#senior photos san diego

[emperornorton47]

Lynn on Mars

[sdsportsdomination]

USD vs. Davidson 2022 Senior Day Photo Gallery

USD vs. Davidson 2022 Senior Day Photo Gallery

[fintan-pyren]

Sometimes, life is busy. You shouldn't let that stop you from enjoying a good book, but who has the time to read the same words over and over again?

For your enjoyment and convenience, I have removed all duplicate words from the first Keeper of the Lost Cities book.

blurry fractured memories swam through sophie’s mind but she couldn’t piece them together tried opening her eyes and found only darkness something rough pressed against wrists ankles refusing to let move a wave of cold rushed as the horrifying realization dawned was hostage cloth across lips stifled cry for help sedative’s sweet aroma stung nose when inhaled making head spin were they going kill would black swan really destroy their own creation what point project moonlark then everblaze drug lulled toward dreamless oblivion fought back clinging one memory that could shine tiny spot light in thick inky haze pair beautiful aquamarine fitz’s first friend new life ever maybe if hadn’t noticed him day museum none this have happened no knew it’d been too late even white fires already burning curving city filling sky with sticky smoke spark before blaze miss foster mr sweeney’s nasal voice cut blaring music he yanked earbuds out by cords you decided you’re smart pay attention information sophie forced open not wince bright fluorescents reflected off vivid blue walls amplifying throbbing headache hiding sweeney mumbled shrinking under glares now staring classmates pulled shoulder-length blond hair around face wishing hide behind it exactly kind went way avoid why wore dull colors lurked blocked other kids who at least foot taller than survive twelve-year-old high school senior perhaps can explain listening your ipod instead following along held up like evidence crime though probably he’d dragged class natural history balboa park assuming his students be excited about all-day field trip didn’t seem realize unless giant dinosaur replicas came started eating people cared tugged loose eyelash nervous habit stared feet there make understand needed cancel noise hear chatter from dozens tourists echoed fossil-lined splashed cavernous room mental voices real problem scattered disconnected pieces thoughts broadcast straight into brain being hundreds tvs different shows same time sliced consciousness leaving sharp pains wake freak secret burden since fell hit five years old she’d blocking ignoring nothing helped never tell anyone wouldn’t you’ve above lecture don’t give asked pointed enormous orange duckbill center how lambeosaurus differs dinosaurs we’ve studied repressed sigh flashed an image card front display glanced entered photographic recorded every detail recited facts twisted scowl classmates’ grow increasingly sour weren’t fans resident child prodigy called curvebuster finished answer grumbled sounded  know-it-all stalked exhibit next over follow thin separating two rooms block muffled grabbed little relief nice job superfreak garwin chang boy wearing t-shirt said i’m gonna fart sneered shoved past join they’ll write another article child teaches lame-o-saurus still bitter yale had offered full scholarship rejection letter arrived few weeks allowed go parents much pressure young end discussion so attending closer smaller san diego college year fact some annoying reporter newsworthy enough post local paper chooses ivy league complete photo freaked wasn’t strong word more half rules unnecessary front-page articles pretty worst nightmare they’d newspaper complain editor seemed unhappy story run place on arsonist terrorizing trying figure mistake bizarre white-hot flames smelled burnt sugar took priority everything especially unimportant girl most ignore or used caught sight tall dark-haired reading yesterday’s embarrassing black-and-white looked seen particular shade teal smooth sea glass beach glittered flickered expression gaze disappointment decide shrugged leaning closed distance between smile belonged movie screen heart did weird fluttery thing is pointing picture nodded feeling tongue-tied fifteen far cutest talking i thought squinted brown uh yeah sure say reason felt conversation accent british somehow crisper which bothered know are suck words soon left mouth course boys cute made mushy perfect returned told hulking greenish standing albertosaurus all its lizardesque glory me do think that’s it’s absurd

isn’t see saw small t rex: big teeth ridiculously short arms fine laughed i’ll get meet turned leave just classes kindergartners barreled fossil crushing screaming knock step whole realm pain kids’ stinging high-pitched needles many once angry porcupine attacking hands darted rubbing temples ease stabbings skull remembered alone reaction locked forehead pained imagined seconds hushed blood drain mean created plenty racket shrieks squeals giggles plus sixty individual chattering away gasped solved earlier everyone boy’s distinct accented speaking totally completely silent possible whispered widened moved whisper telepath flinched skin itch gave can’t believe backed exit reveal total stranger okay holding sort wild animal calm afraid froze my name’s fitz added stepping name searching sign part joke joking thinking wobbled spent seven find someone else world tilted sideways steady here looking twelve we better question: want air jerked bolted door stumbling shaky legs rhythm sucked breaths ran down stairs burned lungs bits ash flew ignored wanted space strange come shouted picked pace raced courtyard base steps wide fountain grassy knolls sidewalk got inside because poor quality footsteps gaining wait pouring energy sprint fighting urge glance shoulder halfway crosswalk sound screeching tires reminded both ways terrified driver struggling stop car plowed right die second blur swerved missing inches jumped curb sideswiped streetlight heavy steel lantern cracked plummeted instincts hand shot pulling strength somewhere deep gut pushing fingertips force collide falling gripping extension arm dust settled floated feel weighed ton put familiar warned bringing trance shrieked dropped without hurtled watch yanking split crashed ground impact knocked tumbled body broke fall landed chest stretched flurry questions swirling coherent idea sat replaying sense need witnessed miracle tighten panic let’s overwhelmed plan resist street reached intersection north zoo where crowd during firestorm running missed hearing changed terrifying scenarios involved government agents throwing dark vans experiments watched road ready bolt anything suspicious zoo’s massive parking lot relaxed outside milling cars happen witnesses slowed walk breath promise sincere easier opened hesitated supposed am trust won’t considered father sent specific age observe report always talk frowned disappointed himself does means expected threw what’s wrong touched eyelids suddenly selfconscious figured again awe us stopped whoa hang ‘one us’ frowning spotted fanny-pack-wearing within earshot deserted corner ducking green minivan there’s easy we’re human stunned speak hysterical laugh escaped repeated shaking riiiiiight insane trusting kicked stomped telling truth minute last listen plea humans vanished gone reeling leaned argued taking clear set pole minutes ago almost three managed finally saying alien erupted laugher cheeks grew hot also relieved compose elf hung foreign object belong visions tights pointy ears danced giggling expect guess stick wavy spikes rock star good crazy agreed refused serious frodo ring save middle-earth toys hid corners showed oh ought folded slender silver wand intricate carvings etched sides tip round crystal sparkled sunlight magic asking rolled actually pathfinder spun latch top dangerous you’ll faded depends take concentrate matter happens proof prove whisk land curious harm someone’s willed palms sweat fingers laced stupid tingled everywhere scanning warning look scowled bit tongue concentrated racing seriously become those silly girls counted raising facet beam refracted tightened grip forward warm tingling million feathers swelling underneath tickling giggle melted goo keeping oozing blanket warmth wrapped faster blink eye might squeaked stood edge glassy river lined impossibly trees fanning emerald leaves among puffy clouds row castles walt disney throw rocks kingdom golden path led sprawling elaborate domed buildings built brick-size jewels each structure color snowcapped mountains surrounded lush valley crisp cool

cinnamon chocolate sunshine places exist less appear forgotten released realized hard squeezing unable castle towers oddly our capital call eternalia heard shangri-la lost cities you’d stories rarely ridiculous things elves burst quiet gentle breeze brushing soft murmur traffic hammering unspoken very silence rising tiptoes view streets ghost town building towered others stones emeralds banner flying tribunal progress everyone’s watching proceedings council basically royalty holds broken law they’re deal laws well shook wrap cringing question funniest glared funny regained control try cling remaining strands sanity sun casting ray onto leaping hitched ride headed impossible infinite travel haven’t theory relativity stumped dumbest i’ve albert einstein huh dumb argue confident unnerving harder waited feather sensation dryer scattering directions until rubber band later shivering ocean whipping glowed carved moonlight failed passed bring herself true science book read confused observed ‘hey learned smug grin best minds begin comprehend complexities reality elves’ ahead slowest trump proper education shoulders sagged sank four scenery blurred whether tears entire lie nudged hey fault believed taught i’d done works bells chimed large gateway floor-length velvet capes draped tunics emerged followed creatures marching military formation rocky pants muscles prominently flat noses coarse gray pleated folds armadillo goblins signed treaty hating trembling dressed forbidden lumenaria worlds gnomes dwarves ogres trolls mentioning focused motioned farther squatting betrayed ancient councillors intelligent rule planning war ancients violence disappeared forbid any contact devices working defend race famine problems chilled frigid wind licking who’d known must’ve after eventually evolved myths simple yes peeked glowing crucial identity clicked spinning thousand loud clang gate stepped shadows sleek cobalt home jolted mom bus bland boring stole incredible blinding swept smoky fresh surprised recognized plain square houses narrow tree-lined house ask lived coughed handle putting pollutes planet these aren’t normal chemical smells usually wildfires smell barbecue melting cotton candy burn rain arsonists admitted pocket hoping notice dad wants knows neither important meant mystery he’s happy careful please shown today thank act family doesn’t suspect squared courage telepaths special ability rarer ones thirteen six months corrected liking youngest manifest start reverberated scanned positive waking hospital moment forget hooked kinds machines hovering shouting barely separate hold happening group adults haunted worry brows narrowed doing extra private keep wall weak hated bossed answering concerned action worked imagining stretching shadow mine blurted pale process hardest worries live fumbled answers long trouble knees link amazing will tomorrow panicked battered cluttered living phone she’s receiver having reeled daggers calling wandering worried police sorry stammered convincing horrible liar scared mom’s anger concern nervously curly guy realizing lies based freaking walked trolley train teacher guard ugh complained closing adult rubbed wrinkle appeared stressed upset safe stand weirdo understood dangers teased tormented bullied deflate wish trailed close rest sister slipped pin painful tight hug welcome honey dinner ten amy upstairs kitchen unease twist stomach worn linoleum pastel tacky knickknacks ordinary glittering kissed cheek shabby briefcase table how’s soybean wink baby apparently pronouncing thousands times lid simmering pots garlic cream filled handed silverware turn crackin’ scooted plopped usual chair nine role mastered opposite lower average grades popularity sisters wondered definitely powers lowered breathing: inhale exhale repeat care nickname dizzy must lay should eat skipping acting fettuccine night favorite rich sauce sudden nausea tug eyelashes chewed bite swallow fork official thanks great homework sprinted bed hiss shattered marty pounding fluffy cat sitting tail slunk settling lap marty’s purring

confront downstairs settle explained blonde chubby brunette screamed throbbed deeper ripped apart blinked related change lots adopted poked brought e l fudges plate cookies milk getting sick palm fever tired cookie stumbled routine crawled blankets wrapping pillow dreams kissing tucked tradition breathe ella yep elephant stuffed sleep tonight um guys hugged tighter hours labor endured switched birth daughter doubt wondering anymore dreamed keebler perfected recipes liked oreos drown vat fudge woke overrated morning quick shower jeans shirt buttery yellow stripes item closet self-conscious wear gold flecks admit clipped toyed lip gloss snuck check crept yard blinking stuck contained next-door neighbor perch middle lawn forkle rearranging garden tableaux nosy checking effect beady bored hers loved sentences complaining 911 obligated gnome fraction inch gives headaches yapping interrupted ball fur streaked barking spandex jogging shorts chased grabbing dog leash clumsy lunge kneeled stroking wild-eyed panting creature drew growled strained mad sister’s hates displaying several halfmoon wounds bleeding scar suppose willing carry blocks seems winked piercing certainly yelled jogger guy’s louder chaos wonder grab drag should’ve trick react stopping tracks side man straightened height quite intimidating ordered glowered promised snorted grumbling moving explaining whenever appearance waiting incident eyewitnesses frustrating confusing bell rang lurking scream demanded loudly heads bad flashing cocky rush blush unanswered tries creepy snatch slow replayed scene remember growling forkle’s quietly quieter we’ll we’d eyeing suspected impending mischief leap english ditch yesterday strangle pull disappearing fail willingly use telepathy brushed whispering pushed further test tested permission assignment frustrated matters invading offense scrunch nod movement nearby oak drowned could’ve sworn jogger’s campus gestured tree either imagine adjusted shouldn’t anyway who’s committee sidelong heat breaking automatically furious enjoyed caused determines grinned future shield surveyed surroundings metal nearly everglen leading doors absorbs directly likes privacy stressful doubted king kong faint click swung inward striking clearing growing midnight cape fastened clasp diamond-encrusted wings lean vibrant resemblance alden introduced bow curtsy shake greet shy pleasure prominent kidding unusual flush smiled embarrassed fire alden’s injury muttered son shared kidnapping considering such might’ve paranoid has touch rude assure love kidnapper searched reassure kindness agree placed gently jacket ticked indeed fascinating sounding triumphant perfectly specifically nexus forgot covered dug cuff coat clamped bracelet wrist twisting fit snug comfortable accessory single jewel rectangle symbols letters spelled gibberish odd decorate finality safety precaution break particles carried concentration circumstances bare early fools overestimate skills fade cautious answered lose yourself able fully reform pulls forever goose bumps dimple cleared throat prefer reproving send mission collect long-lost guests wiped blooming red pink purple rainbow perfume flowers dizzying testing qualify foxfire paused fungus insulted prestigious academy named represents glow darkened comes ‘fungus’ strongest talent kiss goodbye excuse proud attend accomplishment earliest levels develops abilities continue studies elvin sneak work knowingly chills mixed night’s troubling revelation sickening councillor bronte difficult impress feels upbringing lack disqualify surprises existed miffed votes squat brown-skinned huge tended fairy tale plants slantways shuffled carrying basket twinkling fruit guessing pictured men hats statues servants stare choose safer gardens enjoy privileged taste gnomish produce lunch treat dig slimy tubers slugs hoped menu peeled meadow elegant manor entirely intricately numerous turrets gables rose tower resembled lighthouse braided foyer prism widest hallway fountains spouted streams colored water hall dead-ended encrusted jeweled mosaic

diamond unicorns amethyst spoke wealth squeezed formal dining sheer silk curtains drawing chandelier waterfall shimmering crystals platters fancy goblets figures jewel-encrusted circlets plush thronelike chairs surrounding curtsied necks clasps keys horribly underdressed fabrics except disguise kenric oralie football player toothy princess rosy ringlets met smallest cropped features finger pairs floor laughter squirmed joined pleased shape it’ll transformed noticing autorepeat: scooting oralie’s one’s died yet hurt immortal trace sorrow bodies aging reach adulthood wrinkles belongs yourselves guest uncovered grimace strips glop goop tasted juiciest cheeseburger stuff mashed carnissa root umber leaf tastes chicken animals tone ate toxic waste squirming grimaced vegetarians horror vegetables cheeseburgers tells swallowed mouthful thud discussing openly respond kenric’s jaws dry remembering warnings stay begun eight pass mentioned learn relax bronte’s icy gust common announced jaw flushing chagrined incredulous impenetrable key sentence ‘almost breached guilt conscience sounds infallible thinks likely exceptionally lift weight telekinesis recovering embarrassment shrank goblet accident raised lifting invisible scoffed unimpressed limitations unlike physical confidence clue giving blew pretending imaginary extend sharper worth saucers applauded excellent praise couple glasses determined stronger ounce core empty collective gasp including breathed celebrate cramped strain knocking thunderous collision open-mouthed shock hollered sealed clapped language guys’ enlightened leaped instinctive interesting babbling teasing noisy gripped ‘soybean’ mispronouncing blushed chuckled beside dusting waved insisted sighed suldreen stretch line rare species bird puzzle solve uncomfortable coincidence convince decision barked shoving moonlarks vote otherwise fight favor final fragile lovely empath emotions extended grasped delicate fear confusion sincerity describe azure settles revisited till adjust invoke demand probe planned arranged quinlin busy decipher fun training looks iffy ‘bothered’ dad’s reluctant emptiness exploded choked saving colder implications ditched stall punishment atlantis nowhere patch white-capped waves signs seagulls screech poop hardly continent tide pool triangular slip slick shoes match gown begged status noble members nobility offices empire waist beaded neckline dress costume seeing clothes: tunic embroidery edges pockets sewn sleeves exact size sit boots completed thankfully knowing biana comparison changing subject ledge engineered catastrophe compartment revealing bottles label bottle whirlpool uncorked flung blast whipped faces roar churning ladies suggested worse gulped maelstrom beneath salty sprayed jump push count dignity drowning flailing idiot formed tunnel dipping weaving craziest waterslide starting launched vortex sponge licked toe pack kittens minus kitten sprang cushion smoothed wet incoming rocketed slightly squishy packed sand gleaming metropolis dome beyond soared skyline bathing radiating spires network canals interconnected arched bridges pictures venice modern clean despite bottom underwater muted hum background seashell ear build stores power precisely amount changes plated reflect firelight illuminate sink wandered shops renaissance fair women’s gowns shifted advertised two-for-one specials bottled lightning fast approval spyball applications strolled hybrid chicken-lizard invented main canal hailed carriages floating almond-shaped boat rows high-backed benches elbow-length steered bench reins skimming surface eight-foot-long scorpion deadly pincers reared curled sting eurypterid stroked shiny shell eurypterid’s slice emitting low hissing petted harmless carriage quinlin’s yours fiber mutant insect doom probed gritted pressing hideous sonden’s office thrashed heebie-jeebies commute while secure needs protection file highly classified business district windows tracing bearing names treasury registry interspeciesial services unreadable random strings runes nonsense writing

