#the just mid/close shots one filled up another whole post! wow!

[isthereintruthnobeauty1968]

civil defense/3.07

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Runaway Ride

Fandom: Never Have I Ever Pairing: Devi/Paxton Rating: T Word Count: 4889

Summary: Kamala gets herself into a pickle, Devi needs to go to her, and Paxton has a car. Problem-solving has never been so simple, but that's how it is when your new boyfriend is Paxton Hall-Yoshida. Throw in a little hand-holding on the highway and this family crisis might just be the best date Devi will ever have.

When they finally took a break from dancing—disconnecting hands from hips and shoulders, lips from lips—Devi stepped away in a dreamy headspace. She almost collided with Jonah, but he didn’t tell her to look where she was going, only offered a shrewd, indulgent smile.

Actually, everybody was treating her like that; every eye that caught hers on her way to the table where she’d left her stuff was unjudgmental, admiring, straight up fairy-godmotherly. Devi hadn’t received this much notice since her dad’s death and her subsequent paralysis. And those looks had been pitying, freaked out. Positive attention was new and cool and she wondered, as she grabbed her phone out of her turquoise clutch, whether her socials would show more of the same when she opened them. Would people have snapped stealthy pics of her and Paxton dancing now that she’d been vaulted into the pseudo-celebrity strata of the high school hierarchy? Would the Insta posts be captioned with hashtags of their ship name? Paxi? Daxton? Vishwall-Yoshumar?

Devi never got to check.

Unlocking her phone, she found two missed calls from her mother. Maybe two wouldn’t have seemed like a whole lot to someone else, but Devi knew that, in order for her mom to risk rudeness by stepping away from the company she was hosting at home not once but twice, she’d need to be pretty frantic. Two missed calls from Nalini Vishwakumar were the equivalent of six or seven from any other mother.

Skirting the edges of the gym as she headed away from DJ Humanoid—that nit-witted saboteur of slow dances—Devi was about to call her mom back when her screen changed to an incoming call from Kamala. She pressed her other hand to her ear and answered it.

“Hey. Do you know what’s going on with my mom? She called me twice and, honestly, she knows I’m at the d—”

“Devi, shut up. Sorry,” Kamala sighed. “But I may have kidnapped your history teacher and now I’m panicking a little.”

Devi stopped in her tracks.

“You did what? Why is the sound weird?”

As she was trying to identify the background noise coming from Kamala’s end, her eyes swept over the crowd of her classmates and landed on Fabiola’s. Her friend had been smiling, mid-sway as she held Eve from behind and chatted with Sasha, but it fell off her face like Devi off Dr. Jackson’s roof. Fab disentangled herself from her girlfriend and crossed the room to stand with Devi. She was frowning, silently asking for an explanation for Devi’s distress, but Devi didn’t really have one yet.

“We’re in his car on the highway,” her cousin was saying. “He was a little drunk, so I’m driving.”

Devi had imagined that Kamala was exaggerating, but no, this was really starting to sound like a kidnapping.

“You better be on hands-free right now,” she lectured. Then, because she wasn’t exactly a paragon of road safety herself—barely an hour ago, she’d walked right out in front of Paxton’s jeep—didn’t wait for confirmation. “What the hell happened? Context, Kamala!”

“Well, as soon as I snuck out of the house—”

“But why did you sneak out?!”

“Devi, I can’t talk about that right now!” Devi’s eyebrows shot up at the clear and abnormal hysteria in her cousin’s voice. “I ran out of the house,” Kamala continued, “totally directionless, and the first thing that popped into my head was Manish’s invitation for me to come to karaoke…”

“Ew, what the fuck, don’t call Mr. K that.”

What? Fab mouthed at her, but Devi shook her head.

“That is his name and what he asked me to call him. Anyway,” Kamala said, sounding strained, “I went to your school and met up with him and now I’m driving his car and I think I might have shut my sari in the car door, but I’m scared to pull over and check because if I stop the car, I’m going to have to confront things and I think I’d rather not do that yet.”

“Kamala,” Devi said in a heavy, careful voice. “You have to pull over. I totally get what you’re saying because it sounds like something I might do—minus the part where you kidnapped Mr. K—” Fabiola’s eyes went dramatically wide as she was adjusting her tiara. “—but this isn’t you. You don’t run away from your obligations and elope with my teachers!”

“Manish and I didn’t elope. It isn’t in any way romantic.”

“For sure though? It’s not?” Devi heard another voice in the car ask.

“Mr. K, back off! Kamala’s in the middle of a crisis!” she shouted. “And please be drunk enough to forget that I yelled at you.”

“Devi, what should I do?” Kamala asked, sounding desperate in a sad way now.

“Where are you?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Ok, well, which direction are you heading in?”

“Um, either north or south.”

“You’re a disaster,” Devi muttered.

“What was that?”

“Uh… I said, don’t drive any faster. Try to read the next sign you pass so you can tell me where you are.”

“Alright,” Kamala said.

Devi tilted her phone away from her mouth so her cousin wouldn’t hear her frustrated sigh. She locked eyes with Fabiola.

“Kamala panicked at her engagement dinner and ran off with Mr. K. They’re either headed for Mexico or Canada, but I’ll know more in a minute.”

Fab blinked.

“Wow.”

“I know. It’s a lot. And this is me talking,” Devi emphasized.

“I don’t know if you would do anything this big. Mainly because you don’t have a driver’s license.”

“True.”

“Santa Barbara in twenty-six miles,” Kamala said in her ear.

“Damn, you made good time.”

“The traffic was quite manageable.”

“Try to calm down a little and get off the highway when you can. Don’t go past Santa Barbara. I’m coming to talk you down in person,” Devi said. “Oh, and don’t answer any of my mom’s calls; she’ll just stress you out.”

“That doesn’t seem very responsible. How about I send her a text when I stop to let her know I’m ok?”

Devi rolled her eyes.

“Suit yourself.”

“Thank you, Devi. But how will you get here?”

“Let me worry about that. Text me when you stop so I know exactly where I’m going.”

“I will.”

“’K. I’ll see you in a bit.”

Devi hung up and sighed massively, slumping into the wall and feeling a streamer crumple against her back. She and Fabiola stared at each other.

“What are you gonna do?” Fab asked.

“Be the hero my family needs, but not the one they deserve.”

“Are you misquoting Batman to justify doing something reckless?”

“First of all, rescuing Kamala isn’t reckless, and second of all, the movie isn’t called Batman, it’s The Dark Knight. Young-ish Christian Bale, hello.”

Fabiola pointed a finger at her own face.

“Young-ish out-of-touch lesbian, hello. At least I was close.”

Devi sighed again while Fab smiled sadly at her in obvious sympathy.

“It’s after ten at night. How am I gonna get to Santa Barbara?”

“Assuming you’re not going to ask your mom—”

“No.”

“Then you need a ride.”

“You need a ride? I’ll drive you.”

It was Paxton, walking up and tentatively taking Devi’s hand while darting uncertain glances at Fabiola. Devi felt her entire face light up.

“You don’t want to know where or why?” she teased.

His expression said those were insignificant details. Wow. Devi’d never had a fantasy where Paxton joined forces with her, bounty hunter-style, to track down a flighty Kamala, but this felt oddly romantic. Passionate even? They’d see where the night took them.

“You wouldn’t wanna leave the dance unless it was serious,” Paxton reasoned. “So, I’ll drive you. You wanna go now?”

“I guess we better. Lemme just grab my…”

“I’ll get it,” Fab said, raising a hand like the nerd she was as she volunteered.

She darted back through the dancers to grab Devi’s things and Devi watched their classmates part for their Cricket Queen. She was so proud of Fab. Also, she felt kinda bad for ditching such a momentous occasion. But Kamala needed her, and would totally do the same for her if she ever went off the deep end and kidnapped a dude while fleeing a proposal. Not that Devi could see herself fleeing a proposal (she glanced at Paxton as she thought this, then quickly away, thinking, Way too soon!). Carrying out a kidnapping? With a sufficiently convincing pro-and-con list, anything was possible.

“Basically, Kamala freaked and drove to Santa Barbara with a drunken Mr. K,” Devi said, because Paxton might not have asked to be informed, but she wanted him to know what he was getting himself into. Beyond that, she wanted to give him the chance to say, No way, Devi. I came here to look hot and dance up on you, nothing more.

“Oh shit,” was what he said.

“Damn right, oh shit. You still want to drive? This is going to take a while.”

She should probably have felt guilty about trying to subtly persuade him with her eyes, but not only was Paxton the least complicated option, he was also her first choice. If she maintained eye contact long enough, Devi figured it might trigger some kind of boyfriend override that made going for a long drive at night just as appealing as staying here and dancing with her butt pressed thrillingly to his groin when the teacher-chaperones weren’t looking.

“As long as we can hit up the bathrooms first. I was going to, but then I got talking to Trent, and then Marcus was doing a handstand…”

“Definitely,” Devi assured him. “Good call. Empty the tank. Oh, actually, that reminds me… how much gas do you have in your jeep? If we need to stop at a gas station, I’ll have to factor that in to the ETA I give Kamala.”

Paxton shook his head at her, smiling in what she liked to think was affectionate amusement.

“I filled it up on the way here. I needed a minute to, uh…” To her epic astonishment, he ducked his head self-consciously, cheeks pinking. “You know. Get my shit together. Up here.” He tapped his temple with his index finger. “I wanted to show up for you, like, completely. You know?”

Right as Devi was at dangerously high risk of sagging to the floor in blissful bonelessness, Fabiola sprang to her side, shoving the rest of her possessions at her.

“Ok, ok!” Devi said, harried.

She had to dump it all on the bathroom counter a minute later anyway, but after she’d done her pre-road trip pee, she came out and gave Fab a better thank-you.

“Your Highness,” Paxton told Fabiola with a nod.

Fab nodded back, smiling wryly.

“Prosecutor.”

“I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship,” Devi assessed, “but we gotta go! Say congrats to Eve for me again!”

“Sure. Drive safe!”

Devi and Paxton pushed through the doors together, striding quickly with his hand wrapped around hers. In the parking lot, she glanced sideways to see him digging his keychain out of his front pocket.

“Oh,” she said, “so I wasn’t just feeling that you were very happy to dance with me.”

Until they got into the jeep, it was too dark to see whether she’d gotten him to blush again, but she liked to think that she had. He was definitely smiling.

They got in and Devi carefully tucked her skirt around her legs, mind on Kamala’s cautionary tale. At least it was until Paxton leaned forward to shrug out of his jacket and she saw his shoulder muscles jump beneath his fitted button-down, his narrow black tie swinging forward. Dang. Fifty shades of Hall-Yoshida.

“Santa Barbara?” Paxton double-checked once he was settled behind the wheel, steering out of the student lot.

“Santa Barbara.”

Until they were on the highway and heading out of Los Angeles, Devi did her best to keep her worry about Kamala’s situation contained to the way she flapped her phone against her thigh. Usually, she was stressing about the problems right in front of her (when she wasn’t blatantly ignoring them, only to have that approach bite her in the ass later), but with whatever was going on with Kamala, she kinda had to look ahead.

Had she wanted Kamala to get engaged to Prashant that badly? Well, the best thing about Prashant was that you never knew when having additional hot relatives would be to your benefit. (Devi was already hoping that Mr. K would get over the more nerve-wracking elements of this night and just remember having fun with her stunning cousin… and that this could possibly translate into at least a month of generous grades, if she could somehow spin these shenanigans as an intentional blind date arranged by herself.) However, an engaged Kamala was wholly different from a married Kamala. She wouldn’t be around to watch nonsensical episodes of Riverdale, or be duped into hijinks, or listen to Devi when her mom was too tired, or bitch about her shitty lab-mates in exchange for sitting through Devi bitching about her complicated feelings on the subject of Aneesa dating her ex. She wouldn’t live with them anymore, and the family that had begun to miraculously fill out after her dad had died would be back down to three. And the other two members of it would be old (Sorry, Mom, she thought) and not at all prepared to champion her dating life or the cleavage-accentuating formal dress currently buoying it.

So, yeah, Devi was looking ahead—eyes glazed over as the yellow lights of cars slipped around them to prevent her vision from fully adjusting to the blue-black sky—and feeling more than a little nervous and scared of the Kamala-shaped hole she’d have in her life if her dazzling, dorky cousin left her house for one she might eventually fill with the most beautiful children the world had ever seen.

Thankfully, Paxton was there. It startled her when he took one hand off the wheel and felt across her lap to grab hers, loosely interlacing their fingers. Devi quit hitting her phone against her leg. She sent off their updated location to Kamala and then let her phone fall flat.

“Did she say where she was?” Her boyfriend’s voice was quiet in the car and she realized for the first time that her head had been too crammed with thoughts to put on any music.

“Carpinteria State Beach. Do you know the exit?”

“We’ll find it.”

“And if you want me to drive while you rest on the way back…”

Paxton laughed.

“No way. Safety first.”

“Says the guy driving one-handed,” Devi countered, not that she was eager to surrender the hand warming hers.

He turned his head just long enough to shoot her a look.

“Whoa, pal, eyes on the road!” she said. (She had a half-baked plan to call her boyfriend ‘pal’ a few times and thereby de-weaponize the word in a memory that still felt like a fading bruise, an almost-gone sore spot in who she and Paxton were before they were openly a them.)

“Sorry,” he said, staring out the windshield again. He grinned. “You look gorgeous.”

“Really?”

“So gorgeous.” Paxton’s voice was softer this time, the underlying laugh it had carried since she’d offered to drive his jeep drained out of it. It was nearly a sigh.

“Thanks. So do you.”

“You know, I feel fucking awful for hitting you with my car, but I still think I mighta felt worse if I’d walked in and seen you dancing with somebody else.”

Devi twisted their hands, touching the back of his to her thigh so she was sandwiching it between leg and palm for a moment, aiming for reassuring.

“I wanna say I would never be that flaky, but my previous offenses speak for themselves.”

“So does doing this with me.”

“Uh,” she droned, “to recap, you left a fun thing to do a huge favour for me. You’re talking about it like this is my act of redemption. I feel like if you examine it for a sec, you’ll see how I’m actually kind of a dick for accepting your help.”

“I want us to be together,” he said bluntly. “Here we are. Together.”

“It’s that simple?”

“I don’t see why it can’t be.”

“Huh. I think you’re really gonna be good for my tendency to overcomplicate a situation.”

Paxton laughed and unthreaded his fingers from Devi’s. But it wasn’t to release her for pointing out that this date was, in actual fact, the coordinated response to a family crisis; his fingertips moved lightly over her palm, momentarily trapped when her fingers flinched inward in reaction to how it tickled, then traced along the thin skin of her inner wrist. He wasn’t trying to pull away. He was lingering. Though his touch when he sunk his hand into her hair or drew her closer by her waist had always been fairly gentle, it had often had the faint aggression of hastiness to it, clutching her as they made out in her room, always listening for footsteps in the hallway. How Paxton touched her now was pure, exploratory tenderness. It made the hairs on the back of Devi’s neck stand up as a wave of shivers rushed up her spine and crested somewhere around the nape of her neck.

He must’ve felt that wave break, the foamy aftereffects in some tic of her arm or quickening of her pulse while his fingers skimmed gradually up the inside of her arm towards her elbow, because he chanced another quick glance at her.

“That feels good,” she explained.

Paxton looked forward, nodding slowly, and shifted in the driver’s seat.

“Good.”

She thought it must have felt good for him too, knowing he’d made her shiver.

—

The miles were flicking past for Paxton—another, another, another, as fast and steady as the dashed lines painted between the lanes, his arms cutting the water on the front crawl. He wanted Devi, beside him, to believe that he was paying attention to his driving, but he was honestly kinda zoned out. Like that time he’d swum to San Diego, he let his body go through the motions (in this case, twitching the wheel, putting on cruise control when traffic thinned so he didn’t have to focus on the pedals) while his mind floated freely.

Where it floated was to his girlfriend.

At ten years old, he’d been the last kid in his swim class to jump off the 10m board. It was optional—a treat after getting water up their noses turning somersaults below the surface and doing egg-beater legs in between—but all the other boys in the group had done it eagerly, shrieking on their way down to sloppy pencil dives. Paxton had climbed the stairs all the way to the top easily enough, even stepped onto the wide platform, bordered by metal railings and rough under his bare feet. He’d walked out to the end and frozen to find himself so high above the pool.

He hadn’t feared the water, he’d feared the air. Being so exposed on his own at the end of the diving board. Eventually, he’d retreated, then surprised the coach waiting down at the poolside by turning around and taking the jump at a run. Few memories felt as good as the sensation of giving himself back to gravity and letting it reunite him with the water. He’d just had to get past the exposure.

