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#so my big brother got me new vegas as a present on new years and on january 3 2019 I met yes man!
robotwrangler · 2 years
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Thinking about how the lovely person on deviantart who emailed me a copy of Undertale in exchange for a sketch of their oc when I was 15 will never know about the profound effect they had on my life..
#it’s a long story but tldr if not for Undertale I would’ve never heard of Yes Man and without Yes Man I literally wouldn’t be alive rn#I’m sure ive told this story on here before but I like it bc it is important to me#the Undertale to Yes Man pipeline is a very specific thing that happened to me involving 2 different joke blogs on here#there was ‘youcantfuckaskeleton’ (blog abt how nobody should want sans Undertale carnally)#and then I found their other blog ‘youcanfuckarobot’ (blog about. well. I’m sure you get the picture) and I went there for Mettaton posts#but they had some posts there with Yes Man and I was like. that is the most nice looking robot I’ve seen in my life. who is this#and then I forgot abt it for like 3 years and forgot to look him up. UNTIL#DELTARUNE CHAPTER 1.. in 2018.. drove me to revisit those joke blogs for nostalgia#and I saw the yes man pics again and this time I got WAY more curious. I was so so intrigued by him he looked so interesting and cute#so I looked him up and looked at lots of art of him and read his wiki page and I was like. I NEED to meet him#so my big brother got me new vegas as a present on new years and on january 3 2019 I met yes man!#and. I have never understood why or how. but when I woke up the next day my depression was fucking gone#I had severe untreated depression and it just dissolved overnight#nothing else notable happened around that time except for meeting yes man and becoming smitten with him so it seems that’s what did it??#also those joke blogs are still around I think. i like to revisit them occasionally for the nostalgia of seeing yes man for the first time#but yea anyway what I’m saying is this nice person on deviantart indirectly saved my life#my depression also never came back btw. obviously I feel sad sometimes like anyone but I have not been depressed since then#would’ve been nice if my anxiety went away too but I can at least live with that tbh!!#um anyway I’m sleepy so ending these tags. if you read all of this I love you thank you for caring
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the-lastcall · 4 months
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Antonia Ferox - What are some weird interests or hobbies you have that people probably wouldn't expect you to have? 1960s Will Dane - Do you have a favorite article of clothing or accessory? Do you go out of your way to always wear it when you can? Why is it your favorite? Cash Ransom - What is it like where you live? How does it compare to where you grew up if it differs?
Antonia Ferox
What are some weird interests or hobbies you have that people probably wouldn't expect you to have?
I read. I got it from my father - his love of pre-war books is famous by now, isn't it? And it was important to him that we know how to read, and that we enjoy it. He wanted us to be well educated, like he was. When we were young, he'd read to us before bed whenever he could make the time. And when he was away, sometimes he'd send us books or magazines, if something turned up that he thought we'd like. I don't have a lot of time for it now, but I do enjoy a good story. I don't think most people expect that of me. I know what kind of reputation I have.
1960s Will
Do you have a favorite article of clothing or accessory? Do you go out of your way to always wear it when you can? Why is it your favorite?
You're trying to make me look like a sap, aren't you? Yeah. I do. It's this old pullover sweater that used to belong to my brother. It was a nice sweater - a birthday present out of the sears catalog. But Rowan was growing so fast that between October and March, it was already getting to be too short on him. If you can believe that. Anyway, it was one of the only things he brought with him when we left home - and it was the only thing of his that I could afford to keep when we got separated. Everything else went to a consignment shop because I needed to eat. Everything that year was -- different. Lonely. A totally new and strange and difficult world. Sometimes it felt like that sweater was the only proof that Rowan had ever even existed, and he wasn't just some imaginary friend I'd outgrown without meaning to. That spring and summer, I wore it so often that it turned into a joke. I didn't really care. I still have it - he let me keep it after I finally found him again. And I still wear it sometimes. It's...important to me. And it's warm, and soft, and -- I told you it was gonna be sappy.
Cash Ransom
It's Vegas, baby, pure and simple. The Strip. Most beautiful mile of lights and dreams left in this American Wasteland. Sure, I've laid my head in other beds. Been all up and down the territory, solving other people's problems, saving days, breaking hearts. But Vegas is where I started, and that's where my bones'll go when this wild world's done with me. Never been shy about growing up in Freeside, 'long with every other Tom and Dick and deadbeat Sam. But I always knew I was gonna get to the other side of that gate some day. Always knew it. And I was right. 2274, That vault cracked open like a cold can of Cola and my whole world changed. I had the look, you know. Mr. House had a vision and I fit right into it. Right into Sarah's museum, right into that jumpsuit and big bright smile. Right into the character. So I spent the best seven years of my life down in that slice of steel and concrete heaven. Luxury you wouldn't believe. But I always figured -- fate took a chance on me once, didn't it? And everybody knows that luck'll strike twice if you know how to play the game. So you mark my words, cowboy. It won't be long before I'm sitting on top of the world, lookin' down on that mile of miracles. Yeah.
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2021 Recap & 2022 Updates
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Total fics shared in 2021: 49 Total words shared: 322,490 words Total Words Written: 440,931 words, 
Thank you for sticking with me for another year! (Shhh I know I’m a couple of days late) I hope that you all enjoyed the stories that were shared last year. A big thank you to you for all of the incredible feedback, excitement and sometimes angry messages last year. You have no idea just how much those keep me going. 
That being said, here are a few things I can share with you about what’s to come this year, along with what I’m up to. 
I’m trying to read more books this year, so if you are interested in joining in on reading, you can follow along on GoodReads, which is where I’ll be sharing books, along with my Instagram. 
My word count goal for the year is : 500,000 words
I’m going to be opening signups for the Tell Me a Story Bingo again very soon! If you’re interested in joining a bingo, and a great bunch of people on Discord! Keep your eyes peeled, or if you are already interested, please send me a message! 
There will be lots of new fics this year! I’m hoping to do 2 series this year as well! One of which is the bodyguard series. That will be out much later this year. 
I do hope to be more active on here than I was last year. Last year was a bit of a tough one mentally, and I’m really hoping that I can work through it and be more present here instead of away. 
Thank you again for sticking with me! I hope that you all are going to enjoy what’s to come for 2022! 💜💜
~~~~~~~~
2021 - Fics Shared
Tight Pants and a Flannel Shirt - Dean x Reader
~~This was a huge mistake. Probably one of the biggest one you’ve made yet. Then again, you were a pro at making mistake after mistake and not learning from it. It was kind of your go to move at this point. It was almost like you were destined to fail each and every time you did something. And here you were again, about to make probably what was bound to be one of the worst yet. 
Finding Hope - Dean x Reader 
~~Nearly a year into the pandemic and you’re starting to think that this is how things are going to be for the rest of your life. You’re losing hope and your best friend Dean tries to remind you of all the things you’ve still got to fight for. 
Love Language - Dean x Reader
~~The reader invites the Winchester’s over to dinner after her boyfriend cancels on her last minute… again. Little does she know there is a whole lot going on that she doesn’t know about and that information has a tendency to ruin a relationship. Thankfully her best friend Dean is always there to save the day. 
What You Signed Up For - Jensen x Reader
~~Jensen gets home from work late one Friday night, after being away from you for a month. 
Burning at Both Ends - Jensen x Reader
~~Jensen tries to get the Reader to come to bed after finding her still working on the couch at three in the morning. She brushes him off, refusing to come to bed until she’s done. Jensen doesn’t take her words lightly, resulting in a bigger blowout than either of them were expecting. 
Marlin and Nemo - Dean x Reader
~~After getting kidnapped on a hunt, and tortured for seventy two hours, you’re having trouble getting back to normal. You figured a drink before bed would help, only Dean has other plans to help you move forward. 
Jared’s Little Sister - Jensen x Reader
~~A bad situation leaves the reader looking for a roof over her head. When her family turns their back on her, she’s got one option left. Her older brother’s best friend, who just so happens to be her best friend too. That being said, Jensen see’s right through her tough girl act and soon see’s must more than what’s on the surface.
That Fuzzy Feeling - Alpha!Jensen x Omega!Reader
~~The Reader is headed to Vegas to meet up with an Alpha she had been talking to on an online True Mate dating site. When she gets there, not only is she stood up by this guy, she runs onto someone who takes an instant liking to her and she soon finds out why, and who her True Mate is.
The Bet - Jensen x Reader (Series)
~~After leaving NYU and your fresh start, you’re headed back to hometown Austin, Texas, to finish your degree at U of T. You found some family, familiar faces and few new ones. One being Jensen Ackles. A good looking guy with a solid friend group and didn’t care much about what frat party he attended or how cool he was. Little did you know, Jensen and your older brother Mike have issues digging much deeper than you thought. Those issues are far more personal and laced with hurtful intentions beyond a game of beer pong and frat boys. (26 Parts)
The Bet- Drawing Back (Timestamp)- Jensen x Reader
~~ It’s the day Jensen gets his cast off. It’s supposed to be a good day for both of you. Only things haven’t been the same since Mike’s sentencing, and you and Jensen have been growing apart. A lack of communication has a way of catching up in some not so great ways. 
Tell Me A Story - Dean x Reader
~~The Winchester’s have been out on a hunt for a couple of weeks now. Ever since they left, you anxiety had been building and building to the point where you were barely holding on. That is, until someone comes home and lets you hold onto him for awhile while he puts your fears at ease.
Winchester Cuddles - Dean x Reader
~~After a bad rougarou hunt, you and the Winchester’s are driving back to the bunker for some much needed rest. On the way, a wicked migraine hits you, leaving your best friend and hidden boyfriend to take care of you. 
Accidental Miracle - Dean x Reader
~~The Reader spent three years trying to have a baby, only to be told it was never going to happen; that it was a one in a million chance. Keeping that a secret from almost everyone except for her best friend, Dean. After Sam and Jess reveal their happy news, Dean and her get to talking and one thing leads to another… which leads to a whole other situation. 
The Aftermath of Having a Threesome - Jensen x Reader x Jared
~~ Sunday night after the convention, you and your two best friends celebrate the night with a couple drinks. A couple turns into a few and a few turns into a hotel room with a lot less clothing. You know it’s a terrible idea, but you also know that it’s the only way that you’re ever going to be with the man you’re in love with.
Batman and Catwoman - Jensen x Reader
~~Rob Benedict, your long time friend, dragged you to a Halloween party to get you out of your funk after your latest break up. Little does he know how bad it was, he sets you up with one of his single friends yet again. Thankfully, this time his friend is the kind of superhero you were looking for. 
Friends with All the Benefits - Jensen x Reader
~~The weekend rolls in, leaving you and your roommate, who also happens to be your best friend that you are having sex with, to your usual routine. Only this weekend, your period decides to show up early and this one isn’t coming un quiet. 
The Holiday Arrangement - Jensen x Reader (Series)
~~The holiday season is fast approaching. That means office parties with stupid exes, family get togethers, and of course, the ever so daunting question of “when are you going to settle down?” The only thing your best friend Jensen can think of is a little holiday arrangement for the two of you. A date here, and a fake girlfriend there. Nothing could go wrong… unless one of you is in love with the other. ( 8 Parts)
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r0s3mm · 3 years
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What Happens in Vegas... // Matthew Gray Gubler
Welcome back!
Don’t hesitate to reblog, like, leave constructive comments, send feedback on what you just read or what you’d like to read next.
My requests are open! Ask away people !
General Masterlist Pairing: MGG x OC! Requested: nope Based Off/Inspired By: x Word count: approx. 4.3K A/N: A lil MGG fluffy, cute, adorable thing, at least i tried to make it so, lol. That gif is so fckg cute omfg i can't. also, hi older mgg fans. welcome, y'all scare me. my name's ro, im new.
Warnings/stuff in it: kissing, bf!matthew, implied smut, making out?? also for the purpose of this fic, you don't need the marriage license to get married in vegas! k? k.
also, i have ideas for a part 2 if y'all are interested let me know
also this is basically just me using matthew as a face claim but i don't actually care.
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She had travelled to his family home for his birthday, she and the Gublers were closer than with her own family, that’s how she liked it and that’s how it had been since she had met the man almost eighteen years ago.
“Are you close?” he asked her and she nodded. “Stop nodding, I can’t see you.” he laughed and tears brimmed her eyes.
“Huh, yeah, I am.” she swallowed her tears and smiled at the driver that checked on her.
“Should be there in about ten minutes.” she bit back her lip, the smile that wanted to come out would’ve split her face in two.
“I can’t wait to see you.” she heard his voice and the smile that was in it and she nodded.
“I love you, baby.”
“Love you, too.”
She hadn’t seen him in person in over two months and she just wanted a hug, she craved his attention and she missed his smile, the way the crow’s feet were present in the corner of his eyes whenever he’d laugh, she missed laying down in bed next to him, observing the light freckles on his face in the summer, she kept thinking of how he would always read in a hushed whisper, his voice so quiet but still present. She missed the way her hand fit perfectly in his and how his were always warm, always ready to envelop her cold ones. She even missed the more annoying habits of his that she usually complained about, the forever empty pot of coffee he’d leave in the sink, his mind too busy with a thousand other thoughts, the way he always seemed to be in movement even in his sleep, she even-
“Miss? We’re here.” the driver’s voice pulled her out of her daydreaming and she nodded before smiling. Matthew’s car was there and she grew nervous for a few seconds before she shook it off and grabbed her bag from the seat next to her. The driver was outside waiting for her with her larger luggage and handed it to her before wishing her a good stay.
“Thank you.” she smiled and grabbed her belongings.
The front door opened before she could take another step and there he stood. She walked quickly to him, her body feeling like it was being pulled like a magnet to his. His arms were opened wide and she dropped her bags and jogged the short distance. He took a couple of steps back from the force of the collision, his arms closed around her shoulders and he hid his face in her neck, kissing whatever skin he could get to.
“Hi, hello.” he whispered in her hair and she let out a teary laugh. “Look at me, please.” he asked and she leaned back, only her head leaving his body. “Hi, baby.” he cupped her cheeks. “I’m gonna kiss you now.” he mumbled and she nodded.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, eyes flicking back and forth between eyes and lips, she stared at every inch of his face she could see and she let out a soft breath, along with a shy smile and her fingers reached towards him to the new facial hair he had grown out since the last time she had been with him. Not able to wait any longer he leaned forwards, his hands grabbing her head and his lips collided with hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, fingers waving through the dark curls and they both smiled at the familiarity. She pulled away, his hands falling to her hips and he kept her in place. Amery’s thumbs rubbed his skin before he placed a kiss to her forehead, her eyes closing.
“I missed you.” she brought him back down, their lips meeting once more in a much softer embrace. She let out the softest moan when his tongue fought his way in her mouth, their mouths reacquainting after so long. The grip he had on her hips tightened and his fingers slipped under her tee-shirt, her knees almost giving out at the contact.
“I love you, so much.” he said against her mouth and she smiled before connecting their lips one more time, which turned into a few more times.
They pulled away breathlessly when she heard the door open once more. Amery stepped away from Matthew fully, both of them smiling widely at his mother and sister.
“We’re happy you were able to join us, Ames!” His sister said before hugging her. “Don’t think he would have gotten over it if you hadn’t been able to make it.” she laughed before pinching her brother’s cheek playfully.
Matthew wrapped an arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders and brought her to his side, not really wanting space between them. She looked up at him with what could only be recognized as adoration before her eyes glanced down to his lips. She pecked the pink flesh before wiping away the little amount of chapstick there. She covered her face with her hand just as his mother brought her in for a hug.
“Hi, baby! How was the trip?” she kissed her cheek before smiling at the younger woman.
“It was great, Marilyn. Thank you, it’s really nice to be here.” she looked up at the man and the mother and daughter chuckled.
“I bet it is.” Marilyn’s heart felt full knowing her loved one had been able to travel home for her son’s fortieth birthday. “Okay, let’s go in. We’re all here and some of us are hungry, we’ll eat soon.”
Amery laughed before her hand was caught in a much larger one. He held her outside of the door while his mother and sister went in, the loud and excited laugh of his nephew brought a smile to his face. Facing him, she leaned forward and kissed the middle of his shirt making him kiss the top of her head. He breathed in the scent of the shampoo she used back in their house in L.A and squeezed her against him.
“Thank you for coming.” she rested her chin against his chest, looking up at him. She stood on her tiptoes and pursed her lips, he connected their lips once more in a sweet and soft kiss, their arms holding them to each other.
“Of course, I wouldn't have missed your birthday for the world.” she said between kisses.
“I just know you don’t like flying.” she nodded while he led them inside.
“There was great in-flight entertainment.” she said with a small chuckle.
“What did you watch?” he asked and before she could answer a slightly high pitched voice called out her name and a large smile appeared on her face.
“Amy!” she smiled before bending down to pick up the young boy.
“Hey buddy!” she smiled before tickling his tummy. “How you been?”
“Good!”
“Yeah? What’s happening in your life, right now?” she asked him and he stared at her with big eyes, making her and Matthew laugh. “Bud, what’s up?”
“M’hungry.”
“Yeah?” she hiked him up higher on her hip, taking off her shoes and leaving them by the door. “Well, I am too.” she walked away from the actor who couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. “Grandma said we were gonna eat soon.”
“Yay!” Matthew heard and he chuckled before following them and the image he fell on when he walked in the kitchen made his heart clench.
His mom and sister were cooking while Amery was at the kitchen’s island with his nephew, the boy helping her set the table and they all looked like they belonged there. His girlfriend’s light brown hair swished back and forth in her back and he knew she'd get sick of it soon, like she always did so he came up behind her and wrapped a hair tie around her wrist.
“Thank you, love.” she said, before pecking his cheek.
“Ew!” the boy said and she gasped.
“Ew? You think it’s disgusting when I kiss your uncle?” he nodded and she let out a yell. “I’m gonna kiss you then!” she left after him, grabbing him halfway through the stairs and kissing his cheeks. “Guys!” she called out with the boy over her shoulder. “I caught something for dinner!” she said before Matthew grabbed him. “Jeez, you’ve gotten heavy, sweetness.” she huffed out before pulling her hair up.
“Kids.” the oldest woman called and both Matthew and Amery looked at her. “Wanna go set Amy up in your room before we eat?” she suggested and they both nodded.
They walked down the hallway, grabbed her bags and climbed up the stairs.
“Mom, you know you just sent two teenagers alone in a room?” his sister said and it made their mother laugh.
“Yeah, I know. They need it.”
As soon as the door was closed, Amery’s back was pressed to it and Matthew’s lips were on hers. His frame was flushed against hers and the feeling of his body on hers made her smile.
“Missed you” she smiled, he held her head up while kissing down her neck. “So much.” a giggle escaped her mouth and his heart skipped a beat or five. “So beautiful.” She felt him start to suck on her neck and she chuckled.
“You’re a teenager.” She mumbled and he pulled away, eyebrows raised.
“I haven’t seen my girlfriend in almost three months, I am allowed to act like I’m seventeen again.” He looked down at her and she simply brought him in for a hug.
His arms wrapped around her waist and his head fell in the crook of her neck. He lifted her up with a quiet groan and walked the both of them to the bed where he dropped her.
“Damn, be careful I’m fragile.” She laughed and placed herself properly for him to lay his head on her chest.
“M’sorry.” He leaned forward and kissed between her breasts.
“I’m kidding, babe.” Her hand went to his head, detangling the curly strands. “How did everything go?”
“Went well. Got a few things planned for next year.”
“Yeah?” He nodded. “I’m glad, makes me happy.” She kissed his head. “Are you coming back home with me at the end of the week or are you staying a little bit longer?” He sighed and she kissed his hair. “It’s okay if you want to stay here another few days. You’ve had a good year, just need to recharge.” He interlaced their fingers and kissed her left hand.
“I love you, Ames”
-
They went back downstairs thirty minutes later when his mom called out that dinner was ready.
“We’re coming, mom!” He whined loudly as he opened the door for her and she laughed.
“C’mon.”
They walked in the kitchen and she tickled the little boy’s sides before standing around the kitchen island. The food was put on the table and soon after they were eating. Smiles and compliments were sent to Marily for the meal and a blush appeared in her cheeks. The whole time, Matthew had his free hand wrapped around her thigh, neither of them minding the contact. After the couple cleaned out the table and put away the dishes they all moved to the backyard where they all chatted and drank while the only kid there ran around.
