#this has become an inside joke the crew just left the bar for the night n apparently i said NO BCUS I LOVE *MC* at least three times

[eternalstateofoctober]

oh no i’m in luv with our main character :(

[thatbitchkimkelly]

So this is the Vanity fair article that all those season 2 predictions came from.

“Although Freaks and Geeks never got within hailing distance of a second season, that didn’t stop Paul Feig and Judd Apatow from imagining what might become of their characters in a further future.

“I would keep my own private notes as the season went along,” says series creator Paul Feig, “but there was never a time when we sat around a table and said, ‘Let’s plan Season Two.’ It was really more just ‘Hey, it would be funny if’ or ‘This would be cool.’ But we so knew the writing was on the wall: We never got too deep into it, because we never thought it was going to happen.”

One thing he knew for sure was that, had the show gone on, his kids wouldn’t have stayed in high school forever. “It was going to become much more of a story of a small town and who gets out and who doesn’t.” And he still dreams of turning the series into a stage musical. “I want to bring the spirit of failure that I brought to TV to the Broadway stage. ‘Guys, don’t worry—you’re going to lose a lot of money up front, but 10 years from now people are going to be talking about this play.’”

Read more of Feig's Freaks and Geeks Season Two predictions below:

Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini)

Paul Feig: I always figured something bad was gong to happen to Lindsay when she was out with the Dead. [The series ended with her ditching a summer-school program to follow the Grateful Dead with Kim Kelly.] I was hoping the second season would open with her being taken out of a concert on a stretcher while Queen’s “Tie Your Mother down” plays. That’s all I had. But I thought it would be interesting—she comes back, has completely lost the trust of her family; so she’s in even deeper having been really been outed as a problem. But there wasn’t a strong direction I had for her; I just knew she’d probably end up at some point in her twenties in Greenwich Village as a performance artist, and after that she’d probably become a lawyer—a human-rights lawyer.

Sam Weir (John Francis Daley)

Sam’s future was going to be drama club. Because that was my experience in school: I got deep into drama club. That was the storyline I was most excited about, because I was going to portray what actually happened to me. I thought he’d be more on the stage crew than actually performing, just because that was kind of interesting, the guys that were keeping it together from behind the scenes. But my drama teacher, who was one of the biggest influences on my life creatively, was an alcoholic, and over the course of my sophomore through senior year, she got worse and worse and started depending on me. I’d get called away from class under the guise of an emergency, and it would be her on the phone saying, “You’ve got to come pick me up. I left my car at the bar last night.” So I was really excited to get that going, this weird kind of taking-care-of-an-adult relationship, while he’s still learning amazing stuff from her, this tortured drama-teacher soul. That bummed me out the most, not getting to play that story out.

Neal Schweiber (Samm Levine)

Another burning desire I had was to get Neal into swing choir. Now Glee has taken it and run with it, but I always thought that would be a funny world for Neal to go into. There’s a weird little clique, and you have all these inside jokes, and all these kind of obnoxious performance things you bond with people over—I just thought he would really blossom in there and think he was kind of the king of the school. We figured it could be his outlet while his parents are going through a really horrible divorce. Since Judd had gone through that in his real life, that was kind of going to be his domain—telling all his tales from adolescence through that.

Bill Haverchuck (Martin Starr)

With his mom dating Coach Fredricks, Judd and I liked the idea of Bill slowly becoming a jock—that he turned out to be good at basketball and started to get into it, so that he was getting pulled a little more over to the jock side. Which would create an odd little rift with him and the other geeks. Because Martin is quite athletic in real life, and we were like, “Oh, let’s maybe play that out for him.” He works out a lot, Martin does, and at the beginning of the show he would come in with these giant biceps—we had to make him stop doing that.

Daniel Desario (James Franco)

Daniel’s such a drifter. I always liked the idea that eventually Daniel would probably end up in jail. [Laughs.] We were kind of, you know, taking him in this different direction. I wasn’t quite sure where that was going to lead. I knew it couldn’t stay in that world. I always liked the idea of: you go away for the summer and you come back and everybody’s kind of in a different place. But it’s hard to say with him; I think he had too many things pulling him in different directions. Having lost Kim, there would be a weirdness between them. But I wasn’t quite sure yet.

Kim Kelly (Busy Philipps)

I wanted Kim Kelly to be pregnant, but it wasn’t necessarily going to be Daniel’s. I thought this actually happened when she was out on the road with Lindsay following the Dead—that she shacked up with some guy, whether she was high at the moment or whatever, and comes back pregnant. That was another burning desire of mine, because when we were in high school there’d always be a girl or two who were pregnant, and it was so mind blowing. I thought it would be interesting with Daniel kind of around, and it’s not his, and it’s weird—and would he step up, since she doesn’t really know who the dad is, or isn’t really in contact with him? So maybe it was a chance for Daniel to become a young teen father—see what could have happened if we had a second season? And Kim and Lindsay—that would become a true friendship. Obviously they would have to have some back and forth and falling apart, but I like the girl power they had at the end of the last episode—they had both come through the fire in different ways and really bonded hardcore.

The Geeks of “Freaks and Geeks”

Nick Andopolis (Jason Segel)

I liked how we were kind of moving Nick towards having to go into the army, because of his badass dad. ’Cause that was a real option for so many people in my school—but he would be desperately trying to avoid it. But I was never quite clear exactly what direction we were going to go with Nick.

Ken Miller (Seth Rogen)

There was a guy I knew in school who was kind of Ken-like and he moved away to Hawaii; we were told he moved there just so he could smoke pot. I don’t know if that was the direction Ken was going to go. I always liked that we had set up that he had rich parents. But Ken’s such an enigma. I think he’s the guy that just kind of hangs around town. My instinct is we would have had the most fun searching for what his life would be. We liked to surprise people with Ken’s character—what was the thing you’d least expect he would do, or place he’d come from? I can completely see us loading him up with a lot of weird shit. I was sad we never got to show his parents, and God only knows whom we would have had him dating. I can definitely see a scenario where Lindsay would have tried dating Ken—that would be really funny. High-school romances are so flash-in-the-pan; there’s that awkwardness of having your ex walking around the school. Or, in my case, girls who turned me down but I had the awkwardness of them knowing I was into them and they had no interest in me.

Millie Kentner (Sarah Hagan)

We had actually thought about trying to turn Millie into a burnout at some point—“What? You’re what?” It would have been really fun to twist where she was going. I love changing people’s alliances. Because no one knows who they are or what they’re doing—basically they’re trying on different hats, different masks, if you will.

Cindy Sanders (Natasha Melnick)

We ended with Cindy as such a hardcore Republican. I liked her being a weird nemesis for Sam—I would have loved seeing them run against each other for student-council president. There’s nothing funnier to me than when the person you were in love with suddenly becomes this monster. You can’t figure out why you liked them. I think we would have had a lot of fun with Cindy.

Mr. Kowchevsky (Steve Bannos) and Mr. Rosso (Dave “Gruber” Allen)

We established [in the episode “The Little Things”] that [math teacher] Mr. Kowchevsky was gay, but we didn’t end up using that scene. I loved that storyline and was looking forward to playing with that, having it get out. [Guidance counselor] Rosso’s always on such a journey of discovery; it would have been fun to put him through some crises. I love that he had a band—Dave (Gruber) Allen and I actually had a band at the time; we were the house band at a place in Burbank called the Butcher’s Arms. We played there every weekend. There’s something funny to me about guys who won’t have a career in music but who are still trying to start a band at the age when you probably shouldn’t be trying to start a band. We could have had a permanent set of some low-rent club where Rosso was in the house band.

Harold and Jean Weir (Joe Flaherty and Becky Ann Baker)

Mr. and Mrs. Weir just kind of go along their way and have their crises of trying to figure what to do about Lindsay and how to protect her. And then Sam, whatever problems he has coming up.”

——

It’s definitely not as shitty as I thought it was from the one line summaries I had seen going around in comments on videos or on here. Like Lindsay just ODing and that’s her plot. No, they had more ideas for her.

Still it’s not like this was a script. And it wasn’t set in stone. Not only would they actually have to write it into coherent episodic storylines, actors and actresses often do have a lot of input with improv and script changes during the production process. They really didn’t know what the fuck they were going to do.

[comfortbucky]

Hey! If requests are still open I was wondering if I could request a fluffy fic where reader is having a bad day and Bucky notices and cheers them up? 💗💗

HELL YEAH!!!

REQUESTS!!! ARE!!! OPEN!!!

𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗲𝘁 ⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆ ｡˚ ☁︎ ˚

pairing: bodyguard!bucky x fem!reader

warnings: anxiety, anxiety attack

tags: grumpy!bucky, bodyguard!bucky, fluffy bucky!!!

A/N: okay i have never written bodyguard!bucky before but i just thought it would be such a sweet concept to see him being soft🥺

sorry if the ending is kind of bad😭 i didn’t know how to quite wrap it all up, but i hope u enjoy!!!!!!!! <3 i had so much fun writing about bodyguard!bucky!!!!!

word count: 2.9k

my masterlist!

completed requests!

Y/N groaned as her phone alarm went off and hit snooze for the fifth time. She reached her hand out, head facing away and resting on her pillow, fumbling for her phone to turn off the incessant sound. Before she could shut it off, the noise stopped. Y/N turned her head slightly to see a large, dark figure in the corner of her eye. She turned her head fully to see her bodyguard with a frown on his face as he shut her alarm off.

“Your alarm, it’s annoying,” Bucky grumbled. “You should get up anyways, busy schedule today.” He walked out of the room before she could respond. Super soldier hearing was no joke if he was able to hear her alarm from his bedroom down the hall. Y/N sighed as her face planted into the pillow.

She was not looking forward to the events planned out for the day. During the day, there was a slew of interviews she had, back to back, and at night, a gala she was being forced to attend by her father.

Being the daughter of a wealthy tech tycoon had its perks for sure, but Y/N did not consider all of the press she did as a part of them. She never liked being in the spotlight but was forced to be, a birthright she had. Growing up with her dad, she’d developed a fascination for tinkering with computers, game consoles, and everything in-between. She spent a lot, practically all of her free time, with her dad when her mom had passed away. Her dad ended up throwing himself into his life’s work and she worked with him closely in the beginning, but slowly started to drift apart from him as she started to make a name for herself.

Earlier that week, her dad had sent her a text, informing her that a big announcement would be made at the gala. Big parties and large crowds weren’t really her thing, but it seemed like she didn’t have the option to avoid this one.

She got ready for the day, walking down to her kitchen to see her bodyguard, Bucky, sitting at the table, reading a book. As soon as he heard her come down the steps, he stood up and put his book away.

“C’mon, we’re already running late,” he mumbled, making his way to the door. Y/N rolled her eyes in response, grabbing a granola bar as she briskly followed behind him.

When her dad became a big name in the world of tech, the last thing Y/N thought she needed was a bodyguard, but her dad felt otherwise. It took one, very close call, of her almost getting mugged for her dad to immediately assign a personal bodyguard for her. She insisted that it was unnecessary, seeing that she was a fully grown adult, but her dad refused, as he was the one paying for Bucky’s salary.

Bucky had always been rather closed off since the beginning, and not much had changed since he was first assigned to her a little over a year ago. He kept their relationship very professional, only speaking when necessary and leaving the room whenever he wasn’t needed. She had tried to get him to open up more, learn about his past, but he always shut her questions down by either ignoring her or changing the topic to discussing something work-related. He was an enigma to her, which only left her wanting to solve the mystery that was James Bucky Barnes but couldn’t seem to crack the code.

Her first two interviews went smoothly, exactly what she was used to. A couple of questions about her current projects at work, some about her dad sprinkled in, and what she had planned for the future. It was a format she was used to and had come to appreciate, not exactly enjoying being the center of attention. During her last interview, however, she was caught off guard by one of the last questions she was asked.

“I know this might be an awkward question to ask, but I just have to! The people want to know: do you think your dad’s ever going to return to the dating pool?”

Y/N choked on her saliva. She knew her dad was an attractive man, seeing posts on social media of people fawning over him. Although she found it to be very weird and uncomfortable, she just brushed it all aside, not wanting to think about it as it only led to her thinking about the loss of her mom, a sore spot for her.

Y/N cleared her throat and forced out a chuckle. “I think that’s a question only he can answer, I don’t always know what’s going on in that crazy head of his.”

The interviewer laughed and proceeded to transition into the next segment. Y/N quickly thanked the interviewer and left, Bucky swiftly following behind. He had a feeling that something was off, as Y/N would typically stay behind to chat with the interviewer, crew members, even the service staff, whenever she finished an interview. It was always something he admired about her, how down to earth she remained, despite all of the privileges she had. She went out of her way to thank everyone on set, no matter how small their role might seem. He always told the drivers to pull the car up a little later than originally planned, just so she would have the extra time to talk.

Y/N pushed the doors open, only to find an empty street. She turned around and gave Bucky a curious look.

