don’t remember it. You were throwing up from all the cake Uncle Sirius let you eat.”

“It was a beautiful day.” Lily said, shoving a cookie towards Harry. “Let’s not dwell on when Harry threw up all over me.”

At three that afternoon, Mia Potter entered their home, with bags of Halloween treats for Harry and Hannah. She came with her digital camera, demanding the kids get dressed in their costumes for an impromptu Halloween photo op. James had struggled to get Sophie into her Peppa Pig costume, and Harry and Hannah had squeezed into their wizard costumes from the previous year.

Lily begrudgingly got through the picture part of the afternoon, and sat patiently in the living room while James served the tea.

“Any signs of arrival?” Mia asked, the elder Mrs Potter was nearing eighty now. She waited nearly fifty years for her only son, and was more than thrilled when her grandchildren had been born.

“Not yet,” Lily said. “Unfortunately. I’m starting to feel like I’ll be pregnant forever. But I’m trying to enjoy it, because this is definitely the last one.”

“You said that after Hannah.” Mia reminded her.

“We mean it this time.” James said, sitting next to Lily and handing her a mug of tea. “We are stopping at four.”

“Yeah we are out of room here.” Harry said assuredly. “And you don’t want to turn into the Weasley’s.”

James laughed at that, he couldn’t even fathom seven children. The thought of having four was already quelling lots of new anxieties.

“Oh well. I’ve already got four perfect grandchildren.” Mia said, standing up and patting Hannah on the head.

“We best be getting off though, I have quite the evening planned for this sweet girl.” She said, picking up Sophie and kissed her cheek.

Lily kissed her goodbye, and made her way to the kitchen while James accompanied his Mother outside.

“Harry go help Mum clean up.” She heard Hannah whine.

“Well why don’t you?”

“You two better not bring this bickering over to the Weasley’s.” Lily interrupted the brewing fight.

“Sorry Mum.” Hannah said sheepishly, taking the kettle of her Mother’s hands. “We’ll behave.” She said pointedly, staring at Harry.

“Yes. I promise.” Harry said, kissing his mother’s cheek. “Enjoy your night with Dad.”

“What time are they expecting you lot?” Lily asked, leading the way to the kitchen.

“Dad said he’ll drive us over there at seven.” Harry said, moving to load the dishwasher.

“Make sure you take some of those cookies over there with you.” Lily said, it broke her heart slightly. That her kids were at the age where they would rather spend Halloween with their friends rather than their parents.

Halloween had always been a bit of a weird holiday for the Potter’s. It began in their first year of University, when James and Lily met at a party that James and his friends were throwing. Remus had practically begged Lily to join him at their party, insisting she would get along greatly with his friends. Lily’s roommate Marlene had excitedly encouraged Lily to “get drinks and get laid.” Lily did get laid that night, after immediately hitting it off with James. They spent hours talking together, laughing and drinking and dancing. They ended up in bed, in a drunken tangle of limbs, and Lily fell in love. (James had been in love the moment he laid eyes on her.)

The second Halloween spent together was presumed to be when Harry was conceived, again at a party that James had been throwing. Sirius had given Lily a brownie with a little “surprise ingredient,” and she had failed to make sure that James was using a condom that night.

They would never forget their fourth Halloween together. It left a number of scars, and an emotional strain on the young couple for years to come. It had begun with a disasterly dreadful dinner with her sister and her oaf of a husband. They had met at a posh restaurant near Lily’s hometown and the night had ended with Lily in tears after Petunia’s verbal attack. It was the same old conversation; that Lily was a disappointment to her Mother, that Lily was a freak, a failure. A slut for having a baby at such a young age.

She was silent as she walked to the car, hand in hand with James while he struggled to carry their crying infant son at his hip. She insisted on driving, that driving was calming, and James didn’t want to upset her further. He strapped his son into his car seat and climbed into the front seat, plugging in his phone and scrolling through his playlist to find Lily’s favorite artist.

He didn’t notice the red light, the rain was coming down too hard and he was focused on trying to calm the screaming baby in the back. A truck had barreled into them, flipping their car and nearly killing the young family.

Harry was left with a terrible scar on his forehead. The baby had a concussion and slept for days after the accident. James too had a concussion, and shattered his arm. Lily had been in a coma for nearly a month.

They nearly died that Halloween, James and Lily shudder at the thought of everything they could have lost. And they are thankful everyday for the family that they have.

The following year they decided to make Halloween into a happy memory. That morning Lily had taken a pregnancy test and a pink plus sign glared back at her. She cried for most of the morning, frustrated with her inability to use contraception. James was quick to ease Lily’s frustrations, reminding her that they wanted more kids in the future anyways, and that Harry was unplanned and ‘look at how good we are at making babies’. They took Harry Trick or Treating for the first time, dressed in a dog costume and laughed at Uncle Sirius’ tricks.

Afterwards they eloped, James had declared that they waited long enough, and they found a twenty four hour chapel. Halloween was the anniversary of when they met, and when they became a family. It was the day their family lived, and the day that their family was growing. It was the perfect day to get married.

Halloween in 2020 would be different of course. Harry and Hannah hadn’t bought costumes that year, and Sophie would miss out on her first chance to go trick or treating. Lily sat at her kitchen table and thought about this sadly, she had a few hours left before Harry and Hannah left and she wanted to make the most of it.

“Would you like to watch a movie?” She asked, smiling at her kids as they finished cleaning up from their afternoon tea.

“Erm.” Harry said, anxious to get upstairs on his Xbox before he left tonight.

“Han? C’mon guys. We never get time like this. We can watch something scary.”

Hannah agreed, and after Lily said she would make cheesy popcorn, Harry agreed too.

James joined them, and excitedly picked out The Conjuring declaring that Hannah was old enough to watch it.

Lily sat contently, as her daughter curled up next to her and they shared a bowl of popcorn. She observed James as he sat cross legged on the floor, leaning up against the couch, throwing popcorn at Harry.

Lily dozed off after a while, and her family dared not to wake her. Once the credits rolled, Lily stirred and found Harry and Hannah at the front door with their overnight bags.

“Behave.” She told Harry sternly, “I don’t want any calls from Mrs.Weasley tonight. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him Mum.”

“Please don’t.” James interjected, “that will just cause a fight. Don’t embarrass yourselves.”

Hannah rolled her eyes, and Lily laughed as she planted one last kiss on her daughter’s forehead.

“Any requests for dinner love?” James asked her before leaving to drive the kids to the Weasley's.

“Something fried.” Lily said, shutting the door behind him.

By the end of the night Lily was ready to sleep for a century. Once James had returned with bags of take-away, she had eaten her weight in fish and chips and spent the rest organizing the nursery. James had mastered putting cribs together by now, and had easily built this new one within an hour. He had put together the dresser, and was now working on the changing table while Lily began to organize the drawers of the dresser.

“You know this is probably going to be the last time we are alone for a long time.” James said, sitting down on the floor and throwing his tools back into the tool box.

“Yeah.” She bit her lip sadly, things were about to get chaotic. They both knew that when they decided to have a fourth baby. “I just wish this was happening at a different time. I mean I won’t even be able to give birth in a hospital. It’s really scary.”

“It’ll be alright.” He said, she moved to sit down next to him. It was awkward of course, she moved slowly, and James reached his arm around her waist to help steady her to the ground. She sat with her legs stretched out infront of her, and her hands resting carelessly on top of her belly.

“Just a few more weeks.” James mused, setting his hand on top of hers. “Are you nervous?”

“Very.” She nodded.

“Me too. But it’ll be fine.” He willed himself to believe it. He had hoped that the pandemic would have been controlled enough by now that Lily would be able to go to the hospital to deliver their baby. But her doctor had advised against it, saying that Lily was healthy enough to deliver on her own and to do so in a hospital would be an unnecessary risk.

“We have a plan for the moment labor starts. Mum, Sirius, and Marlene are ready to spring into action the second we call them.” James spoke simply, the best way to calm down a spiraling Lily was to talk her through it.

He turned his head to kiss her on the temple, and he softly whispered into her hair. “You’ve done this three times already Lil. You’re great at it. Everything will be okay.”

“I guess it will be kinda nice being at home this time. And in my own bed.” She said lowly.

“See? Look on the bright side. And just think love, in a few weeks she’ll be here and things will be better. I promise you.”

Lily looked at him incredulously, “she?”

“Yea. She. It’s a girl, I know it.”

“It’s a boy James. We’ve talked about this.”

“Blah blah. ‘Mothers intuition’ and all that.” He rolled his eyes, “you have been wrong about our other two girls. I don’t trust your intuition.”

“I want Harry to have a brother. It’s not fair he’s going to be outnumbered.”

“You and Hannah were outnumbered for years.” James laughed, reminding her of the years spent with Sirius and Remus as part of her family.

“Exactly! I don’t want Harry to feel like that.”

“Whatever, I’m happy with whatever we get. Even if it means you're wrong.”

She was wrong of course. Her baby came later that night, weeks before her due date, and after hours of screaming at James for putting her in this spot; she gave birth to a tiny, precious girl.

They called her Phoebe, she was small, and wrinkly and very pink. She had a mess of thick black hair and her tiny fingers curled around Lily’s finger while she held her daughter in adoration.

Labor came suddenly, and Lily couldn’t remember her other children hurting this badly. She laid in her bed and cried for her Mother, while James panicked. He called Marlene over, she was a nurse and Lily had insisted that she would only feel comfortable giving birth at home if Marlene was there to act as a midwife.

By midnight Lily was crying into James' chest as she pushed her daughter out into the world.

James held Lily tight, as Lily held her daughter to her chest and began to feed her. He took a quick picture of the newborn, and sent it to Harry and his mother. And whispered to Lily, “you did amazing. Again.”

She looked up at him, smiling wildly. “Shes lovely James, we did this.”

“Well obviously. But you did the hard part.”

“It’s okay.” She sighed, labor had been a bitch. She was horribly sore, and exhausted. She smiled down at the baby in her arms, “it was worth it.”

“Happy anniversary love.” He said.

“Happy Halloween.” She beamed at him.

Halloween was good for the Potter family. They had another happy Halloween story to add to their collection, the day Phoebe was born.

This year may have been shit, but it was ending happily within the chaos of the Potter home.

“Happy Birthday.” James leaned down and kissed his daughter's tiny head.