“So, Amy, what’s new with you?” Marylin asked and the younger woman took a sip of her beer before responding.
“Nothing much, honestly.” she sighed. “The kids are crazier than ever, we did some finger painting last week and honestly for five year olds they’re actually not that bad. I did find some liquid glue on my chair the other day.” she chuckled before stretching. “There’s this little girl her name’s Allie and she is the absolute sweetest, she’s just so soft spoken and just the most adorable blue eyes and softest blonde hair. She looks like a doll.”
“They’re not too hard on you?” Laura asked and Amery shook her head.
“Even if they were, they’re kids. They’re still learning and still getting used to sharing with such a large group. A lot of them didn’t go to pre-k and so have never really been in contact with that many kids but it’s going well.” she explained and Matthew couldn’t stop the smile on his face.
“And how’s the café?” A smile overtook the woman’s face at the mention of her baby.
“It’s going great! We’re in the middle of expanding it a little, the candle store next door sold and I bought the space so we’re doing that right now.”
“How long is it gonna take?”
“Maybe another two or three months?” she suggested looking at Matthew. “Contractor said that there was bad plumbing and installation there, I guess the units were built separately so they’re redoing that right now but we’re still open and people still come by to read and eat, just a bit noisy.”
“Is it not getting too much for you?” Marilyn asked, concerned.
“Not really! It’s something I've been working on for years and teaching kindergarten is just a good time!”
“Well, we’re proud of you!” the mother said and Amery smiled. “We’re so glad to have you here and that you’re part of our family.”
“Thank you!”
“I mean, she isn’t legally part of the family, just yet, Matthew.” Laura said, nudging her brother’s foot and the man shook his head in amusement.
“That’s between me and my woman,” he said, grabbing her hand and kissing it.
“It’s disgusting, you guys are too cute.” Laura groaned and her son ran around them before letting himself fall on the chair next to the adults.
“Hey, bug.” Amery called out and Hunter turned around.
“What?”
“You know what I saw in gran’s freezer?” she said quietly, eyeing the family members.
“No, what?” he asked in a whisper.
“Chocolate ice cream.”
“Okay, go!” he shouted before running back inside the house.
The actor’s eyes followed the woman’s movement as she picked up the boy and threw him over her shoulder, leading both of them in the kitchen. A smile pulled at his lips as she grabbed two spoons and the ice cream tub. She filled the smaller spoon with ice cream and handed it to his nephew while she got their bowls ready. His eyes followed as she jogged back to them and opened the door.
“Hey, Marilyn, you mind if I steal some whipped cream?”
“Not, at all!”
“Okay, good!” she ran back inside and before the door closed completely he heard her shout. “We can take it, Hunter!”
He watched as she sat on the counter with him and listened as he told her his stories, probably those about ninjas and what him and Matthew had been up to the last few days. She looked up after she felt eyes on her and saw his hazel eyes locked on hers and she winked, making his smile widen, if that was even possible.
“So, my dear brother. When are you gonna pop the question?” She waited for him to look at her but scoffed when he didn’t move. “Matthew?”
“What? Yeah?”
“When are you gonna Gublerize Ames?”
“Gu- gublerize?”
“When am I getting a sister?”
“Oh- oh! I haven’t really thought of it.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“No, I’m serious!” he said, his hands moved together and he started to crack his knuckles. “I just- we’ve both been so busy the past year. Like yeah, obviously I want to marry her, that’s pretty obvious,” she started to say as his voice went a little bit higher. “S’just, I want it to be the right time.”
The two women nodded with easy smiles on their faces.
It was a little bit past eleven thirty when they went their separate ways. Laura and Hunter had gone to bed a little bit over an hour ago, Marilyn had gone upstairs half an hour before and Amery and Matthew were just making their ways up the creaking stairs.
“Shh!” the woman shushed in a fit of laughter.
They did their best to get to their temporary room silently, not wanting to wake anyone up. They both winced when the door creaked loudly when they opened and closed it. He sat on the bed and she walked to the dressed, taking out her earrings and the two rings she wore. His eyes burned holes on her back as she changed into her pajamas which was a large tank top and pj’s bottoms.
“M’gonna go brush my teeth.” she mumbled, kissing his cheek after he had stood up to prepare their bed.
Once both were ready and that the lights were turned off, they found themselves wrapped in each other’s embrace, his lips were on hers and her fingers were tangled in his hair. He had found his place between her legs with his full body weight on her. They knew they wouldn’t get away with what they wanted to do, knowing that his mom was on their right and sister and nephew on their left. So with a sigh, he let himself fall on her right before he grabbed her hand and kissed it.
“Tell me again.” he asked quietly and she brushed some hair out of his face softly.
“What is it you want me to tell you?”
“Why you fell in love with me.” she smiled at his request, nodding slowly.
“You know the story though, every year I tell you.”
“Every year on my birthday.” She looked at the clock and saw that there were three minutes left to  the eighth of march.
“Okay. We met each other, almost eighteen years ago, to the hour. I was seventeen and you were twenty,” she breathed in, feeling his eyes intently on her. “and you had just come out of my mom’s class when you quite literally ran into me.”
“I didn’t even see you, you were so tiny.”
“Still, you could’ve looked up from your binder or something.” she turned around to face him. “Fast forwards a few years and we’d gone through so much together already and I just was hit with all of these feelings one day. I remember that morning, I walked to the park and there you were sitting on the bench and I hadn’t seen you in so, so long because you were gone filming and my heart just felt so full.” she smiled at him, her small hands cupping his face. “And it took me way too long to admit it to myself but I realized that my heart kind of always knew.” she sighed.
“Why though?” he asked and she chuckled, leaning in to kiss his lips as her whole body felt warm as his hands splayed on her back, bringing her closer.
“Because you’re you and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, because your mind is so active and so brilliant and that I learn from you everyday and because you see things in a way that gives me hope.” she reached out and touched the side of his head, then the middle of his chest. “And your heart, your heart that’s made me happy for the past six years. Your heart that’s my favorite about you because that’s what leads most of your decisions and finally, because I love you with my whole entire being and that’s something I'll remind you of until the day one of us draws our last breath.” she said before looking up at his teary eyes.
She leaned forwards kissing his cheeks, her hands between their two bodies. A small chuckle escaped her mouth and he smiled.
“I’m so fucking in love with you, Gubler.” he licked his lips quickly before he kissed her softly.
They weren’t rushed, they weren’t expected anywhere, they weren’t separated. So he took his time, kissing her, his hands making themselves known on her body.
“I’m starting to regret staying here, should’ve gotten a hotel room or something.” he laughed against her lips, both of them breathless.
“Also, happy birthday, baby.” she said and he twisted around seeing it was four minutes past midnight.
His hands reacquainted themselves with her frame, their options for the night were limited and they pulled away reluctantly a few minutes later, the two breathless and yearning for more.  He was laying next to her, and she was listening to him talk about something his nephew had done the day before and she smiled before her heart clenched at the thought that went through her mind.
“Wanna get married?” she asked and his head snapped to the side. “One day, of course.”
“I mean for real. Tomorrow?” she sat up, Matthew following closely and she turned to face him. “Well, later today?”
“Tomorrow’s my birthday.” he stated, his mind not totally sure of what was happening.
“All the more reason to do it then.” she smiled and his eyes snapped to hers.
“You’re serious?”
“We’re in Las Vegas, my love. We could be married in the next hour.” she mumbled and he stared at her. “Wait, should we, should we go now?”
“Yeah, yeah, totally.” he said before he grabbed her and kissed her for the thousandth time.
In the following three hours they had found themselves proper clothes to wear, they had driven down to the closest chapel, got themselves a marriage license and there they stood. They didn’t have anything prepared, they didn’t have vows, they didn’t have any witnesses, no family there, it was just the two of them. The second they had been pronounced husband and wife, tears stained her cheeks, her whole body shook with excitement. It was almost five in the morning when Matthew parked in front of his childhood home. He breathed out shakily, his eyes going over her profile and a tear escaped his eye.
“I love you.”
“I love you too, my love.” she whispered against his lips. “Hey just- just promise me something.”
“Yeah?”
“Can we have a party with everyone? Like, when we get home.” he nodded.
“Yeah, of course.” he grabbed her hand and kissed it. “We have to get you a ring.”
-
When he woke up that morning, well more afternoon, it was a little bit past one in the afternoon, it was oddly silent in the house and he thought that he had dreamt the whole thing but he heard Amery swear downstairs. He grabbed his clothes from the floor, put them on and ran a hand through his hair before jogging down the stairs.
“Morning.” he said groggily, the light from outside was harsh on his eyes. Amery turned around and he smiled knowingly at her before kissing her lips. “Wife.”
“Husband.” she went back to the grilled cheese she was making.
“Where are they?”
“Oh, they went to the store for tonight.”
“Oh,” he said in her ear before kissing up and down her neck, leaving a trail of light marks on the skin. “You tell them anything?” she shook her head no, before pushing the pan away from the heat and turning it off. “Wanna go back upstairs?” he asked her and she nodded.
She twisted around, looped her arms around his neck and crashed their lips together and a low moan left her lips before he hurried her up the stairs and down the hall, kicking the door closed with his foot.
-
“I got one last gift for you.” she whispered after they had been silent for the past fifteen minutes.
“Huh?” he raised one eyebrow and watched as she stood up, the bed sheets falling off her naked body. She dug around in her purse before getting out a few papers and cards.
“Went to the DMV earlier, stood around for like four hours.” She handed him the papers and he opened the envelopes.
“Amery Jane Gubler” he read out loud and his eyes met hers. “Wait, really?” she nodded before throwing herself at him another time.
“Yeah, of course.”
-
They had been sitting, chatting with Laura, Marilyn and Hunter when they stared at each other.
“So what did he do then?” “He turned to his dad, totally serious and just started crying.” Laura chuckled while looking at her son who was eating his steak with hunger. “Look at him, watching him you’d think I don’t feed him.”
“Hey, guys.” Matthew called out and his mother and sister stared at him, before their eyes fell down on Amery who tried to keep her tears from falling.
“So, you remember last night when-”
“Oh my god, she’s pregnant!” Laura said and the couple sighed.
“Wait, for real?” his mom asked and they shook their heads.
“Nope, no. Not yet.” she said and Matthew threw her a look that made her reach out for him, linking their eyes.
“You remember last night when you mentioned that she should be Gluberized?” he said and Amery looked at him with a confused expression.
“Well, even though I wasn’t aware of that, huh, we did it, we- we got married.” she said waiting for their reactions and it’s after a few seconds that Hunter let out an excited shriek that the two women moved.
“What? Oh my god, are you guys for real?”
“Wait, where were we?”
“Asleep probably. We’re married as of March ninth twenty-twenty at three forty six in the morning.” he said with a smile.
“And you took the last name?” Amery nodded.
“I wanted to be one of the cool kids!” she laughed. “No, but seriously. You guys have made me feel at home for almost twenty years and I just wanted to live the whole experience!” They all stood up and hugged the couple, Hunter didn’t really understand what was happening but everyone was happy.
“So, when can I expect grandchildren?” Matthew frowned before letting out a whine.
“Mom…!”
“Huh, two years?” she suggested and her husband turned to share a look with her.
“Yeah, yeah two years seems reasonable.”
“If it’s not sooner.” Laura joked, noticing the light yellow spots on her sister in law’s cleavage.
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Driving Home For Christmas
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Word Count: 3.8K+
Author’s Note: we’re back bitches, and with new stories every day until the 25th!! and we had to start with our favourite star herself, julie molina, because of course! i loved writing this, we love brother alex, we love having last names for the fucking characters!!!
Pairings: julie x reader - brother!alex mercer x reader - willie x alex
Warnings: fluffiness!!
--
The Mercer children hated spending their Christmas holidays in Aspen. In fact, there wasn’t anything the siblings hated more.
The luxurious ski resort cabin certainly had charms: the hot tub on the porch, the on demand hot chocolate, the fast passes to get on the slopes ahead of the general public, and that was all before you got to the world renowned chef, Portia, that was on-call twenty four hours of the day, seven days a week, able to make whatever their hearts desired. Anyone else might have thought the resort, covered in snow and holiday decorations, like a scene from one of those Hallmark Christmas movies that are always just on in December, was the perfect winter wonderland, and the sort of place anyone would die to spend the end of their year.
But Alex and Y/N Mercer didn’t hate Aspen; they hated their passively-homophobic parents and extended family that always showed up to ruin the festive cheer. Whether it was by berating the heir to the family fortune about his boyfriend back home in California; or their consistent pestering of Alex’s younger sister Y/N about when the girl would find herself a decent, upstanding boyfriend, like she hadn’t spent her entire childhood until the last year stuck in an array of all girls’ boarding schools across the great United States.
With the pros of the cabin weighed out by the con of their family, it came to be that on Christmas Eve the brother and sister sat amongst the slow-moving traffic on some interstate between the Colorado ski lodge and home, in sunny California, already ten hours into their drive.
“I still can’t believe… Dad is going to kill us, you know?” Alex said, swaying along to the song playing softly from the beaten up car’s stereo, his knees pulls up to his chest thanks to the bags that sat in the footwell. The car was overflowing, a mixture of luggage and gifts for those waiting on the other side of the sunshine state’s border.
Whatever snow adorned the old red car roof had been melted away the closer they got to the coast, the driver more and more grateful with every slow passing mile that she had saved up to buy her own mode of transportation. She hadn’t followed in her older brother’s footsteps of taking dad up on the offer of a car: the high-tech monstrosity Alex drove around Los Angeles was the sort of car that would be shut down remotely if stolen: Y/N’s car could barely get a radio signal.
“Dad will kill me; he needs you to complete some masterplan. Wanna theorise about what private institution he’ll send me to next?” Y/N asked with a smile to her older brother, the pair sharing a laugh in the glow of red brake lights.
Their relationship had always been easy: Alex was his little sister’s best friend, and he hers. Whether that was because money led to lonely children, or because they genuinely enjoyed each other’s company beyond their sibling obligations, the pair didn’t bother to find out. They were close, and that was what mattered to them.
“He’s running out of them now, you know. How many was it before you convinced him Los Felix was the answer to all your problems?” Alex asked with a raised eyebrow and smirk, leaning an elbow on the central divider of the tiny car, avoiding the sharp edge of a ski blade to tease his sister with a knowing look. “Was it seventeen or-”
“Twenty-four… I made a point to average it out to one every four months or so. Keeps mom and dad on their toes, makes the disappointment even more apparent when I show up on the doorstep again.” Y/N cut in, correcting her brother, the blonde boy taking her free hand and squeezing it.
“At least we keep disappointing them together…” He offered as words of solace, their hands breaking apart upon the movement of traffic, red lights dimming as the cars began rolling forward at a steady pace. “Thank you, Smalls… For this whole thing.” The nickname he used so often rang in Y/N’s ears and made her smile.
Her brother meant the words, she knew it: he had pleaded with their parents before they left to stay in California, with Reggie or Julie or Luke, but the mention of his bandmates had ended the conversation and turned it into their dad reprimanding Alex for his ‘fanciful’ mindset. The drummer never stood a chance against the united front that was their parents: they knew he wanted to stay for Willie, of course he did: the two had been planning their Christmas vacation together since Halloween, dates to the ice rink at Santa Monica Mall, to the university for lectures, to the movies to catch old Christmas movies on the silver screen. Half the reason their parents had forced Aspen onto the kids once again was because Alex had found his person, and Willie found Alex, and Mr and Mrs Mercer would do a fair amount to convince the general public, themselves, and Alex that he wasn’t gay.
The other half was because Y/N was pretty sure she had found her person too.
“Don’t sweat it, Alex.” She shrugged, moving up a gear as the traffic finally began to move towards an expected speed for the freeway. “Hearing mom and dad shout at us once they sober up enough to realise we’re gone? Priceless.” She let a regular smirk rest on her lips, indicating to take the upcoming turnoff, hopeful she might hit easy driving instead of the stop and start. The sun was setting before them, the sky painted shades of yellow and orange and pink and purple into the deep blue of the encroaching night, despite the time on her car dashboard only reading 16:42. It would be gone within the next few minutes, and the driver switched on her headlights in response.
“Alexander Washington Mercer! How dare you defy me in such a way: you know better than to follow your little sister so blindly!” Alex yelled into the cramped space, impersonating their father with the gruff voice the man in question used, like he constantly had a cough in his throat he couldn’t dislodge.
“Y/N Y/M/N Mercer! I expected better from a young lady of your fine standing! How are we meant to find you a good husband if you run off with your brother like you haven’t a care in the world?” IT was Y/N’s turn to impersonate a parent: the shrill shriek of their mother, Y/N raising a hand a messing with the locket around her neck the same way their mother fiddled with her pearls when she was distressed. The two shared a look through their chuckles.
“It’s just a phase!” They said in chorus, the line their parents most often used in arguments against either of the pair. The laughter died away with the words, both letting out a soft, melancholic sighs, and falling into a comfortable silence. They were just skirting the outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, with at least another six hours of driving left by the state of the road, Y/N joining the back of another queue of cars all headed somewhere.
“Driving home for Christmas. Oh, I can't wait to see those faces, I'm driving home for Christmas, yea. Well I'm moving down that line. And it's been so long, but I will be there. I sing this song to pass the time away. Driving in my car, driving home for Christmas…” Alex turned the volume dial, letting the song play out, beginning to sway along to the radio once again, humming a harmony line over Chris Rea’s raspy lyrics.
Y/N always like that: that her big brother was so musical. She had spent so long away form him, at every other boarding school in the country, she forgot how talented Alex was sometimes. IT was only getting to see him and his band perform the year before that she really clicked to her brother’s undeniable star power, and that ability was shared amongst his friends. But it wasn’t just his talent that made Y/N happy, but that fact that she never saw her brother happier than when he was performing with his ‘other’ family.
In truth, they were hers too… One of them was why she was racing home so eagerly, why she had masterminded the entire escape for her and Alex. Neither of them would have been able to survive another minute with the monsters they unfortunately call relatives.
By the time they had passed Las Vegas and were closing in on the California border, the dashboard read 19.53. The countless games of ‘eye-spy’ and ‘would you rather’ grew old quickly, replaced for an hour by Alex reading out the pages of the closest book they could scavenge amongst the piles of presents and luggage, one of Y/N’s art textbooks. That then turned onto Alex recovering his drumsticks, tapping and singing along with the radio as Christmas song after Christmas song played.
“Smalls, what if we don’t make it?” Alex posed the question for the first time that night, and Y/N was honestly shocked it took her big brother so long to reach his usual state of worry. “What if we drove all this way and we don’t make it in time?”
“Relax, Alex, honestly… Look, we’ll get there when we get there. No-one even knows we’re coming, it’ll be fun, a surprise!” Y/N suggested, stopping herself for continuing to press down on her car horn, honking in anger at the dude who just cut in front of them. “Fucking asshole.” She muttered, looking back to her brother to be met with a face of surprise.
“How is it that I am always labelled the emotional one?” The question made Y/N smile, reaching over and patting on the blonde locks atop her brother’s head.
“Because rage isn’t emotion, it’s power.” Y/N quoted their dad again, putting on the gruff voice Alex had portrayed hours before, letting her neck roll and crack out air pockets once the words hung in the air. “With your little bandmates, it may not be true, but in this car? It most certainly is.” She reminded turning her eyes back to the road and putting the car back in gear to drive, following the car in front as the traffic began to move again.
--
“You know, I never thought church would be that fun! Is it always like that, or do they just ram up the wow factor for the holidays?” Reggie asked as he followed close on the footsteps of the Molina family, Luke to his right as he received glances from those surrounding him. “What?! I’m not exactly the person you’d expect to head on over to midnight mass every year, dude.” Reggie defended, Ray unlocking the front door of the house before turning around and placing a hand on the bassist’s shoulder.
“Well, we were glad to have you along with us, Reggie. Glad to have you for the holiday too, both of you, in fact.” Ray opened the statement to Luke, whose eyes darted up and were followed by a bright grin.
“Glad to be here, Mr Molina.” The guitarist responded with a dashing smile before rushing inside, his destination quite certainly the fridge, where Carlos was already searching for snacks before bed.