“Sorry, the driver just texted me,” he said, as he sent a text to the driver, telling him to come now. “He’s running late.”

Y/N nodded and leaned against the wall, looking down to fiddle with her hands. Bucky leaned against the opposite wall, facing her, his arms crossed over his chest.

“You okay?”

Y/N looked up at Bucky to find a gentle look in his eyes, slightly taken aback at the sight. She always found herself drawn to his piercing blue eyes, but they usually had a colder glint to them. This was a look she’d never seen before.

“Yeah, ‘m fine,” she replied, averting her gaze down as she felt her cheeks flush at the sight of Bucky’s soft gaze.

The car arrived, cutting off Bucky’s train of thought as he was thinking of what to say to her. For a moment he debated on continuing the conversation in the car but figured she already had a long night ahead of her and didn’t want to push any further.

After a quick pit stop back to Y/N’s place, allowing her to change into an evening gown, the car headed to the venue of the gala. Bucky got out of the car before her, walking around to the other side to open her door. Before she stepped out, Y/N took a deep breath in and exhaled, plastering a fake smile on her face as a surge of flashing lights from cameras greeted her. Bucky watched, seeing her seamlessly transform from Y/N, the girl who needed to set a million alarms before actually waking up, to Y/N, tech extraordinaire, one of the most powerful people in the tech world.

Once they were inside the venue, Bucky stuck to his usual routine. Scope out the exits, look for any potential threats, and make sure Y/N was in his eyesight. Bucky kept close by but also kept his distance. He wanted to make sure that he gave her enough space whenever they were out, knowing that having him around was her dad’s idea and that she wasn’t too fond of having security detail in the first place. So he did everything he could to make himself blend in with the crowd, allowing her to roam freely, only following her when she moved out of his line of vision.

Y/N walked around, not knowing a single soul but making polite small talk with the rest of the guests. She became accustomed to knowing how to act at these types of events over the span of her adult life. Food, drinks, more food, home. Crowds made her uneasy, but she always felt calmer when she saw Bucky in her peripheral vision. Y/N would never admit it out loud, but over the last year, he had become a constant source of relief at these public events. Just knowing that he was there if she felt uncomfortable, unsafe, or wanted to leave early made her public outings much more bearable.

“Hey, sweetie! I’m so glad you made it.” Y/N turned around at the sound of her dad’s voice and smiled, moving in to hug him.

“Yeah well, you said you had a big announcement, so I figured I’d stop by,” she joked, eliciting a chuckle from her dad as they pulled away from each other.

“I’m about to make it now,” he started, placing his hands on Y/N’s shoulders. “And I was wondering if you could join me on stage for it? I know that’s not your thing, but it would mean so much to me, Y/N.”

While she absolutely hated the idea of having to stand in front of thousands of people, she reluctantly nodded. Y/N and her dad had slowly grown apart the past several years, only talking a couple times a month to catch up. With both of their busy schedules, they always seemed to miss each other. Despite their growing apart, she would do anything for her dad, especially if it meant so much to him.

Bucky slowly followed behind, as Y/N and her dad walked up to the stage. Y/N glanced behind her to give a slight smile to Bucky, to which he nodded back. He stood backstage, watching them from behind the curtains.

“Hi everyone, thanks so much for coming out tonight,” Y/N’s dad spoke into the mic. She was standing beside him, hands clasped in front of her, trying to look calm and not totally anxious.

“Since the success of my brand, people have said that I am a man who has everything. And I definitely have a lot to be thankful for, my company, my friends, and most importantly, my daughter.” Her dad extended a hand out to point to Y/N and the crowd cheered. Bucky couldn’t help the smile that formed on his lips. Despite his brooding attitude, he had come to grow fond of Y/N, being able to see her for who she truly was. She was smart, witty, and had a heart of gold.

“The only thing I’ve been missing,” her dad looks down at the ground for a second, before looking back out at the crowd. “Is someone to share it all with.” Y/N’s smile faltered and felt her stomach drop. She couldn’t fully register the words coming out of her dad’s mouth.

“After Sarah, my wife had passed, I didn’t think I would be able to love again. Until I met Alyssa.” Y/N was frozen in place upon hearing her dad’s confession. She’d never heard of anyone named Alyssa during any of their catch-up calls and now he was saying he loved her? Y/N quickly turned as a woman walked out on stage. The woman walked over to her dad and he wrapped one of his arms around her waist before speaking.

“Now I feel complete, now I have everything.” He pulled Y/N to him and wrapped his other arm around her shoulders, smiling for the cameras ahead. There were a lot of strategies Y/N had devised over the years to deal with potential unexpected and uncomfortable situations in a composed manner to avoid having a PR nightmare.

She didn’t have one for this.

Tearing herself from her dad’s hold, she ran off stage, heading towards the exit that led to the outside. Y/N took in the fresh air, trying to stop her hyperventilating. It wasn’t working. Her chest felt tight as she began gasping for air, struggling to take in oxygen.

She was having a panic attack. It was nothing she hadn’t experienced before, but it had been so long since she’d had one. The last time she remembered, was at her mom’s funeral.

Her mom. Her dad. Alyssa.

Her thoughts were pushed aside as her vision blurred, her eyes swelling up with tears. Y/N felt like she had no control over her body and shut her eyes, allowing the panic to consume her.

Then, a firm, but gentle, warm feeling in her hands.

Y/N blinked her eyes open to reveal Bucky, standing in front of her. She looked down and saw that it was his hands in hers, holding them tight.

“Can you breathe for me, honey?”

His voice came out in a soft whisper, accompanied by the warmest and welcoming smile. She shook her head, unable to control her quick and rapid breaths. Bucky squeezed her hands a little tighter, rubbing his thumb in small circles on the back of her hand.

“Yes you can, just breathe with me, okay?”

He started to breathe in and out slowly and eventually, she was able to follow his lead, deciding to focus on his eyes. There was that look from before the ride to the gala, the gentle look in his eyes. She’d always felt that his blue eyes reminded her of stormy seas, but now, now they made her think of the calmness of the ocean in the early morning, waves crashing softly on the shores.

As she regained her composure, she realized she’d been staring into Bucky’s eyes for, probably, far too long. Bucky felt her tight grip on his hands loosen and reluctantly let go of her hands. He immediately missed the softness of her hands and how small they were in comparison to his much larger, calloused, hands.

“T- Thank you,” she stuttered out, her gaze locked on the ground, as she placed her hands to her sides.

“It’s no problem. I get them too,” he replied. She looked up at him as he clarified. “Panic attacks. PTSD from serving overseas.”

Y/N face drops, her stomach churning at the thought that Bucky had ever experienced panic like she had. She returned her gaze to the ground as a silence washed over them.

“He didn’t tell me about her,” she spoke in a quiet voice. “Never brought her up once. But I guess she must be pretty special for him to do all of this.”

Bucky stood a couple steps in front of her, seeing teardrops fall from her face. She lifted her head up to wipe away her tears, her hands shaking from anxiety. Y/N placed her hands on her face and started to sob.

She was slightly hurt by the idea of her dad loving any other woman than her mom but knew that he’d have to move on eventually. What hurt her the most was the fact that he didn’t tell her, not until they were on stage, standing before a crowd of people. It was too much for her to handle and she reached her breaking point.

Bucky’s heart dropped at the sight. He cautiously stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her tightly. Something his PTSD had taught him was how pressure from a hug could help relax the nervous system and calm him down. He held her firmly in his arms until he felt her breathing slow. She looked up at him, remaining in his embrace, her eyes glassy from crying, nose red and sniffly. Bucky felt his heart skip a beat and immediately pushed the thought away.

“You wanna leave, honey?”

She nodded in response, staying in his arms for just a second longer before pulling away. Y/N longed for his warm touch, feeling like a child who had their security blanket taken away. It didn’t help that it was also cold outside, sending a chill down her spine.

Bucky noticed and shrugged his suit jacket off to wrap around her shoulders. She beamed a smile at him and he smiled back.

The pair walked around the outside of the venue to find the car when they ran into a mob of paparazzi, shouting questions at Y/N about her sudden exit. Like a reflex, she grabbed hold of Bucky’s hand and he gave her a comforting squeeze as he cleared a path towards the car.

Bucky and Y/N were sat next to each other in the car, which was not the typical seating arrangement they usually had, usually sitting on opposite ends of the car. But Y/N hadn’t let go of his hand, not quite ready to separate herself from his warmth. Bucky had absolutely no problem with that, mindlessly rubbing his thumb against the back of her hand. She felt safe. She always felt safe with Bucky around.

Y/N felt her eyelids become heavy, struggling to keep them open. She was exhausted from her long day, and her panic attack had taken most of her energy away.

Bucky felt a weight on his shoulder and turned his head slightly to see Y/N’s head resting there. He felt a warmth rush to his cheeks and smiled, resting his head on top of hers.

“Thank you for tonight, Bucky,” she mumbled, keeping her eyes closed. “You always make me feel so safe.”

Bucky felt a surge of tenderness rush through him. That was all he ever wanted to do. He wanted to keep her safe. He kissed her forehead, causing her to snuggle closer to him.

“Of course, honey. I’m here, always.”

[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

The Perfect Night | Charlie Gillespie

Requested by anon: Can you please write a fanfic with Charlie Gillespie x reader where you're taking him with you as a plus one to your high school reunion because you don't have anyone to go with but then they realise they really like each other