[reighlee-greaves]

Snapped : Tom Hiddleston x Reader

So this is a collaboration between me and @just-the-hiddles who is responsible for half of the dialogue and the header image. I would like to thank @just-the-hiddles for giving me the idea for this x reader.

-Summary- Tom and the reader get into a heated argument about a photo that the paparazzi snapped of her and her ex Sebastian Stan. To apologise Tom enlists the help of Benedict.

Tag list

@just-the-hiddles

@confetti-its-an-imagine-blog

Masterlist

———————————————————————

Tom hadn't glanced at his phone that morning until well after his run. When he picked it up, he found himself bombarded with voice messages and texts. They all were about one thing. He clicked on one of the links to find a headline from the Daily Mail blaring out him: Hiddles Out, Seb In. Romance Rekindled.

Tom's face paled as he scrolled to find a grainy photo of you looking rather cozy with your ex, Sebastian Stan. Without another thought, Tom grabbed his keys and headed towards your place.

“Tom, what are you doing here our date isn’t until tomorrow?” you asked Tom.

Tom barged through the door, his face red. "Care to explain this?!" he yelled as he shoved his phone in your face.

“Tom I—“ you began only to be cut off by Tom’s frantic pacing.

“—I, I, I," he mocked. "You can't even come up with a plausible lie for why you were photographed with your ex."

“Ok, Tom if you calm down I can explain why I was with Seb in the first place.”

"Calm down!!? I will not fucking calm down! My phone is filled with messages and texts of condolences, of questions. You've humiliated me publicly and you tell me to calm down?!" Tom seethed. His hands flexed at his side, a death grip on his phone.

You took a step back, away from him.

“Tom I didn’t mean to humiliate you. I bumped into Sebastian, and he congratulated me on our relationship. Besides, what about that photo of you and your ex that I got tagged in on Twitter the other week?”

"That's completely different! We dated for six months. And that story was about her new project, not about me having an affair. You and Sebastian were together for three years! Three years! And in case you missed it, I am apparently out and he is in!"

“So you can be friends with your exes but I can’t be friends with mine?” Your voice trembled. You had never seen Tom so mad.

"That's not the point! The point is you didn't see the problem with being photographed with him and how it would affect me. Affects us. And if you don't see the problem with that, I'm not sure this relationship can work." Tom's shoulders slumped.

“I cannot believe that you just said that Thomas Hiddleston!” you yelled in frustration.

"I can't believe you would cheat on me. But here we are. Goodbye." Tom turned and left as quickly as he came.

Once the door slammed behind him, he only then allowed the tears to fall. As he walked down the sidewalk, with shaking hands, he punched in a familiar number.

"Ben? Can I come by? Yeah. It's about that. Thanks."

-

Ben steepled his fingers in front of his mouth as Tom stood huffing in front of him.

"If you are done with your tantrum, can I say something?"

“What?!” Tom snapped.

Ben leaned back at Tom's tone."Okay, first of all, there is no need to snap my head off. You called me. I am here to help you."

“I’m sorry Ben, I didn’t mean to snap at you.” Tom replied before sighing. “I’m just frustrated.”

"In more ways than one, I'm sure." Ben chuckled to himself.

"What I was trying to say before you turned into a small child was... exes are exes for a reason. She is a good person. I am sure there is a innocent explanation."

“Like what Ben, they just happened to bump into each other?” Tom questioned as he slumped further into Ben’s sofa.

"Perhaps. That does happen. You know how you sometimes just bump to your exes." Ben raised a knowing eyebrow. "The point is coincidences happen. And the paparazzi are ruthless. But you can't let them get inside your head."

“But it’s Sebastian Stan we’re talking about!” Tom crowed.“They were together for three years Ben, THREE YEARS! He was her first everything.”

"And you can be her last everything. But not if you don't pull your head out of arse and talk to the poor girl. Honestly, you are about to ruin the best thing in your life over a single photo."

“What do I say to her, Ben, I’ve already lost her.”

Benedict moved to sit next to Tom. He clapped his hand on Tom's knees. “Use all those big words you learned at Cambridge. Tell her you love her. Tell her you were a prized idiot for ever letting her get away. Tell her you will spend the rest of your days proving to her you are worthy of her love. Tell her she is your one.”

Tom sighed as he let Ben’s words sink in. “ Do you think you and Sophie could help me with that?”

Ben smiled. "I believe that can be arranged."

The Next Day

You awoke to a constant pounding against your front door. As you stumbled to the door, bathrobe wrapped around, you opened the door to find Sophie standing there, two coffees in hand.

"Get dressed, we're going shopping."

“Alright, alright, I’m coming hold on.” you groaned as she invited Sophie inside.

Sophie settled herself onto a kitchen chair, and slid one of the coffee cups in your direction. "Here, I got it how you like it."

“Thanks Soph, give me about twenty minutes and I’ll be ready.”

Sophie yelled after as you trot off to get ready. "I'll be waiting with bells on!"

Once you were out of sight, Sophie whipped out her phone and typed a message off to Ben.

Got her to agree to shopping. You should have several hours to get things ready. Don't fuck this up.

After an agonisingly slow twenty minutes you were ready. “Let’s go, Soph.”

"Took you long enough. I was about ready to make myself some lunch."

You shot daggers at Sophie.

"Now..." Sophie linked arms with you as both of you exited the house. "...what's new with you?"

“Oh nothing much, I bumped into Sebastian the other day and the paparazzi caught us. I think Tom’s mad at me even though we weren’t doing anything.” you explained.

"I didn't realize you and Seb were still close. How many years were you together again?" Sophie asked, acting stupid.

“We were together for three years, Soph. We still chat every so often but it means nothing. We’re friends now. But nothing more.” you replied.

Sebastian and you broke because of many things. Partially because of the long distance, and also the fact that you wanted to settle down and have a few children. Sebastian wanted to pursue his acting career longer before settling down with a wife and kids. He still wanted the life of a bachelor.

”Have you told Tom that? Or the reasons you and Sebastian broke up?"

“I tried to Sophie, but he stormed out of my house before I could. He didn’t even say goodbye.” you sighed.

"Try harder. He looks like he is made of marble, but his heart is as fragile as glass. He must care about you to have such a vehement reaction."

“I know, I know, but I have no idea how to tell him. It’s hard for me to express myself, you know?”

“For two such sensitive and dramatic people, the both of you are horrid at saying what you feel." Sophie taunted. "How about calling him up and saying 'I love you' and I want to be with you and only you?"

“That is the sort of thing you say in person.” you responded.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Sophie grabbed your arm and pulled you down the street off towards Tom's.

-

“Ben, has Sophie text you yet to see when she’s bringing you here?” Tom asked as he paced up and down his kitchen.

Benedict fished his phone out of his pocket. As he scrolled through his messages, his eyes widened. "They are on their way over right now."

“Shit!” mumbled a panicked Tom.

“How do I look? Do I look ok? Do I smell?” Tom asked a smirking Benedict.

Benedict picked at Tom's sweater, smoothing it out. "Like sex on a stick, mate." He gave Tom a wink.

“Ok, ok I can do this...” Tom whispered to himself as the doorbell rang. Tom whipped back around to Ben for a moment. "No, I can't! You answer the door." Tom shoved Benedict towards the foyer.

"Are you serious!?" Ben protested. "This is your house and if I answer the door, it will be even more awkward than it already is. So man up and answer the damn door!" Benedict pushed Tom hard causing him to stumble, falling against the front door.

"Is everyone alright in there?" Sophie's voice called out from the other side of the door.

“Just a moment!” Tom yelled back.

“Ok what do I say to her, do I say hi or hello or—“ Tom rambled only to get cut off by Ben.

"I swear to God man, if you don't open that door right now and let my wife and your girlfriend in right this second, I am telling this story at your wedding. Pull yourself together!" Ben hissed before disappearing to the kitchen.

“Ok I got this.” Tom said as he opened the door.

"About bloody time." Benedict muttered just out of sight.

"Tom!" Sophie greeted him with a warm hug. “Guess who I brought with me." She tugged you into view.

“Hello ladies.” Tom greeted the pair with a smile. "Please come on in.”

You shuffled in behind Sophie and gave Tom an awkward smile.

"So... Thomas," Sophie interjected. "Where is my impossible husband?"

“Ah, he’s in the kitchen.”

"Then I shall see myself that way." Sophie exited before giving time for either of you to protest.

“So Tom how are you?” you asked awkwardly as you stepped into the living room.

"I've been better." Tom commented as he followed you into the room. He offered you her favourite spot on the sofa which you took and he sat down in the chair across from her. "And you?"

“I’ve had better days. We need to talk about yesterday.”

"I'm sorry I overreacted.” Tom started in. “It's just that you were dating Sebastian for so long and this relationship is new. I worried about losing you." Tom reached out to grab your hand, giving it a slight squeeze. "And I care about you too much to have that happen."

“No I’m the one who should apologise, I didn’t tell you I bumped into Sebastian before you saw those photos.” You squeezed his hand back before continuing. “I care about you too, and I should have been upfront about everything at the start of our relationship. I guess I was scared of losing you too.”

Tom chuckled. "Sounds like both of us are just a bunch of sorry fools. Forgive me?" He looked at you with hopeful eyes.

“Of course I forgive you, will you forgive me too?”

Tom leaned over, his hand ran along the curve of your cheek. "Always, my love." He pressed his lips against hers for a moment.

Only to be interrupted by cheers from the kitchen.

Tom chuckled. "I believe we have an audience. Come out, you two!" He called out to Ben and Sophie.

“So now that that’s out of the way, what is that delicious smell?” you asked as you sniffed the air.

Benedict poked his head around the corner. "Steak frites. Your favourite."

Sophie snuck around the corner. "Now if you don't mind us, we need to get back to the babysitter. We'll show ourselves out."

Once Sophie and Ben left, you turned to Tom with your arm stretched out. “Come eat with me please?”

"With pleasure."

[moldisgoodforyou]

kickboxing

sorry i don’t care abt my titles and it clearly shows !!!! this one is dedicated to @sunnypogue and @everybodyscupoftea you guys should see the pegging jokes in our groupchat

wordcount: 3.2k

warnings: it’s flirty at the start and then it’s smutty at the end

_____

“Where are you going?” Colin questioned as Rafe and Sophie came down the stairs, both dressed in workout gear. Rafe was normally adamant on running alone (“it’s like my therapy,” he’d said, only for James to mutter in response “maybe you should try real therapy”).