The Molina family had kept the tradition of midnight mass ever since Julie was little, a chance for some spiritual connection to the holiday season as well as familial. That year, with the Peters and Pattersons off on a Bahama cruise, Ray had welcomed Julie’s best friends and bandmates with open arms. The only thing that would have made it better was the Mercer kids.
It seemed to be why, while the boys all gravitated to chocolate chip cookies and warm milk before bed, Julie had idled over to the window, her eyes drifting out into the front yard, searching for someone who wasn’t going to show up.
“Mija…” Ray said softly, watching his daughter from across the room, a soft smile tracing his lips as she let out a yawn. “Mija, you should be going to sleep. Papá Noel won’t deliver his gifts if you stay awake all night staring out a window.”
“But dad…”
“I know it sucks, honey, but we’ll see them at New Years, right? And tomorrow we’ll have Flynn’s family and tía and Willie all over for food.” Ray reminded, and Julie let out a sigh, finally diverting her eyes from the window and up to her dad, his hand outstretched for her to take. She took it, and Ray lifted his daughter to her feet and into a hug. “I love you sweetie, now go get ready for bed. I have to round up your friends before they eat all the food in the house.”
With that, Julie gave up on the sliver of hop she had held for that night, shuffling up the stairs somewhat defeated. She knew it wouldn’t happen, in the back of her head she knew it wouldn’t happen, but she had really hoped Alex and Y/N would just show up, out of the blue, and surprise them all by spending Christmas back home, with them, with her. Of course, Mr and Mrs Mercer were far from nice people, far from unwealthy people: the idea of their kids spending Christmas at the Molinas was probably something they flat out refused to even think about.
It didn’t take long for Julie to get into her Christmas-themed pyjamas and brush her teeth, tying her hair into braids and tidying them back with a cap for the night: her night time routine was one she knew well, and was efficient in doing. Her makeup washed its way down the bathroom sink, her glasses perched themselves onto the slight dents the pads had carved into the sides of her nose, her blue monster slippers kept her feet warm as she shuffled back to her room and into her bed. She tried to focus on the better parts of the day: of making gingerbread houses and rehearsing Christmas songs with the guys, of putting up the final decorations on the tree in the living room while trying to avoid her father’s cries of anguish over another badly wrapped present from the other room.
But she couldn’t help but think about how much better it would have been had Alex been banging on his drumkit, how much happier he would have felt spending Christmas Eve with Y/N by her side…
The thought had Julie grabbing at her nearest pillow, squeezing it under crossed arms as she scrunched her eyes shut and willed sleep to come. At least if she slept, she wouldn’t be thinking about Alex and Y/N being trapped with their not-so-nice family in some snowed in cabin in some mid-west mountains, not consciously anyway.
tap.
A noise, one Julie excused as a creak of the house floorboards or a falling branch from the tree outside, seemed to echo in her near silent room, save the girl’s breathing.
tap.
This time, Julie’s eyes darted open, though she refused to move. Two was a coincidence, there were plenty of explanations for two almost identical sounding taps spaced apart almost perfectly.
“JULIE!” A loud whisper sounded from outside the girl’s window.
Now, that wasn’t coincidence.
The girl jumped out of bed, rushing over to her window in a blur of sequined candy cane pyjamas, muddling with the latch on her window before opening it up wide to the chill of LA winter air, her eyes darting across the grounds below to find the source of the noise. A part of her wondered if she might be dreaming, if it might have all been the saddest and happy dreams because she’d wake up any moment and the sight would be gone.
But there they stood, Alex and Y/N, in her driveway, the latter’s car parked behind them and looking like it most certainly drove for nineteen hours straight.
“Dad!” Julie called back into the house, the smile on her face brighter than any of the Christmas lights Y/N had seen on their drive through the residential district. “Dad, we have some extra guests.” She finished, her calls waking Carlos, Luke and Reggie in the process of alerting Ray, the windows of the house suddenly lighting up and the household woke for good news.
With a final grin out the window, Julie disappeared from Y/N’s sight, to no doubt meet her and Alex by the front door, and the pit in her stomach Y/N had tried to ignore for the entire car journey from Colorado seemed to only get bigger, louder, more persistent, now they had finally arrived back in California, in LA, at the Molinas. She had initially pinned the feeling to adrenaline from disoberying her parents, from packing up her car and driving almost a full day to arrive three states west of her original destination.
Looking at the house’s front porch, a muddle of Christmas gifts in both her and her brother’s hands, Y/N came to the conclusion that the pit wasn’t because of leaving Aspen: it was because of arriving in LA.
“I’m not going to ask how you made it or why you are here, but we are happy to see you all the same.” Ray’s kindly tone and words brought Y/N from her thoughts, blinking away the haze to find the door now open, Alex, Reggie and Luke in a tight embrace with presents scattered over the driveway, and Ray standing in front of her with Carlos by his side. “I would suggest one of you text your parents’ that you are safe though.” He added with a chuckle, opening his arms for Y/N to rush into, the pair embracing in a tight hug.
“Nice to be home, Mr Molina.” She replied with a smile as the pair broke apart, only for Alex to take the next slot of hugging Julie’s literal, and the four other teens’ figurative, dad.
“I made up the spare room just in case, you know. Julie’s request.” Ray added, gesturing with a thumb back to the front door, forcing Y/N’s eyes to follow.
She was so beautiful, every time Y/N saw Julie Molina her breath escaped her body, her limbs became heavy, her mind fogged: her heart began beating at a pace too fast for her body and her lips lost any real words.
“I thought you’d be in Aspen until the day after Boxing Day.” Julie said with a shy smile, the five guys in the front yard glancing amongst themselves before Carlos cleared his throat.
“I think we should put the presents under the tree!” The ten year old declared, scooping up some of Alex’s dropped gifts and marching inside, prompting Ray and Luke to do the same. Alex rans back to the car, retrieving the last straggler gifts from the car’s back seat while Reggie relieved Y/N of the stacks of presents in her own hands, save one. The two teens shared a smile, Reggie going the extra mile to pass on a wink of good luck to the younger Mercer before the bassist and drummer both disappeared into the house, leaving Julie and Y/N alone.
“I uh, I made a decision… A decision to kidnap my brother and drive a day across country.” Y/N managed to get the words out without too much difficulty, trying to get over the cotton mouth she was experiencing. “Because I didn’t want to spend the holidays without the people I love most.” She added, finally reconnecting her leg movements to her brain and walking across the driveway to meet Julie at the foot of the porch steps.
“Without the people you love most?” Julie questioned, taking a step closer, the girls standing toe to toe, Julie looking up at Y/N with doe eyes that could melt diamonds.
“Without the girl I love most.” Y/N corrected herself, tucking the small gift box she held into her back pocket. The words were seemingly sufficient enough in hello, as Julie launched herself onto her girlfriend, their lips crashing together in sweet harmony for the first time in weeks, thanks to the Mercer parents.
Y/N’s hands cupped Julie’s face as they shared in the sweet, intimate moment, Julie’s hands pulling Y/N closer by her t-shirt. Their lips colliding was the action required to dissipate that pit in Y/N’s stomach completely, her senses in overdrive finally being close to her girlfriend again. The smell of Julie’s perfume, the minty taste of toothpaste still on her lips, her glasses brushing against Y/N’s cheek. For Julie, it was much the same experience: the kiss made her head spin, overcome by the smell of Y/N’s car air freshener and the taste of red vines on her lips.
The pair broke apart after a few moments, their foreheads pressing together as peaceful silence washed over them, the cool breeze counteracted by the red heat that had risen to both girls’ cheeks.
“I wouldn’t want to spend Christmas with anyone else.” Y/N breathed out softly, one hand taking Julie’s in hers, the other retrieving the gift from her back pocket. “Mostly because I missed you like crazy, partly because I wanted to give you this.” She explained, the girl before her grinning and taking the gift box offered with bubbling excitement.
“Can I open it now?” Julie asked, and Y/N glanced at the watch on her wrist.
“I mean, it’s technically Christmas so…” Y/N giggled when Julie let out a shout of joy, pulling off the ribbon holding the box shut and shimmy-ing the lid off, to reveal a small potion-looking bottle amongst tissue paper. Julie lifted it out of the box, a small key glinting in the porch light within the bottled, caught in mid-air by invisible strings withing the decorative gift.
“It’s so beautiful… What is it?” Julie asked, pure curiosity in her words as she looked at the bottle in wonder. In response, Y/N pulled her locket out from beneath her shirt, gesturing to a small keyhole on the front Julie had never noticed adorning one of the girl’s most essential items before.
“That, Miss Molina.” Y/N started, grinning from ear to ear, exuding a shaky confidence that seemed like it might falter at any second. “That is the key to my heart.”
“Y/N…”
“I love you Julie.” They had never said it so directly before, ever. They always skirted round the actual words, always knew what the other meant without need for clarification. But under the porch light of the Molina residence, unaware of Alex, the guys, Ray and Carlos watching from the living room window, after having driven through so much traffic just to try and get to her on time for Christmas, and with Julie standing there in her festive pyjamas and blue fuzzy slippers and looking at her like that, Y/N had never felt more sure of something in her life.
“I love you too, Y/N.” Julie promised, pulling her girlfriend close again, the kiss shared this time chaste, though no less sweet.
“Merry Christmas, Molina.”
“Merry Christmas, Mercer.”
 --
Tags (some people I think might like this festive nonsense): @reggiesleatherjacket @parkeret @calamitykaty @crybabyddl @delicatelukepatterson @lukespatterson @kcd15 @siennanoelle01 @eries45 @lolychu @lazydaisy19 @reggieandthereggies @writerinlearning @mjflower @uhmitstori @walkingonshunshine @kristencoontz @vicesvsvirtuesfanfic @ritz-hell-hotel @mishappend @dovegranger @dmcfarland1 @cherrymaybank @oswinsleaf​ @only-here-for-jatp​ @jatpfan99​ @n0wornever​ @bookdealer5​
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Twelve Days Of Christmas: 2/12 will be released in 24 hours! Who will our story focus on? Can you guess? I’ll give you a hint: we’ll be going back to 1990s...
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losille2000 · 3 years
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The Swan, Chapter 6
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TITLE: The Swan CHAPTER NUMBER: 6/? AUTHOR: Losille2000 WHICH Tom/CHARACTER: Actor!Tom GENRE: Romance/Drama FIC SUMMARY: Sequel to The Ugly Duckling. Astrid embarks on a two-week trip to London to serve as her sister’s maid of honor, hoping against all hope she might miraculously run into her Hawaiian mystery man. When her sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law drag her to a production of Hamlet to meet the groom’s best man, Astrid gets the shock of her life. The situation, though, is anything but perfect. RATING: M (sex, language) WARNINGS: None in this chapter. AUTHORS NOTES: So... what can I say? It's been a while. If you want the whole story, you can look through my blog or message me. I'm happy to answer. That said, it's been a good three years since I did any serious writing. My writing muscles need to build back up to what they were before. Please be kind... and let me know what you think. :D
Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - ALSO ON AO3!
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Chapter 6 - Flying the Coop
Regret.
Astrid regretted ever stomping up those stairs to Tom’s bedroom. She regretted challenging him to make a move. She regretted letting him have his way with her. In the moment, it seemed right. Maybe if they slept together again, they’d find an incompatibility, especially now that the air of tropical mystery had dissipated and left in its place two broken flesh-and-blood people.
How wrong could she have been?
Now it was amplified, deeper, hotter, engulfing.
Only two weeks for whatever this fire was to fizzle?
It wasn’t, as the Brits say, bloody likely.
And here she was, smack dab in the position she didn’t want to be in; no matter how tangentially her current association with her mother, the family business, and Hollywood was, being connected to Tom in this way presented too many problems to even consider at this point. And fucking him—
“Astrid, are you even listening to me?”
Astrid jumped from the intrusion, letting out a slight squeak. She blinked hard and turned in her spot to look at her sister, who stood in the middle of the furnished but unoccupied flat. “Sorry?”
“Are you okay?” Tilde asked. “You’ve been spacey after the dress shop— and I’m just worried.”
“You don’t need to worry.”
“Let me worry,” she begged. “Let me be the big sister I never got to be.”
Astrid laughed ruefully. If only she could actually talk with Tilde about Tom. She wouldn’t understand, or at the very least, it could pose some very difficult situations in the coming days with the wedding right around the corner. But, Astrid guessed, Tilde meant the other elephant in the room... Astrid being the elephant, and their mother being a Class A narcissist. Because there was absolutely no way Tilde would know about what had happened at Tom’s home...
“It’s too late for that, Tilde,” Astrid said. “You know I love you. I just— there’s no changing her.”
Tilde grumbled and glided over to the couch in the living room. She dropped down on top of the cushions, barely displacing the pillow stuffing with her slight ballet-formed frame. “I should have never allowed her to do all this. I should have done it on my own, it’s not like Jim and I are so hard up. But I thought...”
Astrid held up a hand to stop her sister and sat on the couch more gingerly than Tilde, measuredly, so as not to displace any stuffing in the overstuffed couch, either. Something her mother had taught her, after all: If you’re not going to put in effort to look like a lady, you can at least act like one.
God, even that memory still hurt, down to the marrow in her bones.
“But you did.” Astrid shrugged and laid her head on the back of the couch. There, she sighed.
The sisters sat in silence for some time, listening to Duchess rooting around the flat for something to chew on. When the pug found nothing, she eventually jumped up onto the couch and snuggled into Tilde’s lap.
Astrid cleared her throat. “It’s not all Mom, either. I’m just tired from jet lag and getting everything together for the house party.”
And sleeping with the Best Man. She was pretty sure she’d read a romance novel or a hundred about this situation once. Did that make her a cliché?
“Oh, I meant to ask,” Tilde interjected. “How did that go? Tom was a total tool last night and I was worried about today.”
Astrid licked her lips subconsciously; she could still taste the sugar left by a bite of tiramisu Tom had given to her on a fork. If she concentrated hard enough, she was sure she could still taste the salt of his skin mixed in with it. She could certainly feel the tight muscle in her thigh that pulled every time she shifted, from the way he’d bent it and held it firmly in place as he’d had his way with her.
Frankly, it was a miracle they’d accomplished anything after they ended up in bed. But, she supposed, that was the weirdest part about the whole afternoon. They got out of bed, dressed without speaking and just... worked on what they needed to for the party. There was no discussion. No arguing. Tom stayed a respectable distance from her; she wasn’t sure if she had really wanted him to do it again, over and over, until they were both exhausted. They ate lunch quietly, they got everything organized and packed into his Land Rover, then Tilde showed up and they bade farewell, like it was something they did every day.
Nothing more was said about Hawaii, or a relationship, or lies, or having this end in two weeks. He seemed to be ignoring the topics all together, likely in the misguided belief that if he didn’t bring it up, then everything was fine. She ignored them because discussing WHY she refused to become a true part of his life was too painful.
Astrid pursed her lips and closed her eyes again. Isn’t that what she told him she wanted, though? To feel worshipped and then go about their lives, like nothing happened? Ignore all the elephants and enjoy the sex. No emotion, only sex. He was just following her demands, his need too great to put the brakes on their interlude in his bed.
The problem was that she did want more with him. She wanted emotion and relationships and rainbows and butterflies. When she had thought of him as some wealthy businessman she might once again bump into while visiting London, this had been possible. She had, after all, imagined a reality over the last eighteen months that included falling in love with him and living a life together.
But he wasn’t a businessman. He was an actor. He ran in circles she just couldn’t stomach anymore.
“It was fine. We finished everything and packed it all into his Land Rover for the drive up to Cliveden,” Astrid finally said. “The costume deliveries will be there when we arrive.”
“This really has gotten out of control,” Tilde said. “Part of me just wants to run to the register office and get it over with.”
Astrid shook her head violently. “You do that, and I’ll flip the fuck out. I put too much work into this.”
Tilde laughed. “Scared you, huh?”
“I’m serious, Tilde,” Astrid said, lightly smacking her sister’s thigh. Duchess popped her head up, and thinking it was an invitation for her, came over to her aunt. Astrid cuddled the dog close to her chest, breathing in her freshly bathed fur.
“She likes you,” Tilde said.
Astrid kissed Duchess’ head. “Small children and dogs, apparently.”
Tilde chuckled softly before letting out a long sigh. “I bet she would really like it if her Aunt Astrid were around more.”
“Aunt Astrid is a teacher and never has any time,” she replied directly to Duchess. Duchess reached for the hand that had stopped petting her and touched it with her paw. Her imploring buggy pug eyes asked Aunt Astrid for more.
Tilde huffed, but said nothing more for a long time. Then she cleared her throat. “How do you like the flat, anyway?”
“It’s nice,” Astrid confirmed. In fact, it was nicer than “nice.” This flat looked like one of those staged ads in a real estate magazine with lots of recessed lighting, soft gray colors, top-of-the-line furnishings and a ton of space.
“We’re trying to decide if we’ll sell it or keep it as an investment property,” Tilde replied. “It’s kind of a pain in the ass as a rental property, though.”
Astrid nodded. “You could just give it to Dad’s company to manage.”
Not that doing so was a great option, either.
If Astrid saw her mother irregularly, she saw her father even less. After their separation, he spent time in Las Vegas developing a new casino concept and then, when Astrid graduated from UNLV, moved his business operations permanently back to Sweden. Still, though, the relationship with her father was better than it was with her mother, simply by virtue that he was never around and didn’t have an opportunity to find the weaknesses in her armor like her mother. Tilde rarely spoke about either parent, but Astrid was certain their relationship was similar.
Tilde sat up and turned to look at Astrid seriously. “Or you could move into it.”
“Excuse me?” Astrid said, her heart skipping a few beats, from a sudden surge of anxiety and... something else.
“I’m serious, Astrid,” she said. “We don’t see each other enough and I want to spend time with you and make up for all those years we were apart.”
This wasn’t just some passing fancy. Astrid could see that as plain as day on Tilde’s face. Her sister was determined to convince her to move to London. But for what? She had no support system other than Tilde and James... and her career... well, that was back in Las Vegas.
Not that Las Vegas itself was the most amazing place to live and work.
“I’d never see you anyway,” Astrid argued. “You’re always rehearsing, or preparing to rehearse, or performing. And god knows James is going to be busy doing whatever.”
“Yeah, about that...” Tilde said, trailing off quietly. She picked at the dog hair on her sweater for a few seconds, then slowly looked back at Astrid. “I’m retiring at the end of this season.”
“What?!”
Tilde shrugged. “James and I want a family, and if I wait until it’s a ‘good time,’ it’ll never happen because of our schedules. And really, it’s getting harder and harder to come back from injuries and such. I just... I need a long break from being a performing ballerina. I don’t have the fire I once had, the same will to fight for every goddamn role.”
Astrid simply nodded. This was huge news. Ballet was Tilde’s life. She’d been doing it since she was a little girl, had impeccable skill and training and talent for it. The joke was that Tilde had come out of the womb in pointe shoes.
Which wasn’t that far from the truth, really. As soon as their mother could, she’d gotten Tilde into dance with the best instructors money could buy. Their mother, the failed ballerina, always lived through them. Which explained why she did not like anything about Astrid— Astrid did not have anything that would benefit her.
“Have you told Mom yet?” Astrid asked.
Tilde shook her head. “Of course not! And listen to her prattle on about how I’m a failure and she gave me so much and I’m just a terrible person? No, thank you. I’ll wait until she is permanently back in LA before I tell her.”
Even though Tilde had not yet told anyone else, it somehow eased the tension in Astrid’s shoulders knowing that Tilde would be in their mother’s crosshairs for a change. Typically, that wasn’t the case; their parents always treated Tilde like the perfect golden child. Of course, Tilde had always been one of Astrid’s fiercest allies… when she could. However, since Tilde spent most of her life in London studying at the Royal Ballet from a very early age, support and camaraderie had been scarce. Now, though? Now it felt like she and Tilde could weather the storm together.
Tilde continued, “Yeah. I’m thinking about opening up a dance studio and then after the baby thing happens, if I still have the performing bug in me, then I’ll start guesting. But I’m just so excited to start having babies.”
Stopping the smile from forming on Astrid’s lips was impossible as she registered the excitement on Tilde’s face. Astrid felt the enthusiasm coming from Tilde’s corner of the couch. “I’m excited for you, Tilde.”
And she was. She truly was.
Tilde reached out and grabbed Astrid’s hand. “I’m serious, though, Astrid. We never had a great family growing up, and I see this as an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and create the family we should have had growing up.”