Same thing tonight, going to find Devi at the dance. Holding her hand in his had been him reaching the platform, but when they stood together, just inside the school’s doors, Paxton hadn’t known for sure whether he would take the leap or retreat. And not just for a running start this time, but in a way that turned his sixteen-year-old present self back into one of those nervous ten-year-olds who wimped out and had to take the coward’s way down—descending each step they’d climbed. He might not have run, and yet he hadn’t needed to back up and race into their relationship either. Momentum hadn’t carried them inside for everyone they knew to see them. It had been a calm approach, even if he’d been shaking on the inside when he saw Trent staring at them.

So maybe Paxton had learned something in the last six years, or maybe it was harder to feel exposed with somebody right next to you.

She really did look gorgeous, like he’d said, and because he didn’t want her to worry about his focus if she spotted him gazing at the side of her face while she texted her cousin, the glances he stole were of the knee region. Her dress’s overlay sparkled when the high lights of eighteen-wheelers passed them and the specific teal of the dress itself reminded him of a river he’d swum in once during an out-of-state family vacation. Natural and deep and fresh, and exasperating for his parents because he’d accidentally doggy-paddled himself all the way to a small waterfall and hadn’t heard them calling him back for dinner around the campfire. He felt all that about Devi, except for hoping for a different reaction from his parents when they met her.

Holy shit. He was going to have to introduce his girlfriend to his embarrassing hippy parents. But then, she’d already met Rebecca, so maybe they were set? A sister’s approval should count for a ton.

No, no, no, Devi would have to meet his parents. He was doing this. The two of them were doing this. Paxton exhaled determinedly through his nose and made himself concentrate on the remaining miles he needed to cover. His mind, anyway. His hand continued to stroke and search, covering his girlfriend’s hand with his until he had her fingers tucked away protectively under his own, and then caressing all the way up to the crook of her elbow so suddenly that she made a noise between a laugh and a yelp because he’d unintentionally tickled her. Man, she was cute.

The very end of their journey required the most concentration from Paxton; he finally took back his hand to have both on the wheel as he steered them off the highway and Devi’s got lonely or something, because it chased across to where he was sitting and landed on his thigh. His jaw clenched. He could feel the heat of her palm through his pantleg and congratulated himself on being a driving legend for driving smoothly to where they needed to park for beach access.

Devi had a pink sweater that she put on, but Paxton grabbed his jacket out of the back as well in case she needed it. It was almost midnight and a breeze rolled up off the water, rippling his tie and swishing Devi’s dress. He didn’t have to ask what they should do next—there was just one other car parked nearby and Devi’s cousin was already standing outside of it, raising a hand to wave sheepishly as they got out of his jeep.

“Here,” he said, holding out his jacket for his girlfriend to put her arms through the sleeves. “You guys talk. I’ll be down at the beach.”

Devi turned her back to him as she accepted the jacket, but she glanced over her shoulder with a look of concern.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. You’ll want privacy. I need to stretch my legs anyway.”

“Just don’t swim away, ok?” she requested. “I don’t think I can handle more than one rescue mission per night.”

Paxton could tell by her expression that it wasn’t entirely a joke. He grinned and gripped his lapels, now on Devi, reeling her in.

“I promise. You’d probably take the opportunity to try to drive the jeep home, and I don’t want to risk that.”

“Me committing grand theft auto or me getting hurt?”

“I bet they tested you for smartness,” he said, “but you think they have a test for being a smartass? You’d score high, Vishwakumar.”

“I know, I know, you don’t want me to get hurt.”

She was so infuriatingly flippant, rolling her big brown eyes at him.

“That’s right,” Paxton said plainly. There he was, up on the platform again.

Devi straightened his tie and let her hand rest flat on his chest. He remembered how overwhelmed she’d looked the first time he’d placed her palm there, right on his skin. Even now, it almost made him laugh.

“Ok,” she said, and he was surrendering himself to the sweet strength of gravity, propelled down to the beach while Devi stayed to talk to Kamala.

—

Devi had heard that there were tidepools here, and she was nervous about stepping into one and spearing some aquatic animal on her high heel. Well, she couldn’t magically improve her night vision, but she could take her shoes off and remove the possibility of impalement. They dangled from her fingers as she picked her way down to the beach.

Her boyfriend was sitting in the sand, staring out at the ocean. It just looked so romantic—with the stars the sky was too bright to see at home, and the waves, and the back of Paxton’s white shirt in the moonlight—that Devi decided to slip into the scene without saying anything at all.

A mistake. Paxton gasped and jumped. Apparently, he hadn’t heard her over the noise of the water.

“Sorry, sorry!” she said.

He sighed and smiled, getting to his feet.

“How’d it go?”

“I think it went well. She was feeling calm enough to drive, so she’s on her way home now. She’s gonna cover for me until we get back.”

“That’s good… but what about Mr. Kulkarni?”

“He was passed out in the passenger’s seat,” Devi stated. “I guess he’s kind of a lightweight? Kamala said she’s going to drive back to our school and leave him and his car in the parking lot. She’s planning to call my mom for a ride home. If it were me, I think I’d take the bus and try to sneak back into the house as quietly as possible, but Kamala still has a lot to learn about how to thoroughly dodge your problems.”

“And maybe about how to climb to the second floor of your house from the outside?” Paxton suggested with a meaningful smirk.

She did her best to return it, but the odds were that it didn’t look nearly as sexy on her. Then again, she had moonlight and midnight and well-displayed cleavage on her side.

“How’d you learn to do that so quietly anyway?” Devi asked, tossing her shoes to the sand and stepping forward to boldly wrap her arms around Paxton’s waist.

He’d had his hands in his pockets, but as soon as she’d begun to move towards him, he’d pulled them out. His arms encircled her, his hands on the back of his own black jacket. Although Devi wanted to offer him the jacket back—he felt slightly chilly through his shirt—she didn’t want the two of them to separate. Besides, body heat was a thing. This was practically what it was for. So Devi just pressed herself closer, breathing the scent of the ocean and Paxton’s fading cologne.

“Trent,” he said.

“Yeah, actually, that checks out.”

Were there boundaries between warming someone up while having a conversation and just hugging them? It wasn’t clear to Devi, but it felt good when they both went quiet for a while. She stood unevenly on the cold sand and listened to the thud of Paxton’s heart.

“You never said yes,” he said eventually, quietly.

“Yes to what?”

“I told you I came to the dance as your boyfriend and you never actually agreed to be my girlfriend. We kinda just started making out.”

Devi lifted her cheek from his chest so she could look at him. He didn’t appear disappointed, more like he was making an observation. Maybe he’d been reflecting, out here in the dark, while she and Kamala had talked.

“In my books, that’s an obvious yes,” she said, grinning. “What more do you need?”

She could see him trying not to smile.

“A little atmosphere would be nice,” Paxton said. “Maybe a long drive, or the beach. A full moon. Romance me, Vishwakumar.”

Devi vibrated with silent laughter. Or her heart was just beating really, really freaking hard.

“Sounds like you’ve got some pretty big expectations there.”

“And stars,” he added. “There should be a shitload of stars.”

With that, he took one hand off her back to point far above them. Devi tipped her head back, the light of the stars a friendly blur as she tried to pick one to settle on, just one. Paxton’s face coming forward to hover over hers blotted them out. Her boyfriend kissed her, light and ghosting and then firm and slow.

“On the other hand,” he said, pulling back a little, “I think we were onto something with the making out.”

Devi smiled and dug her toes into the sand to make herself taller, lips at the ready and realigned with his.

“We did set a precedent.”

[fallen029]

Poison

They'd been dating, off and on, for about six months. Laxus had been laid up some, from a rough job, but also had the misfortune of running through most of his usual dates. Which was fine. Left with all the time in the world to heal up, he was more than game to find more, well, game.

But this didn't necessarily come to fruition.

It was weird.

Mirajane Strauss was quite clearly attractive.

Only a blind man would deny it.

But there were many attractive women in their guild. Too many, almost. And while he liked to flirt around the edge with some of them, most weren't really worth his time.

Or, uh, well...interested in him, if he could allow his ego to admit it (he typically couldn't).

Still, Mira was someone that he had something of a rapport with, a thing he lacked with many of the other women. She seemed to be feeling rather disappointed for him, saddled with a broken bone, and intent on brightening his spirits. When she had a break in her work, she would frequently linger around his table, making their same small talk as usual, and Laxus found himself enjoying it more than he usually would.

Things were nice in the beginning.

But the beginning was over too soon.

He stuck around too long one night, drinking, and Mira insisted he stay the night at the guildhall, else he risk, in his drunk stupor, injuring himself further on the walk home with his crutches. This was innocent enough and Laxus was sure that she had no real intentions behind it, but that left him up at the hall with her, alone, watching as the barmaid closed down for the night.

"C'mon, demon," he insisted with a bit of a drunken edge to his voice. "Have at least one more shot with me, eh?"

She refused his first offer, but luckily (or un, perhaps), he made multiple.

And it only took one shot to convince Mira that yes, she should do more.

The next day was awkward, but the following wasn't nearly as much, and Laxus made some sort of a jest, over the woman taking advantage of his state, considering his broken leg and all, and Mira thought that was so very funny and maybe he got too drunk, again, to go home, and what would Mira be? Leaving a crippled man all alone in a big guildhall?

They didn't want anyone to know about them. Which was hard. Because they slowly became all either could think about. Laxus was around the hall constantly then, not just from boredom from his injury now, but with a vested interest in the head barmaid, while Mirajane seemed to suddenly find time to take a vacation day or two, and oh, didn't she deserve it? Everyone thought so.

Especially Laxus, who very much appreciated every second they were given alone together.

The woman still, for some reason Laxus couldn't quite grasp (being an only child, he found the idea of siblings frightening, especially the way the Strausses dealt with one another), lived with both her siblings. Which severely limited the places where they could go to be alone. If it wasn't the hall after hours, then it had to either be one of the seedy motels that he didn't quite want to admit the woman he might have frequented at one point in his life (or she him) or, as much as Laxus hated it, the best option of all; his apartment.

"Getting to see how the great Laxus Dreyar lives?" Mira whistled low, the first time she was welcomed to messy apartment. "Wow."

"Yeah, well, I do what I- Hey, are you mocking me?"

Mira only giggled in reply and it was fine, honestly. The more the woman found herself around, the more the apartment found itself rather clean and Laxus lost some of his reserves over keeping his bachelor pad all bottled up to himself.

Time felt different in those days.

In a way he hadn't felt it since he was a child.

He had a routine again, one that wasn't adherent to a strict training regimen or rigorous job schedule, but rather the standard workday.

When he was a boy, he would sit up at the hall, listening to stories from all the old members, waiting for his grandfather to finish up his masterly duties for the day so that they could go have some fun. It wasn't that different with Mirajane. She stopped taking double shifts and would be finished up by mid to late afternoon, with Laxus only lingering around a short amount of time after her escape, finding his own on a hobbled trek back to his apartment, where the woman would be waiting.

They weren't out having adventures. Or spending the fleeing daylight by doing anything too exotic. But it felt so, to him at least. Adventurous and exotic in it's own right, allowing such a connection, such a bond, to begin to form.

For what could have been the worst months of his life, Laxus had to tack them up there with some of the best.

It felt absurd to say, but sitting around his apartment, eating takeout and talking to Mirajane, seriously just talking sometimes or listening to her toy at her guitar… It was the most fun he'd had. The most free he'd felt.

For a man that had all the power in the world, the ability to tackle any job posted, travel the continent at will, someone being confined to the guildhall and his apartment supplied him with some actual fresh air. Or at least perspective.

He almost felt robbed of something, when it was finally time for his cast to be removed.

This wouldn't be the obvious end to things, as he would still need some time to fully regain the mobility in his leg, deal with the conditioning that he now lacked, being out of action for so long. His training, which included the Thunder Legion, now made spending time with the woman more tricky and maybe, if they were better people, they could have stopped it there.

Seen where things were headed.

But Mira always seemed to have her head stuck in the clouds and Laxus, for once, found himself too attached for once, and though the bandage had begun to be peeled back, there was still some adhesive holding fast.

So he'd just have to suck it up and finish the job.

Their time together was tight already and Laxus put it off for as long as he could, honestly, but one day when Mirajane arrived at his apartment with dinner for the two of them, he didn't have nearly the same light behind his eyes that he had in recent months. When she questioned him a bit, over dinner, when she talked a mile a minute and he just sat there, gloomily, back to his old self, maybe, only offering up nods and sighs.

The man, as was becoming rather obvious, was anything but coy.

Still, he found that he didn't quite know how to express to the woman what was eating at him. These weren't exactly the kind to seek a woman out, just to end things with her. But Mira was different. Not even necessarily from the standpoint of his feelings, but also due to her proximity whether they continued to date or not.

She was a part of Fairy Tail. At times, it felt like more so than he was. One of the main reasons for avoiding such relationships up at the hall (again, ignoring the outright disdain he cultivated among other members at time) was due simply to the fact that it would be awkward.

When things were over.

And with him things, inevitably, would find themselves coming to an end.

He wasn't a good person.

Or at least he very infrequently felt like one.

To a mate, at least.

Laxus knew for certain he was a changed man, following the events of his excommunication. Seriously. His whole outlook on life was altered. It went further than just learning to respect his grandfather or guild or the members that dwelled there. Laxus now saw the world from a perspective he'd originally rejected; everyone else's. He wasn't the only person in the guild, in the world, that mattered and while he was a big hole to fill, everyone could be replaced.

So you had to appreciate what you had while you had it.

But...he had difficulty carrying this over into the dating world. Opening up to someone was difficult and caring when someone did so to you was even harder. This was easily excusable for the man, as he found many of his faults were, because clearly he just didn't want that sort of relationship. Didn't need it.

He had the Thunder Legion. For his emotional support. They felt far closer to him than any woman ever could be. All three of him. Knew more about him than any partner ever should.

Friends were enough.

His best friends were enough.

Until...they weren't.

Those past few months, with Mirajane, well, he just hadn't felt that sort of exhilaration in a long time. He'd closed himself off to it, maybe, been so convinced he didn't need it that he never gave himself a chance to experience it.

Sometimes he saw the same woman. A lot. And then he'd just stop. Wouldn't come around as much. Go out on a long job. Not write. Avoid her when he came back to town. There weren't these big moments.

He wouldn't be able to summon up the energy for them, honestly.

"I actually wanted to talk to you," Laxus found himself reply, eventually. "About… You know, I'm pretty much healed up now."

"Oh, I know." Mira smiled over from her half of the table, still picking at her meal. "I'm so happy for you. I'm sure it's been torture being cooped up all this time."

"Not torture, no, but-"

"You're so used to traveling though," she cut him off. "It was hard for me, when I had to take a break for awhile. Hang around the bar. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love it now, but at first… It can just be a big adjustment, you know?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "I know."

Still, Mira only eyed him again before asking simply, "Are you sure you're okay? Lax? Is there something else?"

"I…"

He swallowed and almost balked. Backed out and decided not to tell her. Before he left. And come back from his job and pretend like this never happened. He imagined Mirajane, who was used to playing many different roles in her life, would give into that rather easily.

But there was something in him that didn't allow this. Something he didn't quite understand. The time he'd spent with Mirajane meant something, he knew that, and maybe for that reason he felt a duty to her, to insure that he'd at least accurately explained himself.

If only to spare her feelings all he could.

"I'm going to be gone," he decided. "For awhile, probably. I want to take a long job. And I know that we've spent a lot of time together, but-"

"Laxus," she intervened before giving him a bit of a smile. "I know."

"I- You what?"

"I," she insisted. "know. I get it, okay? We don't have to do this."

"This?"

She frowned, not quite getting why he was now the one pretending to be confused and only explained, "You're breaking up with me."

He sat there for a moment, considering what she'd said before asking, "How do you know that?'

"Because I'm not stupid, Laxus." Mira sighed some before going back to her food. "It's not like I haven't been thinking of it too."

"Thinking of what?"

"Laxus-"

"Thinking about what, Mirajane?"

"About this. This...time." She dropped her fork just to gesture vaguely with both hands. "Together. It's been...something else, but I'm dumb. I know that you're going to go back on the road and that it's over. It's okay."

