#she’s so angry and wants to be taken seriously as a teenager good for her

[transpanda-1]

Actually we go by panda online because we got stuck in that rice bowl from Bobobo that turns you into one, hope this helps

[inkskinned]

what is with men being mad any time a woman raises her voice where did that even come from. someone posted a video of a small electrical explosion, and the top comment was of course the woman screams. the second comment is women try not to scream challenge, level impossible. i had to go back and watch the video again. there is, somewhat fainty, a little gasp emitted off-camera, more of a yelp than a scream. it is mostly lost in the crack of the explosion. afterwards, you hear her voice, shaken, say, are you okay?

i am helping one of my friends train her voice pitch lower, because she wants to be taken seriously at work. she and i do each other's nails and talk about gender roles; and how - due to our appearance - neither of us have ever been able to be "hysterical" in public. we both appear young and sweet and feminine. she is cisgender, and cannot use her natural voice in her profession because people keep saying she appears to be "vapid". we both try to figure out if our purposeful voice lowering is technically sexist. is it promoting something when you are a victim to it?

a storm almost sends a pole through a car window. in the dashcam, you can hear the woman passenger say her partner's name twice, crying out in alarm. she sounds terrified. in the comments, she is lambasted for her lack of calm. how is that even fucking helping?

in high school, i taught myself to have a lower voice. i had been recorded when i was genuinely (and righteously) upset; and i hated how my voice sounded on the phone speakers when it was played back. i was defending my mom, and my voice cracked with emotion. it meant i was no longer winning the argument: i was just shrieking about it.

girls meet each other after a long summer and let out a little joyful scream. this usually stops around 12-14, because people will not tolerate this display of affection (as it has the effect of being passingly annoying). something about the fact that little girls can't ever even be annoying. we are trained to examine each part of our lives (even joy) for anything that could make us upsetting and disgusting. they act like teenage girls are breaking into houses and shrieking you awake at 3 in the morning. speaking as a public school educator: trust me, it's not that bad, you can just roll your eyes and move on. it does not compare to the ways boys end up being annoying: slurs in graffiti, purposefully mocking your body, following you after you said no. you know, just boy things.

there's another video of a man who is not allowed to yell in the house, so he snaps his fingers when he's excited about soccer. the comments are full of angry men, talking about how their brother is unfairly caged. let him express himself and this is terrible to do to someone. eventually the couple has to address it in a second video: they are married with a newborn baby. he was trying not to wake the infant up. there is no comment on the fact women are not allowed to yell indoors. or the fact that it could have been really alarming or triggering for his wife. sometimes i wonder if straight men even like women, if they even enjoy being in relationships with them.

for the longest time, i hated roller coasters because it always felt inappropriate and uncomfortable for me to scream. one of my friends called me on it, said it was unusual i'm so unwilling. i had to go to my therapist about it. i don't like to scream because i was not raised in a safe situation, and raising my voice would have brought unsafe attention towards me. even when i am supposed to scream, it feels shameful, guilty. i was not treated kindly, so i lack a basic form of self-protection. this is not a natural response. it is not good that in a situation of high adrenaline - i shut up about it.

something very bad is happening, i think. in between all the beauty standards and the stuff i've already discussed - this one feels new and cruel in a way i can't quite express. yes, it's scary and silencing. but there's something about how direct it is - that so many men agree with the sentiment that women should never yell, even in an emergency - it feels different.

is the word shriek gendered automatically? how about shrill or screech? in self defense class, one of the first things they tell you is to yell, as loud and as shrilly as you can. they say it will feel rude. most women will not do this. you need to practice overcoming the social pressure and just scream.

most women do not cry out, even when it's bad. we do not report it. we walk faster. we do not make a scene. what would be the point of doing anything else? no matter what we do, we don't get taken seriously. it is a joke to them. an instagram caption punchline. we have to present ourselves as silent, beautiful, captivating - "valuable."

a woman is outside watching her kids when someone throws a firecracker at them. she screams and runs towards her children. in the comments, grown men flock together in the thousands: god. women are so annoying.

[galactic-rhea]

Do you guys ever think about how the generational cycles of abuse slowly crumble in The Simpsons? Do you ever think about it?

I love The Simpsons, and by no means it's supposed to be taken as a show that takes itself seriously, because it doesn't. But yet it handles heavy themes, it does handle strong subjects, particularly first seasons had certain, strong character's driven episodes meant to actually make you take it seriously. Even later seasons, albeit it becomes less and less of a thing (it becomes a bit heartless), has certain episodes like that. And is what makes The Simpsons a bit unique on the adult shows landmine.

Not to say it's completely original on this, because The Simpsons come from an era where sitcoms were everywhere, and sitcoms tend to be 70% comedy and then a few strong, heart-felt moments. This is because to keep you laughing, you need downs, otherwise, joke after joke after joke, you get a monotone story were there's no stakes nor pauses between a punchline and another. Comedy needs a tiny bit of seriousness, so you feel your feet on the ground, and then they will throw at you a joke, that, if is well written, is meant to surprise you, you don't see it coming. In the Simpsons, many of the classic jokes you remember best? You don't see them coming, not really, because the way they wrote the jokes in the simpsons is actually very clever, if I were to graph them, there would be several curves and points because they're jokes within jokes within jokes.

And then is a bit of dark humour, that is meant to reasonate with the audience somehow. So you laugh a bit at the fact that Homer's dad let him drink beer just so he would stop bothering him, but then the show makes you care, sometimes, about Homer being extremely hostile with his very old dad. But then you also laugh at the fact Homer's mom was a hippie, a rebel hippie, at that, that took him to Woodstock and is one of Homer's happiest memories of his childhood, and then you don't expect her literally dying.

And returning, in a way, just because she wants Homer and his family to continue what she started, and the show makes you care, the show makes you feel for the characters. Because Abe is a war veteran, he was awful to Homer and to his wife, but you also know he cared, and you also feel bad because he lives in a retirement home and wants to live with Homer and his family, but Homer will literally start the engine and leave him there, and at his age, he doesn't deserve that, but what does he deserve? Should Homer forgive him for everything? No, not really, you don't have to forgive abusers, but then it gets messy and complex because abusers don't deserve to be abused.

Homer, however, does forgive Abe, sometimes (and because of the nature of the show, it gets retconned, or forgotten, or brushed away, and etc). But more interestingly, he forgives his mom. Homer's mom was a much nicer parent, she was kind and Homer's refuge for happiness, so it's easy to forgive her, despite the fact that leaving Homer with someone like Abe was certainly, not a good choice, and we know that many, MANY of Homer's problems, all come rooted from either trauma or behaviours he learned from his childhood. And he's rightfully angry about it, he acts a bit like a rebellious teenager, because Homer is fairly inmature and this is because a extremely troubled youth.

But he forgives her right when she's literally a corpse in a chair, and then the closure comes from finishing what she started years ago as a radical environmentalist advocate.

So Homer knows, extremely well from first hand, his parents' flaws, and he is, to some degree, aware of how these affected him, which is more than most of the audience he represents realizes. But he's still an awful parent. He is abusive, towards Bart, but he also cares and tries deeply. He does an incredible much better job as a parent and as a partner than his parents.

And that's still not enough. That's not enough because trying doesn't mean sucess. The nature of the show makes it a bit harder, because sometimes it can be uqite inconsistent. There's a whole episode focused on how Homer decided to give up a lot and to stay under the awful working conditions from Mr. Burns because of Maggie, and then there are episodes where he literally forgets he has a third child.

But that's still better, somehow, than his upbringing. The bar was low, quite low, but he doesn't know anything else, and yet tries to be something different. And that's, from a narrative sense, interesting.

The cycle is breaking, is not completely over, is not a good job, but it is an attempt, it is watering down the abuse, it is making it less awful. Is like trying to purify a river, you're starting to remove the trash bags, you blocked the wastes tubes, the water is still contaminated, there's no grass and the ground is infertile. But it's a start, you need to start somewhere.

And then, in the futures episodes with Bart (and Lisa, and Maggie, even) we learn that, he isn't doing that much better either. Bart is divorced, his ex hates him because he's inmature and his children aren't very fond of him. Lisa's marriage is a bit of a mess, and her relationship with her daughter echoes a bit the one she had with Marge and Homer: She can't understand her, there's a lack of cummunication.

But it's still incredible, much better, than what they knew while growing up. Bart tries to be more responsible, he isn't abusive, his problem is that he's inmature and therefore can't connect with his children. But he doesn't quite yell at them, or tries to choke them (at least in the future episodes I remember, there are several). And unsurprisingly, he resents Homer a lot, which is logical, given everything, but he's also baffled that his children love Homer, and as a grandparent, he actually does quite a good job.

And the cycle is almost completely broken. Perhaps you can't absolutely clean it all, at least not in so few years, but it's happening and the change and evolution is logical, despite it being a sitcom, it is quite well written and sadly realistic. Bart and Lisa and Maggie don't have perfect lives as adults, and they struggle and the narrative shows you that a lot of these struggles come from their toxic enviroment.

And they're still doing better, because Homer and Marge chose to do slightly better than their parents. And so the cycle is near to the end.

I could talk about Marge, but sadly, in terms of her upbringing, there isn't much, besides the fact that she grew in a conservative home. We know her mother told her to held back tears and always pretend to be happy and force a smile, which is how she carried out in her life in many facets. And then we see she tries, at first, to teach the same to Lisa, and then decides to break that rule, to break what she forced herself to do and let Lisa be sad and express her emotions fully.

We also know she was quite bullied by her older sisters, and she's the one to always try to stop fights between Lisa and Bart, and the first one to try to stop rivalry between them when Homer tried to make them fight the other for attention.

Marge is flawed in a sense that she internalized a lot of misoginy and conservative ideals and then, sometimes, she tries to spread it, unwillingly, because is what she knows. Despite this, we know she supports Lisa's interests in studying and artistic skills. We know her mother was cold, and a bit detached, but Marge tries to be as warm and supportative as possible.

The Simpsons reasonates, mostly, with a generation that came from similar home enviroments, and, to some degree, some people in the audience could realize of their own flawed origins or how they carried those flaws, because I think the creators and writers had this in mind, the change and the struggle with trauma, the "not being good, but being better than what I remember".

So there's that. Deeply, deeeply flawed people that were raised in awful enviroments, and ultimately fail at being "good" parents, but they tried to change, and they tried to be better, and trying does matter in the end , because it's a start. They didn't end the cycle, but they planted the seeds for it. And to me, that's extremely interesting, and more so because this is the fricking Simpsons, a comedy, but like the context and narrative it generates, reasonates deeply with me despite not being for any of the generations the Simpsons represent, I'm a queer person in their 20s that was raised and still lives with an awful, awful family, but that I know their upbrinding was just so so so so much worse. And I know they try, and is not enough, and I can't quite forgive that, but I can see they try. And I know the cycle ends with me, at the very least.

[tgammsideblog]

Let’s talk about Jinx in the episode ¨Jinx!¨

As the title of this episode indicates, Jinx is the main antagonist in this story and her second time she plays an important role in this season since ¨The Afterlife of the Party¨

In ¨Jinx!¨ we see Jinx in a lot more active role as antagonist, not hiding Scratch her true intentions and being clear that she hates him for ¨vanquishing¨ the previous Chairman at the end of Season 1. In reality it was Molly who destroyed the previous chairman, but, because Scratch is the new chairman now, Jinx’s revenge plan is for him instead of Molly. 

Unlike other ghosts in the episode, Jinx hates the idea of Scratch being the new chairman. She considers him someone with any charisma nor talent to be the leader of the Ghost World and she expresses a lot of frustration when Scratch doesn’t have knowledge of how jinxes work or basic understanding in how things work in the Ghost World. Worth of pointing out that Jinx isn’t the only character who has been frustrated with Scratch’s incompetence as leader. The Ghost Council, while somewhat allies of Scratch, get annoyed by his irresponsible and lazy behaviour. It isn’t hard to see where Jinx disapproving of Scratch as the chairman comes from, since Season 2 so far has made a good point that Scratch doesn’t have the proper leaderships skills.

However, one of the main reasons of why Jinx jinxes Scratch in this episode is to get revenge on him for ¨destroying¨ the previous Chairman. While ¨The Afterlife of the Party¨ showed Jinx being a Chaiman fan, ¨Jinx!¨ leaves very clear that she isn’t only a fan but she seems to have an obsession for him. She has photos of him and keeps calling him ¨One True Chairman¨. Later in the episode she wants to win a lunchbox that has a Chairman image on it, showing that she propably collected items that were Chairman related. One could compare Jinx’s hyperfixation for the previous Chairman to a teenager girl being a huge fan of a boy band. The main difference is that Jinx’s obsession comes as unhealthy, not having identity nor goals outside of him.

Jinx also believes that she should be the one in charge instead of Scratch. In the episode she talks about getting rid of Scratch by jixing him and then talking over his position as new chairwoman. There is an scene she takes Scratch’s chairman robe while she thinks that no one is looking and tries it on, She tells herself that she looks good wearing that drove and calls herself ¨chairwoman¨. She thinks that she should be the true sucessor of the previous Chairman and not Scratch. 

In a small note, Jinx appears to dislike being humiliated in public and make herself look ridiculous in front of others as shown when she got jinxed by Scratch. She got angry when she got accidentally jinxed, saying that ¨that is her thing¨. It could be a sign of insecurity of not wishing to be taken seriously or being seen as a clown to other ghosts.

At the end of the episode when Scratch asks her to ¨let put all behind us¨, Jinx tells him that she is going to hold a grudge against him instead, showing that she can be pitiful and she is slowly getting consumed by her plan for getting revenge. She would rather hold a grudge for a long time that letting things go and move on.

In all, ¨Jinx!¨ episode dived deeper into Jinx’s motivations and showed more side of her personality. While it doesn’t change a lot of the status quo, it establishes Jinx as a more frequent antagonist and sets up for future episodes involving her plans to take over the chairman role.

[strangerstilinski]

SELENOPHILES OF BEACON HILLS | Teen Wolf Rewrite

Stiles Stilinksi/Original Female Character

chapter twelve

fic summary; after an already traumatic evening involving the unfortunate discovery of a gruesome scene, amber is convinced to hike through the woods with her two best friends in search of the other half of a dead body. but it's not as if she could ever say no.. not when stiles looked at her like that.

chapter word count; 8,101

chapter notes; it seems as if no one will be attending formal with their first choice. amber goes on a date but just can't seem to get stiles out of her mind.

masterlist

c h a p t e r t w e l v e

formality

With everything that had happened over the previous forty-eight hours, the last thing Amber wanted to be doing on Tuesday afternoon was walking through the woods or going shopping. Regardless, she found herself awkwardly sandwiched between Lydia and Allison as they followed a hiking trail deep into the preserve.

She wanted to be angry with Allison for everything that had taken place. For telling her aunt that Amber knew Derek at all, let alone that she was close with him, that she thought they were together. But Amber begrudgingly understood why she couldn't hold it over her.

If Allison truly had no idea what her family was up to, then Amber didn't feel right being upset with her for exposing something that she'd thought to be nothing more than teenage drama. Nonetheless, Amber couldn't help but feel antsy.

With Amber's trust for Allison nearly nonexistent, and her heart pounding in her skull with constant anxiety, she found herself looking over her shoulder obsessively as they trekked through the woods, practically waiting for Peter Hale to make an appearance at any second — Or equally frighteningly, Allison's aunt.

She wasn't entirely sure which would be worse.

"Allison," Lydia huffed in annoyance as her high heel caught on another fallen tree branch, continuing when Amber reached to steady her, "When you told us you needed to stop for an errand before we went shopping; a five mile hike in the woods.. Not what I was expecting."

"Lydia, we've only been walking for ten minutes." Amber laughed.

The redhead held up her hand in a signal for Amber to keep quiet, "Regardless."

"Mm," Allison hummed noncommittally, turning her attention to Lydia, "Before I forget, I wanted to ask you something. Jackson asked me to the winter formal."

"Did he?" Lydia questioned, going for casually unaffected, but not quite accomplishing it.

"You-? You didn't say yes, did you?" Amber asked incredulously.

Allison shrugged, "He asked just as friends. I wanted to make sure Lydia was okay with it first, though."

"Allison. They literally just broke up. Last week." Amber said in disbelief.