Pairing: Charlie Gillespie x Female!Reader

Warnings: a few curse words like bitch, fluff 

Words: 2,622

High school wasn’t your favorite. All the bullies and the stress to fit in. Everyone laughing at you because you were the nerd with all the stories piled up on your computer and the fantasy of a child in your head. You’d thought you left all of that behind. But then came the reunion. You’ve only graduated five years ago from high school and only last year from college. Though you had an amazing job as screenwriter and some really great friends, you didn’t have a date to bring to that reunion, and you knew all those people would pick on you for old time’s sake because you didn’t have a date. “Hey, you okay? You seem stressed,” Charlie’s voice shakes you awake from your anxious thoughts about the reunion. You look up at him and offer him a nervous smile. Charlie Gillespie is your co-worker, and along with the rest of the Julie and The Phantoms team, one of your newest friends. Yes, you were on the writing team for Julie and The Phantoms, and you had just finished a table read for season 2. “Yeah, I just—there’s this high school reunion tonight and I really don’t want to go.” “Not a fan of high school?” he asks as he falls into step with you, the two of you walking out of the building. “Not at all…” he gives you a curious look, “Eh, they used to bully me because I was a writer and spent my time writing books instead of going out to parties or spending time with friends,” you give him the synopsis. Charlie doesn’t need to know about the nights you spend crying in your room or going to your therapist. You were close, just not that close. Besides, you’d rather forget about your past. “And now you’re a part of the writers’ team on a popular Netflix show?” he tries with a smile, but you just give him an unimpressed look. “Come on, Y/N! This is an opportunity to show them what you made of yourself! Brag a bit about how amazing a job you have!” You shrug, still not convinced. “I just don’t want to face them alone…” you mumble, staring at your moving feet when suddenly a thought pops into your head and you stop in your tracks, looking up at him. “Do you want to be my plus one?” He halts too, raising his eyebrows at you. “Nope, you’re right, that’s stupid!” You start walking again, Charlie following your example. “No. No, it’s not stupid. I just didn’t think you’d ask me?” “You’re one of my best friends here, Charlie. It’s just logical.” He smiles at that. He really has become your best friend since meeting him a couple months ago. “Okay! So, am I playing your boyfriend? Husband? Just a best friend?” You furrow your eyebrows at him, glaring at him questionably. “We could make something fun out of this, Y/N!” He’s almost bouncing off the walls with excitement. That’s the Charlie you know and love. “Okay… Uhm, let’s pretend you’re my boyfriend. I bet they wouldn’t expect the antisocial nerd to have a boyfriend.” The giggle that comes out of his mouth is too adorable to handle. “How did we meet?” he asks, making sure you got the story straight. “Uhm, here?” you suggest. He rolls his eyes at the obvious answer but goes with it. “Okay! Uhm, let’s – let’s say I fell for you when you bossily told me how I should say a line in the dialogue you wrote?” You nod your head slowly. That sounds kind of cute. “What was our first date?” “Uhm, I don’t know? Movie and dinner?” He scrunches his nose, shaking his head. “No, girl… Charlie Gillespie doesn’t do basic dates!” You chuckle at this, stopping in the hallway of the building to check out. “You like hiking, right?” You nod your head, signing your name on the paper at the front desk. “I took you on a hike on the Eagle Bluffs trail in Vancouver and we had a romantic picnic on the mountain with a gorgeous view over the Cabin Lake.” You nearly melt away at the thought of him taking you on a date like that. “That’s a cute date,” you tell him, impressed, and trying not to show what it’s really doing to you. “And I kissed you on that mountain top.” He raises an eyebrow as an amused smirk pulls at his lips. “No one at my school would ever think I’d be the one to take that step.” “And our first ‘I love you’s were accidental slip ups at work!” He sounds way too excited and he’s getting way too into this. “Like, I’d accidentally completely mess up the punch-line of the joke you wrote, and you’d get annoyed and angry, and then I accidentally said “Okay, sorry, thank you, I love you”.” You giggle at his ideas as the both of you exit the building together. “Anything else we need to discuss?” you ask, grabbing your car key. “Don’t think so…” he trails off, really mulling it over. “Oh! Is there a dress code?” “Yes! It’s formal,” you reply, hoping that wouldn’t be too much of trouble so last minute. He thinks about it for a moment, going through his own wardrobe in his mind. “What are you wearing?” he questions. “Not sure, a red dress, I think…” “You think?” “Yeah, I might change my mind if I don’t like it.” He nods his head understandingly. “What time does it start?” “Seven. It’s about fifteen minutes from my place.” “I’ll pick you up at twenty minutes before then,” he suggests. You nod your head in agreement, then say your goodbyes and go your separate ways. That night, Charlie’s eyes widen when you open the door in your red, tight-fitting bodycon dress with spaghetti straps. He’s not used to seeing you out of your comfy mom-jeans and T-shirts or sweaters. “Uh… Okay… First of all,” he gestures to your body, “Wow!” You laugh at him, feeling a blush creeping up your cheeks. “Second of all… WOW!” “It’s not too much?” you ask, shyly. “No! No! Not at all! I’m very glad I get to play the boyfriend of a goddess like you.” “Oh, shut it, Charlie!” you slap his chest playfully before grabbing your clutch and leaving your apartment. “You look pretty wow yourself, by the way,” you say, approving of the suit he’s wearing. He bashfully smiles as you exit the building. He opens every door for you, like a true gentleman. You’re pretty sure no one has ever done that for you before. You always thought it would be so cliché, but it’s actually really nice. “Hey, how far are we going to go with PDA?” he asks when he gets in behind the wheel. “You know, holding hands and stuff…” You blush a little at the thought alone. Being single for so long almost made you forget that was a part of it too. “Uhm… Just improvise,” you shrug. “You’re the actor after all.” You go over the story again with Charlie, making sure neither of you will forget and give everything away. “You ready?” he asks as you’re standing in front of your high school. Terrible memories flood back inside your mind, sending shivers down your spine. As if on automatic, you grab Charlie’s bicep for support – both moral and physical. “Let’s do this.” The two of you walk inside the school and find the gym where they’re holding the five-year reunion. The music’s blasting, lights are flickering, and people are mingling, reminiscing over their high school memories. You already spot a few people you know, but much rather not talk to. “If you ever feel overwhelmed and want to leave, just tell me, and we’re out of here,” he whispers in your ear. You can’t help but smile at his words. A true gentleman.   “Thanks, Charlie,” you whisper back. He takes you straight to the bar where he gets you your favorite beverage. “How’d you know?” you ask when he hands it over. “You always order a G&T at the crew parties,” he tells you nonchalantly. “How attentive of you,” you compliment with an endeared smile plastered on your face. This man keeps surprising you with the smallest thing, and it’s the cutest thing you’d ever witnessed. It gives you the feeling of being seen and appreciated and respected. For the first time in your life. “Oh my God! Y/N!” you hear the shrill voice of Ella, one of your classmates from back in the day. One of the biggest bullies from your senior year. “You look amazing! How are you doing?!” she grabs the hand your not holding your drink with and presses a kiss to your cheek. “Hi, Ella…” you greet, putting the fakest smile you can muster on your face. “I’m good! How are you?” Charlie watches you to find any sign of uncomfortableness. “I’m good! You know, recently engaged.” She shows you her hand, which is decorated with the shiniest, biggest diamond ring you’d ever seen. “Oh, wow!” you glance at Charlie, “Look, babe, she’s engaged!” If he’s surprised by the sudden pet name, he doesn’t show it. “Congratulations, Bella!” You know he’s butchering that name on purpose, and you have to try your hardest to stifle a laugh. “You have a boyfriend?” Ella asks, clearly bitter over either him butchering her name or you, having such an attractive boyfriend. “There’s nothing on Facebook about that?” she chuckles awkwardly. Charlie wraps a protective arm around your waist, pulling you closer towards him. “Uhm… Yeah… We’re keeping it lowkey, you know?” you reply as convincingly as possible. “He’s an actor, so…” you trail off, hoping that would impress her. Ella’s demeanor changes all of a sudden. She goes from total bitch to flirty bitch. “Really?” She twirls a strand of hair around her finger. “Y/N?” Another voice chimes in, this one belongs to Addison, Ella’s bestie. “Hey, Addie…” you greet, clutching your glass really hard. Charlie can feel you tensing up beside him and starts rubbing circles on your hip. “Y/N has an actor boyfriend,” Ella informs her. Addison’s eyes widen as they dart from you to Charlie and back. “How’d you meet?” Addison questions, intrigued by this entire story. The two of you glance at each other, trying to determine who’s going to tell the story. “At work, actually,” you start. “I’m on the writers team of the show he plays in.” “Yeah! She bossily told me how to deliver the line she wrote, and I’ve been in love with her ever since.” He looks down at you with the most endeared smile on his face that makes you melt like ice cream in the sun. “Aw! That’s adorable!” Addison clutches her heart as if it’s about to burst out of her chest. “When did you fall in love with him, Y/N?” You glance at Charlie for some assistance or some inspiration. “When he suggested that instead of a boring movie and dinner date, we’d go hiking together. I just knew he was the one for me at that moment.” You’re not going to lie, Charlie taking you on a hiking date would totally make you fall in love with him. Ella’s and Addison’s noses scrunch up in disgust. “Also…” she adds, then leans in closer to the girls to whisper, “His arms! The boy has guns, I tell you!” The two girls gasp, scanning Charlie entirely from head-to-toe. He snickers, then pulls you closer again. “You did not fall in love with me for my arms,” he tells you, shaking his head with an amused look on his face. You look up at him, eyebrow raised. “I do see you every day with those muscle tees, babe. You really think I wouldn’t swoon for that?” You couldn’t lie. Charlie’s arms were killer. But obviously not the only thing that made him attractive. “If you don’t mind, ladies. I’m going to take my lady for some food,” he nods towards the other side of the gym where food is stalled out into a banquet. Addison and Ella bid their goodbyes, and the two of you make your way to the catering. “I hate them with a passion,” you grumble as you take a plate to fill with canapes. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as fake as them, and I’m an actor.” You giggle at his comment and reach for the mini-pizzas at the same time he does, your hands touch, making both of you freeze. “Sorry,” you both mumble, pulling away, flustered. “Hey, Y/N!” A voice you really didn’t want to hear sounds from behind me. “Kill me now,” you mumble, earning a worried look from Charlie. “Ex-boyfriend.” Charlie takes your plate from you and places it onto the table, leaving you a little confused. “Do you trust me?” he asks, hushed. “Yeah, wh—?” before you can finish your question, Charlie presses his lips to yours, pushing you gently against the wall behind you. You’re startled, at first, but then melt into the kiss as your stomach starts to do flips and turns. You didn’t realize until now that this is what you’ve wanted all along. You always wondered why your eyes always automatically darted to his lips. Now you know why. “Ooh! Get it, Y/N!” you hear your ex’s best friend shout. Nothing about high school has changed. Except now Charlie’s here. He pulls away and stares at you for a moment, equally as overwhelmed as you. “You want to get out of here?” he whispers. You simply nod your head, running your tongue across your bottom lip as though the taste of his lips is still there. Charlie grabs your hand and pulls you to the door of the gym. As you pass your ex and his friends, you offer them a wave of your slender fingers. For the first time in years, you feel powerful in this gym, like you can conquer the world. Charlie takes you into the hallway, and pushes you against the wall of lockers, kissing you again. You can’t help the smile tugging at your lips as your hands tug at his suit jacket. “I wanted to do that for so long,” he whispers when he pulls away for a second, pressing his forehead against yours and tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. “What do you mean?” you ask, keeping your voice down too. “You really think I made all of that up in there?” he chuckles. “I really did fall for you when you told me off about delivering that line wrong.” Your mouth drops open before your lips turn up into a surprised smile. “It was incredibly hot.” “And I do swoon every time I see you, by the way,” you admit for the first time to yourself. “And I would really love that first date you imagined for us.” “Good,” he replies, “Because I was going to ask you to go this weekend.” Your eyes widen, and Charlie notices a sparkle in them that he’s never seen before. “Thank you for tonight, Charlie,” you whisper, pushing a strand of hair from his forehead. He has that Patrick Swayze hair he had a couple of times in Season 1 of Julie and The Phantoms, the hairstyle you find way too attractive. “No, thank you.” He smiles down at you before connecting his lips to yours again in a deep, passionate kiss. Tonight, you not only conquered your dreadful past, but you also found the love of your life in your best friend. And you couldn’t possibly ask for more. This was a perfect night.

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[angstysebfan]

Ok a request? Lemme think! Hmmmm, ok. How about “reader and Seb have been dating for a while but Seb is getting a little distant. Reader overhears a conversation Seb has with Mackie about all these nasty things about her, it breaks reader’s heart and it makes her go home and move back to her old apartment. She confides in her best friend, Tom Hiddleston, and he helps her boost her self esteem and with having fun again, like a good friend. When Seb finds out, he becomes a jelly boi, confronts them when he sees pictures of them together and Hiddleston isn’t having it.” You can do whatever with the ending. I trust you ❤️

 --

Oh boy this one is going to hurt me. Even though a lot of people are mad at Seb and he has been acting like a douche canoe, I still love him...

--

Is It Too Late?

You lie on your bed staring at the ceiling for what feels like hours. A lot of different things going through your mind at once, and all of them about your current relationship. You have been dating Sebastian for about 3 years, and for most of it, it has been absolutely amazing. He has an actor and have to travel the world to film, while you are just your everyday average girl, but you both always made it work. You met him through your best friend, Tom Hiddleston, who is also an actor.

You noticed over the last 5-6 months, Seb has been very distant. You don’t understand what happened, but you are worried that he might be losing interest in you, or cheating. I mean when you compare yourself to the women he had before, and the ones that throw themselves at him, you could understand why you don’t measure up. 

With a sigh, you get up from the bed to go in search of your boyfriend. Maybe he doesn’t realize what he is doing, and with a little heart to heart, things will get better, hopefully. You go to walk into his office when you hear him laugh and speak in hushed tones. You peek in and see that he is on the phone and go to step away when you overhear what he says, “I don’t know Anthony, I’m just over her. She is so needy and whiny. I mean if she was gorgeous I would ignore it, but she isn’t. I just don’t think I can handle this with her anymore, ya know?” he says.

You cover your mouth with your hand, in hopes of covering up the gasp. Tears immediately form in your eyes as you turn and run back into the bedroom. You force yourself to calm down after letting a few tears fall. You quickly grab your suitcase and start clearing your things out of the apartment. Seb continues his conversation, not realizing what is happening. Once you are done collecting everything, you put it all by the door for a quick escape.

You walk into the office, as Seb is still on the phone. You stand in front of him with your arms crossed, looking none too pleased. Seb looks at you with furrowed brows of confusion. “Hey Anthony, let me call you back,” he says before hanging up. “What’s wrong?” he asks innocently. You have to fight the urge to roll your eyes, “I just wanted to say goodbye,” you say.

His eyebrows shoot up in shock, “Goodbye? Goodbye as in you are going out and will be back later, or goodbye as in goodbye?” he asks standing up. You look into his blue eyes and see an expression you haven’t seen in awhile, nervousness. “Goodbye as in... I don’t know. I have to think about things and I think it’s better if I’m away from you,” you say.

You are proud of how strong your sounding, considering you are falling apart inside. Sebastian walks around his desk, “Is everything ok?” he asks softly, reaching out to you. You step away from his hand, which you see shocks him again. “I just think you need more than a needy, whiny ugly girlfriend, so maybe we should just call this what it is. You have been distant for awhile and it’s obvious you fell out of love with me, so I am giving you your out,” you say as tears form.

“I-- No, Y/N, wait please! Let me explain, please!” Seb pleads with you as you back away from him. “I heard you. I don’t need you to make up some stupid ass lie or excuse. I’m leaving,” you say as you turn around. Seb follows you out to his front door, begging you to stop and listen to him. You pick up your stuff and without sparing a glance you walk out of his apartment.

--

It’s been a few days since you went back to your old apartment. Everything that you brought from Sebastian’s continues to sit by your front door where you dropped them. He has called you multiple times, along with millions of texts, all that you have ignored. When your phone rings again, you go to throw it when you see it is not Sebastian who is calling, but Tom. 

“Tom?” you answer through your tears. It takes no time for him to come to your apartment and hold you while you cry. He packed a bag to stay with you for as long as you need him, and while you finally fall asleep, he starts to clean your apartment and order your favorite food. He calls Sebastian to give him a piece of his mind as well. The conversation is short and to the point, and it finally makes Sebastian stop reaching out to you.