alphabet clueless chin jumble nah affected gap kid option country tests dropping member broad kelp ornamentation precise read: sonden: chief mentalist cube swiped elbow ping assurances humiliating bypassed receptionist dim damp stone desk dark-skinned chin-length seat ceremony unique understatement squirm handing lick dna unsanitary tiniest hologram center: rotating unearthly breathing prentice sacrificed double helixes sacrifice reasons fears hundred seventy-eight murmured began pacing invaded she’ll greatest keeper older midstep record share trained charge protecting currently hidden karaoke game sing off-key notes clearly eavesdropping strip slid winding stairway climbed oval footage brush projected chill aerial southern california lines circle area images deepened valleys ruled reflections note interrupting communicate waving warn turning overreacting glancing shuddered desperate kidnapper’s threatened easily implied nameless faceless entity quickly threatening authorities would’ve shivered accelerant chemicals leads lighting spilling oil blowing investigate council’s position here: takes visit babysitter decent equally spying steam secrecy existence discovered hoax search updated slight bypassing distracted evillooking matches keepers lagoon glint shimmery dunes lake west shore statue topped hollow iridescent film shimmered loop apparatus resemble bubble lifted clung shrieking levitate forming touching bubble’s rumble coming geyser shoot eleven crash below bobbed where’s scary pure joy popped whisked glaring gates flash strode olive contrast youth shone nerve summoning personal shorter intimidated difference sooner exiled clench fists backward tiergan aware opinion summoned convinced tiergan’s fierce crumbled crossing expert inventory widening whatever foxfire’s newest mentor puppy officially weirding becomes provide retired given persuaded return resentment mixture surprise hone assistance reasonable restrictions pretend opportunity silencing bet terrible mood mumbling mostly irresponsible manage choice benefit stares notify dame alina returning kept bruise meantime session listed remedial schedule lessons dummies correct assumption warmed tuesday brilliant panel everglen’s grounds sessions study student subjects one-on-one nerves one-onone succeed mention level grade relearning self-doubt heavier fragmented disappear explanation aside pleasant dis arguing overstuffed armchairs woman squealed snickered wife della pinched gesturing dear vanishers smiling musical hint della’s beauty tossed pursed heart-shaped parents’ combined gangly troll interceded borrow errands frumpy files requested denied request approve grady edaline case torn radiant parcels strobe unwrapped packages clasped cord neck choker pendant elf-y anytime fund’s activated fund register money standard dollars lusters laughing luster dollar crinkled ew insult afford differently limited seventy eighty makes sad curved window overlooking silvery floor-to-ceiling aquarium wingback facing piled books scrolls anxiety remind stacks newspapers circled crossed news removed drawer theories irritation super stuttered discuss faced solution allow ours they’ve effective immediately too-simple accept kick constant discovery longer unbearable loneliness friends grasping overwhelm areas access severely restricted dead deciding gravestones became vivid: grave tearstained draw suffer struck complicated relocated jobs erase tear obvious believing shutting function erased armchair scrubbed forbade sob occurred risking twenty alert plans clothes sees wiping focus bent unshed horrors cringed buried trembled bouncing busted eavesdrop grounded hugging worrying pouted pettiness bratty obnoxious pain-in-the-butt embrace struggles play daughters mouths senses hook hurry daze rememorize room: dusty available quilt mother tripped furry crouching releasing pathetic meow disk sleeping gas release drugging physically ill backpack slung giggled elizabeth clutching anywhere couch fingered ordering thirty crumpled burying recognize crouched smearing drool snot drugged sobs

overcame jerk washers bags regret bear slept finish hawaiian family’s limp determination taken fourteen cried assured stranglehold haunting gets hope personally oversee relocation flared wrung guardians title selected enthusiasm strangers elwin’s blue-crystaled temptation shiver raked bones orphan conservatory lead backyard security choosing saved ache suffering gift raise ended abandoned wipe elwin physician medical hate doctors brave regular nightmares brief stays struggled dragging direction drop free implying biana’s glare escape punch bathed gigantic glued cushioned cot syringe goes fidget spectacles scientist snapped painless orb flasher manipulate skilled orem vacker show eclipse biggest celebrations traditions damage permanent tensed food chance innocent cells dashing depending orbs squinting lenses stunningly lit dramatic expecting toxins research rifled satchel vials liquids major detox braced medicine syrups nectar unknown fruits tingly drink youth legends enzymes essential health refreshing downed contents gulp drank medicines list follow-up checkup whistled sometimes heated lame stinky stegosaurus shame horrified production wimp doctor phobia jumping needle strap bunch shots allergic how’d concrete nine-one-one unconscious genes kicking trigger bedroom canopied chandeliers room’s gotten deserve ruined chanting mantra shut pajamas tuck asleep belonging alive twenty-five catch breakfast clock shop furniture detoxes materializing clutched ghostly exotic heartbreaker fitted glamorous shopping explosion behold wardrobe outfits extras pick beat-up sparkly casual packing leaked days unpack hungry knotted sadly dampened preserve havenfield exciting jolie deny loss wonderful booming fenced-in pastures spread scrambled versions rehabilitation centers sanctuary protected trap nessie artist endangered gorillas lions mammoths extinct thriving herd woolly colonies saber-toothed tigers slack exists rob qualities provides thrive feeding hunt diet steep cliffs caves flower-lined using ropes lasso lizard neon beast protest drama queen husky male commanded beast’s heave feat twice snaarrll bucked guardian lunged tangled writhed losing balance verdi tyrannosaurus comments meeting jaculus winged serpent feeds support contain bloodsucking snake claws snout tremble lowering fangs glinted slobber motioning glimpse dinosaur-riding chiseled feather-covered james bond robin hood balding relate handsome feathery banged pet rub rex’s stayed docile unblinking separated verdi’s wound plugged slime death rot tuna fish combination kelpie dung bites jar swear edaline’s grady’s wary compared palatial estate mansion standards columns cupola roof entryway central upper floors cascaded ceiling wispy fabric turquoise amber curls similar circles fluff presentable rex picking playing rodeo cowboy nope wash staircase sadness lingered tea mallowmelt insist gooey cake fresh-baked chip soaked ice frosting butterscotch dripping hasty slices served nook grazing linens painted china homesick woken lushberry juice pop possessed conjurer form teleporting objects coolest unfortunately scraggly slurps burps letting friend’s ached grieve fished imparter simply strangled pounded reassuring deafening third star-shaped dangled glittery weaved carpet scent canopy occupied dressing bookshelves brightly volumes bathroom bathtub swimming biting awesome assumed jolie’s tour awkward delicious soupy pizza unpacking wrinkled scrapbook wherever welled remnants dried sixteen sunrise streaks blending mirror darken awake finishing hovered doorway interrupt riser shades clap bruises conjured bowl spoon banana bread tempted impose sloppy handwriting upside symbol corner: bird’s beak tickled babble scare extremely documents cipher moisture particularly believable prescribed drawn eager fidgeting ruffles simplest bought hi kesler groaned island mysterium identical mold vendors spices sweets buzzed crowded sidewalks working-class social rank ‘talent simpler correspondingly unfair born lesser lives type designed village avoiding whispers ruewen pretended different

store crooked nursery rhyme burps: merry apothecary belched maze shelves pills laboratory beakers bubbling burners rainbow-colored lab skinny tousled strawberry periwinkle blob tubes add amarallitine dex tongs vial experiment poured beaker sparked plume dirty gag concoction exclaimed hello ‘hello impersonation sludge eda scrap sheet kesler’s brother-in-law nephew practically monday al freaks dimples burped beanpole hooded cloak vika annoyance handiwork written girl’s bald scalp meanwhile stina ’cause twitched battling sell solutions sasquatch dent bony appendages children throttle hairoids stock week wailed ogre wicked misses responsible friendly rage here’s spat helping customers potent hat flinch useless buy countered retort stina’s oooh slammed fist timkin heks helps situation traditional absolutely brings stuffy nobles happier grinning mess tweak supplies armful worktable sneaky beard dex’s evil mortar pestle teach tingle attempt fifty-seven solo property collapse practiced checked displayed sliver percent chose he’ll hawk mentors monitor weakness expelled pushes transferred exillium swallowing bile mounting attack messy juline riveted gossip interruption interest hilarious bookshelf mounted cover camera summer flipping pages naked mouse suit disneyland dizznee photos honestly movies outlets flipped technology solar powered rifling sir conley’s luck lady galvin highest rate rig calming flooded seventeen gadgets chimes arrive uniform skirt leggings shirt-vest-cape combo laceup jerkin long-sleeved slacks waist-length superhero captain blueberry rescue meaning order demonstrate rid wimpy halcyon mastodons mascot birds storm mastodon ceremonies costumes glad idiots appealing crest triangle heart: scarlet eagle soaring talons chemistry equipment theirs adopting adoption adopt temporary enrollment manticore themselves parties dies span cope calmed orphans wylie whose recover connection blames wylie’s hanging leapmaster 500 lucky authorized 250 tons rotated five-story pyramid sharply angled u stained seventh amphitheater extensive fields grass hopelessly prodigies uniforms building’s finding ducked starts orientation principal reads announcements attendance collar track peal close-up stunning porcelain caramel-colored foremost whoever reekrod weekend mark punished fullest extent threat dangle continued detect ah spotlight hissed viper’s nest ssssssophie hole crawl concludes today’s nearest exception divided wing banners bore midflight halls quad throughout sparkling sapphire chatted doorways lining atrium spectacle creating marked rune locker mirrored lock uses gross faculty picks flavors pepper sneeze croak yelped stench rotten eggs dash diaper muskog wheezy snicker whirled towering mass frizzy cackling hags stalking hairs shave earth serum friday retorted raven swishing behavior phasers ashamed apologize obviously spend detention alexine stinks beet minions kinda frog fumes catching jensi rapid-fire speech talked buckets redder instructed honest ‘human girl’ ‘sophie’ whim elementalism pride backtracked twists turns drops warped wooden session’s zapped ‘zapped’ thunderclap eighteen tray electrocuted quiver conley hitting fluted botched sending tornado tornadoes mastering elements entering foods series stalls court mall recognizable eaten tables cafeteria whom discourage joining verge perceptible message clear: focusing bigger jensi’s acne braces fairly slicked greasy ponytails drooled setting bang c’mon dude unison ‘e’ duh drooly volunteered singed universe daunting exaggerated messing ‘dude’ killing explode cough pixielike rescuing tossing petite balled braids suicide overeager marella mare nicknames obeyed enemies honored pucker licorice lemon fan prettypants rather grumpy brat brother’s dreamy willpower copying sip looped defending dizznees triplets says ‘bad match’ genetically incompatible inferior aunt uncle superstrange celebrities famous vackers superimportant marella’s sympathy grandma heartbroken helpless veins hopeless cases guarantee scooping mammoth shudder awful afternoon feared astronomical

learning astin whispery complex maps planetarium effortless excelled hour survived approaching dragon hateful invited feelings letters: extinguished stuffing fill animosity deck ‘nice uncanny royal highness bothers remembers talented ‘deck beaming nineteen thursday disaster goal sandwiched colosseum pe vanity near door: sneakers ponytail owned ship slap reply lasted compare redek squish may fool stops idle threats grouped twos tromps manifested fifty-fifty manifesting mysterious remark required variable reign terror ‘everyone’ impressive jolt supervise caton titan god informed channeling supereasy channel parts body: heights speeds normally unimpressive attempts threes bumped defense appetite startled spaceship unremarkable studying superintently snapping scraping probing concept unsettling establish forcing eighty-seven puckered brow assume cheerful scraped intended drained steadying suggest ethics attached meganeura exercise annoy fidgeted cocked wanna buzzing dived vulture-size dragonflies patted freaky-looking bug blown gargantuan proportions creepiest disco balls grown monster enclosure phys ed intense emergency weirdest part: proven trustworthy receive assignments lectured responsibility detecting discover elite avoided mesmer nauseated wow sheesh inflicting curiosity won causes dara lecture: pyramids tidal army hairy hollowing himalayas strangest mumble creeped exile interested dying supertalented fundamental guilty underground eternity ruin fluke churned abandoning illegal washer alter dump brother secluded sorted reminding effort flavored flumes spritzed shove disturbing failing smirked alchemy pupil encouraging cracking melody ominous ingredients trophies gilded items pointy-toed suspiciously midas milky liquid dancing rushing rustle red-brown updo hunter silky decorated patterns swished slightest alkahest universal solvent stored itself dissolves wood flesh taxes substance alchemist wise teaching masters tincture poultice basic serums yellowed box flask jars iron transmuting metals recipe formula labeled instructions fiddled rechecked mistakes plunged whip fizzed rumbled jelly galvin’s exquisite dissolved luxurious damaged salvage welt healing ma’am murder retrieve afterward muttering incompetence flunk sprawled hallways stark ditching keefe gulon disheveled untucked popular belva crush blame 90 certain paid accidentally cue epic alina’s ugly crying treated whiter phobia consisted rooms: treatment beds brewing physician’s paperwork slinky scurried bullhorn demented ferret banshee adorable fellow dramatically wanting seize mmm-hmm acid mimed effects destroyed salve measured whap wash present laughs clarification confirming twenty-one embellished version destruction joked bottling anwen multispeciesial 324 faxon metaphysics complimented requests brown-eye create overnight granted incredibly challenging explosions occurrence unlearn lifetime knowledge levitating rainbows constantly messed highlight skill effortlessly amazed unwanted transmit else’s psychic photograph needing patient plague suspicion snotty maruca i-hate-sophiefoster club reaching growl jealous prettiest bedlam subdue chasing rabbits antlers swinging trunk lump verminion pen boosted mammoth’s trumpeted earthshaking squeal ringing mound timid twig hiiiissssssssssss uncurled rodent bulging hamsters rottweiler-size hamsterzilla trample japanese hamster cooed snaarrrlll impressed chase steer dashed catches fifty stupidest clod mud nailed grooowwwwllll fatal flaw pinned grunted press snarling squeeze verminion’s unlocked assortment spewed whined pile gloves shed trade trudged oversize squirrels rats identify burlap sack quivering snarl steeled shriek batlike heaved wool scratches leg outbuildings carefully organized veterinarian’s laid sterile spreading limbs smeared eyedropper dripped creature’s rewarded squeaky rumbling crackly purr smiles cage barrel soapy chain-sawesque snores vibrating brattail tuber sausage imp guessed six-inch venomous stings snoring vicious describing tame yetis outnumbered conked chipper iggy strand swell

generous hugs touches gestures glistened dubious trails twenty-two sharing congested warthog roommate snuggly sleepless spoil caring ultimate splotching championship sacks cheered sympathetic secretly celebrating partnered naturally teamed splotcher splattered loses winners person wins marks smugly win splotch splat deserved colorful prize contest pardon hopes wonderboy gagging rounds beat opponent knots backing aim ow raw telekinetic flushed compliment disqualifies pumped victory hotter cheering opponents experience duel beginner’s talents mighty competition grumblings battle odds experienced evidently four: sixes trella dempsey paired hopeful muster bested winner fluttered appears competitors betraying butt preference keefe’s chant ladies’ float clenched adrenaline surged audience back-up splotches rebound phenomenon weightless collided simultaneous fate collapsed twenty-three placing compress wincing muscle injured whermiwhahapped worse: laying banshees mortal danger stirred lucid winced stiff glands zinged collected rebounded bounce specialized hammered controls actual mix matched draining practice evenly awfully sidelines wobbling auditorium applause teensy annoyed copied blushing elbowing ribs tie protested declared excused lesson rejoin splotchers acted delivered p congratulations confirm bath lathering bathers soggy instinctively besides creased drive twenty-four meter one-third younger that’d wonderboy’s precious midterms score seventy-five recommend nissa tutoring consider tutor projection gagged flavor yell daily tore prattle chewy caramel peanut butter pouch cracker jack horse mane prattles’ unicorn pins collection examined digital 122 185 number eighty-five super-rare bitterness vaguely compute unexpected development century too-little-too-late branch other’s replaced beeline simultaneously sniff aw stuck-up snob wasted invite humiliate walking ambush capable teeniest details clanged cricket chirped embroidered satin sash wringing exhaled seeming makeovers wrestling polite fortunately braid flutter dirt pitter-patter eh sayin’ shooting quest grateful team jealousy guarded raid questers tagged sentry tabs isolate general nail targets listened softer instantly presence tremendous connected forest thundered vision racked credible crashing bushes partner deceive insists hasn’t secrets toes staying chain apologizing visitors sulking funk snipe wagged there’ve weekly jokes havenfield’s defied exams panicking passing guide narrowing shipped exam brass copper transmutations ideas challenges thwarted spilled gashrooms reek pored frozen cause shattering cheated accomplished cheat ideal dreading twenty-six tri-angular apex streamed pane angle reflection examining confessed forgave neutral violated ethical regulations expulsion suggesting argument ruling obey flourish bother violating reporting stifle closely icily respect authority advises wedding flapped nor pointless cheating tolerated huffed regrets confess serve minimum assigning becoming theme slipping unnoticed what’d gloomy atmosphere desks thumbs-up siren song appreciation art nature clapping earsplittingly shrill whine whale nails chalkboard toddler uncover broadening horizons claiming repentant company brand torture ballroom belva’s sirens dances edwardian claimed valin ponytailed promenade dancers valin’s sweaty chime stars shined brighter spit wickedly slobbery octaves fanned hmm irritated flattered scored points empathy forked smirk ironing holes stack detained increased practicing leaps eyebrow empaths powerful mundane purification vein easiest transmutation lockers traded twenty-seven banging annoyingly caps disqualified chorus groans nonstop cap smurf amalgam telepathic integrity wrote essay betrayal over debate automatic 100 last-minute mentally repeating tips negative vibes stress ethic claim fame skipped skip supportive doubting brag mercifully stalled magenta berries rusty discipline chosen purify ruckleberries fifty-five nasty impurities elderly human’s alchemists methods dive knife pierced berry dribbled pinky haggard glacial quarters