“I don’t know, Til.”
“James and I have both talked about it a lot and we both agree.”
“Tilde, even if I did move here,” Astrid began, “I don’t know the first thing about teaching in England.”
Tilde nodded. “I know. But James’ parents are retired teachers. I’m sure they’d be willing to help you make heads or tails of it.”
Astrid pursed her lips and turned to stare at the dormant fireplace sitting in front of them. Duchess, who had not moved, made happy dog purr noises as Astrid massaged the tiny velvet triangles of her ears. To be fair to Tilde, Astrid had often thought of moving to London to be nearer to her, but she never thought it would happen or that Tilde would actually need or want her here. The fact that she was wanted made emotion spring to her eyes and prick at them until they watered.
But then, there was the other issue.
The really, super, ginormous issue that came in the shape of a devastatingly handsome British man she met on vacation. If she moved to London, she’d certainly be seeing him more. No clean break at the end of two weeks like she hoped.
“And, you know,” Tilde said, “London’s arts scene is stupendous. We have the hook-up. I thought you could get back into it. You can hardly do that in Las Vegas.”
Astrid snorted. “Tilde, that part of my life is over.”
“Why? You’re amazing. I remember the video you sent of your college production of Othello. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place.”
While Tilde’s appreciation for her talent warmed Astrid’s heart, it didn’t take away the sting of her mother’s actions. Astrid couldn’t even bring herself to discuss it with Tilde when it first happened, much less in the intervening eight years since the incidents that led to her total disavowal of all things acting related. Her silence on the matter, though, had finally come home to roost. First with Tilde telling Tom she was still an actor, and Tom calling her a liar because she told him she wanted nothing to do with it. And now, with Tilde staring her down imploringly. Tilde wanted answers just as much as Tom did, except for very different reasons.
Astrid could not force her suddenly leaden tongue to move in her mouth. Tilde would just have to live with not knowing the whole story, for now. Finally, she said, “If I move to London, I’m not going to be acting.”
“Well, I guess I’ll take that,” Tilde replied. “As long as you’ll still consider moving here to be with me.”
A knock at the front door startled them all, sending Duchess barking and wheezing to the door. The door opened and James popped his head inside. “Knock knock.”
“Come in!” Tilde sang back to him, jumped from her seat, and nearly leaped over the back of the couch to get to him like he was a cold glass of lemonade on a hot day. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him squarely. For a brief, possibly irrational, moment, Astrid was jealous of her sister and the relationship she had built with James.
Which wasn’t a great feeling to have if the plan was to spend more time with them. How could she uproot her entire life— leave her students and friends— and move halfway across the globe just to be consumed by the green-eyed monster?
“Babe,” Tilde said, “tell Astrid she needs to move to London.”
James laughed and turned to look at Astrid. “Astrid… you need to move to London.”
“Thank you!” Tilde pecked his cheek and pirouetted in place until she was facing away from him. She started walking back toward the bedroom. “Let me go get my purse and we can get going.”
When Tilde was gone, and the flat was mostly silent except for more of Duchess’ puggy wheezing as she calmed, James’ smile dropped into a stony seriousness. He stepped over to her and quietly murmured, “We would love to have you here, Astrid. But I understand if you don’t want to come. The decision has to be yours, and if you decide not to move, I will handle Tilde.”
Astrid was grateful for James’ level-headedness in the situation. In the short time she’d known the man, she found that he was a gifted reader of rooms. That was why he was so good with Tilde— a steady anchor in a turbulent sea. Clearly, he understood the anxiety twisting her stomach into knots.
She set a grateful hand on his arm and squeezed appreciatively. “Thanks, James.”
“And don’t let my association with Tom cloud your judgement,” James said.
Astrid withdrew her hand like he’d burned it. Her eyes snapped up to his, then focused outward on the rest of his features and body language. She didn’t know how he knew, but he did. Tom must have told James, despite that she asked him not to.
Unless Tom had told James last night…
“How do you...” She trailed off, turning her gaze and trying to hide her blush.
“He’s my best man for a reason. We tell each other everything,” James replied. “I had hoped that your work today would allow you some time to figure things out before more of this wedding commenced and caused a problem.”
Astrid gulped. “Does Tilde know?”
James shook his head silently.
“Good,” Astrid replied. Good for two reasons, really. The first, because it confirmed for her that the invitation to come to London wasn’t Tilde playing matchmaker. The second, because she still didn’t want anybody to know about it. “Wait… how much did he tell you?”
James stared back at her, a mischievous glint in his eyes and a slight curl at the corner of his mouth. “That would be breaking the Code.”
Her face now completely aflame, Astrid bent down and grabbed Duchess into her arms. She couldn’t even look at the man anymore without feeling embarrassed. Hopefully, it would pass quickly.
“Bad news!” Tilde called from the hallway as she came back into the room. Her thumbs moved rapidly over the screen of her iPhone. “Mother decided we needed an all hands on deck dinner tonight.”
Astrid groaned. “In addition to or replacing the one tomorrow night at Cliveden?”
“In addition to,” Tilde said. “Tom can’t make it tonight because he has the cast party, and Dad isn’t even in England yet, so that’ll be the official one. Tonight is probably just more nitpicking.”
“Do we have to?” Astrid whined.
Tilde sighed heavily and dropped her phone into her purse with agitation. “Strength in numbers, dear sister.”
Her sister's proclamation made the summons to dinner no better, but Astrid and James dutifully followed Tilde out of the flat and out to the car. The only saving grace was that Tom wouldn't be there. Astrid could focus on one problem, not two.
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❛ BABY ON BOARD ❜
Headcanon.
with Gilberto ‘Gilly’ Lopez.
Request: I have an idea for a Gilly fic , maybe his girl is pregnant and none of the guys think he will be a good dad but in the end he proves them wrong and is an amazing dad. I feel like you would be able to do this idea justice. Totally understand if you don’t want to do it though ❤️
BY ANON
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Warnings: none, just fluffy daddy Gilly.
Word count: about 1.1k
Aurora says: thanks to my lovely beta reader @chibsytelford, for helping me! ✨
Gif credits: @angels-reyes
Masterlist.
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When he told his brothers that he was going to be a father, they laughed. After one year together, they kept trying to figure out how you can be with a guy like him.
They didn't know about his other facet. The one that showed you that he was a good man, always taking care of you, loving you and making you feel the most lucky girl ever.
He went at three am to a 24h store to buy you an apple lollipop, just because you woke up with that craving.
He could spend long minutes talking to your son, with his head resting on your belly.
He became the most overprotective man, controlling everything around you to make you feel comfortable and happy.
Gilly also started to cook for you, whenever you were hungry, without mattering about the hour, the place, the day…
And of course, EZ did this job when he had to leave Santo Padre with the club. He was delighted doing it too.
The first time your husband took your son between his arms, he had to sit because his legs were trembling, so, so nervous of meeting his boy.
“Look… He's so small, baby”. He said raising his eyes towards you, lying exhausted on the bed, before focusing his entire attention onto his son. “My best friend… I ca—can't believe that we did it, mami. I mean… I mean, you did it, but…”
“Come here, idiot”. You laughed narrowing your eyes and palming the mattress.
Your boyfriend sat on the edge, before lying down by your side when you left him some space.
“Thank you, (Y/N). For making it possible, and choosing me to be part of your life, and letting me love you every day of it, and… for giving me the best thing I could ever have”.
“You're gonna be the best dad, Gilly. I have no doubts, you will see”.
“Hey, buddy, I love you” was his favorite sentence, telling him all the time.
His favorite moment of the day was when he was fixing up something on his bike, and your three years old son used to bring him the tools.
“Thank you, buddy”. He said, grabbing the screwdriver, that his son was holding it with both hands.
“Yo welcom, daaaad”. The boy replied, letting his booty fall down to sit close to your husband, surrounding his forehand with both small hands.
“Do you have fun?” Gilly asked smiling softly, leaving a kiss on his head.
“Yea, dad. Yo ma buddy”.
“Yeah, we're best buddies”.
“Best buddies, dad”.
Dani was so sad when you left him at the kid garden on his first day of school, watching Gilly kneeling to hug him while they were crying. It broke your heart too, when you had to hold your husband to let him go with his new teacher.
“Hey, buddy, I'll pick you up in a couple hours and we will go to eat some burgers, okay?”
“You promise, dad?”
“I swear, buddy. I love you”.
He was seeing him walk away, shaking his tiny hand to say goodbye. When he was inside the school and you couldn't see him, Gilly's cry got a little louder, calling the attention of everyone. You were about to laugh. Your husband. This big guy who looked like a… Well, he looked exactly like he should look. He hugged you, sinking his face on your neck, melting your heart completely whilst leaving some caresses on his head.
“Mi amor, he will be okay”.
“But what if he misses us?”
“He's gonna miss us, Gilly. The first five minutes. Then, he will be busy making a lot of friends because he has an awesome dad with a cool motorbike”.
“Do you think?”
“Yeah, and he also has a beautiful mom who is totally in love with his dad after five years. Falling more into him every single day. I mean… look at those parents, with a stick into their ass”.
Gilly laughed, standing up from you to kiss your lips gently and slowly.
“What if… we go home and give him a little brother, or a sister?” He mutters on your lips, making you chuckle.
“You have to work, remember? And I need to prepare a seminary for the next week”.
Your husband used to help your son with homeworks, not knowing that he actually was this smart, even if it was basic maths.
Dani's birthday was the craziest day of the year. Gilly used to wake up at seven am, to check that everything was on point, without caring that he was doing it for the last four days. The big cake, the presents, the guests, the clubhouse… Everything must be perfect, and if someone tried to fucked it up, Gilly turned himself into Satan.
One of the happiest days for him was when his son came to him to talk about girls. Your husband was freaking out, looking at you with raised eyebrows, before clearing his throat to tell him ‘the whole speech’.
“Wa—Wait, dad”. He stopped him, looking at you a little ashamed. “Mom…”
“Yeah?” You asked, having a sip from your coffee, resting against the counter with narrowed eyes.
“Sí sabes que te amo, ¿verdad?” (You know that I love you right).
“Calm down, I'm not gonna be jealous of your girlf—”.
“Can you leave?”
“What? Why?”
“Because this is a conversation between father and son”. Your husband turned at you with a huge smile on his lips.
“Listen to me, malditOS PENDEJOS. I'VE BEEN DEALING WITH ALL YOUR ‘BUDDIES BULLSHIT’ FOR TOO LONG. I WANNA KNOW ABOUT YOUR GIRLFRIEND TOO”.
“Mi amor”. Gilly tries to call your attention, palming the island where he is sitting at.
“WHAT?”
“Please, leave”.
“Oh, fuck you”.
“Mamita”. Your son called you between laughs, when you were holding the doorknob of the kitchen, making you turn more disappointed than upset. “Tú siempre serás mi primer amor”. (You will always be my first love).
“Ti simpri siris mi primir imir, fuck you, Daniel”.
You can hear your husband's laughs mixing the others, after closing the door loudly.
Gilly's brothers were so fucking wrong since the first moment, watching him teaching Dani to drive a bike on the front yard of the clubhouse. Eighteen years being the best father in the world, and making everybody jealous of the relationship with his son.
“Do you think we could go to LA next week?”
“Keep practicing with your mother, while I'm in Las Vegas, and then we will see”. Your husband teases him, hitting his chest gently.
“So, that's a yes. Mom drives pretty good, it will be easy”.
“Oh, really? Why didn't you ask her to teach you, ah?” He tries to sound offended, holding his neck with an arm to ruffle him with his free hand.
“Dad, stop!” He laughs stirring under his grip. “I wanted to do it with my best buddy”.
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randomvarious · 2 years
Video
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Céline Dion - “Unison (Mainstream/Extended mix)” This Beat Is Hot...The Compilation Song released in 1990. Compilation released in 1991. Dance-Pop / House / Freestyle
You probably know Céline Dion for her years of 90s chartbusting balladry: "My Heart Will Go On," "It's All Coming Back to Me," "Because You Loved Me," "All By Myself," her "Beauty and the Beast" duet with Peabo Bryson, and the like. She's managed to sell hundreds of millions of records worldwide, she's singlehandedly redefined what it means to have a Las Vegas residency, and she's racked up award after award after award as well. And she probably deserves it all since she really is one of the most gifted vocalists of all time, but her songs tend to be so rote and formulaic and impersonal and just plain boring to me.
However, Dion wasn't always on that big, over-produced, and overly sentimental adult contemporary tip. But in order to give you a sense of what she was before she found that cash cow of a calling card, it's probably best to go all the way back to her beginning. So here goes:
Céline Dion is the fourteenth of fourteen children in her family. She grew up in Quebec and she never characterized her childhood as one of poverty, but food wasn't always easy to come by either. However, it was a childhood filled with both love for one another and of course, music.
Dion was first discovered by the man who'd go on to become both her manager and husband, René Angélil. When she was just twelve years old she recorded a demo song for him, and while it took a little light prodding from one of her brothers to get Angélil to finally listen, he was immediately sold on her talent once he did. Angélil decided to meet with Dion so he could witness her voice in person, just to be sure she was the real deal, and was moved to literal tears by her performance. She wasn't even a teenager yet, but Angélil knew he'd just discovered a pure vocal diamond and he even mortgaged his own home to help finance her debut album, 1981's La Voix du bon Dieu.
Now, I don't want to bore you with all of the awards and adulation that Dion earned over the ensuing nine years or so following that debut album, but let's just say she became Canada's best kept secret—at least to Americans—until her eventual crossover to the States. She won a Yamaha music contest in Japan in 1982, she won Eurovision in 1988 for Switzerland, and she also recorded thirteen more albums.
But when Dion was 18, she saw a Michael Jackson performance and decided she wanted to become an international superstar just like him. She more than had the vocal agility for it, but almost none of the presentation to actually pull it off. She also didn't know much of any English either. So she had to remedy those two things to become marketable to a global audience. She got a full-on makeover, which changed her looks from those of an adolescent teen to those of a young woman, had some dental work done (Canadian tabloids had been known to cruelly refer to her as "Canine Dion"), and also took English classes.
She changed the style of her music, too. There was simply no market in America for her Francophone-branded pop, so she needed to make music that had much broader appeal. Dion signed to CBS Records, but they were lukewarm on her at first, originally only offering her a pittance of $25,000 to record new vocals over the original music from her prior studio album, her biggest to date at the time, Incognito. But at a 1987 CBS Canada convention, she performed a duet with national pop star Dan Hill, which impressed CBS' president so much that the budget for her next album was raised to $100,000 and allowed for new songs to be recorded for it. Dion then sang at the 1987 Juno Awards (Canada's equivalent of The Grammys) and that performance got CBS to up the budget to $300,000. Then, David Foster, a producer at CBS who'd go on to co-produce Dion's English debut, Unison, saw tape of that Juno performance and got the budget to be upgraded to an unlimited amount.
A total of about $600,000 ended up being spent on Unison, and its title track, a cover of a song that originally appeared on the soundtrack for the 1983 Tom Cruise vehicle, All the Right Moves, was released as one of its singles in Canada and Japan, but curiously was only released as a B-side elsewhere. Kinda weird for your title track to not be its own single, right? Especially your American debut? Didn't really end up mattering in the end; the album went platinum in the US anyway, despite only peaking at 74 on the Billboard 200, which are numbers that honestly don't make sense anymore.
Anyway, here's what I'm talking about when I say that Céline Dion's sound was different before she really blew up and became the undisputed queen of adult contemporary belters. She's actually doing a disco-funky dance-pop thing on the original mix of "Unison," which is not remotely close to what she'd soon end up becoming world-renowned for.
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And the song came with a freestyled-up house remix, too, which wasn't just one of those dance remixes that ended up sitting on the B-side of the single only to be ignored by the popular masses. No, it was actually the version they used for the song's music video. And it even featured one of those very early 90s darlingly rudimentary rap verse interlude things, too, which came courtesy of a total nobody who has no other credits to his name beyond this song named Frankie Fudge (and for those keeping track, Frankie Fudge doesn't appear in the video; that's just some other nobody lip synching his small verse). Céline Dion and rapping? On the same song? Now that's not something you hear every day!
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Known as the "Mainstream/Extended Mix," and produced by an established Toronto club DJ by the name of Kevin Unger, this version got nominated for a Juno Award for Dance Recording of the Year in 1991, but lost to "Don't Wanna Fall In Love (Knife Feel Good Mix)" by Jane Child. However, it was also voted the song of 1990 in Quebec, beating out Madonna's "Vogue," on Quebecois radio network NRJ.
All this is to say that Céline Dion very well maybe could have gone in a completely different direction had she not done "Beauty and the Beast" with Peabo Bryson. That song really ended up skyrocketing her career into total superstardom, which led to her complete dominance of the adult contemporary market, but had she not been enlisted for "Beauty and the Beast," one can't help but wonder what she could have maybe done with the dance-poppier side of pop instead. The history of music could actually be completely different right now given the impact that Dion left with the groan-inducing banality that she ended up choosing. It more than worked financially for her, of course, but it would've been nice to hear her pipes applied to something more interesting, like "Unison," and the pop trends that were soon to follow. But in the end, it seems that's not what Angélil saw was best for her, and well, I guess he was proven right.
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smol-and-grumpy · 4 years
Text
Light My Fire - CH01
Pairing: CEO!Dean Winchester x Reader
Summary: She always thought her boss was an ill-tempered man, but when he presents her with a proposition she can’t quite deny, she gets to know him better. It’s not bad, right? Because all she has to do is being fake married to him for six months, sounds do-able, right? Right.
Warnings: There’s none in this. Maybe a sprinkle of angst.
WC: 2567
A/N: So here we have a new series. If you know my writing, you’d know that I always write such a slow build. This one won’t be any different. Please share your thoughts with me, I’d love to hear your feedback. 
Beta’d by @deanwanddamons <3
SERIES MATSTERLIST
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Shit, shit, shit. 
She’s going to be late, so fucking late! 
Y/N hastily slips into her shoes, does a final check of her reflection in the mirror before she gets out of her apartment and hires a taxi. It’s not like she can afford it with the high rent in the city, but she can’t risk getting late into work because her boss would be beyond pissed and she’d like to avoid being at the receiving end of his wrath right at the start of her week. 
She’s still panting when she sits in the taxi. If she hadn’t been lost in thoughts and wanted to finish reading her damn novel while she drank her coffee, maybe then she wouldn’t have spilled it all over herself and wouldn’t have had to change into something else and she wouldn’t have been late. 
Mr. Winchester will be so pissed.
He’s known for firing people, exchanging them for someone who would be gone in under a week's time. She’s actually surprised that she made it this long. It’s almost a year now that she became one of his office assistants and while it’s a good job and a good paying one too, she thinks it’s fucking challenging. She needs that job and she can’t afford to get fired. Jack, her brother, is still in college and she needs to help him, since she and Jack — well, that’s all the family that’s still left. 
She quickly types out a text to Jack when she sees the taxi rounding up to her office building. 
 Y/N: Cross your fingers. I’m late. I hope I won’t get fired.
J: Oh, no. I’m crossing my toes, too! You got it, sis!
 Alright. She takes a deep breath, gets out and pays the driver before she takes the elevator up to her floor. 
Arriving on the floor, she already hears someone yelling. The voice is deep, gravelly, it can only belong to one person that she knows of. He’s also the only one who’s allowed to yell around here, actually. 
Walking over to her desk, she sits down and starts up her computer. She hopes that by acting normal, nobody would know that she’s thirty minutes late, and she doesn’t even have a good explanation should someone ask. She couldn’t even lie about it because she’s an awful liar.
Mr. Winchester hates tardiness. She once watched him firing someone who was five minutes late. 
She doesn’t know what’s wrong with Mr. Winchester sometimes. Like, he’s all professional but every time she has to work with him, he acts all grumpy. After a year of repeatedly watching him being his grumpy self around her, she can’t help but think that he doesn’t really like her at all. But again, if he doesn’t like her, why didn’t he fire her already?
“Go away! You’re fired!” 
Oh god, it’s not even 9am and he’s already firing people. She sees Adam walk past her desk, his head low. Awe, that’s sad. She quite liked Adam. How long has he been here? About seven months? God, she wishes that she had the balls to stand up to that jerk Winchester.