Over the next several days, Tom holds you while you sleep, and constantly tells you how amazing, and beautiful you are. You have a hard time believing him, though, but he just keeps reassuring you. It takes awhile, but he finally gets you to smile and laugh again, which feels really good. Over time you both start going out into the world and having fun, whether at bars, clubs, museums, or anywhere else that will put a smile on your face. You are so grateful for your best friend.

--

Seb sighs as he runs his hands through his hair in frustration. it’s been too long since you left, and he hasn’t been able to reach you. He thought giving you some space might calm you down enough so that you can talk. The hurt he saw in your eyes haunts his dreams, more like nightmares. Every night it’s the same thing; you leaving without him explaining that he wasn’t you he was talking about. He knows he became distant, but it wasn’t for what you thought. When Tom called him screaming, he tried to again explain, but Tom wouldn’t hear him out. He has tried to call Tom again, but he won’t answer his calls either.

He looks at the picture on his phone of you and Tom dancing together at the club. You never wanted to go to the club when you were with him, at least he didn’t think you did. He looks at how happy Tom makes you, and he wonders if Tom is keeping you away from him so he can be with you. Does he hold you tightly at night. Does he kiss your soft lips every day? Does he tell you that he loves you more than anything?

Seb reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out the velvet box. The reason he was distant was because he didn’t want to give away the surprise. He wanted to marry you, but now he has no way of telling you. Sebastian sighs and looks at the diamond ring before standing up. “Fuck this, I’m not giving up without a fight!” He says to himself before walking out of his apartment toward yours.

When you opened the door to frantic knocks, your heart and stomach dropped. There is a very disheveled and out of breath Sebastian. “Y/N. I know you think I was talking about you, but I wasn’t. I’m so sorry I was distant from you, but it was because...” Sebastian got down on one knee causing you to gasp, “Y/N L/N I love you more than anything in the whole world. Will you please consider talking to me so I can explain and then hopefully marry me?” he asks as he shows you the big diamond.

At this point Tom walked into the room to see what was happening. “Let him have his say Y/N,” he says when he sees you hesitate. You turn and look at him for a moment before turning back toward Seb and nod. Sebastian released the breath he was holding and stood up, following you into your living room. He nods at Tom, who smirks and leaves you two alone.

“Seb, I know what I heard that day,” you say sadly, looking at your hands. Seb slowly put his hand on top of yours, seeing what your response was. When you didn’t pull back, he sat closer to you and continued to hold your hands, “Y/N, I know with me being distant, it sounded like I was talking about you, but I wasn’t. Anthony and I were talking about one of the crew on our show. She has a huge crush on me and is very needy and whiny around me. She tries to get my attention--” “So if she was gorgeous you would give her a chance?” you said sternly, interrupting him.

“No! That comment was a stupid inside joke that I regret immediately. She likes to tell everyone that she thinks everything is gorgeous, and she is gorgeous, so I said it to make fun of her. I want nothing to do with her. I only want you! I love you, Y/N! You’re it for me, baby! I want nothing more than to marry you and be with you forever,” he says. 

You are crying at this point, not sure who to believe. “Y/N...” you hear Tom say. You turn and look at him, “I spoke with Anthony and he confirmed everything Sebastian said,” he says. Seb looked at Tom with a relieved and appreciative smile. You look at Seb, “Ask me,” you say. Seb’s breath hitches, “Are-are you sure?” he asks. You nod and he laughs, again getting down on one knee.

“Y/N, will you please put us out of the misery I caused and marry me?” he asks. You look at him and a smile slowly makes its way to your lips.

“Yes.”

--

Hope you liked it. I played with different version of the ending or how I wanted Seb to act, and this is how it worked out. lol

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[acey-wacey]

Lovestruck MC Headcanons

A/N: I've been playing lovestruck as a coping mechanism for covid but what really irks me is how the main characters are written. The player is allowed to choose their name, but not their appearance meaning the MC is not intended to be a self-insert. Even though it is established that the MC is a distinct character, they still never have any personality other than their love interest so I've decided to write my completely random headcanons for the MCs of the different books.

Love and Legends MC (with the protags)

-She loves cheesy rom-coms and says it's only to laugh at them but she really just loves the predictability.

-She is very defensive of her friends and has to be held back all the time.

-In high school, she knew she was attractive and lead boys on just to dump them (toxic much?).

-Her favorite food is pizza and she cries inside every time Solaire says she doesn't know what that is.

-She is constantly humming BTS songs and it confuses everyone else.

-She regularly sneaks out of the palace, with her chosen love interest, to find bits of the fantasy world that look just like movies she's seen.

-She makes dirty jokes way too often and only Iseul thinks they're funny.

When Reiner let her out of the palace for the first time, she went crazy with shopping and bought way too many Renaissance dresses.

-After her chosen love interest confessed to her, she had a mental breakdown about how all of this is a coma dream and no real person could love her.

-She is very cuddly and all the horses love her.

Starship Promise MC (aboard the Promise)

-She listens to heavy metal whenever she's working.

-Atlas told her it was annoying so she soundproofed the entire lab in a single night.

-She can actually use a blaster very well but if the chosen love interest offers to teach her, she's suddenly blind.

-She hates pickles and always throws them to Comet even though he doesn't like them either but he'll eat them for her.

-She watches old earth horror movies and laughs when the protagonist does stupid stuff.

-She has astronomy books from all the planets her parents visited and can name most of the stars in the sky from any given planet.

-She always has to be the bait for recon missions because she's a pretty blonde woman but unless it's genuinely important, she'll blow her cover on purpose just to make a point.

-She has a sixth sense for when someone is down and is completely ready to listen to them or knock some sense into them depending on the situation.

-Whenever she gets into an argument with one of the crew members, she just stares at them until they get freaked out and leave.

Reigning Passions MC

-She doesn't flaunt her poker skills but is prepared to humble any cocky player at Sebastian's parties.

-She has a lovely singing voice when she's sober but only ever sings at her grandmother's grave.

-When palace life gets too overwhelming, she sneaks out to the village and works at the bar for an afternoon.

-She knows how to do a lot of card tricks and uses them to entertain children.

-Soon after she was crowned, she appointed Xenia to be her "royal confidante", meaning they can spill tea for an hour and a half every Tuesday and nobody thinks anything of it.

-She learns a little bit of magic from each season, not only to do cool tricks but to appear as the heart of the capital, with influence from all four seasons.

-Never once has she abused her power but when a drunk man grabbed her butt, she seriously considered executing him.

-She is the life of the party, not just because she can make drinks tray well, but because she knows exactly what makes everyone laugh.

-She memorizes small things about each person she meets in court so that she can either become friends with them or keep an eye on them.

-Sometimes she helps Gideon with his experiments even if it's in the middle of the night.

-She despises court parties and always tries to leave as soon as possible.

-She considers her hair a very sensitive part of her body and only lets her chosen love interest style it.

-She has an extensive wardrobe but she only ever wears two dresses because they're the most comfortable.

Astoria: Fate's Kiss

-She is the only person brave enough to ask Hades why he married his niece.

-K-pop stan to the max

-She used to want to own a bakery before she started working for H.E.R.A.

-She is the most indecisive person ever and get stressed out over choosing an ice cream flavor.

-Chosen love interest chooses her ice cream flavor for her and that's part of the reason why she loves them.

-She overworks herself to the point of passing out at her desk.

-She has a pink sparkly pom-pom pen that she calls the "Punish-pen-t" because anyone who swears in the office has to use the pen for paperwork for the next week.

-She likes sour candy better than sweet.

-She doesn't like physical affection and will only let her chosen love interest and May touch her.

-Her favorite flower is sunflowers.

-She has never left Manhattan for any reason other than work.

Castaway! Love's Adventure

-She's all about eating the rich.

-She swears a lot and it bothers everyone on the island.

-She also has immaculate comedic timing and TK hates that it makes him laugh.

-She has scars all over her legs from rocks and brush scratching her.

-She needs to be watched at all times to make sure she doesn't touch any snakes or something.

-After leaving the island, she has withdrawals from switching between wilderness and city so quickly.

-She makes a lot of references to old movies.

-She has a flip phone because she spends all her money on desk accessories.

-She has seen one episode of Naruto and calls herself an anime fan.

-When she gets mad, she has really well thought out argument and provides textual evidence because she's used to journaling.

-She's so used to scrutiny that she apologizes anytime anything happened even if it isn't her fault.

[waywardwrestlewritingwaif]

The Green-Eyed Monster

This is a sequel to Water Seeks Its Own Level, although you probably don’t have to read that one for this one to make sense. It’s set a few months after the events of that story. I originally intended to write for someone new but I am just totally smitten with Eddie. He called me back to him. 

Pairing: Eddie Kingston x OFC

Word count: 3,836

Content advisory: a healthy dose of smut and cursing

“Son of a bitch!” You jerk your hand back, wincing in pain and you smack the side of the toaster oven, as if it’s the appliance’s fault you haven’t yet figured out that food coming out of the oven is hot. To make things worse, you actually feel a little guilty for taking your anger out on the inanimate object. You’re in a bad mood. The toaster oven is just the latest thing to make your day worse. 

You run some cold water on your hand before you go back for another attempt at removing the leftover pizza slice that you don’t even want but you figure you should eat something because you’ve poured a couple of beer down your gullet and if you don’t eat something, you’re going to get a headache. 

So you gnaw joylessly at your pizza slice, trying not to notice that reheating it has not made it taste fresher than the three days it’s been in your refrigerator. None of this would have happened, of course, if you’d just gone out with the rest of the crew like you’d assumed you would. There was a Korean barbecue place that a few of the AEW gang had heard good things about and finally someone had taken it upon themselves to get a side room reserved so that you could all go together and have a good time. You’d been looking forward to it. 

But earlier in the day, you’d found out that the group that was going included Eddie, along with his new so-called family: the Butcher, the Blade, and the Bunny, also known as Andy, Braxton, and Allie. It shouldn’t have bothered you. They’d known each other a long time. You knew them all well. They’d all been bugging you to come along whenever they were going out together, or at least they had until recently. 

As things too often did for you, it came down to Eddie. After he’d shown up in AEW, the two of you had rekindled the fuck-buddy thing you’d had going when you were both on the indies. The problem was that now you weren’t just hooking up when you happened to be on the same tour or show: you were together every week, living in the same city, working the same schedule. So your casual, no-strings-attached thing had become a very frequent thing. It had become a leaving stuff in each other’s apartments thing. It had become a casual understanding of at least one night of the weekend together thing. 

What it hadn’t become was a relationship, at least not in the articulated, public, monogamous sense. You didn’t have anyone else in your life. You didn’t want anyone else in your life. You’d spent years telling yourself that Eddie was just someone you could go to for a good time in the sack, and even though you were aware that he always stirred up feelings in you that went beyond a fallback booty call, you kept telling yourself that was all it was. 

Now that the two of you were actually stable in terms of work and living space, though, you’d started to wonder if maybe you did want things to be a bit more stable with Eddie as well. Although you’d never discussed your status, you didn’t have anyone else in your life and you didn’t want anyone else in your life. Even though you were surrounded by beautiful people at work, people who had their shit far more together than Eddie Kingston ever would, it was like they didn’t really exist. You didn’t say that to him because you didn’t want to risk embarrassing yourself. If it was going to happen, it would come out naturally, by which you meant that he’d have to get around to bringing it up. 

Things had been fine until recently, until Eddie had taken it upon himself to reunite Braxton with his estranged wife Allie, the Bunny, so that they could have each other’s backs. At least, that’s what he said he was doing. But it actually seemed that Allie was spending most of her time with Eddie. He was the one on television calling her “the beautiful Bunny” and taking credit for wooing her back to the fold. He convinced her to join them. He was the one she seemed loyal to. Even backstage, when the four of them were around each other, Allie always seemed to be hanging off Eddie’s arm, laughing extra loudly at his jokes, and insisting that he come along wherever she was going. It made your blood boil. 

You didn’t say anything because it wasn’t like you had reason to think that Eddie wasn’t going to have anyone else in his life. And you were even sure if he did, because cuckolding his friend right in front of his face would be bold even for him. You’d gone out with the group of them a couple of times but you’d felt nauseous from jealousy, watching him talk about how great it was that they were all working together again. 

So you’d ended up begging off and just spending time with Eddie when you could be alone. More recently, you’d just started avoiding him because thinking that he was leaving your bed to have a quick shower and then run off to another woman had you crying your eyes out on several occasions. You never said anything, you just stopped returning his texts and stayed clear of him at work. And after a while, he’d stopped messaging and trying to talk to you. Things were over. 

You throw the remainder of the pizza in the garbage. Thinking about everything that’s happened in this weird, hopeless thing with him makes you feel rejected and miserable all over again. You miss him. A lot. But now it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t want anything more with you, that he wants to keep things open, and you know you can’t deal with that. 

The doorbell cuts through the fog of frustration and self-pity, startling you so much that you give a little yelp. You old place had one of those systems when the bell was hooked up to your phone but this one had a buzzer that sounded like an aircraft engine and you didn’t feel like you were ever going to get used to it. 