Lydia nudged Amber aggressively before speaking to Allison, "Sure," She told her, "As long as it's just as friends."

"Well, yeah." Allison said easily, turning to look at Amber out of the corner of her eye, "It's not like I'd take him into an empty classroom before lacrosse practice and make out with him, or anything."

Amber startled so hard she nearly tripped, reaching out to grab ahold of Lydia's arm as she stood upright again, "What?" She squeaked.

"Allison, that is so not what-" Lydia started, but Amber tightened her hand around the girl's arm and shook her head pleadingly.

"Allison, I am so sorry." Amber apologized seriously, "I know you and Scott had only just broken up, but it wasn't like that. I swear to you. And, don't worry, it's never going to happen again."

"I'm not worried," Allison brushed her off as they continued to follow the trail, "Like you said, Scott and I broke up. But, I really did want to make sure Lydia was cool with me going to the dance with Jackson before I told him for sure. You know, 'cause a good friend should check in first."

Amber swallowed at the dig, taking a breath to calm her irritation and continuing to walk between the two girls determinedly.

"Right, yeah." She said quietly, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jacket.

Allison slowed suddenly and pulled the large canvas bag she was carrying off of her shoulder, letting it drop to the ground with a soft thud. She squatted down to unzip the bag and pulled out an archery bow and a hollow arrow that was missing a head.

Lydia and Amber both watched in confusion as Allison reached back into the bag to pull out a fist-sized, black conical piece of metal and began to screw it onto the top of the arrow.

"What does that do?" Lydia voiced.

Allison looked back at the two of them as she rose to her feet, lining the arrow up along the bow string, "We're about to find out."

Allison pulled back the string and released the arrow, shooting it forward where it embedded itself into a tree a few hundred yards away. The impact made a small explosion and the arrow shot out a series of sparks, the blast causing Amber to flinch a step back.

"What the hell was that?" She asked in surprise.

"I'm not sure." Allison told them, shaking her head and making a face like she was finally puzzling pieces together in her brain. Allison squinted at the arrow where it was still planted in the trunk of the tree, shooting off small flickering flames where the bark had caught fire.

"Well!" Lydia clapped her hands sarcastically, "That was fun, Allison. Any more lethal weapons you want to try out?"

A twig snapped in the distance and Amber's eyes darted to look around them in fear. She peered through the trees, looking for any sight of Peter Hale in either of his terrifying physical forms, but saw nothing. No sign of Kate Argent either.

"Hold this." Allison said quietly, delicately dropping her bow into Amber's hands and beginning to stalk off into the trees.

Amber turned to face Lydia, pawning off the bow into her unsuspecting hands as she followed after Allison.

"Hold this." Amber repeated to the wide eyed redhead.

"What? Why?" Lydia asked them.

"Because I thought I heard something." Allison answered over her shoulder.

"So what if you heard something?" Lydia questioned, trying to meet Amber's eye as she sidestepped to trace Allison's footsteps.

"So, I want to find out what that something is." Allison told her.

Amber turned her head to give Lydia what she hoped was a reassuring smile despite her underlying fear, "Don't worry," She told her friend, "It's probably nothing."

Lydia took an anxious step forward to follow after them, "What if that nothing is something and that something is something dangerous?"

"Shoot it." Allison supplied unhelpfully, nodding at the bow clutched loosely in Lydia's hands.

Amber sighed and shot Lydia a serious look, "Just stay here."

Allison and Amber veered off the path in the direction that they'd heard the noise a few moments before, both looking into the trees around them cautiously. They walked with careful steps in silence for a few minutes, listening closely.

There was a small rustle of leaves behind them and Allison's hand darted into her jacket pocket. Her arm shot out to aim a taser over Amber's shoulder as she pulled the trigger and Amber squeaked out a gasp, turning just as Allison's eyes locked on the threat she was electrocuting.

"Scott?" Allison questioned at the same moment that Amber worriedly exclaimed, "Scott!"

They both watched as Scott dropped down onto his back in the leaves underfoot and twitched, his body tight with pain.

"Trigger finger-" He said through clenched teeth.

"Oh! Right!" Allison realized suddenly, looking down wide-eyed at the device in her hand, "Oh, god.. Oh, god!"

Amber reached over to help her flick the off-switch with fumbling hands and they both dropped to the ground on either side of him as soon as the current of electricity was cut.

"Scott, oh my god. Are you okay?" Amber asked frantically, reaching to pull the taser barbs out of his chest where they'd planted themselves through his sweatshirt.

"I am so sorry!" Allison apologized.

Scott took a pained breath as the barbs were ripped from his pecs and pushed his head back into the ground underneath him, "'s my fault. Totally my fault." He told them quickly, "I'm fine-" Scott's whole body spasmed violently with the word and Amber flinched back as he jerked.

Allison looked at him worriedly, "We didn't know it was you. If I'd known it was you I would've-"

"Still pulled the trigger?" Scott joked through clenched teeth, body convulsing again slightly.

"No! Of course not-" Allison laughed anxiously, "I-I'm so sorry."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Amber asked him, leaning back to sit on her heels.

"Yeah. I think so." Scott told them, beginning to sit up and smiling at Allison.

"What were you doing here, anyway?" Allison asked with a confused smile, "Were you.. Following us?"

"No!" Scott denied a touch too quickly, his eyes bouncing between the two girls nervously before settling back on Allison, "Not at all. I mean, your dad told me that you run this trail sometimes and I was hoping to catch you alone."

"..By following me." Allison laughed quietly.

"Well," Scott said slowly, "Yeah."

Amber snorted and Allison tilted her head at him, "What for?" Allison asked.

"Oh!" Scott exclaimed suddenly, reaching into the pocket of his jeans before pulling out the necklace he'd pilfered from Allison's house the week before, "I found this at school."

Amber watched as Allison gasped and quickly grabbed it from his outstretched hand, "Thank god! I was beginning to think it was stolen."

"No!" Scott said quickly, eyes flicking to Amber for only a second, "No, just lost. Definitely not.. Stolen. By anyone." He said unsuspiciously.

Amber rolled her eyes and got to her feet, brushing her hands off on her jeans while Allison laughed at him.

"Well, thank you for finding it." Allison told him gratefully, "And for bringing it."

"You don't think I'm a total stalker now, do you?" Scott asked nervously.

"Mm, no." Allison hummed with a smile, "I just think you're weird. Like you always are."

Scott and Allison also climbed to their feet and once they were standing upright, Allison quickly wrapped her arms around his torso, pulling him into a tight embrace. Amber rolled up onto her toes and dropped back down awkwardly, averting her gaze and looking into the trees around them for a moment as they hugged.

Allison pulled back suddenly and collected her taser, stuffing it into her pocket and grabbing Amber by her wrist to lead her away. They walked back toward the trailhead and Amber pushed her legs to keep up with Allison's quick stride, looking at the ground attentively so as not to trip over anything. Once they made it back to the trail and Scott was out of sight, Allison looked at Amber in the corner of her eye and began to speak.

"So, listen," Allison started before taking a deep breath, "I was thinking.. Lydia should go to winter formal with Stiles."

Amber tripped over her feet but kept pace beside the other girl, "Stiles?" She squeaked.

"Yeah." Allison told her, "You know that Lydia is going to end up going with some douchebag jock and that's not what she needs right now. She should go with a nice guy. Like Stiles."

"Lydia.. And-and Stiles." Amber repeated dumbly, heart in her throat.

"Don't you think Lydia deserves that?" Allison asked pointedly.

Amber sighed, "Would.. Will this make us even?" She asked quietly, picking at the cuticle on her thumb with her pointer finger beneath the sleeve of her jacket.

Allison smiled at her softly, reaching out to hold Amber's hand in hers for a moment, "Yes. Yes, it will." Allison told her honestly.

Amber nodded determinedly, pushing down her disappointment. Lydia and Stiles could go to the dance together — It was fine. She could totally handle it.

It wasn't as if Stiles would've asked Amber anyway.

When the three girls arrived at the mall an hour later, Amber had already messaged Stiles to meet them for dress shopping. As they approached the escalator to take them to the formalwear section of the large department store, she got a text from her best friend, alerting her that he was already upstairs waiting for them.

Amber's eyes drifted over to Allison as they stepped onto the moving staircase and she frowned at the distracted look on the other girl's face.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Amber asked.

Allison stepped up onto the stair behind her and Lydia, adjusting her purse over her shoulder, "Nothing's wrong. I just, I have a lot on my mind."

"Tell me about it." Amber grumbled under her breath, heart stuttering in her chest as her mind drifted and she worried about Derek.

Lydia tilted her head at the both of them and blinked, "Well you both could smile, at least." She told them, "You ever hear the saying, 'Never frown. Someone could be falling in love with your smile'?"

Amber grinned, wide and fake, turning to Allison as she leaned against the moving railing, "Smile, Allison. Remember who I invited to come here at your request?"

Allison nodded, reaching forward to pat Amber on the back with a sigh, "You're right. I mean, as far as apologies go, that's probably as good as it gets."

Lydia frowned at them in confusion and pursed her lips before turning to face forward again as they all stepped off of the escalator.

"So, Lydia.. I actually need your help with this part of my apology." Amber whispered into the redhead's ear as they walked into the store.

"What?" Lydia questioned, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Allison stepped up to put her face between Amber and Lydia's heads, wrapping her arms around their shoulders, "Lydia, you're going to cancel on whatever dumb, 'roided-up jock you said yes to, and you're going to go to the dance with somebody else."

"Who?" Lydia frowned.

"Him." Amber supplied, pointing her finger across the store.

Stiles was standing at the perfume counter a few yards away, sampling the scents laid out in front of him. He lifted one of the pretty bottles up and spritzed it into the air, accidentally spraying himself in the face as he did so.

Amber watched with an endeared smile as he sneezed cutely a couple of times in an attempt to dislodge the perfume invading his nostrils. He dropped the bottle back onto the counter offendedly before he seemed to notice the gaze of the three girls looking over at him and lifted his hand to give them an awkward wave.

Lydia looked at Stiles with her face pinched in disgust for only a moment before her eyes darted over toward Amber.

"Please?" Amber asked the redhead with a small smile.

With a deep frown, Lydia sighed, "Fine."

"Oh, don't frown, Lydia." Allison grinned as she released the girls and started to walk over toward the juniors dresses, "Someone could be falling in love with your smile."

Once the two girls were alone, Lydia turned to Amber sharply, "Are you sure about this? I mean, I know you-"

"I'm sure." Amber assured her, "If you go to the dance with Stiles, Allison will totally, one hundred percent forgive me for kissing Scott. It's just one night. I-If it makes her feel better, it's worth it."

"You didn't even kiss Scott. Remember?" Lydia prompted, "He kissed you."

Amber sighed, "Yes, Lydia, I know." She peeked over at Stiles again where he was still waiting patiently, "But I don't want Allison to know that, alright? He still loves her, and she'll be devastated."

Lydia pursed her lips in thought before pulling out her phone and flitting her fingers across the screen as she typed out a text message.

"What're you doing?" Amber asked suspiciously.

"If I'm going to the dance with Stilinski, there's no way I'm letting you go alone." Lydia stated.

"What does that mean?" Amber questioned nervously.

Lydia's phone pinged with an incoming text and the redhead grinned, "It means your date will be here in a few minutes to help pick out a color scheme."

"Wh-" Amber started, but Lydia was already prancing off after Allison and toward the formal dresses.

With a sigh, Amber finally made her way over to Stiles, anxiety pulling at her chest.

"Hey, hi." He said quickly when he noticed her approaching, standing upright from where he had been leaning against the perfume counter, "So you-"

"I need you to be Lydia's date to the dance." Amber interrupted in a rush, playing with her fingers nervously.

"I- You- What?" Stiles seemed to deflate, a confused look on his face.

"I-I need you to take Lydia to formal." She reiterated, "With Jackson dumping her and now him going with Allison.. She was gonna end up going with some dickhead from the football team and.. I want her to go with someone good. Someone- Someone nice."

"And.. You want that person to be me?" He questioned slowly.

She nodded regretfully, "Yeah. I-I know she's not your favorite person in the world but-"

"Not my favorite person in the world?" Stiles repeated incredulously, "Amber, she barely knows I exist. Up until that night at the school I don't think she'd ever even looked me in the eye. She's not going to agree to-"

"She already did." Amber interrupted, "She already agreed to go with you."

His eyebrows rose in surprise, "She did?"

"Mhm," Amber nodded, trying to gauge his reaction.

"Well, I- Okay." He finally agreed.

"Okay." She repeated, biting down on her lip and grabbing his wrist to lead him over to where the other girls were already flipping through racks of dresses.

"So, are you going to the dance alone?" Stiles questioned, watching Amber closely as she pulled out a dusty blue dress, "You and Scott could always-"

Amber shook her head in response, fingering the material of the dress before throwing it over her arm and moving on down the rack, "No, Lydia already found me date."

Stiles poked at a hideous yellow dress and frowned, "Oh, god. She did? Who?"

She shrugged and pulled out a silky evergreen colored dress, draping it over her forearm as well, "I'm not sure. I'm just hoping it's not some-"

"Hey!" A voice called out a few feet behind them, "Amber, hey. Hi."

Amber and Stiles both turned and watched as Ben Davis came to stand in front of them. The boy was breathing heavier than a day at the mall typically called for, as if he'd run all the way from the parking lot into the store. His normally effortlessly styled dark hair was messy and loose, a small strand curling down over his forehead.

"Oh, hey, Ben." Amber greeted with a smile.

"Davis." Stiles acknowledged lamely.

Amber rocked back on her heels as a short silence settled between the three of them, "So.. What's up?"

"Oh!" Ben shook his head, "Sorry, I- Lydia texted me. She mentioned you were interested in going to formal. With me."

"Oh my god, duh." She laughed, reaching out to squeeze Ben's arm reassuringly, "I'm so sorry. Yes. Yeah. That would be great."

Ben's posture seemed to relax and his eyes flicked over toward where Stiles stood with a cute frown on his face as he looked between Amber and Ben. She blinked and moved to give Stiles a gentle push in the direction of where Lydia was browsing with five hangers already cradled in her arms.

"Stiles, go help Lydia with her dresses." She urged.

He nodded reluctantly, pouting at her cutely before he turned and walked away. As soon as Lydia noticed him standing beside her, the dresses she was holding were thrown into his unsuspecting arms and she pulled him over toward another rack.

"So," Amber started slowly, flipping through the dresses in front of her with a determined focus, "Are there any colors you're adamantly against wearing for a tie or shirt or whatever?" She asked, pulling out another dark green dress that she thought was pretty, "Because so far I've been drawn to green and then the I have one blue but if you have any preferences I'm sure I can find something-"

"No, those are great." Ben reassured quickly, reaching out to take the dresses from her arms and holding them out carefully by their hangers so as not to wrinkle them.

She smiled in thanks, using her newly freed hands to flip through the dresses more quickly. She pulled yet another evergreen colored dress, this one slightly racier than the others, and she chewed her lip in thought as she studied the neckline and the hem. After an admittedly long minute, she held out the dress for Ben to look at.

"Okay, forget you're a guy for ten seconds." She told him, "Pretend one of your little sisters is sixteen and going to a dance.. Be honest with me. Is this dress too slutty?"

Ben gaped at her for a moment, before furrowing his brows seriously and studying the dress in her hands. He reached out to take the hanger from her and held the dress out over her chest in focus as he tried to picture what it would look like on the girl in front of him.

"I think it's nice," He told her after a moment, "I think- I think it'll look really good on you."

She smiled up at him, "Not too slutty?"

He shook his head with a laugh, pulling back to add the dress to the collection in his other hand, "Not too slutty."

"Just slutty enough?" She teased, wiggling her eyebrows.

Ben laughed loudly. He looked around them in embarrassment when he noticed Lydia, Stiles, and Allison had all glanced over at the sound.

"Yes." Ben agreed quietly, "Exactly slutty enough."

She grinned, "Okay. I'm going to go see how Allison is fairing on her own. I'm tasking you with picking one out that you think is nice and adding it to the stack," She said as she stepped away slowly, "No pressure."