“We’re doing a kickboxing class. It’s free at the student rec center.” Sophie responded as she tied up her hair into a ponytail, swatting Rafe’s hand away when he tugged at the ends of her hair.

“You two? You’re trying this together?” James asked skeptically, eyeing the both of them.

“Yeah, why?” Sophie asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she put up her arms in defense, pretending to punch Rafe’s arm. “I’m gonna be great at it.”

“You two are gonna kill each other.” Colin remarked dryly, shaking his head. “You’re too competitive.”

“We are not -” Rafe started in protest.

“Last week the kitchen was covered in flour because one of you started a fight when you were making cookies. Neither of you have a limit.”

“It was his fault -”

“It was your fault!” Rafe exclaimed, ducking his head when Sophie pretend-punched him again. “Sophie, if you hit me one more fucking time -”

“What. What are you gonna do.” She rolled her eyes and returned to bouncing on her feet, going to punch his chest a little harder this time, just because she could.

James snorted.

“Don’t encourage her.” Rafe glared at James as he caught her fist in his hand, narrowing his eyes at her. “I’m kicking your ass in this class now. Just you wait.”

“I’d love to see you try.” She grinned and smacked a kiss to his cheek. “C’mon. The gym awaits.”

“My money’s on Soph.” James commented as he watched the two leave hand in hand.

“Oh, absolutely. He won’t stand a chance.” Colin agreed, a small smile on his face as he watched Rafe jog around to her side to beat her before she could open her own car door. “Fucking simp.”

____

After they both got all the equipment on and did a small warmup, the lesson began. “Everyone pick your partner, please!” The instructor announced, and Sophie turned to the guy next to her with a grin, about to open her mouth.

“Do you want to partner up?” The guy asked politely, offering his hand to shake.

Rafe stepped in between the two and slung his arm around Sophie’s shoulders with a scowl. “She has a partner, thanks though.”

“Oh. Sorry.” The guy apologized, turning away to look for someone else.

She raised her eyebrows at Rafe. “I was giving you the chance to pair up with someone more your skill level, baby.”

He scoffed. “Okay. Whatever. You’re just trying to piss me off.”

“I would never!” She mock-gasped, tugging off her shirt and tossing it at him to leave her in a sports bra and small tight shorts. The attire wasn’t out of place for the class, fitting in with the other girls, but Rafe narrowed his eyes.

“Sophie.”

“Yes.”

He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “Don’t be a brat.”

“I’m not. You’re overthinking. Pay attention.” She checked her hip against his, turning her attention to the instructor as they went over a series of standard kicks and punches. Both of them were ultra-tuned in, carefully correcting each other’s form if something looked off and encouraging each other after a strong hit.

After he took her down - again - with a well-timed kick to the calves to sweep her off her feet, she clambered back up and shoved at his shoulder. “Hit me harder.”

“What? I am hitting you.”

“You’re going too easy on me.” She squared up again, bouncing on her feet. “Stop holding back.”

He squared up too, responding with a quick punch to her stomach that she deflected. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t. Come on, try harder.” She tried another series of punches that he easily blocked again.

“Okay, but don’t complain because you’re too slow.” He caught her off guard with a punch to the ribs, making her groan.

“Fuck. Okay.” She breathed out, trying to kick out at him. He caught her ankle easily, throwing her off balance and sending her toppling to the floor. She lay on her back for a moment, trying to catch her breath and glanced up at him. His smug little smile was enough fuel to get her up again.

“You alright? Need some water?” He asked, concerned, and reached out to her on instinct.

She took the opportunity to send a punch straight to his gut, making him keel over. “I’m fine, pay attention.”

“Jesus.” He breathed out, standing up again and tried to hit her again unsuccessfully. “You’re not mad at me, right? ‘Cause if you are, we should probably talk it out first. Did I do something?”

“No.” She retaliated with a kick to his hip, knocking him off balance again. “No, just trying to do this right. It’s like, pent up tension from when we used to fight for real.”

He laughed and hit her a little harder, taking advantage of her surprised reaction and hooked his leg under hers, knocking her to the ground and pinning her easily. “Got it. Maybe try harder though?”

“I could peg you, you know.” She muttered in his ear as he laid on top of her. He choked, eyes going wide, completely caught off guard.

“You could what?”

That was enough distraction for her to flip them over, despite his six foot three frame, and she grinned down at him, triumphant. “You heard me.”

It only took another moment for him to flip them back over and he pinned her down for real, letting her go after a few seconds. “I won.”

“Hardly.” She argued, accepting his hand to get up. “I almost had you.”

“By manipulation alone.” He retorted. “You’re really cute when you’re trying, though.”

“Fuck off.” She scowled, shaking out her arms. “Let’s go again.”

He grinned, doing the same. “You didn’t mean that.”

“Let’s go again? Yeah, I do, we have fifteen minutes left here.” She attempted a series of hits, batted away by him.

“No. What you just said. The - the thing.” He faltered, cursing when she kicked at his thigh. Even though she was fairly flexible, he still had quite a few inches on her and the balance of height and strength was clearly off.

“I absolutely fucking did.” Her eyes were bright and he was surprised she wasn’t holding back a laugh, but smirking instead.

“No. You’re just trying to catch me off guard. You and those tiny little shorts.” He retorted, letting his gaze trail over the small drops of sweat gathering across her chest.

She did the same - she’d been thinking the entire time about peeling the sweaty tank off his body and having her way with him in the locker room showers. (It’d never happen, of course, she’d die if they got caught, but a girl can dream.) When he checked her back into reality with a firm but gentle kick to the stomach, making her stumble backward, she shook her head. “Sorry. What?”

He smirked. “Pay attention. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I am paying - god. You suck.” She breathed out, aiming a punch at his chin.

He batted it away easily. “Hey! Not the face.”

“Oh my god, you’re such a Leo.” She grumbled, pretend-swinging at his cheek just to antagonize him.

He just grabbed her wrist to stop her, using his height to his advantage. “I still don’t understand any of that. Can we get smoothies after this?”

“Fucking - focus, Rafe.” She hissed, wrenching her arm free and tried kicking at him again. He turned away from the kick and caught her with a couple punches to the shoulders, making her hiss. After a few deflected hits back and forth on both their ends, he managed to catch her off guard again and pin her, laying on her like a dead weight as she struggled.

“Aw. That was cute.”

She bit at his earlobe, making him giggle - literally - and scrunch up his shoulders.

“Sophie!”

“That was cute.” She retorted, flinging his own words back at him. “Get the fuck off me.”

“Only if you admit I’m better than you at this.”

“Never in a million fucking years.” She growled, shoving at him.

“Must you be so stubborn?” He rolled his eyes, only getting off her when the instructor clapped her hands to signal the end of the class. He tugged his gloves off and leaned down to give her a hand.

She laid there for another moment to catch her breath, eyes squeezed shut, then accepted his hand to hoist her up and leaned into his side as the instructor thanked everyone and handed out flyers about the next classes offered.

He glanced down at her, affectionately stroking his hand over the top of her head. “You good?”

“Yeah.” She nodded, letting him pull off her gloves to return them. “Just tired. And probably bruised.”

Rafe laughed, grabbing his keys and their water bottles then slung his arm around her shoulders to walk them out. “You said not to go easy. Do you want to go home, take a nap?”

“I’d rather do something else.” She muttered, matching his stride to walk with him out to the car.

“Huh?” He asked as he opened the car door for her, offering her a hand to step up. Once she sat, she fisted the front of his tank and pulled him close to kiss him, hard. “Oh, hello.” He mumbled against her lips, caught off guard.

“Hi.” She breathed out, pressing her forehead against his. “I really wanted to fuck you in the locker room. You’re so hot when you’re sweaty.”

His eyes went wide and he didn’t dare move, frozen in his spot. “We haven’t left the parking lot yet. We can go inside.”

Sophie giggled and pressed her hand flat against his chest, pushing him back. “We can’t do that. You know that.”

“Says who?” He leaned in again to kiss her hungrily, only to be pushed away by her again.

“We’re not breaking the rules. My place or yours?”

“Uh...check Find My Friends. See who’s home.” He jogged around to the driver’s seat, jamming his key in the ignition, and started up the car.

She swiped through her phone, then nodded. “Okay. My place, but we’re quiet anyways, so it doesn’t really matter.” She glanced over at him, then down to his lap. “Are you seriously already -”

“Yeah. Have been since you took your shirt off, I’m surprised you didn’t notice.” He gave her a sheepish grin, his cheeks going red, and shifted in his seat. “And it does matter.”

“Why?” She leaned over and swiped her thumb over a drop of sweat from his forehead before it could fall into his eye.

“Why am I hard? You’re really asking that?”

“No.” She giggled, shoving at his shoulder. “Why does it matter if anyone’s home?”

“Because. I want to hear you.” He raised his eyebrows at her. “It’s more fun that way.”

“Mmhmm.” She let her hand slide down to the back of his neck, playing with the hair at the nape of her neck.

“So, uh, what was that, that you said earlier?”

“Hm?”

“The thing. Uh, when you pinned me. Just for a second though.” He refused to look at her, his face turning more and more red and she could see a clear tent in his shorts.

“Ohhh.” She grinned, leaning closer. “The pegging thing.”

“Yes. That. I thought you’d only been with one other guy?” He glanced at her and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, clearly nervous.

“I’ve been with four others -”

“No. Just sex. Like, all the way.”

“Oh. Yeah, just you and someone else.” She nodded. “What are you getting at?”

“So you, uh.” He pushed his sweaty hair back from his forehead, glancing at her again. “You pegged this guy?”

Sophie burst out laughing, shaking her head. “Rafe, what?”

“You said it so casually earlier! Like you’ve done it before!” He exclaimed, reaching over and grabbing her hand. “So you haven’t?”

“No, oh my god, I haven’t pegged anyone.” She giggled, kissing the back of his hand. “You’re so dumb sometimes.”

“Why’d you bring it up then!” Rafe retorted, all the tension gone from his body.

“I just wanted to catch you off guard.” She grinned, sliding her hand up his thigh and grazed over his hard cock in his shorts, putting on a teasing tone. “Why? Do you want that?”

He jerked his leg, cursing as he bumped his knee into the steering wheel. “I - I thought only lesbians did that.”

“No. I don’t think so. Julia -”

“No!” Rafe exclaimed, slapping his hand over her mouth. “I do not want to hear about the girls and their sex lives -”

She licked his palm to get him to let go and immediately regretted it, tasting the sweat. “Oh my god, no, nothing happened. She almost hooked up with a guy that asked her to but she got too scared.”