“Hello?” You mumble, hoping that it isn’t another homeless person looking to sleep in the hallway downstairs. 

“It’s me, can I come up?”

He doesn’t even have to say his name because you’d know that almost cartoonish accent anywhere. It figures that he’d just show up unannounced after eleven, like nothing had been weird between you. Maybe for him, things hadn’t been weird at all. 

“Yeah, sure.” You press the release to open the front door and wait, pacing a little and trying to stay calm until you hear a knock on your door. 

And when you open it, there’s Eddie, his face and jacket sprinkled with rain, sporting a fresh-looking bruise on his left eye that he turns to try to hide it. 

“We haven’t hung out in a while,” he grunts, his eyes a little suspicious and resentful. 

“True. Guess we’ve both been busy.”

You motion for him to come inside, quietly pleased that he remembers to take his boots off. You reach over to take his jacket so that you can hang it up and he looks almost offended. 

“I know where it goes,” he snaps, opening the closet and putting it on a hanger himself. 

You grip his jaw and turn his face so that you can get a better look at the damaged eye. 

“What happened?”

He steps back, pouting like a child who’s been caught doing something he knows he isn’t supposed to. 

“We went out to a bar after the restaurant. Archer offered to buy me a drink, and I said I wanted to buy him a drink. I guess it got out of hand.”

“Two friends try to buy a round at the bar turns into a fistfight. That is so you.” 

You can’t help but laugh at your own joke because it is such an Eddie thing but he doesn’t seem amused. 

“You got something I can put on this?” He grumbles. 

“I have a couple of ice packs in the freezer. Come on.”

He follows you over to the open kitchen with its little breakfast counter while you start lifting frozen entrees out of the way to find the artificial ice. 

“So how come you didn’t come to dinner?”

“I don’t know,” you lie. “My stomach was a bit upset and I probably wouldn’t have been much fun.”

He gives a low cackle. “You just don’t like it when you can’t have me all to yourself.”

You pause from digging through the back of the freezer to shoot him a scornful look. 

“You just want me there so you can have a larger audience,” you retort, standing and producing the ice pack. 

“Who said I wanted you there?”

You slap the cold pack into his cheek, giving a cruel little smile when he winces at the impact. 

“Thank god you never decided to become a nurse,” he growls. 

You can feel his eyes digging into you, searching for an opening. He knows all your fault lines so well, but he knows that there’s something going on with you that he hasn’t seen before. Your body twists under his scrutiny, trying to make it less obvious that you’re avoiding meeting his gaze. 

“So what’s up with you anyway?” he asks, still studying you too closely for comfort.

“Not much. I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine with me.”

“What?” You finally look back at him, eyes wide with fake surprise. “Did I say something that made you think I was pissed at you? Did I do something to get you pissed off?”

“Come on. You know what I mean. You barely talk to me at work, you never go out if you think I’m gonna be there. You won’t answer when I message you, or it’s two words long like I’m annoying you. I thought things were going ok with us for once.”

“They were. They are,” you counter desperately. 

He places the ice pack on the counter and arches his brows at you. When you reach to remove it, he grabs your wrist and pulls you between his body and the counter, shaking his head as he presses it hard against yours. 

His hands graze down to your hips and under your shorts, gripping both of your ass cheeks hard and you feel yourself melt against him, as you always do. You incline your head forward until your lips are against his, your arms winding around his neck, and you let yourself fall into the kiss you’d told yourself you were going to avoid. Everything that Eddie does with that mouth of his is magic and every second you spend locked in that embrace, you get drawn further in. 

“I missed this,” he growls softly, giving a hard squeeze for emphasis.

It’s almost painful to pull yourself back from what you want so much but if you don’t extricate yourself now, you’ll be going crazy over him forever, so you force yourself to do it. 

You try to pivot a little but he has you locked in place. 

“Please, just let me put the cold pack back in the fridge.”

“No,” he whispers, giving you an evil little smile before nipping at the skin of your neck. “That’s gonna stay right there and melt and make a mess until you tell me what’s going on with you.”

“That’s not fair!” You whine, trying fruitlessly to reach back so you can at least throw the stupid in thing in the sink. 

“Kinda seems like the Princess has decided she’s too good for me again.”

His lips lock onto the base of your throat and you main loudly. He’s doing it on purpose, tweaking your sensitive spots with his caresses and his words. 

“You know that’s not true, Eddie.”

“I don’t know. I thought maybe you were afraid someone might find out that I was your dirty little secret.”

“It’s not that, I don’t give a fuck who knows.”

That draws a guttural laugh from him and the sound makes your stomach flip. You don’t offer any resistance when he eases your tank top over your head and trails kisses down the center of your chest. 

“So tell me,” he insists, twisting a nipple hard between his fingers, “why I haven’t been getting any of this.”

“Why does it have to be something wrong with me? You’re the one with your new faction or family or whatever, making all sorts of plans and wooing Allie to join you.”

He lifts his head and as soon as you see the smirk on his face, you know you’re done for. 

“Wooing Allie?”

“I don’t know what you call it. You got her to ditch what she was doing and go back with you guys.”

“I call it talking to my friend’s wife and making her work things out with him. That’s not what most people would call ‘wooing’, princess.”

“Whatever, I just meant that you’ve been busy so maybe I’m the one who should feel neglected.”

You fold your arms in front of your chest because the only thing worse than trying to salvage your stupid comment is trying to do it half naked while he gives you that amused look. 

“I don’t believe it. You’re fucking jealous.”

“No,” you whine. 

“Oh yes you are. You think there’s something going on with me and Allie.”

“I guess it seems like you have a bit of a thing for her, at least. You’re always talking about how beautiful she is and all that.”

“Princess, has anyone explained to you that not everything you see in wrestling is real?”

“It doesn’t matter. I just said that you’d been busy and-“

He kisses you again, little ripples of laughter coming out as he does. You return the kiss, diving in and hoping that you can just shut him up and make him forget what you’ve said, and to shut yourself up before you say anything worse. 

“I like this,” he chuckles. “You’re jealous because you think I’m hot for someone else.”

“Fuck off, I never said that.”

The two of you continue kissing, more passionately and hungrier than before, but the next time he pulls back to catch his breath, he goes back to his new favourite subject. 

“I am never letting you live this one down.”

“You can leave any time, you smug asshole.”

He chuckles again, his hand sliding under your clothes, between your legs. He buries his face against you, his lips pressed against your ear as he drags one finger, ever so lightly, from the back of your slit all the way up to your throbbing little nub, repeating the gesture and using his hip to hold you still and stop you from thrusting against him to get more friction. He just keeps up with that ghost of a touch, humming with pleasure the more he can feel your frustration. 

“You want me to go? Really? Because it feels like maybe you’re not so sure.”

You just whimper in need, while at the same time trying to force the desire you’re feeling out of your body. 

He lightly strokes and taps at your clit as he whispers to you, “I like that you’re jealous. But you need to tell me these things, not deprive both of us, ya silly brat.”

His attention then shifts, two thick fingers swirling at your entrance while the two of you bite and lick at each other. You hold out as long as you can, which isn’t long at all, before begging. 

“Don’t do that. Stop teasing.”

“Well what do you want me to do?” he rasps, grinning as you thrust against him, trying to force some more pressure. 

“Fuck me. Stop talking and fuck me through the mattress and into the goddamned floor.”

He lifts you up by your thighs, smiling when you wrap your arms around him to secure yourself as he carries you to your bed. As he places you down, he removes the rest of your clothing in one smooth movement before discarding his own. You kiss playfully for a moment before you tap his thigh. 

“Get up here,” you order. 

And he is most happy to oblige, kneeling over your body and letting you take his thick cock in hand, easing the swollen tip past your lips, sucking and licking while you slowly move your hand along his shaft, occasionally letting your thumb flick delicately along the seam, relishing the yelps this gesture never fails to elicit from him.  

“So you want that even if I’ve been giving it to another woman?”

You growl but the vibrations only increase his pleasure and he starts to thrust a little, pushing himself further into your mouth and throat. 

“Aw, don’t worry,” he purrs, “I’ll always have some use for you.”

At that, you punch him hard in the hip and rake your nails down his ass. He eases down your body, sparkling, mischievous eyes meeting yours. It’s like there’s nothing else in the whole world for you but you know better than to say so. 

“You know what you need to do, Kingston? You need to shut the fuck up.” You push on his shoulders to direct him where you want him to go, and while he takes his time getting there, the journey involves him working his way down your body, like he’s worshipping you. 

“This what you want?” he asks, licking at your soaked flesh. 

“Mm-hmm.” You squirm in anticipation, suspecting that he might try to draw this out longer, so when he dives in and starts fucking you with his tongue, lips and teeth, you let out a loud moan and clench at the bedsheet with both fists. You’re already so close.”

“Lucky for you I have such good stamina,” he hisses. “So I can handle all of these women I’m fucking.”

“You’re still talking,” you groan. “Why are you still talking?”

He gives a harsh bite on the inside of your thigh. “Look at me.”

You glare down at him but immediately feel a little unnerved by the deadly serious look in his eyes. 

“You know damn well there aren’t any other women. I haven’t fucked another woman, haven’t kissed- hell I haven’t even beat off thinking about another woman in months. So let me enjoy this for a few hours until you go back to thinking you’re too good for me.”

With that he goes right back at it, letting you feel the full skill of that constantly moving mouth. You let yourself go, feeling for the first time in ages like you have exactly what you want, what you need, right here in your bed doing everything to make you happy. Your whole body trembles in ecstasy, the tide rising steadily within you, your whines and moans growing ever louder. 

“I love you.”

It slips out so naturally that you almost don’t notice that you’ve said it until he pulls back. 

“I’m sorry, what was that?” 

“Get back down there!” You push his head but he shakes you off and now you’re aware you have a problem. 

“Oh no, I want you to repeat what you just said.”

“I don’t remember,” you whine. 

“Sure you do.” He moves to his side next to you, running his fingers over your skin so that you stay worked up, frustrated, and desperate. 

“I fucking hate you.”

“No,” he scolds, “that wasn’t what you said.”

You exhale in exasperation. 

“Let me get you started. You said ‘I’... come on, repeat after me.”

“What makes you think I even meant it?”

“Well you have to tell me whether you did or not, don’t you, princess?”

His finger traces a curved line between your hip bones that only accentuates your overwhelming, unmet need. 

“I’m not hearing anything,” he coos, flicking his tongue over your nipple. 

“Fine!” you roar, hitting your breaking point. “I said that I love you, and yeah, I meant it.”

Grinning, he moves back down your body. 

“Now was that so hard?” he asks just as he buries his face between your legs again. 

You’d love to give a sharp retort but the second he’s giving you what you want, every other thought leaves your mind. You are one pulsating nerve waiting for release and he is expertly guiding you there. Within minutes you’re screaming his name, tears leaking from your eyes as you come down from the best orgasm you think you’ve ever had. 

By the time you can open your eyes, he’s hovering over you, the tip of his cock throbbing against the lips of your pussy. 

“Say it again.”

You groan a little and push against him but it doesn’t work. 

“Say it again and look at me this time.”

His incredible eyes bear down on you and it’s very different than before. This time, you can’t hide the truth of it behind sarcasm and annoyance. This time he can see into you. You’re vulnerable. 

“Come on.” He prods at your face with his nose and lips before once again locking you with that killer stare. “Let me hear you.”

“I love you,” you stammer, trying to read his reaction and more than a little afraid of what that might be. 

He moans a little and pushes himself part way inside you, rocking his hips slowly. 

“Again,” he rasps. 

“Don’t be like this. I said it. I said it twice. What the hell do you want?”

He grabs a handful of your hair and thrusts his face even closer to yours. “Five years. Five fucking years I’ve been waiting for you to come around. So I want to get the most out of this that I can.”

“Eddie Kingston, I love you.”

He lifts one of your legs over his shoulder and thrusts into you harder. 

“Are you going to say it back?” 

“Sure,” he laughs. “When I feel like it.”

He pounds into you with increased vigor, laughing more when he sees your face contort somewhere between fury and ecstasy, your pussy contracting involuntarily around him. 

“You are such a bastard,” you yell, fighting the second orgasm that’s about to overtake you. 

The phrase is barely past your lips when your whole body spasms, pulling him right along with you. 

“Yeah, you’re right,” he pants after a couple of minutes. “I am a bastard. But you finally managed to figure out I’m the bastard you want.”

You can’t help but laugh, wondering if he really did know ages before you did that you were in love with him, or if he was just hopeful. You run your hands over the back of his head and pull on his earlobe a little with your teeth. 

“God help me,” you whisper.

[wing-ed-thing]

Cliché (shy!Reader x Might Guy, Part IV)

Parts 1-3 are up on my master list. I feel like there are some people who don’t know that... I can’t link them here because then it won’t show up on the taaaaags. Enjoy! 