Ben nodded seriously and turned to flip through dresses on the untouched rack behind him. Amber laughed quietly at his determined focus before making her way over to where Allison was browsing. She passed Lydia and Stiles on her way and the redhead threw another dress onto the large stack in the boy's arms.

"Oh, okay-" Stiles readjusted to avoid the pile of garments from toppling over, "So, are you just gonna-" He only narrowly avoided walking straight into Amber as he peeked over the heap of fabric, "You gonna try all these on now?" He called after Lydia, following her quick footsteps toward the dressing rooms, "Is this store open twenty-four hours?"

Amber shook her head as she watched him go and stepped up next to Allison, "You finding anything?" She asked, pointedly looking at Allison's empty hands.

Allison sighed, "Jackson told me he's going with a 'classic' suit, whatever that means. Pretty much, he told me I can wear whatever color I want. Which doesn't help narrow it down." Grabbing a red dress with a white belted sash off of the rack, Allison held it up in front of herself, looking in the mirror at the end of the row.

Amber frowned and was beginning to pull a different dress off the rack for her when a voice cut in from beside Allison.

"That's not your color."

Amber whirled around with wide eyes and found Peter Hale had slowly approached them, his gaze focussed on Allison.

"Sorry, if that was intrusive," Peter apologized with a charming smile, "But, considering your skin tone, I'd go lighter."

Amber glared at him and tightened her fingers around the hanger in her hand, swallowing nervously as the werewolf came to stand only a few inches away from them.

Allison nodded with a wary look, "Because I'm pale?"

"Fair." Peter corrected with a soft smile, "I mean, you can't call skin like yours pale. Not skin that perfect." His gaze seemed to finally drift over to Amber and he tilted his head consideringly, "Now, with your lighter hair, you could pull off a much darker color."

He was gesturing to the creamy white dress in her hands and she swallowed nervously as she took a step to place herself between him and Allison.

Amber held the dress out to the girl beside her even as she kept her gaze focussed on Peter, "It's not for me." She told him.

Peter nodded, pleased, "Yes, that's a much better color for her complexion." He agreed, reaching out to snag a deep green dress from the rack and moving to stand behind Amber, his chest flush to her back as he held the garment out in front of her body. He looked at their reflection, his eyes twinkling mischievously as the met hers in the mirror, "Your skin is perfect in a wonderfully different way. Still fair, but with such a lovely olive undertone-" He praised, mouth just above her ear, "Something like this.. It would bring out the green in your eyes, don't you think?"

She sucked her teeth and clenched her jaw for a moment before spinning around, pulling the dress out of his hands and hanging it back up, shooting him a fake smile.

"I actually already have something picked out in that color," She told him, "My date is holding it for me."

Peter raised his eyebrows, "Ah, yes. You're shopping for dresses with friends.. High school dance?" He guessed with feigned innocence, looking between the two girls.

"Formal." Allison volunteered, grabbing ahold of Amber's arm and tugging her a step closer to herself.

"Attention shoppers. To the owner of a blue Mazda. License plate 5 U N I 768."

The sudden announcement over the intercom system was loud and Amber and Allison both flinched in surprise.

"Did she just say blue Mazda?" Allison asked with wide eyes, "That's my car."

When Allison looked between her and Peter worriedly, Amber tipped her head toward where Ben was eyeing them from a few yards away with a frown.

"Go." Amber insisted.

Allison pursed her lips unhappily before jogging off toward the escalators.

"Scott." Peter muttered in irritation with a dark look.

Amber shot him an insincere smile as she backed away, "Thanks for your help!" She told him loudly, turning and walking with quick steps to where Ben was waiting.

"What was that all about?" Ben asked worriedly, "I was about to come over and check-"

"Oh, no, it was fine," She assured him, dragging him in the direction of the dressing rooms, "He was just really enthusiastic about us picking the right colors for our skin tones. I uh, I think he was.. gay.." She finished lamely, thankful that Ben couldn't see the grimace on her face from where he was following behind her.

"Oh." He frowned with a small nod, "Right, that.. Makes sense.. I-I guess?"

She smiled and pushed him down into the chair beside Stiles, pulling the hangers out of Ben's hand and turning to head to a changing room.

She hung the hangers on the back of the door and stripped down to her underwear. Before she pulled on the first dress, she cautiously peered down at the small cut along her stomach to check that it wasn't bleeding beneath the gauze she'd secured over the wound before she'd left the school with Lydia and Allison that afternoon. There were no red splotches seeping through the white material and she sighed in relief before turning to pull the foggy blue dress over her body, tugging up the zipper on the side and frowning at herself in the mirror in deliberation.

When she heard the dressing room door beside hers click open, Amber exited the cubicle quickly, following Lydia as she went out to the cluster of mirrors in the waiting area. The redhead was already spinning to look at her reflection from different angles in the semicircle of mirrors.

"That looks really good, Lyds." Amber assured her, eyeing the tight red dress in approval.

"Mm," Lydia hummed critically, "I think it's too much for winter formal."

Amber shrugged, "Maybe. You look hot though."

Lydia turned to face her with a grin, "Thank you." Her eyes trailed down Amber's body slowly and her smile vanished as her face pinched up in disapproval, "You, on the other hand.. That color is pretty but the dress is way too modest."

Amber stepped up to examine herself with a frown, "Yeah, I was kind of thinking that too.." She turned to look at the boys behind them who had been watching with barely concealed disinterest, "Ben?"

He sat up straighter in his seat, "Yeah?"

"Too modest?" She asked with a grin, raising her eyebrows playfully.

Ben snorted at the reminder of their earlier conversation, "Yeah. Yeah, definitely not the right degree of slutty."

Stiles and Lydia both frowned in disgust at the comment but Amber laughed loudly as she stepped back down from the platform.

"Alright, I guess I'll try another one then." She told them in amusement, pausing momentarily to rub her hand over the top of Stiles' short hair when he continued to glare between her and Ben.

She skipped over the first two dark green pieces she'd picked out and quickly pulled on her favorite. It settled over her skin comfortably and the hem fell lower on her thighs than she'd worried it would, though the fabric parted and cut up her legs a few inches in the center, it didn't come up so far that she needed to be concerned about flashing anyone. The low cowl neckline showed off her ample chest without displaying her breasts too obviously in the way a v-neck or a strapless dress would have.

Bouncing excitedly on her toes, she pulled the door to the dressing room open and nearly ran into Lydia as she exited. Amber reached up to grab Lydia's arms and the redhead blinked at her wide-eyed for a moment.

"That dress is perfect." Lydia told her, stepping back to drag her quickly toward the large mirrors.

She stumbled as Lydia tugged her back up onto the platform and positioned her this way and that before stepping back with a nod of approval and heading back into her dressing room. Amber blushed underneath all of the attention and turned around with a nervous grin, holding her arms out for the boy's to assess her.

"I skipped right to the one we both liked." She told Ben, her eyes flicking over to Stiles anxiously for a second.

"It's great," Ben agreed, "It's good. You look really pretty."

She smiled before angling her body slightly toward the other boy, "Stiles?" She asked gently, "What d'you think?"

"I- Um," Stiles started dumbly, "It- Good. It looks good. You're perfect. I mean, it-" He shook his head in frustration, "It looks perfect.. On you."

Amber stood frozen for a moment at the compliment, something fluttering violently in her stomach as she slowly nodded. She actively struggled to tear her gaze away from the constellation of moles dotting Stiles' cheek to look over at Ben.

"I guess this one wins then!" She announced enthusiastically, hoping to deflect attention from the way Stiles' comments had affected her.

The boys both nodded, eyeing her dress distractedly.

"Right," She said after a second, fighting the urge to look over at Stiles again, "I'm gonna go get changed then."

She rushed off toward the dressing room and closed the door, leaning back against it and thumping her head against the wood dramatically.

Stiles Stilinski was going to be the death of her.

On Wednesday afternoon, Amber tossed her Chemistry notebook across the bed with a huff and flopped onto her back. She fell perpendicular to where Stiles was sitting upright and dropped her head to lay across his knees.

"How am I supposed to focus on things like school and formal when Derek is out there, chained up at Kate Argent's mercy and-"

"Scott will figure out how to find Derek, alright?" Stiles sighed, "Besides, the guy's a werewolf. He'll be fine."

He dropped his textbook onto the bed beside them as he spoke and reached out to grab a lock of hair that had fallen across her face, pinching it between his fingers before letting it drop down onto his thigh. He moved a hand to rest at the top of her head and tangled it into her hair, his fingertips scraping gently through the strands.

She looked up at him sadly, "What if they kill him?"

He continued massaging her scalp softly and shook his head, "They're not gonna kill him, remember? Not until they figure out a way to track down Peter."

She heaved a deep breath and nodded against his legs. Her eyes traced over his face from below and she paused with a soft smile as she noticed something at the tip of his nose. She reached up and pressed her finger softly into the tiny groove that started at his cupid's bow and continued up onto the tip of his nose.

"What are you doing?" He laughed, pushing her hand away from his face.

"The little dip above your lip," She started, poking at his nose again, "It keeps on going along the bottom of your nose. I never noticed it before."

"Stop it," Stiles laughed again, grabbing her fingers in his free hand and tugging them away from his nose, "I don't even know what you're talking about."

"It's kinda like the dimple some people have on their chins," She explained, her eyes flicking back and forth between his and the tiny divot in the skin between his nostrils, "Some people have a butt-chin. You have a butt-nose." She told him with a quiet laugh.

"I have a butt-nose?" He repeated in disbelief, still trapping her right hand in his grip, "Thanks so much."

Amber reached up to touch his nose softly again with her unrestrained hand, tracing her fingertip along the tiny groove.

"It wasn't an insult," She murmured, "It's cute."

"Alright, alright," Stiles told her, removing his hand from her hair to pull her other hand away from his face, "Well, we can't all have perfect noses and perfect lips and- And perfect everything else."

She blinked up at him silently for a few seconds, continuing to study his face even after he averted his gaze to look around the room.

"But you do." She told him in a hushed voice, watching his eyebrows furrow before he looked down at her again, "Anyway!" She continued quickly as her nerves got the better of her, "We should get back to studying. I only have until five so we need to-"

"What's happening at five?" He asked curiously, watching as she sat up to grab her notes again and flip through to the next page.

"Oh, Ben and I are gonna go get dinner." She told him distractedly, reading through her notes with a frown.

"You and Ben are going on, like-" He paused, "An actual date?"

"Mhm," She hummed, "He said he wanted to do a, and I quote 'pre-date date.'"

"A pre-date date." Stiles repeated slowly.

"Yeah, I mean, we don't really know each other all that well and if we're gonna be spending all of Friday night glued to each other's sides-"

"Right." He grumbled, drawing out the word slightly.

Her attention tore away from her notes moved to the boy beside her, "Is that cool? I know that only gives us another hour to study but-"

"It's fine," He reassured her quickly, "This unit's not bad anyway. I don't think we have much left to go over."

She smiled in relief, grabbing a highlighter and flopping onto her stomach beside him to compare their notes from class that day. They studied for another thirty-two minutes before there was a loud knocking from downstairs. They both looked up in surprise and Amber rolled off of the bed, abandoning their books to head toward the hallway.

"I'll go see who it is." She told Stiles quickly.

She made her way downstairs toward the front door nervously, and when her hand finally wrapped around the knob, she hesitated for a moment in a panic, worried about who might be on the other side. She wondered in terror it would be Kate Argent again, here to violently question both her and Stiles, or the possibility that it could be Peter, making a home visit to do his own version of an interrogation on how he might be able to locate Derek.

She pulled her shaking hand back and moved to peer out the window beside the door, tugging the curtain back a couple of inches until she could see who was standing on the front porch.

It was Ben Davis.

She moved back to the door and flipped the lock before swinging it open to reveal the boy on the other side.

"You're early," She greeted him, leaning back to look at the clock on the wall, "Like, really early."

"I know," Ben admitted with an embarrassed wince, "Sorry."

"No, no, that's okay," She reassured him quickly, "No biggie, I just need to-"

"This is for you." He interrupted, looking adorably nervous. His arm shot out to hand her a beautiful pink rose that she had somehow failed to notice when she answered the door.

"Oh!" She said in surprise, taking the flower, "I- Thank you." She smiled and looked down at the flower, twirling the stem slowly between her fingers and watching it spin around.

"I bought you a bouquet of flowers." Ben blurted out suddenly.

Amber's eyes dropped down to the single flower she was holding between her fingers and blinked.

"I-I did get you a bouquet of flowers," He corrected, "But then my little sister told me that was way too much for a first date and I was gonna look desperate. So we eventually settled on one and she just kept the rest," He explained, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans and staring at the small pink flower with a frown, "-But.. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I might've been conned out of a bouquet of flowers by an eight year old."

Amber laughed and stepped back into the house, gesturing for him to follow her in.

"Well I think the single rose is very classy," She told him, guiding him toward the kitchen off of the entryway, "I just need to run up and change my shirt real quick," She pulled at the sleeves of the ratty hoodie she was wearing, "If you give me like five min-"

Stiles suddenly came bounding down the stairs behind her, feet thumping as he descended the hardwood steps, "Who was at the door?" He asked, stumbling to a stop in the kitchen with a frown, "Oh. Hey, Davis."

"Stilinski." Ben nodded in acknowledgement with a smile, "What's up."

"Stiles and I were studying for Chem," Amber explained as she walked over to pull a tall drinking glass out of the cupboard for her flower, "We work really well together."

"Right, yeah. You guys are lab partners, right?" Ben asked conversationally.

"Among other things." Stiles said vaguely, narrowing his eyes and leaning against the doorway.

"Uh, right. Sure," Amber agreed awkwardly, "Anyway, so. I need to go get changed-" She started, looking at Stiles and nodding her head toward the stairs behind him, "Is your backpack still in my room?"

"Yeah," He affirmed, keeping his gaze locked on Ben, "Would you mind grabbing it for me? I'll stay down here and keep an eye on your date." He said the word with distaste and Amber snorted as she brushed past him.

"Be nice, will you?" She whispered, squeezing Stiles' shoulder as she walked by. She turned to look at Ben one more time, "Five minutes." She promised.

She rushed up the stairs, brushing her teeth in the bathroom quickly before heading to her bedroom to change her shirt. She was tugging her oversized sweatshirt over her head when she suddenly noticed that all of Stiles' books were still sprawled across the top of her bed. With a sigh, she moved to close and collect them all, bending to stuff them into his backpack and zipping it up. Once she'd gotten Stiles' things together, she grabbed a soft tight-fitting sweater out of her closet and pulled it over her head.

When she got back downstairs, the two boys were sitting in awkward silence at the kitchen counter. Ben's gaze was on the flower where it rested in a glass on the countertop opposite of them, and Stiles' gaze was focussed on the doorway that led upstairs as he tapped his fingers restlessly against the stone of the counter.

"Sounds like you guys are having a riveting conversation." Amber joked, holding Stiles' backpack out to him.

Both boys stood from their stools quickly and looked at her like they were waiting for direction.

"Okay-" She said slowly, "Stiles, I'll see you tomorrow?"

He frowned and pulled his bag over his shoulder, "Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." He stepped toward the doorway of the kitchen and hesitated before turning back around, "Are you driving to school or did you want a ride?"

"Oh, right! Um, can you give me a ride tomorrow?" She asked, "I mean, do you mind? If not, I can-"

"I don't mind." He assured her quickly, his gaze flicking over to Ben one final time before he turned to leave.

"You ready to go, too?" She asked the boy beside her.

Ben nodded, following behind her as she slowly walked toward the front door and tugged her shoes on.

"You look really pretty." Ben said quietly as she stood upright again.

She blinked in surprise at the openness of his simple compliment, "Oh, I- Thanks." She said quietly.

She turned to lock the door behind them when they stepped outside, her mind stuck on his sweet comment about her appearance.

A small smile took over her face as her mind brought up flashes of the night she and Stiles had gone to the lacrosse party to watch over Scott. She recalled the way he'd looked at her in the darkness of the Jeep before he'd told her how nice she looked. Her stomach fluttered at the memory.

She shoved her keys into her pocket with a shake of her head and turned to look up at Ben's handsome face while he walked her over to the passenger side of his car.

She was on a date with Ben and was going to be great.

The date had gone pleasantly well.

They'd gone to a burger place out of town that apparently hosted a trivia night every Wednesday, though when the hostess had told them this, Ben had paused awkwardly and looked over at his date in obvious distress.