"No." He felt like she'd pulled the rug out from under him. How could that be, huh? That the woman was one step ahead of him? "You can't just… I had so many things I wanted to say and-"

"You can still say them." She even shrugged a bit, but it was sadly now and he'd zapped it right out of her, that joy she'd had before. Distantly, he wondered it was all an act with him too. The whole time. Another pretend character like what she played up at the bar. He'd felt that he was getting the real her, this whole time, as he gave himself in return, but now he just felt duped. Even as she insisted, "It's not like you're leaving tonight."

Swallowing some, Laxus looked down instead, at his own meal, before asking, "What would you have done if I didn't say anything?"

"What do you mean?"

"If I didn't say anything, tonight, and then left next week," he questioned, "would you have still felt this way? How you do now?"

Mira was the one to pause then, but again, he could only get that sad, pitiful shrug out of the woman as she said, "I know you, Laxus. Even before this time that we've spent together. You're poison. And to a certain extent, I guess I am too. Things don't last, with others, when it comes to the two of us. I didn't have to worry about how you felt because I know, just the same as me, you get it. If anything, I'm a little disappointed you thought I'd be crushed over losing you."

The night never picked back up and Mira didn't spend it with him. Instead, they parted in his living room, not with their usual, sensual kisses and hugs, but rather the woman pressing a soft kiss to his cheek and him glancing away, somehow feeling more exposed, in this final night, than he had the entire length of their romance.

Someone else was on shift when he came by the bar, that following week, to pick up his first job back.

Just as he'd intended, it was a nice and long one. The Thunder Legion wanted to go with him, either as a group or at least one of them, individually, to scope out his readiness, but Laxus rebuked them and instead headed out alone.

It was a much a step back into his old life as it was a funeral for his former.

Or at least it started out that way.

He wanted to be sad. Over Mirajane.

At first.

And then he wanted to be angry.

To which he got really close.

Finally, he wanted to just move on.

He really seriously did.

That was the original idea, anyways, to be able to come back and for their relationship (or whatever it had been) to be old news. For Mira to go back to serving him drinks and the occasional sass while Laxus admired her, or at least her strength, and they could be friends.

Distant ones, but still closer than he was with most others in the bar.

It should have made it easier, right? That Mira seemed content with this idea too? She'd been resound, before he even got his words out, and that was just the best. For the best too. They were on the same page, even in a breakup.

This was literally the most amicable a split could ever be.

And yet…

The Thunder Legion was waiting for him, up at the guildhall, when he returned from his just over four week journey. He should have immediately set into berating them, as he was certain they'd been derelict in taking their own jobs, just to hang around, to be there for him when he got back, but he didn't have time.

He hardly even noticed them.

Honest.

Mirajane was working, back on her normal schedule actually. Which would be no off time ever because where else would she go? Than the bar? All her friends were there. Periodically. A rotating door of them, one leaving for a job only for another to appear, returning.

Lucy, in fact, was around that day, seated up at the bar. Mira had spent most of her shift there, honestly, as the celestial mage had much to share with her, after being away for a week.

She'd just been called away though, Mira had, by a waving hand and a drunk request for a refill, and she left Lucy with a smile in place of excusing herself, rushing right over to take care of the patron. It was while she was refilling the mug though that she caught it, sensed it, could feel it.

Him.

Laxus had an air about him that was difficult to dismiss, last half of the year or not.

She'd been prepping for this. Had her plastered on smile down, knew exactly what she'd say to him. Ask him politely about his trip, ask if he wanted his usual, and then use the man's no doubt unease to slink away from the situation. It would be that easy.

It should have been that easy.

Because she was banking on Laxus behaving how she envisioned. He did most of the time. The man thought that he was deep and complex, but honestly, he was just moody and predictable.

He should have wanted away from her just as much as she did him. To have avoided speaking to her, outside of the necessary first conversation, and then they could just begin hedging their lives away from one another.

But he approached her.

First.

As she was backing away from the table she'd just served, he walked right up to her, bypassing the curious Thunder Legion, and instead coming to a stop before the barmaid.

"Laxus." She wasn't that flustered and only began on her intended small talk. "How was your first-"

He kissed her.

He just took her face in his hands, stopping her predetermined greeting in a gesture that made that entire guildhall stop what they were doing. Everyone was staring, something that both Mira and Laxus were used to, when it came to magic, but neither were too public about such excessive affection. And when they broke apart, this showed by the slight tint in Laxus cheeks and Mira only turned her head from him a bit, thoroughly stumped.

"You shouldn't," she finally whispered in the otherwise silent guildhall, "kiss someone. Laxus. Like that. It's invasive."

He blinked some, the man did, but didn't take a step back. Instead, he only whispered back, "I'm sorry." When she looked ready to reply though, he only continued, "About it all. Mira. I… I shouldn't have tried to break up with you. I shouldn't have let you break up with me. Well, at least not without countering some things. Because yeah, you know, things are going to be different. From the past few months. Fine. But...why do they have to go back to how they were? Huh? Why can't they just keep being different? From then too? And we just...try? I'm not saying that I want to, like, be together forever or anything, although I'm not saying I don't want that either, I just…"

"Laxus," she tried to intervene. "We don't have to-"

"Let me finish." And he huffed a bit. Because he'd floundered before, been uncertain of the words he was looking for. Back at his apartment. But maybe that was because he wasn't meant to say them. They weren't mean to come out. He couldn't find something didn't exist. But now, ruminating for over a month on these words, this set, he knew, finally, exactly what he wanted to say. "I'm poison. Fine. If that's what you think. And maybe you are too. But… I liked being with you. More than I've liked being with literally anyone I've known in the past decade. More than I like being alone, even, and you know how much I like that! I just… I don't think we can throw something away, say that it's tainted, that it's poisoned, before it's gone bad. Why would we ever want to do that to ourselves?"

He'd felt impassioned, before, but as he let out that final breath, his chest heaved a bit. It had been so quiet in the hall, with only him speaking, that it was almost easy to pretend like they were back in those few months, when they were all alone, in the empty guild. But it wasn't empty, right now, and for once, the heavy gaze of all his guild mates was almost too much to bear.

"I was going to say," Mira began then with a bit of a frown, "that maybe we could go somewhere in private to talk this over."

Laxus blinked. Then he frowned as well. "Then why didn't you?"

"You told me to talk!"

"Mira-"

"I'll have to think about this, Laxus."

"Yeah, well-"

"Okay!" And she bounced some, having taking just a moment to turn and tap a finger against her lip before pouncing on him, the man just barely catching her in his arms as the woman decided, "I guess we can do this till we die."

"I said I didn't want to be with you forever," he complained as their dimwitted guild mates, still not entirely sure what they were witnessing, cheered, at least some of them, as this seemed like a happy enough resolution. "Demon."

"You said," she remarked simply, "that you weren't sure. And thinking that your dying signifies forever is a bit conceded, don't you think? Dragon?"

"What?"

She released him instead of explaining, remarking simply in a more hushed tone, "We talk. Alone. After hours."

The man eyed her for a moment before nodding because it was true enough. They did need to speak. Honestly. Alone.

And they would. In a few hours. When there were no other eyes and it was easier for Laxus to explain in a way that wasn't so preachy and Mira didn't have to put on her dim facade, not necessarily challenging the man, but confirming with him, in a way they'd yet to do, just how serious they each wanted this relationship to be.

Considering he'd more than outed them to the guildhall, Mira felt as if he was leaning towards very.

And as she'd given hi the fairy tale ending (at least in front of the others), Laxus imagined she wanted the same.

He slunk back off, the softening of his character not one to be trusted by any other. Only the Thunder Legion chased after him, when he left the bar for the time being, intending to return hours later, and it was just as well. It wasn't him that all the others wanted a piece of.

"Mira," Elfman complained over most everyone else. "What was that? Huh?"

But she didn't answer him, instead heading over to the bar, becoming used to the gazes it seemed, and instead only leaning over it with a sigh as she looked the blushing Lucy in the eyes.

"U-Uh, so…" The celestial mage began. "You and Laxus, huh?"

Mira nodded, but only insisted, "I wanna hear about the rest of your job. Natsu did what to the town?"

"Destroyed it," Lucy said more concisely. "But Mira-"

"Well," Mira offered with a bit of a shrug. "He is known for that."

And Lucy, still wanting all the same juicy information that all the others did, only gave in a bit, nodding as she said, "But maybe one day he'll change."

"Yeah," the barmaid agreed. "Maybe."

.

This is the last thing I got planned for Miraxus week. I know I got all the days jumbled up, but hey, we can only try.

[artificialqueens]

The Parent Trap, Chapter 9 (Biadore) - Henny

A/N: Thank you for the comments, Hennies! Y’all are making me feel like Ariel in the beginning of Little Mermaid 2 :> I missed all of you too! Sorry if there was a problem with the formatting of the previous chapter; completely my fault!

OH, and if you’re confused with the timeline, I’ll simplify it for you:

RPDR Season 6 (filming) ended around Mid-July of 2013 (assuming it takes about a year or so before it is released). January 2014; Roy and Danny started dating. 6 months after that, June 2014, a month after Bianca wins, they get married. A year later, the couple gets baby fever, so they start looking for the perfect surrogate and egg donor. This is where I deflect a bit from the prologue, it takes them until May 2016 to conceive.

TLDR; the fic takes place July 2026, and RPDR is currently airing S19 with THE AS:BoTW filming the very same year . If I had said anything contrary to those stated above, disregard it. This is the new timeline I’m going to follow going forward.

All the love, Hennies!

XOXO, Henny

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

“Well, would you be interested in joining the first All-Stars: Battle of the Winners in place of Bianca?”

The way Adore gaped at her phone was almost comedic, mouth opening and closing like a fish. In some way, she’s almost flattered at the fact that Ru called personally instead of a producer. It’s almost very considerate, since the man knew what had gone between Danny and Roy.

“Well, last time I checked, you didn’t crown me, Mama…” Adore adds a teasing tone to her voice, and tries to ignore the nerves that seemed to resurface at the idea of returning back to the competition. It’s been many years since Season 6, and Adore has genuinely forgotten how it feels to be on a platform like that again. Focusing on her music as both Adore and Danny has shifted the focus of her career as a drag queen and performer; and with many seasons passed, she knew her charm has run dry with Drag Race fans.

Ru laughs, the iconic shrill making Adore spiral back into the werkroom. “I didn’t, didn’t I?” He laughs again, and Adore can only imagine him wiping a fake tear. “But, I am planning to release the footage of you and Bianca winning to prove that my decision to invite you has some bearing, at the least.”

Adore inwardly groans again, remembering the night of the finale wherein they filmed the ending of her and Bianca winning together. She feels the ghost of Bianca’s hands squeezing her own as they waved and the sparkly confetti rains and glitters of lights from cameras blinded their eyes; applause and cheers roaring in their ears.

“What will the other queens say? The winners, I mean. It’s not like they’ll consider me a winner, especially the newer queens.” Ever the anxious person that she is, she finds a brush to fiddle with to lessen her anxiety.

“My competition, my rules. Whatever I say goes, Baby. They can say whatever they want, but if they’re smart enough, they’ll pipe up. And, besides…” Ru trails off excitedly, like they were sharing a secret. “Since this is only a Netflix special, I’m only doing the first decade season winners. I’m sure they’ll be nicer to you than recent ones.“

“All of them said yes?”

“All, but one, you already know…”

“Yeah, yeah…”

“So, what do you say?”

“I- I don’t know, Ru. I’ll think about it…”

“Of course, let the producers know soon, alright? Filming starts October! Toodles!”

The call ends, and it takes everything in Adore’s willpower not to throw it to the wall. She looks at her phone’s lock screen and sees the beaming face of Portia, and she manages to calm down. She stands up, grabs a pre-rolled joint in her makeup kit, and heads out of the building after shouting to the manager to inform him about her whereabouts. She normally didn’t do this anymore; smoking, hard liquor, and even hooking up with trades that come her way. Portia had completely turned her life around, and so did Roy and Nerissa. “Fuck,” Tears fill her eyes again at the thought of her daughter who she no longer knew, she sniffles as she takes a long drag of her joint and breathing out harshly.

A tall figure looms over her, and with a tap on her shoulder, she nearly doubled over in fear. “What the fuckkk…” She groans, clutching her heart.

“Oh, sorry… Didn’t mean to scare you.” Adore looks up to meet the steel eyes of a blonde stud with a smug smile on his face.

“Shit, I know you…” Adore murmurs in thought, before she remembers “You’re Brooke, right?”

“Brooke Lynn Hytes, yeah.” He flashes her a beautiful, gorgeous smile, pearly whites and all. “…But right now, uhh,” He looks down to his jeans and plain gray shirt, “You can call me, Brock.”

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

“Okay, give me another one.” Portia looks at her cards, one five of hearts and the other six of spades. It was really late and they just finished washing the dishes of the entire camp after dinner. Not tired from their post-cry-emotional nap earlier, they had decided to play a game of Blackjack. Nerissa deals her another card, and picks one for herself. Portia peaks at the new card, and sees her nine of spades. She joins the cards together, and places them down in triumph.

“20, let’s see yours, Haylock.”

Nerissa drops her cards, a jack of diamonds, two of clubs, and nine of clubs. “Blackjack, bitchh…” She taunts, laughing at Portia’s dismayed face.

“That’s not fucking fair…” Portia drawls, “That’s your 9th time winning, I think you’re cheating…”

“Oh, please. You just play your cards wrong, and sometimes, I’m just really lucky…” Nerissa beams as she watches Portia fix the cards and put it back in their case, murmuring “I don’t want to play anymore.”

“It’s getting pretty late, too. I think we should go to bed.” Nerissa yawns as she grabs her blanket and tries to settle herself in. Portia agrees before standing up to lock their door; to make sure the windows are tightly shut; and to turn off the light. The moon shines at its brightest, a cool silver light shimmers through their window.

“I know it’s late, but I’m not even remotely sleepy.” Portia comments despite the yawn the escapes her.

“Same here,” Nerissa says with droopy eyes.

“Tell me, what’s Bianca like? No… noo…What’s dad like?” Portia asks, adjusting herself so she faces her sister. The mere idea of having a sister and having Roy Haylock AKA Bianca Del Rio, THE Bianca Del Rio is possibly 50% her dad makes her more giddy than anything in the world.

“Dad is probably the most workaholic person you’ll ever meet. He’ll make time for you, yes. But, you can tell that 75% of his mind is just…” Nerissa sighs, “exhausted, if not thinking about work… He really tries though, he hasn’t missed any of my ballet recitals yet nor any PTAs. He’s as active as a busy parent can be.”

“That’s good, I guess…” A hum of agreement, another yawn.

“And not to mention, the free dresses.” She giggles, “How ‘bout our other dad?” Nerissa turns to lie on her back, thinking about her dad who she hasn’t updated in awhile, even though she promised to do so everyday. A sudden urge to hug her dad courses through her body, and subtle pout forms at her lips at the thought of Roy. She missed her dad, she’s still upset about the whole not-telling-her-she-was-a-twin-thing, but she missed him nonetheless.

“He’s pretty chill. I can do anything I want,”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, my dad’s pretty cool. We have the kind of relationship where I can tell him things and… he can tell me things. He’s my best friend, so we just have fun most of the time.” Portia says with mere awe. “But, it wasn’t always like that. There was a time though where he was pretty down in the dumps; he didn’t really have the best mental health back then and his coping mechanism–”

“Hey, this seems kinda personal. You don’t have to tell me this, okay? Only if you’re comfortable doing so.” Nerissa says, her arm crossing its way to pat Portia’s tummy to stop her thought.

“No, no… You’re my sister, and I trust you enough.”

“Okay, if you’re sure… So you were saying?

“Yeah, so, he didn’t have the best coping mechanism. Alcohol is tricky when it gets out of hand. I didn’t mind at first, because I didn’t think it was that bad. I didn’t notice the signs because I was so young. It was only one incident, really, when I understood the gravity of it all. Around June, he nearly drank himself to death. I don’t know why he drank severely that night, but I just found him passed out on his own–” Portia chokes as tears start up with the memory of seeing her dad then. “I was only four then, Riz. I didn’t know what death was, but the minute I saw him– It just rationalized so quickly in my head. I called 911 as fast as I could. I didn’t know what I was saying half the time ‘cuz I was just crying.”

Nerissa places a comforting hand on Portia’s arm as the girl tries to fight the sniffles. When Portia manages to barely win against the tears, she continues, “When we were in the hospital, I was with my Grandma and there was another man, I– I don’t know who, from what I can remember– we didn’t know if my dad was gonna make it.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Porsche.”

“No, no… It’s fine. Just sucks to remember it. But, he managed to pull through, obviously. He hasn’t drank alcohol in years. So, I’m really proud of him, especially in his line of work, it must be so hard.”