deducted mediocre performance forth whirlwind crack exhausted brutal slamming slumped that’ll public hooks presents spine cards schools hassle babysitters edged obstacle tugging stressing rigid suitable gifts jewelry charms charm twenty-eight unrecognizable streamers shrub toilet-papered tinsel confetti bubbles prizes popping appointment teal-wrapped package uglier hurrying plowing regain literally prying trademark smirks spoken sapphire-encrusted navy-blue intently hairstyle contrasted pristine infamous deflated wilted father’s oily insincerity resigned flame cassius lord performing unremarkably radiated apologies fos er disappointing scores fake critical said: creeps prize-filled prattles dwarf lollipop topple snappy comeback comment loser fails organize overflowing half-empty month misunderstanding shushed slim parcel chiming signaled parent-mentor conferences celebration feast unwrap snatching self ‘dear dance sometime vice president boyfriend rattled reader tease ribbon tapped gadget fingernail speaker thingies coloring dunno disbelief variety edible glosses speckled spider snapper plant fed spiders riddler writes riddle miniature violet thanked showing misty seventy-nine improvement range sensing tomato congratulated comfort sobbing partying included sneer party note: f snap k sugarplums boy-craziness necklace cuffs wristbands vanisher platter customs gelled perfection gym ornate immaculate alvar talks often rumpling fizzleberry wine juggling girlfriends hero beamed piddly quicksnuff emissaries tend conspiracy possibility myself pieced undivided swan’s curve pattern term replied active recently unauthorized investigation frustration twenty-nine alternate spending smelling clues accomplish consumed trapped counting resumed vacation finals received eighty-one eighty-three unacceptable prepared chorused poufy thrown towel drooped oven roasted frosters transmitting charts transmitted peed suffered rested cryokinetics freeze manipulating pyrokinesis mesmers inflictors monitored pyrokinetics inflict fire’s unpredictable truly forbidding pyrokinetic library surely three’s librarian banned archives libraries bust problem: section dire wolves peek promising bins mountain littered haphazardly spaces scan unrolled flip papers helpful lacy dulled childhood: strung lanyards dolls framed bone picture: breathtaking tragedy drinking leftover junk trunks piles unopened bin disturbed murky midterm roll scroll shelf sample starlight moonglade: fireflies flickering stellarscope upside-down spyglass view’s billions wad tag amaranthis memorized fourth lambentine bag spout wider scope knobs cluster dials stiffened lever thumb clinked rubini orroro azulejo cobretola indigeen scratching spectrum rearranged indigo zelenie isolated this’ll bluff scrounging elementine adjusting fidgety hummed shining teared welts frantic thirty-one blackish-purple blisters pot burns sprinkled powder adventure soaking numbs balm miserably regulate temperature palace crown nicer handful roots mutilating blades destroying bashing stubbornness reappeared ointment knelt furrowed fingertip rags longest hottest soapiest griffins discreetly boring-looking firecatching bode bundle solid downright incoherently darkly quintessence fifth element myth truest conditions blow metallic-toned bronze wildly flamed audible unmapped locations merit thirty-two platform thrones remotely procedure involving throne cushions tourmaline sturdy polished dotted onyx heard: clarette velia terik liora emery ramira darek noland zarina flicked mere evacuated three-thousand-year task undisclosed location trial salivating convict straighter dozen marched stationed bodyguards swordlike weapons belts fanfare blasted crowned amateurs seated sapphires shall world’s ungraceful consuming detector fuzzy lying endlessly jell-o hobbled astin’s honesty assigned emery’s argento auriferria pennisi merkariron styggis achromian slower plotting map cowering submit lists convenient judgment frightening hardened remained expressionless mediates telepathically consensus united aspirin unanimous

rise violates actions intentional accountable foster’s involvement addressing agreement millionth wished exchanged dimpling kiddo thirty-three banks sienna bark paintbrushes purfoliage palmae calls pures filter pollution freshest crispest tinge fuzzed hesitation observant instruction lurched sunset farthest councillors’ steadied emerald-encrusted circlet bowed pleasing honor beg refuse descryer response delightfully potential clamoring backfired speaks beginning optional 327 sensed crane sweeping peacock log dream softly regularly useful one-armed fiancé’s projecting vividly replace album dinner’s stroke retracted apology hurting tricks arches replica model thirty-four planted curl plotted page difficulties rivaled protect quieted los angeles hollywood trash conspicuous spider-man batman posed mann’s chinese theatre blended beams issued ‘forgot’ oblivious ourselves stubborn softened unwillingly seeped ‘got of’ ant pavement explore warring hurried consequences captured pleaded mercy prentice’s behalf oversaw shatters society metaphor insurgents rebellion kindest whatever’s decisions encouragement revelations ability-detecting exercises cornered superbusy insistent significant elf-ish onetime played envy tracked master tracking switch spots conspiracies investigating headway ignorance ever: permanently jarred conservation legitimate scientific principle nagging elixir nogginease limbium mineral supposedly resisted bike wheels giddy week’s supply unnaturally syrup absorb nauseating unfastening vest skin’s collapsing allergy dimmed cradling thirty-five fluttered chafed sandpaper wildhaired soothed sensations spectators cleaned vomit upright moaned allergies wits bullhorn’s trite soiled airtight vomiting swollen blotch-free humiliated undershirt noticeably absent dazzling alvar’s raptor disgusting decade spare injected steroids tied budge scolded showers heels crisis ushered deathly tough disasters blankly rests brothy soup elsewhere shadowy comforting yawn snuggled thirty-six squealing hundreds eagle-size pterodactyl somersaulted screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech stability rein speed momentum gained screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech torch pasture dispersed uncannily fried engulfed birdbath sparks jerking possess flareadon fire-resistant replay triggered animal’s cares octave higher killed resting flareadons volcanoes occur gildie strayed ‘flareadon female correcting wade debacle breaks wrestled socks shredded apparent vague emotion animals’ distances qualified lightened results defined iggy’s gildie’s paw tummy reward downy fury paled out-of-breath aura recoiling imperative vital violate risk humiliation fled her: cooperate freezing peered railing partial drifted bars errand thirty-seven mush nights begging blend processing forgetting tearing fluorescent locker: insider’s librarian’s timing shoe absolute librarians plastered sinking confirmed dog-ear chapter everblaze: unstoppable blind thirty-eight paper-strewn something’s ‘everblaze frissyn x stands detailed extinguish overruled excluded unheard indecision warred babies hatch extract unregistered code name: egg cast conventional purpose determine pregnant fertility posing implanted embryo manipulated outstanding retain discovering affects genetic anomaly renegades weapon ‘prodigy illegally forgiving messages suffocating choke word: controlled puppet issue triggers twilight proudly soothe facade crumble table: throaty fix drove wedge messenger delivering seal reseal rampaging limits chaise skimmed bead luminous nonluminous generated lumenite drilled clarify rip grubby paws riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip chunk possession skittered treasure retrieving tattered assess rug glue document accordance canceled thirty-nine heartbeat scrubbing choked-back muffle misery acknowledge gaping owe regardless charade  obeying command churn yeti ricocheted ooooookaaaaaaay slinking acknowledging attempting library-appropriate slothlike triple-check echoing phew scrutiny shrug candleshade overhead clipping playlist jarring numbness bass mature speakers bands sarcastic tune swirled seeping cracks triumphed

tiptoed rustled creaked padding crawling lonely forgive forty cheer stricken envelope headline: claims victims scrawl announcement corridor stark-white gulps sneaking suggestions weigh resolve admirer flood applying replacement heal eased uncertainty brothers recent discoveries recording spy undetected textbook dreaded licensed pathfinders restriction threatens ‘everblaze’ accusation fintan pricked balefire fintan’s requires fuel supported cosmic ‘fire ignite conclusive example surveillance ruining depths former dealing approved overrule objection trusted phantom rebels snatched emissary citizen confidential duly noted digging forty-one partly imprisoned sorting reminders pity tension distant lately preparing prejudice megacrush cave commands successful method unwrapping names: connor kate natalie freeman apply permit huddled thinner echoes evacuee note’s unquenchable abandon supporter afar forty-two stashed drawers ‘you threaten chaperone global dumped significance supplied clothing resistant fly willful punish facets stagger hills screeched tying pried displays seals survival glinting corneas swoop thickest raspy coughs locate singeing shift current overcome coughing inferno ouch thrashing clouded watery beads capped treats paced treating scorched angrier contorted squatted pee severe scalding plunked sticky-sweet healthy grim balled-up yelling homes camped affairs mesmerized desperation launching steal dumping tenderness justified reacts offer unintelligible agreeing concerns forty-three relatively illness actress w-what admitting lifeless freaky dumber connections traitorous resisting grasp peace decency furball storm’s appropriate cliff reveling shard clatter soothing relishing pulverized smithereens boulder violent frightened irrational fallen possibly smothered meaty cloaked swooped sickeningly nostrils sedative cursed rallied scuffle scuttled captor circulation rasped viselike lolled rescued forty-four bonds staging unfortunate complication fog scrambling muddled funerals pendants vise sweetness blackness necessary loomed constricted heaving choking gruff hyperventilating suffocates coated hacking nods croaked relocate stolen grunt syllable drugs mist strapped bound shivers eerie breathy wheeze venom trail gumption predicament footfalls disposed disappearance guts throb ignorant cackle toy reserve widen contorting poison ple clarity struggle overwhelming happiness rocked jostling rescuer foggy occasionally elevator altitude delirium parted flimsy fumbling promises caress weary forty-five searing heightened awareness sensory overload barrage cigarette butts alley surveying hideout interrogation kidnappers scoured alexandre desperately operates anyone’s him: upcoming rounded apologized broom peeking roofs yards landmark eiffel gaped graceful paris france french indian saris currency exchange robbing bank machine atm watches account measures ‘make work’ cameras covering buttons alarm bills robbed technopath froster internet café sandwiches cheese once-living boxy computers navigated web browser googled number-one result pont iii bridge seine lanterns shopkeeper sped excitement decorations horizon lamp nexuses lasts mathematics applied dawn forty-six melder stun evening strolls cloaks leader obscurer bends distortion coil rope goons goon pathways underestimate wire enhanced wishful swirl severing rapid duck whizzed seizure dusted flailed gurgling blank forefinger crescent shaped jagged cowl stumble scarred heft frenzy hatred writhing strengthened pumping pulse heavyset figure’s hideouts options battering crushed nearing tug-of-war lessened allowing glorious drift fading surrendered mind’s imagination funeral weariness overtaking hazy snow labored conscious sparkle freedom sweep forty-seven brightness peaceful wove persisted appeal surge newfound pooled aches splintered clearer enveloped strawberry-blond-haired numbing sedated tingles luxuriating gulping wetness numb shhh sniffled recognizing propped girly seasons faltered proves meaningful floppy snickers emergencies conversations flirting scratch

blasts streaking injuries concentration’s cell half-drained gaunt fleeing canceling flitted nuzzling scratched there’d yawned lights forty-eight covers washed sandor goblin bodyguard inflictor paralysis semiconscious incapacitated dormant trauma latent polyglot languages advance interrogated sandor’s bunny seven-foot-tall buffed-out overtime blindfolded seared monitoring proved arrested custody awaiting deaths tragic innocence error motivate condemning madness reluctance single-handedly now’s crescent-shaped recalled epiphany overweight swells digest explains operative guarding subliminal advantage activate developed who’ll address database detectives arson reigned supreme wisest greater questioned decades measure influential amok globe rejected imprison devastated uprooted supporters initiative resign outspoken recruited activity satisfied handled poorly kidnapped prisoner resolved disposal stamped justice voiced revenge birthday birthdays indefinite spans thirteen-year-old crushes plots rebellions grown-ups understands teenager accepted bargain relented insisting uncertain responding arrange forty-nine pedestal charges bylaws sub-bylaws committed transgressions minor tortured regal express safely accused drafting addressed firmly murmurs debated arguments raging attitude disrespectful rebellious overlooked gratitude however static rulers experiences inappropriate assign ‘already served’ sang admission din bursting provisional basis due aforementioned cannot proceed suggestion issues seats smoothing occasion fancier signaling require records indicate provided remain appreciated despised gladly nicely dipped textbooks someday squash toughest earn deserves murderous successfully fingering justifiably displeasure smirking retake propose alternative state events revealed therefore practical prudent career prospects shifting internal logical volatile qualifies majority erupting directing registered cuddly earned oneon-one immediate tangle concluded gathered twirling nudging trades sidestepped congratulate surviving multiple tribunals swirls diamonds feminine unlatch decides woven triply journey

[bussyslayer333]

Heart Out

summary: your boyfriend proves his love for you on the beach, so you prove yours in the hard deck bathroom.

pairing: jake seresin x penny’s niece!reader

word count: 2.8k

warnings: smut at the end once again,, but it’s jakes turn this time :0, some swearing, and mentions of dilfs/daddy issues LOL,, MDNI 18+

ps this is my lil continuation of jake x penny’s niece!reader bc i love them <3

((it can be read separately ofc !!))

requests are open as always !!!

⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿

Today had been dreadfully boring. Your aunt Penny was out all day at the Hard Deck working on accounts and you couldn’t even pester your little cousin Amelia because she had also been out all day with friends. You’d thought about visiting Jake at work but you weren’t sure whether you were at that stage of your relationship yet. So instead, the best option seemed to be lounging around in your underwear watching Desperate Housewives reruns in the living room. As you flopped over onto your front trying to escape the San Diego heat that you still weren’t accustomed to, a notification popped up onto your phone.

cowboy ❤️

come join me at the beach?

photo

You opened the message to a selfie from Jake in what appeared to be the Hard Deck bathrooms. He was stood shirtless flexing his arms into the mirror doing a little pouty face staring down the camera. You giggled at his stupidly handsome face that somehow manages to look good no matter what he was doing.

You

are you not at work? ❤️

cowboy ❤️

annual dogfight football baby

With that message accompanied a picture Jake had taken over his shoulder of Rooster and Mav shirtless and covered in sand. Suddenly it clicked why your aunt had travelled to the bar to complete tasks which definitely could have been finished at home. Deciding to wind Jake up you replied to the second picture he sent, ignoring his first selfie

You

how does mav still look so good? talk about dilf 🤤

Giggling as you sent the message you put your phone down and decided to finally peel yourself away from the couch to start getting ready for the beach.

Flipping through the variety of swimsuits you had bought with you, you wondered which one Jake would like best. Although Jake would like to call himself a man of taste, when it came to his girl his taste in her clothing was sparse to say the least. Settling on a blue two piece with strings that tied it all together, you moved to pick up Jake’s button up that you had kept since one fateful night in his truck. It was light blue and quite fitted on him but it hung nicely on you and could work as a cover up if the sea breeze became too strong.

You span around to look at yourself in the floor length mirror in the corner of your room. Jake was going to love this. You plucked your sunglasses from the bedside table and placed them on your head so you could finally make your way back downstairs to your phone and tote bag.

Picking up you phone you smirked at Jake’s many replies.

cowboy ❤️

shut up

you’re not being serious right?

because i don’t know the ins and outs of your relationship with your father for that to be a funny text

that emoji makes it seem like a joke

i mean yeah ig he keeps it tight for a guy who gets senior discounts

You interrupted his next text by gracing him with a response.

you

shush jake obv im joking

….we will talk later tho

You then sent a photo of yourself in the mirror near the front door, chest pushed slightly out. You knew your audience.

cowboy ❤️

ur such a tease

you

see u soon flyboy <3

The drive down to the Hard Deck is brisk, not much traffic for a midweek afternoon in Miramar. As you pull into the Hard Deck’s parking lot you recognise a few of the pilots cars and you pull in next to Rooster’s bronco, scoffing at the fuzzy dice hanging from his rear view mirror. That boy was seriously stuck in the 70s.

Moving out of your car, you walk down to where you can see your aunt ‘working’ on one of the benches outside of the Hard Deck that faces the beach front. She slowly averts her gaze from Mav and smiles up at you,

“Hi darling, I wasn’t expecting to see you here?” You giggle as her attention slips from you again when Mav throws the ball particularly well over to Payback.

“Yeah, Jake text me asking if I wanted to join.” She giggles at your dreamy smile and pulls you down onto the bench next to her. Once you’re sat and your belongings have been placed down next to Penny’s you scour the group of pilots to find your boyfriend.

However, as you rake over the group you come to the realisation that he isn’t stood with them. That put an odd feeling in your stomach, Jake was never ever one to miss out on a competition. As you were about to question you aunt, you saw Bob approach with an uneasy look on his face.

“Hey, are you looking for Jake?”

You nod, spurring him on.

“He’s a little further down the beach, with um.. those two girls,”

Your gut twinges again as you look to where Bob is facing, lo and behold Jake is stood pointing something out to two tall slim girls. You weren’t jealous per se, you had no real reason to be. He wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary, as annoying as it was, girls always seemed to flock to Jake. You weren’t jealous because Jake was the one to express his interest in you first, he knew what he wanted and it was you. Still your gut twinged. You looked to Bob, then stood up abruptly.

“Pen, do you mind looking after my stuff?” You turned to ask your aunt and she hummed absentmindedly, still entranced by her boyfriend. You took the hum as a yes and kicked your slides off ready to go find your boyfriend.

Bob took this as a sign to take off back to the group still playing football and watched your figure retreat to where Jake was standing with the two girls, smiling as they laughed at something he had said.

One of the girls smacked Jake’s chest lightly as she laughed far too hard for what Jake had said. This was when you began to feel slightly angry, you knew that type of laugh. You’d used it before. On Jake nonetheless. No man was ever that funny, especially Jake.

As you came into Jake’s view, his smile widened which made you falter slightly, in what was quite a stompy walk. Reminded of the fact that you were wearing his shirt and his favourite bikini you tried to style out your march into more of a cool girl saunter.

Jake lifted his sunglasses once you were stood in front of him and sucked in a breath as he took in your attire. He lifted his hand from his side and started to play with the hem of his shirt which hung from your frame.

“Wow..”

“Hey baby,” you smiled at him then turned to the two girls who appeared slightly confused by what was occurring in front of them.

“And you guys are…” okay maybe you were slightly snappy, but did these girls still have to hang around when they now clearly knew Jake was taken.

The brunette one of the two spoke up, “Jake, are you not gonna introduce us?”

Jake looked up and scoffed slightly at the girls audacity, he shared a look with you that had you holding in a giggle.

“…right, Brianna, Stace, this is my beautiful girlfriend.” At his statement you smiled up at him, bashful at his compliment and at the thought that you had previously had in which he completely ignored you in favour of his two new friends.

“Hi..” you smiled at the girls with more pep in your step.

The red head (Brianna?) then spoke up, “Oh.. this is your girlfriend?” With distaste on her tongue which made Jake seethe.

“What I just said.” He spoke shortly back to her.

Her friend clearly sensed the tension bubbling and tried to smoothen out the situation, “I think she just means we weren’t expecting to meet her,” she smiled apologetically at you.

You smiled back appreciatively and spoke up, “Well we should really be getting going, I have a game of football i need to see my boyfriend win, it was nice meeting you girls!”

Jake had already began to move away, dragging you along with him as you waved at the two girls when Brianna (?) spoke again,

“Wait Jake! Didn’t you want my number?”

You both turned back to see her friend look confusedly at her and Jake scoffed once again,

“Yeah, no thanks pal.”

You struggled to hold your giggle in again at Jake’s passive aggressive word choice and continued your walk back towards the rest of the pilots who were now taking a break from their game.

“God can you believe them?” Jake asked you exasperatedly, “you look so unbelievably hot right now by the way doll, is that my shirt?”