Mr. Winchester walks out of his office and right into her view. She ducks her head, pretends to look occupied, which she actually is because she’s now logged in and skims through her emails. There are several of Mr. Winchester from this morning and she looks at the time stamps. 6.45am, 6.57am, 7.12am, 7.34am, 8.01am, 8.02am, 8.03am, 8.04am, 8.05am, 8.06am, 8.13am, 8.16am, 8.24am, 8.26am. 
Shit.
She’s going to get fired for sure. Say bye to your college degree, Jack.
His footsteps echo in the quiet office and it comes to a halt at her desk.
Uh-oh.
Y/N doesn’t dare to look up.
“Where were you?” Mr. Winchester snarls. 
“I— uh,” She stammers, and then she looks up at him. His suit is neat, the scruff a little longer than usual, and he looks tired because his eyes aren’t as green as they usually are, which is a good thing because she always tends to get lost in them if she stares at them for too long, “I’m sorry, sir.” 
“I want to see you in my office,” He hisses, “And while you’re at it, get me a coffee, alright?” He turns around, walks back, but stops and tilts his head back again, “Please.” With that, he’s off into his office and slams the door shut. 
Hey, at least he said please, right?
Ruby looks up at her from her computer, “My god, what’s wrong with that guy? Can you believe that he’s one of the hottest bachelors of the year according to some magazines? The voters surely haven’t ever seen him like this.”
“Shush, Ruby,” Y/N says, “What if he has bat ears?” Really, she wouldn’t be surprised if he has.
Ruby does that locking motion with her hand on her lips. 
“But someone surely has got out of the wrong side of the bed.” She says, and adds, “I thought he spent the weekend in Vegas for that meeting? Didn’t it go well?”
“It did, apparently, but who knows,” Ruby shrugs, “Anyway, if I were you, I would go grab that coffee quick, Y/N. I don’t want him firing you.”
“Shit, right!” She gets up and storms into the break room to get the coffee and speeds back on her heels to Mr. Winchester’s office door, almost trips once but she managed to  save herself gracefully.
She knocks and enters, and to her surprise, someone else is in the room as well. 
Sam Winchester, the company’s lawyer and brother to Dean Winchester. 
Sam stands by the window, looking out into the streets while her boss is hunched over his desk, his forehead on his arms. 
Something’s wrong and she’s afraid to ask what it is. So instead of asking, she steps in, “Your coffee, sir.”
“Huh,” Mr. Winchester looks up from his desk, “Yeah, thanks. Please take a seat, Y/N.”
Hesitantly, she walks closer, clears her throat as she sets the coffee on his desk, and sits down, “Mr. Winchester, please, whatever it is, I promise that I won’t make the same mistake again. My being late today was really an accident, I spilled coffee over myself and had to change my clothes, it’ll never happen again, please. I need this job.”
“Jesus, Y/N, relax!” Mr. Winchester groans, and Sam Winchester looks at his brother with amusement in his eyes, “My head’s hurting. Shut up, please? You won’t get fired, I promise.”
“Oh,” 
“In fact, I have a proposition for you.” Mr. Winchester stands up and walks around to her side of the desk, leaning against it, “I want you to be my fake wife.”
She frowns, thinks that she hasn’t heard him right, “What?”
“Look, I’m not really happy about it either,” He starts to say, and she frowns some more for fucking good measure.
“Wow, thanks,” Y/N huffs out, “What a great compliment.”
“No! Christ!” Mr. Winchester rubs over his scruff with his fingers. The scratching sound is loud in the otherwise quiet room, “I didn’t mean it like that.” 
“Why do you want me to do that?”
“Yeah, why, Dean?” Sam cuts in and he starts to chuckle, which prompts Dean to send his brother a glare. 
“Shut up, Sammy.”
He turns back to her, “Look, the meeting in Vegas went well, alright? I got Chuck Shurley to let me buy shares of his company. The thing is, after the dinner, we went for a drink, and next thing I know, I was married to his fucking sister.”
Y/N really tries not to laugh, “Wow.”
“Yeah,” Mr. Winchester scoffs.
“So, did you get ordained by Elvis or something?” 
“Y/N! Jesus! Focus!” He yells, which made her flinch, “I’m married and now she wants at least a quarter of what I own if I want to annul the marriage. She fucking set me up, but I can’t really prove it.”
“Amara Shurley is a very beautiful and rich woman,” She shrugs, because it’s true. Every guy wants to be with her, she wonders why Mr. Winchester doesn’t. 
“Your point being?” He raises an eyebrow at her, “Just because she’s beautiful doesn’t mean that I have to want to be with her, does it?”
“No, sir. But I’m wondering why you want me to pretend to marry you when you are already married?”
“We can show Amara another marriage certificate, one that says that we married a month ago, right Sammy?” Mr. Winchester asks his brother, but his eyes are on her. 
“That’s right. It’s already signed by all parties. All you have to do is sign it. I’m waiting for the court dates as we speak,” Sam Winchester says and shows her the apparent very important piece of paper.
There are signatures of Mr. Winchester. His brother and Ruby as witnesses. Ruby? Fucking Ruby? Oh my god, and she didn’t even warn her!
“Ruby’s your friend besides work too, isn’t she?” Mr. Winchester asks. 
“Yeah,” Y/N nods.
“Good,” Mr. Winchester says, and adds, “What do you say? Would you do me the honor of becoming my fake wife?”
Her mouth stands slightly agape, she blinks, “This is stupid. Why would you do that? It’s not even legal, is it? Why me?”
“I’m pretty desperate, as you can tell,” Mr. Winchester answers short. And it hurts. It hurts damn bad. Not that she expects anything less. And then he goes on, “Look, I know that it’s a big breach into your privacy but I can guarantee you that you’ll get rewarded for it. I’ll pay you double and you don’t even have to work while you’re married to me.”
But she likes to work! Well, yeah, sometimes he can be a dick but she actually really likes to work. She doesn’t say it, though. Instead, she asks, “How long do we need to be married for?” 
“Six months.” Sam Winchester cuts in.
“Six-what?!”
“Yeah, that’s the only way it won’t look suspicious.” 
“Ah, great. Because we don’t want that, do we? We don’t even live together! I don’t know you! This is going too far.” She’s mad. Can’t lie about it.
“Y/N, please. You’re the only one that I know who doesn’t get irritated by my mood. You know how I like my coffee, you know where I like to eat out, you know my schedule, you’re the only one who really knows me here!”
Sam Winchester clears his throat.
“Calm down, Sammy, alright!” Mr. Winchester rolls his eyes. 
She bites her bottom lip, thinks hard about it. It’s not like she can not not agree to it. It’s double pay for six months! Jack could finish his degree. But she asks anyway, “What are the conditions?”
“I have the contract ready, too,” Sam Winchester says, and hands it to her, while she begins to read it, he goes on, “You’re going to live with Dean as of today,” The younger Winchester says matter of factly.
“Today?” She stands up so abruptly, the chair screeches along the floor, which makes everyone in the room flinch, and Mr. Winchester’s hand goes to his temple. “Sorry,” She whispers.
“Yeah, today. You’ve been married for one month, think it’s time you move in together, no?” Sam grins.
“Okay, and what else?” Y/N crosses her arms over her chest. 
“Monogamy.” The taller Winchester smirks, “No sex or flirting with anyone else for the next six months.”
“What?” Mr. Winchester scoffs, “You didn’t tell me that, Sammy!”
Sam Winchester just shrugs, “I mean, it actually goes without saying. You’re married, that’s what married couples do when they’re in love, being faithful. At least in the first six months I’d hope so.”
Mr. Winchester rubs over his scruff again. He does that a lot when he’s thinking. After a short while he looks at her, “Okay, I can do that, can you?”
How can she say that it's a piece of cake for her because she doesn’t have a healthy social life anyway? All she’s been doing is working and sleeping for a year now. But of course she doesn’t say it. Instead, she says, “I can,” and looks at her boss smugly and he cocks her an eyebrow.
“So that we’re clear, you’re going to act like a lovey dovey couple for the next six month.” Her boss’s brother states.
“Yes,” Mr. Winchester and her say it in unison.
“Great,” Sam Winchester hands her a pen, “If you could just sign here and here, Y/N.” He points to the places on the certificate and contract.
She signs the documents and the taller Winchester puts it away into his case. “Right, I’ll see you guys around,” he calls out before leaving.
“So, Mr. Winchester—”
“—Please call me Dean. We’re married now.” He lets out a tired chuckle.
“Right,” She sighs.
“Look, I’m sorry about it, alright? I’m not out to make your life miserable but maybe if we work on it together it’ll be half as bad as it seems right now?”
“Maybe, yeah.” She agrees. “So, what do you want me to do?”
“You go home and pack your things. I’ll send Gabe to pick you up and bring you to my penthouse.”
Penthouse. How fancy. 
“And don’t worry, the rent for your apartment will be covered.”
“Okay,” 
She walks out of the office with a weird feeling in her guts. When she arrives at her desk Ruby’s grinning.
“You fucking knew!” Y/N hisses at her friend.
“Oh, come on,” The other girl huffs out, “What’s so bad about being married to the hottest bachelor in the business world?”
Well, Ruby’s actually not entirely wrong, but he’s her boss. It will always be awkward. 
“Ask me again in six months, will you?” She says, shuts off her computer and is about to leave when Ruby eyes her, “What?”
“Where are you going?”
“I have to go pack my things.”
“Why?”
She sighs, “Well, I have to go live with him now.”
“You what?!” Ruby damn near squealed.
“Shhh!” She hushes her friend and looks around, smiles when she sees Donatello looking over here with one raised eyebrow, “You know that you can’t talk about it, right? You probably signed a contract.” She doesn’t really know it but given how Sam Winchester is good at what he’s doing, she guesses that they cover Dean’s ass thoroughly. Not that she wouldn’t mind covering that ass herself...
Focus, Y/N! 
“Yeah, I signed something. I didn’t read it  because damn, that young Winchester is yummy. I’d like to climb him like a fucking tree.” 
Great.
“My god Ruby, you should always read what you sign!” 
“In my defense, I was lost in his dimples, okay? Anyway, it’s good if you live with him, no? You can see if he really has a stick up his ass when you walk in on him showering or something like that.”
“Oh my god, I need to leave.” She grabs her bag and walks to the elevator when Ruby makes kissy faces at her. She sticks out her tongue and in that moment, Dean walks out of his office and frowns at her. 
Monday has just started fucking great, hasn’t it?
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CH02
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Grass is Greener // Sibling Shenanigans 1/3
“I might be getting a divorce!” The signs of truth were there. Kairi had a cat carrier in each hand, Astrophe, the princess too good for a carrier, laid across her chest with claws dug into her shoulder, and the long strap of a duffel bag crossing her chest at a slant with the bag itself balanced against a cocked hip. Kairi’s shadow and liner were smudged and eyes too bright. Her smile was forced. Her hair was coiled in a complicated knot, but with several strands fallen out and curling slightly with damp and stuck to her face and neck,  and she was wearing a short black sequined dress with tennis shoes and no socks. She was a definite picture. 
However, her lines were delivered with the air of someone announcing that they had won an all expenses paid trip to Port Royal, and not that the life they had built was crumbling around them, so Axel thought he could be excused when it was with an exasperated sigh and a, “What happened this time?” that he welcomed his little sister through his front door and not a sympathetic and concerned, “Tell me what happened.”
“You know how Vanitas was supposed to be gone this weekend?” The carriers were already on the floor and Kairi and Vanitas’s manx, Ali, had, by all evidence Axel could see, turned to smoke and reformed outside the wire barred door as soon as it was set on the ground before Kairi had even bent to unlatch it, Astrophe running after his sister. “Is Stuffing shut in the bedroom?” All of Kairi’s cats knew Turkey was monarch of the realm, and they were proud aunts and uncles to the litter (Pumpkin, Gravy, Cranberry, Potato, and Biscuit, all of whom were supposed to have gone on to new homes by now, but Kairi suspected were to become permanent fixtures since Axel had not been able to “find the time” to secure appropriate homes so far since “They can’t just go to anyone, Kairi, and I’m not sending them to your broken home either!”) but Kairi’s old wirehair cat, Tillac, who Axel assumed was in the other carrier, and Stuffing had a rivalry that stretched back years. 
Axel didn’t even bother to nod, opting instead to ask, “Is Xion okay?” as he closed the door and then addressed his sister’s other question while bending to pick up the shoes she’d already kicked off so he could place them on the shoe rack by the door which she never remembered to do.  “No, I don’t keep Stuffing shut up unless I’m expecting Tilly, which I wasn’t.” The last was said with a pointed look. “I see you had your hands full, but would it have killed you to call?”
Kairi gaped at him. “Axel, I just took the kids and left my husband, and you manage to take his side by implying the only reason we could have argued is if I had planned something untoward in his absence, insult one of my dearest friends, imply you care more about Xion than your own sister, and whine about how my showing up is going to impact the plans I know you don’t have all in the space of seconds? Axel, your baby sister is distraught!” 
“Yeah, but is Xion okay?” Axel repeated without pause. “She’s sensitive.” He dropped the shoes in their proper place and let out a belated snort. “Untoward? Are you using a word of the day calendar so you can impress the hubby’s friends?”
Kairi released Tillac to go harass Stuffing until Turkey put her in her place, stood up, and tugged the hem of her dress down and readjusted the bodice to try and wrangle everything into a more presentable place. “Not all of us spend our days communicating only in grunts, brother dear.”
“Hey!” Axel gasped in mock offense. “I’m trying my best to teach Demyx human speech, but sometimes I have to meet him halfway.” He opened up his arms and gestured with his hands for Kairi to come hug him, an olive branch she immediately accepted, tripping over the cat carriers to throw herself in his arms. “Now tell me what happened and we can get drunk, or I’ll go threaten the bastard with a weed whacker or something.”  He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back. There wasn’t enough information yet to establish whether this was a you’ll work it out moment or a you really shouldn’t go back this time with a side of you could do so much better, so he left no follow up.
“It’s really not that bad,” were Kairi’s first words and Axel could have provided commentary, but led her over the couch instead. Presumably, that meant Xion was fine. “It’s my fault. I picked a fight.”
He waited a second for more details, and, when none came, he urged her along. “Atta girl. Knock some teeth out? He has too many.”
“Axel, please.”
“Didja, blacken one of those creepy gold eyes?” Axel forced an exaggerated shudder to go with his words. He didn’t have to do much to make it happen. He’d found Vanitas unnerving ever since Kairi introduced them (or, rather, failed to, since “Guess who got married in Vegas?” did not an introduction make).
“His eyes are hazel and they are gorgeous.” Kairi sighed, picking up a wandering kitten from the arm of the couch and sitting them on her lap to cuddle (Pumpkin or Cranberry, but with Kairi’s hand covering the the top of their head while she scritched their scalp, there was no way to check the marking).
“Sure, if you’re a hawk. I bet all the lady hawks go crazy.”
“That’s my husband,” Kairi warned.
“Yeah, but for how much longer?” Axel scoffed, brushing his sister’s fight with husband off again, something he still wasn’t sure he wouldn’t regret later, though Kairi’s glare was weak enough he was confident that he would be called to post bail because Kairi and Vanitas were picked up for indecent acts in the back seat of a convertible in the middle of a car show by next week. It wasn’t like this was the first time Kairi had shown up on his door, claiming things might be over. There was a bit of a girl who cried wolf situation at this stage. He picked up his half finished beer from the coffee table and took a swig. “And I’m just saying you have bad taste. Xion excluded. Do you want to put your duffel  and the carriers in the guest room?”
“I don’t have bad taste. You have bad taste,” Kairi fired back and Axel couldn’t help but picture her at eight years old with a missing tooth and a haircut she’d given herself because he had dared her. “Your last boyfriend was literally a serial killer.”
“You have to kill three people before its serial and he was only convicted of manslaughter. Honestly, it’s like you never had a bad relationship before.” Axel’s easygoing reply of the standard line didn’t match the sudden flicker out and fade of amusement from his eyes.
“You do better with bored housewives.” Kairi patted his arm, and it was almost like an apology. “I’ll get the luggage in a minute.”
“I do fantastic with bored housewives,” Axel corrected, “but I’m usually only interested in their husbands.”
“Oh! Speaking of,” Kairi tucked her legs beneath her and sat up straighter, predatory look entering her eyes, “You started work for Xion’s brother-in-law today, right?”
Kairi smiled suddenly with too many teeth--maybe she was well suited to her husband after all--and Axel found it took all his focus to swallow his beer without choking. It occurred to him that the thermostat might have been broken, because the room was getting humid but the air hadn’t kicked on. “Weren’t you distraught?” He furrowed his brow like a good concerned big brother. “Didn’t you have a fight with your husband? You may be getting divorced. I know we don’t talk about things that bother us like a normal family, thanks Dad, but that’s upsetting news! I’m distraught! My ears are wide open.” He took one of Kairi’s hands in both of his and there was a meow of protest from Pumpkin. “I’m listening.”
Kairi pulled away and resumed important kitten petting duties. Unlike before, where her petulance was for Axel  taking things too lightly, her frustration now seemed to be at internal sources. “Sora invited me away for the weekend. Most of that duffel was already packed.”
“What about Xion?” Axel whined his bias. “She was in…” Axel made an okay symbol with his thumb and index finger and whistled between his teeth for effect, “fine form when I saw her earlier. She was wearing this petal pink bodycon number so short I saw that starfish you’re always talking about, and I think she cut her hair again, or at least did some different product. She was wearing that perfume you got her too. I thought you guys had something planned tonight.”
“Maybe she was going out with Ventus.” Kairi was dismissive enough in tone, but her lips pursed when they were done with the words and Pumpkin made a complaining noise like he’d been squeezed. 
“Who?” Axel oozed false innocence and confusion.
“Her husband...fiancé...boyfriend...whatever,” Kairi waved vaguely, more obviously disgruntled by the moment.
“Not whatever. Just because you skipped a few steps with ol’ Vani the Vain, doesn’t mean there is a distinct difference between those three things, typically one that matters to most people.”
“Just those in the relationship,” Kairi countered.
“And those with...what’s the word?” Axel pretended to think as Pumpkin abandoned Kairi in favor of him, and two more cats came bolting into the room as if summoned, sensing Dad was handing out love. “Morals? Boundaries? Restraint?”
“Van and I do have restraints…” Kairi hummed,  trailing off once the joke was made and clicking her tongue to lure Potatoes to her.
Axel howled protest and screwed up his face, playing along, glad Kairi was distracted again before she could get sad. “ Too much information even for us!”  When Kairi giggled--with grateful eyes that said she wasn’t really that amused, but was trying because she saw he was working hard to keep things light from the moment she’d walked in the door--Axel declared that part of his job done and reoriented back to allowing Kairi to tell her story. “So Vanitas was supposed to be gone so you made plans with Sora, and you were just going to leave the cats? “
“Xion was going to check in on the cats,” Kairi clarified the important part.
“You were going to have Xion catsit while you went traipsing off with the flavor of the month?” Axel stretched his mouth and widened his eyes, daring his face to stick in the clowning expression. “You’ll never get her to leave Airvent and marry you instead that way!”
“I’m already married...for now,” Kairi tokenly defended her marriage.
“Doesn’t count. He didn’t get my blessing...and he never will.” Axel was quick on both parts of the rejoinder.
Kairi ignored him as he expected her to and started to confess in a rush, “So Vanitas announces that he’s not going to the conference anymore; something about him finding out some of the last second substitutions in presenters and articles being presented when his was declined in the peer review stage...He was still published, but it’s a whole political thing with being featured in the conference. Anyway, he had to boycott on principle, so he’s home, and he told me to get ready because we were going out to dinner and we were going to order multiple bottles of wine and get kicked out of our favorite restaurant because he’s already a disgrace…his words. He gave me the opening, and I took it, because I’m panicked Sora is going to show up at the door.”
Axel raised his hand like an obedient child in a classroom to be called on, but just went ahead and interrupted even when he was ignored. “Isn’t Sora the yoga guy? Couldn’t he defeat Vani Vain with the power of friendship and love?” He hadn’t met Sora. Kairi was quite adamant that he wasn’t allowed to after he’d been a little more than politely amused at her stories. It was a fair ask since Kairi had, rightly, assumed that the only reasons Axel wanted to meet Sora were to see if he could make him cry for the fun of it, warn him off his sister, or, if he proved to be as attractive as Kairi said, sleep with him himself.