Amber laughed and grabbed an answer sheet from the table beside the door before pulling him over to a table where they had eaten what was quite possibly the best burger she'd ever had. They'd also managed to lose spectacularly at trivia, answering a whopping six out of twenty-five questions correctly.

Upon stepping out of the restaurant, she'd spotted an ice cream shop across the street and had looked at Ben with wide excited eyes until he laughed and pulled her to the other side of the road and into the store. He'd paid for her to get a vanilla milkshake and she sipped on it happily, trying her very hardest not to focus on the fact that her favorite milkshake in the world was still from Mal's Diner.

Once her stomach was filled with a good portion of the cold ice cream, she shivered violently and Ben suggested they go back to sit in the warmth of the car while she finished her shake. Nodding with obnoxiously chattering teeth, she followed him down the sidewalk and back to the spot where they'd parked along the street before dinner.

Inside the car, Ben kindly cranked the heat and she sighed with another violent shiver as she felt the hot air blow out across her skin. Neither her ancient car nor Stiles' Jeep had heat that worked so well. She leaned back into her seat comfortably as the temperature in the vehicle rose quickly. She sipped on the final dregs of her milkshake as Ben continued a story detailing some of the trouble his little sisters loved to cause him.

When she finished her drink, Amber slid the styrofoam cup into the pocket on the side of the passenger door and out of the way. She pulled her leg up and turned in her seat to face him but found him already looking over at her with a soft smile on his face.

"What?" She asked shyly, biting at her lip nervously under his rapt attention.

"You just look really pretty," Ben admitted quietly, "Your cheeks are all pink from the cold and-" He paused.

She blinked, fidgeting in her seat, "And?"

He huffed out a nervous breath, "And your lips are all shiny from your milkshake and I really want to kiss you."

She blinked in nervous silence at the confession.

"Would that be okay?" Ben continued quietly, "If I kissed you?"

With a nod, she swallowed and leaned forward in her seat slightly, watching him shift closer. She felt him let out another breath against her mouth and then his lips were pressed softly against hers.

He reached up a hand to hold the side of her face and the gentle press of his fingers behind her ear made nerves erupt in her stomach. She leaned further into his space and fisted a hand into the front of his shirt to pull him closer. When he opened his mouth against hers, Amber let her tongue trace lightly over his lip and his grip on the side of her face moved to tangle lightly in the hair at the back of her neck.

When his left hand dropped to rest on her waist, she groaned quietly into the kiss and the brush of his tongue against hers was quick before he moved to press soft kisses along her cheek. His lips slid down and left small pecks to the side of her face and she let out a shaky breath into the quiet air of the car as he moved in the direction of her neck.

His mouth trailed down to place a kiss to the sensitive skin below her jaw and she clenched her hand tight where she had fisted the fabric of his jacket. She thoughtlessly tipped her head back to give him better access to her neck and when his teeth bit down softly on the sensitive skin, she couldn't hold back a quiet moan.

"Stiles." She whimpered softly as she tilted her head back further.

Ben pulled back quickly, still hovering above her where he had leaned into the passenger seat, "What?" He asked.

"What?" She repeated, still feeling dazed.

"Did you just- Did you just call me Stiles?"

"What? No." She denied immediately. The pounding of her pulse in her head slowed and cleared her mind painfully fast, her stomach dropping, "Did I?"

"You definitely did." Ben answered, leaning back until he was fully in his own seat again. He was twisted sideways to face her still and the car remained silent for a few long seconds.

"Oh. My god." She finally said, horrified. She put her hands over her cheeks to hide the flush embarrassed that covered them, "Oh my god. I-I am so sorry."

"I, uh.. No worries." Ben turned to face forward again and drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. Amber couldn't help the fleeting image in her brain that the action brought up of another boy's fingers doing the same and she shook her head violently to clear out the thoughts as he continued, "So, um. I should get you home then, I guess."

He shifted the car into drive and they pulled out onto the road. Her heart felt like it was residing somewhere in her gut and she felt physically sick from the embarrassment.

"Please don't- Don't tell anyone that I-" She pleaded, losing her voice and dropping her trembling hands into her lap.

Ben laughed quietly, "I'm not exactly about to brag about it in the locker room. What would I even say? 'I was so good that she moaned some other guy's name.'"

"Fair point." She laughed quietly, still feeling slightly sick.

They drove in silence for five long painful minutes before Ben broke it, gripping the steering wheel tightly, "So, you and Stilinski, then?" He prompted, gaze flicking over to her for a second.

"Oh, uh. No." She told him, "Just friends."

"You, uh.. You think about all your friends like that when other people are kissing you?" He asked amusedly, raising his eyebrows.

"N-no," She laughed awkwardly, "I guess I don't."

He nodded slowly, a small smile of acceptance on his lips, "Did you still want to go to winter formal together on Friday?"

Her head snapped around to look at him in surprise, "You would still be my date to formal?" She asked incredulously, "After that?"

He shrugged, turning his attention to smile at her reassuringly before looking back out at the road, "I got the most attractive girl in school to agree to be my date. If I let that opportunity pass me by, I'd never forgive myself."

She blushed awkwardly, "You really don't have to flatter me after I just ruined our pre-date date."

"It's hardly flattery if it's the truth." He told her, "In all seriousness, I'm not going to cancel on you two days before formal. And it's not exactly a hardship to hang out with you as friends. Of course I'm still gonna take you."

"God." She whined quietly, distressed at how nice he was being, "You really do not deserve this."

"I mean, now that I know, I honestly feel kind of stupid for being so blind to it before," Ben said, "You and Stilinski, I mean. It's pretty obvious when I'm looking back on it now."

"It is?" She asked with a frown.

He snorted quietly, "Yeah, it is."

She sighed a deep sigh and thumped her head back against the headrest, remembering the feeling of Ben's mouth on her neck. She couldn't forget the brief moment, with his lips and teeth on the underside of her jaw, where her mind has supplied her with a picture of Stiles' mouth instead.

The image was now burned into her brain, and she wondered if it would ever fade.

[mydysfunctionalvampirefamily]

The title makes me very worried!

Lmao not me being confused that parents come to pick up their kids at night when Lex says there are vans outside the school. 😂😂 I'm so stupid.

This underworld storm sounds very bad and really gross.

Something that is dormant, but does not sleep. One of those Zantosa house gross antedeluvians?

I forgot about the raven feathers.

Lmao Wynn keeps forgetting she is an archon now and people respect her.😂

Red death?? 😂 I'm sorry, it's judt so funny that they get to pick their own names and they pick them like they're edgy 13 year old gamer boys.

Why the fuck would they go to hell house?!?

Wynn just casually throwing out weird ass occult names.

Wow. Justicar Lucinde being well not kind but practical, giving guidance and not being unnecessarily cruel. I didn't think she had it in her.

Wynn is a necromancer??? I feel so stupid, how did I not know this? Or is this Wynn's ghost stuff?

NO!!! Noooooooooo!!!! Lex, don't do it!!! Not the bloodbond 3 please! 🙏😭

Fucking lady lucinde farquad.

Fuck the camarilla.

What??? It's still the same fucking night???? These nights are endless!!!! But I'm relieved! There still is a chance. 😭

The masquerade is failing in new York where they are fighting and diablerising in the streets? Oh no. Who could have for seen this unlikely turn of events...

Lol pendragon being scared of getting diablerised.😂

I know Wynn hates this, but it sounds like she's doing a good job at being an archon. Fighting ghost stuff and being a badass is kind of her thing.

The sabbat doing their weird fire ritual stuff? Yuk.

Serpentine? Is he a settite??

A nun? FLAYED OFF FACE???? what the fuck. 😭 (the painted bone with flowers and stuff is kind of cool, but very gross)

Well I guess this explains the desecration of graves cw.

Archon Cabot. Sounds kind of hot, sorry not sorry. 🤷 Wynn having someone reach out to keep the coterie updated is much appreciated.

I totally forgot they hadn't talked about the ritual yet. 😂

Zofiel is being channeled by Pendragon??? This sounds like the worst idea I've ever heard.😂

So either Zofiel has taken over Pendragon, or Pendragon is fleeing diablerie?? Either way he is facing some deserved consequences of his own actions. 😂😂

Britta tiny voice: I stepped into the circle and kissed him. Lmao

Johnny is cracking me up this episode. First with the phone and now with the mirror and Britta. He doesn't give a shit.

Johnny 😂😂 gping full dad! 😂😂😂 So angry, yelling he's turning this combat suv around.

Miles just so tired and annoyed, and no one is listening to him.

Lil baby Neil needs Wynn with him. 🥺 I grt yiu baby Neil, I also need powerful Wynn with me to protect me with her claws of doom!

13 levels of damage? That seems like a lot???

So if corpses are running around eating people, I'm assuming the masquerade is also breached in new haven?

No not Rufio and his dogs 😂😂 I know this is all super serious but I cannot take anything seriously when they are around.

Wait why do they need to heal? Am I forgetting something?

Not me thinking my phone broke but it is just sound editing week of nightmares effect. 😂😂

Also yaaay Wynn!!!! Is this part of Neil's new power he got for ascending?? Dope af.

Oh no. Lex saying Miles, Miles Miles Miles in that specific tone cannot be good.

Zofiel? He sounds kind of scared or smth? Wheres your fucking power when we need it?

He's hitting Rufio with his sword and it's like killing a child, he's just a teenager pretending to be a badass but he's actually just got 3 down hairs on his lip and doesn't know how to properly smoke.

Tim rolling a lot of dice! Yay!

Wow sword bisected and torpored though, nice job Miles. That sword is badass.

Whoooo baby, Johnny omg. You're so badass. I need to fan myself like Al middle aged Southern woman on a hot day.

We can say all we want about Neil, he might not be the raw damage dealer that the others are, but he got Wynn here, and his hiding stuff is clutch!! Also I know it's been a while but remember when he made it easier for Johnny to resist frenzying for like 3 months. That was clutch! (I know there's no point in me defending Neil here, we all love him, I'm preaching to the choir)

Oh no. Lex is letting them have freebies, I don't trust it. Bad stuff is coming. If not this fight then the next one.

Weeping bear???? Wtf. I'm almost there on my relisten too. 😂

Beserker merit? Reduce by 3??!!!?? Holy freaking fuck. That is so good!!!

Ohhh we're basically getting canary mode? Damn. So cool.

The blood is so bad it hurts the special armour? That's not Good.

The bullets are consumed by an en tropic field??? They're just freaking dusted like in endgame? Damn that is not great.

He feels sick??? No! Not my baby sweating!!! Hell have to throw away that suit!!!! 😔

They fight so well together now! Like it's almost instinctual. Love that for them, hopefully it will keep them alive.

I feel like I don't know enough about combat and vtm lore to know how bad this fight is. Because honestly it doesn't seem that bad, they keep killing folks, they're all laughing and it doesn't sound like the panicked hysterical laughter yet (I could be wrong though) but then we have them running and throwing dead bodies at a nun with an entropy shield, and that sounds very bad??

Okay that is a lie, I know it has to be bad, but the vibe isn't that bad!!

That no did sound very panicked. And bone rafting has to be bad right??? Isn't that what Vito did??

Fuck yeah Wynn!!!!

They were all so good!!! 😍😍😍 (Neil did his best, you guys!)

Lmaooo I clearly didn't understand how bad this fight was until the after credit scene. 😂😂😂 Holy hell!!! "Are you touching your weapon to her?!?" it would just be gone??? That's crazy! He hardly got to swing it at all!!!

I know he's going into torpor within 24 hours but it feels like a fair trade.

[jesternene]

Unexpected Circumstances

Hey guys! here is the story that has swirled in my head for a while. I remember Gates saying in an interview how she wished they wrote her pregnancy in the show and I thought "I wonder how that would have gone". This takes place during S3-S4 and starts from the episode Allegiance. What if Beverly didn't leave that night?

It is very TNG-esque. I wanted to keep it traditional in that manner. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

____________________________________________

CHAPTER 1

It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Jean-Luc Picard to ask Beverly Crusher out for dinner. However, Beverly had noticed the change in Jean-Luc’s demeanor. He was charming, a little flirtatious, and he said all the right things that made her heart skip a little. Of course, her curiosity got the best of her as she accepted his invitation to have a 'more intimate' dinner in his quarters.

Dinner was lovely, romantic, something she was not expecting from her commanding officer. When she pressed him on it, he began to talk about growing closer and how their positions stood in the way. She was afraid of where this was going but didn’t know if it was because it is what she always wanted or was afraid of disappointment if it turns out it wasn’t. He asks her to dance and she happily accepts, which leads to a very slow, intimate kiss. She is taken aback, unsure of who is standing before her.

“Jean-Luc, if I didn’t know any better, I think you were playing games with me” she said in a nervous tone.

“Are you sorry you came tonight?” he asks in almost a whisper.

“I didn’t say that” she responds, with a small smile that crept up in the corner of her mouth.

“Good. Because I’m delighted you did” he smiled and placed his hand on her cheek. She stared into those fiery hazel eyes of his, the ones that melts her heart every time she sees him. She swallowed hard due to the anticipation of what was going to happen next.

What surprised her next was that it wasn’t Jean-Luc leaning in for a kiss, but she was. The kiss was light and sweet but deepened as the seconds passed. She should have realized something was going on with him, but her desire for him from all these years took over and all her inhibition faded.

As the night turned into the morning, she woke up alone in his bed. Her heart dropped in her stomach, unsure if Jean-Luc was playing games with her or if there was something seriously wrong. She quickly dressed and snuck out like a teenager hiding from their parents. Hoping no one, especially her staff, saw her leaving.

The surprise she had days later was that the man she was with that night was not Jean-Luc Picard but an imposter who wanted to learn about the human species. This doppelgänger got more than they bargained for in the arts of romance and lovemaking, which made Beverly sick to her stomach.

How could I be so foolish? she thought, angry at herself for falling for such a horrible deception. When the captain returned to the Enterprise, she avoided him at first until she couldn’t no longer. She put on that winning smile and made him think everything was fine. The oblivious Captain never pressed her on what had happened while he was gone; he didn’t have any reason to. He trusted her and usually trusted her word more so than everyone else. Beverly made a promise to herself that she would take this secret to her grave. No one needed to know what happened with that imposter, especially the Captain, and the more she denied it the more it would just go away. Unfortunately for Beverly, 3 1/2 months later, her secret would be exposed.

____________________________________________

A lot happened on the Enterprise over the last few months. The captain’s assimilation was the hardest to handle. Seeing someone she loved in such a horrific state was almost too much for Beverly to handle. Her determination in saving Jean-Luc is the only thing that kept her going, and to be strong for Wesley, who took the Borg attack and Wolf 359 the hardest.

It wasn’t until Wesley left for Starfleet Academy that Beverly began to not feel herself. Maybe the stress of Wesley and Jean-Luc’s disappearance took more of a toll than she thought. Even though everyone was safe, Beverly couldn’t shake this nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach. She self-medicated just to get through the day but it was far worse at night. This particular night, she couldn’t sleep and the nausea was getting worse. When she felt she couldn’t handle the dinner she had hours earlier, she knew something was wrong.

Maybe I picked up some viral infection on the moon? She thought to herself.

After her urgent visit to the bathroom, she replicated some cold water and sat down with her tricorder. She hovered the instrument from her head and moved slowly down her body, keeping a close eye on her tricorder for anything that might pop up. After a few seconds of no sign of any problems, she notices the red lights flashing on her tricorder once she goes over her stomach. Beverly slowly looked away, letting the information sink in.

"This can't be right" She said to no one but herself. She began to pace in her quarters, letting the anxiety take over as the minutes began to pass by. As her eyes stung with the tears that wanted to fall, she knew she needed answers, and fast.

“Computer, time?” she asked with a shaky voice.

“It is 0400 hours” the computer complied.

Without thinking of how early it was, she grabbed her combadge and activated it. “Dr. Crusher to Dr. Selar”

Dr. Selar didn't respond right away. Beverly knew she was probably asleep as she was off duty this particular day. Beverly closed her eyes and prayed to anyone that would listen, that Selar would answer. She trusted a lot of people on her staff but no more than Dr. Selar. After a few moments passed, she heard her voice.