“They weren’t tooooo bad..” you giggled and nodded at Jake. He continued on,

“I mean they dragged me from the group asking where the closest place was to get food that wasn’t made behind a bar but then when I tried to point places out they just kept going on and on and on and on and-”

“Jake shut up would you?” You said as you finally reached the group sat outside the Hard Deck.

“Hey!” He said and smacked your ass lightly to emphasise his annoyance. You turned and stuck your tongue out at him as Rooster spoke up,

“Finally able to shake you two new best friends then ?”

Phoenix snorted and turned to you, “Babe you should have seen the way they were eyeing Jake up before they finally went in for the kill.” You giggled along next to her at her interesting choice of analysis for the two girls.

Jake had started his own conversation with Coyote and Bob when you finally turned back to look at him and finally realised you hadn’t got the chance to admire how handsome he looked right now. You suddenly couldn’t feel it in you to be angry at the girls and their failed attempts at flirting. The late afternoon sun was warm against your skin and made the remnants of sea water on Jake’s chest glimmer. His dark navy swim shorts hung dangerously low on his hips and his ray bans were sat just slightly too far down on his nose so he had to bring a hand up to push them back upwards, afterwards he raked said hand through his windswept hair and you embarrassingly felt you stomach flutter at the action.

You laced your fingers through his other hand which was still resting low on your hip and squeezed. He turned his head slightly indicating that you had his attention whilst he still managed to listen to Coyote’s ramblings. Standing on your tip toes you whispered into his ear,

“I’m going to go into the bathroom in the Hard Deck in a second and your going to follow in after me in about two minutes, okay?”

Jake looked down at you and smirked at your playful expression, he tipped his head up slightly in a showing of understanding and he dropped his hand from your hips to let you excuse yourself.

Jake watched your retreating form with his eyes trained on the sway of your hips and a smile plastered on his face. He pulled his phone from the pocked of his shorts and checked the time. 16:43. Two minutes and he could follow in after you.

Those last two minutes of Jake’s life seemed to be the longest he’d ever lived through.

He followed your previous path towards the bathroom at the back of the Hard Deck and knocked on the locked door. You open the door to a smiling Jake Seresin.

“Hi doll,” he smirks down at you. You pull him into the bathroom and lock the door behind him, wary of your surroundings.

He has one hand placed on the side of your face with the other groping your ass making you whine out at the contact. Jake leans down and kisses you slowly and sweetly, he goes to slip his tongue into your mouth but before he can you’re pulling away to shed yourself of his shirt and pull your hair up using the spare hair tie on your wrist.

Jake watches with his mouth hanging slightly open as you drop to your knees in front of him smiling sweetly.

“Not that I’m complaining sweetheart but what on earth did I do to deserve this ?”

Tugging at the drawstring holding his shorts up you stare up at him, “you defended my honour in front of those two wenches, oh valiant solider!”

Jake rolls his eyes at your dramatics, but he can see that you truly are grateful for his actions. The thing with you and Jake is that he always understands what you truly mean, even if you mask it behind layers of dry humour, built up for your protection.

You finally undo the knot holding Jake’s shorts so low on his waist (and make a mental note to tease him later on for his navy level drawstring knot) and look up to Jake for conformation.

“Please baby,” he almost whimpers down at you .

You smile at his whiny tone and pull his shorts down enough to release his cock and kitten lick against his leaking tip, making him shudder slightly in pleasure. You grasp him with you right hand and start slowly stroking, watching carefully at what movements make Jake react the most.

He begins to fiddle with the tie at the back of your neck which holds your bikini top together to try and distract him from letting out a groan too loud which could alert anyone outside of your whereabouts.

You lean down again and spit onto his tip, using you tongue to spread the wetness of your saliva and his precum along the length of his cock.

After spending your first night with Jake you realised he had enough of a reason to be so cocky. He was big. (not that you felt the need to tell him and boost his ego even further).

Sinking your mouth down onto him you breathed carefully through your nose and let him hit the back of your throat. Jake released a throaty groan in response to the action and moved his hand into your hair to pull at it lightly causing you to moan onto his shaft. The vibrations make Jake whine even louder into his fist. Spurred on by his noises you continue to move up and down on him sloppily, clenching your thighs at the sounds being pulled from his throat.

The final straw for Jake was when you looked up at him through you long wet lashes as you pulled off of him, with a long string of spit connecting your lips to the tip of his cock.

“Fuck baby, I’m so close.” Jake whimpered.

You take him back into you mouth and trace the vein on the underside of his cock with your tongue. You sloppily continue to suck as Jake’s whines reach a crescendo and he spills into your mouth with a deep grunt. His grip on your hair loosens and you pull your mouth away, careful to keep his cum inside of your mouth. Some slips out the sides of your lips as you swallow and you allow it to drip down in between the valley of your breasts for Jake to admire.

“You are too fucking good to me doll,” Jake speaks breathlessly, helping you up onto unsteady feet.

You giggle up at him, “You can repay the favour later cowboy don’t worry.”

He smirks down at you and rights his shorts swiftly. As he looks back up he uses his fingers to collect his seed that collected in between you breasts and pushes them into your mouth for you to suck clean. Once you finish he pulls you into a searing kiss and licks his tongue around your mouth, moaning at the taste of himself on your tongue.

You pull away, slightly light headed and turn to the mirror to right yourself. Jake stands behind you in the mirror and pulls his button down onto you, smiling at your reflection. You turn around and peck him quickly and reach for the door to let yourselves out.

Walking into the main area of the Hard Deck with Jake behind you, you notice your aunt looking at you with her signature smirk on her face and you blush under her gaze. She wonders when you and Jake will finally stop defiling her property.

⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿

a/n: i love these two, jake is much less suckier than he is in my first fic bc i think he is actually so boyfriend !!!!

hopefully you all enjoy this!!! and thank you so much for all the notes on my other two pieces !! i promise i will get to any requests as soon as :)

pls reblog and comment and tell me what you think <333

- honey :0

[deadratio]

Javy 'Coyote' Machado x gn!Reader Headcanon

You're married to Javy 'Coyote' Machado, but you're Jake 'Hangman' Seresin's ex.

Word Count: 1.1k

Warnings: One mention of sex, heartbreak - not a warning but no mentions (to my knowledge) of readers gender.

You met Jake when you were in your late teens after deciding to move from your small hometown to San Diego, California.

Jake was attending Top Gun, and was a few years your senior. You both decide to take things slow and get to know each other. 

You spend the next several years into your early twenties dating Jake and traveling to wherever he goes. You love getting to explore the country and try new experiences.

After being together for so long, you think that Jake is ready to propose to you. Jake, on the other hand, is not keen on the idea of settling down.

Because of “your differences”, according to Jake, you break up. 

You’re devastated, having thought that Jake Seresin was your one and only. 

You move back to your home state, throwing yourself into your career.

You spend the next few years working at a start-up firm that eventually hits the ground running, with you being in their corporate field.

While visiting San Diego for a business conference, you go to The Hard Deck and run into Phoenix. You met her through Jake, and although you weren’t super close, you still considered her a friend.

You catch up with her, and she’s not surprised when you tell her that Jake broke up with you. She’s empathetic towards you, and eventually you decide to take a selfie together.

Phoenix shares it to her social media, which prompts Jake to see the photo. 

You’ve already flown back home when you see a follow request from Jake on your Instagram. Skeptical, you accept it on a whim.

You had gotten over Jake a long time ago, but it still hurts to see that he’s engaged to a model-type who is way out of his league. 

You follow him back, although neither of you interact with each other besides liking the occasional post.

Ever since you had followed Jake on Instagram, you’d made a point to be less active on all of your socials and focus on yourself.

Deciding to get back into the dating scene, you download a couple of dating apps.

You have a few dates here and there, but many of them don’t work out.

That is until you meet Javy Machado. He’s also a Naval Aviator, but he doesn’t act the same way Jake did.

You and Javy do long distance for a while before you decide to start working remotely so you can move in with him. 

Life is sweet to you and Javy. Although he travels a lot for work, any time he is home he dedicates his time to you and your love.

After being together for a year and a half, Javy proposes to you, and you can’t say ‘yes!’ fast enough.

You’re both overjoyed, and only tell your close friends and relatives. 

A few months after your engagement, you and Javy decide to elope in the Grand Tetons. 

The pictures from your ceremony are stunning, and you can’t help but post a few photos of you in your wedding attire on your socials. 

You leave Javy out of the pictures, operating on a consensual ‘private but not secret’ basis.

Phoenix and others congratulate you, but you can’t help but feel a little torn by the fact that Jake doesn’t like or comment on the photos. 

You speak with Phoenix a short time later and find out he had called off his engagement and is living the single life. 

Your conversation makes you realize just how invested you seem to be in someone else’s life.

You decide to delete all of your social media to give yourself peace of mind.

You spend your honeymoon in the Caribbean Islands.

The next couple of years go by without a hitch, and you couldn’t be more in love with Javy.

When he gets called back to Top Gun, you decide to stay behind because of some projects at work. 

That doesn’t stop you from texting Phoenix, who has also been called back, asking her to watch out for him.

Phoenix obliges and gives you updates.

Once back on shore from the detachment, Javy is hanging out with the Dagger Squad at The Hard Deck when he reveals that he’s married.

Everyone is shocked, and they practically beg him to show them photos.

Phoenix can’t help when her jaw drops at the sight of you and him. Even though she knew, she was still surprised.

Jake remains silent, sipping his drink.

Javy can’t help but question it, but he doesn’t say anything to Jake at the time.

When he comes home, you’re so relieved. 

Javy tells you he wants to invite the whole squad over to meet you, and so they can all get together during their leave period. 

You’re more than happy to have company.

You spend the next several weeks planning the party and the dinner. 

The day of the party, you greet everyone with an excited smile, hugs and laughs are exchanged.

You can’t help your disenchantment when Jake walks through the door. 

Javy practically tackles him to the floor in a hug, which makes you realize how close they are.

You avoid Jake at all costs, spending time with Phoenix, Halo and Rooster on the deck.

Your stomach drops to your feet when Javy steps out, asking you to speak privately. 

Jake had told him about your past relationship.

He asks you why you didn’t ever tell him that you had dated Jake. You can see the hurt in his eyes.

You choke up trying to explain to Javy that you didn’t tell him because Jake was the dark part of your past, and that you took years to recover from the emotional and mental damage it did to you. 

Javy is understanding, and you both agree to be more transparent about your past, and your future.

You’re reluctant when Jake steps into the room and Javy leaves the two of you to talk.

You can’t face him.

He tells you that he still loves you, and he always has. 

You can’t believe your ears, especially since Jake had been the one to split the two of you up.

You tell him that you’re flattered, but that quite frankly, he had lost his chance all those years ago, and that you won’t let him ruin the best thing that’s ever happened to you.

After your talk with him, you spend the rest of the party in Javy’s arms.

Once the party is over, Javy and you have the most mindblowiing romantic soft sex you’ve both ever had.

When you wake up in the morning, you can’t believe how lucky you’ve gotten, and you can’t wait to see what the future holds. 

[writer-in-theory]

Swiping Right

Summary: When Steve helps set Robin up on a date from Tinder, he never expected to find a love of his own in her date's roommate. Prompt: “That’s how you do it, Hawkins, that’s how you do it!” // “You can stay at my place.” Pairing: Steve Harrington/Billy Hargrove, Robin Buckley/Heather Holloway Rating: Mature (for sexual humor) Word Count: 9.3k Content Warnings: Mild language, Mentions of Homophobia Read On AO3: HereA/N: This is my sixth fill for @harringroveson-bingo and my first fill for @billyhargrovebingo !! Huge thanks once again to @serenity-lattes and @lcvingprentjss for beta-ing and hyping me up the whole way.

When Steve got the SOS text from Robin, he was sure the worst had happened. Someone had broken into the apartment in the first year of it being theirs, an earthquake had somehow rocked the apartment but not the preschool building Steve worked at, Robin had somehow forgotten she was allergic to shellfish and indulged in some crab. 

Instead of finding any of that, Steve walked into their small apartment in San Diego to find Robin face down on the living room floor, arm outstretched above her head and phone resting in it, the screen on to show some app. Both relief and frustration bubbled up in him at the sight of his perfectly okay, if overly-dramatic, roommate. 

“Fallen and you can’t get up?” Steve recited dramatically, “You need LifeAlert!”

“You won’t be laughing when your best friend dies of literal embarrassment,” Robin groaned. “I can feel it coming, mortification, the likes of which my Sims have never even dreamed of.”

Steve gently nudged his friend’s side with his shoe, laughing when she let out a cracked groan and haphazardly tried to swat at his ankle. “You’re lucky I was already on my way home. What’s happening?” 

He walked the few steps into the connected kitchen, separated only by a little breakfast bar they used solely for coffee. He grabbed a water bottle from the fridge before flopping to the ground by Robin’s head, plucking the phone right out of her hand before she could stop him.

“Hey! No that’s—”

“Tinder? Robs, you did not call an SOS for a Tinder emergency,” Steve cackled, “I know we said we were hopeless, but this is a little much.”

If someone would have told high school Steve that by twenty-three he would be living in San Diego with Robin Buckley, he would have never believed them. Yet here he was, clicking through the multiple failed attempts at conversations with the women Robin had matched with. Most of them were only a few replies long, barely scraping past the awkward pickup lines and ‘how are you?’s to really get anywhere. 

“Robin,” Steve sighed, sending her a pointed look when she finally lifted her head off her crossed arms just enough to look at him. “This is tragic.”

“I know that, dingus! I wouldn’t have called an emergency if I didn’t!” Robin shouted, her body springing into action and scrambling to sit cross-legged beside Steve so she could look over his shoulder at her phone. “You have to help me.”

“Me?” Steve laughed, “I’ve struck out more time than I’ve succeeded lately.”

“Yeah, because you suck at second dates.”

“Hey!”

“It’s true and you know it,” Robin countered, and well, Steve couldn’t exactly deny it. He could get the first date with no problem and had plenty of experience doing so. But considering his only long-term relationship had been with Nancy Wheeler during his Senior year of high school, he didn’t have too much experience keeping someone around. “You’ve had more first dates here than I ever thought possible, you have to help me. It’s the Gay Code.”

“Gay Code,” Steve repeated, trying not to laugh but unable to stop a few noises from slipping out. “Sure, Robs, I’ll help. But you owe me, there’s a reason I deleted Tinder.”

And honestly, Steve thought Robin’s profile looked good. He recognized a few of the pictures he’d taken on one of their adventures when she’d unceremoniously tossed her phone at him and demanded a photo. He even made an appearance in one, necessitating a small aside in her bio that they were ‘platonic with a capital P.’ It was the conversations that fell hard, and Steve understood for the most part. Talking to random people on a dating app could get really awkward really quickly, even for someone who enjoyed flirting as much as he did. Then factor that into the fact that Robin was someone who needed to warm up to people—exemplified clearly in the way she had given him only one-word replies for the first two weeks of their ice cream shop job in high school—and it was clear why Robin struggled to find easy conversation with these women.

Steve also knew that, if one of them would just give her a chance, it’d be impossible not to fall for her immediately. It had happened to him directly: going from thinking of her only as his weird band geek coworker to one of the best friends he’d ever had in just a few short months. 

“Oooh, Heather Holloway just matched with you,” Steve spoke up in a sing-song voice once the alert flashed up on the screen. “Oh, she’s cute. Careful, Robs, I might steal her.”

“Hey, my Tinder profile is not a way for you to meet pretty bi women, hands off if you’re gonna do that,” Robin countered, leaning forward as Steve began scrolling through Heather’s page. It was clear why Robin had swiped right in the first place—Heather was stunning and carried herself with the kind of confidence that couldn’t be learned. Her bio says she’s a model and she spends her free time volunteering at a youth gym for victims of violence.

“Okay, Operation: Get Robin a Date is a go.”

“God, you’ve been talking to Dustin too much,” Robin groaned, flopping onto her back dramatically and covering her eyes with her arm. “Just tell me the damage when you’re done.”

“You don’t want to know what I’m saying to her?” Steve asked, poking his roommate’s arm when she didn’t budge. “What if it comes up later when you get a date?”

“What makes you think I’ll get a date? She’s a fucking model, Steve.”

“Yeah? And you’re a badass grad student who’s already working on movie sets. Not to mention you have a really, and I mean really, great-looking best friend, and that’s always important in a good relationship,” Steve teased, knowing a lot of this came from some deeper place Robin likely wouldn’t want to examine closely at the moment, not sitting over model Heather Holloway’s gorgeous profile. “I’ll get you a date, leave it all to Stevie.”

“Do me a favor and hit me over the head next time you plan on saying anything like that.”

“Ouch, Robs,” Steve laughed, moving his free hand to clutch his chest while the other hand typed away another message to Heather. “Careful how you talk to the person holding your phone.”

The floor wasn’t comfortable in the least, but Steve stayed there the entire time he spoke to Heather as Robin. He was already sore from spending so much time wrangling the kids at work and the additional floor time would do him no favors, but it was all worth it for his best friend. Robin had been there through everything—shitty mall jobs, even shittier strip mall jobs, bisexual awakenings, and subsequent bi crises, Robin Buckley was there for it all. There was no way he would have made it out of Hawkins without her, so the least he could do was prove that she would find the right person now that they’d both escaped.

“Aha!” Steve screamed the second the message came in, shoving the phone close enough to Robin’s face to make her go cross-eyed. “Give me a crown and call me King Steve, because I just got you a damn coffee date!”

“You didn’t,” Robin exclaimed, yanking the phone out of his hand so she could read it better herself. “Holy shit, Harrington, you got me a date!”

“I know, I know, I’m just that good.” 

“Wait, wait,” Robin began as another set of ‘pings’ came in, eyebrows drawing together as she read the new messages. “You got us a date.”

“Robs, what the hell are you talking about?”

“I mean, it’s Tinder. It makes sense, I wouldn’t want to meet up with an axe murderer either.” Robin laughed, typing something back to Heather Holloway from San Diego. “She wants it to be a double date with her roommate and mine. She says he’s cute, you’ll like him.”

“I’m not dating,” Steve said, already climbing to his feet. His bedroom wasn’t far, he could make it before Robin caught up if he sprinted. It had been years since he’d played sports at the level he did in high school, but some of that athleticism must have been preserved somewhere. After all, while he’d had plenty of first dates and flings in the months since they’d moved to San Diego, he hadn’t exactly had anything serious yet. Steve wasn’t sure he was ready, not when he was finally figuring out who he was outside of Hawkins, away from his parents’ influence. 