“Yeah, as his 50%-chance daughter and for what it’s worth, I’m proud of him, too. “

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

When Courtney heard the rumors going around backstage that night, she had about ten shots of tequila before coming to the conclusion that she wouldn’t tell Roy. But, funny how alcohol works out.

“Yanxxxxx” Courtney drawls out on her phone that she’s struggling to hold up to her ear. But the effort was there. She has absolutely no idea where she is as she presses her warm cheek to the cold faux leather seat of a couch.

“Bitch, did you really just– What?” Roy rolls his eyes as he looks at his phone that hosts Courtney’s current call and the said-blonde on his couch, drooling and staring off into space.

“I gotta–” hiccup “tell you a ssssecret.” Courtney angles her phone to her mouth, so she’s directly speaking to the phone’s microphone. Roy walks over to the drunk girl, grabs her phone and throws it in her purse. He ends the call on his phone before slipping to the kitchen, grabbing a towel and soaking it with cold water. He gives it a good squeeze to remove the excess water before going back to Courtney and placing the towel on her forehead.

“You’re so lucky Riz isn’t here or I would’ve left your drunk ass in the club.” He mutters in annoyance, even though everyone knew he wouldn’t really do that. He could never let anything happen to any of his loved ones, and god knows Riz has seen Courtney or Shane pissed drunk since she was a toddler.

“No,” Courtney says abruptly, hand swatting away Roy’s hand. “Nooooo…” She continues to drawl. “The secret is Ado…” She leans in close, way too close. Roy gets a harsh flashback and hastily pushes Courtney away. With the push, Courtney plops on her back and passes out entirely. Roy sighs, both in frustration and exhaustion. He wouldn’t bother removing Courtney’s makeup, but he did give her the courtesy of removing her wig and cap, as well as unlacing her corset. It all feels familiar to him, taking care of someone and helping them de-drag, except of course, back then he had to strip Bianca off himself and help Danny remove his clothes which then would lead to…

Roy shakes his mind, trying to get rid of the idea before it escalated. He leaves the guest bedroom and makes his way to the kitchen for a glass of wine. He’s just going to pretend he doesn’t know that Courtney was about to say something about Adore as he starts up a design for Rupaul on the granite kitchen counter.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

“I can’t believe Biadore was ACTUALLY a thing.”

“How can you not? The tension was so obvious, especially during that one part where Adore said she didn’t want to work with Bianca? The sexual tension was just–” Nerissa fans herself before she receives a slight smack and push on her shoulder.

“Dude, you’re so fucking weird. I don’t wanna think about my dad’s sex life OR YOURS!!”

“I’m just telling the truth! The stare was intense.” Nerissa breaks into a fit of giggles at Portia’s face of slight disgust at the idea. “And speaking of, did your dad date anyone again?” Nerissa asks.

“Never anyone serious enough to introduce to me, no. He’d go on dates, sometimes Adore would go on dates. But, yeah. He never really seemed interested in dating anymore, so he put all his attention to me or his and Adore’s music.”

“Do you call Adore “mom”?”

“No, that’s weird!” Portia snorts, “My dad is, well, my dad. He has his own quirks and personality. And, Adore, to me, is just a whole different person. I can’t explain it. Like, I know he’s Adore Delano through and through. But, my mind just sees Adore like a whole different person.” Portia rolls again to her back, so she’s facing the ceiling like her sister. “How about your dad? Did he date anyone?”

“You know what’s weird? I don’t think he ever did, not even dating or flirting with anyone else. He’s always been so closed off to anyone who showed any particular interest.” Nerissa twiddles with her thumb, before scrunching her nose in distaste. “I mean, in some way, I get it. He’s scared to love again. Uncle Shane always said so. I wish I knew why though.”

Portia hums, thoughtfully. Another pregnant pause looms over their conversation. It has gone on for so long that for a moment Nerissa thought Portia was asleep, until…

“I AM SUCH A FUCKING GENIUS!”

PREVIOUS CHAPTERS:

Prologue | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight |

[badstoriesaboutgoodpeople]

Hands Off

Word Count: 1926

Warnings: some swearing, some smut, all the good stuff basically

AN: Hey, long time no see! I finally wrote something wow look at me go. This is for my 🥭 anon who requested some possessive PLD smut. I’m sorry it took me so long, I hope you enjoy it! I haven’t written in a while so it might be garbage and if it is I sincerely apologize. If I missed any typos feel free to make fun of me for it, I probably deserve it.

You’d finally had a night off from work and had decided to spend it watching Pierre play, a rare treat for the both of you. It was a good game too, a hard fought win against the Oilers. You’d texted Pierre after the game and told him to meet you at your favourite hole in the wall bar. It was small enough that the two of you wouldn’t garner much attention and would be able to enjoy your evening together. You agreed that you’d go early and grab one of the small booths in the back of the bar while Pierre did post game media and whatever else he needed to. You made the journey on foot having taken an Uber to the arena and soon enough you were walking into the bar, its warm lighting and exposed brick walls creating a welcoming and homey environment. You tossed your jacket into one of the booths, the bar close enough that you’d be able to keep an eye on it while you waited for your drink. You had ordered your moscow mule and a mojito for Luc when you saw movement out of the corner of your eye. Thinking it was Luc you looked up but it was a few of the Oilers who’d clearly also hoped the small bar would grant them some level of anonymity. You recognized a few faces but probably couldn’t have named any of them when asked. The group made their way to the big booth in the corner, but one of them drew back and came to sit next to you. You gave him a small smile before turning back to watch the bartender making drinks. You felt a gentle tap on your shoulder and against your better judgement you turned to face him.

“Hey, can I buy you a drink?” he asked, revealing the slightest hint of an accent when he spoke.

“Oh I already have one on the way, thanks though,” you said, not wanting to be rude but trying to demonstrate your lack of interest.

“Oh come on, I can’t even buy you a shot or anything?” he asked before waiving the bartender over and ordering two shots of tequila. You tried to shake your head but soon enough there was a shot glass and a wedge of lime sitting in front of you. He looked at you expectantly and you picked the shot glass up.

“Cheers…” he said, looking at you to fill your name in.

“Y/N, and you are?” you asked.

“Leon. Cheers, Y/N” said Leon, clinking your glasses together before throwing the shot back. You followed suit, biting into the lime after to try to distract from the burning in your chest. By this point the bartender had placed the two drinks you’d ordered in front of you. You gave Leon a small smile before picking them up and taking them to your booth. He watched you go then returned to his team mates. You could hear them talking from where you were seated, and after some teasing and some less than kind chirps he was standing next to you at your seat.

“Waiting for a friend?”

“Something like that,” you said, sipping your drink and looking at your phone.

“Can I at least keep you company while you wait?” he asked, not waiting for your answer before slipping into the seat across from you. You gave him a small but tight smile before looking down at your phone once again. You opened your text thread with Luc and began typing out a message.

Y/N- You almost here? Some Oiler named Leon is flirting with me and I can’t get rid of him

Luc- Draisaitl?? Fuck, I’m on my way now. I’ll be there soon

“That your friend?” asked Leon and you nodded, trying to broadcast your disinterest loud and clear. Leon was just about to ask you something else when you heard the door open and saw Luc nearly sprint over to where you were sitting.

“Hey baby, sorry I’m late,” he said before leaning down to press a kiss to the top of your head. You saw Leon’s face fall as he realized who the “friend” you had been waiting for was.

“Can I help you?” asked Luc, squaring his shoulders and turning to face Leon.

“Nah man I was just keeping her company. Bit rude to keep her waiting don’t you think?” asked Leon, sliding out of the booth with a smirk on his face. Leon brushed past him, sticking his elbow out just enough to shove him a bit before sinking into the booth. Leon walked off without further incident and you let out a breath you didn’t realize you’d been holding.

“Hey, thanks for getting here so quick,” you said, taking a big gulp of your drink.

“Of course,” he said, picking up his mojito and downing it in one go.

“Thirsty?” you asked, chuckling slightly as he slammed his glass down.

“No, just don’t like the way he was looking at you. The whole booth is looking at us right now and I just want to get over here before I punch somebody,” said Luc, tapping his fingers on the tabletop anxiously.

“Well let’s go then hm? Don’t need you following in Sonny’s footsteps,” you said, grabbing your jacket and your bag and shuffling out of the booth. Luc was behind you in an instant to help you with your coat, and he led you out of the bar with a hand on your lower back the whole way. You made it to the car and couldn’t help but notice the way Luc was white knuckling the steering wheel and speeding home a little faster than he usually would. As soon as you were in the house with the door locked behind you Luc had you shoved up against it, mouth captured in a heated kiss. You managed to pull away to breathe for a second only to have Luc dive back in, kissing along your jawline and sucking a mark into your neck.

“Woah hey, can I at least take my jacket off?” you teased, watching Pierre pull away, pupils wide and mouth open slightly. You took your time taking your jacket off and hanging it in the hall closet, taking off your shoes and placing them neatly by the door. Luc, on the other hand had tossed his jacket on the couch and kicked his shoes off haphazardly, one having ended up down the hallway by the kitchen in his effort to get them off. Pierre didn’t even wait for you to follow, he’d already begun unbuttoning his shirt and was working on his belt as he climbed the stairs. You found yourself chuckling as you followed him, slipping your own shirt over your head as you went. Once you made it to the bedroom you ignored Luc who was already naked save for his boxers on the bed and walked over to the closet. You hung your shirt off and shimmied out of your jeans, tossing them onto the pile of laundry Pierre had left at the foot of the bed. You made your way to the ensuite and took off your makeup and brushed your teeth, knowing you’d likely be too lazy to do it later. You could hear Luc grumbling in the bedroom, whining about how long you were taking, and when you finally exited the bathroom he was sitting his back against the headboard, thighs spread slightly; when he saw you he patted his lap and you didn’t waste time wandering over to sit in it. His hands were behind your back almost immediately, undoing your bra and pushing the light blue fabric off your body. He captured your mouth in another kiss as he brought a hand up to toy with your nipple, taking advantage of the small gasp you let out to deepen the kiss. You began rocking your hips without even really noticing, the small groan Luc let out was the first thing that made you realize you were doing it.

“Stop teasing, I just want to fuck you already. Have to remind you who you belong to. Not Draisaitl, not any of them, nobody else, nobody but me. Isn’t that right?” you opened your mouth to respond but the only sound that came out was a whimper as Luc’s hands drifted down to your ass, giving it a light smack before his hands found the waistband of your underwear and started tugging. You ended up having to climb out of his lap completely to rid yourself of them, and Luc took the opportunity to shove his boxers down to mid thigh, not even bothering to kick them off. You moved to straddle him again, and you placed your hands on his broad shoulders to steady yourself, feeling one of Luc’s hands move to your hip to guide you as you sunk down slowly. You didn’t stop until you were fully seated, letting out a small moan while Pierre’s grip on your hips tightened. You gave yourself a minute to adjust, rocking your hips back and forth gently, letting out a startled noise when Luc’s hips bucked, his thighs trembling from the effort it took to stay (mostly) still. You decided enough was enough and lifted yourself up before slowly sinking back down. The two of you groaned in unison, Lucs fingers digging into your hips, your nails digging into his shoulders. You started slow but that lasted approximately three minutes before Pierre started thrusting his hips up to meet yours, his big hands guiding you to move faster.

“Fuck you look so good like this, all mine. My girl, I’m so fucking lucky to have you. Nobody else gets to see just how good you look like this. All for me, fuck!” said Luc, trailing off into a moan when your knees slipped out from under you a bit and your hips slammed together.

“All yours,” you said, leaning in to press kisses along his jawline, burying your face in his neck to muffle a particularly loud moan. When you sat up again Luc immediately moved to bite at your collarbone, leaving marks on the tender skin there. One on each side, two in the middle, and one down lower near the tops of your breasts. You could feel your thighs beginning to tremble but you could also feel your orgasm building.

“Luc, fuck, I’m so close, please-” you siad, but were cut off by a moan when you felt Pierre’s hand move down to rub at your clit.

“Come on my pretty girl, show me how good you look when you come,” said Luc and you were unable to do anything but what he told you to. You came with a loud moan, your legs giving out from under you. You draped yourself across Luc’s chest as you felt his hips speed up and eventually stutter and stop as he came, letting out a low groan bordering on a growl. You stayed that way for a minute, catching your breath together, until Luc finally spoke.

“Did Draisaitl give you his number?”

“No, why?”

“Was gonna send him a picture of all those hickies and show him what he’s missing.” You gave Luc a smack on the shoulder but there was no hiding the way the thought made you clench around him. Luc raised an eyebrow at you before giving you a mischievous grin.

“I’ll ask around the room, I’m sure somebody has it.”

[nineteenninety-six]

Favourite Uncle

REQUEST: hii, don't worry you're not being dumb I just sucked at wording it right. I mean a Y/N, Tommy and Adam with Ben from Knight In Shining Amour. sorry wow I'm embarrassed that was so bad.

Haha don’t be embarrassed, it’s fine, don’t fret. I hope you this is what you were looking for :) 

Look at me posting twice in one day, truly iconic behaviour 

WORD COUNT: 1524

“Mama where?”

Adam had his face smushed up against the window, his eyes wide open as he kept a lookout for his favourite uncle.

(Y/N) stifled a laugh as she exchanged looks with Tommy, “Soon poppet. Now come away from the window please.”

Adam ignored her, acting as if she had never said anything in the first place.

“Adam.” (Y/N) had a certain tone in a voice that Adam recognised as ‘if he didn’t listen, he would be getting a time out’

“Mama!” Adam whined, turning his head to face his parents, a pout on his lips.

(Y/N) and Tommy exchanged another look but before they could speak, knocking on the window caught everyone’s attention.

Adam whipped around and squealed as soon as he saw who it was, he quickly jumped up and down before speeding out of the living room and towards to foyer.

(Y/N) leant forward and grinned when she saw her younger brother Ben wave at her through the window, his own grin plastered on his face. She jumped up and quickly followed Adam into the foyer, Tommy trailing behind her, smiling at the joy his wife and son were currently experiencing.

Adam was basically vibrating in excitement as he waited for his mother to unlock and open the door and when she did, he quickly darted out and jumped into his uncle’s arms.

“Uncle Ben!” He cheered.

“Hey, buddy! Woah you’ve gotten big, haven’t ya?” Ben tightened his arms around his nephew before spinning around in a circle. Adam just laughed in response.

Ben stepped into the house and greeted his sister, Adam still in his arms.

“Hello sis” He grinned “What have you been feeding my favourite nephew eh?”

(Y/N) snorted as she brought him into a hug and kissed his cheek, “He’s your only nephew.”

Ben simply grinned at her before he moved on to greet Tommy. He never truly got over his admiration for Tommy, the older man becoming an invaluable person in his life. As much as he adored his older sister, an older brother-like person was something that he appreciated.

“Hey man!” Tommy and Ben brought each other into a brief half hug thing and patted each other on the back.

Adam squirmed in Ben’s arm, “Uncle Ben, play?”

(Y/N) sighed but she couldn’t help but smile at seeing how much her son loved her brother  “Let Uncle Ben take off his jacket first, baby and then you can play yeah?”

Adam didn’t seem to have a problem with that as he climbed out of his uncle’s arms and let him hang up his coat and pass his luggage to one of the staff.

“Alright buddy, wanna show me where your room is so we can go play?” Adam nodded at Ben’s request and grabbed his hand, quickly dragging him up the stairs.

(Y/N) laughed at the sight before moving towards the kitchen to make some tea.

“We won’t get a moment with him until after Adam’s fallen asleep.” (Y/N) laughed as she moved around the kitchen, “Tea?”

Tommy nodded at her offer and sat down at the island that sat in the room, “He adores him, reminds me of Ben himself when he was younger.”

(Y/N)’s eyes sparkled at Tommy’s words as she brought their cups of tea over to where he was sitting, “You’re right! Ben acted like that when he was younger with you.”

“They barely see each other though. I don’t get why Ben is his favourite compared Arthur, John and Finn.”

It was true that they barely saw each other. After Ben had finished school, he moved to a different part of the country to work and so he was rarely able to travel back home and visit them.

“Awh, are you upset that none of your brothers are your son’s favourite uncle?” (Y/N) taunted him, walking around to him and pinching his cheeks mockingly.

Tommy grumbled and pushed her hands causing (Y/N) laugh again,

“What?”

“You look just like Adam does when you’re grumpy.”

“I should hope we look alike, he is my son.” Tommy retorted, still grumpy.