“Selar here” The Vulcan doctor responded in a sleepy yet professional manner.

“I'm sorry to wake you Doctor, but can you meet me in sickbay in room 3” Beverly asked with concern, something Selar picked up quickly.

“Of course, doctor. I will see you soon. Selar Out” The Vulcan ended the transmission quickly. Beverly dropped the tricorder on the coffee table before quickly grabbing a robe and slipping on some shoes and rushing out to sickbay. Her walk is usually a few minutes from her quarters but this felt like an eternity. She slipped through the back entrance that was closest to the private room and met the stone-faced Vulcan there.

“Dr. Crusher. What is the nature of this emergency?” Selar didn’t wait to beat around the bush or even noticed the blood that drained from Beverly’s face.

“I need a second opinion” Beverly said with a lump in her throat. Selar raised a brow, noticing her anxiety and how Beverly was gripping her robe tightly around her stomach.

“of what, Doctor?” Selar asked curiously.

“To see if I’m pregnant”

____________________________________________

To read Chapter 2, please go here

If anyone is interested in this story, I will continue. Any comments (or tweets) are appreciated.

J

[dumdeeedum]

How is an eighteen year old hooking up with a nineteen year old that he was previously worried was younger in any way rape? they are both older teenagers please be serious. baby faced nineteen year olds exist in the world it's not rape when they date their literal peers. i do kind of take your point about aging up claudia- it doesn't always work for me either but they really couldn't have cast a kid and done two seasons even if the ethics of that situation wasn't extremely dodgy. at a certain point you have to treat it like a mid special effect or stop watching.

I'm gonna go ahead and keep watching and commenting on what I'd like, thanks. I find it very strange that that's everyone's go-to when it comes to everything now. Are adaptations just whatever people want them to be now and if you expected to AT LEAST recognize the characters that's your bad and you're an idiot? I'm honestly still here because I love the book series, have been waiting for an adaptation for DECADES (was SO EXCITED for the Fuller adaptation that fell through) and now I'm waiting for the "Interview" part, the most boring but necessary foundational part for me, to end and to get to the good stuff. The problem is that the changes have been so great that I'm concerned and I'm allowed to feel that.

I feel like y'all want to be intentionally stubborn and weird about this which is part of the point and reason why aging up Claudia was a bad idea. She's MENTALLY 18 but she's physically meant to be a child. If we're having to have it so we're all just splitting hairs about how old she actually is/looks/is meant to look like in the show or having to suspend utter disbelief for it to work then it doesn't work. It also takes away from the visceral reaction we get from Claudia in the book, the utter sense of wrongness and pity we have for her and her situation. And how utterly wrong and fucked up it was of Lestat and Louis to make her.

Even Armand says as much and thinks of himself as having been too young at 17 in retrospect in the books. He's also angry at Marius in the books for turning Sybelle and Benji, the latter of whom is only 12. It's a big thing in the book series.

Claudia being unambiguously young allows the story to convey its idea in no uncertain terms: she'll be a child forever. She can't simply explain away her situation to her contemporaries whom are human because she can't tell them she's a vampire. She can't have sex with someone because she's a child and only a pervert would want to fuck her. She has all these adult feelings and sensibilities and she's not taken seriously and can't act on many of them because of that. Even her fathers, who know her the best and know she's mentally old as fuck still see her as a child. In her diary in "Queen of the Damned" she describes how cruel it is that Lestat gives her a DOLL every year on her birthday just to fuck with her because Lestat is a bitch.

When you not only age the character up to 14 but then cast someone who is an adult and then IN THE SHOW tell us that it's easy enough for her to just go "no, I'm an adult I just look young" then you take away pretty much all the angst of the character and she loses what makes her such a horrific element.

In fact, in season 2 she's so out of character for me because book Claudia, as an adult, is very smart and dignified and SEEMS old, which this actress does well but doesn't fit with an adult body. Book Claudia would not allow herself to be treated the way this Claudia allows herself to be treated and it's part of why book Claudia finds Madeline and starts to pull away even from Louis whom she knows is about to leave her for Armand. She also knows that the theater troupe suspect she killed Lestat and dislike her and want her dead. She's not even trying to make nice with them.

In this she's allowing them to dress her up like a child and make her a servant and humiliate her. I know they needed to expand on shit to make a season of television instead of a shorter book but I think it only ends up showing us that the show is floundering on how to convey its idea that Claudia is a child without actually having a child. They could have put more time into her relationship with Madeline which they only sort of did. Have Madeline treat her different and show her spending time with Madeline instead of prostrating herself for these people who disrespect her.

It's especially poorly done when a 14-year-old isn't even a child the way they want to depict her in the stupid waste of my life play they have her in by the standards of THAT TIME. The conceit of that idea would have worked better if the actress had been much younger and may even have served as a surrogate for Lestat and the doll. Unfortunately here it just doesn't work because she's already too old for the Shirley Temple shtick.

They could have gotten a teenager who perhaps looks like they're pre-teen Disney channel aged or whatever. I know that Kirsten Dunst was 12 when she filmed the movie and that's young enough to get a couple of seasons in before they get too old looking. Again, Disney channel aged (I'm too old to know where the kids are these days). Especially when Claudia reasonably should only be there until the end of this season even if they don't mean to continue past "Interview with the Vampire." Ideally they'd have made "Interview" into a miniseries and moved on because the entire thing is too long-winded and different.

Children do horror all the time. You don't have to have anything explicitly sexual for the character to work and that's another reason why the age up bothers me. Kirsten Dunst didn't HAVE to kiss Brad Pitt either, they added that to the movie so making that some sort of bar a young actress would have to meet is nonsense.

It feels like they ONLY aged her up TO put the actress in sexual situations and make it acceptable. But then they ALSO decided to age up Armand, presumably because it would be weird to put him in a sexual relationship with Louis if he's meant to be 17. So which is it? Can we have mentally young characters in sexual situations with adults or not? After all, mentally Armand is over 500 years old and Louis is much younger.

How much more impactful would it have been for us to see Claudia spending time with a boy she likes, a boy her "mental" age, to have him shoot her down and treat her like a child and even perhaps laugh at her? And for that to happen to her over and over again if need be. Instead she can just explain it away and it's fine if the guy she likes sees a teenager and still wants to fuck her, it's all fine?

It was a bizarre decision and as good as the actresses are and I wish them incredible success in their careers, it doesn't work for this show. A LOT doesn't work for this with the age changes as far as I'm concerned.

[gratisdiamanten]

devastated thinking about the destruction of mirjam's relationship with her parents (daniel as her favourite parent and max as the loving but more neurotic one... wahhh) so in light of that:

requesting any scene involving her and daniel after she finds out (can not remember if he dies before or after she finds out... if its the first then a scene involving max and her post-revelation, please)

Typical cws for this au, namely mention of csa but nothing explicit!

Her stomach squeezes, rolls, tumbles down a hill. See Mirjam, standing near the doorway, hand braced on the frame of it, doubled half-over like she's on the cliff-edge of sickness. To her, this is dying, it's the end of the fucking world—her dad, she loves her dad, the sunshine of her childhood. His big stupid laugh, his sweetness.

How can she think—what is she supposed to say, outside his open door where he works with his music playing we just keep on dreaming, meet meet meet me at the turnstile and she wants to cry like a kid. She feels stupid like a kid, the things dad and papa told her, meeting on the morning ride to uni.

She stands in the doorway and stares at him like a child's that just broken something, waits for him to notice, for him to beam his big smile at her, crinkling his eyes.

"Miri?" He smiles, like always, turning off his music. She feels the hunger-pang of grief, which is a pinch in her chest. When she had figured it out she didn't believe. And then she believed, and then she was angry, because it wasn't fucking fair that it was her family. That shit's supposed to happen to people she doesn't know and she knows it's selfish as shit but jesus christ she can't take this.

"Dad," she says. "Is it true," she tries.

"Is what true," he says, blinking at her. Big brown eyes, like hers. Papa joked to her all the time growing up that Dad must have snuck around because there was no way she wasn't his. You are just my little Daniel, he'd beam. His little double.

"You," she says, "and papa."

His face drops, caught aback, like he knows. His eyes are wide wide wide with terror. She wants to die.

"Miri, I have to tell you—"

Her voice climbs, hysterically. "It's true? Dad? He was twelve?"

"Mirjam, I love him, sweetie, I promise. I love your dad more than anything in the world, I want forever—"

She holds her hand over her mouth and lets out the ugliest, most embarrassing fucking sob. Sometimes, she wishes she was a teenage boy instead of a girl, because then it would be developmentally acceptable to puncture the wall with her fist, splinter her knuckles on the wood stud underneath.

"I hate you," she says like a decision. Shocking herself. Dad's face gone gray. A cloud stacking on itself, growing thick with rain.

"What," he says quietly. His look of dying, his look of letting go.

"Why did you do that," she cries, brain pinching in the front, like it's made of something soft like raw fish. "He was so little, in the pictures. He sat on your fucking knee."

"I know you don't understand, and please trust that I don't even want you to—I know, I know you're mad. Honey—"

"Don't fucking call me that," she spits, and he reacts like it's a smack in his face. "He was so little. God, why couldn't you have just gone away like a normal person? Why couldn't you have just been good?"

"No one's good the way you think they are, I—I loved him too much, I know that. But I've taken care of him forever," he says, voice ice-cracking. He looks pathetic like this, to her. Scrunched up and just old, just another ordinary, weak man. "I've loved him since before I knew him, and I know you wouldn't know how that feels. I'm sorry."

"I wouldn't ever feel like you ev—a twelve year old is a baby to me, and I'm not even twenty, you freak." She feels out of breath. Her eyes burn like crazy, not even like crying, like there's fucking—shampoo in them—

"I'm sorry I disappointed you," he says heartbrokenly. She can't take him seriously, can't see his face. Sorry, sorry for what? What is he apologizing for? It doesn't make sense, because Papa's the one who needs apologies if anything, for having been hurt, not her. She doesn't want an apology because Dad hadn't told her that any of this happened, and she hadn't fucking wanted to know in the first place.

"Don't talk to me like that," she says, and turns to face the wall, and thinks that she will never look at him again.

[jotawes]

I want to know about your WeatherTaro nonsense. Enlighten me.

Okay so in relation to SDC era Pucci brothers (I have so many weathertaro thoughts outside of this au but that’s for the stupidly long fic I’m affectionately calling The Beast that might get finished one day. Maybe.), Pucci runs off to put the stone ocean stuff into motion but Weather is taken in by Avdol which means friends from teenhood Weathertaro time. 

(Putting this under a read more because I got a little carried away.)

They click immediately, they’re both really angry and really awkward teens but they have such a deep mutual understanding for each other. A lot of people find Jotaro hard to read but I don’t think Weather would struggle with that at all, and vice versa. It’s an easy friendship that they keep up long after the events of SDC, Weather and Avdol probably move to America so Jotaro always sees Weather when he visits his grandparents. 

(Side note, I think Weather and Kakyoin have so much friendship potential, truly a trio to be reckoned with, especially as teenagers. Like good luck trying to mess with any of them.)

Weather ends up going to university to study meteorology, his control of his stand is still wobbly at best and he thinks if he can understand the nature of his powers he’ll be better equipped to control them. Jotaro, of course, goes to University for marine biology, and the two of them bond further over their studies, offering each other help and peer reviews. Maybe they’re roommates and going to the same university, maybe they’re ringing each other up and infodumping about their respective topics for hours on end, who knows. 

But this is where the stupid mutual pining would begin. Naturally, neither of them know it’s mutual because well. Expressing stuff isn’t their strong suit. 

Now the two of them getting together here and having Jolyne (Jotaro is always a trans man this is so important to me) would be very cute but I don’t love writing out Jotaro’s wife even if Araki sure does, so onwards we must go.  

Jotaro, in a last ditch effort to prove that he is straight and totally not crushing on one of his best friends, marries Jolyne’s mother and the two of them have Jolyne. Weather is batting his feelings down with a mallet at this point but it’s okay because he ADORES Jolyne. Weather is her favourite uncle, he indulges her in all her toddler shenanigans and the rain never seems to hit them when he’s around. 

R.I.P Jotaro, how is your feelings denial going bud. Probably worse than Weather’s. 

But then we reach post DIU, which to me at least is the moment where Jotaro realises that this isn’t over, his world is still too dangerous and he starts to pull back from Jolyne for her own safety. Weather understands why he does this, he had a front row seat to Dio and his minions and what they were willing to do and their hatred for the Joestars, and he promises to keep an eye on Jolyne. The two of them stay in regular contact of course and Weather probably accompanies him on some missions for the Speedwagon Foundation.

They still haven’t done anything with their feelings yet, but maybe they know at this point that there are feelings there, they just can’t fight through their 100 layers of bullshit and do anything about it. Men will do anything but go to therapy 🙄

Everything goes to shit when Jolyne gets arrested. Weather goes with Jotaro to break her out, but upon seeing Whitesnake and Jotaro’s basically dying, he stays in jail with the gang with the help of Emporio’s ghost room. Things play out basically the same but Weather is madder this time because Pucci has taken even MORE from him now. (We could have Heavy Weather arc 2 when Weather actually gets to confront Pucci again because his Stand still acts up when he's emotional.)

Jolyne also has a moment after seeing Weather’s reaction to Jotaro’s almost death where she’s like “WEATHER. MY DAD? SERIOUSLY? Dude. Get better taste.”

Now this can go two ways. 

Weather dies like he does in canon and Jolyne has to tell her dad that he’s lost another friend, one she has come to understand he was in love with but didn’t act on his feelings for. Jotaro also goes and dies like he does in canon, but the two of them are together and happy in the new universe, with Irene making a comment like “We’re going to see my dad and his husband.” or simply “We’re going to see my dads!” 

OR! They don’t die! And they reunite at Cape Canaveral and make out while Pucci stands there and goes “This is hell actually we’ve achieved hell why is my flesh and blood making out with Dio’s worst enemy I cannot abide this-”. They win through the power of gay love or something I guess. 

Either way. Congrats on getting two dads Jolyne.

[blackasmyhangryfurrybrokensoul]

Childhood. The best time of a person' life. Right?

Childhood. The days where I could (not) play outside with other kids. Childhood. The days where everything was (not) fun and you were responsible for nothing (but the welfare of myself and my whole family). Childhood. The days I could go up to strangers and pet their dogs (and get yelled at for it).

The days I could not even make eye contact with the neighbors daughter because I wasn't allowed to play with her because she wasn't muslim. The days I'd tell my mom I'm starving and she couldn't do anything about it because my dad wanted her to pay attention to him instead. The days where I parrotted my parents' beliefs to my grandmother, criticizing her beliefs. The days I was told to avoid people in stores and parks. The days my mom would sob for hours and all I could do was watch or pat her on the back. The long afternoons I spent in an empty apartment, making a game out of the bare floor tiles. The days I would watch the cars come and go from my apartment window. The days where I spent more time in my head than outside. The days where I didn't understand why no one would stay my friend. The days where I would get forgotten at school. The days when crying made me oversensitive. The days when my anger wasn't taken seriously. The days when my mom was too busy with my sisters. The days when my parents were always angry. The days I would pray to god in the backseat that they calm down. The days when any car ride with them felt terrifying. The days when I would write notes to my dad telling him i was upset about stuff, and he wouldn't even read it. The days where I had no idea what any of my peers were talking about. The days where I was the only one who didn't have the cool TV channels. The days where I couldn't afford to buy books when I wanted. The days where I had to teach myself because nobody could be bothered to hire a tutor. The days that I went over to my aunt's house to snack on her food because we didn't have anything. The days when my family bothered me about my low weight when I could do nothing about it. The days when I wasn't allowed to hang out with any friends. The days when I only left my house for school and the doctor. The days when I'd get yelled at for wearing lipstick. The days I'd get yelled at if my aunts took me out and we came back past 9. The days I'd be scared to death of missing my bedtime. The days I became a therapist to my mom, then my sisters, then my dad. The days I became the family moderator. The days no one noticed or understood my harmful stim because no one would actually ask me what's going on and no one would listen, not even the doctors. The days when bleeding and open wounds felt good. The days when I would only get seen as a struggling child when I would explode on others. The days I'd only get taken seriously if I yelled. The days I had to act like I didn't care for love or cute stuff or soft feelings because they seemed taboo and "pointless" in my household. The days I felt really really lonely. The days I was felt so confused by the people at school, not understanding how they all seemed able to interact with others so well. The days I did creepy art in hopes they'd disturb the people around me. The days I craved shock because that was attention without friendly commitment. The days I wasn't allowed to really dress like a girl. The later days where I didn't know how to dress like a girl. The day I got slapped for asking for comfort. The days I had no internet.