“Please, Steve? C’mon, you can’t drop the ball now. It’s one date, and hey! What if he’s the one and you’re just walking away from him right now?”

Steve sent her a deadpan look, rolling his eyes at the thought that some random roommate of the girl she’d met on Tinder could be his perfect match. “If he was the one, we’ll find each other again later.”

“Steve Harrington, you are not blowing this for me. Do you know the last time I’ve gotten any kind of action? What I would do to get my fingers in so—”

“Lalala nope no no!” Steve screeched, hands flying up to cover his ears in case Robin decided to continue speaking over his shouts, cheeks reddening at the image of his best friend and roommate getting any kind of ‘action’. “Keep it rated PG-13 before I have a heart attack.”

“The point is, I need this,” Robin pressed. “Please? It’s just coffee. What’s the worst that could happen?”

She had a point. Even then Steve knew he wouldn’t refuse her, not when she was making that pleading expression. “Fine. One date, but that’s it, no matter how hot this guy is.”

Steve was going to kill Robin. It would be easy to do considering how much she trusted him. He had no idea how poison worked but he could figure it out before the next time he made their morning coffees, or he could push her down the stairs like some jealous dance student in a dramatic teen movie. Either way, she was a goner because cute did not even begin to cover how attractive this guy was. 

Though she’d been a panicked mess the entire walk to the coffee shop, Robin had immediately walked up to Heather the second they got there, leaving Steve to practically gawk at the man standing next to them. He couldn’t be real, like he’d stepped off the cover of some magazine Steve would never have read two years ago because all the guys were too gorgeous to look at without blushing. His shorts were just short enough to make Steve take quick looks at the hem in hopes the guy wouldn’t notice, and the way he’d left the top several buttons of his shirt undone was absolutely sinful. His dark blond hair was styled with just the right amount of messiness, one curl laid perfectly over his forehead in a way that screamed Superman, blue eyes shining bright as he took notice of Steve.

“I guess you’re the roommate,” the man said once Steve dared get close enough. He reached out his hand to shake and Steve thought he might keel over from that singular touch alone, blushing like he was back in high school when his crush noticed him for the first time. “I’m Billy Hargrove, Heather’s friend.”

“Oh, yeah, I am. The roommate, that is. Also the best friend,” Steve managed to get out, tugging his hand through his hair the second the handshake was over. “Steve Harrington.”

Never before had Steve felt so nervous, but he told himself as they were ordering and finding a table nearby the two women that it was all for good reason. This was California, and Heather was a model, and it would only make sense that she would have attractive friends. This was just one date, set up simply to protect their two friends during a Tinder meetup. After coffee, Steve would never have to see this guy again so it really didn’t matter how big of a fool he made himself out to be. 

“I gotta say, I’m glad you’re real, man,” Billy let out once they were sitting down with their coffees in hand. Billy had gotten something iced that looked about as sweet as Robin usually ordered while Steve sat with his hands warming around a cup of hot coffee.

“What, you thought this was a catfish situation?” Steve teased, knowing the thought had crossed his mind more than once in the week since Robin and Heather first matched on Tinder. 

“Hell yeah I did,” Billy chuckled, fingers gripping a little tighter around his cup. “Robin seemed too good to be true. Fuck, if I didn’t like guys I’d have fought Heather for the date.”

Yeah, Robin was a goner the second they got back to the apartment. Steve nearly spluttered around his coffee at the words, knowing that it had been him behind the entire conversation that Heather had shown Billy. Steve forced out a laugh, hoping it didn’t sound too nervous as he answered, “Yep, yeah that’s Robin. Total catch.”

“Where are you and Total Catch from?”

“Why assume we’re not from around here?” Steve shot back instantly as if he had any sort of problem sharing about his life. He didn’t, not really, though the American Midwest wasn’t exactly the stunning or exciting answer Billy was likely looking for. 

“Because,” Billy began, leaning forward and smirking like he had some great secret to share. Steve found himself leaning in too, practically drawn to the other man. “I would’ve noticed a pretty boy like you years ago if you’d been here all along.”

Maybe Steve was the dead one. Maybe he’d keeled over the second he and Billy Hargrove made eye contact, and this was all some dream his mind was drawing up at the end. It was cheesy as hell and there had to have been something else that actually gave him away, and yet the statement was enough to nearly send Steve sprawling on the floor.

“Hawkins,” Steve blurted out before his mind completely blue screened and rebooted. “I’m from Hawkins. It’s this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. The most notable thing about it is the old mall that was built in the 80s. Its theme never changed so it’s like this relic from old times or whatever they’re calling it nowadays.”

“Hawkins,” Billy spoke like he was testing the word out in his mouth. “Well, welcome to California, Harrington.”

“What about you? Are you from here?”

“Born ‘n raised.” Billy flashed a bright smile, all white teeth and the hint of a dimple on one cheek. “I could take you sightseeing like a true welcome, show you everywhere we try to keep hidden from the tourists.”

“We’ve been in San Diego for nine months now,” Steve pointed out, though the image of him spending the day walking around with Billy under the summer sun wouldn’t leave his mind. “I think I know the city.”

“That’s your first mistake.” Billy reached out to rest his elbow on the table, pointing one finger in Steve’s direction. “You don’t know San Diego ‘til you have an expert to show you the real scene.”

“Yeah? You calling yourself an expert now?”

“I know a few things,” Billy returned with just enough mystery that Steve wondered if he wasn’t bullshitting the whole thing. 

“Well, then I might have to take you up on that tour.”

“We’ll call it our second date.”

Steve raised an eyebrow, finally beginning to relax into the conversation now that it was clear he could get along with Billy. “Who says you’re getting a second date, Malibu?”

“You do know Malibu isn’t anywhere near San Diego, right?”

He didn’t, but hotshot Billy Hargrove didn’t need to know that. “Maybe not, but I could mistake you for Malibu Barbie.”

“That so?” Billy leaned forward on his forearms then, tongue flashing through his lips for long enough that Steve had to avert his eyes lest his thoughts turn down a very different path.

Steve leaned forward to match him, close enough that with a little more effort he could find out how those lips tasted. “You bet, Malibu.”

Billy’s laugh was unlike anything else Steve had ever heard. It came out in a punch of sound, a little sharp around the edges like he wasn’t quite used to making the noise or like he tried to stop it in the first place. It was a deep rumble Steve was sure he’d feel in the man’s chest if he had the occasion to lay on it—not that he wanted to.

“You’re somethin’ else,” Billy laughed, and Steve couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. 

It was still early but Steve found himself wanting this to go somewhere, despite everything saying that this was too much, too soon. He wasn’t ready to date and yet he couldn’t imagine letting Billy slip away after the ease with which they talked over coffee. Steve hadn’t even noticed how much time had passed until Robin and Heather walked over to their table across the coffee shop, hand-in-hand. The sun was just beginning to dip beneath the horizon, painting the sky with brilliant golds and pinks that always made Steve wonder how the world could exist in such beauty every day. 

It only took one look from Robin to tell how well the women’s date went. She was practically beaming, eyes alight in a way Steve was sure he hadn’t seen before. She’d dated a couple of times since he’d met her—even daring a relationship with a girl from back home even when Steve feared even saying the word out loud. She hardly took her eyes off of Heather, only doing so long enough to send Steve a bright smile, the reassurance that she was okay. 

“Don’t wait up for me, asshole,” Heather told Billy, knocking his upper arm lightly with her knuckles. They seemed to have their own silent language, sharing expressions with one another that betrayed how long they’d known each other. 

“Speaking of,” Robin began, focusing her attention again on her roommate. “Do you have somewhere to stay for tonight?”

He didn’t, not really, but he would be damned if he took away this chance Robin had. Steve could see the look in Heather’s eyes, could see the pleading way Robin looked at him that told him exactly what their plan was for an empty apartment.

“Yeah, don’t worry about me. I’ve got it figured out,” Steve told her, “Have fun tonight. But, hey, don’t have fun in the kitchen! I eat there.”

“Maybe I wanna eat there too, Stevie,” Robin shot back just as quickly, pulling an actual shriek out of Steve.

Billy cackled at the noise, tossing his head back and slapping his hand against his chest like that might force more breaths out of his lungs. “Oh, I like her,” he laughed, “see you later, Heather.”

Steve could feel his stomach swirling with butterflies, like he could feel Robin’s nervousness and joy for her. Maybe he could. Maybe that was the job of a best friend, to feel everything all at once so he’d know how to help her later. It certainly wasn’t because of the man sitting across from him who was now staring at his profile, Steve still turned in his chair to face where Robin had been standing. 

“Where are you gonna stay tonight?” Billy asked once Steve finally turned right in his chair, setting his empty cup at the edge of the table as a visual sign he was finished with his drink.

“I don’t know yet,” Steve admitted now that Robin wasn’t around to overhear, “but Robin was excited for today, I didn’t want her night to end yet.”

“You could stay at my place,” Billy offered, immediately causing Steve’s heart to start racing. If getting coffee was too soon, then staying the night certainly was crossing some kind of line Steve didn’t know existed. He’d been with guys before, he’d even had weekend-long escapades that kept him out of the apartment for days until Robin finally called and demanded his ass back home. But Steve didn’t want Billy to be a one-night stand, some fling that he’d reminisce about fondly but without any real follow-through in the end. He wanted more coffee, he wanted to find out more about Billy’s younger sister Max and what it was like growing up ten minutes from the beach, and how he and Heather had met in high school after she moved from the Midwest. 

“Not like that,” Billy quickly corrected, apparently able to see some sliver of Steve’s inward panic. “Heather won’t be there, we have a futon in the office if you really hate the idea of sharing a bed, and it wouldn’t be terrible if this date didn’t end.”

Steve scoffed out a laugh, shaking his head at the wording. “It wouldn’t be terrible, huh? That’s no way to win a second date.”

“I haven’t even started trying to win that second date. You’ll have no idea what hit you, Hawkins,” Billy returned, seemingly making the decision for Steve as he grabbed both cups to toss. “C’mon, I even have a bag of Doritos we can share if you’re hungry.”

Steve was helpless to resist, following Billy out of the coffee shop and down the street. The other man told him it wasn’t a far walk, which meant that they’d lived within walking distance of each other for months and had never met. Part of him found relief in that idea, knowing that Billy had never had the misfortune of meeting the nervous, awkward version of him that came straight from Hawkins, Indiana freshly out of the closet with no idea how to act once he could stop hiding.

Another, deeper, part of him ached at the idea that Billy would eventually see that version of him and would have no warning, no clue that it ever even existed. All he’d seen now was cool Steve, the guy who could walk into a coffee shop in muted green pants that Robin said screamed bisexual energy and immediately flirt with the hot guy he’d been set up to go on a date with. Would Billy be disappointed, once that other, far less sure Steve reared his head?

“This is us,” Billy spoke, thankfully stopping the spiral that Steve was nearly sent down. 

“You live above a boxing gym?” Steve asked curiously, taking note of the sign that had turned on in the dimming sunlight. ‘Safe Harbor’ was written in blue writing above the first floor of the building, where Steve could make out some boxing equipment just inside though it had clearly already closed for the day.

“I own a boxing gym, really,” Billy answered, hand rubbing the back of his neck like he was sheepish about it. “That one. I own that boxing gym.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Steve returned, dutifully following Billy around to the side alley where they climbed some stairs to the second-floor apartment. “What made you want to start a gym?”

“It’s a long story,” Billy began, fidgeting with his keys as he fought to find the right one, glancing up at Steve once before letting them both into the apartment. “But Heather came into extra money with her modeling thing, helped me get it started. It’s a place for victims of violence to go, somewhere they can train if they want, and learn some self-defense. Or just a place where they can be around people who give a shit, people who understand.”

The passion laced into every word made Steve think Billy understood those people, too, that maybe a ‘long story’ meant rather that it was a story too dark to tell someone he’d just met. Steve held onto that information, tucking it away to examine later when he could worry over the details on his own time. 

The apartment was nice, much nicer than the one he and Robin rented with their spare earnings saved from countless hours in the one movie rental store left open in Indiana. It was decorated cohesively, like the two people living there actually cared about the aesthetics of the place rather than the odd posters and various color themes that decorated Steve’s own place. 

“Want a drink?” Billy asked as he crossed to the kitchen, tossing his keys on the counter and immediately grabbing a beer for himself.

“Sure, why not?” Steve returned, taking the bottle Billy offered. They ended up on the couch, Steve sitting close enough to Billy that if he shifted just a little their thighs would press against each other. Already he could feel the heat radiating off of Billy’s leg, like the man himself was a furnace generating heat like that one guy who could catch himself on fire in Dustin’s old comics. 

“Did you and Robin meet in high school?” Billy asked when Steve checked his phone for any sign that Robin might not be as okay as she’d been when they left the coffee shop.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, kind of,” Steve laughed, tugging through the front portion of his hair at the memories beginning to resurface. “We knew each other, but I was kind of a dick back then.”

“Stop giving yourself such a hard time, ‘m sure you weren’t that bad.”

“Nah, I was a fucking prick,” Steve answered, “but I figured it out eventually. We had the same summer job once I graduated. We worked in the mall I told you about, scooping ice cream in these godawful sailor uniforms. You have to be best friends after that.”

“Now that I wanna see,” Billy laughed predictably, causing Steve’s cheeks to flush red at the image of standing in front of Billy in those shorts.

“I bet you do,” Steve returned, “lucky for me I burned that thing the second the mall closed for remodeling. Robin and I decided we wanted to keep working together after that, seeing as we were the only queer people we knew of in town.”

“That why you moved out here?”

“Kind of. It was a big part of it,” Steve tried to explain, focusing his eyes on the lip of the bottle in his hand rather than on the intense look from Billy. “I guess it’d be a little too cliche to admit I wanted to get away from my parents, start over out here.”

“It’s super fuckin’ cliche, but cliches exist for a reason.” 

“Yeah, I guess,” Steve shrugged, mind already beginning to think of new topics than that of his parents. They hadn’t exactly been proud of him there at the end, from admitting he wouldn’t be attending law school with intention of taking over his father’s business someday to screaming his coming out at a company holiday party when his mother was pissing him off. “What about you? Any cliches I should know about?”

“What, other than being the rugged bad boy with a shitty dad and a charming attitude?” Billy joked, flashing another toothy smile that made Steve feel like he might melt into the floorboards.

“Who said anything about charming?” Steve cackled at the little throw pillow that knocked into the side of his head, sending him careening over onto the rest of the couch. “Fine, fine! Might as well call you Flynn fucking Rider with all the charm you have.”

“That’s fucking right, pretty boy,” Billy laughed. 

It was easy to talk to Billy, the pair of them staying up late into the night talking about anything and everything. When it finally came time to go to bed, Steve found he had no trouble shedding his pants and climbing into the empty space Billy left for him in the bedroom. 

“I’m glad you made Heather and Robin set up a double date, even if it was to be a protection detail,” Steve admitted.

“I am too,” Billy returned. “I’m glad you’re not a catfish, Steve, and you really are just good.” Steve winced, thankful that his back was to Billy by that point. They weren’t technically catfishes, though the feeling that he’d messed up by agreeing to that point sunk deep in his chest.

“Would it really be so bad if we were?” Steve laughed lightly, as if maybe joking about it might make everything better.

“I can’t stand liars. It’s the worst thing someone could do. How could anyone expect a relationship to last when it’s started off with a lie?”

“Good thing we didn’t then,” Steve wheezed out, lips feeling numb even as he said the words. “I want this to last.”

“Does that mean I get that second date, Hawkins?”

“Hm,” Steve pretended to think about it, body feeling lighter as they strayed away from the previous topic. It would be okay because no one would ever have to know that he’d been Robin for a full week. It was fine, because Billy was everything Steve used to wish for in the middle of the night in a town he thought he’d wither away in, and that meant everything had to work out. “I think you’ve done more than winning a second date, Malibu. I want to keep you around.”

They didn’t say anything else, or dare cuddle, but Steve did find the bravery to press a sweet kiss to Billy’s cheek, falling asleep with the promise of something special growing between them.

“I’m not wearing that.” 

“Yes, you are, Steve! Get in it!” Robin shouted, tossing the piece of cloth that could hardly be counted as a shirt at him. “It’s Pride, the one day a year you get to wear whatever the fuck you want.”

“Technically, I could wear whatever I want anytime.”

“Fine, then wear that shirt out to our next double date,” Robin pushed, smirking as Steve’s face blushed pink at the thought of going to dinner in that thing. “C’mon, it’s so cute and I really think th—Billy! Tell Steve to put that shirt on!”

Steve groaned as Billy and Heather walked through the door of their apartment, both decked out to the nines for the parade they all were going to. Heather looked absolutely gorgeous dressed in varying shades of pink and orange, with makeup and a splash of face paint topping off the look in a way that screamed she was a model for a living. Billy looked good too, not even bothering with a shirt and instead rocking just a pair of shorts and rainbow streaks painted artfully over his tattooed skin. Even Robin looked good, dressing more loudly than he’d ever seen her. Steve was certain the little shirt she wore was Heather’s, though considering how close the four of them had been in the past month there really was no telling who actually owned what clothes anymore. 

“You should definitely wear the shirt, Stevie,” Billy answered, grabbing Steve’s shoulders and practically shoving him in the direction of his bedroom. “Get on it. You gotta go all out for your first Pride.”

Robin had tried to get him to go that last summer they spent in Hawkins. There was a parade in Indianapolis, and Robin nearly got him to go under the idea that no one from their little town would even be there to recognize him. Still, the morning of as he painted the blue, purple, and pink colors of the bi flag on his cheek he found himself calling Robin, telling her to go without him because he just couldn’t. That was then though, before California and before their own apartment away from all those things they’d left behind. It was before Billy, who pushed Steve in ways no one else had before and made him feel things he didn’t even know could be felt so intensely by one person. 

So Steve sighed and put the shirt on. It was tight and practically sheer, ending just under his chest and shining in the bi-flag colors when he moved under the light. It was loud, gorgeous, and perfect. Of course, it was, considering Heather had dragged him out shopping for the thing a few weeks before and didn’t stop until they’d found the perfect outfit for him. 