Kairi continued as if the interruption hadn’t happened. “I don’t take it right away. I get dressed, start to do my hair, and then I start throwing things from the vanity and yelling about how he can’t just order me to doll up like that’s all I am, his doll, waiting pretty on a shelf, ready to play with when he remembers I’m there. I point out he never asked me to come to the convention with him, and after we had such fun at last years’.” Axel snorted, knowing that story, and the pattern of being blocked out continued,  “And I know how many spouses come along now. I think I accused him of having an affair. I really don’t know. I half blacked out. A spirit took over, and when I came to, I was packing a bag and insulting his paper because he still wasn’t getting angry enough fast enough to justify me leaving.”
“It sounds like you handled the situation brilliantly,” Axel complimented. “So did you call Sora and tell him to pick you up here, or is the weekend off? Am I on catsitting and husband deflection duty?” He wasn’t seeing a problem yet, not even something that warranted Kairi’s overdramatic divorce line, though a troubling thought did occur to him. “If he smacked you, shoved you, laid a hand on you in any way when you started yelling at him, I will do more than threaten him with the chainsaw. He’s dead. Demyx will help me hide the body. He knows a guy, and he owes me. They both owe me. Plus, I learned some tricks from my ex.” He softened his concern and threats he was prepared to follow through with in jokes. 
“Stop thinking the worst of him at every opportunity,” Kairi snapped, and Potatoes rubbed his head against her stomach to calm her. “He just...took some low blows of his own and things escalated more quickly than I wanted them to.” She shifted uncomfortably.
“Like what?” Axel responded carefully, not wanting to supply guesses when it was a losing game, even if he came from the angle of listing reasons anything Vanitas could have said was untrue.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kairi insisted, which was a prime sign that it did. “I just might be here a few days for real after Sora and I get back. He’s coming to pick me up in an hour.”
Axel was silent a moment, assessing whether he should push Kairi to talk or hope the weekend healed the wounds, then nodded and gently lifted all cats away from his body. “An hour doesn’t give us much time. Go sit at the dining room table. Go!” He shooed her.
Kairi complied without asking for explanation and Axel went into the kitchen, grabbing two wine glasses down from the cabinet and an open half a red from the fridge. On impulse, he grabbed a few empty beer bottles from his recycling pile as well and stuck them under his arms. He continued their conversation as he rejoined his sister. “Do I get to meet Sora or is he supposed to stay outside and honk? Put your head down on the table and look listless.” He poured the barest hint of wine in the bottom of the glass he put in front of Kairi, and did the same for the one he put in his spot at the table. He arranged the empty beer bottles with the eye of an artist. “Let me go get my phone. Look sadder, but not so sad it’s unbelievable.” 
“If you want to meet Sora, take one of his classes.”
Axel snapped a series of pictures to choose from, talking to himself, “She’s doing fine, Vanitas. We spent the evening talking. Of course. I’ll send you a picture.” Raising his voice a few decibels, he gestured back to the living room. “Go lie down on the couch, cover yourself with the fleece from the armchair,  put a cat or two on your chest, and close your eyes. We’ll shoot, ‘don’t come over now, Van, she’s sleeping,’ next and then you can change into sweats and grab some board games from the closet. I’m assuming you’ll be too mad to answer phone calls from him anyway, but do you want to take your hair down and get it wet in the sink for some, ‘No, she just got out of the shower, why are you so creepy needing evidence?’ safety shots?”
“You’re seriously the best brother ever,” Kairi leaned up on tiptoes and pecked Axel’s cheek on her way into the living room.
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Roxas was watching you today from the upstairs window,” Kairi tossed out nonchalantly. “Xion texted me about it. He wants to smell your hair and cook you dinner.”
“He what?” Axel stuttered and nearly fumbled his phone. So much for a steady hand and unflappable cool. The Howe he hadn’t met yet, having spoken with Isa Howe during his initial looks around and estimates for the yard, had come outside after Xion had left, and all but admitted to watching him at least as long as to comment on Xion detouring to chat with him a minute before she went to her car, and, sure, Axel had purposefully peeled off his shirt and rolled down his overalls to his waist after Roxas had went inside, hoping he was still watching, but he hadn’t seen any proof, and their brief conversation had spent a moment on shock of shared acquaintances (“You know Xion? I knew you were Kairi’s brother--she recommended you--so it makes sense since they’re close, but that’s wild. Small world.”)  and then stayed in the professional (apparently Roxas had been the one who had done the sketches Isa had shown Axel of what the garden in the backyard was supposed to look like when he was done). Maybe Axel had noticed that Roxas had eyes the exact color blue as the delphinium hybrid he had presented at his last flower show (had to keep up the street cred that he was more than just a lawn service guy and a tree and hedge trimmer somehow--even if that sort of thing was his bread and butter), and that he was pretty cut since he hadn’t bothered with a shirt when he ran outside. And perhaps, when the sun caught his hair he looked like an angel out of a renaissance painting. None of that meant anything though.
“He wants to cook you dinner,”Kairi repeated, cavalier. “Be gentle with him. I think it would be his first time out of the box in awhile.”
“I’m not…” Axel pinched the bridge of his nose, counting to keep from getting angry and only managing to count the problems he had with what Kairi was suggesting. “Is this why you recommended me to your friend? Are you my pimp now?”
“He needs a fling.” Kairi had the nerve to shrug. “You are an accomplished flinger. The only person you’re seeing right now is Demyx, and he’s just a friend sleeping in one of your spare rooms….He is still just a friend sleeping in one of your spare rooms, right?”
“Most nights.” Axel left it ambiguous whether Demyx spent the odd night elsewhere or whether the friend lines sometimes blurred. “And my best tree trimmer.”
“That’s what I heard from Ienzo.” Kairi proved the Emberson comedic timing lived well in her. “So what’s the problem with Xion and I wanting to give Roxas a hot gardener fantasy to brighten up his life? He’s a friend.”
“So many things are wrong with that, Thalassa Shell.” In times so serious, Axel had no choice but to bring out family pet names. 
A beat passed. Kairi didn’t apologize for the idea like she was supposed to. Axel didn’t harp on it more. Another question fought its way out of his throat. “Incidentally though, did he say anything else about me?”
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dailyaudiobible · 2 years
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10/03/2021 DAB Transcript
Jeremiah 1:1-2:30, Philippians 4:1-23, Psalms 75:1-10, Proverbs 24:17-20
Today is October 3rd welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it's great to be here with you today as we greet a shiny sparkly new week. And this is the first time we get to do this in the month of October, the first time we’re moving into a full week in this month. And we have other new beginnings. We’re beginning a brand-new book today. We concluded the book of Isaiah yesterday, which brings us to the book of Jeremiah.
Introduction to the book of Jeremiah:
And we’ll find Jeremiah to be very intriguing. It's one of the major prophets. So, we’ll kind of camp out for a while as we move through it, but we’ll see that it has a different complexion than Isaiah. It's written by a different person. And part of what's compelling about Jeremiah is Jeremiah. He was a prophet. He was devoted to God, but he didn't like everything he was instructed to do, and he felt alone and unheard, and that nobody was listening. And there were definitely times that he was frustrated and wanted to just kinda check out, just be released and not have to speak to people who aren't listening, to just wash his hands of it. And he wasn't like delusional or needy or whatever. It was true. Nobody was listening. Israel did turn her back on God. And, so, for a couple of decades Jeremiah is this lone voice, warning of where they're going and that it's not where they want to end up. And for these warnings he got into a lot of conflict and arguments and was imprisoned because it didn't look like what he was saying was true. Things were going really well for the people. It was a prosperous time. And, so, Jeremiah with this message is just a disruptive message that brings doom and gloom in a prosperous time and that isn't good for business. And, so, Jeremiah just finds himself kind of in conflict. Most of the time. And as we will discover, what Jeremiah warned about for a couple of decades eventually came to fruition. The Babylonian Empire invaded, and they conquered Jerusalem in 587. And at this time…this is…Solomon's Temple is in Jerusalem and the Babylonians wipe it out, destroy it completely. And, so, let's dive in. We’ll read from the Common English Bible this week. Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 30 today.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this new territory that we are entering into today into the book of Jeremiah. We look forward to the new territory that we will enter into tomorrow as we move forward in the New Testament. We thank you for this brand-new week, this first full week of the 10th month of the year of the final quarter of the year. We thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you for instructing and guiding us through your word every day. We thank you for your patience with us and your compassion toward us. And we invite you into everything that we do and say this week, all of the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. We invite your Holy Spirit, and we invite our spirits to be aware of your Holy Spirit that is always present to us, that we might walk in fellowship and friendship, but that we also submit ourselves to your authority and guidance. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABbers and I just wanted to let everyone know something that…that happened to me today. My precious brother died, the one who had COVID and just continue to pray for him. He was staring and…and everything for…for quite a few days and he finally closed his dies today about 6:00 o'clock. I just thank God that he…he’s in his destination and knowing that. I want to pray for Sharon. Also, I want to pray for my brother who had said that he had lost everything. I wanted to pray for him and let him know that…that God has…has some of the plans that he…he needs to consult God on what is his next move because God says…David said I'm young and I'm old, but I've never seen the righteous forsaken or seen begging for bread. I'm going to ask God to open up doors for him and him to begin to see. And Tara from Texas, I want to also pray for…for Maggie. I want to pray for those who are…Treasured Possession. I want to pray for those who…those who are going through, those who lost their precious son, my sister who lost her precious father. And I'm going to pray for Lisa who is supposed to be having surgery and…and it was good to hear Drew from the Bay Area and my sweetheart of a friend Blind Tony. It’s always so good to hear from you Tony and…and all the people of God and God's Smile, all of my precious, precious sisters and brothers. And congratulations Jill and Brian on being a grandmother in grandfather again. Gracious father I just lift you up. What a wonderful day. Today is such a wonderful day because you made this day, and you have everything that every one of our DABbers need. You have life and favor. You have healing, you have hope…
Hi, thank you Daily Audio Bible for being so wonderful. I'm so happy to listen to the Bible and listen to the people praying in God's name, in Jesus’ name. I wanted to give a message for God’s Daisy, God’s Crown of Daisy. It really touched my heart when I heard you speaking about wanting to reconnect with your dad and how much you have been touched by the Daily Audio Bible by the Bible by the people praying and how only in one year you've…not even…you found energy and resilience to come back towards your father and your mother-in-law…oh…I mean your stepmom. God bless you and I will keep you in my prayers that everything will go smoothly during your meeting, that the Holy Spirit will take possession of your heart and your mouth so that you know what to say and not say and to just say a prayer that the whole space that you guys are in in their house or wherever you meet that it be filled up with God's holy power and His love and His peace and to really touch them both whether they believe or not in Christ. I want to say also that it…it brought some tears to my eyes, joyful tears because I've been struggling with my relationship with my sister for over a year now. And she has decided to not talk to me or my mom or my dad. They are very, very sad. I've been praying for her every single day, and I felt if it was God's wink when I…
Good morning beautiful sons and daughters of our one true Father. My…I've been given the name of God's Glory. Although it's hard to receive I still claim it here every day. But this is my first year listening through the DAB, this is my first time calling but I'm calling __ morning just to respond to Jonathan in Denver. Brother man you've been in my thoughts, hearts, and prayers since the first time I heard you called several months ago. So, it's good to hear your voice and just let me tell you like how encouraging that first call was because the amount of strength and courage that it took to make the call. Here I am making my first call. So…so, thank you again for being here. And I know all too well what it's like to be the prodigal son that ran away. But let me tell you brother this Father is waiting for you looking searching and he runs out to meet you. God…ah…thank you. Brother, we lift you up in your struggles God and just be with…be with him. And…and let me tell you brother I join in the feast that God is preparing for you as you return home. I know there's not much time but Val in Vegas you bring me so much joy. Thank you, sister. I'm praying the peace of Christ over you. Just know that there is healing in the scars, and I know it's hard but your loved, you are beautiful. And just stay strong. So, thank you.
Hey this is Linda from Southwest Florida and calling in because I just heard Jonathan from Denver for the second time since I started listening to the daily audio Bible back in springtime, I can't remember exactly when. But Jonathan from Denver you broke my heart. You're a young man with an addiction that you're very ashamed of and I’ve…I’ve been praying for you. You're on my physical written prayer list in my little home office and when I heard your voice today, I just was awestruck. And I want you to know that I've been praying for you. And I wish there was a way that we could speak to one another. I'm an old woman. I could probably be your grandmother. I could be your grandmother. You're young. But I understand your addiction and I hear the agony in your voice, and it breaks my heart. The fact that you're a young man and you're seeking in the right area brings me joy. So, it's a big contrast between how it breaks my heart and how it brings me joy at the same time that you are seeking help, you are seeking to be right with God, and you will be right with God, and you will find peace. I can promise you that you'll man. I love you. I love your heart. You will find the peace that you need. Don't ever give up looking for it. In Jesus name. Amen.
Dear DAB family I want to continue to ask you to pray for my little boy. He's not really little. He's a big guy. He's 45 years old but he has COVID. My sister-in-law has COVID, and I've got five kids 14 and under and I ask you to pray for him because he has bad respiratory issues, he has a bad heart, he has a lot of weight to lose, and Jesus loves him so much. And I was just thinking about the other day when we were talking about fasting and praying and everything and how, you know, we're not supposed to brag about and everything. And I remember when my brother was a little baby and how my granddaddy because when my brother was born, he was born with a collapsed lung and so I remember my granddad praying for him and so it just brought back memories and brings back memories now. And anyways please…please keep my brother Lucas and his family in your prayers. And I thank you guys. I'm praying for you guys all the time. I keep little yellow tabs in my Bible to remember to pray for you guys all the time. And I love you guys. And I'm really thankful for you. And this is Heather from California by the way. Sorry I didn't mention that. But anyways take care and thank you. Thanks for praying for Lucas and his family. God really loves him. He's very special. He's a real special guy. And we know that Jesus loves everybody and…and…and Lucas is one of those that just been around the block. But anyways I better go because I'm running out of time. Thank you. Thank you. We love you guys. Bye.
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ladylillianrose · 4 years
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Clarkeman Fanfiction Recommendation List
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I decided to compile a nice easy access list for everyone of popular/highly rated Max Richman/Zoey Clarke fanfictions. They are arranged by type of work, and alphabetically by title! 
Collections:
Fallout by Jade4813: After the embarrassing incident at Simon and Jessica’s engagement party, Zoey knows she needs to clear the air with Simon, but she keeps getting distracted by memories of That Song. Part 1 of Zoey’s Extraordinary Confessions Series. Rated General Audiences, Complete
Give Me One Good Reason by TheAuthor44: What if Zoey hadn't run out the door after being confronted with Max's heart-song in 1x11.Part 2 of The ByeByeBye Collection. Rated General Audiences, Complete
Give Me One Good Reason, Part 2 by TheAuthor44: After their fight in the alley, Zoey and Max still have a lot to express….Part 2 of The ByeByeBye Collection. Rated Mature, Complete
Repercussions by Jade4813: Sequel to Fallout (and episode 7 of the series). Zoey still has the ability to hear other people's "heartsongs" but now others can hear her feelings, too. Will Max finally learn how she feels about him? (Inspired by the episode 8 description.) Part 2 of Zoey’s Extraordinary Confessions Series. Rated General Audiences, Complete
Resolution by Jade4813: Zoey has finally figured out how she feels about Max, but when she tries to get up the never to tell him, Everything. Goes. Wrong. Will the two of them ever manage to get on the same page? Part 3 of Zoey’s Extraordinary Confessions Series. Rated General Audiences, Complete
Multi-Chapter, Complete:
Ad Nauseam (Or Not) by Gwritesforfun:  5 times Zoey and Max attempted to talk about their feelings and were interrupted. One time they weren't. Or, the evolution of a much-needed discussion. Rated Mature, Complete
Adventures in Babysitting by TheAuthor44: Max helps babysit baby Peter when Zoey is stuck at work. Ladies, tell your ovaries I said you're welcome. Rated General Audiences, Complete
The Lies We Tell Ourselves by Jade4813: Max would do absolutely anything for Zoey. Including posing as her fake boyfriend to give her father one last "big moment" to celebrate with her. Nothing could possibly go wrong. After all, it's only his heart that stands to be broken. Right? Takes place after "Zoey's Extraordinary Glitch." Rated Teen, Complete
The Long and Winding Road by TheAuthor44: Three months after her fathers' funeral Zoey gets assigned to go to a managerial conference for SPRQ Point in Orlando, Florida. Max offers to come along after he tells her he’s been meaning to head back east to go through things from his childhood home. While Max originally offers flying together – Zoey suggests they drive and make it a road trip! Max needs to figure out his next career move, Zoey needs an escape from her grief - It's perfect! Road trip shenanigans ensue as Max and Zoey’s love story takes some unexpected twists and turns. Rated Teen, Complete
The Marks That Life Left On Them by chosenandloved: This is a Clarkeman fic set about one month post-finale.Simon, Zoey, and Max all seek out therapy in their own ways and come to some startling realizations regarding life and love. Rated Teen, Complete
A marriage (and other mishaps) by Bookreader525: Zoey and Max accompany Joan and Leif on a business trip to Las Vegas. Their presentation goes well— so well, in fact, that they spend the rest of the night partying. Cue the next morning, when Zoey wakes up in a hotel room that is not hers with a ring on her finger that she doesn't recall wearing before. Rated Teen, Complete
Max’s Extraordinary Project by Gwritesforfun:  Any successful project takes a well-executed plan. Max has a birthday surprise for Zoey, and he assembles a team to give her a gift. Rated Teen, Complete
Seasons of Love by Ladylillianrose: Max has always been included in the Clarke family holiday celebrations. A journey through the different holidays and celebrations they have, as their lives continue to change and grow. Rated Teen, Complete
Take A Chance On Me by Ladylillianrose: Max moved to the 6th floor, giving Zoey the space and time she needed to figure out her feelings. But now that she's ready to talk, what is she going to tell him? Rated Teen, Complete
The Wedding Date by Jade4813: Zoey agrees to be Max's Plus One at his brother's wedding. They're supposed to be just friends, but the dreams Zoey's been having about him lately make things complicated. Rated Explicit, Complete
When I Kiss You, SPRQS Fly by ElliHelm: Five times Zoey and Max kissed throughout their (totally just a) friendship. Plus one time where they finally acknowledged it was more than that. Rated Mature, Complete
When I Think About You I… by Ladylillianrose: Zoey performs Karaoke, giving Max a show he will never forget. (Established Relationship). Rated Explicit, Complete
You’ve Got SPRQS by Ladylillianrose: A new dating app has just launched for the SPRQ Watch, called SPRQS. Joan signs Zoey up for it in order to help her meet someone. Will Zoey find someone? Can you really fall in love through an app? Inspired by You've Got Mail. Rated Teen, Complete
Zoey’s Extraordinary Nephew by Ladylillianrose: Max stops by to meet Zoey's nephew, and a much-needed conversation is had. Rated Teen, Complete 
Zoey’s Extraordinary Nightmare by aubreyrichman: An event causes Zoey to realize her worst fears. Rated Teen, Complete
Zoey’s Extraordinary Relationships by Gwritesforfun:  “Unnecessarily complicated, exhausting for everybody, the opposite of good.” Zoey reflects on 5 complicated past relationships, and one that isn’t complicated at all. A 5+1 things. Rated Teen, Complete
Zoey’s Extraordinary Reunion by aubreyrichman: High School Reunions are synonymous with drama, stress, fear, and showing the people that attended school with you that you are different than you were when they knew you. When Max receives an invitation to his High School Reunion, he doesn't realize that the reunion itself could change EVERYTHING. Rated Teen, Complete 
Zoey’s Extraordinary Secrets by aubreyrichman: What could have happened with Zoey if timing had been different? What if Zoey’s dad wasn’t so sick when she developed her powers? What if she had gotten them earlier? What if...? Rated Explicit, Complete
Multi-Chapter, In-Progress
Extraordinarily Star-Crossed by aubreyrichman & Ladylillianrose: “...and when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself....the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment...”-Plato, The Symposium. Rated Mature, In-Progress
Ghosted: An Extraordinary Haunting by aubreyrichman: When Max’s life hangs in the balance, who else does he turn to but his best friend? But does that mean that he will be heard? Rated Teen, In-Progress
It’s Not the Goodbye, It’s The Longing That Follows by Jade4813: Zoey told Max that she needed more time, but time, it seems, has just run out. After she realizes her feelings a little too late, can the two of them find their way back to each other? Rated General Audiences, In-Progress
Table for Two by ElliHelm: When Zoey's conscience (re: jealousy) rears its ugly head at a fateful encounter at the Golden Gate Grind, Operation: Get Max Off Of Her suddenly becomes a lot more complicated. Or, How To Go On A Totally Platonic Dinner Date With Your Best Friend When You Know They're In Love With You. An AU where Zoey goes to Hand-Picked with Max and how her life changes as a result. Rated Teen, In-Progress 
The Times They Just Knew by bigcitydreamer98: Set after the finale, told through the POVs of Zoey's friends and family, those closest to Zoey recount the times they knew that Zoey and Max were falling for one another. From lingering glances to cheesy Dad jokes, slightly concerning outbursts of song to meeting the family Max never seems to talk about, Zoey and Max make it through it all - most importantly, together. Rated General Audiences, In-Progress 
Win Some or Learn Some by Jade4813: Zoey has just discovered her new powers, but they develop an inconvenient glitch that makes her start to realize her feelings for him may not be what she's always believed. The only problem is, she has no idea if he feels the same way. Rated Explicit, In-Progress
Zoey’s Extraordinary Guide To Grief by atlas_outlast: Or; How To Grieve When You’ve Been Grieving For Years But Now Your Father Is Actually Dead. Rated Teen, In-Progress
One-Shots
Both Showing Hearts by TheAuthor44: AU 1x12 where Zoey reflects on all the events of the day ... and Max gets to finish. Rated General Audiences, Complete
Breaking Point by Jade4813: When they become temporary roommates during quarantine, how many times can Zoey and Max have sex while still pretending to themselves and to each other that it Doesn’t Mean Anything? Rated Explicit, Complete
do you think you will be good enough (to love others and to be loved) by flashlightinacave: Post season 1 episode 10, Zoey and Max finally have a real conversation and trade some needed apologies. Rated Teen, Complete
Hand-Picked Redux by TheAuthor44: What if Mo convinced Zoey to join Max for dinner at Hand-Picked? What if she wasn't so emotionally avoidant? What if Autumn hadn't been working at the Golden Gate Grind that day? Rated General Audiences, Complete
A Promise by TheAuthor44: My take on Max's goodbye to Mitch in 1x12. Max lets Mitch know exactly how he feels about his daughter - and makes him a promise. Not Rated, Complete
The Sound of Silence by Jade4813: Max had never had Zoey's power, but he'd never mourned its absence. Her voice, and the sound of her laugh, had been all the music he'd ever needed for over sixty years. Rated General Audiences, Complete
Tobin Ships It by TheAuthor44: In order to win the office bet of when Zoey and Max will get together, Tobin decides to take matters into his own hands. Rated General Audiences, Complete
Wild Things by innie: Her power has a soft spot for Max. Rated Mature, Complete
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Emerson Barrett Fan Fiction - Beautiful Things Come One Stitch At A Time
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Prompt: Enemies to Lovers (or rather exes to still-exes-but-one-of-them-wants-to-get-back-together)
Word-count: 1825 words
Warnings: none
Description: Tia dumped Emerson because he wasn't good for her. She never expected to see him at work four years later - and now she doesn't know what to do.