I can't wait to get older. "But you'll wish you were young again". Not at all. Maybe I might wish for a DIFFERENT childhood. But i would never want to relive the childhood I had. I would barely stand reliving my teenage years, and only if I could know what I do now. Getting older is one of the best things to happen to me, and I don't wanna look back too much.

I had to be so alone and independent and responsible then. Now I feel like a child having to catch up to a bunch of more emotionally developed people.

I walked out of my house yesterday needing space, with this newfound freedom that really only came with guts and age. I was a kid, now finally able to run away from people asking too much of me. Finally able to tell my family that I've had enough of their bullshit. There's so much anger I can't express. So much that I just wanna drop it all and walk away. Never mention it, just disappear. I had o tire myself out, so I powerwalked, sometimes ran, through my neighbourhood. It felt like the child I was was running in my place, running from something more than a creepy car in the parking lot. It felt like a memory I never got to have. It felt like defeat. It felt like fear. It felt like sorrow, sorrow that I could put somewhere besides myself. It felt like "fuck it all". It felt like not caring if I upset people anymore. It felt like knowing that my dad's reaction to me wandering the streets at 10pm can't be worse than how my sister and mom have been acting.

I'm exhausted

My misery is not just my dad. Or just my mom. Or just my sister. It's the collective experience. Each one alone might be okay. Just not together. My mom says that we'd be fine just without him. He thinks so too. I still don't think that would fix everything. I cannot be their therapist. I cannot be the only reasonable person in this house. When I say I wanna run away from my family, I mean them all. I don't mind having to deal with them from a respectful distance. I don't mind dealing with them as long as they don't hold me closer than they hold the voices in their own heads. I don't mind, if they actually improve on the things they say they will. As long as I don't always have to be the one raising them and walking them step by step through life. I'd rather not be so close to them if this is how they're gonna deal with me.

[marjaystuff]

Guest Review:  Merry Christmas Cowboy by Maisey Yates

Merry Christmas Cowboy

Four Corners Ranch Book 2

Maisey Yates

HQN Original Pub

Oct 25th, 2022

Merry Christmas Cowboy by Maisey Yates is a deep emotional romance that has love, family, and friendship.

“This is book two of twelve books. Each family of Four Corners will have a story. The series came about because I wanted to do something different.  As a set up the ranch is the focus, not a town. I hope it feels more wild -wild West. This story brought back some of my old families, reconnecting with the Garretts of the Copper Ridge series and the Donnelley’s. I put this between Copper Ridge and Gold Valley so that there could be some cross overs and cameos.” 

Cowboy Wolf Garrett has deep wounds after losing the love of his life in high school and having his mother abandoned him. He decides to take a trip to his extended family’s ranch in Copper Ridge to have a change of scenery. His cousins made him a reservation to stay at a bed and breakfast Inn.  There he encounters Violet Donnelly, the innkeeper, where both have an instant attraction.

“Violet is sweet, optimistic, feisty, tentative, shy, and someone who wants to be taken seriously.  She is a past character I had who was a teenager, the daughter of one of my past heroes. Then she was in a bad space because her mother left her, and her dad moved her across the country.  She was angry and rebellious. In that book, Down Home Cowboy, her dad marries Alison Davis who was Violet’s boss and mentor. Violet’s life changed because she now had the support of both her dad and Alison.” 

The problem is that Violet is innocent and does not have the experience to handle Wolf.  He knows she is not his usual type of woman, but he sees nothing wrong with a two-week romance, especially after he is upfront with her and tells her he will be leaving to go home. Two weeks later he leaves, with Violet feeling like she was abandoned. To make matters worse the secret intimate nights they had together has left her pregnant.  Since both were abandoned by their mothers, and neither wants their child to feel the same, they agree to get married.  

This should remind readers of the Tim McGraw song “Real Good Man.” The lyrics “I might have a reckless streak at least a country mile wide.  If you’re gonna run with me it’s gonna be a wild ride. I may be a real bad boy, but I am a real good man.” He was reckless in not taking precautions when being intimate with Violet, knowing she was a virgin.  But he was a real good man, stepping up to the plate, and having her come home with him for the holidays and then marrying him. 

“I was thinking of I Need You, a song of his. I love that song.  Tim McGraw is usually a factor. Although “Real Good Man” does suit Wolf well.  They both were attracted to each other, but even after Violet told him how she feels he abandoned her. Their whole dynamic is inside out because they slept together, she became pregnant, and they agreed to marry before a committed relationship.” 

This is a deeply moving and heart wrenching story.  Both the hero and heroine have complicated and complex lives with issues they must overcome.

[mariharem-trash-heap]

Representative Duties

Slight Lila salt. AU.

Marinette took her duties as class president very seriously. So when Lila starts making all kinds of claims about her health conditions, she has to set aside her own jealousy and irritation to do her job, whether the girl liked it or not.

Notes:

This oneshot contains medical conditions that the characters may or may not have.

Marinette heaved an irritated sigh as she collapsed onto her chaise lounge, groaning loudly.

Tikki flittered around her, chewing on her bottom lip in worry for her Chosen. “Marinette?”

“Hmm?” The girl grumbled.

“Are you... are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?”

“What else is there to talk about?” Her voice was slightly muffled by the furniture, but the frustration bleeding into her tone was no less missed even as she pushed herself up onto her elbows, resting her forehead on the backrest. Her eyelids were clenched shut as she added, “I’m just going to keep making myself angrier and angrier. I don’t want to be angry anymore.”

Tikki said nothing in reply, merely coming down to rest atop her shoulder. She nuzzled her head into the girl’s cheek affectionately.

The two lay there in silence for several long moments.

“I just... don’t understand,” the teenager quietly murmured. “I don’t understand how anyone could just... fall for a bunch of lies.”

The little god hummed to herself. “Humans are complicated, Marinette. After thousands of years I still don’t understand everything about them, myself.”

“I mean, come on! She’s contradicted herself so many times already!” She turned to grimace at Tikki. “Does nobody else see what I do?”

Tikki patiently smiled. “The Miraculous changes people, Marinette - for better or for worse. You being Ladybug has opened your eyes to more than what’s on the surface.”

The girl closed her eyes again as she nuzzled her cheek. “Your soul is greater than most. The Ladybug Miraculous is drawn to those pure of heart and innocent of intention - in order to create, you must willingly devote yourself. Not very many people would want the responsibility.” She paused, trailing a paw along the girl’s cheekbone. “I don’t blame them.”

Responsibility.

Marinette’s eyes opened, then narrowed. She sat up, making the little god make a noise of surprise - and as the Kwami lifted into the air once more, she inquired, “Tikki... would you call me crazy if I said I had an idea?”

The red god beamed at her Chosen.

-0-0-0-0-

It had taken a long night of work - several texts back and forth to her classmates, an email to Dupont staff - but when the next morning arrived, Marinette felt exhausted, yet satisfied.

“Hey, girl!” Alya greeted cheerfully, bumping shoulders good-naturedly as they walked up the front steps. “What’s the occasion?”

“What occasion?”

“Well, you aren’t fashionably late for once.” The redhead pointed out. Then she winked. “Is it about Adrien?”

Marinette chuckled, shaking her head slowly. “No, no... I just realized something important. Is Lila going to be in today?”

“Yeah, she should be.”

“Great.” With a comforting nudge at her hip from Tikki, she raised her head high. “Because I have an apology to make.”

-0-0-0-0-

At the first bell, nearly everyone was in the classroom. Alya squeezed her shoulder warmly before heading to her seat, leaning on Nino for a moment before getting out her things.

True to form, not long afterward Lila strolled in with a peaceful expression. It dimmed a bit when she noticed Marinette standing near the front, but at the radiant grin the girl gave her in greeting, she gave a wary smile back.

“Seats, everyone!” Bustier called, and when the second bell rang she stood from her desk with a smile as she clapped her hands. “Good morning, students.”

“Good morning, Miss Bustier,” the class responded in varying tones of boredom or cheerfulness.

“Marinette has informed me ahead of time that she has something to say to you all before class starts.” She gestured to the representative encouragingly. “Marinette?”

The noirette nodded before turning to everyone. Lila was looking her way with a scrutinizing stare, but Alya and Adrien gave her smiles.

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for my behavior yesterday,” she began. “I admit that I was not in the best headspace and I shouldn’t have let my emotions dictate my actions. Lila,” she turned to the Italian, “I shouldn’t have let myself treat you unfairly. I understand that having medical conditions is incredibly hard and I want to let you know that everyone here is supportive of you and is willing to help you however they can.”

At this, Lila’s smile twitched, and she could see a puzzled, calculating look in her eye.

“Will you forgive me?” She implored, clasping her hands together.

Hook.

The rest of the class had softened towards her, and everyone turned to the transfer student with eager anticipation.

The girl opened her mouth.

Marinette tried to contain her grin.

Line.

“Of course, Marinette,” she gushed, and a syrupy-sweet expression filled her face. “I know you can be... protective of your friends. I wasn’t trying to make things harder for you in any way. I accept your apology, and I hope we can be good friends from now on!”

“I hope so too,” she found herself saying back as she plastered an identical smile on her face. “Starting now, I’ll be taking my duties as class rep more seriously. That’s why I’ve compiled a full list of your ailments to make things easier. You don’t have to worry about getting sicker from now on.”

Sinker.

Lila’s smile wavered, and she could see her lip twitch. “Oh, you didn’t have to--”

“But I wanted to,” she implored, using her best innocent ‘I want what’s best for you’ voice. “I have detailed records of everyone’s allergies and medical conditions so that, say, if we go on a class picnic, we can include them.”

“Yeah,” Kim spoke up. “I’m lactose intolerant, and Mari always makes sure we have dairy-free options on outings.”

“Not like that stops you,” Alix snarked.

“It’s the thought that counts!” The jock huffed a laugh. “Besides, my gut doesn’t suffer. Too much. Don’t use the restrooms after me during lunch period.”

“Don’t be gross, Kim,” someone else muttered.

“And I have a gluten allergy,” Nathaniel quietly added. “Marinette always makes sure to include gluten-free pastries for me.”

“Chloe is on a diet,” Sabrina chimed in nervously. “So we always make sure to have options that she can eat.”

“Speaking of, Adrien’s on a diet too, right?” Alya lightly poked the model.

“Yeah,” he nodded, then he smiled up at Marinette. “Those new croissants were delicious.”

“Oh,” she squeaked, face turning red. “Th- thanks!”

“My bestie would never leave someone out on purpose,” Alya continued, winking at Lila. “We’ll all do our part to make sure you’re included, too!”

“If anything new crops up that I wasn’t aware of, please make sure to let me know,” the noirette finished. “I’ll make a note of it and add it to the file.”

“Thank you for stepping up, Marinette,” Bustier complimented, resting a hand on her student’s back. “You are a shining example for the rest of the class.”

She just beamed. For once, the title didn’t hurt as much. It was only made sweeter by the covert scowl Lila sent her once everyone broke into their own chattering groups.

-0-0-0-0-

The rest of the week went by much smoother than she thought it would. It was almost like a dream compared to the disastrous first day she had.

Lila got all the attention she wanted - even if not all of it was to her liking. Bustier’s students would speak up for her in every class she had, warning the teacher of this condition or that ailment - and as puzzled as the teachers would be, they reluctantly made a note of it for the future. With every class, Lila looked more and more tense when nobody else was looking... and it filled Marinette with a sick sense of pride that she quickly dismissed, feeling guilty over her happiness in seeing the girl so angry.

At lunch, one of her new friends would go through the line with her, informing the cafeteria staff of her allergies. As confused as they were (they hadn’t gotten proper warnings from the other staff, not until the health file was updated), they graciously tried to make their way around her intolerances. Every day Lila found herself with a plain salad with no dressing, chicken, and a small cup of fruit.

At PE, Kim and Alix personally informed Mr. d’Argencourt of Lila’s injuries, and so she was sent to the library to study with Mylene, who had hurt her knee.

Lila got the attention she wanted. And Marinette didn’t even have to lift another finger.

Thanks to her announcement on Tuesday, she’d managed to rope Ms. Bustier into compiling an official document to send to the nurse on Lila’s behalf during lunch period. Mysteriously, there was nothing of note in her file other than a clean bill of health.

The nurse was nothing if not thorough, and as soon as she was handed in the updated health file her brow furrowed in confusion. She resolved to get to the bottom of the issue, realizing how many conditions Lila had claimed to have would have been manifested before the school year began.

Ms. Bustier was just as confused. Why hadn’t Mrs. Rossi made note of anything herself?

On Wednesday, the nurse went to Principal Damocles with her concerns. The principal was just as confused when he read over the files, and when he tried to phone home the number went straight to voicemail.

Even stranger, when they attempted to email Mrs. Rossi, they immediately got a reply back - one that read, “I’m terribly sorry for the mix-up, perhaps some things were lost in translation.”

-0-0-0-0-

On Thursday, Lila was called to the office. Nobody knew why, not even the girl herself - though Marinette caught her throwing her a calculating stare as she left the classroom. Ms. Bustier had already been called in before, and when she came back to class, she looked visibly upset and almost shaken by whatever had been discussed. Several students asked her, but she waved off their concerns with a tight-lipped smile and a half-hearted reassurance.

By lunch, Alya was frantically tugging at her hand. “Mari, girl, you’ve gotta see this.”

“What’s happening? What? Akuma?” She instantly tensed, eyes darting around.

“No, it’s Lila.” Alya shoved her phone forward, and Marinette blinked as she focused on a video from Juleka. “Her mom’s here, and she is not happy.”

Shouting could faintly be heard from the speakers, and Juleka’s bewildered face filled the screen for a split-second before she turned the camera towards the principal’s office.

“...making a mockery of the family name!” Mrs. Rossi was yelling. “I can’t believe...”

Juleka’s face came into view again, mouthing an ‘uh-oh’ before the video ended.

The noirette looked up, shocked. “How many people have seen this?”

“It was in the group chat, ‘Nette,” Alya said slowly as she lowered the phone. “Didn’t you see?”

“I was busy helping Aurore with student council stuff,” she admitted with a long exhale that drooped her shoulders. “Wow.”

“Wow is right.” The redhead sighed. “I can’t believe Lila lied about that. I was so ready to help her out and everything. I mean... I’m really angry. Furious, even. But... I just feel so exhausted.”

She gave the other girl a grimacing frown. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I feel like such an idiot.”

“No, no, it’s not your fault, Alya.” Marinette was quick to soothe her friend, pulling her in for a tight hug. “I admit, I didn’t exactly put my best foot forward on Monday. I don’t blame you for not believing me at first. I must have looked really jealous and petty.”

Alya hesitated, but squeezed back and pulled away. “I’m gonna be honest here, girl... you kinda did. It really felt like you were just dogpiling on her for no reason. I mean, none of us even knew her that well to begin with. And you’ve done more for less...”

“I know, and I’m really sorry.” She sighed, disappointed in herself as she remembered Kagami. “I’m gonna try harder to keep my feelings in check, but I can’t promise I won’t make my case when I know somebody’s being dishonest and exploiting you.”

“That’s totally fine. I’m trusting you to call me on it, too.” Alya’s mouth curved into a wry half-smile. “Guess that means I’ve gotta scrub my blog. I don’t want my viewers to realize she was lying and lose their trust in me.”

-0-0-0-0-

On Friday, Ms. Bustier began the class with an announcement.

“Marinette, please come to the front,” she called.

The girl in question froze, anxious and unsure, until Alya nudged her with an encouraging nod towards the podium.

Swallowing, she slowly got up from her seat and approached the teacher.

Instead of the pinched expression of disappointment Ms. Bustier wore when she was about to scold a student, however, she smiled warmly as she approached and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“I believe some of your classmates have something to say to you.”

Almost immediately, someone piped up. “Sorry, Marinette.”