Warning for mild language and sexual innuendo.

“C’mon Guy, what about that one over there?” Izumo was gesturing towards a woman near the other part of the bar. “You should go talk to her! Guy, when’s the last time you got, you know, some action?”

Guy chuckled at his friend. He had to admit, she was beautiful, he just wasn’t interested. Guy swirled the glass of his new drink around. He downed the little that was left and let the bottom hit the counter. “I told you, I’m just a wingman for tonight,” Guy replied with his usual gusto. “Maybe you should talk to her.”

“You say that every night.” Izumo groaned, repositioning himself in his stool to face his comrade. “When’s the last time you had some fun?”

“I’m having fun right now with everyone!” Guy perked up with a smile.

“Not what he meant.” Genma commented, sauntering up to the bar. He ordered another drink. He began to say something else, but Guy was distracted by movement in his peripheral.

Kurenai leant to whisper something to Asuma before sliding off her bar stool. Asuma gave her a look of understanding before she left the bar. She had taken her things with her. Guy’s eyes followed her, perplexed.

“Hey Kurenai! Where are you going?” he called to her. She was too far away to answer. Izumo waved a hand in front of the taijutsu user’s face.

“Guy, you do know you don’t have to spare her feelings, right?” Genma told him, apparently for the second time.

“Who? Kurenai?” Genma’s hand met his face as he slumped back.

“No, not Kurenai.” Izumo grumbled, rolling his eyes. Kakashi, who was having a separate conversation with Asuma, chimed in. He turned to fully face them.

“And we’re going to stop this conversation.” He chirped to the group of three before his features became stern. His eyes drooped to their ever-lidded state and the outline of a frown was visible on his mask. “This is not the time and it certainly isn’t your place.” Guy looked between everyone, puzzled. Was he missing something?

“Don’t worry about it, Guy.” Kakashi spoke, giving the two men on Guy’s left a look of warning. Even without the Sharingan in Kakashi's right eye visible, his look would intimidate most. However, being mostly intoxicated, Izumo and Genma were currently outside the realm of “most”. Izumo sat back against the bar. He hiccuped. Genma shrugged, his glass near slipping out of his hand before he managed to catch it. He brought it to his lips.

“I’m just saying that just because (Y/N)-Chan has a little crush on you doesn’t mean that you have to stay celibate.” If Guy had been drinking, he would have spit out his drink with widened eyes. A little what now? That was another piece of new information he’d have to wrap his head around. Before he could speak, his eternal rival cut in.

“Genma, shut up.” Kakashi sternly snapped.

“What? It’s not like she’s here.” Guy turned to face the booth where you were supposed to be sitting. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed upon noticing that you were indeed no longer there. Guilt flooded Guy. He had hardly noticed. Dismay washed through his features. Did someone say something to you?

“Drop it, you two. Someone really should have cut you off.” Asuma spoke gruffly, he turned to the whole group. “(Y/N) is our friend. I know for a fact that she’s saved all our asses more than once. So what we’re not going to do is get fucking wasted, bully the shit out of her until she leaves, and then talk about her behind her back. Knock it off.” He took a puff of his cigarette.

Guy sat silently. His ice-filled, liquid-lacking glass sat in his large grip. He reflected back on your period of time together. Something about having you around always did feel… nice. You were always the colleague who he had never had a chance to spend much time with, but now that you had, he couldn’t imagine not being with you. For once, he had a sneaking suspicion about what it was about you. Guy liked being close to you and he might have just figured what that meant.

Genma scoffed, stumbling over himself dizzily. He propped himself against Izumo’s stool. “‘Bully her’, yeah right. It’s a fucking joke. She can take a joke right?”

“Genma!” It went quiet on the side of the bar claimed by the ninja. The only one who did not look mildly surprised was Kakashi. Those at the table ceased speaking and looked to the bar.. After all, it was rare for Might Guy to raise his voice in anger at anyone. Genma shuttered slightly, unnerved by his ex-teammate’s uncharacteristic outburst. Guy’s eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed slightly in displeasure. “You were asked to stop, now stop.”

All talk concerning you ceased after that. The rest of the night went per usual up to closing. The whole crew came stumbling out of the closing bar. Ebisu supported Genma, holding him up by positioning himself under his ex-teammate’s arm. Asuma had two bodies slung over each shoulder. Somehow, Kakashi got shackled with the burden of one of the two. The rest of the group laughed together at his misfortune as the lights of the bar began to shut off behind them. Guy insisted on taking one that Asuma held. Asuma refused, however Kakashi was happy to hand the drunk Jounin off to Guy. As everyone began to go their separate ways and Guy found himself still walking with Kakashi. The Copy-Nin followed alongside wordlessly.

“Kotetsu and Izumo are going to be hungover for their mission tomorrow.” Guy remarked.

“Well, that’s not new.” Kakashi sighed.

The two continued on walking through the empty streets of the Leaf. Kakashi luckily knew their destination and guided his long time friend. Ever aloof, his attention was focused only forward. Guy kept leaning into what he assumed was his friend’s peripheral view. He opened his mouth before closing it again. He didn’t know what to say.

The apartment was close and soon the apartment was in their sight. Neither said a word and Guy was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the silence. Thoughts raced around his head, but where to start?

“Just spit it out, why don’t you?” Kakashi looked to Guy, opening the door with a borrowed set of keys fished from the passed out Jounin’s pocket. Both men stepped inside.

“I feel like I should’ve done something sooner,” Guy started, Kakashi helping with their passed out friend. “Kurenai is with her, isn’t she?”

Kakashi only hummed as he reversed their friend’s vest before allowing the body to slump sideways on the couch. He stood up silently and Guy closed the door behind them as they felt the evening air again.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, we didn’t know.”

“I should probably talk to her, shouldn’t I, Kakashi?” Guy sighed. Kakashi gave another wordless hum. “I just don’t know what to say.”

“You shouldn’t be saying anything.” Kakashi answered. The sharingan user looked at his friend. “I know you, Guy. You want to tackle the problem as soon as you can at its source. But you have to give this one time.” Guy waited for his eternal rival to elaborate. Kakashi exhaled deeply, raising both hands to intertwine with each other behind his neck. “I didn’t want to be the one to talk to you about it. It’s not my place, but I guess things have changed.”

“What has changed?” Guy inquired. Kakashi shifted, the gears in his brain turning as he chose his words.

“Remember what Genma was saying to you at the bar?” Kakashi prompted, a hand on his chin.

“Yeah?” Guy acknowledged slowly. He processed each word with care, determined to understand.

“What do you think he said to her when she was actually there? It wasn’t an ideal night for her. She’ll come to you when she’s ready.” It was as Guy suspected. While his first instinct was to be there for you, he now considered that his presence might make things worse.

“So what are you saying?” He questioned, still unsure of what he should be doing.

“I’m not surprised that you haven’t noticed, Guy, but (Y/N) admires you greatly. I guess the first question that you have to ask yourself is if you admire her too.”

“I-” Guy began before Kakashi cut him off. The pair stopped.

“I know,” Kakashi spoke with understanding. “Give her some space.”

That was the Copy Nin’s advice before he parted ways with his rival, leaving Guy and his thoughts alone on the Konoha streets.

Notes: I little bit of filler, something a little simple for y'all. For anyone wondering, they put the vest on backwards so that their passed out colleague wouldn’t roll on their back and choke on their own vomit. Take care of your drunk friends, kids!

I feel like I’m talking to myself all the time! Feel free to comment or reach out to me!

[bobathirstaccount]

Stars Above

GN person, Boba x reader, slight use of Y/N, slight angst, slow burn to eventual dirty, diry smut

TW: drug use, unprotected sex

Note: Timeline wise, this fits into directly before Boba Fett’s appearance in The Mandolorian 2.

CHAPTER ONE

You don’t even notice when you push your glasses up your nose. It’s such an automatic motion and you are deep into your work. Someone else notices though. Someone else is noticing more than that.

Boba is not sure when he started to settle into your presence, but he felt overly familiar, almost awkward. You had opened up to him like a flower, blooming bright and colorful. He on the other hand had remained as acerbic as ever. Living through the Sarlacc had changed him slightly; softened his edges, if not hardening his exterior even more. The crucible of the Sarlacc had forged him into a new man, and left its kisses on his skin as proof.

He ran his hand over his head and sighed quietly, looking out the cargo bay door of the Slave 1. The stark landscape grew grey and muddy as the suns finally set on Tatooine. He pushed those thoughts from his head and closed the bay door for the evening. Turning, he walked briskly past you to the cockpit. He had some maintenance to do, surely it would help him put you and your strangeness out of his mind.

***

You barely register Boba as he walks past you. You are still working diligently, soldering away. You were in your zone and lost to the world. Finally, you realize your eyes are grainy and tired, and look up. The ship is dimly lit, in night mode. Boba was nowhere to be seen and the cargo bay door was closed. You shake your head at yourself, wondering how long it’s been and what time it even is. You glance out the window into near total darkness. The moon has waned and the stars twinkle dimly.

You sigh and set your work down, leaving it as is to finish up tomorrow. Making your way to the single, cramped crew sleeping space you idly wonder where Boba is. Probably sleeping, if the ship and the night sky are any indication. And you should be too. Tomorrow you would head out to scavenge, and out in the sands one had to be on their toes. Tusken Raiders were no joke, and even though Boba was on good terms with them it wasn’t wise to strain the relationship. You were excited to get out of the ship, having been couped up for several days now. The ship could stand a lot of improvements, so you certainly weren’t bored. But you did enjoy some fresh air, even if it was acrid desert air. Your thoughts slide back to Boba again.

What would have happened had you not been in that bar that afternoon? And what would’ve happened if you’d never struck up a conversation with a mysterious scarred man? Once you had learned he was in search of a mechanic, you had immediately offered your services. You had been eager to leave behind your current employer, and had uncharacteristically thrown caution to the wind. Why ask for a job from a man you hardly knew? But it felt like the right thing to do, and so you had done it. Surprisingly, he had accepted, nearly seeming grateful before his serious expression returned. You had been hired on the spot on a temporary basis, taking payment in room and board and a small fee upon completion.

The excitement you had felt as you raced back to your apartment was unreal. You mentally planned out what you would be taking with you. The rest of your meager possessions were unimportant. You hated your current employer, a slimly creature who had problems keeping his appendages to himself and, almost worse, was incompetent as a mechanic and businessman. The business - and you - scraped by.

You arrived at your apartment and packed your belongings swiftly, thinking only of the future and the dark man. Both were waiting at the bar down the street.

Your eyelids grew heavy, and you sleepily blinked and turned your thoughts from the past to the future. What was going to happen when you were finished with his ship? You had been on the Slave 1 for nearly 3 weeks, and the end was in sight. You were looking forward to completing the job, but then what? Dread started to seep in at the edges of your consciousness. More than the worry of where you would go and how you would survive was the worry that you wouldn’t see Boba again. Why did that matter? Your throat suddenly felt dry, and you felt apprehensive. And something else that you wouldn’t name. You battled yourself on this for a moment, but sleep drew your eyelids down.

***

The cargo bay door opened its maw into the morning light. Boba stepped out into the already harsh environment, and you followed. He gracefully spun on his heal, casually closing the door behind the two of you. You wandered over to the single speeder as Boba fidgeted with his bag. When he was ready, he fluidly mounted the bike. Turning, he patted the seat behind him with a raised eyebrow and half smile. You return the smile, and get on the back of the speeder.

As you settle into place, you grin at the first time you had gotten on the speeder with him. It was directly after meeting him and agreeing to live with him on his ship. You had been dismayed immediately. Of course he would only have one speeder, but you had felt incredibly clumsy and foolish. Due to dealing with your former boss - thank the Maker you could say Former - you didn’t like anyone being in your personal space. But you wanted the job, so you got on the speeder behind him.


He half turned to speak to you, ”You really should hold on to me.”

You had snorted angrily, but had begrudgingly wrapped your arms around his torso. He squeezed your hands with one of his larger hands, adjusting your arms slightly. Without further warning, he had taken off like a ___ out of hell. You had screamed (hopefully lost to the wind), and crushed yourself into him so as to properly hold on. He hadn’t been kidding. He seemed to not react, and so you had held on for dear life, gritting your teeth as you pressed your body into a complete stranger.

This time, you knew better. You gripped him tightly, scooting yourself up to be flush against him. The way he drove this thing it was best to hold on with every fiber of your being. Again he half turned, “Ready?”

You nodded, “Mhm.”

Without any further ado, you were off into the desert. The speeder skimmed over the dunes in the hot morning air. It whipped past you, almost suffocating you when you dare to peer over one of Boba’s shoulders. You smiled, enjoying the ride.

***

Boba felt you shifting your weight behind him as he piloted the speeder. He kept his thoughts on the work ahead and not crashing the speeder as you careened on.

But.

His body reacted in ways he was surprised by, and his breath hitched as he tried to keep his breathing steady. A spark ignited and ran its way down to his belly, and then lower. He did not even try to process this, instead opting to compartmentalize it. Luckily the wreckage was not too much farther.