“Huh.” He wrinkled his nose, more focused on trying to get the mental image of Julia out of his head.

“I’d do it, you know. If you wanted me to.” She raised her eyebrows at him, dropping the teasing tone.

“I have no doubt you would. But I think that’d be too much power going to your head.” He grinned as he pulled into her driveway. “Plus you hate taking control in bed anyways.”

“That is not - I’ll fucking show you.” She protested, hopping out of the car and striding into her house without waiting for him. He just snorted and followed her in and up the stairs, unsurprised that she took it as a challenge. When he made it up, a couple seconds later, he opened her bedroom door to be greeted by her leaning against the wall in the tiny little shorts and her sports bra, her shirt and shoes discarded on the floor.

“Hello.” He greeted, amused, and closed the door behind him.

“I want you undressed.” She replied evenly, eyeing him over.

“That’s hardly fair, you’re still dressed.” He shot back but kicked off his shoes anyways. He loved when she got like this, all bossy and demanding - it just reminded him of what they were like before they dated and how many times he wished their arguments before could end in kissing and making up.

“Okay.” She opened her arms wide. “Have at me.”

He grinned and tugged off his tank top, striding toward her. “Thought you were taking control?”

“I am, I’m telling you what to do, but you get to do the work. I’m tired - Rafe!” She squealed, giggling as he picked her up and tossed her onto the bed.

“Yes ma’am?” He hooked his fingers into the sides of her shorts, hovering over her and raised his eyebrows as he glanced up. “You gonna instruct me, or…?”

“Mm. Pretty sure you know what to do from here, actually.” She leaned back with a smug smile, intertwining her fingers behind her head.

He snorted and dragged her shorts down her legs. “Brat.” He pressed teasing kisses up her thighs, spreading her legs apart slowly.

She shuddered in anticipation as the cool air hit her, sitting up a little bit. “Rafe.”

“Yeah.” He kissed everywhere but where she wanted, making her squirm. He dug his fingers into her thighs and dragged the tip of his tongue up the inside of her thigh.

“Please.”

“Please what.” He kissed up her stomach, making her huff in frustration as she tangled her fingers in his hair.

“Please, just - oh, fuck.” She gasped as he slid his thumb over her clit, slipping two fingers inside of her easily as he grazed his teeth over her collarbone. He laughed at how easy she was to please, how predictable she could be sometimes - though he did suppose he knew her body like the back of his hand now. She whined quietly underneath him, pressing her hips toward his hand. “So good, Rafe.”

“Louder. I want to hear you.” He encouraged, curling his fingers toward himself. It only took a few more breathy moans and quick passes of his thumb over her clit before she was whimpering against his lips, unable to stay quiet. “C’mon, Soph, want you to come for me.”

She nodded, desperate, as he worked her body expertly. When she finally came, she curled her arm around his neck, holding him tight to her. “Fuck, I love you,” she breathed out, pressing a kiss to his temple.

“Love you too.” He mumbled against her collarbone, nipping at the skin. “Even if you are a brat.”

“You love it.” She giggled, leaning back enough so she could wrestle her sports bra off, struggling a little as it stuck to her skin.

He helped her tug it off, kicking off his shorts too. “Are we still pretending you’re in charge here, or…?”

She was too tired to argue but scowled anyways, gesturing loosely at the nightstand. “Yeah. Grab a condom, I want you to fuck me. Can we get sushi later?”

Rafe laughed, leaning over, and grabbed a condom, rolling it down himself. “It’s Sunday. Our place is closed.” He teased his cock against her, glancing up at her for approval.

She nodded, sliding her hand up her back to comb her fingers through his hair. “Right. Um - fuck -” She gasped as he entered her. “Thai?”

“Nah. Burgers?” He thrust into her hard, making her moan. “Or we could go downtown for that other sushi spot?”

Sophie closed her eyes for a moment, trying her best to think straight when he was fucking her, but felt like her brain was foggy. “Uh - what? Don’t remember.”

He smirked and continued his steady pace. “Can’t think?”

“No - just, fuck, right there, faster.”

“Pizza instead?” He pinched her nipple, grinning when she moaned just a little bit louder. “Close?”

“Yes, please - not the pizza -” She chased his lips with hers, meeting him in a heated kiss.

He laughed, thrusting a little harder, groaning as she tugged a little too hard on his hair.

“Sorry - didn’t mean to -”

“No, fuck, felt good.” He corrected quickly and thrust a few more times after she came with a breathy moan, reaching his own orgasm. He lay on top of her afterward like dead weight, panting hard. “What did we decide?”

“I dunno.” She replied, dropping her head back against the pillows. “I can’t think straight and you’re over here having a full on conversation like you’re putting in zero effort.”

“It’s all that work at the gym.” He quipped, rolling off of her and tossed the condom in the trash. “C’mon, you need to shower.”

“Noooo.” She whined. “I’m starving. What do you want?”

“Whatever you want to decide. The faster your slow ass is in the shower, the faster we can go eat.” He encouraged, stretching out. “Go.”

“Come with me. Wash my hair.” Sophie argued, tugging on his arm. “Did I win today?”

He snorted. “Like, one round out of six. Loser buys dinner, that’s what we agreed, right?” He teased, giving her a short, chaste kiss before dragging himself up.

“That hardly seems fair.” She grinned when he stood and followed, rising up on her toes to peck his lips quickly. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

He should have known what was about to come out of her mouth just by the smug smirk that graced her lips. “I’ll peg you if you buy dinner.”

“Jesus Christ, Sophie.”

taglist: @drewstarkey @lemur46 @jjmaybanksbaby @edgeofgr8 @quxxnxfhxll @obxtess @hoodpankow @vtgirl802 @outerbankies @messagesinthesky @nicolecarsley @svechnikolan @ilovejjmaybank @obxtess @abbyj1822 @oopsiedoopsie23 @g4bster @jjmaybankzz @freddymaybank @dontjinx-it @illbesafeforyou @moniamaybank @tovvaa @jailcalledlife @sunshineitsfine44 @randomficsandshit @outerbankspreferences @outerbanksbro @karsinner @kkmaybank @whoeveniskendall @lemur46

[stardust-walker]

High Hopes: Chapter 11

Previous Chapters:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

word count: 3364

______________________________________

Dove never thought that she would see sunlight again. She felt sad for losing Jacqui, of course. The older woman had been kinder to her and Carol than she had to be, but she was more grateful to have her family with her. To be able to feel the sun on her face again. She stood close by Carol as she watched the men try to bust the windows down with everything, they could get their hands on. The axes, chairs, hell even the guns. Nothing worked.

A thought crossed through Dove’s head as she sat on the ground next to Sophia to shield her from anything that might go flying. In an instant, her attention was drawn away from the window to her sister who was already on her feet, ready to hand Rick a grenade. She scrambled to her feet, more careful as she pulled Sophia right along with her. “A nail file isn’t gonna help,” Shane said. God even close to death, Shane can be a fucking asshole. She said nothing and smirked to herself as she saw the shock cross Rick’s face.

The explosion was loud and shook the whole room. Sophia yelped and Dove covered her ears as the grenade exploded and the glass shattered. She could feel the wind on her back already, they were so nearly free. There was shouting as everyone began to pile towards the window. Glenn jumped down out of the window and held his hand out to Dove, ready to steady her when she landed. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she turned and held her arms out for Sophia as the others continued to jump around her. “Just jump, Sophia. I got you!” Dove called up to her as Carol jumped down and cast a worried glance between her family members.

“You can do it Sophia, come on honey. It’s not that far,” Carol’s voice shook.

Sophia let out a small whimper before she finally jumped. Just like she promised, Dove leaned forward and caught the girl before her feet could touch the ground. “Good girl, Soph,” Glenn managed a weak smile as the four of them took off towards the cars with the rest of the group. There were walkers everywhere, but they were going down just as fast. It was only as she pushed Sophia and Carol closer to the car that she noticed something.

“Wait where’s Dale,” Dove shouted over the chaos.

Carol froze, hand on the door handle to the car before she pointed towards the building. “There they are!” Dove took her word for it as she opened the passenger side door and got into the car. She wanted Carol to slam on the gas and just go but she knew there was no way they were going anywhere alone.

The shockwaves from the CDC exploding shook the earth around them as Carol laid down across the front seat. Dove peeked her head up when it was finally over, only to see that Sophia was peeking her head up from the floor of the Jeep. “Good girl,” Dove chuckled weakly as she reached back and ruffled Sophia’s hair.

A look through the back window before the caravan started to move showed that T and even Daryl looked just as frightened as everyone else did. There was nowhere to go but forward. The younger woman leaned back in the passenger seat as Carol put the car in drive. It was the first time in a long time that she just wanted to drive in silence.

~

No matter how nice they were, Dove didn’t like the idea of heading back to the Vatos gang. Something just didn’t feel right about it and she was sure to tell her sister about it. “Listen, I mean they weren’t bad people. There were a lot of them there, I just don’t know if they’ll be so willing to take in a big group of people,” she muttered to Carol after she heard Rick talk over the walkie.

Carol sighed and ran a hand down her face. “I don’t know. We might as well go if Rick thinks it’s a good idea.” She tried to keep her voice down as best she could. Dove could feel for her, still wanting to protect Sophia from hearing things she shouldn’t have to.

A quick look over her shoulder and Dove leaned closer to her sister in the front seat. “Yeah well Rick also thought the CDC was a good idea and look…”

“Enough. We’re not talking about this anymore,” Carol shook her head as she reached over and hit the volume button on the radio. Dove’s music started right back up where she left off and she was left feeling like a scolded child as she huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

It was silent until they pulled up to the gates, then it was too silent. Dove whispered, “Sophia, do me a favor? Hand me that crowbar in the hatch back there,” Dove said as she continued to stare out the front windshield.

“This one,” Sophia questioned as she passed it in between the two women in the front seat.

Carol looked between her sister and the weapon but didn’t say anything. Dove beamed as she took the bar from the girl’s hand. “Yes, that exact one. Thank you, sweetheart.” She felt like a line of ants as the group marched along together up to the bricks that marked the entrance.

“All the guns they gave us, they’ll probably throw us a party,” Daryl answered as Andrea voiced Dove’s own concerns about the group, they were on their way to see. “Good call…for once,” he glanced sideways at Rick. Dove rolled her eyes and held a hand behind her.