“Yeah, we’re sorry,” Alix chimed in, a guilty look on her face.

One by one, the others apologized. Chloe remained silent, but Bustier sighed out of her nose and passed her by with a shake of her head.

“We should’ve done more to listen to your concerns,” Sabrina added, wringing her hands together. “Instead we just accused you of being jealous.”

“Nobody is more sorry than I am, Marinette,” Ms. Bustier nodded in agreement. “I should have spoken with you before the seat change in case you were uncomfortable. I should have taken your feelings into account as well as Lila’s. Can you accept my - our - apology?”

Warmth bloomed in her chest and she nodded, a smile spreading across her face as Bustier’s hand squeezed her shoulder in comfort. “Y- yeah. I’m sorry too. I should’ve properly confided in you about my concerns instead of jumping to attacking her. I’ll try harder to communicate from now on.”

“And we’ll try harder to listen.”

[landinoandco]

Could I ask for a Max Verstappen request?

Where you get all excited to tell him you’re pregnant and it doesn’t go well. Could you make it super angsty

Of course you can :) here you go, I hope you enjoy! 

Max Verstappen x reader 

Warnings: angst but with fluff at the end

Word count: 2.2 k 

Requests are open...

Baby, the future is ours

At last the summer break had rolled around again, to the relief of the Formula one drivers and crew, they had 3 long weeks ahead of them to fill with whatever they deemed stress-free or relaxing. The subject of activity depending on person to person - most sane folk tended to stick to a holiday to Greece or if you were an adrenaline junkie like Daniel Ricciardo jumping out of planes or BMX biking. You had lost count of the times Max - your boyfriend - had rushed in to tell you about all of the exciting things his best friend had gotten up to as of late. 

You and Max had decided to take a break and travel to a cosy, quiet part of Italy - to escape the press, the stress and most importantly the eagle eye of social media. It would just be you and him for a few weeks before reality brought you back to Milton Keynes in the shape of Christian Horner and his motley crew. 

You and Max had met in 2018 at a gala event Redbull had hosted, Pierre Gasly - being a close friend of yours - had introduced you two and to say the pair of you hit it off instantly was an understatement, whether it was a mixture of the Dutch meets British humour you had no clue but you weren’t one to complain. A few months later and Max had asked you to travel around the world with him - you did so willingly and life had been nearing perfect ever since. Of course you had your ups and downs, where the universe seemed to really test not only your love for one and other but your patience. A few arguments had shown you that both being hot-headed never ended well. 

You were sat out on the balcony, a book in hand and looking out into the Italien countryside. Max had left for a run and to explore the local village, leaving you, your thoughts and your growing baby. You were pregnant - you had taken the test just before flying out, this meant that Max wasn’t aware. You hadn’t told him yet and you had no clue how you were going to. As it turns out telling your partner you were pregnant was easier said than done - ironically. 

You and Max hadn’t had the baby talk yet - you had but only along the lines of: “one day, when we’re older and married and driving isn’t the main priority anymore.” Those were Max’s words. He wanted to be there for his child, to watch him or her grow, to see every milestone but most importantly to be a good and nurturing father. 

There was part of you that was slightly worried because you just didn’t know how Max would take it - you couldn’t keep it in any longer though. You had to tell him. There was another part of you that was excited - from a very young age you knew you wanted to have a family of your own with the person you loved the most. Call it childish naivety. At this point in time, you were ready to become a mother - well as ready as anyone ever could be. 

Placing your book onto the table, you made your way into the kitchen, grabbed a glass and filled it. Sighing loudly as you leant onto the countertop. 

“That was a loud sigh.” A voice called out from behind you. You recognised it instantly. Whipping your head around, you saw Max standing there, wiping the sweat from his forehead. 

Chuckling, you hit back, “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

Rolling his eyes, he made his way over to you and wrapped his arms around your middle, placing a sweet, chaste kiss onto the side of your head. Leaning into his warm embrace, you let out another long but content sigh. 

“Seriously, what is it with you and sighing today.” Max uttered, his lips still against the side of your head. 

You went to move forward, out of his welcoming embrace. You knew what you had to do. 

“There’s something I need to tell you.” Instantly the atmosphere changed, you could feel Max stiffen behind you. Maybe the tone you chose to make that comment in was too serious but it was now or never. 

“Haha, which of your friends is pregnant this time.” He quipped jokingly, trying to break the tension. 

Instantly you knew the way the conversation was going to end, a pang of hurt felt in your stomach. You squeezed your eyes shut, catching your lip with your teeth. He stood there with an air of innocence and unknown, concern dancing in his eyes - he went to reach his arm out to you, to offer that encouragement. 

You braved the words that came out of your lips, “Me.” You almost whispered. Time seemed to slow. Max dropped his arm and instantly took a step back. 

“Pardon.” Was the only thing he could force out of his mouth, his throat seemed to close up and his hands went clammy. He definitely heard you the first time but he wanted to make sure it wasn’t a night terror. A bad dream he had failed to wake from. 

“I am, Max,” You said again, your voice wavering. 

“Oh.” He stated, his face drained of colour, his mouth set in a straight line. 

“Is that all you have to say.” You swallowed thickly, your eyes swam with tears. You had a hunch this was how it was going to end but it didn’t stop is from hurting the way it did. You had hoped he would have proved you wrong, to have wrapped his arms around you and to have spun you around. To have laughed. To have cried. To have shown a little more excitement to the fact you were now carrying his child. His first child. 

You moved past him and sat down on one of the wooden chairs, rubbing your hands over your face. He was still stood there. His eyes fixated on the view out of the window. No emotion read in his eyes. It was almost like you had hit the ‘off’ button. He tapped his foot and made a clicking noise with his mouth before turning around to face you - meeting your gaze. 

“How long have you known.” His voice was hoarse.

“A couple of days before we flew out.” You answered him, moving your face back to rest in your hands. 

There was a pause. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner.”

You took a breath, looking him dead in the eye. “Because I knew this was how you were going to react.” You didn’t trust your voice at all, you also didn’t know whether you wanted to scream at him or cry in the corner. 

“Right.” Was all he said. Still stood there like some awkward teenager after a rather large telling off from their mother. 

“Is that all you have to say to me?” You asked him, nostrils flaring. You were allowed to be angry, right? 

“What do you expect me to say.” He rounded on you, his voice raising more than was necessary. Tears had spilled down your cheeks, you didn’t have the energy to fight back. As soon as he realised the effect this was having on you, he went to move forward again, his eyes softening instantly. “I’m sorry - I - I shouldn’t have raised my-”

“Get out, Max.” You stated lowly. By this point, you had stood up, shuddering away from his desperate grasp. He knew he had made a mistake. You knew he regretted it, the moment the words had left his mouth. 

“Get out?” He repeated quietly, his voice cracking, you could see tears glazing his vision. 

“Just - please, go on a walk - come back once you have more to say to me.” You spat.

“But - But I already have more to say-” You cut his rambling off once again. 

“Please. Max.” You insisted, your voice betraying you again. “Go.” You whispered. 

Max stormed out of the door, ensuring to slam it so hard the chandelier on the ceiling swung precariously. You sank back into your chair and let out a loud sob, unable to hold it in any longer. 

Max was mad. Not at you, that would be unfair. He was mad at himself. At the world. At everything actually because at this point why the hell not. You were pregnant - don’t get him wrong, he was over the moon. He was going to be a dad. 

It was too soon. 

He still had his full F1 career ahead of him. A promising and long F1 career as a matter of fact. He wanted a baby to be his main priority and he wanted to share those one in a lifetime moments with you. He knew there was no point in being mad, it wasn’t like they were in a position where they couldn’t have a child. They had plenty of things to offer, a nurturing home with parents who were head over heels in love with each other and a large family - blood and not - who would be willing to support and love the child as if it was their own. Max really was in love with you. He knew it would be you to mother his children in the end, he just didn’t think it would be now. 

He reached for his phone, went into his contacts and pressed on the number that read the name: “D.R new phone.” Whilst it wasn’t adventurous like many thought it would be, it saved the confusion from calling a number that no longer existed. 

Daniel picked up on the second ring. “Hey dude, how’s it going?” 

“Not good at all, Dan, not good at all.” Max admitted, his voice wavering once again. He explained the events that had happened a mere 5 minutes ago, the way he reacted and the way he left you. Hurt and alone.

“I’m not going to lie to you, mate, you’ve fucked up big time.” Dan spoke after what felt like a loud silence. After all, Daniel knew you just as well as he knew Max. 

“I know. I know I have, do you think I’ve been selfish?” He asked, his tone full of raw emotion. 

“Yes.” Dan stated simply, “I think you have been, especially since she even told you this is how she thought you would react. How much stress do you think she had been putting on herself? Come one, I’ve taught you to be better than this.” Daniel paused, Max could almost hear him place his thumb and ring finger onto the bridge of his nose. “You know, just as well as I know, she knows it isn’t the best time. Her becoming pregnant is very much a two person job, I think it’s time that you go back to her and have a conversation like the adult I know you are.” 

In that moment, Max was so grateful to have someone like Dan just a call away. “Thank you, Dan. Really. I don’t know what I would do without you.” 

“Alright Mr Father-to-be, don’t be going all soppy on me now.” Daniel joked, returning back to his normal teasing. That was the best thing about Daniel, he was quite useful when you needed him to be. 

“You can count yourself on being the godfather after that.” Max added, a large beaming smile plastered onto his face. 

He heard Dan let out a loud laugh, “Go on, leave me be. Good luck, mate, let me know how it goes and when the time is right tell her I say congrats.” 

“Of course, mate. Thank you, again.” Max muttered, looking back in the direction of the villa. After he hung up, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and ambled slowly - working out exactly what he was going to say to you. 

Once he had opened the door, he called out to you. “Babe?” He heard a sniffle in response. You were still slumped on the chair in the kitchen, shooting daggers at the cupboard opposite. 

Max sat opposite you, reaching out for your hand. Grudgingly you let him take it, you blinked and he took a deep breath before a large, beaming smile crept onto his face.

“We’re going to be parents.” He rubbed the back of your hand, speaking tentatively. You nodded, your lower lip trembled. Max stood up, still keeping a hold of your hand as he gave it a slight tug, indicating that you should stand up. You made your way into his embrace, his arms wrapping securely around you, tucking your face into the crook of your neck as he rocked gently side to side, burying his face into your hair. He then moved his hands to cradle your face, wiping the stray tears away before peppering your face with feather light kisses. 

“We’re going to be parents.” He repeated, a little louder and to this you let out another sob, laughing as he picked you up and spun you around. 

“I’m sorry. I was being selfish.” He said, as he wrapped you back up into his arms. You smiled into his chest. In that moment, you couldn’t be happier. It was like all of your childhood dreams had come true. In that kitchen stood your new family, mismatched and sometimes a little bit broken but you wouldn’t have it any other way.

[nxrthmizu]

Crash and Burn

fandom | miraculous ladybug

genre | salt, lila salt

pairing | n/a

w.c | 3.2k

author's note | hey remember that lila salt fic i promised? this isn't it but this is something i made today so yep. please accept this as an apology for yknow. me promising to write and. not doing it.

Enough was enough.

“Marinette, stop accusing Lila! She just wants to make friends!”

“Take the high road.”

“Be a good model student, Marinette.”

Enough. Was. Enough.

Marinette had the connections, the power, the choice to make Lila’s entire world crumble apart. The only thing that stood between the liar’s demise was the tiniest pinch of morality and self-restraint— And no, that self-restraint did not come in the form of Tikki. Even the kwami, who had to be an aggregation of all the good and nice things in the world, was fed up and ready to retaliate.

“What a joke.” Lila cackled, tossing a chunk of her sausage hair over her shoulder flamboyantly. The two girls were in the bathroom, with Lila smirking in front of the sink and Marinette a little distance away from her. “You can make my world crumble? What is this, a threat?”

“A promise.” Marinette corrected. “Stop telling lies. Come clean to every one. No more lying about knowing celebrities left and right, no more making excuses about not being able to take your own notes, no more making up ‘diseases’ just so your life gets a little more convenient. To be frank, I really don’t care what happens to you— But by making these empty promises to introduce my classmates to great ‘celebrities’, you’re ruining their futures. Stop.”

“And what are you going to do if I don’t?” Lila sneered, face twisted into an ugly grin. “You going to cry in front of the class? Try and convince them that I, the one they adore— That I am lying?”

“No.” Marinette’s eyes were clear when she met Lila’s. The clouds of self-doubt that used to hover over the bright, shining star inside her soul had now dissipated, letting the bluenette emit a confident, glowing appearance as she met the liar head on. “I’m just going to keep my promise.”

──────── ⋆⋅❉⋅⋆ ────────

Lila headed off to a modelling shoot after school, pleased at the prospect of spending more time with Adrien. There were a couple tendrils of Marinette’s words hanging behind in her mind— Did the girl mean what she said? Did she actually… Was she actually capable of causing Lila’s downfall? … Surely not. Marinette may have once been the ‘Everyday Ladybug’, but there was no way she was that competent, there was no way the girl was capable of plotting.

The Italian hummed, brushing away thoughts of the annoying bluenette from her mind. She was going on a photoshoot— One that was going cause the rise and burst of her career, the one that was going to make her name a globally-known one. Unfortunately for Lila, her plans were going to be derailed quite soon— In fact, as soon as Gabriel Agreste’s car rolled into the parking lot of the shoot location.

“Explain this, Mlle. Rossi.” Gabriel’s nostrils flared as he pointed to the tabloid article on his tablet. The Italian girl froze, the headlines seared into her eyes, big and black and bold, shooting poison right into the core of her body, paralysing her cell by cell starting from her heart. “What is the meaning of this?”

‘Adrien Agreste Reported To Be Harassed by Fellow Model’— The image under the caption was one that was clearly taken by a hidden photographer. The picture was framed with leafy foliage, which suggested that the camera was tucked up in a tree. Despite the distance, it was quite obvious in the image that Adrien was reeling away, disgusted and uncomfortable as a faceless woman in an orange blazer, back turned to the camera— Invaded his personal space.

The subtitle was the cream on the cupcake.

‘Witnesses State Gabriel Agreste Ignorant of Workplace Harassment’.

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As if things couldn’t quite go down a worser path, Lila returned home to a fuming mother and an unexpected visitor.

“Lila! You come here right this instant!” The diplomat demanded as soon as the front door opened, her daughter shrinking slightly at the tone and pitch that her mother was using. The last time her mother had been this angry— Well, it was when she got expelled from her last school. “I can’t believe what you’ve done! If it weren’t for your kind classmate, lord knows how long you would’ve continued with this!”

The Italian meekly followed her mother into the living room, eyes widening until they were as large as saucers, mouth agape at the last person she expected to see sitting on the couch.

Marinette smiled kindly, waving at the girl, looking every bit the part of the innocent, pure, kind child that every parent wanted to have. Before Lila could release a torrent of questions about what the hell Marinette Dupain-Cheng was doing in her living room, her mother charged on, beginning to take out her anger on her daughter while a literal angel sat on the sofa, cradling a box of pastries from her family’s bakery.

“Your friend here tells me that you’ve been taking absences from school to go on trips to help humanity!” Mme. Rossi exploded, waving her arms around madly. “She says she’s here to share her notes from the classes you’ve missed! You’ve never left Paris this year! What’s this I hear about flying off to the kingdom of— What was it called again, Marinette dear?”

“Achu.” Provided the bluenette helpfully, the diplomat’s expression instantly softening when she talked to the other teen in the living room.

“Ah, yes. Thank you, dear.” The woman turned back to her daughter, instantly snapping on a mask of anger in a matter of a fraction of a second. “What’s this about flying off to this kingdom of Achu to help homeless orphans with some random prince?”

“Um…” Lila piped up, wriggling as her brain churned at 200 lies per hour, trying to whip up a cover of some sort.

“I’m not done! Your friend here is such a helpful child that she even went as far as to ask her family doctor is there’s a cure for your… Lying disease!” Mme. Rossi practically roared, breathing flames as if she were an intimidating dragon, her daughter flinching away from the heat. “I’ve never heard of anything more ridiculous! And then there’s the fact that you lied to your classmates about having tinnitus?!”

“I actually do have tinnitus!” Lila cut in forcibly, widening her eyes to make herself look more pitiful. “I was just afraid to tell you because I didn’t want you to worry!”