***

Boba slowed the speeder, coming to a spot not far from the crashed ship. Jawas had already picked it to nearly its bones, but there still might be a few scraps that would be useful in upgrading Slave 1.

“You take the back half; I will do the front,” Boba curtly stated, his lilting accent making you temporarily weak. You nod absentmindedly and start to the back of the ship.

The two of you worked swiftly, knowing that it was better to beat the suns before the first of them made its way directly above. You found a few good pieces of scrap metal that you could use on the Slave 1, as well as some wiring. As you worked, you debated with yourself.

Boba. Why were your thoughts on him right now? Why were they ever on him, aside from a passing thought? You had remembered your conversation with yourself from last night. Best to get it over with so you could stop hounding yourself over it. Boba. You were attracted to him. It had been so long since you had had feelings of this sort, it was suspicious. Why now? Why him?

You bite your lip, annoyed. Your hands moved carefully through the wreckage. You couldn’t put your finger on the reason. Like all things related to love, the reason was indefinable. Love. “We’ve just taken a turn here,” you thought to yourself, alarmed. Yes, you were intrigued by and attracted to Boba, but you hardly knew him. In all the time you had been on the ship, you had only really had a handful of real conversations. And even then, you had done most of the talking. Although he spoke little, you could feel his dark eyes watching you as you spoke and worked, or lounged, or ate, all the while chattering on. He seemed to at least not mind.

The suns grew closer to 12 noon. You decided you had searched thoroughly enough, and headed back to the speeder. You pulled your hood up to shield your skin from the sun. You saw Boba walking toward the speeder as well; it looked like either he had the same idea or had seen you heading towards it. Either way, you were happy to see him and to get going. A small pang hit your heart; you did not want to be so happy to see him. After another week or so, you wouldn’t be seeing him at all. You pondered this on the ride back, holding yourself tightly to him.

***

The Slave 1’s bay slowly opened as the first of the suns was directly overhead. Boba followed you inside. You both dropped your bags, and looked at each other. For a moment there was something in the air, shimmering, almost real. But like all mirages it faded away, and you simply said, “I’ll sort this out and then we can see what we can do with it.”

Boba nodded before heading further into the ship, without a glance back.

***

You felt a nudge on your shoulder, and looked up, bewildered. Boba’s amused face looked down at you. He indicated for you to look down. In his hand was a meal packet.

“It’s been hours, Y/N. Eat something so you can keep the strength to work on my ship.”

You smiled broadly, laughing and taking the packet. “Thank you.”

He nodded, stiffening suddenly, his eyes becoming serious.


You looked down at the packet, and then at what you had sorted. Suddenly, you brightened and looked up at him again, “We have some great materials here. With the wiring and the scrap metal I should have all the supplies I need for the Slave 1.

Boba nodded, “Good. How is the work coming?”

He rarely checked in, so you were a bit taken aback, “Um, maybe another week, week and a half.”

Boba leaned against the wall of his ship. “What will you do then?” He asked idly.

”I... I don’t know,” you stutter, embarrassed.

“You are a talented mechanic, you will be able to find work,” he seemed almost comforting with this statement.


You do not turn around to look at him. Instead, you look out of the ship, into the scenery. You blink back something. Not right now, you think. You change the subject abruptly, turning the spotlight to him.

”What will you do?” You turn around, looking up in genuine curiosity.

He squinted then, looking as if he were scanning the horizon.

“Survive.”

You took this as being shut down, and so turned around to face your meal packet. You tore it open, realizing that you were hungry.

As you ate, you heard Boba retreat further into the ship. You shivered and tried not to think about what you’d admitted to yourself earlier.

***

Later on the suns set and Boba again closed the ship up for the evening. As he headed past you, he stopped.


“You work all the time. Take some time for yourself tonight.”

You looked up at him, bewildered. His voice had shaken you out of your reverie. You blushed then, unable to fully push down the ideas you’d been entertaining. Let’s just say they would have made your previous employer happy.

“Okay, thanks!” You tried to act normal but inwardly winced at the tone your words tumbled out in.

He regarded you for a moment before nodding and continuing on.

You sat back and thought. Some mandated free time. You knew what you were going to do. You got up and walked to your room.

***

You sat back and looked at your accomplishment. It was a pretty decent blunt if you didn’t say so yourself. You lit it immediately, happy to have some time to relax with no responsibilities. As you inhaled, you thought about your future. There was no way to ask to stay. Once the work was done, it was done. He would have no use for a mechanic, and didn’t seem the type to entertain a crew. You scratched your eyebrow and made a tentative plan. You’d head to Mos Eisly, hopefully finding work at a larger mechanic. Then you could work on forgetting Boba. He could fade into the desert like that mirage from earlier.

You finished half the blunt and took a nap.

***

You wake up, parched and absolutely starving. You stumble out of bed, still high. You make it out the door, noting the ship is in night mode. Perfect, you can sneak to the kitchenette for a snack without being found out. You turned the corner and ran smack into Boba.

He grunted, but his solid body didn’t sway.

“Sorry, kriff! Sorry!”

You apologized a little too profusely.

Boba raised an eyebrow and regarded you, “You’re stoned.”

“No I’m.. yes,” you pathetically garble out.

Boba laughed then, a hoarse, soft sound. Your knees grew weak and you felt a small fire ignite in your belly. KRIFF, you think desperately.

“Do you want some?” You blurt out.

He now raised both eyebrows momentarily, then, “Are you serious?”

You nod, realizing that you are.

“I was going for a snack, but that can wait. Let’s go to my quarters,” you are weirdly excited about this.

Boba tsks and follows you, “Calling that quarters is generous.”

You laugh, uninhibited.

You turn the corner into your room and grab the blunt and lighter. You turn to see Boba standing in the doorway, looking unsure.

“Come in and sit down,” you pat your mattress as invitingly as you can.

He reluctantly enters the room fully, and sinks onto the mattress. You pass the lit blunt to him and he takes a hit, nearly closing his eyes. He passes it back and you foolishly take another hit, to do it with him. You two do this for a few minutes, until the blunt is spent. Your state has now progressed to being so stoned you are not hungry. Not for food anyway.

You licked your lips and looked over at Boba. To your surprise, he is already watching you intently. Before you can stop yourself, you have slide over to his side. You grab his upper arm and press yourself into his body, looking at him as innocently as you can. His eyes widen and his lips part slightly. You are both breathing hard.

You half close your eyes and lean forward, seeking out lips -

“No, little one,” Boba whispered, gently grabbing your chin with his thumb and forefinger. “You are in no condition to make decisions like this.”

”Yes I am,” you retorted.

He grinned at this, “Feisty. I like that.”

He was still holding your chin. He looked from your lips to your eyes. You could see a struggle in him.

He looked away, standing up and gently pushing you down on the bed into a prone position.

“Get some sleep.” He pulled the blanket over you while you laid there, confused and increasingly humiliated.

With that he was gone and you were left with your thoughts and the ghost of the feeling of his warm body pressed against yours. You burst into tears, rejected and delirious with big feelings. He was objectively right, but what he didn’t know was that you had already thought about that -

You shook your head as you cried. It didn’t matter. In a couple weeks you would never see him again. You were happy you were high. Sleep came easily.

***


Boba fled your room a mess. He had wanted, wanted so badly - but no. You were not of right mind. If you were, surely that would not have happened. A young thing like you, untarnished by the galaxy. What would an old bounty hunter have to offer? He ached in his heart and his cock. He palmed himself, alone in his captain’s quarters. What was he going to do? Masterbate over this? A near miss of a night with you. He shuddered at the thought. He knew the ache in his body would last after he had found his release, but it would help him feel less alone in this moment.

***

You woke still high. At first you smiled pleasantly, enjoying the feeling. Then you sat bolt upright in bed.

Oh, no. The corner. The invitation. The weed. The rejection. Your breath hitched and you felt tears fall down your face. At least this would make it easier to leave, when the time came.

You changed clothes and slunk out of your room, hoping to quickly grab a meal pack and then immerse yourself in your work. You - slowly - turned the corner. So far, so good. You kept going, the kitchenette was only a short distance away.

There he was. Holding a cup of something hot and steaming. You immediately accidentally made eye contact. You kicked yourself internally. There was a pregnant pause.

“About last night...” you began weakly.

“There is no need to discuss it.”

Your eyes dropped to his feet, ashamed.

He paused for a moment longer, and then brushed past you. His smell lingered in the air for a second. You closed your eyes to hold back tears as you grabbed your breakfast. You couldn’t wait to get to work.

***

As you sat in the cargo bay working away Boba strode past you. You looked up, surprised. He started down the gangway.

“Going somewhere?” You started out confidently but ended the question weakly.

He turned to look at you.

“Out,” he said wryly.

You didn’t know how to take it and your face must have shown it.

He softened, “I’m going to ____ for some supplies. I’ll be back before nightfall.”

You smiled, encouraged by his sharing. “Stay safe” you said.

He nodded, smiling strangely.

You watched the speeder as it disappeared into the horizon. You were alone. You exhaled deeply, and settled back to your work. A peaceful day was ahead.

***

The speeder appeared out of the desert. You smile, happy to receive him back despite last night’s unfortunate events.

You notice a body draped over Boba’s lap. As he came abruptly to a stop, you run out, yelling, “Boba, what happened?”

“I found her in the desert on my way back. She’s badly injured.”

“Kriff! I’ll get the med pack.” He nodded, and directed his attention to the unconscious woman.

The two of you brought her inside the ship and laid her down. Boba carefully cut away her clothing to determine the extent of the damage. It was bad.

“She’s not going to make it,” you breathed to Boba.

He looked up at you.


“There is a way to keep her alive.”

You stare at him blankly as he explained,”We can replace these parts with mechanical workings. You’re a good mechanic; we can do this.”

You stared at him in disbelief. “But we don’t have the medical equipment or-“

Boba raised a hand, covered in blood, “We will do this.”

You gulped and settled down on the opposite side of her, ready to follow his lead.

***

You had worked long into the night, replacing blood and guts with wires and mesh. She seemed to remain in a stable, if unconscious, state. When you were finished, you and Boba stepped back to take stock of your collective work.

“Let’s put her in my bed to rest,” you said in a hushed tone. You didn’t want to disturb her.

Boba nodded, then bent to gently lift her from the floor. He carried her off to your room. You sighed loudly and put your hands on your head. You looked around at the huge mess on the floor. Blood and widgets and little pieces of organ were strewn around. You were not dealing with this now. You sighed again, and opened the Slave 1’s cargo door. You needed some fresh air.

The night air hit your face, slightly cooler than the daytime. You inhaled it and held it briefly, then exhaled. It was a little shaky. You walked down the ramp and stopped in the sand at the bottom, all the while reveling at the fact that you and Boba had just saved a woman’s life. The stress of the situation, forgotten in the moment, started to seep into your being. You tried to focus on your feet and the feeling of the warm sand under them. You dug one foot into the sand a bit, and were surprised to feel a tear fall from your cheek.

It was all too much. You had never seen such carnage before. Even though you had groused at the time he said it, Boba was right. You were very young and very naive. You certainly felt like both of those things right now. You wrapped your arms around yourself and tried not to cry. It wouldn’t do. Especially if you were to survive on your own in a couple weeks.

You heard Boba walking down the ramp, and sniffled quietly, desperate to appear in control of your emotions. You turned your gaze up to the night sky.

***

Boba had carefully laid the mysterious woman down in your cot. Looking down at her, he was fairly certain this was the famous Fennec Shand. How had she ended up on Tatooine in the desert, mortally wounded? He tsked once, then dismissed the thought. He had a mess to clean up as well as a crew member who was likely feeling a mess. He thought about that for a moment. That was not his problem, but he didn’t like the idea regardless.

The door to Slave 1 was open, welcoming him into the quiet of the nighttime dunes. He furrowed his brow, somewhat concerned. Standing at the top of the ramp, he saw you hugging yourself and sniffling. Damn. You needed the experience if only to toughen you up to face the galaxy. But yet, he didn’t like to see you in pain.

There it was again. The weird sensations he had about you returned. He stood silently, still. Thinking. He could turn around and retreat into the ship.

Or.

[aliendes]

Natural Borns - Chapter Ten

Banner by @thebannershop​

Series info/genre: Angst, fluff, smut (NSFW) 

Pairings: ot7 x fem reader (eventual)

Warnings: crying, shitty medical descriptions (probably), depression, cursing, anxiety, forced medical practices, restraints, alcohol consumption

Description: In the year 2613, over half of the world’s population are what scientists consider ‘designer babies’. YN is a small town girl who is a true natural born, someone born naturally without he help of a lab or gene splicing. Her DNA is greatly sought after, but what is she willing to do to protect it?

Word count: 4k~

A/N: I’m sorry, this is unedited. 