“Just stay behind me, okay,” she said quietly to Carol and Sophia. As they walked further in, it felt more and more wrong.

“Where’re the lookouts,” Glenn panicked.

“Something isn’t right here,” Dove hissed back quietly as her eyes darted around the grounds. A few moments later, she realized what exactly had happened. Walkers were inside the camp. Panic swept over her as she turned her back to the men and focused on Sophia. Carol already held a hand over her eyes and crouched down next to her. “Don’t scream it’s gonna be alright,” Dove tried to keep her voice calm even though she felt her own panic rising.

She pulled Sophia right after her as they began to follow Rick through the building. Dove offered quiet words of encouragement to Sophia for being able to keep quiet, hell it was worth a shot. It didn’t help much as the little girl rounded the corner first and got a full view of a few dead bodies. As Sophia clung to her mother, Dove’s attention turned to Daryl. “You shut that little girl the hell up! Right now, or I will” he growled back at them.

Dove narrowed her eyes and raised her crowbar slightly until a strong grip made her stop. “You cut that out, right now.” Lori warned him as she pushed Dove back a step. She had to give it to the other woman, she had really nailed the ‘lecturing mom’ look and voice. It even made Dixon stop with how intense she was. A sharp tug on her arm pulled her back as the women went to block the doors. “Listen, I know you’re angry.” Lori sighed as they pulled an empty refrigerator across the room together, “but you can’t let him get to you like that.”

Dove huffed as she pulled harder on the fridge, a relieved exhale left her as Lori nodded to show that it was good enough. Dove brushed her hair back from her face and lowered her voice. “He threatened Sophia.”

Lori shook her head and placed a hand on the younger brunette’s shoulder, “You leave Daryl to me. I mean he listened this time, right?” Dove didn’t answer and Lori continued. “Besides, if he gets too out of hand, we’ll just sick you on him.” Lori gave her arm a playful shove before she marched back over to the others.

“Promises, promises,” Dove chuckled as she picked up her crowbar and tried to prepare herself for what else they might see. Sudden movement behind the door made her drop to the ground where she stood. Her eyes locked with Carol until it was safe enough to move.

~

It was serious business when Carol was angry enough to speak her mind and Dove knew it. “Are you telling the truth or are you lying like all the other times?” Carol looked angry and Dove felt a wave of admiration go through her. There she was, that was the woman that made Dove want to be strong. The real Carol peeked through for a moment and then it was gone like a puff of smoke as Lori spoke in defense of her husband.

Dove placed a hand on Carol’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze, “Atta girl,” she muttered under her breath.

“The hell happened,” Glenn sighed as he looked around the room.

“What do you think,” Andrea spoke up. Dove felt her blood start to boil. Did she have to be so condescending? “They got overrun.” Dove rolled her eyes, then raised her eyebrows. Daryl had scoffed at the other woman. “Something to say,” Andrea snapped.

“Uh yeah, how about observant,” Daryl snapped right back.

Andrea nodded, “Observant. Big word coming from a guy like you. Three whole syllables.”

Dove pinched the bridge of her nose, “Can you like stop being a condescending bitch for like 5 damn seconds and let someone else have an opinion?” She planted her feet on the ground and placed her hand on her hip as she observed the other woman. There was a stunned silence for a moment before Daryl continued. Hell, she never thought she’d defend Daryl ever, especially after what he’d said to Sophia, but everyone deserved to have their voices heard.

Daryl continued, “Walkers didn’t do this.” That was clear to anyone with a brain. The ones she’d seen all had headshots. “Geeks didn’t show up until all this went down. Somebody attacked this place.” Dove felt Sophia shift closer to her. “Killed all these people, took whatever they wanted. They’re all shot in the head, execution style. Y’all worried about walkers? What about the people that came and did all this?”

Dove glanced over at Rick as he looked over a body. A nod from the sheriff seemed to confirm everything that Daryl had just said. Dove never thought she would see the day when she could appreciate any words coming out of the mouth of Daryl Dixon, but she never thought she’d see the dead walk either. “Get a dictionary,” Daryl smirked at Andrea, “look it up. Observant.”

Dove couldn’t fight back the nervous giggle that left her lips at Andrea’s face. A subtle slap to the arm made her clear her throat as she rose to her feet again. “Sorry. Sorry,” she mumbled as she placed a hand over her mouth and walked over closer to Glenn.

Glenn watched as Daryl left the room. “Did that just happen,” he mumbled to Dove.

“I don’t know about you, but that might have just about been the best thing I’ve seen in weeks,” Dove whispered back. “But odds are, that might have shoved the stick further up Andrea’s ass.” She nudged Glenn as the group started to move on again. Glenn just shook his head.

~

One bottle of water, garbanzo beans, and fucking cough drops. That’s all that was left out of everything Guillermo had fought for. What would be left of her when she died? Probably just a crowbar, a comfortable pair of boots, and maybe a few old pieces of jewelry. That’s if she was lucky.

“I don’t think salty snacks are that great without water,” Dove sighed as she caught the bag of chips Shane had tossed to her.. “I think I’ll pass,” she smiled as she held out her bag of chips to Carl. The little boy took them with a big beaming smile.

Dove wasn’t that surprised at all to see that Shane had managed to smuggle a bottle of wine out of the CDC right along with him. “I’d go easy on that stuff,” Lori spoke up again as Daryl went to open the bottle, “don’t forget where we are.”

Daryl nodded and uttered a quick, “Yes ma’am,” before popping the bottle open. Dove ruffled Sophia’s hair as she tried her best to look like she was enjoying the meal in front of her. It made her sad to think about all the things her family might have been through without her around.

Dove sighed and dug through the bag she had left in the car. She shuffled a pack of cards nervously as Glenn brought up all the people that had been killed. Her eyes drifted around the room before they landed on Daryl. He just shook his head as he took another drink from the bottle. Carol shook her head as the men left the room. “I’m perfectly fine with them talking about it with adults here but with the kids, they really do need to be more careful,” she sighed as she stroked Sophia’s hair and tried to calm her down.

Lori sank down to the ground next to Carl and stared at the paper crafts on the wall. “I’m sorry, Carol. I can talk to them when they get back in if you want.”

Dove shook her head as she focused on the movement of the cards between her hands. “You don’t have to. I’ll do it.” Her focus shifted to the other woman, a look of surprise on her face. “You don’t have to carry the weight of actual common sense on your shoulders, Lori. I got you this time, but you owe me.” Lori smiled gratefully as she went to reply but was interrupted by a scoff from across the room. “You got some other enlightening information for us all Andrea, or are you just going to sit over there are wallow enough for all of us?” Dove’s attention turned to the blonde woman.

Andrea shifted forward as she spoke, “You’re all trying to play leader like it matter or something. Everything’s gone. None of that matters anymore! Look around us! Everyone else is dead,” Andrea stopped as Sophia began to whimper and inched closer to Carol.

Dove gripped the cards in her hands so tight she thought she might break the skin before she composed herself enough to reply, “If none of it matters then why the hell are you still here? You don’t even believe half of the shit you’re spewing out. I think you’re just angry because Dale wouldn’t let you get yourself blown up and on top of it? You got outsmarted by Daryl Dixon of all people! Now I can’t imagine how that would feel, but what I would like to imagine is for you to decide whether you want to stay here and act like shit matters or else you decide to go out on your own and get yourself killed.” The silence between the women in the room was palpable as Carol stared at her sister and Lori placed an arm around Carl.

“You must have been a shitty counselor,” Andrea snapped at the brunette across from her.

“Yeah and you must have been a real shit lawyer if that’s your only argument. Now shut the hell up and eat your beans or I’ll come over there and take them for someone who’s actually grateful for what they got,” Dove snapped. The silence was only broken by the door being opened back up and the men filed back in. A confused look crossed Dale’s face as he glanced over and saw Andrea begin to pick at the food on her plate. A hand raised in the air and that said to Dove that he wasn’t even going to ask.

~

A few hours passed after Dove had taken it upon herself to talk to Glenn about not upsetting Sophia and she felt like she had kicked a puppy. At least she’d done him the courtesy of doing it while he was on watch. A hand shook her awake from her slumber as she jolted up. It was Glenn. “Hey, you asked me to let you know when I was off watch. You sure you wanna go out there,” even in the dark, she could see the worry cross his face.

Dove sighed heavily as she dug into her bag and pulled out the pack of cigarettes she’d been trying to sneak since this whole thing started. She’d been too close to Carol, she’d feared a lecture, but now she couldn’t give a fuck. “Yeah, gotta bite the bullet and go talk to the other one.” She ran a hand through her hair as she shoved the pack and her lighter into her pocket. Glenn held a handout and helped his friend to her feet before he took her spot on the ground next to Carol and Sophia. “Keep it warm for me, buddy,” Dove winked at the younger man as she headed quietly to the door.

She didn’t have to look far until she saw the man on the top of the stairs. His hearing must have been better than she thought as he turned to see her walk down the hallway. Dove pulled her hands from her pockets and held them up, pack in one hand and lighter in the other. “I come in peace,” she whispered as she came to a stop by the railing. Daryl just grunted as he turned to look back down the stairs. The only sound the echoed between them for a moment was a click from the lighter and then a relieved sigh as the cigarette finally lit. Dove held out the pack to Daryl as she removed the cigarette from her mouth and blew the smoke out after a few seconds. “A one-time offer,” she chirped as she waved the pack in front of the man and handed him the lighter after he swiped it from her hand.

“What do ya want,” he whispered as he began to light his cigarette.

Dove sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Sorry that I told you I was going to put you in a chokehold. I was stressed,” she caught Daryl’s eye for a moment. The look on his face made her want to shrink back into her coat. “Yeah, that must sound pretty stupid. I’m not sorry for wanting to kick your ass for being a dick to Sophia though.” She laughed quietly before Daryl spoke up.

“Apology accepted. But next time you threaten me with something, you best follow through,” Daryl’s response was humorless and Dove just nodded in response.

The two of them spent the next few minutes in silence. Smoke filling their lungs and being blown back out into the air every few seconds. Dove yawned and raised her arms above her head, “I thought it was pretty awesome how you took charge before when Andrea tried to call you stupid.”

Another scoff. “I didn’t do it to fucking be awesome. Ya’ll gotta know what we’re dealin with. I don’t give a shit if someone thinks I’m stupid. So long as I know I got my shit together.”