Sequel to Not Enough Stitches To Put Us Back Together!
Tia sighed and ran her hand through her hair.
 This was not how she had wanted to spend her day.
 After getting fired, she’d started looking for jobs that would take her away from Las Vegas. It had only been a few months since she’d dumped her ex-boyfriend, Emerson, and it had seemed like the universe was telling her it had been time for a change. She’d applied for a few various positions, and ended up taking a job on Los Angeles, at Sumerian Records. At the time, Palaye Royale had been an unsigned band, and Tia had taken a job as a personal assistant in the record label’s legal department, figuring that even if Palaye Royale were signed to Sumerian, it was unlikely Tia would ever have any reason to deal with them.
 However, two very significant things had changed since she’d first started working for Sumerian.
 Firstly: she’d become a tour manager. Apparently she had an undiscovered talent for wrangling people and organisation. The last bit hadn’t really been undiscovered to her, but the people wrangling bit had been a pleasant surprise.
 Secondly - something that was a much less pleasant surprise - Palaye Royale got signed to Sumerian Records.
 Tia hadn’t been pleased. She’d gone straight to her boss, Kayley, and explained everything: that Emerson was an ex-boyfriend, that they hadn’t parted on the best of terms, and that Sebastian and Remington despised her. Kayley had taken it in stride, and made notes in all the relevant places that Tia wasn’t to be TM on any tour Palaye Royale were on. It was a system that worked for years; she never saw any of the three men, and since she’d blocked them all on all of her social media accounts, along with anyone she knew they were close with, she wasn’t even sure she worked for the label they were signed to.
 It was the perfect arrangement, as far as she was concerned.
 But then the world had gone to shit. That had been rough for everyone, not least Tia, who had been lucky to be put on paid leave through the worst of it, getting 75 percent of her monthly salary each month. Between that, using the extra time to spend on her crafting hobbies that allowed her open up an Etsy store, and her savings, Tia had been lucky enough to wait the virus out. Some of her colleagues hadn’t been so lucky, and had had to move on, but as much as Tia’s heart had hurt for them, she hadn’t really thought of what that meant for her.
 Like the fact Sumerian were now dealing with the world opening back up for concerts while they had a lack of tour managers.
 Which was how Tia had ended up being named TM for the second leg of Palaye Royale’s The Bastards Tour.
   Just kill me now.
   Kayley had been apologetic, and Tia honestly believed there was nothing her boss could’ve done, but in some respects that just made things more frustrating. There was no-one to blame for these circumstances but a shitty universe fucking with her, and so Tia just had to put on her big girl knickers and get on with it. Starting with introducing herself to the boys as their new TM.
 It wasn’t going to be fun. In fact, Tia was pretty sure it was going to be the worst day she’d had since she’d dumped Emerson.
 Despite that, though, Tia squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and walked onto the tour bus that was going to be her new home - and the home of her ex-boyfriend and his brothers - for the next few months. The sudden silence that fell across the three men sitting in the main living area was deafening, but Tia didn’t let it intimidate her. She was going to have to face a lot worse than just silence, and she wasn’t going to be beaten so early on.
   So, instead, she just put a blandly professional smile on her face, and introduced herself before any of those idiots could speak: “Good morning. I’m Tatia, and I’m going to be the TM for this tour.”
 “We know who you are.” Sebastian glared at Tia: “It’s not like we’d forget the bitch who dumped our brother on the way back from the hospital.”
 Remington nodded: “We’re not awful people.”
   Tia would like to argue that point, specifically about Sebastian and Remington, but she was determined to remain professional.
 Even if Emerson was staring at her as if she was some sort of literal angel: like he couldn’t quite believe he was actually seeing her. It was weird, and Tia really hoped that he stopped doing it soon, but in the name of remaining professional she ignored it.
   “Of course you’re not.” Tia agreed with Remington, keeping her tone light and friendly, despite how bad his attitude was: “And irrespective of any previous relationships, we’re going to have to work together for the next three months, so I believe it’s in all out interests to be civil.”
 “Or we could just tell the label that you’re a ex and we don’t want to work with you.” Remington smirked.
 Tia just smiled at him: “Sumerian Records have been aware of the fact Emerson is my ex-boyfriend since you signed with them. Normally I would not have been your TM, but there’s a bit of a shortage of us around at the moment, and I’m the only one available for this tour. If you would still like to take it up with the record, then you can, but in terms of TMs, it’s me or no-one.”
   Silence reigned again.
   “Shall we get on the road, then?”
   The silence continued, and Tia took that as a win.
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      A month into the tour, and Tia was ready to tear her hair out.
 Remington and Sebastian were dicks. Andrew, their touring guitarist, took his lead from them, even if he wasn’t as bad: and their merch girl Hope did the same. All the roadies, some of whom she’d worked with before, were on her side, seeing Remington, Sebastian, and Andrew as arrogant and rude because…well, they were arrogant and rude, snapping demands during set up and ignoring everyone the rest of the time. The driver hated them because he was constantly annoyed by their antics on the bus, so he was on Tia’s side too
 The bus was divided, and it was not conductive to a good environment.
 And then there was Emerson.
 Emerson, when he wasn’t busy on stage or doing media, followed Tia around like a lost puppy. The roadies had found it really creepy to begin with - and even when Tia had filled them in on the fact he was her ex, they still weren’t too happy about him. She was rarely left on her own, and she grateful for that - because apparently Emerson was not over her.
 He started with constantly trying to make eye contact whenever they were in the same room. When that didn’t work, he moved onto texting her, since she’d unblocked him for work, but she ignored all messages from him that weren’t work related. Once he’d realised he wasn’t getting anywhere with the texts, he’d moved onto gifts and cares. A lot of gifts and cards. Stuffed toy cats, expensive treats like fancy baked goods and chocolates, interesting sounding books, even jewelry.
 Tia ignored all of it, but she knew it was only a matter of time before he would stop letting her do that.
 Eventually, he managed to corner her while she was talking to Hope about how much stock the merch table needed and if they needed to look at getting more. With Hope being firmly on the band’s side, and probably assuming Emerson was going to chew her out like Remington and Sebastian constantly tried to, she disappeared the moment he gestured for her to give him and Tia a moment.
   He didn’t waste a moment once he had her trapped between himself, the merch table, and a wall, immediately launching into what he wanted to say: “Tia, I’m so sorry. Past me was awful - ”
 “I hate to break it to you, Emerson, but present you is also pretty terrible.” Tia rolled her eyes.
 “ - but I have changed.” Emerson continued, before his expression turned regretful when he registered what she’d said: “Even if I haven’t necessarily shown you that.”
 Tia rolled her eyes again: “Pretty much the opposite. You and your brothers are exactly the same as I remember you: aggressive, cocky, or just plain apathetic. Your brothers have gone out of their way to make life difficult to me, and you’ve sat back and let it happen, just like the three of you used to drive me to the urge of panic attacks, and you did nothing about it. So, yeah, I wouldn’t exactly say that you’ve shown you’ve changed.”
 Emerson had the good sense to look ashamed: “You’re right, I haven’t. I’m sorry.”
   Tia remained resolute when Emerson’s face dropped.
 She wasn’t sucked in by the act - and on the off chance it was genuine, it was nothing compared to the upset he’d caused her. The fact was, dating Emerson had been terrible for Tia’s mental health. It had driven her to therapy after the relationship ended, which had in time allowed her to see that although her issues were absolutely not Emerson’s fault, he exacerbated them so much that if she hadn’t dumped him when she had there would have been issues that he was to blame for.
 Had she missed him? Yes. Did she still miss him? That was harder to say.
 Emerson was a unique soul, and Tia had truly felt they had gotten along amazingly…he just never listened to her when she explained that there was something wrong. She had loved him, even though they’d been together for just six months, but that had been over four years ago now, and even though sometimes it made something in her chest clench when she looked at him, she honestly wasn’t sure if it was love or just an echo of the pain he’d caused her.
   “I want to show you that I have, though.” Emerson suddenly continued: his forlorn look being overtaken by one of determination: “I will show you that I have.”
 Tia wasn’t sure she believed him…but she found that, deep down, she wanted him to, even though she wasn’t going to admit it, so she just sighed: “I’m sure you’ll try, Emerson.”
 “I will.”
 “Okay, then.” Tia shrugged, still acting like she didn’t believe him - because she honestly didn’t, no matter what she wanted: “I’ve got work to do. You do what you want.”
   She walked away, leaving Emerson to plan whatever he was going to do to try and convince her that he was a better person that he used to be.
   I wonder if it will work…
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Escaping Grace
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A/N: So I wrote this fanfic over 4 years ago when Blackveilbridesfanfiction.com was still a thing, and there's been a lot change with the band since then. It's one of my first fics to ever write --- actually, it IS THE FIRST fan fiction I ever wrote.I'm going to do some editing to it before it's posted here from its original content since my style is a little different, so it's doubtful there'll be as many chapters, but I still hope you enjoy it! (And please don't judge, I was just a wee babe when I started out. Or judge gently. Well, I actually I judged it pretty hard when reading back through it.)I've rewrote it significantly so much that the plot has changed here and there, as I didn't like the previous at all. It was terrible, I'm going to be honest. I'm going to include in each chapter  references for lyrics used from other bands, as I'm absolutely no musical artist and not clever enough to come up with my own for Escape From Grace to use in their music, so look for that at the end of each posted chapter should it come up.
A sound of immense excitement escapes my lips before I can stop it as I stare at our manager; he's barely made it halfway through his sentence but he has my full attention. I clasp my hands together as I straighten, grinning from ear to ear as I bite my lip.
This is the best news I've ever had. In my entire life.
Well, second best, getting signed on as a band was a pretty big memory to me, and all the people in the room as well. Coming from a nowhere town and being a nobody, working all those bars and gigs trying to get attention --- how we got so lucky, I'm not sure, but I'm thankful. We would still be struggling to make it if it wasn't for our manager, so I'm pretty grateful to him.Even more so now that he just gave this announcement.
I'm so getting him some donuts for our next meeting.
"Well, I'm glad you're taking the news so well," our manager says after a moment with raised brows, and I can feel my cheeks start to heat as everyone looks at me. I give him a sheepish look of apology, leaning back in my chair and trying to contain my excitement.
Still, he had to know I would be excited about this! Sure, we're a signed band, for a record label, but it's still a struggle. Even signed we still have a lot of work to do, and it would be too easy to fall into obscurity or be a one hit wonder, which isn't something that I want. This is going to be the rest of my life, it's what I want more than anything, and I'm not going to let this opportunity slip past me.
We're just getting our footing as a band, trying so hard to break out into a scene already full of so many talented people. Sometimes it's overwhelming and I feel like we've hit a brick wall, like we're never going to climb any higher. No one makes it quick big in this business, I guess, which is another reason why I'm so excited, why this is so important --- it could be our big break!We've been mostly openers for other bands in the last year, with one small tour through a few cities that gave us a lot of publicity, but nothing like this! Per our lovely manager, we're going to be opening for Black Veil Brides on several different occasions on their upcoming tour! They're one of my favorite bands, their songs feature themselves on all my playlists, and the fact we're going to meet them!
Oh, I can't stand it.
Is it suddenly really hot in this room?
I squirm in my seat, chewing my lower lip thoughtfully as Craig continues with the announcement. He was just going over the usual bits, we have a meeting pretty frequently about our lined up gigs and to be on better behavior than the last few. Some, or rather one of us, likes to get tipsy and flirt with fangirls, and despite his occupation as a drummer, still makes the boyfriends fairly upset.
My eyes flick to the blonde drummer not paying any of us a bit of attention, looking at his phone and swiping left or right occasionally. He looks exhausted, black rings under his eyes; I'm surprised he even managed to make the meeting today.
"When's the first show?" Clarke, our bassist, asks, his feet propped in my lap as he leans his chair back, teetering precariously on the back legs. He doesn't seem near as excited as I am about this, but he's never really been that into the type of music that we're playing. He was more into the hardcore, metalish type, which as hard as I might try, my voice just wasn't cut out for. I'm always waiting for the day he's going to drop the bomb that he's ditching us for something more his speed, but I wouldn't blame him.
Take an opportunity where you can get it.
"Three weeks," Craig replies, checking his watch. He's always kind of in a rush when it comes to us, we're not exactly his biggest moneymakers, but I like to think we're not at the bottom either. I mean, it would be nice to actually meet in an official space and not the breakroom of the record label, but I have the feeling maybe Craig doesn't exactly have a ton of pull and probably doesn't have his own office to see us in.
Still, he's been good to us, and I appreciate it. The fluorescent lights above dim a little before getting brighter, reflecting off his shiny bald head. He has thick old man eyebrows that are seriously in need of a trim, and absolutely no facial hair to speak of, which you'd think he'd want to balance out the baldness, but I digress. He's not a thin or tall man, and he has a thing for chunky watches and outdated t-shirts that makes him look like a suburban dad instead of any sort of manager.
"That's coming up pretty quick, don't ya think? We have some stuff already booked, don't we?" Vale looks nervous, shifting in the blue plastic chair beside me. Her gray-painted eyes flick to me, but I give her a bright, reassuring smile she reluctantly returns after a moment. She's my lead guitarist, my backup vocalist, my roommate, and my best friend. She holds many titles very dear to me, in fact. Without her, there's no telling where I would be right now. "And why us, exactly?"
"Well," our manager rubs the back of his neck, clearing his throat and pretending to study the notes jotted down on Subway napkins in front of him. "Another band was going to open for them, but their lead singer has to have his tonsils removed. So, I pulled some favors, and got you guys signed instead!" He grins at us, looking very pleased with himself as he shoots us some obnoxious finger guns.
Vale rolls her eyes as she leans back in her chair, giving him an unimpressed look. She tugs on the end of her long black hair thoughtfully. "Well, you're certainly not letting us fade into obscurity, I'll give you points for that."
Craig looks satisfied with the response.
I glance around the round table we all sit at. Vale to my left who is now focusing on fixing her black eyeliner in a compact, and her brother Clarke where he's casually chatting with Craig as if he's actually interested in the gig. Our drummer, Nate, has finally passed out against the whiteboard behind him, and I'm pretty sure that's a sheen of drool on his chin.
I'm the lead vocalist, the frontperson of our band, and I also play keyboard when it's called for. I've always been close with Clarke and Vale, we grew up together as neighbors. It was their idea to form a band and get out of our old town, and when Nate joined us, it seemed like we might actually have a shot. It still blows my mind that we've made it this far without something breaking us up.
I've never had a lot of good luck, but maybe it's all been building up for this.
"Sooo --- do we get to meet the band beforehand?" I ask Craig, trying not to sound as eager as I feel but probably failing. I wanted to meet them, every single one of them, gawk at them like a fangirl meeting their idol, and wholeheartedly embarrass myself. "Where's the venue? When do the shows start? Are we going to get a bus this time or are you going to make us ride in your minivan again like a gothic soccer mom? Y'know that's not really going to give us the badass impression we're going for."
Vale snorts, biting her lip to hold back a laugh as Craig sighs heavily.
"Just be lucky I had a van to get you all to that show, alright?" He grumbles, but the experience had been mortifying. Just getting started, our actual ride breaks down, and suddenly Craig rolls up in a blue minivan with proud parent stickers on the back glass and yells at us to get in. Never again.
"But yes, you do get to meet the guys beforehand." Craig states, rubbing his jaw. "The lead singer, whathisname, wants to meet you guys before the first show. He's probably going to measure you up and make sure you're up for opening for his band. You guys need to make a good impression," he warns us, as if I'm not already planning on murdering whoever embarrasses us first; only I get to feel humiliated, no one else gets to do it for me!
He glances at Nate where he snoozes, and I know the warning is more for him then anything, but he's sleeping, so it's not really having any effect.
I feel like some tween girl meeting her boyband idol for the first time, being presented with front row tickets to his show. I rub my hands nervously against my thighs, ignoring the dampness my nerves are causing.
I'm the youngest in the band. I've known Vale and Clarke since I was twelve, and without them I doubt I would have made it through my teenage years. Or any years, if I really wanted to admit it to myself. I owed them a lot, more than I could ever pay back, but I'm hoping with our success that'll be enough.
"I heard he was an asshole when Asking Annie opened for them in Vegas." Clarke says, not looking at all thrilled. I frown at him, and shove his legs out of my lap for such a crappy comment. He knows I love that band! He ignores me, letting them drop easily to the floor before straightening in his chair; he better be glad I didn't tip him over!
"To be fair, Alex, their lead singer, is totally dopey and he can only perform while high, so," Vale closes her compact with a snap, the lights glinting off her dark nailpolish. "I would've been an asshole to him too. This is really good for us, guys. This could be it, y'know? None of us are going to screw this up by being rude or listening to rumors. I don't even care if they're true; the publicity this is going to bring us is worth it."
Well, she makes a good point, and Clarke concedes; that or he just decides ignoring his younger sister is better than arguing and just looks away. I'm sure the microwave in the corner has suddenly become much more interesting than the conversation.