(Y/N) rolled her eyes at him, “I sure hope he doesn’t get your personality too. I can only deal with one grumpy Shelby boy at a time, two will drive me crazy.”

Tommy simply pinched her bum as she was making her way back to her seat as a response, grinning cheekily when she glared at him over her shoulder.

“Anyway, to answer your question, they’re close because they’re similar and Ben isn’t as scary as Arthur and John. It’s the same reason why Adam is close to Finn as well and the fact that Finn is young and has no problems running around and playing with him.”

Tommy shifted slightly in his seat, “Adam is afraid of Arthur and John?”

“What? No. Of course not, you’ve seen how he is with them.” (Y/N) sipped her tea.

“Then what do you mean?”

“Arthur and John are big, loud and carry guns whereas Ben and Finn are soft and quiet. It’s just how Adam is, he’s drawn to people who are like him but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love Arthur and John.”

“Hmm” Tommy knew she was right.

“Besides” (Y/N) smiled at the look Tommy sent her, “Imagine if Adam didn’t see Arthur or John for longer than a couple of weeks, he would treat them like how he’s treating Ben. He’s just missing him, that’s all.”

Ben and Adam entered the kitchen, ending their conversation.

“Mama hungry” Adam whined, reaching out for her.

“You’re hungry? Okay, let’s go see if the cook in the big kitchen can give you something as a snack before dinner aye?” (Y/N) swept Adam into her arms and glided out of the room.

Ben sat down in the recently vacated chair and finished off (Y/N)’s half-finished tea.

“It’s nice to see you back Ben, it’s been a while.”

“I’m glad to be back Tommy. I know I don’t come down here enough but it’s still really great to see you guys.” Ben beamed at his brother-in-law.

There were few things that Tommy was proud of but he was very proud to see the man Ben turned out to be and if person Ben could be to Adam like himself was to Ben, then he looked forward to the future.

(Y/N) and Adam came back soon after, the young boy with a saucer filled with cut up pieces of vegetables. (Y/N) took the saucer out of his hand and placed it on the kitchen counter before quickly scooping him and placing him next to it before he could complain.

“Can I have some Adam?” Ben motioned towards his plate and the young boy nodded, lifting up a piece of carrot for his uncle, giggling when Ben took it with his mouth and pretended to bite his fingers as he did so.

Adam spent the rest of the day on Ben’s hip, intent on clinging on to his uncle for as long as he could and Ben had no problem with it at all.

They retired to the living room after dinner, the fire in fireplace burning brightly and warmly (Y/N) and Tommy curled up together on the loveseat while Ben and Adam were spread against the sofa.

(Y/N) and Tommy was originally talking to Ben about his life and how he was getting on with work before Adam demanded Ben’s attention, so now they were quietly talking to each other. (Y/N) was mid-story when Tommy squeezed her thigh and interrupted her,

“Hey, look at them” He nodded towards Ben and Adam.

(Y/N) couldn’t help the ‘aww’ sound that came out of her mouth as she looked at them, the pair of them were fast asleep. Adam was spread across Ben’s chest in a position that looked slightly uncomfortable for both of them yet neither seemed to care.

“We should wake them up before they end up waking in pain.” Tommy nodded allowing her to climb out their embrace and stand up.

(Y/N) picked up Adam before she passed him to Tommy, his face instantly nestling into his father’s neck.

Ben’s eyes shot open and he sat up slightly as he felt the weight of his nephew get removed from his chest,

“Hey, it’s fine, don’t worry. You both ended up falling asleep.” Ben calmed at his sister’s words before he sat up fully.

“You should go to bed, you’ve got a long day tomorrow.” (Y/N) pressed a kiss to his forehead before she followed Tommy to the door.

“Long day? What do you mean?” Ben stood up and followed them.

“You didn’t know? You’re babysitting Adam all day tomorrow.” Ben could only gape in shock as his sister laughed at him as she climbed the stairs, even Tommy was chuckling at him.

As Ben watched his sister and brother-in-law laugh as they walked away from him, he couldn’t help but feel excited about spending the whole day with his nephew.

[calumsclifford]

it’s bella’s birthday and she deserves the absolute world, so i wrote this little fangirl au drabble! bella is the absolute champion of this au, she loves it more than anyone else, and just supports me relentless and i don’t know what i’ve done to deserve her in my life, but i’m so happy i know her! she is genuinely one of the most talented writers ever, is so kind and sweet and smart and creative and is just a beacon of light in this community. if you haven’t already, go wish her a happy birthday @clumsyclifford and check out her newest fic here, or this fic which is my favourite lashton fic ever, or her brazil fic which is a masterpiece and criminally underrated! happy birthday bella, i hope you have a wonderful day! ❤️

-

Luke only finds out that it’s Michael’s birthday when he comes back after class to about three feet of “Happy Birthday” balloons.

“Um,” Luke says, as if the balloons will somehow explain.

“Luke!”

Luke freezes, and then Ashton’s head is appearing from the approximate location of the floor in front of Michael’s bed.

“Um,” Luke says again.

“Perfect timing! Michael’s shift is done in an hour, and I still have two whole bags to go.”

Luke knocks his way to his bed, careful not to pop any of the balloons. Once he gets there, Ashton is tossing him a bag of uninflated balloons. Apparently, by living here, Luke has volunteered himself to help.

“So,” Luke says, tearing the bag open. “It’s Michael’s birthday?”

“He didn’t tell you?”

Luke shakes his head, stretches out a balloon then starts to inflate it.

“Has he even asked about your birthday? When’s your birthday?”

Luke ties off his inflated balloon and releases it into the room. “July 16th.”

“Mine is July 7th! Summer birthdays are the worst, right?”

“Yeah,” Luke says. He starts to inflate another balloon because he expects this to be a topic to which he cannot contribute a whole lot.

“As a kid especially! Everyone is on vacation or at the cabin or whatever, so no one really comes to summer birthday parties.”

Luke does not say anything, because he doesn’t want to tell Ashton that he doubts anyone would have come to his birthday parties, anyways.

“It’s not so bad now, though, because I get to see my family. Michael is stuck with just me,” Ashton says.

Luke releases another balloon to the room. “Seems like that’s a pretty good deal, for him.”

Ashton laughs. “I don’t think he’d agree with you.”

“Oh,” Luke says. He wonders how Michael could possibly disagree. No one has ever blown up balloons for Luke.

“If Michael had it his way, he’d probably spend his birthday at home, in his basement, playing video games alone for 24 hours straight.”

“Sounds tiring,” Luke says. He can only stare at a screen for 12 hours straight before his eyes start to burn, usually.

“To you and me, both,” Ashton laughs, open and exposed, a laugh to share. “If I could do anything for my birthday, I’d want to be at a concert with all of my friends, I think. There’s nothing like live music, you know?”

Luke nods, even though he’s been to two concerts in his life, and he had to leave one early because it was too crowded and he got jittery.

“What would you do? What would be your ideal birthday?”

The realistic answer would probably be writing, posting a celebratory one-shot, and then going out to a mid-range Italian restaurant with his family, maybe. Luke inexplicably wants Ashton to think that he’s interesting, though, so he makes something up on the spot.

“I’d want to go to New York or Chicago or something so that I could meet up with all of my friends from out of state,” Luke says, and he finds that it’s not actually untrue.

“That sounds like a great birthday,” Ashton grins. “It’s cool that you have friends from out of state! How did you meet them?”

“Different ways,” Luke says. “We’re not going to blow these balloons up in time,” he adds quickly, to change the subject.

“You’re right,” Ashton says. He fumbles around on Michael’s desk and gets music playing out of his portable speaker that Luke has never seen him use. It’s folky and calming, and Luke doesn’t mind it. “Let’s power through!”

Ashton convinces Luke to hide himself under the balloons before Michael gets back, and when they hear the door open, they jump up and yell “Happy birthday!”

Or rather, Ashton yells it, Luke says it. Michael is entirely unsurprised and unimpressed.

“You were in on this?” Michael says to Luke. Luke opens his mouth to explain, but Michael stops him. “You two are cleaning this up.”

“We can handle that,” Ashton says, brightly. He produces a cake from somewhere on the floor by Michael’s desk, and when he stands, the balloons are up to his stomach.

“You didn’t make that yourself, did you?” Michael asks, distrustful.

“Alex helped,” Ashton says, willfully oblivious to Michael’s even less enthused expression. “I didn’t get candles because they’re not allowed in the dorms, but I’m still going to sing.”

“Please don’t,” Michael says, but Ashton is already starting. It’s purposefully shrill and off key, and Luke has to hide his laugh in his hand because Michael keeps shooting him glares.

“Did you even bring plates?” Michael asks when Ashton is finally done.

“Even better,” Ashton says, and pulls three forks out of nowhere. “Who needs plates?”

“Luke thinks you’re barbaric,” Michael says. Luke pretends to get a text so that he can look away.

“If Luke wants a plate, I can find Luke a plate.”

“I don’t want a plate,” Luke says. He doesn’t even really want cake. He doesn’t want Michael’s cake, he doesn’t want to impose himself any further upon Michael’s life.

“See?” Ashton says to Michael, too enthusiastic to come off smug. “I told you. He’s cool.”

Michael snorts, but at least he tries to cover it up with a cough. Luke doesn’t take it badly, though. Michael is right. The idea that Luke is cool is, frankly, laughable.

Ashton hands out the forks and they eat, and the cake is actually pretty good. Luke doesn’t say anything though, because he can’t tell if Michael likes it.

Luke stops after eating the rough equivalent of half of a slice, and Michael and Ashton stop shortly after. They start to kick through the balloons, getting ready to go out.

“It’s just dinner,” Ashton says. “You should come. We promise there will be no crazy drunks.”

“He’s right,” Michael says. “You’ve got to be getting sick of the dining hall food by now.”

“I like some of it,” Luke says, defensively.

“It’s not as good as Pear’s, though,” Ashton says.

“I have a lot to do,” Luke says, which is true. He’s going home for Thanksgiving over the weekend and needs to get ahead in some schoolwork.

“If you’re sure,” Michael says. Ashton starts to say something, but Michael shoots him a look. Luke can’t see it from where he is, but Ashton drops it, thankfully.  

After they’re gone, Luke deliberates for half an hour before finally giving up and going to see his RA.

He knocks on Rian’s door tentatively – he’s never sought him out, has only ever spoken to him when directly spoken to, and only ever very few words at that.

Rian opens the door, smiles wide. “Luke! What can I do for you?”

“Uh – my roommate’s – his uh, his boyfriend filled our room with balloons? I don’t know what to do with them.”

“Right, it’s Michael’s birthday! I’ll have to remember to say something later,” Rian says. He steps out of his room and closes the door but doesn’t lock it. He leads Luke back to his room but waits for Luke to open the door for him. “Wow, Michael’s boyfriend went a little crazy, huh?”

Luke shrugs, overwhelmed.

“We can get this sorted out, no problem. Do you have any pens? Mechanical pencils will also work.”

Luke produces a handful from his desk and Rian picks two, so Luke does so as well. “I’m happy you came to get me, this will be fun,” Rian says, and then he’s stabbing blindly at the balloons, popping 4 in quick succession. Luke figures that this idea is as good as any, so he starts stabbing as well.

The balloons are too loud to really enable any conversation, which is a blessing. Luke finds that he’s not uncomfortable, though. Rian is a calming presence, practiced in his confidence.

They’ve gone through all of the balloons within twenty minutes, and then Rian stays to help collect all of the balloon carcases. They don’t talk, they keep up a comfortable silence as they work. Maybe Luke isn’t so socially incompetent, after all.

Luke does not expect Michael to come back to their room that night, but he does. Luke is still up, working on a sociology assignment when Michael slams the door open, clearly expecting the room to still be a mess.

“This is the best birthday present I’ve ever fucking gotten,” Michael says, relieved.

“Rian helped,” Luke says.

“How did he know to help?”

“I asked him.”

“You? Approached Rian? On your own?” Michael asks. The worst part is that it’s not even mocking, Michael is genuinely surprised.

“I’m not completely useless,” Luke says.

“This is the first proof I’ve seen of that,” Michael says, which is mocking, thankfully. Luke is much more comfortable with Michael when he’s not being sincere.

“Well, don’t expect any more,” Luke says.

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

Luke focuses his attention back to his computer as Michael bangs around the room, getting ready for bed. He’s managed to write a few more sentences when he notices that Michael’s looking at him.

“You should have come,” Michael says.

“I got a lot done.”

“Did you go to the dining hall?”

“No,” Luke says, guiltily.

“Want to go now?”

“The cake was filling,” Luke says. Michael rolls his eyes, but doesn’t push.

“Good, because we’re eating cake for breakfast, tomorrow.”

Luke looks back down at his computer and supresses a smile.

[tornbetween2loves]

Hot Welcoming

This is my entry for Kinky Cards 2020. My card was #69 Hot Welcoming. Wait for your partner to come home and give him/her immediate surprise sex. He/she must finish. For this fic, I chose a Baslivia pairing. It takes place in the AU for my series My Heart Torn Apart, which has Liam in a poly relationship with Drake and Riley. This fic also fulfills a very old request I had in my inbox from @bobasheebaby. The prompt was ‘snow’. Hope you all like it! This is the first fic I’ve posted in awhile. This mood board was made by @texaskitten30

This fic contains erotica. Please do not read if you are under the age of 18.

All characters belong to Pixelberry, I am simply borrowing them.

Olivia sat on the leather couch in the family room and watched the snow swirling outside. The fire crackled in the warm and cozy room as she leaned forward and grasped the mug of hot cocoa in her hand. Her eyes fell on a card sitting next to the mug. She rolled her eyes as she thought about the night she got that card. Her and Riley were having drinks at the palace while Liam, Drake and Bastien were in a late security meeting. Olivia was waiting to ride back to Lythikos with Bastien. The girls were having a blast, sharing stories about their men and she had just enough to drink to reveal a secret she had been keeping for quite some time. 




“So, have you used the kinky cards I gave you at your bachelorette party yet?” Riley’s mouth dropped open and her cheeks flushed. “That was your gift? Why didn’t you tell me?” She shrugged. “I like to keep people guessing. So, did you use them?” Riley took a big gulp of her drink and cleared her throat. She nodded as she shot Olivia a sideways glance. The girls both broke into a fit of giggles. “Please, you have to tell me which ones.” Riley shrugged. “Let’s see if you can guess. Wait here. I’ll be right back.”




She came back with the cards a few minutes later. Olivia loosened the red ribbon and lifted the lid off the box. She looked through a few of the cards, then realized only one was upside down. She pulled that card out and lifted a brow. “Gift toy?” She could tell immediately by the rush of blood to Riley’s face. Olivia couldn’t help her laughter. “Exactly what kind of toy did you get?” Riley looked away as she said quietly, “anal beads.” Olivia stopped short and tried to contain her giggles. “Wow, I was not expecting that. Although with two husbands, I guess that makes sense.”




“I have an idea,” Riley said as she finished her drink. “Why don’t we each pick a card for the other to try?” Olivia looked doubtful. “I don’t know, isn’t that a little personal?” Riley shrugged. “Maybe. But it’s not like we’re gonna make videos or anything. We don’t even have to share details. Just a simple nod the next time we see each other will be confirmation that we followed through.” After considering it for a moment, Olivia threw her arms up in the air. “Ah, what the hell. Could be fun. Let’s do it.”




So Olivia left the palace that night with a kinky card in her pocket for her to use with Bastien. She had been thinking about it for over a week now. The timing had to be perfect. She picked up the card and read it again. 




Card 69. Hot Welcoming. Wait for your partner to come home and give him/her immediate surprise sex. He/she must finish.




Tonight was the night. It was perfect. She wasn’t expecting Bastien for a couple of hours yet, he had a late meeting with Liam and Drake. He was doing a lot of consulting work since he retired as head of the Royal Guard. All of the staff would be gone by the time he got home. She looked out the window again. Hopefully the weather didn’t interfere with her plans. She finished her cocoa and went upstairs to get ready. 




*********

She stretched out on the bed, wearing only back-seam stockings and red stilettos. Thoughts of her Bas filled her mind and she let out a low groan as her hands grazed across her nipples and slowly moved between her legs. She made slow circles across her clit, thinking of his tongue swirling on her most sensitive spot. Her breath hitched and a moan escaped her as she slipped a finger inside. She arched her back and began to writhe as she pumped her finger in and out then inserted another finger. She was close to the edge, her breath came in short spurts as she pumped her fingers faster and faster while continuing to circle her swollen nub with the other hand. All the while imagining her Bas between her legs, smiling up at her as he expertly worked her body into a frenzy. 