Dove nodded her head as she tossed cigarette to the floor. The light on the end of the cigarette went out as she pressed the toe of her shoe into it and blew the last of the smoke from her mouth. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re that stupid.” Daryl turned his head slightly to look at her, his expression unreadable. A smirk crept onto Dove’s face as she leaned down slightly, “but if you threaten my niece again? I just might have to kill you.” She stood up straighter again, as calm as ever. “Night,” she cooed over her shoulder and then she was off down the hallway again. Within a matter of seconds, Daryl was alone in the hallway again and it was like it never happened.

_

@crossbowking​ @momc95​ @chaotic-gary-king-stan​​

[leverage-ot3]

notable moments from The Two Live Crew Job

leverage 2.07

Sophie: I love the symbolists.

- - - - -

🥰 I love when the ot3 are together in one frame 🥰

- - - - -

the dogs playing poker painting tho

- - - - -

Eliot: Any sudden movement's gonna cause displacement of the water. It'll set it off.

Parker: Is that C-4?

Sophie: Oh!

(Nate grabs Parker’s hand before she can touch the vase)

Sophie: Parker... please don't poke at the motion-sensitive bomb.

Nate: So, uh... secret admirer?

Sophie: Well, it's no secret they want me dead.

Hardison: What do you think, man?

Eliot: I'd have to reach into the vase to disarm it. It'd go off.

eliot’s lips quivered when he said that bc he’s so nervous for her im-

- - - - -

Parker: Do you have any instant pudding?

(everyone looks at Parker in surprise. Cut to Parker pouring pudding into the vase)

Parker: The powder hardens the liquid, tricks the bomb into thinking it's not moving.

Eliot: Should give you a little wiggle room. Very little

MASTERMIND PARKER

- - - - -

(mourners are gathered around a casket with a line of black cars parked nearby. An open casket shows Sophie lying inside. Eliot is standing at a podium)

Eliot: She had a way of taking care of people, you know? She was a sister... she was best friend, all rolled into one. I'm gonna miss you, Soph-- So-O-O-O-O much, Katherine.

(Eliot leaves the podium. Hardison stands to let Parker walk by and she approaches the podium. Nate stands at the back of the crowd, Eliot joins him)

Parker: Katherine and I have known each other forever. Almost two years. Yeah, I know that probably doesn't sound like a lot to you, but it is to me. I never really had many friends. Which is why losing her is so hard. (sighs) It's so creepy. I mean, she's really dead. I was just talking to her and now she's just laying there. She was just laying there.

(Nate coughs and Hardison gets up to go to Parker)

Parker: Can you hear me?

Hardison: Parker. I'm -- I'm sorry. I'm sorry, y'all. What – What she really means is just, um, Katherine was like family. And sometimes, friends are all the family that you have. So... you -- you good? Come on. Just – let -- just keep going. You got all hysterical and emotional

- - - - -

btw there is at least one door from behind the briefing monitors which means they have at least one extra room (most likely more) from the adjacent apartment eliot knocked the wall down from

they have guest rooms or something back there for if anyone needs a place to crash

- - - - -

Sophie: We used to work together. We did the Copenhagen job in '97, the Berlin Polytech job in '98, and, Nate, remember – Remember that great run in Moscow?

Nate: "That great run"? I chased you for three months.

Sophie: Well, uh, technically, y-you chased us. Sorry.

Hardison: Are you saying that you saw other teams before us?

Parker: Really just another Nate before Nate.

Eliot: Let me ask you a question -- what bugs you more, is it the fact that he was with Sophie first or that he outsmarted you?

Nate: Moving on

eliot puts his arms over the couch and behind parker and I’ll take it + them grinning at each other seeing nate’s discomfort

- - - - -

mikel is wearing flannel in this one and you can now take bisexual mikel from my cold, dead hands

- - - - -

Sophie: Wrong place, wrong time. Starke must have seen me, and now that I’m one of the good guys, decided to get rid of me, because...why? Because... Because I know his scams. Because... I know his favorite scam.

[Warehouse]

(Stark’s team is sitting on crates looking at monitors as he goes over the job)

Starke: Cafe and a moonlit terrace.

Sophie (voice over): The Mona Lisa variant.

[Briefing Area]

Parker: Oo! (claps) That was the first one I learned!

- - - - -

(Hardison is drinking orange soda and working on a computer as Sophie watches)

Sophie: I'm not dead. I'm right here, Parker. So, this is, um, it's what you do, right? You take footage of us on cons and you -- you -- you -- download it into that?

Hardison: Yeah, I analyze it, I monitor comms, I scan for a police frequencies, I -- You had no idea I do all this, did you? Well – d-does nobody respect the van? The van is important. What -- What is that?

Sophie: It's lemon-Zest tea. I got to tell you, it's -- It's a little bit -- It's a little bit whiffy in here.

Hardison: It smells like hard work. That's what it smells like. D-- Whiffy

sophie has no idea what hardison does and does not like the van smell. hardison is ready to go off

- - - - -

Sophie: That was some nice things you said at my funeral.

Hardison: Wait. We -- We trust Nate to make sure the plan works. We trust you to make sure we’re all okay.

- - - - -

Starke: Word is on the street that you run the nastiest crew this side of the Atlantic.

Nate: Well… what?

Starke: Come on. Everybody knows. You robbed a bank and you -- you framed a judge. You rigged a jury to steal a million-Dollar settlement. I hear that you even conned the Irish mob out of a couple of million dollars just this year. Now, that's style.

Nate: That's one way of looking at it.

Sophie: Listen, Nate, if you tell him the truth about us, we're blown

- - - - -

Hardison: I know this style. This is Chaos.

(computer screen flashes signal found. Hardison grabs his keyboard and heads for the back door of the van)

[Parking Lot]

(Hardison exits his van and a little ways down the parking lot, Chaos exits his van with a laptop in his hands. They square off like an old west gun fight)

Hardison: Chaos. I heard you were in jail. Guess I was wrong.

Chaos: Hardison. I heard you sucked. Guess I was right.

(they eye each other across the lot, their fingers twitching. Abruptly they raise their keyboard and laptop and begin typing while car alarms start going off)

this wild wild west showdown tho

- - - - -

Nate: Okay, now, we know Starke. This guy goes by the name Apollo. I've chased him a couple of times -- infiltration, physical security.

Parker: People in that line of high-risk work tend to be very unstable. We could use that. Write that down.

(the rest of the team exchange glances)

🥰 she’s sitting next to eliot with popcorn between them 🥰

- - - - -

Hardison: Now, this person here's ex-Mossad, sealed records. Mikel Dayan used to work both sides as a mercenary.

Eliot: Mikel Dayan. I know that name.

Hardison: You were scared to fight a girl.

Eliot: She'd mop the floor with you, Hardison.

Hardison: I don't care.

Eliot: Seriously. She actually killed a guy once with a mop. It's a funny story, actually. (starts gesturing time parker) She broke the mop and took --

Hardison: Eliot. Eliot. (turns back to monitors) Now, this here's Colin Mason, otherwise known by his hacker handle as "Chaos." As... whatever. Hacked the pentagon, the NSA. The CIA computer guys call him the Kobayashi Maru.

Eliot: What the hell is that?

Hardison: None of y'all got that? Seriously?

Parker: Star Trek.

Hardison: Thank you

parker’s reluctant fistbumb I love them + it’s officially canon that she’s seen at least some of the movies

- - - - -

Nate: I tried to say to her I’m sorry, you know, and I don't –

Security: Because, as men, we're taught to hide our emotions. You share or you pay the price.

Nate: Yeah

- - - - -

Mikel: You wouldn't hit a girl, would you?

(Eliot walks forward, taking off his jacket and hanging it on some pipe)

Eliot (in Hebrew): Not unless she hits me first.

(they approach each other and begin to fight, blocking each other until Mikel hits Eliot in the chest, knocking him back. He touches where her blow hit.)

Eliot (in Hebrew): That counts

let me just say I LOVE that they had a woman hitter

- - - - -

Starke: What is going on, guys?

Guard: Motion sensors went off, sir.

Starke: I already checked that out. Everything's secure. And who's this?

Guard: Uh... he just got lost. No problem.

Starke: Sir, you okay?

Nate: Yeah, I’m fine.

Starke: I'm Nathan Ford. I'm with the insurance company.

(Nate gives Starke an irritated look)

- - - - -

Parker: What kind of bird did you use?

Apollo: North American Kestrel. It's small-Bodied, but its wingspan is expansive enough that it sets off the motion detectors.

Parker: I would've gone with the Scarlet Tanager. Similar wingspan, but the brighter colors are more distracting.

Apollo: Yeah. That was my second choice.

(Apollo scrambles forward in the ductwork. Parker also scrambles forward, headed another way)

- - - - -

eliot taking off his shirt too? equal rights

- - - - -

Starke: Now, why would you want to kill Sophie?

Chaos: Come on, Starke. (gathering equipment) I had set up the perfect double-cross, and then you want to go and bring in a new player at the last minute? "Oh, and by the way, guys, that new player is gonna be Sophie Devereaux." There's no way I’m gonna try to out-con Sophie Devereaux! And I hate to break it to you, Starke, but she was the one that everybody was always scared of. It was never you.

- - - - -

[McRory’s Bar]

(Parker and Apollo sit at a table with locks)

Parker: Go.

(they begin picking locks to see who is fastest. Across the room, Eliot and Mikel sit at a table)

Mikel: I can top that. (pulls her shirt aside to show a scar on her shoulder) Frag grenade, Somalia.

Eliot (pulls up his sleeve to show scar on his arm): Myanmar. Sniper.

Mikel: I was a sniper in Myanmar for a while.

Eliot: When?

Mikel: 2003.

(Eliot looks surprised. Mikel holds up the handcuffs and Eliot quickly pulls her hand down)

Eliot: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We can't have that.

Hardison (walking by): Handcuffs. Y'all nasty

(eliot has a handcuff kink and was probably pegged within an inch of his life that night. I said what I said.)

- - - - -

(Sophie stands looking down at her grave. The headstone for Katherine has been replaced with one for Sophie Devereaux. Nate approaches and stands next to the grave)

Sophie: Starke was right. I'm not Sophie Devereaux anymore. I haven't been for ages. I... you killed her, you and your silly crusade.

Nate: It's just a name.

Sophie: No, they're not just names, not to me. All my aliases, every one of them, I -- I know when their parents died. I know when they had their first kiss.