Billy clearly thought so too, blue eyes widening as Steve finally came out of his bedroom wearing his completed outfit. “Damn, pretty boy, you clean up nice.”

“You’re a bit biased, Bee,” Steve laughed, pressing a kiss to a spot on Billy’s cheek that wasn’t swathed in paint. 

“Just callin’ it like it is,” Billy called after him, leaving Steve able to perfectly imagine the look he was making behind him. All bright eyes and devilish smirks, maybe even that damn tongue hanging out of his mouth that made Steve way too bothered whenever he dared do it. 

“Are we ready then?” Heather asked, pulling her phone away from where she’d taken a picture of her and Robin kissing. She’d already told the group that there would be dozens of pictures taken that day, saying she’d find some people to take pictures of all four of them for their Instagram pages. At this point, Steve might as well hire her as his social media manager for all the work she contributed to his page.

“Let’s go!” Robin shrieked, grabbing Steve’s hand and taking off out of the apartment like they weren’t the ones who’d have to lock up behind the others. 

She didn’t let go of his hand for the entire walk downtown, as if she knew he’d take off running given the chance. It wasn’t that he wanted to go—on the contrary, Steve could feel the same excited buzzing in his chest that he’d felt when Robin had found them tickets to his favorite band’s concert last summer. No, he’d been picturing this day for years and now that it was here, today had to be perfect. 

Steve could still hear his dad if he focused hard enough like if he blinked he’d find himself back in his childhood living room listening while his dad laid into him about the disrespect and humiliation he’d brought to the family. He’d be sitting there with tears in his eyes, looking to his mother for the support she always gave him but instead only finding cool deference to his father, the same way she’d always done when it came to major decisions for their family. 

“Hey,” Robin spoke up, squeezing his hand once like she knew where his mind had wandered off to. “It’s gonna be a good day.”

“I know,” Steve returned, smiling so she wouldn’t worry so much about him, “I know that. I just...”

“They’re not here. Even if anyone from home does see this, we’ll still be okay because we’re having the time of our lives out here.” Sometimes Steve wondered how he ever came to deserve Robin. She was the best friend he could ever imagine, staying right by his side despite all the shit he’d done in the years they’d grown up together. She easily could have made that summer job hell, making fun of how far he’d fallen from the king he’d once been. Instead, she gripped his hand tight and promised everything was okay, that maybe the world did not begin and end with towns like Hawkins, Indiana.

“My turn,” Billy said as he caught up to Steve’s other side, wrapping an arm around Steve’s waist like he was guiding him down the sidewalk. Steve squeezed Robin’s hand one more time before she fell back to walk with her girlfriend, letting her know that he was okay. “You ready, Stevie?”

“Hell yeah I am,” Steve answered having begun to hear the pounding music of the party going on downtown.

Whatever Steve was expecting, the San Diego Pride event was twelve times bigger than that. There had to be hundreds upon hundreds of people in the streets, all dressed in rainbows and bright colors. Someone had handed Steve a flag that Billy tied around his neck like a cape and made Steve feel like some kind of fruity superhero that would make Captain America shake in his boots.

Never before had Steve seen so many happy people all gathered in one space before. Some were dancing, others were marching along in the street in time with the parade. Some were old with little kids running around them, and some looked like they were fresh out of high school and already more sure of themselves than the Steve of that age could ever have hoped to be. It felt a little like a dream, being there surrounded by people who understood, who belonged to each other for this one magical day.

Steve eventually had the courage to whoop and shout with the rest of them, raising his arms and cheering when the parade came by them. Someone waved him over, a drag queen who had one of the kindest faces Steve had ever seen. He barely glanced back at Billy before he was walking over to them, allowing himself to be pulled up onto one of the floats. He laughed and danced along, even tilting his head into the mic to scream out a song about living forever. At this moment, it felt a little like he could.

“That’s how you do it, Hawkins, that’s how you do it!” Billy whooped from the sides, beaming up at Steve like he were the stars blanketing the skies. 

“Is that one yours?” someone shouted about the music straight into his left ear. Steve could only grin and nod, captivated by the bright lights, the music, the crowd, Billy. 

Billy was in his element too, getting plenty of pictures from strangers who apparently recognized him. He’d explained once that his gym had a lot of queer youth come in, suffering from bad homes or violence from strangers who didn’t understand. He used to run a booth at Pride and had become some recognizable figure in San Diego which made Steve fall in love with him that much more. 

Because it was love, as it turned out. It was the kind of love that snuck up on Steve before jumping onto his back and latching on so tightly he had no hope of shaking it off. Billy wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met before. He was tough, full of sharp edges and sharp words, but he was also sweet, caring for people only in the way that hurt people could. Billy made Steve laugh and remembered the little things about him that other partners had never bothered to even ask about. He made Steve feel alive. 

He could feel it now, that same electric energy that had first shown in the coffee shop now raging between them. The second the last stranger walked away from Billy, he turned to look at Steve. A brilliant smile washed over him, his entire expression softening as he looked at Steve. It was this alone that made Steve close the distance between them, wrapping his arms around Billy and pressing a kiss to his lips. Billy returned in kind, melting into the embrace like there was nothing else in the world but him and Steve, standing there in the middle of the street while Pride continued on around them.

“That’s a good one, Babe,” Heather cooed over Robin’s shoulder, peering at her phone just a handful of steps away from him and Billy.

“Send that to me?” Billy asked, not daring to remove his large hands from Steve’s waist. 

“Of course,” Robin answered. “You both look so cute, you have to post that, Steve.”

“I will, I will,” Steve chuckled, ducking his head enough that some of his unruly hair fell into his eyes. He’d gotten better about accepting shows of affection in public, though the near-constant praise from the others sent him furiously blushing, hardly able to think through the waves pounding in his head. “Heather, do you and Billy want a picture?”

“Actually, I want a pic with you,” Heather answered instead, handing her phone off to Robin. “You are the one who got us all together.”

“I didn’t do anything, you two got together on your own,” Steve returned politely, pulling out of Billy’s grasp just so he could pose with Heather how she wanted.

“Cut it out, Steve, I already told her how you were the one talking to her for the first week because I was too chickenshit,” Robin laughed behind the camera. 

“What?” Billy was standing just behind Robin, but he wasn’t laughing like she was. In fact, Steve is sure he’d never seen the man more closed off in the entire month they’d been together. He could practically watch Billy shutter his expression, closing himself off from everyone around them.

And then it hit like a rogue baseball to the chest. He could feel the moment that everything began to crumble around him, helpless to do anything but stare in horror at Billy’s hurt expression. ‘I already told her how you were the one talking to her for the first week.’

“Billy, wait!” Steve called out as Billy began to walk away from him. It wasn’t hard to catch up to the man, weaving through the crowd well enough that he could grab onto his arm to stop him in his tracks.

“Let go of me, Steve.”

Billy didn’t turn around, didn’t face him. His words were harsh, practically gritted out from behind clenched teeth.

“Billy, please. I know it sounds bad but it really wasn’t anyt—”

“I need to be alone right now, Steve. Go back to Robin and Heather, have fun at Pride.”

“What? No, you can’t be alone, not today. Let me just explain and then you’ll understand everything,” Steve pushed, not letting go of Billy’s arm until the man yanked it harshly out of his grip. It was then Billy whirled around to face him, eyes nearly on fire with the rage carried within them.

“What part of leave me the fuck alone can’t you get through your thick fuckin’ skull?” Billy shouted, drawing the attention of a handful of people in the crowd. “I don’t want to see your face right now.”

“Billy, c’mon. It’s not that bad,” Steve groaned, his heart hammering away in his chest as Billy didn’t even dare to look at him. He was staring over Steve’s shoulder, finding some point in the distance to distract himself with.

“You fucking lied to me!” Billy shouted, cheeks turning red from the effort. “You know how I feel about catfishing, and you fucking hid that from me. You did it to my best friend and you hid it for a month because you knew it would hurt me. Did I get everything?”

“I didn’t! We weren’t catfishing, Billy, please!” Steve continued, not daring to walk away now. Something in Billy’s eyes told him that if he walked away now, he might never see Billy again. “Robin was scared, that’s it. She just needed help getting started, we weren’t going to keep doing it. And I didn’t even think it would matter at first! You weren’t supposed to be important.”

“So what, you thought because we had one date you could go lying about something like that? I told you, I told you how serious it was to me and you fucking—” Billy let out a frustrated shout, practically growling as he tugged at his hair. “Are you really stupid enough to think I wouldn’t figure it out?”

“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry, but you can’t stand here and act like I could’ve known then!” Steve shouted back, feeling his own anger bubbling up to the surface. There was no way for Billy to know how deeply those words cut into him, how badly they reworked old scars that Steve had tried to put past hime, marks from another life. ‘Stupid’ bounced around in Steve’s brain until he found his breath coming in shorter intervals, wondering how he’d fucked up so badly that Billy had figured it out so quickly. He felt bad, he did. He’d considered telling Billy about it for weeks but every time he tried, something in him stopped the words from coming out. He’d hoped the other man would never find out and they could go on like usual, but he should have seen this coming. He should have known. 

Of fucking course Steve would ruin the best thing to ever happen to him.

“I didn’t know I’d love you,” he admitted, feeling the words warm up the iciness freezing his chest. “I love you, Billy.”

“I can’t fucking look at you,” Billy muttered, turning away and walking off into the crowd. 

Steve vaguely noticed Heather running off in the same direction, and could distantly feel Robin’s hand on his shoulder. There were people giving him sympathetic looks, others coming up to them to ask Robin if he was okay, if he needed anything.

He couldn’t tell any of them that he needed Billy, that he needed to redo this entire day so none of it could go wrong again. 

He couldn’t tell them that, even standing amongst a crowd of happy people full of more love than he’d thought existed in the whole world, he felt endlessly, irreparably alone. 

It was a week before anything changed.

Steve found a rhythm in his new heartbreak: wake up, shower, go to work, and paint on a smile for the kids who were too innocent to be exposed to such negative emotions. He’d come home and have dinner with Robin and sometimes Heather, never daring to ask after her roommate despite how desperate he wanted to know how the other man was doing. He’d lay in bed for hours, not able to sleep alone after growing so used to having Billy’s strong arms around him. 

Then, one night after even the pure exhaustion taking over his body wasn’t enough to force him to sleep, Steve found himself wandering the city. Even at 2 am, the city was still decently alive with people wandering the streets between bars and restaurants open late. Sometimes Steve missed the quiet stillness of nights in Hawkins, where he could walk in the woods with only the stars for company. 

Before he even knew what was happening, Steve found himself standing outside of a familiar boxing gym. It should have been closed for the night, but there was a light on revealing a figure standing before one of the bags, light on his feet as he snapped out with punch after punch against the thing.

A little bell dinged as Steve opened the door, letting loud rock music blast against his ears from the stereo system in the building. 

“Hey, we’re closed h—” the sentence cut off abruptly as Billy noticed who had walked into the room. He sighed, dropping out of his practiced stance and wiping at the sweat gathered on his brow. “What?”

He didn’t know why he was here. There were a million places Steve could have gone tonight and he’d ended up here, standing in front of the man he loved, loves. There had to be a reason for it, some kind of hope left that the universe was reminding him of.

“I fucked up,” Steve admitted quickly before he could change his mind and run out the door again. “I know I did, and I’m sorry. I should’ve told you sooner.”

“You should’ve,” Billy snapped, busying himself with wiping off with a towel and taking a messy drink of water, some of it slipping down his chin and wetting his shirt. 

“I know,” Steve continued, wincing at the still-closed-off look Billy was giving him. The other man was hurting, he reminded himself. This was a man who had experienced the kind of horrors Steve could never imagine, had pulled himself up and out of literal Hell with nothing but his own hands and the distant promise of a better life. This was a man who had continuously been hurt throughout life and still chose to hand over his trust for Steve to watch over. 

He couldn’t mess this up now.

“I know I lied to you, but Billy, please, you have to believe me. I didn’t mean to hurt you, it was something silly between Robin and me. If I thought for a second that it would hurt you, I would have told you,” Steve began to explain, allowing the smallest roots of hope to dig deep in his chest when the words made Billy pause his motions. “I love you, Billy. I know I lied and that was really really shitty, but it won’t happen again. It can’t happen again, because knowing I hurt you is destroying me.”

“I just, I’m learning, okay?” Steve could barely breathe, panting a little around his words as he fought to get them out. “I have no idea what I’m doing or even who the hell I am sometimes and I think everything is gonna be a little messy for a while until I can figure that out. But I will, I will figure it out and I want you there with me when I do. You make me so happy, Billy, happier than I could ever imagine being before. I love you, I love you.”

The words seemed to echo around the gym, smacking against every corner and wall until they knocked right back against Steve’s head. Billy still wasn’t talking, wasn’t even moving from where he froze by his water bottle stool. It felt like hours that they stood there, neither saying anything but neither daring to walk away either. Steve wanted to give him time to process, time to think about what was said and what Steve was promising, but eventually, he found himself pleading, “Say something? Anything?”

Billy sighed, which wasn’t perfect but it was progress. He dropped the small hand towel back down on the stool with his water bottle and walked over to where Steve was still standing by the front door. He still wasn’t saying anything, but the moment those blue eyes met Steve’s he gasped, overcome with the relief that Billy could finally look at him again.

“I can’t handle lying,” Billy told him, giving no clues as to where this was going. Steve was along for the ride anyway, blindly running wherever Billy was intending to take him. “Too many people have done it, I can’t.”

Steve could only nod, watching as Billy’s expression morphed into something he couldn’t read. It was too much, too intense to be anything Steve had seen before. 

“When I say I need space, I mean it, Steve. There’s...I don’t want to hurt you. When I’m mad, I need to walk away and come here. It helps me clear my head when everything is too much.”

“Okay, yeah,” Steve agreed, feeling the hope beginning to plant itself deep and blossom as further boundaries were laid out. Boundaries wouldn’t be formed if Billy intended to tear the whole structure down, right? This meant they could stay, could work on everything together? “Space. I can do space.”

“Good,” Billy responded, finally a smile lighting up those features Steve found to be so captivating. “Because I really love you too, Stevie.”

It was like Billy had bottled up that feeling Steve felt at Pride and sprinkled it over them now. Every ounce of belonging, and comfort, of joy and love and pride filled him up now ten times stronger than it had then, threatening to swallow him up in the wave if he didn’t learn to float. He couldn’t help the bright smile that pulled on his lips as Billy asked him to stay. 

The kiss was messy, teeth clacking together awkwardly through their smiles but Steve didn’t care because he had Billy back, stronger than ever now that they’d worked through the worst of it. There would be more fights in the future but Steve was confident he’d know how to handle them now, that both of them would do better than they had before now that they knew they had each other through it all. 

“Come on, you ridiculous hoe!” Robin shouted, cackling at Steve’s shocked expression.

“You’re calling me a hoe now?” Steve laughed at his friend, setting down the next box by the front door. “That’s it, I’m not even gonna miss you.”

“Sure, you’ll be calling me from the car,” Robin returned, and sure, that was probably true. Stebe held out his arms, allowing Robin to cross the room and hug him tightly. “You better call from the car.”

“I will, you know I will,” Steve reassured his friend, blinking away the tears beginning to gather in his eyes. They’d only spent a year and a half in this apartment, but he would miss it dearly despite getting the occasion to visit whenever he wanted. He’d miss making coffee for Robin in the morning and yelling at her for hogging all the hot water in the shower. He’d miss her making dinner on rough work days and her banging her hand on the wall between their bedrooms when his personal dance parties became too loud in the middle of the night.

He’d miss living with his best friend, even though he couldn’t wait for what came next.

“You’re so dramatic,” Heather laughed from where she was packing up the few cups and utensils Steve had contributed. “You’ll see each other at dinner on Friday.”

“But that’s two whole days away!” Steve whined dramatically while Robin pretended to faint from the woe of it all. 

“You’ll be so busy unpacking you won’t even notice,” Billy answered when he came through the front door with another one of Heather’s boxes. “Damn, Heather, how’d you get so much shit?”

“Would it be cocky to say the fame and money?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then the fame. Oh, and the money,” Heather grinned, the two of them hugging each other in the process. “I guess I’ll miss you too. Be good, have fun.”

“Miss you too,” Billy told her, ruffling his friend’s hair just to make her screech. “Don’t have too much fun here, we can’t cook dinner here if you’ve torn the place up.”

“Gross,” Robin and Steve both groaned, the smiles never leaving their faces despite it.

“Are you ready?” Steve asked Billy once all of Heather’s things were brought in. It would be weird to come over on Friday and see Heather living in the space he had once occupied, but it was time. He’s sure the two women would have moved in with each other far sooner had they not been waiting for Steve and Billy to be ready too. At least now they could have as much time spent together as they wanted without having to text either Steve or Billy about a sleepover. 

“Ready as ever, Hawkins,” Billy answered, picking up one of Steve’s boxes to move it into his own apartment above the boxing gym—their apartment, Steve supposed. 

“Then let’s get moving, Malibu. I wanna hit the beach after,” Steve spoke up, pressing a kiss to Billy’s cheek as he passed.

And Billy followed to the tune of Robin and Heather cheering them on all the way out the door of the apartment. 

join my taglist here

TAGLIST: @alessiamargaux @minispice-1 @shadetea @emily19990 @alexxavicry @raven2008 @whoringrove @strangerleaves @blackpanzy @goodproofingwater @greetings-and-salutations @doralovesit @thatawkwardlittlefangirl @steddiemunsonharrington @magellan-88 @sideblogforcrimpy-plus @dreamdancerdotfile @lonesomewitchking @mrs-fanfiction-2001 @lancedrawsdrawings @cherry-sorry @dragonflylady77

[usafphantom2]

USAF will retire U-2 Dragon Lady fleet in 2026

Diego Alves By Diego Alves 08/03/2023 - 18:00 in Military

The U.S. Air Force Lockheed U-2, nicknamed Dragon Lady, conducts an aerial demonstration during the 2022 Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Air Show at MCAS Miramar, San Diego, California, Sept. 23, 2022. The U-2, a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft with U.S. Air Force 9th Reconnaissance Wing, Beale Air Force Base, California, provides day and night, high-altitude, all-weather intelligence-gathering and reaches altitudes above 70,000 feet. The theme for the 2022 MCAS Miramar Air Show, “Marines Fight, Evolve and Win,” reflects the Marine Corps' ongoing modernization efforts to prepare for future conflicts. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Jose S. GuerreroDeLeon)

The U.S. Air Force Lockheed U-2, nicknamed Dragon Lady, conducts an aerial demonstration during the 2022 Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Air Show at MCAS Miramar, San Diego, California, Sept. 23, 2022. The U-2, a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft with U.S. Air Force 9th Reconnaissance Wing, Beale Air Force Base, California, provides day and night, high-altitude, all-weather intelligence-gathering and reaches altitudes above 70,000 feet. The theme for the 2022 MCAS Miramar Air Show, “Marines Fight, Evolve and Win,” reflects the Marine Corps' ongoing modernization efforts to prepare for future conflicts. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Jose S. GuerreroDeLeon)

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) plans to retire its U-2 Dragon Lady fleet in fiscal year 2026 - but so far, officials say they are working hard to keep the iconic high-altitude surveillance planes flying and testing the technology that can be used in future aircraft.