Just as she was about to go over the edge, her phone pinged. She groaned and reluctantly reached for it. She groaned again when she saw the text from Bastien.




Hey darling, I’m probably going to be late. This snow is laying pretty fast on the roads. I’ll be there asap. Love you.




Maybe tonight wasn’t the night for a Hot Welcoming.




***************




“Damn it! Fucking black ice!” Bastien groaned and laid his head on the steering wheel. Perhaps he should’ve stayed at the palace that night. But he had promised Olivia he would come home. Luckily, there was no traffic on the road when he hit the icy patch and spun out of control and off the road into a ditch. There was no way he could get his car out by himself. He wasn’t far from home, only about a mile. But a mile in these conditions could be treacherous. He sat in the car, contemplating his next move. He sent Olivia a text then got out of the car and started walking. 




The wind whipped around him as he pulled his coat tight around him. He really wasn’t dressed for a hike in the snow. He had no hat and only a thin pair of leather driving gloves. Thank god he decided to wear a wool suit that day. But his dress shoes had him sliding all over the place. He finally gave up trying to walk on the road and moved to the shoulder. He stepped in the snow and it crunched as he sank to mid-calf. Bastien groaned as the snow seeped into his socks and shoes and travelled up his pant leg. It was cold. But at least he wasn’t sliding everywhere. He took off jogging, using the collar of his coat to cover his face up to his eyes and shield the wind. He made pretty good progress, he kept a steady pace and felt fairly warm, despite being wet from the knees down. 




***************************************

After what felt like hours, Bastien came to the bottom of Olivia’s driveway. He punched a code in the gate and made his way up the driveway. He entered through the side door into the garage, stripping out of his wet clothes in the mud room and making his way slowly into the kitchen. He looked around, despite being fairly certain that the staff was gone for the night. He tiptoed through the kitchen and up the back stairway to the master suite. 




The lights were off and Bastien assumed Olivia was sleeping. He closed the door quietly and slowly made his way over to the bed in the dark. He gently lifted up the covers and climbed under, savoring the warmth of the down comforter. He reached for Olivia and was startled to find she was not there. He sat up in bed and looked around the room. “Liv? Are you here?” It was so dark he couldn’t see anything, so he reached for the lamp on his nightstand. 




He was so astonished to see Olivia standing at the foot of the bed that he let out a yelp. “My god woman! Are you trying to scare me half to death?” His heart raced as he noticed she was wearing a black trench coat and fedora. She flashed him a sexy smile. “No Bas, I’m not trying to scare you,” she purred. “Quite the opposite, in fact.” His mouth dropped open as she unbuttoned the coat and turned around, letting it drop to the floor. A groan escaped his throat as he realized she was completely naked other than back seam stockings and stilettos. His cock twitched under the covers, coming back to life in the warmth. “Oh Liv, you are so fucking sexy,” he growled as his whole body began to feel warm again. 




She spun around and took off the fedora and tossed it at him. Before he could react she was standing beside him. She flung the covers off to expose his hard cock. “I’ve been waiting soooo long for you Bas,” she said in a throaty voice. She took his hand and brought it between her legs. “I want you to feel how wet I am for you right now.” Bastien licked his lips and a guttural moan escaped him as he slipped his fingers between her lips. They immediately became coated with her juices and he brought his fingers to his mouth to taste her. “Damn baby, I want to taste you.” He grabbed her around the waist and tried to move her on top of him. She slapped his hands away. “Nope, not yet.” He sighed in frustration and growled as she climbed on top of him and slid herself down onto him. She immediately began bouncing up and down on him, using her hands on his chest for leverage. 




“Whoa, Liv, slow down...I...oh my god,” Bastien moaned and grunted as her furious pace brought him close to the edge very quickly. Just as he was about to lose control, she leaned forward and stretched her arms out above his head. “I want you to cum for me Bas,” she purred as she began to grind her pelvis into his. She kissed him hard, her tongue assaulting his mouth as her pace quickened. He broke their kiss and cried out as she pressed her whole body into his. Her hot, slick body rocking on his cock brought him right to the edge again and this time she didn’t stop. He growled her name from deep in his throat as he pulsed inside her, spilling his seed deep in her womb. Olivia collapsed on top of him, both of them breathless and sweaty. 




She rolled over onto the bed next to him and propped herself up on one elbow to look at him. He was still trying to catch his breath as he smiled at her. “Liv, that was amazing! I don’t know what that was all about, but damn. Wow.” Her lips curved into a slight smile as she leaned towards him and whispered in his ear, “That was your Hot Welcoming.” Bastien raised an eyebrow at her. “Hot welcoming? It certainly was. And the best part is, I was freezing. My car got stuck in a ditch and I had to walk the last mile home. I stripped in the mud room because my clothes were soaked. It was perfect, Liv.” 




He leaned up to kiss her, then rolled her over onto her back. He kissed her one more time, then winked at her. “Now it’s your turn,” he said as he moved down between her legs. Olivia’s breath hitched and she cried out as he immediately slid two fingers inside her and began making rapid circles around her swollen nub with his tongue. He pumped his fingers in and out and continued the furious pace as she writhed beneath him. He could feel her walls begin to pulse around his fingers and he slowed his pace, bringing her close to the edge but not allowing her to finish. “Ah! No, Bas, please.” She panted as she tugged on his hair and thrust her hips into his face. He kept his pace infuriatingly slow, removing his fingers and stroking her labia with long, languid movements of his tongue. Olivia continued to buck her hips and twist and shudder beneath him. She moaned and groaned and pleaded until she felt she was on the verge of tears. Finally, she felt like she could take no more. She raised her head up and met his steel-grey eyes. 




“Fuck me, Bas. Hard. Right now.”




He smiled up at her. “As you wish, my love.” 




He moved up and kissed her hard on the mouth as he pressed his hard length into her wet entrance. “Yessssss, Basssssss,” she moaned as she felt him fill her.




He thrust furiously as Olivia wrapped her legs around him, meeting each thrust with her pelvis and a grunt from the back of her throat. Her walls pulsed around him rather quickly and she arched her back as she came undone. With one final thrust and a moan from both of them at once, Bastien spilled into her once more. He collapsed on top of her as they both tried to catch their breath. After a few minutes, Bastien rolled over next to her and turned his head to look at her. Her eyes were closed and her lips were curved into a contented smile. “I love you, Olivia Nevrakis. Hope you liked your hot welcoming.” She opened her eyes and flashed him a sleepy smile. “I love you too, Bas.” He tucked his arm under her head and they both were asleep within minutes.




****************




About a week later, Olivia was at the palace working. Liam had summoned her to help plan a ball for Riley’s birthday. “It’s her first birthday as Queen. I want it to be special.” So there she sat in Liam’s office as they poured over quotes and menu choices and seating charts for what seemed like hours. “I’m sorry Li, but I have to stretch my legs a bit. I’ll be right back.” She got up and went out in the hallway. She rubbed the back of her neck as she paced back and forth. She stopped at the sound of heels walking down the hall behind her and voices. She turned and saw the queen walking towards her with a few other people. Riley smiled at her. Olivia returned the smile and gave her a distinct nod. The queen’s eyes widened as she smiled the duchess. Then she nodded back and continued down the hall. Olivia giggled and went back to Liam’s office.

Writers

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[he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle]

McDanno Quotes that Kill Me

This is actual, real life dialog. I PROMISE!

Danny, to Steve: “Well don’t just stand there and be handsome. Say something.”

Danny, to Steve: “Wow, look at you. You clean up nice, babe.”

Steve, to Danny: “I love you.” Danny: “I love you, too.” (They actually exchange I Love Yous all the frickin’ time, but I’m including this one from 7x01 because of the way Steve says it. It’s like he thinks their mutual love is the solution to the problem they’re fighting about.)

Kono, later in that same episode, to the team, about Steve & Danny, in a singsong voice: “Aw. They in love again.”

Danny, to Steve: “You’re a half-baked cookie. Soft. Gooey in the middle.... That’s why I love you, babe.”

Danny, to Steve: “You’re like a big marshmallow filled with testosterone.” (Honestly, I think there must be even more quotes of Danny comparing Steve to sweet food that he wants to eat, but I can’t find them right now. Let’s just say this is A THING.)

Danny, to Steve: “You are a whacked out control freak, but I love you.”

Steve, to Danny, after a counselor suggested that Danny was causing Steve too much stress with all his worry about Steve’s health: “Don’t change. I love you, man, the way you are.”

Danny, on the phone to Steve: “You, um, you miss me, don’t you?” Steve: “Oh yeah, I wish you were here, but you don’t swim.” Danny, bickering: “I don’t swim? I swim. Very well, actually. I just choose not to.” Steve, bickering: “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Eavesdropper, to Steve: “You talking to your wife?” Steve: “I’m talking to my partner.” (Nevermind that this just makes the dude think you’re gay, Steve, NOT that you’re talking to your work partner.)

Joe, after Danny tries to bicker with him while Steve is absent: “Is this what you and Steve do? Bicker like an old married couple?”

Prisoners in a prison yard, after seeing Danny & Steve bickering: “How long you two been married?”

A new co-worker, after seeing Danny & Steve bickering: “How long have you two been married?” (This seems to be a running theme.)

(In fact, they even call themselves married!) Danny, to Steve, “Because our marriage has become predictable.”

And later, Steve asks Danny, after Danny doesn’t understand why his making retirement plans (which at this point don’t include Steve) should hurt Steve’s feelings: “Okay, let me ask you a question. If you were still married to Rachel, and you made a decision like this, a big decision that affected her, how would she feel if you didn't tell her about it?” Danny: “Are you comparing my failed marriage to our relationship?” Steve: “Are you gonna answer the question?” Danny: “She'd be upset.” Steve, as if Danny’s just totally made Steve’s point (because they’re married, too, right?): “Thank you.”

Steve, smiling to Danny, while Danny’s holding up a thong: “You gonna get an evidence bag or are you gonna put that thing on?" (Jesus Christ, this is some serious FLIRTING.)

Danny, standing between Steve’s spread open legs in a doctor’s office, staring at his shirtless chest: “Now, if you would please do me this one favor.” Steve: “No, I will not bend over and cough, with your cold hands.” Danny: “It’s not that kind of favor.” (Yes, they are really flirting here, as there is literally no other interpretation of these words.)

Steve, on the phone to a very frustrated Danny who doesn’t like that Steve can’t answer any of his questions because they’re all classified: “It's protocol Danny. I'm sorry but I can't answer your questions right now, I gotta go alright?” Danny, challenging the notion that it’s all classified: “Well I got an easy one: What are you wearing?” Steve: (stops mid-stride and smiles, opens his mouth to talk but closes it) Danny: “You know what? Don't answer it. I'm sure it's top secret so I will take a guess. (pauses) Cargo pants!” Steve: (who of course is wearing cargo pants, smiles even bigger) “Goodbye Daniel.” (Is it just me, or was Steve totally thinking that Danny was coming on to him there for a second?)

Danny, to Steve, proving he’s not remotely disturbed by people assuming he’s gay: “I personally would have gone with the gay thing to keep our cover.”

Steve, holding out his hand to Danny when he realizes Danny’s claustrophobia is kicking in: “Here. You can hold my hand.”

Danny, to Steve, after Danny flew all the way to Afghanistan to make sure Steve was rescued: “What are you looking at me like that for?” Steve: “I can’t believe you flew all this way.”

Earlier, when the military brass came in and wanted Danny to leave Steve’s bedside: “Hear me? You're gonna need to step outside.” Danny: “No, no, no. I'm gonna stay right here with him.” Military Brass: “Excuse me?” Danny: “I'm not a soldier; you don't have any authority over me. So I'm gonna stay put.” 

Danny, to Chin, about what Steve’s body language means: “And he just switched the phone from his right hand to his left hand, which means he wants to punch something.” Chin: “Well, you know your boy well.”

Danny, to Steve, upon seeing him in his dress uniform: “Wow. You, uh, you look, uh, very nice. Suit, tie, it’s good.” Steve: “It’s for you. I wore it for you.”

Steve, to Danny: “What’s up, good-looking?”

Steve, to Danny, after getting a giant hug from Danny’s daughter after rescuing them both from a hostage situation: “What? Nothing? No hug? Nothing?” Danny: “I am so happy to see you right now I’ll give you a hug, I’ll give you a kiss, pick a base.” (I’m not the only one who thinks Steve picked the wrong base in response to this, am I?)

Harry, to Steve and Danny after witnessing their bickering: “I mean, don't get me wrong, it's clearly coming from a place of love. That's why you're going into the restaurant trade together. Can't bear to be apart, right?”

Steve, to Danny, about a couple that’s breaking up: “Hey, what about therapy? They try therapy? It worked for us.” Danny: “I don't know, it seemed pretty definitive. He's the one who wants the divorce, not her.” Eavesdropper: “Did you just say us?” Steve, to Danny, ignoring the eavesdropper: “You know what you need to do? You need to call Stan. Man to man, talk to him. See if you can convince him to give it another shot.” Eavesdropper, tired of them ignoring his VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION:  “Wait a second, you two lovebirds have a therapist?” Danny: “Yeah, we got a therapist.”

Steve, to Danny, after Danny hired a stress counselor to follow Steve around all day and give him advice on how to reduce his stress levels (honestly this whole conversation is just a great big ball of WOW HOLY SHIT): “Let me ask you a question. What's with micromanaging my health all of a sudden? What's going on?” Danny, after a pause: “Okay, because I'm scared that you're not taking this seriously.” Steve: “Why would you say that?” Danny: “When you told me that you had radiation poisoning, it was you were very casual. It was like, uh, you were telling me you had, uh, eczema or something like that. And it was the same thing with the liver. I give you my liver, you don't follow any of the post-op instructions. You don't take nothing seriously. That's why.” Steve, dismissively: “You're exaggerating, all right? You're overexaggerating.” Danny: “I'm not overexaggerating. I am genuinely scared for your health. Okay? I lay up at night, I'm sick about it. I can't sleep. I almost called that therapist to try to get another session.” Steve, taken aback by Danny’s sincerity: “Why wouldn't you say something to me?” Danny: “What am I gonna say to you? That -- that I'm stressed about the fact that you are not taking this thing seriously about your own health? I mean, I... I'm not gonna put that on you. It's my own thing. Wh -- What am I gonna say to you?” Steve, looking a little humbled: “I'm scared, too, man. I know I don't I... I don't show it, but deep down, I'm scared. You think I don't want to live a long life? You think I don't want to maybe get married someday? Have my own kids? I love your kids. All right, Charlie, Gracie, I want to watch them grow up.” Steve, to Danny, after Danny asks him to be his partner in retirement too: “I believe in you. I believe in us.”

[tyrantisterror]

Scattered Thoughts from a Second Viewing of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Part 2 of ??? for today’s Jurassic Park thoughts.  Part 1 is here.

Aw yeah, it’s a scattered thoughts post!  That’s like a review, except lazier and harder to make sense of!  YAY

I’m gonna break this down into the Good, the Bad, and the Unnecessary Headcanons.  I’m also going to put a break because 1. this will probably get long and 2. THIS DEFINITELY CONTAINS SPOILERS

SPOILERS BELOW!  YOU WERE WARNED!  TWICE!

The Good

I should note that most of these positive points have an implied “...but...” at the end that will connect to points in The Bad.  I’m not going to put those “but”s in, though, because I don’t want to undermine the fact that these positives DO exist.

This movie is pretty solid if you only focus on Blue’s arc.  She is by far the most consistent character in the film, and is at least tied for the strongest character arc if not the outright winner.  Great for fans of monsters-as-characters. 

Maisie, the little girl, is possibly tied with Blue for best character in the film, or at least a close second.  She’s both consistent in her characterization AND develops as a character as the story goes on - something no other human character in the movie can claim!  I’d say she’s the best child character in the franchise, but that’s such a depressingly low bar that it would feel like damning with faint praise (but she is though).  So instead I’ll say that she’s one of the best child characters in film.  That’s a big statement to make, but dammit that child actress deserves some fucking props.

They rerailed Owen Grady’s character a bit - he’s much more Goofy Fun Loving Chris Pratt this time around, and much less Super Macho Tough Guy Army Man Who Trains Dinosaurs.  It makes him a bit of a mess of the character, but if we view the Owen Grady of this movie as a completely different character from the Owen Grady of Jurassic World, he’s actually pretty likable.