[userarchive]

Unexpected Circumstances, Ch 1

Rating: 18+. Warnings: Language, talk of the job, sex trafficking, smut in future chapters. Summary: Sonny Carisi x Reader. Sonny thought you were dead for the past 7 years, the truth starts to come out as you turn up in an SVU interrogation room. A/N: I did give the reader a name in this one, just to further accent moments of nicknames vs first vs last names used, but the rest of it is all written as a reader insert. 

••

It was a hot night in June and the SVU had busted a sex trafficking ring, there were barely any underage girls, but it seemed to be a good bust so far, they’d arrested a number of pimps, John’s, Martha’s and who knew what else. You, however, were stuck in an interrogation room, pacing back and fourth waiting for a detective to actually show up. You were annoyed to say the least, having already ruined your night, someone really should have at least come in to start questioning you, some common decency, you thought.

Carisi had not only been frustratingly called in in the middle of the night, much to his dismay, but he walked into the precinct hoping for somewhat of an easy case, which it clearly wasn’t going to be. It was late, SVU at least thought they knew what they were doing, Olivia briefed him on the case, pointing out the specifics of who they figured they had in the rooms already, mainly John’s, people who had something to make a deal with as soon as someone started to question them. He only heard about half of what she was telling him, his mind clouded with the fog of sleep, trying to focus on thinking clearly. When they got to interrogation 3, his heart nearly stopped. Sonny took a moment to view the scene behind the glass, his eyes absorbing as much as he could, his chest felt tight, shocked tears nearly sprung into his eyes, though anger boiled in his stomach, he didn’t know how to feel, every emotion coursing through his veins. There was no way it could be her, right? Liv barely noticed the change in him as she rattled on about the sex ring, his ears pounded, not hearing a word the captain said, his palms felt sweaty, his gut felt sick, and his heart ached like he never knew it could. The woman on the other side of the glass was pacing slowly across the room, clad in a skin tight hot pink dress,  a deep neck line, and the highest of leg lines, her feet in a pair of matching stilettos, she looked frustrated to be there, and a moment later, there was nothing stopping him from bursting into that interrogation room, not even Olivia’s surprise, emotion had taken over, he had no control anymore.

Your head shot up when the door finally opened,  “Fuck.” You thought your stomach dropping when you saw the man in front of you, you felt like you might puke, might cry, you might scream, you’d known this had potentially been a possibility, but you had hadn’t prepared yourself for this. You were supposed to stay in different jurisdictions, but the moment Manhattan came into play things changed slightly, once he became an A.D.A. things were supposed to run as normal. You held back a sob, not prepared for the million emotions running through your brain, shame, love, sadness, anger, you nearly felt tears in your eyes as the man approached into the room. 10 years of handling rather stressful intense situations, and you had absolutely no clue how to deal with this, how to cope.

Sonny was silent, slowly taking you in, as if you were some kind of mirage, which, considering the circumstances, made complete sense, his heart hammered in his chest, there was no way this was real. He felt tears spring into his eyes as he tried to deal with the thousand emotions coursing through his body. He stuttered slowly, trying to form a sentence as you tried to coerce some kind of truth out of your head.

“It’s really you?” Sonny finally spoke, the words barely a whisper thinking that something too loud would scare you away.

“Dominick…” You trailed off, not even knowing quite what to say to keep him from going off the rails.

“”Sophie…”

“Yeah…” You replied, looking down at your heels, guilt reeling through your veins. His face was a mixture of anger and sorrow, and a little bit of delight, but you couldn’t quite pinpoint the main emotion.

“You’re alive.” It was a monotone statement, you  gave no response. You knew he was the A.D.A. working Manhattan Sex Crimes but you didn’t think they were gonna call him in at this late hour, you’d hoped to have a little time to reappear literally anywhere but an interrogation room. “It’s been YEARS,” Sonny stopped abruptly maybe giving you a chance to defend yourself, maybe trying to figure out what angle he was going to work and when your heart clenched, and you barely choked out a vowel, he started his assault. “How dare you!! Ya’ wanna explain what the fuck you were doin’ in the middle of a sex trafficking ring? They said YOU’RE in charge?! You been workin’ with them for years, you’ve sold and bought girls, you’re a fuckin’ criminal!” Anger seemed to be the primary emotion that he decided to go with, clearly he’d heard at least part of what Benson had said.

“What do think I was doing Dominick?!” Your anger started to show, blood boiling in your veins, your brain clouded with the thought that Sonny could actually believe the hate he was spewing. Fighting like this, when emotions were as tense and high as they were was never a good idea, anger met with anger never ended well. “Seriously, you’re going that route, you think I’m fucking criminal?! REALLY?!”

“So? WHAT?” Carisi was right up in your face, which egged you on even further, it was only a matter of minutes before you were both yelling in Italian, “Ya’ decide ta walk out on everything and go….go, live the hard life, ruin your entire career just to be some drug addicted whore, fuckin’ your pimp every night?! THAT’S the life you wanted? You’re a disgrace Soph, no better than your low life of a father!” Carisi was beyond angry, and you were past the point of thinking straight, the comment about your family was too far, too close to home, Sonny knew exactly how hard you’d worked to differ yourself from their life, how you’d left before they could suck you into all of their demons, escaping out to Staten Island to finish off school. You didn’t even realize your hand was moving until it hit Sonny square across the face, he tried to wrangle your hands behind your back, but you were faster, wrenching his arm behind his back, pushing his torso in the interrogation table. Within seconds, Benson and Fin were in the room, you raised your hands in defeat, backing up from Carisi.

“Chartreuse.” You stated clearly, partially annoyed at the interruption, partially relieved you could finally clear things up.

“What?” Fin cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

“It’s the colour of the day.” Liv replied, you nodded towards her, dropping your hands to your sides.

“Detective Sophie Montgomery, badge number 37852.” 

“What unit?” Benson wasn’t going to let you go that easily, 

“Staten Island Vice as of 7 years ago, got transferred to Manhattan SVU about a year ago,” You gestured down to your outfit, “For obvious reasons, I couldn’t exactly show up at the precinct. Talk to Captain Campbell, he was my check in despite the transfer.”

Carisi stared back at you with a complete look of disbelief on his face, his stomach in knots, his brain not even knowing what to truly think. He wanted you to answer a million questions, but not here, not with everyone at SVU around. He knew you’d been gone, but some part of him always believed that you weren’t actually dead a sliver of hope for him to hold on to. 7 years was so long, but he’d clung on, praying that, somehow, you’d been alive the entire time, even though he knew how unrealistic it was, but as it turned out, his hoping and praying was right. He also felt like a complete idiot for getting so enraged at you, of course you were working a UC op! The first time he’d met you was at a party, arresting you while you were barely out of the academy. Though that didn’t mean that he wasn’t conflicted, he was confused, and the anger still sat in his chest, trying to truly figure everything out. Benson sighed heavily, breaking his concentration before you spoke again.

“I need to keep my cover, please.” Your voice was much softer this time, sighing gently you gave Dominick a subdued glance the apologies glittering in your eyes, before your detective voice came out again, “We had a bust that was going to happen next month, we had everything planned and now you’re going to have to wait six months until the ring leaders come out of hiding.” You nearly scowled at the detectives, “Put me back in holding. I’ll spend the night there, Alejandro can think I’m arrested and I’ll report for duty as soon as I can in the morning Captain.”

Olivia glanced between all the detectives in the room quickly, before nodding to Fin, “Alright, bring as much information as you can, we’re gonna need everything you can give us to charge these guys.”

“Thank you.” A satisfied smile swiftly graced your face as you turned around to be put back in cuffs before Fin led you out of the room.

[a-lonely-tatertot]

Finding Home

A/n: Hey this will be a multi chapter fic with a bunch of different ships and characters in it (expect them to all be gay in some way) this is based off of a set of hcs from @linhamon-roll  as always this was betaed by the lovely @bookwyrminspiration and I am extremely grateful for faer help! (Also if you guys like this enough tell me if you want a tag list for it, @everyonehasthoughts whoops posted this one instead)

Tw: talk of nightmares (if there’s more please tell me)

word count: 2760

Chapter 1: Back to the Beginning

Breathe.

“I’m not going to the upper levels,” the words spilled out of her mouth before she could stop them. Wide eyes stared at her from all around the room. She managed to count three breaths before the inevitable outburst.

“What?!” Grady shouted. He’s not angry at you, she reminded herself, just surprised.

“Are you kidding?” Fitz whispered in confusion.

“You have to go to the upper levels. How else do you think you’ll become a part of society?” Alden said in his perfect no-need-to-worry voice that just made her want to smack him more.

“Sweetie I know it’ll be new and it’s normal to be scared-” Edaline started before she cut her off.

“I’m not scared okay? I don’t give a damn about being a part of society, and no I’m not kidding. This is my decision,” Sophie snapped. She was so done with this, with the stares, the names, being “Sophie Foster” and “human-raised”, a “war-hero;” she just wanted to be no one again. Maybe that made her a coward, but that’s who she was.

“Sophie, you’re not making sense,” Alden said, shaking his head, smiling that horrible venom-filled smile that barely contained the storm. Ever since she’d learned what Alden had done to his family she’d hated him almost as much as the Neverseen. Because he and Cassius were the same, but only one paid for it.

“Did I not speak clearly enough for you?” she asked, letting the hatred seep through her words and relished in the surprise on his face. “I am not going to the upper levels. I am not staying here either. Here I’m always going to be Sophie: the Moonlark, the leader of Team Valiant, the war hero. That’ll always be me. Here I’ll be stuck picking up the council’s mess for my entire life and I wanna be a kid still.”

“So what do you plan on doing?” Biana spoke up after a silence.

Breathe. “I’m going to go back to the Forbidden Cities, I’m gonna go back home.”

The uproar came back twice as loud as before. She was hit with hundreds of “no”s and “you can’t”s and the occasional “that’s illegal” but in between it all she locked eyes with Fitz. They didn’t need to be Cognates to understand what the other was thinking. She held his gaze and didn’t back down, this was her decision. Fitz smiled a bit at her stubbornness and nodded slightly. There wasn’t any danger from him, no “You can’t do this!” Nothing that the boy she used to know would do.

He’s different now, Sophie realized, how had she missed it?

Her eyes drifted to Biana who was staring at the middle of the room with a blank expression. It was like she wasn’t there, lost somewhere in an ocean of thought. Finally, she looked up, “It’s your decision Fos-boss.”