The plan to retire the U-2 was first reported by Aviation Week and the Air Force Times, citing a line contained in the Air Force budget documents that "the expectations are that the protective language of the NDAA will be waived ... allowing the USAF to move forward with the withdrawal of resources from the U-2 project in fiscal year 2026."

Colonel William Collins, senior leader of high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance material, confirmed the plan to reporters at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference on August 1º - the first official Air Force comment on the future of U-2 since the plan emerged.

The famous "selfie" next to the Chinese balloon.

“Our focus now is to work with the Air Combat Command to maintain the full viability of the plane throughout its lifetime, while maintaining maximum space for senior leaders,” Collins told Air & Space Forces magazine. "We are working for USAF to the best of our ability. But what we are doing predominantly is to focus on how to ensure that we do not create a scenario in which we are not able to meet the needs of the mission because of things like obsolescence."

While the original U-2 first flew in 1955, the current aircraft dates from the 1980s, with the last delivered in 1989. This was followed by an update in the early 1990s. But the average age of the fleet is now almost 40 years, and the Air Force faces a decrease in the sources of manufacture of key parts, Collins said.

Still, the U-2 remains unique in the Air Force inventory as the only manned high-altitude ISR platform in the service. An icon of the Cold War era, the Dragon Lady returned to the headlines earlier this year, when it flew over the Chinese surveillance balloon that was transiting through the continental United States. The Pentagon later released an image of the cockpit of the U-2 showing the balloon.

U-2 Dragon Lady during takeoff. Illustrative image.

With the ability to fly at altitudes above 70,000 feet, the demand of commanders continues, Collins said, so the Air Force wants to keep the fleet in a position to fly until 2026. The USAF requested $16.8 million in research and development, $54.7 million in acquisition and $17 million in operations and maintenance for U-2 in fiscal year 2024.

The use of the aircraft is also not limited only to ISR, said Colonel Joshua Williams, executive officer of the program for ISR and special operations forces.

“We are using the U-2 in unique and innovative ways and as a substitute platform, reducing the risk to our fifth-generation fighters,” Williams said. "All we are doing is reducing the risk and increasing the technical maturity of the things we will use in the F-35 and F-22.

According to the budget documents, this "material" includes sensors and resources related to the Air Force Advanced Battle Management System and the Pentagon's broader Joint Command and Control effort of All Domains.

"On what we are focused on is a code-compatible processor feature that provides open mission systems, so we can confirm that this capability can be leveraged on fifth and sixth generation platforms," Collins said. "We are also looking to demonstrate some [signal intelligence] features that can also be potentially used ?? on future platforms".

In addition to reducing the risk and releasing fighters such as the F-35 and F-22, using the U-2 as a substitute brings another benefit.

"We are focusing on showing that as we develop future capacity, we are not only making the survival capacity, but also the ability to connect and use sensors, not being platform-specific, but platform agnostic," Collins said.

U-2 Dragon Lady needs external support to land safely. Illustrative image.

Particularly for ABMS, Air Force leaders emphasized the importance of sensors being able to fit into a broader architecture.

But while the U-2 can benefit sixth-generation platforms and ABMS testing future technology, the Air Force's plans for its main high-altitude ISR mission are also fundamentally changing. The service's other high-altitude ISR platform, the RQ-4 Global Hawk drone, is scheduled to be retired in 2027, one year after the retirement of the U-2 fleet.

“There will be much more space involved,” Williams said. "Especially in the contested environments, the U-2 and these platforms fly, it's a different problem and a different answer."

Tags: Military AviationEspionageLockheed U-2USAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

Sharing

tweet

Diego Alves

Diego Alves

Related news

Shenyang J-16

WAR ZONES

Taiwan tracks 15 Chinese military aircraft in its ADIZ

03/08/2023 - 16:00

MILITARY

Greece receives 10º F-16′′V” modernized

03/08/2023 - 14:00

TECHNOLOGY

XQ-58A Valkyrie performs first flight controlled by artificial intelligence

03/08/2023 - 11:00

MILITARY

Biden Administration notifies Congress about the possible transfer of 38 F-16 to Argentina

03/08/2023 - 09:00

MILITARY

Sweden carries out the first ELINT mission near the Kola Peninsula in Russia

03/08/2023 - 08:00

MILITARY

First Belgian F-35 enters the final phase of assembly

02/08/2023 - 19:00

homeMain PageEditorialsINFORMATIONeventsCooperateSpecialitiesadvertiseabout

Cavok Brazil - Digital Tchê Web Creation

Commercial

Executive

Helicopters

HISTORY

Military

Brazilian Air Force

Space

Specialities

Cavok Brazil - Digital Tchê Web Creation

[starset21]

Sincerely, Yours

Standard disclaimer: I only own my original characters, I've done some research but there will likely be Navy/military inaccuracies, and I do not consent to the posting, translating, or publishing of my work to any 3rd party site, the only place it may be found is on tumblr and Wattpad under @.itswildflower Warnings: N/A Summary: Ria goes back home for an afternoon Looking for previous chapters? Sincerely, Yours Masterlist  

Chapter 4:

Ria arrived at her family’s San Diego home a little after 11 a.m. the next day. The door was opened before she could even get halfway up the driveway, her german shepherd dog was running for her, with Mari standing in the doorway. Ria grinned as she greeted her pup with lots of affection. Once he was settled she walked the rest of the way with him on her heels. “Sorry Ria, he just bolted as soon as he heard your truck door,” the thirteen-year-old told her. “It’s alright Mari, Atlas wouldn’t have gone any further than me,” she told the girl as she brought her in for a hug. “Ma, I’m home,” she called out, hanging her keys on the designated hook. Two sets of footsteps were heard coming down the stairs. Sarah Kazansky smiled as she walked into the main foyer, opening her arms for a hug. Ria obliged and wrapped her own arms around her mother and squeezed tightly. “My oldest baby is home, safe and sound,” she murmured, drawing back to look at her. Indira Kazanksy, coined Ria at a young age, the oldest Kazansky child at 29, knew how much those words meant to her family after her twin Everett or just Rhett for short was KIA. Her mother had tried so hard to convince Ria to pursue something with her engineering degree instead of aviation. Neither of the twins would listen. Their father had taken them to base one too many times when they were younger and they had both gotten bit by the aviation bug, though Rhett had gravitated towards weapons systems, much to their uncle Slider’s joy, Ria had a natural talent for piloting that both her father and Maverick did their best to nurture when she was young. She was then enveloped in a hug by 17-year-old Junior. The middle child. “Hey kiddo, how’s school?” she greeted, patting his back. “It’s good,” he told her, bending down to pat Atlas on the head. “Thanks for looking after him, Tj,” she told him. “We all know I’m his favorite, after you of course sis,” he teased. “Dad up in his office?” she asked. Her mother nodded and gave her a sad smile before heading into the kitchen while Tj and Mari went to go play some soccer in the backyard.

Atlas followed on her heels as she headed upstairs to her father’s office. She passed her room, and Mari’s before stopping at the door to the study and knocking. She heard the automated voice say come in. Tom Kazanksy was diagnosed with throat cancer 6 years ago. He had beaten it and gone into remission but it’s come back, and now it’s much more severe, leaving him in pain when he tried to speak. “Hey Dad, How’re you feeling?” she asked as she pushed the door open. Just fine, he signed. The entire Kazansky household had learned sign language as soon as it had gotten painful for Tom to speak much more than a few words the first time around with cancer so he wouldn’t have to rely on computers, phones, or notebooks to hold conversations with the family. Ria frowned. I don’t want to talk about it, he added as she took a seat in the comfortable leather chair across from him looking at the various photos on the walls like her and Rhett’s senior portraits, Junior and Mari’s school pictures, pictures of the whole family, their academy graduation, and even their wing-pinning ceremony when he pinned the wings on her chest as Slider pinned them on her twin. “Fine, what do you want to talk about?” she asked turning her attention to him fully. Atlas curled up at her feet and stared up at her with his adoring brown eyes. How’s training? “It’s fine, I got tone on Mav during the dogfighting exercises.” That’s my girl. Ria smiled but her father could see that something was weighing on her heavily. What is it? “It’s training for a suicide mission at this point Dad, and we don’t even have all the details yet. I don’t know if we’re ready for this,” she admitted. You’ll be ready when the time comes. Her dad coughed causing her to look back at him, he had stood up and walked around his desk so he was next to her, and Ria stood too causing Atlas to stand, wanting to get a few pats on the head from the older man. He coughed a few times more before clearing his throat. “I’m so proud of you Ria, you’ll get the job done and you’ll come home to us.” Water rimmed Ria’s eyes, though she didn’t allow them to fall. “You’re not supposed to be talking Dad.” Tom shook his head and opened his arms to her and she stepped into them, allowing his embrace to take her back in time to when she was little and the safest place in the world was in his arms and she then allowed a few tears to fall. He held his daughter tightly until she stopped crying then promptly signed at her to go get cleaned up and to go play some soccer with Mari, as she had been dying for some real competition. Ria offered him a wary smile and a nod before leaving his office, Atlas again at her heels.

Mari was giggling as TJ chased Ria, who had just stolen the ball from him, and ran towards her. “C’mon Mari, shoot!” She cheered as she passed the ball to the younger girl. She scored and Ria rushed over to her, picking her up and spinning her around, eliciting more giggles from the girl, Atlas barking happily as he followed them around. Meanwhile, Sarah is opening the door again. “Maverick,” Sarah greets, pulling him into a hug. Maverick glances out the back door to see Ice’s kids playing soccer and laughing, all with wide grins on their faces. That’s good, after the week they’ve had he was glad to see Ria relaxing with family. Sarah wrings her hands together. Maverick noticed and frowned. “It’s come back?” he asked. “No one knows but the family. There’s nothing else they can do. Speaking is painful,” Sarah tells him and Maverick softens. “Sarah, I’m so sorry,” he said. Sarah nods towards the staircase, “he’s upstairs.” Maverick made the trek up the stairs and he knocked as a courtesy before opening the door, hearing him coughing. “Admiral.” Ice turned to him, gesturing to the old chair that was against the wall. “How’s my wingman?” Mav asks as he takes a seat. Ice smiles before leaning over and typing. I want to talk about work. Maverick shakes his head. “Please don’t worry about me, what can I do for you?” he asks. Ice points at the screen again and Maverick chuckles. “All right,” he sighed. “Well, Rooster’s still angry with me about what I did. I thought eventually he would understand why. I hoped he’d forgive me.” Ice nodded and leaned forward typing, There’s still time. Maverick shook his head. “The mission is less than three weeks away. The kid’s not ready. None of them are.” Ice’s fingers hovered over the keyboard for a moment until he typed out, Then teach them. “They don’t want what I have to give.” Ice waved him off. “Ice, please, don’t ask me to send someone else to die. Please don’t… Don’t ask me to send them. Send me,” Maverick practically begged. It’s time to let go. Maverick’s jaw clenched and unclenched as he thought about how he was going to respond. “I don’t know how.” Ice pursued his lips. Maverick sighed. “I’m not a teacher, Ice. I’m a fighter pilot. A naval aviator. It’s not what I am. It’s who I am. How do I teach that?” he asked. “And even if I could teach it, it’s not what Bradley wants. It’s not what the Navy wants. That’s why they canned me the last time. The only reason I’m here is you. If I send them on this mission, they might never come home. And if I don’t send him, he’ll never forgive me. Either way, I could lose him, forever.” The ‘It’s time to let go’ on the computer blinked at him. Maverick sighed. “I know… I know.” Ice exhaled deeply before clearing his throat with a few coughs. “The Navy needs Maverick. The kid needs Maverick. That’s why I fought for you. That’s why you’re still here,” he said hoarsely. The two men embrace. “Thank you, Ice, for everything,” he said after a moment. “One last thing. Who’s the better pilot? You or me?” Ice asks, a soft smile on his face. “This is a nice moment. Let’s not ruin it,” Maverick replies with a chuckle. 

[twwpress]

Weekly Briefing #26: December 18th - December 25th

Welcome back to the Weekly Press Briefing, where we bring you highlights from The West Wing fandom each week, including new fics, ongoing challenges, and more! This briefing covers all things posted from December 18 – December 25, 2022 (we’re posting a day late this week due to Christmas). Did we miss something? Let us know; you can find our contact info at the bottom of this briefing!

Challenges/Prompts:

The following is a roundup of open challenges/prompts. Do you have a challenge or event you’d like us to promote? Be sure to get in touch with us! Contact info is at the bottom of this briefing.

The December 20 prompts in 20 days are up on Tumblr.

@JessBakesCakes and @thefinestmuffin are hosting a fic reading challenge running through January 7, 2023. Details in this thread.

@flowersinapril_ posted a 30-Day Christmas Challenge with holiday prompts. 

Photos/Videos:

Here’s what was posted from December 18 - December 25.

Bradley Whitford posted photos of his pets. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 

Bradley Whitford posted a photo of Amy Landecker at Joshua Tree.

Marlee Matlin posted videos wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah.

Marlee Matlin posted a photo and a Happy Birthday wish for a friend, Alexis Kashar.

Marlee Matlin posted a photo and a Happy Birthday wish for her daughter, Isabelle.

Amy Landecker posted some photos of her and Brad on vacation 1 | 2

Rob Lowe posted the trailer to his new movie, Dog Gone, premiering on Netflix in January.

Rob Lowe posted a photo of himself and his wife, Sheryl Berkoff.

Mary McCormack posted a photo of family members she is spending time with for the holidays.

Kim Webster posted a funny video of herself preparing poultry.

Dulé Hill posted some family photos.

Dulé Hill posted a photo with his daughter at a San Diego Chargers game.

Joshua Malina posted a photo of some latkes he made.

Joshua Malina posted a photo of himself getting prepared for a new job.

Donna Moss Daily: December 18 | December 19 | December 20 | December 21 | December 22 | December 23 | December 24 | December 25

Daily Josh Lyman: December 18 | December 19 | December 20 | December 21 | December 22 | December 23 | December 24 | December 25

No Context BWhit: December 18 | December 19 | December 20 | December 21 | December 22 | December 22 (2) | December 23 | December 24 | December 25

@JanelMilfoney: December 20 | December 24 | December 25 | December 25 (2)

Edits/Artwork:

#JOSHDONNA: no thing defines a man like love that makes him soft by sam_writes_fics [VIDEO EDIT]

Creator Spotlight:

We’re skipping the creator spotlight this week. We’ll be back next week with another great creator!

 Miscellaneous:

Happy birthday to John Spencer. We miss you!

This Week in Canon:

Welcome to This Week in Canon, where we revisit moments in The West Wing that occurred on these dates during the show’s run.

Season 2, Episode 10: Noël aired on December 20, 2000.

Happy Birthday, Toby Ziegler! Toby was born December 23, 1954. 

Editor’s Choice:

It’s the last week of 2022! Let’s send it off with some New’s Year’s Eve-themed fics!

auld lang syne by hufflepuffhermione for TheBreakfastGenie | Rated T | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | Nine New Year’s Eve parties, and the things that Josh discovers.

A Better Year by Lady_of_Winterhell | Rated T | C. J. Cregg/Toby Ziegler, Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | It’s New Year’s Eve, and the Senior Staffers have a gala to attend!

the last page by octothorpetopus  | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Sam Seaborn | Complete | sam wouldn't be so lonely if it weren't new year's eve. he wouldn't be so lonely if he hadn't been broken up with the week previous, either. the last new year's eve of the millennium (depending who you ask) is shaping up to be an eventful one.

and your eyes look like coming home by crossingdelancey | Rated T | C.J. Cregg/Andrea Wyatt | Complete | It’s a room full of people, with drinks, and colourful lights, and laughter, and half-assed swing dancing, and somehow there’s nowhere she’d rather be than in quiet a corner with Andy Wyatt.

—

for ivy

based on the prompt ‘you’re teasing me again

glitter on the floor after the party by JediAnnieScrambler for beabea | Rated T | C.J. Cregg/Andrea Wyatt, C. J. Cregg/Toby Ziegler, Andrea Wyatt/Toby Ziegler, C. J. Cregg/Andrea Wyatt/Toby Ziegler | Complete | “Come here often?”

“Only when the company is good,” said the woman, “I’m Andy.”

“CJ,” she said as the people inside began counting down.

(For the Department of Fanworks’ 20 in 20 prompt challenge. Day 18: Midnight)

And a Happy New Year by spinninginfinity | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | Josh has to work late on New Year's Eve.

‘You should go meet the others. I’ll be there before midnight, I promise.’

Fantasy 8.18 - A New Year by LizaCameron | Rated T Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | Josh proposes to Donna and old friends visit. The troops head home for the holidays as a new crisis looms.

Part 3 of TWW Fantasy Season 8 Series

Fics:

Presenting your weekly roundup of fics posted in the tag for The West Wing on Archive of Our Own. If you are so inclined, please be sure to leave the authors some love in the form of kudos or comments. Be mindful of posted warnings/tags for each story.