I tap a nail against the table thoughtfully, still having a hard time believing this. We're finally getting a big break, with a band that I know at least two of us like, so that's a good thing! I thought earlier I was going to pass out from how hard my heart was beating, how excited I got at the prospect of meeting them.
"Is this not the best news ever?" I sigh as I look at everyone, unable to contain my glee. "Ever? Like seriously? Do you guys know how great this is?"
"Saying it multiple times doesn't make it true," Clarke mumbles, for some reason intent to find a reason to not be as excited as I am. He's always so serious and cautious, ever the distrustful one. Well, I suppose when you're the oldest in a band that you're younger, reckless sister is in, you sort of have to be the adult and the ringleader; hell, I'm the lead singer, but I listen to him and take his advice to heart.
"It'll give you guys a good amount of exposure," Craig states, folding his arms along the laminated tabletop. "Hopefully it'll kickstart some more sales of the new album you're about to drop."
"And Leah will get to meet the object that she lusts so much after," Vale adds with a chuckle.I send her a horrible look, ignoring the heat burning my cheeks; she doesn't have to mention that in front of everyone.
"Really? Which one?" Craig looks amused, and sometimes I get the feeling he sees us more as his kids than business partners. I mean, I think he does have some teenage girls, or boys maybe, I'm not quite sure, so he probably deals with this all the time. Crushes, heartbreak, the need of a minivan for emergencies.
"The lead singer, Andy. It's the voice I think, the deep drawl and that nice hair ---."
"Vale."
Vale giggles, winking at me as she twists the end of her long hair absently. She's enjoying watching me squirm, but really it's no secret. I mean, I wasn't exactly discussing my interests with Craig in that area, but I suppose it doesn't matter now.
Just makes things a little awkward.
"Andy Biersack? Really?" Our manager doesn't look impressed with my choice of crush. "Why am I surprised over this?"
I sink a little in my chair, merely shrugging my shoulders.
Craig just shakes his head before he starts getting to his feet, grabbing his note napkins and folding them together. He's never very organized, but I like to think it's one of his quirky qualities. He tucks the napkins into his shirt pocket, says goodbye to us, and heads for the archway leading to the hall.
One of these days, maybe we'll actually have a meeting room.
"Oh." Craig's head suddenly pops back into the kitchen, holding the end of a torn napkin. "I forgot to mention. You're meeting the love of your life at Club Rehab tomorrow at eight. Don't be late, dress to impress."
"What!?"
Craig suddenly is one, and I stare after him in horror. "Did he just say we were meeting them tomorrow?"
"Mmm." Vale looks thoughtful. "Dress to impress, like don't we always?" she snorts, cutting her eyes at her brother. "Don't be an ass, and yes you're coming. Wake up Nate so we can fill him in."Clarke frowns, glancing at the snoozing drummer, his lips parted as his head lolls back and forth; he's getting marker all in his freshly dyed blonde hair.
"I suppose we don't need to look like losers when we meet them." I mumble as I prop my chin on my hand, watching as Clarke kicks Nate's chair easily with his long legs, causing Nate to wake in a panic, sputtering. He looks around wild-eyed for a few moments before he realizes he's not under attack, then sends Clarke a scowl.
"What was that for!?"
"Rise and shine, Snow White. You slept through the meeting but we have news."
"I wasn't asleep," Nate mutters, wiping at his lips with the back of his hand, blue eyes bloodshot. "I didn't miss anything."
"Were you out late again partying?" Vale looks annoyed with him, her full lips drawing into a frown. She's one of the prettiest people I've ever met, I sort of envy how she always looks so put together and confident. She's tall, but the right kind of tall that's not too tall, and slim, able to wear whatever she wants and she never has problems finding her clothes in the store.I'm much shorter, and I might as well shop in the toddler section to find jeans that aren't too long for me.
"No," our drummer retorts, running his hands down his face. Yeah, sure bud, those black circles under your eyes say something different. Nate was a partier, he was even before he joined us, we knew that. He knew all the best places to have a good time, and I'm fairly sure he doesn't usually get out of bed until noon or he has to meet us. Sometimes you could still smell the cheap perfume and booze off the wrinkled shirt he doesn't change. I like him well enough, but some people shouldn't have fame or too much money, it isn't such a good thing.
Be famous responsibly.
Clarke quickly explains what Nate's missed during his impromptu nap, and our drummers eyes light up. He likes the other bands drummer, admires his techniques, and even his sleepy head knows this is a big deal for us.
Momentous, really.
"When do we meet them?" he asks eagerly, rubbing his arm.
"Tomorrow, and don't come smelling like a bar." Vale replies, staring him down beneath thick black lashes; she has a fierce glare, I'll give her that. She gets to her feet, stretching her arms in front of her. She nudges her chair under the table, and we all sort of follow suit as we get to our feet. Nate mocks her slightly before taking a sniff of himself, only to grimace.
Everything is going to go great tomorrow, that's what I'm going to keep telling myself. We're going to make a fantastic impression, we'll be charming and humorous and they'll want us to open every show! Or, actually, we'll be so famous they'll be opening for us by the time it's over with.
I can dream.
Just.... oh my god.
What exactly am I going to wear?
I look at Vale in utter panic. She could wear a paper bag and look fantastic, but it's not that easy for me.
What if I go in there wearing something horribly mismatched, or that doesn't work at all? What if I look like some Avril Lavigne, pop princess rip off and they don't want us opening? I could say something stupid, insult one of them accidentally, what do we even know about them?
"Why are you making that face?" Nate asks warily as we step out into the hall together. "If you're gonna be sick, aim that way."
"I'm just thinking about tomorrow, don't be a dick." I wait for Vale to catch up with me, seeing she's focused on her phone. "Vale?"
"Mmm?"
"We need to go shopping."
"Shopping?" She sends me an amused look as we fall into step, the worn carpet of the hallway pillowing our footsteps. "Why?"
"Because we need to find something to wear tomorrow."
"You realize whatever you buy you won't wear, and you'll have buyers remorse like you do every time."
"Vale." Now she's starting to stress me!
"Oh, fine, don't freak out. We'll go after we grab some lunch, find something to aww the boys with." she looks amused, and her arm twines with me as we walk. "But don't worry so much, it's just another business meeting. Think of it more like that."
"Is that how you think about every meeting we have?"
"Well, no, I imagine Craig in his underwear and it sort of ruins any intimidation I might feel."
"Well that's a mental image I didn't need."
Vale grins down at me, squeezing my arm as we reach the front desk and give the harried looking secretary a smile as we leave.
I'm worried about tomorrow, but I do tend to worry and be anxious about everything. I might be excited now, but tomorrow I know I'll be an explosion of nerves.I just want everything to go well so badly.
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The Memories of Christmas Past
my not so secret santa fic for my favourite bubs @pink-psychic , sorry it couldn't be better but I hope you enjoy ❤️
On a soft snowy morning, in the suburbs of New York City. Eddie and Richie slept in bed, all tangled up in one another. Richie was half awake already, he had somehow gotten used to waking up early. He knew their peace and quiet would soon be interrupted by excited screams but for now he tried to take in his beautiful sleeping husband as much as he could. Snuggled up a bit closer and kissed his temple a bit longer, not wanting to wake him just yet. However, that carefulness was disregarded quickly as he heard footsteps getting closer to their room and suddenly the door swung open. 
“Daddy, papa! Santa came! We have to go open the presents!!, Olivia their oldest, screamed as she jumped on their bed. 
“Liv, sweetie, we don’t jump on the bed. You might hurt yourself.” Eddie said, slowly waking up.
“Listen to your papa sweets, you know what happens when you don’t …. TICKLE FIGHT! 
Richie grabbed his daughter and started tickling her and kissing her all over until she bagged him to stop. 
“DADDY! Please stop! I can’t b-breath. AH daddy, I’m too ticklish, it’s not fair!”
“Okay sweetie but you promise you’ll listen to papa now?”
“Yes daddy I promise. Can we open the presents now?”
“PRESENTS?”, Charlie their three year old son, screamed as he ran into the room. 
Eddie rubbed his eyes and slowly got up and grabbed his son. 
“Yeah buddy we can go open the presents soon, do you guys want hot cocoa before? Why don’t you guys go wake up Luke with daddy and i’ll go make the hot chocolate?
“YAYYY!”
Richie hurried the kids to wake up their youngest son Luke. He was a calm child, unless he was with his brother, then he would feed off of his wild energy. When they all entered his room he was already fully awake standing up in his crib. He seemed calm at first but when he saw Charlie he started jumping up in down. 
“Good morning buddy! You excited to see daddy huh?”
“No! Charwie, Charwie!!”
“Of course you want your brother. Well, news flash buddy, he can’t get you out of your bed. So, are you excited to see your daddy?”
“Dada!”, Luke said as he reached his arms out and whined for his father. 
“I guess that’s good enough.” Richie said as he kissed his son all over his face.
“Dada! Down, down!”
Richie put his youngest down and he instantly ran to Olivia and hugged her. She quickly got him ready for the day.
While Eddie went to make some hot chocolate for the whole family. He heard Richie, playfully screaming at his kids to keep calm but then screamed about being super excited for santa. Eddie smiled to himself, hearing his family being so happy just made his heart filled with love. He heard what sounded like a thousand footsteps running into the living room and felt arms wrap around his waist.
“Good morning Eds, all the kids are up, our little Olive took such good care of Luke. I can’t believe he’s almost two years old. It feels like just yesterday we were bringing him back home.”
“I know, they’re all growing up so fast. How is Liv seven already? And taking care of her little brothers with so much love. She’s so mature for her age.”
“We got good kids, my love”
Richie started kissing Eddie’s jaw and quickly stopped when they heard impatient screams coming from the living room. Richie helped with the hot chocolate and they both hurried and brought their kids some.
“Why does Olifia, get mug but i get sippy cup”, Charlie whined at his papa
“Because Olive is older than you, buddy. She doesn’t make a big mess when she drinks” Richie answered ruffling his son’s hair.
“I don’t make mess”, he pouted
“Do you not remember what happened with the orange juice yesterday?”
“THAT NOT MY FAULT! Luke made me do it.”
“Nah ah!”, Luke replied
“It’s not very nice to blame everything on your little brother Charlie” Eddie interjected. 
“Maybe we should open some presents now?”
The question was followed by a chorus of screams, the loudest coming from Richie. As the kids opened their presents Eddie went to sit on Richie’s lap, a habit he developed as a teenager but couldn't quite do anymore with all their children wanting to sit on their daddy’s lap. He wrapped his arms around Richie, nuzzled his face into his neck and admired his beautiful children. He didn’t think life could get better than this, watching the loves of his life filled with joy, in the arms of the man he loved. He was brought out of his daydream by a small nudge in his side.
“Eds, i think it’s your turn to open your present. Olive why don’t you pass that red box to papa?”
“Why is it so heavy?”
“Well, why don’t we wait for papa to open it and we’ll see”
Eddie took the box from his girls hands and looked over at Richie and saw he had the biggest grin. He slowly started to open the gift and found a scrapbook inside. On the cover was a picture of them on their wedding day at the age of 18 years old, in Vegas. Everyone said it was crazy, but the people that knew them, the losers, were 1000% on board with the idea. The gang knew they were soulmates and nothing would ever keep them apart. When they finished high school, they all drove down to Vegas on a “graduation trip”, the same night they arrived, they had tied the knot and never looked back. On every page was a picture of their life together, one on their first day of kindergarten, another with the losers at the quarry, a lot of them, taken at mike’s farm, drunk. Eddie started feeling his eyes water up and closed the scrapbook before more could come out. 
“Richie, this is beyond perfect. I-I can’t believe you did this for me. I love you so much.”
“Spaghetti, maybe you should look into the box again, that’s not the only present.”
Eddie turned his head quickly towards the box and saw a large picture frame at the bottom, he pulled it out and started sobbing.
“Why papa cry?”, Charlie asked
“I think he really likes his gift.” Olivia answered
Eddie looked at the frame again and couldn't believe his eyes. It was a picture of him and Richie on their first Christmas together as a married couple and a second picture of them on their first christmas as a complete family. Seeing those memories took him back to their shitty New York City apartment.
-------
“Richie we have to have a tree! It can’t be christmas without a tree!”
“Eds, I know baby, but we really can’t afford one right now. We can’t even afford our rent this month. I’m already taking extra shifts at the radio station, just for that.”
“I know baby, I’m sorry for pushing it. It’s just not how I pictured our first Christmas together, that's all.”
“We’re going to have a gazillion more christmas’ we can make perfect in the future. Right now let’s just concentrate on not losing our home. I have to go to work, please don’t wait up on me like you always do. Go to sleep, Eds, you have an early class.”
“Okayyy, I will.”
“Goodnight spaghetti, I love you”,with that Richie kissed his husband and headed out the door. 
Richie working the night shift at the station became a regular occurrence during their winter break. They barely had any time to see each other. He would come home at six AM and Eddie would leave for his job at seven AM. I definitely wasn’t the Christmas break Eddie had hoped for but he knew money was their biggest priority. 
To his surprise, on December 24th, he got home from work and found their small apartment lit up by a Christmas tree.
“Richie? What the fuck, you got us a christmas tree? I thought you said no tree because they were too expensive?”
“Yeah, I still stand by that statement, I don’t want to pay 50$ for a tree...instead I stole an extra dead one from the sidewalk and I borrowed the lights from the station.”
“ ‘Chee, oh god, you shouldn't have!” Eddie said as he pulled Richie into his arms.
“You’re not mad, I got a dead tree from the streets?”
“Surprisingly, no, I don’t care. All of this is amazing, this is the best Christmas I could have asked for.”
“I’m glad you like it, love.”
“Since we have a tree, can we exchange gifts now? I know we said no gifts but I got you a little something.”
Eddie ran into their bedroom and came back with an old looking box.
“Here, open it.”
Richie ripped open the box and took out a very old looking microphone. It was a big silver one, that looked straight up from a vintage radio station. 
“I got it at the flea market, the seller said it was from a radio station from the 50’s and I thought you might like it…it doesn’t work or anything but I thought we could use it as decoration or something around the apartment. ”
“Fuck Eds, it’s perfect. You’re perfect. Thank you so much for this.”, Richie grabbed his husband and kissed him. 
“Let me get my camera, I want us to remember this. Our very first Christmas together.” Richie said with a quick kiss on the cheek before he ran off to the bedroom.
After a lovely evening of hot chocolate, christmas movies and lots of cuddles, they both fell asleep on the couch. For Eddie, this was one of his favourite memories with Richie, even more memorable than their wedding day. It was the first time they spent a holiday together as a small family. The first time it felt like it was the two of them against the world. 
He never wanted that feeling to go away and it never did. Everyday with Richie topped the last and now, with their family, it was truly the two of them against the world. The gift Richie gave reminded him of that original feeling and it made fill with happiness. His kids got the presents they wanted and were happily playing with them as Eddie snuggled closer to the man that made this all possible. As cheesy as it is to say, the holidays were a magical time and he was reminded of that feeling, seeing his children so excited and happy made Eddie the luckiest man in the world.  
He glanced over at the old microphone that sat atop their mantle over the fireplace and smiled to himself. Christmas mornings with his children and his husband were the best mornings and he couldn’t wait for the next one.
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jungleindierock · 4 years
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Jungle Indie Rock - Indie Christmas Playlist 2019
Here is the Jungle Indie Rock Christmas themed playlist for 2019. Is not your average christmas mix!!! 100 songs as always. A nice mix of old and new, covers and originals.There are 100 songs by 100 artists!!
Ok it seem that posting from Playlists from Spotify seems to be working again!! Only taken six months!! So in the new year, we will get back to posting Time Machine and the early Jungle Indie Rock Playlists.
Ok we are going to take a break over the Christmas period, in the past we have posted over this time, but time to take a break!! so sorry but there will be nothing from us after this playlist post until early in 2020.
So a very Merry Christmas from Reb and Feliz Navidad from Mar and all the best for 2020.
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Tracklist
The Dollyrots - Fairytale of New York
Green Day - Xmas Time Of The Year
Best Coast - Little Saint Nick
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - X'mas Time (It Sure Doesn't Feel Like It)
The Reverend Horton Heat - Winter Wonderland
Alice Bag Band - No Gifts For Nazis
Beres Hammond - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Bryan Adams - Christmas Time
Pale Waves - Last Christmas
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Wandering Star
NOFX - Xmas Has Been X'ed
Keith Richards - Run Rudolph Run
AC/DC - Mistress For Christmas
Zuzu - Distant Christmas
Bowling For Soup - Frosty The Snowman
Gregory Porter - The Christmas Song
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Little Drummer Boy
The Wombats - Is This Christmas?
!!! - And Anyway It's Christmas
The Joe Gibbs Family Of Artists - We Three Kings
The Hives and Cyndi Lauper - A Christmas Duel
Mahalia Jackson - Silent Night, Holy Night
Blink 182 - Not Another Christmas Song
Wolf Alice - Santa Baby
Courtney Barnett - Boxing Day Blues (Revisited)
The Magnetic Fields - Everything In One Big Christmas Tree
The Toasters - Rudy Christmas A Jail
Otis Redding - White Christmas
Bob Dylan - Must Be Santa
U.K. Subs - Hey Santa Claus!
Bright Eyes - Blue Christmas
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Christmas All Over Again
Billy Idol - Yellin' At The Xmas Tree
My Morning Jacket - Xmas Time Is Here Again
Barrington Levi & Trinity - I Saw Mommy Kiss A Dreadlocks
Bad Religion - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
The Frights - Christmas Everyday
Daryl Hall & John Oates - Jingle Bell Rock
Rufus Wainwright - Spotlight On Christmas
Allo Darlin' - Space Christmas
Dwarves - Drinking Up Christmas
4 Skins - Merry Christmas Everybody
Rocket From The Crypt - Cancel Christmas
King Stitt - Christmas Tree
Cheap Trick - I Wish It Was Christmas Today
The Sonics - Santa Claus
The Fall - (We Wish You) A Protein Christmas
Bob Seger & The Last Heard - Sock It To Me Santa
The Band - Christmas Must Be Tonight
The Vaudevilles - Shot My Baby For Christmas
Smash Mouth - Snoopy's Christmas
Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)
The Decemberists - Please Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas)
Dean Martin - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Screeching Weasel - Christmas Eve
Solomon Burke - Presents For Christmas
John Prine - Christmas In Prison
Eddie & The Hot Rods - It Feels Like Christmas
Louis Armstrong - Cool Yule
CJ Ramone - Christmas Lullaby
Canned Heat - Christmas Blues
Emmy the Great - Zombie Christmas
Gold Blade and Poly Styrene - City Of Christmas Ghosts
Jimmy Jules & Nuclear Soul System - Xmas Done Got Funky
Sia - Santa's Coming for Us
Half Man Half Biscuit - It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas
Lacuna Coil - Naughty Christmas
The Everly Brothers - Christmas Eve Can Kill You
Daniel  Johnston - Rock Around The Christmas Tree
Red Aunts - Little Drummer Bitch
The Fleshtones - Hurray For Santa Claus
The Wedding Present - No Christmas
Alien Sex Fiend - Stuff The Turkey
Helen Love - Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight)
Alan Vega - No More Christmas Blues
The New Pornographers - The Spirit Of Giving
Grandaddy & Band Of Horses - Hang An Ornament
The Brian Setzer  Orchestra - Dig That Crazy Santa Claus
Jeremy Lister - Santa's Lost His Mojo
The Buff Medways - Merry Christmas Fritz
Guided By Voices - Father Sgt. Christmas Card
Gruff Rhys - Slashed Wrists This Christmas
Pointed Sticks - Power Pop Santa
Beck - The Little Drum Machine Boy
Marc Bolan - Christmas Bop
Sixpence None The Richer - The Last Christmas Without You
Dwight Yoakam - Santa Can't Stay
Nick Lowe - Just To Be With You (This Christmas)
Sam Smith - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Donny Hathaway - This Christmas
Descendants - Christmas Vacation
Elvis Presley - Blue Christmas
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives - Jingle Hell (Stuck In The Chimney)
Reel Big Fish - Skank For Christmas
Voodoo Glow Skulls - Feliz Navidad
X - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
Everclear - Hating You For Christmas
Crocodiles & Dum Dum Girls - Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Don't Die)
Low - Taking Down The Tree
109 notes · View notes