The cinematography and the editing of this movie is, as I said before, absolutely fucking stellar.  The chase scenes are both beautifully and creatively shot, doing great work at making dinosaurs both terrifying and wondrous to behold in a day and age where it’s very hard to wow people with special effects.  The action scenes are both interesting AND easy to follow - most movies these days have to choose one or the other.  Even the quiet moments are well shot and edited, held back only by, y’know, the dialogue.  And the characters.  And the plot.  It’s still a mess, but it’s a mess that was directed well.

There are so many clever homages to past horror films in this flick - not just the Jurassic Park movies, either.  The Indoraptor’s chase of Maisie references both Nosferatu and The Haunting (1963), for example, and while I never would have expected those movies to be referenced in a Jurassic Park movie... it actually works?  Like, really well?  It’s great and creative.  There is a genuine artistic spark behind a lot of the things in this movie and that has to be acknowledged.

That Brachiosaurus scene has immense emotional power.  If you weren’t emotionally moved by it to some degree, either 1. you hated this movie before it even began and refused to allow it even the slightest chance of being good, or 2. you’re some sort of heartless monster who feels nothing for animals.

The Indoraptor is sort of like Emperor Palpatine, in that he’s a flat character whose only motivation seems to be “I really love doing evil things,” and yet that somehow... works?  Like, the execution takes that flimsy motivation and makes something really compelling.  He’s a flat villain, but he’s so delighted by his explicitly evil actions that you can’t help but be charmed.  The Indoraptor is probably the most straight forwardly-evil character in the entire franchise, and it’s delightful to watch.

The lady playing the Paleo-Veterinarian gave a very good snarky performance despite the limitations of the writing.  I would like to see that actress in more things.

Rexie got several chances to punish the wicked, and that makes the child in me happy.

I got to see a lot of scenes of dinosaurs fighting each other and killing evil rich people, and that was satisfying on a primal level.

There are two excellent story concepts in this movie that could each make one really unique movie if they were given focus.  A movie about people rescuing dinosaurs from an exploding island has an inherent drama to it and would be like no film I can think of before.  A movie about people running from an escaped dinosaur in a spooky old mansion also has an inherent drama to it and is unlike any film I can think of.  These two concepts could each individually make for a really great movie.

The Bad

There’s a Red Letter Media video about the Alien prequel film Prometheus that just consists of one of the reviewers asking a long list of questions raised by sloppy, inconsistent, and overall bad storytelling that hampers that movie despite its fairly decent direction.  It’s really funny if you’ve seen the movie, and you can find it here.  I mention it because a voice in the back of my head was slowly assembling my own version of that video while I was giving this movie my second watch because... because damn, dude, this script is just ridiculously sloppy.

You could also... man, fuck me, but you could actually make a Cinema Sins style takedown of this movie without having to make shit up and willfully misinterpret the film like they do in 99% of their videos.  And you all know how much I fucking hate Cinema Sins, so when I say their style of criticism/”humor” can actually work here, you know I’m not speaking lightly.

I’m not going to do either of those things but I do want to focus on a couple examples of this movie’s sloppy writing because, like, it NEEDS to be addressed in detail, y’know?  Or at least I feel the need to address it.

I mean a lot of things when I say it’s “sloppy,” but the jist is that it often has characters behave not according to their own motivations, personalities, etc., but according to the needs of the plot.  So too does, like, everything else - dinosaurs, the volcano, physics, lava, you name it.  The villains get probably the worst of it, but Claire Dearing and Comedy Relief IT Guy get it pretty bad too.

Ok, so, like, Zia is a Paleo-Veterinarian, right?  What the hell makes that different than a normal Veterinarian?  It can’t be that you exclusively work with dinosaurs, because Zia explicitly says she has never seen a dinosaur in person.  Wouldn’t... wouldn’t that make her just a normal veterinarian, then?  How can she know how to heal these animals without ever, like, studying one in person?  It’s like they wanted to do some world building and so wrote that Paleo-Veterinarians are, like, a thing, but also wanted to give a heroic character a moment where they look at dinosaurs for the first time with awe, and decided to do both moments with the same character.  Like, they couldn’t do it with Comedy Relief IT Guy because his whole schtick is that he’s desperately afraid of literally everything and everyone, because a guy who’s scared of things is funny (?).  They couldn’t do it with Claire because she’s seen fucking dinosaurs before, and so has Owen.  They don’t bring Maisie to the island so she’s out, and everyone else is evil, so Paleo-Vet gets the “Holy Fucking Shit It’s a Dinosaur” moment, even though giving her that moment makes no fucking sense for a person who’s whole reason for being here is that she knows how to heal dinosaurs, which is probably pretty fucking hard to do if you’ve never fucking seen a dinosaur before.  You see?  You see what I mean when I say the characters have no consistency, that they do things as the plot demands, even when it makes no sense for their character?  This is but one of many examples.

And it’s sadly the same for the dinosaurs.  Look, I love seeing dinosaurs eat people because I’m a little demented, and I know most of you do too, because all humans have at least a small desire to see wild animals eat people we dislike.  It’s our nature.  But the emotional core of this movie’s premise is the idea that we should want to see these creatures alive - that for all the danger they present, they are worth saving.  This film needed to establish that these creatures are worthy of our sympathy.  It’s pretty sad, then, that so much of the movie shows the dinosaurs as being bloodthirsty monsters whose primary desire - ranked even above their own self preservation - is to kill and eat during every waking moment of their lives.

Take the Baryonyx’s big scene - the Baryonyx, Claire, and Comedy Relief IT Guy are trapped in a building as fucking lava drips down around them.  This would be a great moment to establish these animals are living creatures who enjoy living.  A real animal would not spend its time trying to eat two humans here - it would try to escape the room filling with FUCKING LAVA that it’s trapped in.  And that’s what should have happened, both logically AND thematically.  Our heroes see this big carnivorous dinosaur enter and are worried, but instead of attacking it tries to claw its way out of the room.  It’s as scared as they are, and even shoots them a desperate, pleading glance when they find an exit that’s too small for it to fit through.  It would establish that, terrifying as these dinosaurs are, they just want to live.  We would then feel justified in siding with the people risking their lives to save these creatures.  INSTEAD, the Baryonyx spends the whole scene trying to murder them even when there are clearly other problems that should take priority over that, namely the fact that it’s trapped in a room FUCKING FILLED WITH LAVA.

Almost immediately after this is a scene where a bunch of herbivores stampede past our heroes, with a Carnotaurus stopping mid-flight to try and eat the humans.  PRIORITIES, Carnotaurus!  The Carnotaurus then stops mid-pursuit to inexplicably attack another fleeing dinosaur, which shakes him off, and then goes back to menacing our heroes while the lava grows EVER CLOSER.  This... this isn’t how animals fucking behave, dudes.  This is a textbook case of treating a monster as a plot device rather than a character - there is no reason, not plausible motivation for the Carnotaurus to menace our heroes at this time.  It is a menace because the plot demanded it.  Why the fuck would you save creatures that would prefer to slaughter humans at the cost of dying in fucking lava mere seconds afterwards?

Also the T.rex then pops out of nowhere to kick the shit out of the Carnotaurus and save the heroes, again, WHILE LAVA IS MERE SECONDS AWAY FROM THEM.  To people who aren’t like me and thus don’t think of Rexie as a character, this would seem to be another example of dinosaurs in this movie being suicidally violent.

Later, after escaping Rexie and the Carnotaurus just in time for the fucking lava to almost catch up to them, our heroes join the stampeding dinosaurs.  An allosaurus is among them and inexplicably tries to attack out heroes and gets killed by a falling rock as a result of its inexplicable decision to pause in its escape for the sake of killing people.  FUCKING HELL.

Like... this isn’t just me nitpicking.  This actively undermines the entire fucking story.  Even Jurassic Park III gave its dinosaurs consistent goddamn motives.  Jesus Christ, this movie’s writing made me cite Jurassic Park III as a positive example!

Colin Trevorrow was clearly pissed that people rightly noted the weird and extremely prevalent sexism of both Jurassic World (which he wrote and directed) and The Book of Henry (which he only directed), because he threw in some of the clunkiest “Girl Power!” performative feminism moments I have ever seen in this movie.  And before you say “Colin Trevorrow didn’t direct this one though!” please check IMDB because while he didn’t direct it he still wrote the fucking screenplay.  The moments that “address the criticism” he received are so blatant and ham-fisted that they feel like something an Anti-SJW blogger would point out to prove that Political Correctness is killing our culture.  They’re sort of equivalent to a “I’m not racist!  I have black friends!” argument - “I’m not sexist - look, I had this character tell a man how capable is after he lightly brought up how this might be dangerous for her!”  There’s a moment like that in Jurassic Park too, to be fair, but it’s fucking subtle and understated by comparison.

There are so many great scenes and monster designs in this movie, and there are two plot concepts that would make for SUCH GOOD films if they were properly developed, and the director had a clear love for them all as well as the artistic skill to back it up. J.A. Bayona deserved to make a great Jurassic Park movie.  That Brachiosaurus death scene deserved to be in a great Jurassic Park movie.  Blue, the Indoraptor, Maisie, and the actress who played Zia deserve to be in a great Jurassic Park movie.  So much of this film deserved the right to be lauded and praised.  So it’s so, so, SO frustrating that the whole of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom falls utterly short of the sum of its parts.

The Unnecessary Headcanons

I’ve seen some people try to explain the flaws in this movie away with their headcanon interpretations and, like... that’s not how stories work, though?  Like, that doesn’t remove the flaws that exist - at best all it does is show that the flaws could have been fixed with some thoughtful revision.  It reinforced the fact that this movie, taken on its own, needs to be fixed.

That said, here are my headcanons for some of the weird shit that happens in this movie.

We’re, like, 99% of the way to having the text of this series explicitly state that T.rexes can smell out evil and intentionally seek to destroy it.  Almost every scene Rexie has in this movie shows her coming out of nowhere to punish the wicked and inadvertently save the righteous.  It’s still in the realm of subtext but, like, if it keeps happening we’re going to have to declare Rexie a literal agent of a higher cosmic power.  Jurassic Park T.rexes can smell the sin on you.

I’m pretty sure the nonsensical blood transfusion that made Blue’s blood “impure” and thus kept Dr. Wu from using her for gene splicing also gave her Rexie’s action hero powers, like how getting bit by a spider turned Peter Parker into a superhero.  That’s why Blue instinctively knew how to safely survive an explosion via turning her back to it, and also why she got to do the Rexie thing and heroically save the humans from the evil dinosaur at the last minute.

Considering the fact that the Indoraptor is just, like, Explicitly Evil, I think Dr. Wu’s motivations may be less about weaponizing dinosaurs and making money, and more about trying to isolate the Evil Gene, a gene that makes things evil.  Sadly, the only people with money to finance this project have the Evil Gene as well, and so Dr. Wu is forced to make all these dinosaurs and monsters while secretly researching the Evil Gene on the side.  He hopes that in time he will be able to destroy the Evil Gene, and it clearly involves finding its opposite - hence the Evil Destroying T.rexes and the obsession with raising a hybrid based off of the Explicitly Benevolent velociraptor Blue.  Dr. Wu dreams of literally curing evil, and dinosaurs are the method he has been forced to use to pursue this dream.

[smutandfluffohmy]

Vegas Baby! Part 2

From: Smutandfluffohmy

Character Parings: Fred Weasley X Reader

A/N: The next imagine I’m going to be writing is going to be the Dramione one so don’t worry all the Peter Pan request will be written and posted in good time :) Keep sending them in my peeps.

Prompt request:  “ For the vagas baby part 2 maybe when they get rid of the marriage and he has to explain magic to her” and “ Could you do a part 2 to Vegas Baby”

Warnings: None at all except it’s pretty long

“Fred why did you think marrying a muggle without telling her about magic was a good idea” Hermione said as she walked around Fred that looked just as confused and worried about the whole thing as everyone else. 

“Married! Married! Fred you don’t even know how to cook for yourself and you’re off getting married? What’s next do I have grandkids that I don’t know about” Molly said as her face started to match her fiery red hair. Y/N stirring around as she woke up on a soft sofa in the twins house instead of the hardwood floor she landed on.

“Guys she’s waking up.” Harry said as he took a step backwards from the girl.

“Ugh Sydney I had the weirdest dream ever” Y/N said as she sat up and rubbed her hands over her eyes as she spoke.

“Yea you said something about getting married to a handsome devil” Fred said as he got mere inches away from Y/n as he spoke “But his brother was the true handsome devil” George said doing the same as Fred. Y/n eyes shot open and was greeted face to face with the smiling faces of George and Fred.

“Ahhh” Y/n yelled as she tried to hit George in the face with her fist but failed as he stepped back.

“Wow you sure got a punch but-” Fred started saying as he put his hands on her shoulders. Y/n startled and confused took another swing towards who she thought was the same boy, this time however her fist did hit him right on the nose causing Fred to clutch his nose in pain. 

“Stop it you two you're scaring her” Hermione said as she pushed Fred to the side and started walking up to y/n. “Hi my name is Hermione what’s your name?”

“I’m Y/n. Where am I”  Y/n said as she looked at everyone's faces around the room that stared at her in amazement and worry.

“Can you guys give us a moment?” Fred said as he used one hand motioning people to go away and another to massage his nose.

“Fred what exactly are you going to do” Hermione said as she stepped towards Fred. 

“You’re going to scare the poor girl half to death knowing you” Ron said as he stepped next to Hermione. As they were bickering Y/n stepped away into the kitchen searching for a phone to call anyone anyone at all that wasn’t completely out of their mind.As she was walking into the kitchen she noticed a man and a woman sitting at the table talking.She tried leaving unnoticed but she didn’t know if it was that the universe seemed to hate her right now or simple mother's intuition that gave her away.

“Well don't just stand there dear come and take a seat. We’ll have a chat”  Molly said as she poured another cup of tea and waited for y/n to take a seat. 

“Hi umm is it true I’m in London right now?” Y/n said as she took a seat opposite of Molly and Arthur who looked calm.

“Yes dear thanks to my son” Molly said as she pushed the cup of tea towards y/n with a kind smile.

“Is it true you’re a muggle?” Arthur said as his curiosity took over the best of him.

“A what?” Y/n said as she looked at Molly and Arthur.

“A non magical person” Arthur said.

“Mum, dad what are you talking about with my wife” Fred said with a grin as he walked towards y/n slowly.

“Oh yea right the Vegas and “ministry of magic” wedding” Y/n said as she placed her face on her hands rubbing them over her eyes.

“Mum, dad can i please talk to her I promise I’ll fix this” Fred said as he turned to talk to his parents his eyes silently pleading with them. As Molly and Arthur stood up and left them alone Fred sat where his dad was previously sitting.

“Please tell me this is all an elaborate joke” Y/n said as she looked up to look at Fred’s eyes which showed no indication that this was a joke.

“Oh my dear y/n I love jokes but this isn’t one of them” Fred said as he tried to stay calm and collected when in reality he was freaking out as much as she. 

“This can’t be real this can’t be real. I mean magic and magic people th-” Y/n spoke. “Wizards and witches” Fred said interrupting her mid sentence.

“And they’re all real look if you would just let me show you i can prove it to you” Fred said as he pointed at his pocket where he was keeping his wand. 

Y/n scoffed as she looked at Fred “Is that a wand in your pocket or are you just happy to see me” She said as she saw what Fred was pointing at, this remark caused fred to let out a small laugh the air around seeming lighter and happier.Fred took out his wand and twirled it around in his hand showing off to y/n.

“Well show me what you got wizard boy” Y/n said as she placed her elbows up on the table and placing her chin in her hands as she looked at Fred. Fred waved her wand towards y/n as little fireworks went off over her head.

“Wow” y/n said in amazement as her eyes filled with a twinkle and a smile spread on her face. A sight that made Fred’s chest tighten, he never felt this towards anyone of course he knew what this was but he thought it silly considering he hadn’t known her for a complete day.

“You’re like Gandalf” Y/n said as looked at Fred and away from the little fireworks that were getting brighter, the light making her eyes seem bigger and brighter. 

“Like who?” Fred asked as he tilted his head to the side.

“You know Gandalf. Lord of the rings?” Y/n said as her excitement got bigger with every word she spoke. 

“Lord of the what” Fred still even more confused than before.

“You never seen it? Oh come on everyone seen it. The hobbits, elves, orcs, dragons?” Y/n said getting excited and frustrated at the same time.

“Oh my Merlin of course” Fred said looking at y/n in amazement his eyes filling with glee.

“Oh so you’ve seen it?” Y/n said her frustration disappearing.