Josh/Donna

Heres to the Fools Who Dream by banginbeeps for zeeskeit | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

happy golden days by mikaylawrites | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

voulez-vous by swancharmings | Rated E | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

like we were in paris (we were somewhere else) by BeneathAnOrangeSky | Rated M | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

i’ve got a blank space baby (and i’ll write your name) by sam_writes_fics for JessBakesCakes | Rated M | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

Festive Drabbles 2022 by WitchyPrentiss | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

you’re here (where you should be) by joshatella (shuuuliet) | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

Happenstance by BimadaBomily | Not Rated | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

How Will He Find Me by Shinyrosa | Rated T | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

what else can I give him, poor as I am? by park_all_covered_with_cheese | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

christmas comes (this time each year) by fairwinds09 for JessBakesCakes | Rated E | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

no other quite like her by JessBakesCakes | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete 

Anywhere But Here by casliyn | Rated E | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

The Theory of Entropy by Jane_3yr3 | Rated M | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | In Progress

 Sam/Josh

Pieces Form the Whole by eowyn_of_rohan | Rated E | Josh Lyman/Sam Seaborn | In Progress

Sufganiyot and Other Declarations of Love by eowyn_of_rohan | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Sam Seaborn | Complete

 Other Pairings/Gen Fic

If I had never met you, you couldn’t have gone by miabicicletta | Danny Concannon/C.J. Cregg | Rated T | Complete

Where The Hell…? by dumbchemist | Rated T | No pairings listed | In progress 

Wait For Me by imperfectirises | Rated M | Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet | In Progress

security consulting by rearviewmirror (Breaking Bad crossover) | Rated T | Leo McGarry & Mike Ehrmantraut | Complete

 Multiple Pairings

A True Blue Miracle by mlea7675 | Rated T | Helen Santos/Matt Santos, Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet, Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

The Christmas Tree Lighting by mlea7675, Spybaby47 (Gilmore Girls crossover) | Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet, Logan Huntzberger/Original Character(s) | Complete

Christmas Night by LadyArcher_13 | Rated G | Danny Concannon/C.J. Cregg, Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete

Something Else Hoc by eyes_onthehorizon | Rated T | Danny Concannon/C. J. Cregg, Josh Lyman/Donna Moss, Helen Santos/Matt Santos, Abbey Bartlet/Jed Bartlet, Leo McGarry/Annabeth Schott, Zoey Bartlet/Charlie Young, Mallory O'Brien/Sam Seaborn, Will Bailey/Kate Harper, Will Bailey/Sam Seaborn | In Progress

THE WEEKLY PRESS BRIEFING TEAM CAN BE REACHED VIA THE FOLLOWING METHODS:

Twitter: @TWWPress

Email: weeklypressbriefing@gmail.com

Feel free to let us know if we missed something, if you have an event you’d like us to promote, or if you have an item that you’d like included in the next briefing!

xx, What’s next?

[sidewalkstamps]

Auerbach Construction, Inc. (Photo taken by me, I think, on April 2, 2023 - I don't know whose hands that is.)

Auerbach Construction, Inc. was founded by Ernest Auerbach, who was born in 1916 in Brooklyn, NY and died on February 1, 2010 (this was actually quite difficult for me to be sure about but I now am). He is buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, CA (findagrave.com). The below photo was added to Find a Grave by Romper90069.

In the Great Depression, "he grew and sold produce, and later became a producer broker." In World War II, he was in the Horse Cavalry of the U.S. Army. Moving to California after the war, he founded the Ernest Auerbach Company in Santa Monica, CA in 1946 for real estate construction, management, and financing.

According to the 1965 Westside City Directory, Auerbach at that point was still operating as Ernest Auerbach Co and was located at 11965 Montana Av, apartment 2 (City Directories Inc., accessed via the Los Angeles Public Library).

Apparently he was also a racehorse breeder, who started a thoroughbred breeding farm in San Diego County, CA in 1977 ("Ernest Auerbach, Santa Monica real estate developer, dies at 93," Jewish Journal, February 17, 2010).

He was the chairman of the board of the Auerbach Construction company and had "built 'something' on almost every street of [Santa Monica], from small residences to apartment houses" (LA Times). Same for much of Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. By 1987, he had "built more than 10 million square feet of commercial, retail and residential properties valued at more than $500 million." And at that time, they focused mostly on "industrial high-tech and commercial properties" through LA, Orange, and San Diego counties. Their headquarters since 1982 was Auerbach Plaza at 2001 Wilshire Blvd.

In 2001, he founded a bank that became the First Business Bank in San Diego, CA (Jewish Journal).

According to the Los Angeles Times, Auerbach was a "mild-mannered man with an uncanny eye for the right opportunity" ("By Veteran Developer: An Instant Replay of Santa Monica Values," Evelyn De Wolfe, The Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1987).

Rodney Freeman, who is Managing Partner of Metro Properties, includes his 18 years at Auerbach Construction, Inc. in his bio on Metro Properties's website. According to the aforementioned LA Times article, Freeman led Auerbach Construction Co. from at least 1987.

Simon Schreier, now of S. Schreier & Associates, Inc., was Senior Project Manager for Auerbach Construction from 1994 to 1997 (rocketreach.co).

[lushlagoon]

091424

in bed listening to the same music i did during covid, samia and indigo de Souza and haley blais and Phoebe. I can close my eyes and pretended it's covid. im in my kitchen baking and listening to samias fit n full, I am a senior in high school, im driving to the salad place in cool springs or the otaku ramen in west Nashville to pick up food and just get out of the house with my dad, it is winter. I think I will go look at pictures of that now.

ive done a pretty good job of documenting a lot of my life. in high school I had a few apps of diaries and video diaries, first couple years of college I had a sporadic diary and committed to constantly posting on my finsta story, now I have this page. im not ready to look back at things yet. I can't handle it. but there's lots to look back at.

I remember the night my grandma fell during covid, it was scary and ambulances came to the house. I saw her being wheeled off and was worried that was the last time I would see her. I cried in my parents room trying to hold my dog back but she jumped out of my arms, I could never do anything right like anyone else.

its weird that for years my grandmas health was so bad. now shes fine, and my grandpa is the sick one. hes kind of there in his head, hes kind of not. shes risen to the occasion to be there for him, I wish I didnt have covid right now and could spend time with them. im trapped in my room but its ok, music is good and I like typing, its raining and its saturday. its only 11am somehow, im jet lagged and sick so my sleep is both fucked and perfect.

saturday means nothing to me. I am graduated and unemployed as of 2 days ago. I just got my final grades back for all of college. I will have my diploma soon. my dad cried when I was in line to graduate. he couldn't talk. I love him so much, he tried to book a restaurant while we were in Paris that inspired ratatouille but it was raining and we were supposed to sit on a patio. hes way cooler than me. ive been applying to jobs but its tiring and ive been getting nothing good in return.

I used to be annoyed by a lot of my friends. now im not. I think I might be the annoying one. it's better to be the annoying one than be annoyed, but It feels like middle school in my head again sometimes. im so quiet I think, how could I be annoying.

about a month before covid hit, I went to a king princess concert with a few of my friends and my future girlfriend. I had a huge crush on her and that concert felt magical, I had so much fun. my room was set up differently, with my bed against the wall. the room felt bigger. I remember thinking "this makes me so happy, I need to just go to as many concerts as I can". I had had my license for a month, drove my blue bmw, and was trying to get a first job. When covid first hit, I decorated my room for all my friends to come over when the virus passed. I put up photos of my friends on my wall. nobody ever came over, and I think still only like 2 friends have entered this room since covid ended. except for my 18th birthday, that was so much fun. why do we never have fun any more? it feels like my friends are settling down already, getting boring. if I think about it too much it makes me sad, all the photos of my friends on my wall for months but nobody ever saw them.

my dad said the other day 18 is far from 21. I said no it's not, because in my head im still close to 18. but im not, it's not close.

I waited until I was 21 to go to bars and didnt get a fake, so maybe I will wait until my frontal lobe develops to try mushrooms.

i always get covid at weird times, like right before im supposed to go to San Diego. I got it right before my freshman year and had to come at normal time instead of early, I felt so behind when I got there. now im getting it before what was supposed to be my 4th year. I think if everything goes to plan I won't be too sad that Im not having a 4th year.

I was looking around my room at the sign brittani made almost 3 years ago, welcome home andie. I will never be a freshman again. last night I freaked out about that but this morning I can see everything more clearly. everybody has their own experience, I had to grow out of my shell in my own time.

I dont think im good with kids and I wish I was. Im excited for Christmas as long as my nephew doesnt cry when I get him a gift.

I told my girlfriend at the beginning of our relationship that I didnt want her to be friends with one of my friends. I get jealous, like thats my friend dont take them. she didn't understand and now theyre on a trip together. I dont think it's fair that if we break up wed have to share that friend when I stated I didnt want that. and it wasnt like I could stop the friendship, they do fun things together and it was good for my friend.

ive never believed in marriage. I dont wanna talk about it more. but literally never since I was a kid have I thought I would get married. now I understand I will probably have to, but im still unsure that I want to.

im jealous of my girlfriend and her whole music thing. the parts im jealous of, she has something to document, and something for her parents to be proud of. she has a constant outlet for creativity and she has time for it. im jealous she doesnt have to work, but im out of state so, I have to compensate for the massive bills somehow. I need to apply to jobs, and she doesnt like when I talk about it because it makes her stressed. she will be fine, her familys from California.

I am already feeling nostalgic for music from less than 6 months ago. adrianne lenkers new album makes my heart ache, makes me think about the trip to norcal. it was so beautiful. I think I will have to move back to Tennessee soon, and I havent even technically left.

anything by adrianne came on and I started crying, not a sad cry but an emotional cry and it felt good. my dad brought me a cup of green tea in my favorite mug with the painting from ferris beullers day off on it, I havent really dranken green tea since high school when I was trying to lose weight. my mom just got back from a business trip. everything Is right.

I heard adrianne for the first time from Charlie freshman year. I came back to Nashville and got back together with my ex girlfriend and listened to the music with her an entire night one time. im not sure who the song reminds me of, I think more Charlie. its so serendipitous that me and my roommates ended up together.

one of my friends said they thought I was the type of person to not keep in touch with friends after I move. that hurt my feelings but now I almost think that was a dream.

[paulthomaskubrick]

KCRep for All | Community Tour 2022 from Ryan Njenga on Vimeo.

Edited by Ryan Njenga Director of Photography: Daniel Banks Photos by Kenney Ellison, Thecla Okwara & Yetunde Felix-Ukwu Additional Footage: Dayna Meyer

KCRep for All brings the magic of live theatre to you! Presenting free world-class theatre throughout Kansas City, KCRep for All is our community tour. You’ll see the same stories from our stages come to life in community centers, public libraries, and senior centers throughout our region. Performing the same script as seen on our mainstages, the show is re-staged and re-imagined to be performed for you in your neighborhood.

KCRep for All breaks down economic and geographic barriers and makes our theatre walls more permeable as we travel across Kansas City to meet people where they are. This program is inspired by The Old Globe’s Globe for All program in San Diego. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 2022, we brought Marco Ramirez's THE ROYALE to 10 locations in Kansas City.

[waildance]

Fiat Lux: Illuminating our Common Home from Minds Over Matter on Vimeo.

Obscura was chosen by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council to create a contemporary artistic interpretation of Pope Francis’ Encyclical, “Laudato Si.” The large-scale architectural projection show entitled: “Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home” was presented as a gift to Pope Francis to celebrate the opening of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. It was the first time that art has ever been projected onto St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Laudato Si,” means “Praise be to you,” a phrase commonly used by Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals and ecology and Pope Francis’ namesake. In writing his impassioned plea for greater focus on the environment, Pope Francis cited areas of particular concern: pollution and climate change, the lack of clean water for much of the world’s population, and loss of biodiversity.

To bring the pope’s message to life, Obscura created an unprecedented 60-minute show featuring powerful images of humanity diversity and natural beauty from world-renowned photographers and curated by Travis Threlkel and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Louie Psyhoyos (The Cove). Using 21st century art and 50 high lumen projectors, the show was presented as a visual symphony in seven movements. A crowd of over 200,000 people gathered to watch the show live in the Piazza San Pietro, while 4 million watched via live stream video. Media coverage generated another billion global impressions.

Fiat Lux: Illuminating our Common Home featured the work of some of the world’s most noted humanistic and nature photographers and filmmakers including Sebastiao Salgado and Amazonas Images, Joel Sartore and his Photo Ark series, Yann Arthus Bertrand, David Doubilet, Ron Fricke, Howard Hall, Shawn Heinrichs, Greg Huglin, Chris Jordan, Mark Magidson, Steve McCurry, Louie Schwartzberg and Paul Nicklen. Funding provide by the Li Ka Shing Foundation and Vulcan Productions. Natural sound effects provided by Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Projection and Design: obscuradigital.com Music: Arvo Pärt: Fratres

OBSCURA TEAM Travis Threlkel - Chief Creative Officer Chris Lejeune - Chief Executive Officer / Account Executive Matty Dowlen - Chief of Production Andrew Plourde - Senior Technical Director Marc Melzer - Director of Media Arts Barry Threw - Director of Interactive Sean Holt - Director of IT Emmett Feldman - Senior Art Director Jennifer Williams - Producer Ari Ali - Senior Media Producer Anna Le Breton - Production Coordinator Doni Dennis - Marketing Director Tim Digulla - Art Director Ron Robinson - Art Director Tony Grisey - Senior Animator Jim Ellis - Technical Director/3D Animation Eddy Katt - 3D Animator Alexi Alexaieff - Technical Artist Brittnie Diamant - Production Artist Bryant Place - Interactive Engineer Harvey Moon - Interactive Engineer Anton Heestand - Interactive Engineer Christopher Houchin - Technical Director Nick Lynch - Technical Director Diego Novoa - Technical Director Nathan Houchin - Technical Director Michelle Grenier - Associate Creative Director Joshua Brott - Director of Photography Brandon Moore - Assistant Photographer Eric Schneider - Purchasing Ethan Indorf - Editor Tim McMahon - Editor Alex Oropeza - Music Director Harald Boyesen - Sound Design Lucy Sheils - Sound Design

[epacer]

Classmates

John Fry, Class of 1962

One man helps keep Pacific Beach Historical Society alive

Reposted edited article from sdnews.com by Dave Schwab on August 17, 2023

Since 1979, the job of chronicling Pacific Beach history has been in the capable hands of John Fry, the author of three local books and an airplane postcard collector, who also has a monthly historical newsletter.

Pacific Beach Historical Society’s founder, the archivist has admitted to having a historical “hankering” from early on.

“I grew up in Normal Heights and, next to my favorite hobby shop, was a real estate office with a historic photo of a streetcar on Adams Avenue in its window, courtesy of Title Insurance and Trust,” said Fry. “I spent the summer of 1965, before my senior year at San Diego State, working with the photo collection at Title Insurance under Jane and Larry Booth. That collection is now the photo archives of the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park.”

Fry moved to Mission Beach in 1967 and Pacific Beach three years later. In 1972, he joined the Pacific Beach Town Council, eventually serving on its board of directors. That move ultimately led to the creation of the Pacific Beach Historical Society.

“At one of the directors’ meetings Howard Rozelle showed up, hoping the council would purchase over 7,000 photos he’d taken of the beach over the years,” said Fry. “The council didn’t have the funds, and Howard’s photos eventually found a home in Balboa Park. Howard and I (despite the 30-year age difference) hit it off immediately and founded the Pacific Beach Historical Society in 1979.”

PBHS’ first meetings were held at the old library on Felspar, then for some years in the banquet room at China Inn, and finally in the Community Room of the Earl & Birdie Taylor/Pacific Beach Library. “The meetings were monthly and well-attended, with guest speakers and slide presentations featuring Howard’s photos,” noted Fry. “Over the years the membership aged and eventually the society stopped holding regular meetings. The ‘society’ is now just me.”

Fry pointed out that his monthly newsletter, available for a $30 annual membership fee covering costs, continues to be published with stories and photos about the beach town’s past. “It features articles about beach history,” said Fry adding his newsletter underscores the society’s mission to “let people know about the history of Pacific Beach.”

Fry added his collection of community photos and memorabilia, unavailable to the public, is in safe keeping in a file cabinet in his home office.

“Newsletter topics often look back 50 or 100 years,” pointed out Fry noting the current issue celebrates the 100th birthday of Pacific Beach Middle School, “or at least the fact that a school has been on the corner of Diamond and Ingraham since 1923,” he said.

Fry has also written three local history books over the years. “I self-published ‘A Short History of Crystal Pier’ in 1990 in anticipation of the pier’s 75th birthday,” he said adding, ‘Images of America: Pacific Beach,’ tells the history of the beach in photos. ‘Pacific Beach Through Time’ shows color photos of Pacific Beach that I took in the ’70s and ’80s, matched with photos taken in the mid-2000s.”

Fry is also the publisher of American military airplane postcards, which are sold in the gift shops of most United States air museums. They are also collected by aviation enthusiasts worldwide. He has also written an illustrated operational history of the USS Saratoga (CV-3), the first American ship launched as an aircraft carrier.

“The airplane postcards came about when I recalled the cards that I bought in my youth that, like baseball cards, came in a pack with gum,” he said adding, “For a while, I supplied the gift shops of many of the nation’s air museums.”

Fry’s skills as an archivist even extend to his high school. A 1962 graduate of San Diego’s Will C. Crawford High School, Fry continues to maintain contact with his classmates publishing a quarterly newsletter for Crawford Alumni.

[melissamontoyaphotography]

UCSD Grad Portrait Family Photos | K + G

UCSD Grad Portrait Family Photos | K + G As a San Diego portrait photographer, the end of spring and start of summer is grad portrait season! College and grad students from all over San Diego universities and colleges are celebrating all their hard work and studies! A San Diego grad portrait session memorializes this achievement! The ideal timeline to book your senior portrait session is either…

[gravelish]

Palm Springs CA

29 January 2023

The winds were strong on the I-10 corridor near the wind turbines - Indian Canyon Drive was actually closed between the interstate and Palm Springs due to blowing sand. I was concerned about my planned early morning ride in Palm Springs, but it turned out not to be an issue with nothing more than a gentle breeze.

I parked at Victoria Park and rode south through, or just west, of downtown, up into Indian Canyons area. I paid my $7 senior fee at the booth and rode the pavement up to Andreas Canyon and then all the way to the parking lot at Palm Canyon. These provided the only real hills of the day, both on empty roads.

The second half of my loop was on a mix of bike lanes and bike paths farther east and past the airport. The streets and neighborhoods of Palm Springs don’t do much for me and certainly didn’t lend themselves to photos, so most of my pictures are from the Indian Canyons section.

I guess the whole ride was about two hours. I tossed the bike back in the car and headed back to Desert Hot Springs where we were staying. We packed up and were in San Diego by dinner, but not without having stopped at Bombay Beach, Slab City, and Borrego Springs.