A hundred times before those words had been directed at her. When deciding the fate of the world she was always plagued by uncertainty. But for once, it felt right; she was going home. Alden and her parents would say no as many times as they could to make her stay, and Fitz and Biana would try at some point, but one way or another she was leaving. She’d be back eventually, but for a while, she wouldn’t have to be Sophie Foster.

The next night they had gathered everyone. Well, not everyone, just the people she cared about. Della and Livvy stood off to the side and Sophie smiled at their intertwined fingers. Maybe, just maybe they would be fine without her. Keefe stood quietly, his face blank, and it made her rethink everything. But Linh placed a steady hand on her shoulder and she was back. Stay focused, don’t lose it, Sophie told herself sternly.

Grady and Edaline watched her, and she wondered how the house would feel without her. She took a breath and turned to Dex. He, out of all of them, wasn’t quite ready for her to leave.

“I can’t make you stay, can I?” Dex asked. His voice wavered slightly and there were tears in his eyes. There were tears in all their eyes.

Sophie shook her head slowly, “Not this time.” Everything was in place, all she had to do was just leave. That was the hardest part. To make it real.

“C’mon Soph, we did it; it’s over,” his eyes pleaded with her. “Let me come with you.”

They had all tried this. In different manors, in different ways, except for Linh. All she did was wrap her arms tightly around her and squeeze like she would never let go. Some part of her, buried under many many layers of protection, knew that if Linh tried she could make her stay. “That’s the problem Dex,” she had said this so many times before, “We are always going to be fixing things and we’re always going to be fighting, and I am always going to be Sophie Foster the human. I just want to be normal, for a few decades that’s all. I’ll be back soon, just make sure to keep these idiots in check while I’m gone alright? I gotta do this alone.” Her voice caught on the last word as it dawned on her that it might be the last thing she would say to them for a long time.

Dex wrapped his arms around her and squeezed, picking her up slightly. “I’ll miss you dumbass.”

She nodded mutely into his shoulder, “Likewise asshole.” It’s time now. She stepped away, flash drive in hand, because if Dex couldn’t join her he would always help her. And she loved him for that.

She turned away from them. She dug her heels into the dirt and braced herself.

Three. Linh’s hand left her shoulder and she could feel all their eyes on her.

Two. It wasn’t the first time she had done this. It was teleporting. It was in her bones, literally.

One. Dex sucked in a breath in sync with her. The feeling of the tension running through her, becoming her, was intoxicating.

Zero. There’s no looking back now. And she ran. Her feet pounded the ground, her heart seemed to get faster with every stride. Dirt bounced with every thud of her shoes and she was free. And she jumped.

Falling. Floating. Landing.

The stale, polluted, stiff air greeted Sophie on the other side and she had never been more relieved to step into a broken world. Her broken home. From now on, she’d be Amilia Ruewen and that was okay.

“The hell you doing here kid?” an old woman stared her down from behind the counter. She had wrinkles; on her face, on her apron, on her surprisingly steady hands that held an outrageous stack of plates.

“Uh,” Amilia said nervously, “I need a job.”

The woman’s dark eyes narrowed further, “And you came here.” It wasn’t a question.

“That I did,” she muttered, it took every bit of her not to yank out her eyelashes.

With a huff, the woman set down the plates and walked out from behind the counter to march up to her. Amilia swallowed hard as the woman grabbed her hands from her sides. Her stark white hands seemed too pale and clean in the older woman’s dark hands. Amilia felt like she was under a microscope, like this woman could see every bit about her life as she stared at her hands.

“You’ve worked, you’ve fought,” she said quietly, and dragged her eyes up to hers. “If you can clean you’ve got a job.”

Something exploded inside her and couldn’t’ve been happier. But wait, “No cooking?” Amilia called out as the woman went behind the counter again.

She chuckled lightly, “Clean first, then we’ll see. Chop chop, it’s almost time for the rush and these tables still haven’t been washed.”

“I don’t even know your name ma’am!” Amilia realized suddenly.

“You want a name, new girl?” she said. fixing her with another hard stare, “It’s Mari, you’ve got a real name?”

Amilia closed her mouth tightly, “It depends on your definition of real.”

Mari let out a harsh laugh, “Less philosophy more cleaning.”

A smile tugged at her mouth as she caught the wet rag the woman tossed her.

By the end of the day, she had been introduced to the regulars as nothing more than “the new girl”. She had scrubbed the counters over and over and Mari still managed to look unimpressed. Her sweeping skills got corrected and she became more familiar with the crappy sink than she would’ve liked. If you turned the old fashion handle too far right, then the water was basically boiling. If it was too far to the left, you got ice. There was one temperature that was decent and it was not moved from that spot. Amilia had found that out the hard way.

When Mari flipped the paper and probably homemade sign from “open” to “closed”, she flopped down on one of the booths. She was tired and wiped, but it was good because she was happy. She couldn’t have done this in the Lost Cities. And she wouldn’t have done this in San Francisco. Because this was normal, and no one knew her name, and that was the opposite of everything she once was.

“You going home yet kid?” Mari asked from the lightswitch. She hadn’t thought about that, where she’d stay for the night. The booths weren’t optimal but they would work.

“Can I stay here for the night?”

“In these shitty booths? Not happening,” Mari responded, shaking her head lightly. Amilia’s heart fell to her stomach and Mari sighed at her probably pitiful expression, “You really don’t have a place to stay?”

Amilia shook her head. “Fine, come on. You can borrow my couch for the night.”

The night turned into two, to a week, to a month and eventually Mari stopped asking about her family.

“We’ve all got secrets,” she’d say, and Sophie wondered what her secrets were. Mari stopped asking about where she was going too.

“This is a pit stop town,” she said one night while they put away dishes.

“It wasn’t for you.”

“It’s where you find yourself when you’re young and get pulled back into when you’re old and broke.”

“Maybe I’m finding myself,” Amilia said only to get a hum in response.

The words that Mari had said when she first met her came to Amilia often. Could she really tell what she had gone through? Or was it some weird old lady thing she did to freak her out?

There was one night where the nightmares came back worse than ever. She woke with sweat soaking her shirt and barely breathing. There was soft clinking in the kitchen that sounded too much like throwing stars. She remembered how they felt in her hands, drawing her own blood as she cleaned them. The sweet release as they left her hand to make a soft thunk in her target. How the rush it gave Sophie was always followed by a thick sense of dread. Because if it made her excited, how far away was she from the monsters she fought?

“I thought it’d be a rough night,” Mari said leaning on the doorway.

“How did you know?”

“You’ve fought wars, those don’t go away easy. Come, I brought sugar, thought you would need it.”

So she stumbled her way into the kitchen, tired and trying as hard as she could to keep her tears in. Mari had pancakes and shakes and had brought them out to the front porch. The best thing about this place was you could see every star in the sky.

“How could you tell I’ve fought?” Sophie asked. The shake was shockingly cold against her hands and she tried to stop the shiver that ran through her. Mari rocked back quietly like they had all the time in the world to watch the stars move.

“You have the look in your eyes.”

“But you looked at my hands, why?” Somehow, the shake tasted like mallowmelt. The kind that Edaline would make on bad nights before tucking her into bed.

“Because your hands have been everywhere, they can tell stories if you let them.”

She decided not to ask any more questions, every answer would just be more confusing than the last. “And because they look like mine,” Mari finally said quietly.

“Oh.”

Mari didn’t look at her while she talked, “I saw a kid, who looked lost as hell with no immediate future, who had the hands of a fighter and eyes that held secrets. I thought I could do right by her.”

“I think you did,” Sophie said. For real this time, she wasn’t Amilia, she wasn’t trying to be her sister, for this night under the stars, she could be Sophie.

Over the year Amilia sometimes forgot about the demons that haunted her. Her past life- lives. They were not her anymore. Days and hours where nothing other than the simple act of flipping pancakes and washing tables were her only thoughts. The town was small and out of the way. No glittery castles and fancy houses. Only small farms, sketchy strip malls, and home. There was only one hint that she wasn’t human, the small leaping crystal around her neck.

“For emergencies,” Biana had said placing it gently around her neck.

“And when you’re ready to come back home,” Fitz had whispered against the top of Sophie’s head.

So it stayed around Amilia’s neck, night and day; a reminder that she never had and never would belong. But she wanted to; she craved it. And Mari made her feel somewhat normal.

She wanted something human. Something reckless and young, that was the human she wanted. Sitting at her computer at the table in Mari’s old yellow motorhome that had housed her, she found herself looking at colleges. When she was younger “college” was an expectation, perfect grades, perfect words, perfect scores. Sophie didn’t get to decide her future. To put it simply, it was never an option, her years were already filled with other’s ideas. But as Amilia clicked the tab for courses she realized that for once she controlled her next small forever. And in her next small forever she could just maybe belong.

Tables had been washed, the sun had gone down, and she had flipped the frayed sign. She had thought about it all day, the college she chose was far away and she didn’t know how to tell Mari this. The woman had become much closer to her than she thought she would. So as she grabbed her small packed duffle bag and held the door handle she tried to ignore the sharp pain that hit her chest. It only got worse as a soft voice came down the hall.

“Amilia?” Angie, Mari’s “friend”, whispered down the hall.

“Go back to bed, I’m just grabbing some things,” she said, wincing at how well she lied.

“That duffle says otherwise young lady,” Mari appeared seemingly out of thin air. Sophie knew this wasn’t going to end well, the feeling cemented itself as anger flared white hot in her stomach.

“‘Young lady’? Sorry did ‘kid’ just get thrown out the window? What are you now, my mom?” she snapped.

Mari gapped at her for a second, “Oh I’m sorry, right now I guess I’m more of your mom than whoever had you and left you on your own!”

“You don’t know nothing about them!” Sophie shouted. She didn’t mean too and she hated the way Mari flinched. But Sophie had pushed them away and that wasn’t their fault.

“The hell is this all about Amilia? You wanna go, go. Just don’t be a coward and leave without a goodbye.”

The tears fell fast down her face, because it was all too familiar. And she had never wanted to leave Mari like that. But she was angry, and that never ended well. “Fine, you want a goodbye? Goodbye.”

The door slammed hard behind her, and the rain soaked Sophie’s jacket mixing with her tears. It felt like a crappy hallmark movie from the early 2000s, but she was too angry to care; About the rain, about how muddy her shoes were, or how she didn’t really know where she was going.

The next morning she regretted everything. But by then that bridge was ashes in a stormy ocean; there was no going back. She moved forward because she had to.