“No. I got married to the biggest geek” Fred said as he leaned back laughing so hard and loud it echoed all around the room. Filling Y/n with joy it sounded so wonderful and warm in a way. “Do you like jokes by any chance?” Fred asked as soon as he stopped laughing wiping the tears from his eyes.

“I love jokes why do you ask” Y/n said to Fred as he got up from his chair to walk over to her.

“You’re going to love what I do come on I can sneak you out without everyone harassing you for questions” Fred said as he put out his arm for y/n to hook it with hers.

“You’re a comedian?” Y/n said as she hooked her arm through linking their arms as she followed him. 

“Not professionally but I’m hysterical” Fred said smiling down at the girl that was smiling up at him. As Fred led y/n down stairs to the shop he wasn’t sure as to exactly what to show her first, maybe they’ll just see things as they went.

“Ok close your eyes” Fred said as they arrived at the door leading into the joke shop.

“Okay but promise me you won’t let me fall on my face” Y/n said as she smiled at Fred closing her eyes and reaching out for Fred. Fred placed one hand on the door knob and another one to hold both of her hands in his. As he swung the door open excitement filled him he looked around as if seeing if for the first time ever.

“Ok open them” Fred said as he looked back to see her face. As soon as her eyes open they were filled with amazement and happiness.

“Wow what is this place? What does this do?” Y/n said as she looked around and stepped towards a few items that were placed on shelves.

“It’s mine and my brothers joke shop and that is bubble gum that changes your voice” Fred said as leaned up against the shelf looking at y/n as she turned the package over in her hands looking at every bit of it.

“Oh what’s that” Y/n said as she handed the pack of gum over to Fred as she walked over to where all the love potions where sitting, pretty and pink colors making it hard to miss. Y/n looked at all the bottles and looked at the fountain filled with the liquid.

“Is this like cologne?” Y/n said as she took a deep breath of the liquid, filling every inch of her lungs.

“What do you mean?” Fred said as he walked over to where she was standing.

“I mean it smells good kind of a weird thing to sell in a joke shop but maybe this is funny to wizards I don’t know” Y/n said as she took one of the bottles in her hands and turned it over trying to see why wizards would find cologne so funny.

“Y/n can you tell me what it smells like? You know professional curiosity I never had a muggle smell it” Fred said as he scrunched his face up not sure if he really wanted the answer or if he should just leave the question alone.

“Well it smells like some kind of wood kind of airy if that makes sense sort of what people when they finish playing a sport smell like combined with wood, freshly washed clothes and ink. I don’t know Fred you should know you’re wearing it” Y/n said as she put the bottle down as a confused look spread across her face. “What did you think it smelt like?”

“I don’t know” Fred stared at y/n in shock unable to say anything else.

“Oh come on Fred you sell it, you must have some idea of what it smells like” Y/n said as she chuckled and walked towards Fred.

“Well I um smell lavender shampoo, buttery popcorn and pastries ” Fred said as he looked at y/n hoping and praying that y/n didn’t recognize the smell as her own.

“Wow I guess it’s different for everyone but again why do you sell?” y/n said with a grin.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you” Fred said trying to buy time as he tried to find the right words to break this to her.

“Try me” y/n said as she smiled at Fred as she looked up at the ceiling to see it how decorated it was with different silly stuff. Fred looked at her as he tried to find ways to stall, to buy himself some time. How do you tell someone you married in a drunken night, someone that you known less than 24 waking hours something so drastic. More importantly how do you break it to someone that Amortentia helped you find your soulmate.

[donaldresslerfanfic]

Quick Trip.

Rating: M

Warnings: Strong Language, Sexual Content.

Word Count: 2931

Donald Ressler X OC Maggie Waters.

Chapter: Sixty.

Chapter Index

Story on Wattpad

Ressler

"Maybe I should've taken that camomile tea you offered me" Maggie said next to me, I placed my hand on her knee and squeezed it.

"Are you nervous?"

"Of course I'm nervous. You know what's the worst part? I'm not going to find out until later."

"You'll find out eventually, it's not like the baby it's going to change it's mind half way through, it'll still be what they find it to be today"

"Ms Ressler" she was called from the examination room, the both of us stood up, and Maggie's hand quickly found mine. "Hi, how are you?"

Maggie's doctor was a woman that had been recommended to us, and she'd turned out to be a godsend. She picked Maggie's midwife, Selena, who was very attentive of her, she answered Maggie's calls at anytime and questions about any subject.

The doctor, Abigail Witmore, made her lay on the reclined chair and turned on the ultrasound machine.

"How have you been feeling?" She asked, pressing buttons on the machine.

"I'm super nervous, I want to know if we can know the gender in this ultrasound"

"We'll see if he or she allows us to see"

She squirted the end of the wand with gel and motioned at Maggie to lift up her shirt.

"Oh wow, you really popped up since the last month"

"Yeah" she said with a smile "not enough to have problems with the jeans just yet"

She pressed the device to her stomach and the black and white picture popped out in the screen. I was holding Maggie's hand in mine, and she always squeezed my hand when we first saw our baby. I must admit it was really beautiful to be here, to witness the whole process and the course of the pregnancy.

"Well, everything looks as it should be" she moved the wand around and remained silent while she made measurements with the computer.

"Can you see the gender?"

"Yes, I saw, everything's fine in that department, it's developing nicely" she shot Maggie a smile and pressed a few buttons to print some scans. "You know, your sister is my dog's groomer, and I'm scared for him if I slip up on what the baby is"

"It's okay" Maggie dismissed with a smile and grabbed the tissues the doctor handed to her, cleaning her stomach. "She had a thing planned for tomorrow, I guess I can wait"

I helped her out of the chair and received the pictures and results while Mags straightened her shirt and sweater.

"So, I guess I'll see you next month"

Maggie nodded and gave her a quick hug, when we were out of the clinic and in the car she flipped through the analysis to find the picture of the ultrasound.

"Ow, it's so precious" she said in a high voice "it has your nose" I chuckled and led my hand to her thigh

"It's a black and white grainy picture, you can't tell if it has anything of mine"

"Yes, I can tell by the profile" she carefully ran one of her fingers down my nose and my cheek "oh, turn here, we need to go to the DMV real quick"

"The DMV?" I asked, taking the next turn.

"Yes, I need to keep myself occupied until tomorrow"

"And the DMV is the place to do that?"

"Yes, you'll see"

After a few minutes, I was looking for a parking space, and weirdly I hadn't thought about the fact that I could technically park in the reserved spots for pregnant women and handicaps. We walked in, hand in hand, and as soon as we crossed the door a man offered Mags his seat. She looked up at me with a little smirk, and held my hand while we waited. It wasn't even two minutes until the door of one of the offices opened.

Maggie.

"Come on chubs, if I leave you out here for one minute you'll fill my waiting room with amniotic fluid"

I gave him a cheeky and half annoyed smile, Don was following close by to the office, and I could feel he was angry about the nickname. When we closed the door he began

"Listen pal-"

I interrupted him with a sign and gave him a shake of my head, but he didn't stop.

"Next time you call her chubs I'll kill you"

"Wow, wow" he said lifting his hands defensively "she knows I'm just messing around. Now don't tell me you come on Reddington's behalf, I know he doesn't have money to pay the services"

"Then it's a good thing I didn't come in Raymond's behalf"

I pulled out a closed Manila envelope and handed it to him, then pulled out another sheet of paper and left it on the table.

"I need the CCTV feeds of that lawyer firm on work hours, 9 to 5."

"Who are you looking for?"

I gave Don a look for him to describe the fixer. He reluctantly did.

"About my height, mid 40', slim build, blue eyes, clean hair cut"

"But I want everyone who goes in and out accounted for" I added.

"I can have them all accounted for in 36 hours, I'll deliver the files to you when I'm done"

"Great, thanks Glen" I walked a short step to Don and held him by the arm, making him turn around to the door and exiting the office.

"Who even is that guy?" He asked when we were walking towards the car.

"It's just Glen from the DMV, and he's actually good at what the does"

When we got to the car Don opened the door for me, and I buckled my seatbelt whilst he made his way around the car and sat on the driver's side.

We got on the road again, and I was looking out the window when he spoke again.

"And when you have the information what are you gonna do?"

"Well- ice cream!" I pointed at the ice cream shop just as we passed it, but Don took the next turn and then the next and the next back to the ice cream shop "I'm sorry I really want one" I apologized, unbuckling my seatbelt.

"How about you give me a fair warning next time?" He joked.

I didn't wanted to say that I had extreme cravings, but they were in the spurt of the moment. I saw something and I wanted it, I'd stopped numerous times on my way to work on coffee shops and deli shops to buy something.

I was happily sitting in the table with my bucket of ice cream that was supposedly for share, but Don just gave me a wave of his hand for me to go at it.

"You didn't answer my question" he said, leaving his arm on the back of my chair, his hand landing on my side.

"Well, we spook him"

"Spook him?"  He frowned.

"We need to find out who he is, where does he work, his social circle, if he has family, and most importantly: where he keeps his information, the dirt, that's what I want. We take that power away from him, spook him, and if he keeps at it..." I left the sentence in the air.

"You'll kill him, is that it?"

I gave him a fake surprise look, holding my hand to my chest.

"Me? Never, I could never hurt another person"

A few seconds passed until I gave him a little side eye and a wink. He just shook his head and rubbed my side with his hand.

"He can't know you and I are related, I've done all I can to keep your information hidden"

"Oh, I won't be doing anything baby, not like this" I motioned at my belly. "He won't even see me for all we care"

"Oh yeah? How do you figure that?"

"I'll think of something" I reached and patted his thigh "don't worry"

He kept looking at me with a little glint in his eyes that I couldn't pinpoint what it meant, I couldn't really make out what he was thinking, if he was thinking something good or bad about me.

All my doubts evaporated when the hand that was on my side moved up to my jaw and moved my head to the side, he leaned in and kissed me long enough for me to reach my hand to his neck and move my lips over his.

I giggled over his lips when his hand landed on my thigh and squeezed it playfully.

"Stop" I said pulling his hand away and standing up "let's go home"

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, I'd taken the day off because of the sonogram, and I wanted the people at the firm to keep me posted about everything. I talked on the walk to the car and most of the ride home, only setting the phone down when I was at the front door.

"My God" I said hanging up and walking inside, Don held the door opened for me.

"Everything okay?" He asked.

"Yes, too okay actually, I think we might be able to finish this by the end of the week. I mean my side of the project"

"That's good news" he said, then his own phone vibrated "Ressler" he said picking up. "I'll be there tomorrow morning"

I gave him a quick look, walking up the stairs.

"You got called in?"

"Yeah, finally" he followed me up the stairs "these cases are coming too slow for my liking"

I looked back at him, then stopped in the middle of the hallway, since he was following me.

"I'm going to do some things in the office" I pointed behind me.

"And? What? Are they top secret?" He teased walking to me and holding me by the waist "can I not watch?"

"Yeah, you can watch, you'll get bored is all" I walked in the office and turned the light on, he grabbed his own laptop from the bedroom and sat next to me while I reviewed some blueprints, just checking the measurements, light arrangements and other services. After maybe half and hour he pushed the screen of his laptop to me.

I stopped to look at the screen, a few tabs were opened but the first one was of a beautiful suburban home.

"Ow" I whined, but quickly frowned "what no, no no no, we're not buying a house" I pushed the laptop to him, but he placed it on top of my prints.

"Yes we are, and you're picking or I'm picking for us"

"No, I don't want to move whilst pregnant, I can't help, we have to pack a ton of stuff, no, it's decided"

"No, it's not decided" he fought back "look at this other one"

"I'm not-" I looked at the next one reluctantly, it was beautiful. "Okay, that one's really good"

"Yeah see, be optimistic" I gave him a chuckle with a little eyeroll.

"But we're not moving until this one comes around"

"That's debatable"

"That's not debatable" I fought. My phone rang again on my desk, and I quickly picked it up.

"Hey Mags, so, I know what you're having" my sister spoke quickly.

"Oh my God I'm dying to know" I complained.

"Yeah, tomorrow, what's your schedule? I always thinking at night?"

I looked at Don, turning my phone away.

"My sister wants to have a get together at night. Do you think you'll be here?"

"I have no clue love, you know how this is" he shrugged.

"How about we forget all that and you just tell me" I said jokingly.

"Nope, none of that, I can set up for the weekend if you want"

"The weekend is too far" I complained, trhowing my head back.

"The weekend it is, see you on Saturday"

I pouted and hanged up, looking at Don as I threw my phone back on the counter.

"She says Saturday" He gave me a little smile and leaned in to kiss my lips, then my forehead.

"Let's check what we're cooking for dinner".

Ressler

I parked in the construction site, ringing Mags on the phone quickly. She met me outside a few minutes later, she had a hardhat on her head a and a face mask hanging from her neck.

"Hey" she saluted, motioning at me "you're not suited up, what's wrong?"

I looked down at her, pressing my hand to the side of her belly.

"How are you?"

"Good, actually I think I might me able to sign off my side today." She sighed and pressed her hand to the base of her belly "it's taken me a full extra month to finish it, and I'm kind of mad at it, but Oscar was telling me 'it's okay, we're still on schedule' I know that we're still on schedule but I had an internal schedule I couldn't meet and..." She sighed again and shook her head "I'm rambling, I'm sorry. What are you up to?" She moved her other hand on top of mine to hold it.

"I'm going on a case"

"Mm, where?"

"Europe" she shifted her weight to her left leg and placed her hand on her thigh.

"Well, when are you coming back?" I just shrugged.

"Hopefully a day of two, three at most. But I'll be available at anytime if something happens"

"Why would anything happen?" She gave me a little look and walked a short step to hug me. I pressed her body to mine, her belly pressing against my own. "I'll miss you" she whispered against my ear. I pressed my lips to her neck, rubbing her back when I pulled back.

"Me too love. I'll call you tonight" I kissed her forehead and then her lips shortly.

Going away used to never be a problem, but not now that I was leaving not only a wife behind, but a pregnant one at that. I struggled with my own mind everyday about things that could happen to her and how I was not able to stop them or prevent them.

I was half annoyed when we arrived to Croatia, because suddenly Reddington was throwing a party, and that wasn't happening until saturday, so I was stuck in Italy for five days. That same night I called Mags.

"Thank God you didn't forgot the time zone change. Didn't wanted you waking me up at 3 am" I smiled at the comment and relaxed on the bed, closing my eyes as she spoke to me "how's everything?"

"I'm bored, I'll have to stay here until Saturday"

I could very much tell her expression from the silence on the line, giving that we were supposed to have the gender reveal on the weekend.

"Are you done with the thing?" I continued.

"Yeah" she said with a sigh "I signed off today, I'll be working from the office from now on"

"Mm, and why don't you come?" She chuckled at me

"Come to where?"

"To Italy, I'll buy you a ticket"

"Are you drunk?"

"No, I'm not." I stood up from the bed and went to my computer "there's a flight in four hours" I said quickly typing on the notebook. "Come, you have 90 minutes to pack, I'll send a car over and I'll mail you the tickets."

"What? Are you serious?" She asked again "aren't you working?"

"Not right now, not until Tuesday and then not until Saturday. Go and pack, you'll be here roughly 7 am tomorrow, so sleep as much as you can on the plane."

".... Okay..." She said hesitantly "I'm actually going to pack"

"Yeah, pack, I'll see you tomorrow" she just hung up, and even from here I could see her big frown, not really believing that I was actually going to bring her to Italy. I sent her the plane ticket a few minutes after, and she just replied the mail with "you're actually serious". Of course I was serious, I had time to spare and if she was available why wouldn't I not want to spend it with her?

The morning after I asked for another room before taking a cab to pick her up.

I saw her exit the gate, handbag hanging from her forearm as she looked around. I walked to her, who just stood there at the side of the gate waiting for me. She gave me a smile when she finally saw me, giving me a chuckle when I caught up with her and held her by the waist, pulling her to me.

"Did I really just woke up in Italy?"

"You really did, am I not a good husband?" I teased, she chuckled over my lips before kissing them, placing her hands on my chest and barely touching my chin with her fingers.

"You're the best husband" she whispered over them, kissing me shortly again before we turned and headed to pick up her luggage.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I did actually. Jet lag hasn't really been a problem for me, I adjust quite easily."

We waited a few minutes just holding each other's hands before I saw her bag roll to us, I caught it and held her by the waist.

"Do you have today free?" She asked as I hailed a cab.

"Yes love, why?"

"Because" she took her phone and showed it to me "I've got places I want to see" I gave her a little smile and pulled her close, my arm surrounding her back and landing on her waist.

"I'm all yours"