“Bullshit!”

“Um… Sorry to interrupt, Mme. Rossi,” Marinette piped up, the diplomat instantly cooling down as she faced the bluenette, a soft smile tracing the Italian woman’s lips. “But it’s getting rather late and my parents would love me home soon. I also have some tests to revise for tonight, so I think I should get going.”

“Oh, of course, dear.” Mme. Rossi hastily got up to help the bluenette to the door, shooting a warning glare at her daughter— ‘Sit still and don’t you dare go anywhere’, the glare read. “Feel free to come over again anytime you want, dear. I’m not home often, but you are such a sweet child. I’m sure Lila could learn a lot from you.”

“Thanks for having me as well, Mme. Rossi. I really like your home. I left the pastries on the counter— Make sure to warm the curry puffs before you eat them.” Marinette returned the smile, bowing slightly to the older woman as a sign of respect.

“Thank you for the pastries as well, Marinette. I ought to visit your parents’ bakery sometime when I’m free.” Mme. Rossi opened the door kindly for the bluenette, waving the girl off with an affectionate smile. Her parents must be so lucky to have such a sweet little thing like her, Mme. Rossi sighed internally, turning the key so she locked the door. And she seems to be a high-scoring student as well.

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Lila seethed, having been grounded by her mother. As far as Mme. Rossi was concerned, there was a boarding school not too far away from their current residence, and by the next week, the Italian girl would be transferred over. Lila had never hated Dupain-Cheng as much as she did in that moment.

Still furious, the Italian snapped her laptop open, too angry to bother with the fact she might’ve scratched the surface. Clicking into the web browser, she started to type in the words ‘Ladyblog’— That was, before a news article caught her eye.

‘Jagged Stone Interview Reveals Underage, Obsessed Fan’.

What on Earth…

As soon as Lila clicked into the link, the news footage from the interview immediately begin to play. The date stamp on it showed that it had aired last night— Which meant that she would’ve missed it, since her mother was too busy yelling at her to turn on the television to watch Nadja Chamack’s daily news.

“As soon as I heard this rumour about some underage teenage girl claiming that she had saved my cat on an airport runway, I called Penny and asked her to book a slot for me to clarify this,” Jagged Stone said grimly, dressed in more formal attire as he sat in the comfortable, cushioned chair of the news station, with Nadja nodding equally seriously beside him. “Let me clarify— I’ve never owned a cat. I’m allergic to fur. The only pet I’ve had was Fang, and he’s an al-li-ga-tor. Not a cat. Whatever the girl is claiming, she’s obsessed and making up stories.”

“It’s also kind of bewildering that she saved it on an airport runway,” Nadja continued, shaking her head in disappointment. “That kind of thing only happens in dramas— It’s too dangerous for anyone besides authorised workers to be on airport runways.”

“Right, right!” Jagged agreed instantly. “The whole rumour is just really baffling.”

“M. Jagged, may I ask what kind of effect these rumours have on a celebrities’ career?” Nadja continued, leading the conversation on like a professional.

“Well, rumours that circulate around tend to have really bad effects, and the worse ones can hang around for a long, long time. Tabloids are often spun off from rumours, baseless and with no evidence. Those tabloids will never truly disappear, so they can leave a mark on a celebrity’s reputation as some people will believe anything— Even things they read from un-cited tabloids.”

“That is simply terrible. Have you ever had any cases of rumours created by underaged teens before this?”

“I’ve had quite a number, but none of them really got as big as this one. From what Penny has found from digging around, the teen girl managed to spread the rumour through her school and onto a once-popular blog.” Jagged explained. “Penny has also found out that the same girl has claimed that I’ve written songs for her to thank her for saving my cat! I would never write songs and dedicate them to an underaged girl— Trust me. If I could do such a thing, I’d already have written a dozen in honour of my niece— She’s my favourite designer.”

Nadja smiled at that sentence. “Then—“

The news footage cut off abruptly as Lila slammed her laptop shut, too upset to continue watching.

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On the other side of Paris, Alya was pacing around her room frantically, wondering why on earth Lila wasn’t picking up on her calls. She’d left at least four dozen messages to the Italian, who was absent from school that day. There had been a couple whispers here and there about why she was missing— Rose had suggested another impromptu trip to Achu.

Lila’s absence wasn’t the weirdest part of the day, however.

That award would go to Marinette, who walked into class with a smile, the slightest sprinkles of delight colouring her bluebell eyes when she spotted Lila’s empty seat.

Growing in frustration, Alya threw herself onto her bed, phone clattering onto the mattress with her. Within the next few minutes, however, her phone suddenly started exploding with notifications. Excited at the prospect of Lila finally texting back, Alya turned on her phone, only to be disappointed by the notifications all clamouring from the class group chat.

Kim had sent a link to the chat— Without hesitation, Alya clicked into it, frowning when she saw Nadja and Jagged appear on the screen. Throughout the interview, the colour on the Ladyblogger’s face only paled by the second until she was as white as a sheet, and if it were halloween at that time, she would’ve won the best costume award for being a ghost.

There must… There must’ve been a mistake.

A notification from Lila’s number made the blogger perk up, instantly clicking into the conversation— But her newfound hope didn’t last very long.

[Lila]

Hi, Alya. This is Lila’s mom. She’s currently grounded right now. Is there anything important you need to tell her?

[Alya]

Oh, nothing much… I just wanted to ask where she was.

[Lila]

She’s at home.

[Alya]

Okay, thanks.

Flopping onto her bed, Alya begin thinking, revising over the past few months like it was an old clip. Lila’s exciting adventures and interactions with celebrities of every kind— Lila going overseas and face timing the entire class— Lila letting her in on the secrets of being Ladybug’s friend…

… Marinette trying to tell them that Lila was lying…

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The class was awfully silent the next day. Adrien was absent as well— A social worker was looking into his home life as a result of the tabloid that arose. Things for the blonde could either get better or worse from then on, as the matters were still foggy and things hadn’t cleared up yet. The blonde maintained contact with his friends, however, calling and texting them whenever he could.

“Class, settle down.” Mlle. Bustier stepped into the class, looking very tense and uncomfortable. “Today, we will have a guest, so please be on your best behaviours, alright?”

Just as the teacher finished speaking, a tall, regal-looking Italian woman entered the classroom, a cowering principal and a meek-looking Lila in tow. The class brightened slightly at the sight of their friend— But by the way she wasn’t looking into their eyes… Things weren’t going to be good.

“Good morning. I am Mme. Rossi, Lila’s mother.” The woman begin speaking, her firm and no-nonsense tone instantly making every student sit straight, their eyes too afraid to look anywhere else but the Italian diplomat. “It has come to my attention that my daughter has been taking absences from school to do charity work— And I have to clarify that this is a lie. Lila has been doing nothing but holing herself up in her room, lying to me and saying that there are no classes due to akumas.” The Italian diplomat glowered at Damocles. “What’s even more baffling is the fact that neither her homeroom nor the principal bothered to check up with me despite a student having extended periods of absence with no note or email written whatsoever.”

The class was so quiet that they could hear the quiver of Mlle. Bustier’s trembling lip.

“In addition, I’ve been kindly told that Lila has claimed to have a lying disease, which is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard this week.” It was impossible to miss the way the Italian diplomat was glaring daggers at both Mlle. Bustier and Damocles. “No one bothered to look it up online to see if it’s actual disorder, nor did anyone call me to confirm and ask for a doctor’s note, which is standard procedure.” Chills burst over the room, making every one shiver as the woman hissed out her words.

“Mme. Rossi, we didn’t want to disturb your busy schedule—” Damocles begin, only to be blown backwards from the sheer intensity of Mme. Rossi’s glower.

“M. Damocles, standard procedures exist for a reason. Unless you’d like to tell me about any other things you’ve been letting my daughter get away with?”

“N— No, Mme.”

The Italian diplomat continued on her war path. “My daughter also claimed to have tinnitus, am I correct?”

“Y— Yes, Mme.” Mlle. Bustier answered when it seemed like no one was going to.

“And I heard that the class seating arrangement was shifted to accommodate for that?” The homeroom teacher didn’t dare answer this time, for it seemed like whatever she said would be the incorrect answer. “And apparently, my daughter has also been faking broken wrists and requesting for her classmates to complete her work for her.” Mme. Rossi was practically breathing flames at that point, “And I am incredibly upset at the lack of action from the homeroom teacher.”

No one could breath.

“I have many concerns about the running of this schooling facility, and I expect to discuss this with M. Damocles privately after this. However, there is still something to be done.” Mme. Rossi swept her gaze towards her daughter, who found the floor incredibly interesting at that point of time. “Lila? Something you’d like to say to your classmates?”

“… I’m sorry for lying to you.” Lila mumbled resentfully.

“Louder, Lila. No one can hear you.”

“I’m sorry for lying to you!” Lila swallowed, bursting like an explosion that had finally been triggered, tears in her eyes and fists hatefully curled. “I’m sorry for lying about my diseases and injuries. I’m sorry for making you do my work,” She spat. “Sorry for causing any inconveniences.”

Mme. Rossi raised an eyebrow at her daughter. “Is that all?”

Lila glared at her mother, who was completely unfazed. “Oh, so you want an apology from me? Fine!” She turned to the class, a maniacal glint in her eyes as she sneered at the class, a few gasps puffing from around the room as they caught their first glimpse of the liar that resided in the ‘harmless’ shell of Lila Rossi. “I’m sorry that you are all such idiots that you all fell for everything. I’m sorry that Marinette has such terrible, untrusting classmates that turned their backs on her even though she was still a goody-two shoes till the end, even though she still wanted to help you sorry peasants. I’m sorry that you were all so goddamn gullible! There! Good enough for you?”

Shock was etched into the faces of every human in the classroom— Including Mlle. Bustier, M. Damocles, and Mme. Rossi themselves. Clearly, that part of the apology had not been part of the plan.

“Did I miss something?” Said a sweet voice, followed by the presence of a bluenette, her hair tied in a half-up. A royal blue blazer decorated her lithe form, accompanied by a smart-looking white blouse and a black plaited skirt. Formal had never looked so good on anyone— And if someone didn't know better, they'd think that the bluenette was a young lawyer, emerging victorious from her first successful case.

“Marinette!” Alya exclaimed.

“I’m sorry that you’re such an annoying, little, pest.” Lila bit in the girl’s face, disdain colouring her features as she ignored her mother’s enraged gasp behind her.

The bluenette simply smiled, unaffected by the liar who had crashed and burned like the liar once wished upon her. Marinette Dupain-Cheng stood at her full height, the perfect image of grace and poise as she maintained her composure, quite unlike her nemesis, who thrashed under her mother’s restraining hands.

“And I’m sorry that you didn’t take my promise to heart.”

this can count as adrien redemption depending on you cause ehhh i dont like how passive he is but i havent caught up with the recent episodes, he might have become better. idk.

also where the hell is my miraculous taglist i cant find it so eep. no tagging ppl ig oops

[thatfanficstuff]

Late Night Libations - Chris Argent

Pairing: Chris Argent x Reader

Warnings: talk of injury, drinking

A/N: Celebration Summer #11. Prompt was Person A wearing Person B's clothes. Also, look at that man up there. Hot Damn.

WC: 1176

***

You sat on the floor in Allison Argent’s bedroom and watched her sleep. You weren’t trying to be creepy, you were just in too much pain to sleep at the moment. The pack had fought with a group of rogues moving through the area. You’d been clawed and tossed into a tree. After Melissa stitched you up, she’d sent you off with the admonishment you couldn’t go home alone just in case of a concussion. Allison had immediately offered to bring you home with her.

Though you were a few years older than her, the two of you had become quick friends and often looked out for each other. So, she’d driven you to her house and helped you clean up when you kept pulling your stitches trying to do it yourself. As you were curvier than Ali, she’d raided her dad’s closet to get you a sweater and a pair of his sleep pants. You were warm and comfortable and in any other circumstances you would have curled up and been out like a light.

But you hurt. You ached deep in your bones. Plus, your head was buzzing in the way it only did after a fight. You always ran everything over and over again in your head thinking of all the different ways it could have played out. It was worse when you or someone else had been injured as you figured out how things could have gone differently. You’d hoped to just calm your brain enough you could go back to sleep but it didn’t appear as if that was going to happen anytime soon.

With a sigh, you eased yourself up off the floor. You knew where the pain killers and the alcohol were. Not the best combination but as long as you didn’t take anything stronger than Advil you figured you’d be fine. The whiskey would probably do you more good than the pills anyway. You made your way to the kitchen and popped three Ibuprofen with a glass of water. Then you padded out to the garage and grabbed the bottle of whiskey from the cabinet Chris kept it in.

He didn’t want it in the house where there were often unsupervised teenagers so he kept it in the garage which was under full video surveillance. You and Derek were legal however and had shared a drink with the hunter more than once. Not as often as you’d like if you were honest. You’d had some seriously naughty thoughts about that man.

You carried the bottle into the kitchen and poured some into the glass you’d used for water.

“Pour me one while you’re at it.” The deep voice coming from behind you made you jump and you clenched your teeth as the stitches pulled.

“Christ, Argent. You scared the shit out of me.”

He chuckled as he moved closer. “Sorry.”

You hummed and shot him a look. He wasn’t sorry in the least. You handed him his glass before twisting the lid back on the bottle. When you sipped at your drink, you closed your eyes as you savored the taste. Feeling his gaze, you turned to him with a lifted brow. “Yes?”

He swallowed and his tongue ran along his bottom lip as his eyes trailed over you. “Are those my clothes?”

Your face heated and you tugged on the hem of the sweater. “Yeah. Sorry.” His gaze darkened and you had a hard time reading his expression. “My clothes were torn up and bloody. Ali said you wouldn’t mind.”

His expression shifted instantly as he sat his glass on the counter. He stepped closer to you. “What happened?” His voice was heavy with worry.

“We finally caught up with those rogues. I got clawed and tossed into a tree. Not my finest hour.” You always hated admitting any failings to him, afraid he’d think you weren’t capable.

“Let me see.” It was a cross between a demand and a request. He closed the little remaining distance between the two of you. You moved to lift the sweater, hissing when your stitches pulled again. His eyes locked on yours. “May I?” he asked as he gestured to your side.

At your nod, he lifted the sweater slowly. Only when the wound was fully exposed did his gaze move from your face to your side. “Damn it, sweetheart. I thought I told you to be more careful.”

You gave a little shrug. “It could have been worse. Glue fixed most of it. Only the deepest parts got the stitches.”

He shot you a glare before quickly returning his attention to your wound. “Let me see where you hit the tree.” You turned so he could see your back. You hadn’t seen it so you had no idea what it looked like. Fingers ran over your skin. “Fuck,” he breathed out and let the sweater drop.

You turned to face him to find he’d taken a step back. His jaw was set and his arms were crossed over his chest. “What did the doctor say?”

You bit your lip and glanced away.

His arms dropped and he stepped back into your space. He said your name but it was more than just your name; it was a warning.

Your eyes found his again. “It would just be so much to try to explain. Melissa fixed me up.”

“Well, that’s just lovely, sweetheart, but since when does Melissa have an x-ray machine to look at your back when it bounces off a tree?” You’d heard Chris angry before, but it had never been directed at you.

You looked at him with wide eyes. “I’m sorry?”

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. After a moment, he pulled you into his arms. Tension flowed from you and you wrapped your arms around his waist. “No, I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I worry about you almost more than Allison. At least she has the crossbow and can stay the hell out of the line of fire.”

He should probably tell her that. He’d have a coronary if he saw how up close and personal she used that thing sometimes. “You don’t have to worry about me, Chris. I can take care of myself.”

A sound of agreement left his lips and he placed a hand on the side of your face as he leaned back. “And what if I want to worry about you, sweetheart?”

You simply gazed at him without responding until he bent down to capture your lips with his. The kiss was short, sweet and long overdue. When he pulled away, you fisted your hands in his flannel to pull him back to you. He laughed against your lips but gave you what you wanted.

When Allison woke in the morning and couldn’t find you, she headed downstairs. Frowning at the quiet, she searched the lower level of the house. She found you and her father curled up together on the couch sound asleep. Smiling, she crept back up to her room texting Lydia as she went.