“I’ll be back in a few hours for your next round, dear,” Soomin says as she finishes up with your leg and leaves you. You lay flat on your back, staring at the ceiling with no emotion in your eyes, but oceans of tears falling from them. You let your eyelids slip shut after a few minutes, but you’re never able to fully fall asleep. 

 --

Soomin kept her promise and ended up coming back a few hours later. That visit was no better than the first you experienced, having been connected to those damned straps. After her second attack on your body, which you idly think isn’t technically her fault, she removed your hands from the restraints, telling you someone would be by in the morning to bring you in for ‘testing’. Her words were ominous, and while you really wanted to ask her to elaborate, you decided it would probably be better for your psyche if you didn’t know.

She had allowed you to change into a white sweatshirt and sweatpants, but wouldn’t leave the room for you to do so. Once again, for the nth time since you arrived here, you felt stripped of your basic human rights. This is how things are here, you suppose. You felt like they must be trying to break you. You wanted to be strong, but it was hard. You wanted to hold on to the fact that the boys were safe, presumably. At least they weren’t here, and that was a significant win in your mind. 

Soomin left a few hours ago, and now you were curled up in a small ball on the too small bed in the too cramped white room. White. You remember your mom telling you when you were young that white was the color of purity, the color of peace. The doves you would see at the farmer’s market on the weekends were white, and you loved to stare at them while they pecked at the ground. The memory makes an involuntary tear slip out of your eye. 

Now, white was all you could see. It definitely wasn’t bringing you any peace, and purity? You internally scoff as another tear falls. You haven’t even been here a full twenty four hours, yet you feel like any purity you did have left in you is about to be torn away without your permission. You feel cold, empty, used. You shudder to think about how much more they were going to take from you in here. 

You sniffle, bringing a hand up to swipe at the tears falling across your cheeks. It’s no use, as more just seem to be slipping out. Pursing your lips, you squeeze your eyes shut tightly. What were you supposed to do, other than submit and let them take from you? If you had any hope of getting out of here with your sanity intact, you figure you have no other option than to let whatever is going to happen to you, happen. Your lip trembles as a silent sob wracks your body. 

Your entire life has been a lie, at least, that’s the way it’s feeling to you right now. You feel like cattle, raised and cared for, only to be sold and shipped off to the slaughter house where you’d meet your demise. Killed, packaged, and consumed. A sick metaphor, but it felt fitting. 

You try to take a deep breath, but it ends up being a shaky inhale, unable to get your breathing under control fully. You have no idea how long you lay like that, sobbing to no one, trapped in a prison of your own thoughts.

The sleep that your body eventually succumbs to is fitful at best, and all you dream about is manic faces, all closing in on you like a caged animal. Hands reaching out to grab you, touch you, take from you. 

“Thanks for staying up for us.”

“Of course, Namjoon,” the burly man, known as Wonho replies easily as he holds open the large steel door, “anything for our precious leader.” Namjoon could hear the playful lilt to Wonho’s voice, so he let the comment slide with only a nod in response. He wasn’t in the mood for jokes, and Wonho seemed to get the picture when the purple haired man shouldered past him into the building. The smirk was wiped from Wonho’s face as he watched the six other men walk past him, varying expressions of exhaustion and pain written across their faces. 

The seven had traveled from the forest through the bustling city of Seoul. After hearing from Yeonjun that you were indeed being held at the Big Hit facility, Namjoon made a call to Wonho, a natural born who owned an underground casino in the heart of Seoul. It was an illegal operation, but brought in a lot of money to help their shared cause, their shared vision of attaining equality within this fucked society. 

Wonho had agreed, of course, to let them stay at the casino. There were extra rooms that his associates rented out, and most of them were vacant at the moment. The young entrepreneur was one of Namjoon’s only friends from middle school and they had reconnected after Namjoon’s escape from the facility when they met at a homeless shelter. Coincidentally, the same homeless shelter Namjoon and Yoongi would meet Seokjin and Jungkook later. 

It took the group all day and well into the night to arrive at the rundown building, as it was nearing two in the morning at this point. They were all exhausted, sweaty, and for lack of a better word, broken.

The seven of them shuffled down the dark hallways, mostly shielded from the noises of the casino underneath them. It was housed in an old decrepit building that used to be a cafe once upon a time. Now, Wonho had refurbished the inside well enough to resemble somewhat of a home, with two stories of rooms, a kitchenette, and a small den. The outside was still old and rundown looking, to deter authorities or everyday normal people from investigating. 

A side entry door to the building led to a basement, and a series of underground hallways that housed game rooms and offices, which is where Wonho spent most of his time, managing the casino and other dealings. Tonight, though, his associates were taking care of business so he could wait for Namjoon and his crew. 

Namjoon reached the door leading to what he knew was the den located on the first floor of the building, waiting for Wonho to catch up to him. The others huddled in the small space, none of them looking at each other, actively trying to avoid any kind of eye contact.

“Three rooms upstairs are empty,” Wonho huffs out as he reaches the others, eyes on their leader, “but I think you and I should have a talk.”

Namjoon gives his friend a curt nod, before turning his attention to the others. None of them look up at him, eyes trained on the floor or the wall in front of them. Another piece of his heart cracks at the sight, “You guys head up, I’ll be there shortly.” Yoongi is the only one who meets his eye, albeit briefly, giving a short nod before turning on his heel, grabbing Hoseok by the sleeve and moving towards the stairs.

Namjoon watches as they all shuffle up the stairs slowly, clutching onto one another in support, in exhaustion or hurt, he wasn’t sure. Once they all disappeared from his sight, he turned his attention back to the platinum haired man in front of him. “After you.”

Wonho surveys Namjoon for a moment. He looks different, older, even though it’s only been a few months since they last saw each other. Wonho isn’t privy to all the inner workings of their group dynamics, but he does know how strongly he cares for his friends. He had also heard about you, how could he have not? You were all Namjoon talked about when he did call, or when they had meetings. The natural born girl, the rare woman who had no idea exactly how precious she was. 

Wonho wasn’t one of the ‘special’ ones, no, just a normal natural born. He had to face his own discriminations throughout his life, but nothing like what Namjoon or the others had gone through. He wasn’t about to pretend like he knew how Namjoon felt, he wasn’t going to act like he understood. He did, however, believe in what Namjoon stood for - equality. That’s what everyone in their secret group wanted. That shared belief was what brought them all together in the first place. What formed the Allegiance, a group of natural borns and designer babies who fought for the rights of natural borns.  

“Haven’t seen you in a while, Joon,” Wonho started as he walked through the door to the den, heading straight for the small bar, “wouldn’t hurt to check-in every now and then, you know?”

Namjoon follows towards the bar, watching as his old friend grabs two small glasses and a bottle of dark liquor. “We speak at least once a week, Seok.”

Wonho raises a brow at the nickname, “You know I don’t go by that anymore.” 

Namjoon smirks, “No one’s here, Seok-ie. Besides, I never really liked Wonho.” 

The blonde purses his lips but continues to pour the drinks, passing the glass across the bar top when he finishes. “Tell me about her.”

Namjoon perks up at the mention of you, but doesn’t meet Wonho’s eye, instead taking the glass and swirling the liquid around in it. “Not much to tell,” he starts, taking a swig of the alcohol and wincing from the burn, “didn’t really have much time to get to know her.”

Wonho watches as his friend takes another sip of his drink, swirling his own glass in his hand. His knowing eyes never leave Namjoon’s form, surveying the man from top to bottom. He looked tired, and not just physically tired. Wonho could see the exhaustion in his face, in his eyes. Namjoon used to have some of the most expressive eyes, an emotive face, but with age and experience, his features have become sharper, more defined, and more empty. 

“You’ll get her back,” Wonho muses, bringing his glass up to his lips finally and taking a quick drink, used to the harsh flavour of the liquor, “Yeonjun-ie is in there with her, yeah?”

The purple haired man nodded solemnly, sucking his bottom lip between his teeth. “Yeah,” he drawled, thinking of the right words to say. He looks up at Wonho and then takes a quick look around the room, eyeing the door to make sure it’s closed and there are no listening ears. “We don’t have much time, Seok-ie,” Wonho winces at the name, but nods along anyways, “Yeonjun told me what they’re planning, what they- they’re going to do to her.” Namjoon sets his glass down on the bar, elbows resting on the cool wood and rubs a hand down his face. He shakes his head before looking back up at his friend.

Wonho looks conflicted. He knows that Namjoon is an empath by nature, a martyr by choice, and a leader by force. He understands that Namjoon will put anyone before himself, and cares deeply for those, who in his eyes, he wants to save from the horrors of the world. Wonho knows the other man will do whatever it takes to get you back, and so there is no use trying to talk him out of it, no matter how bad of an idea he thinks it is. They barely know you, Wonho knows he wouldn’t risk himself and his closest friends, family even, for a girl who probably doesn’t care about them either way. But he’s not going to push, he knows where that’ll get him. 

“Joon,” Wonho starts, setting his glass down and walking around the bar to place a comforting hand on Namjoon’s shoulder, “you guys can stay here however long you need. I’m here for you, man. You know that.”

Namjoon nods to his friend, eyes still trained on the bar top, “Thanks, Seok.” 

Upstairs, the others have split up between the three available rooms, Jungkook and Jin in their own room, Hoseok, Jimin, Tae in another, while Yoongi waits in the third for Namjoon. Most of them have showered and replaced their dirty, wet clothes with extras from the wardrobe in Namjoon and Yoongi’s room, a culmination of left-over clothes from Wonho’s employees or ex-lovers, they assume. 

Jimin and Tae were the last to shower, letting the others wash the day away first, allowing Jin and Jungkook to get settled so they could have their private conversations, their private moment with each other, the others knew they needed it. 

Jimin stepped out of the shower and was immediately handed a towel by a dripping wet Taehyung, to which he gave the younger a sad smile. The two stood in a comfortable silence, towelling off their wet locks.

Taehyung was facing away from Jimin, staring at the wooden door that led out to the hallway, lost in his thoughts, when Jimin finished drying off. He stepped up behind the taller boy, wrapping his short arms around Tae’s middle. Both of them were still only wrapped in towels, not yet having gone to find clothes. Jimin’s firm chest pressed up against Taehyung’s slimmer frame, making the younger shiver.

“What’s on your mind, Taehyung-ie?”

Taehyung sniffles, making Jimin panic and move around him to get a better look at his face. Jimin’s emotive eyes search Taehyung’s brown orbs, looking for any sign of hurt, or pain, that he could help ease. 

“I don’t even know her, Jimin-ie,” he clears his throat, a sore attempt and biting back the tears that threaten to fall, “b-but I feel so terrible.” Taehyung brings his hands up to his eyes, pushing the heel of his hands into his eye socket, willing away the onslaught of tears. 

“Shh,” Jimin shushes his other half, wrapping both arms around his center and bringing him closer to his chest. Despite the height difference, Taehyung always felt small in Jimin’s arms. He wasn’t sure what to say to the tall boy right now. He was there in the facility with him, knew what he had gone through, watched with his own two eyes what those people are capable of. 

The two of them have been best friends since middle school, having grown up in the same neighborhood, and have been inseparable ever since. Their likeness and similar genes had dubbed them ‘the twins’ since a young age, and they sometimes really did feel that way. 

Jimin has always been the tougher one, the one to stand up in the face of prejudice, protecting his other half. Taehyung has always been the softer of the two, more trusting, sometimes to a fault. He was always the sweet one, the first one to make friends. They worked well together, and made up for where the other lacked. They made a perfect team, so it only made sense when they first confessed to the other. 

That was over six years ago now, before they were found by Big Hit, before they learned the reality that is their DNA. The pair attended university together in their hometown, never suspecting they were any different from their natural born peers, until one day a representative from Big Hit approached them on campus, offering them a life of luxury. They were tricked into believing that if they sold their DNA, they would become rich. They could pay off their school debts, move away and buy a house, have the life they always dreamed of. It was appealing to them at the time, and only being twenty one years old, they fell for it. 

They had been promised room and board and compensation for their time, which was initially only supposed to be three months. Once they left school and arrived in Seoul, they realized they were in over their heads. The first couple of months was decent enough. They shared a small, yet comfortable, room at the facility. They had access to a gym, a pool, and a rec room. They just had to make themselves available during the day for testing, and were fed a specific diet and mostly vegetable and protein to keep them healthy. It didn’t seem like such a bad tradeoff.

That was until their three month contract ended, and they were given an ultimatum: comply, and get to stay together, or try to leave and fight back, and they would be separated. Jimin was initially very combative, and did everything in his power to put a stop to it, but soon realized he cared more about Taehyung than he did his own freedom, so he eventually submitted to the doctors and scientists, and was allowed to keep living in his cramped room with his boyfriend. 

The testing continued on both of them for about a year, until they realized that Taehyung was different. His DNA was more special, more in demand, than Jimin’s, and so they kicked Jimin out of the facility. He ended up living on the streets, only to be found and pulled back to Big Hit three months later after Taehyung suffered a mental break because of his boyfriend’s absence. And so, Jimin and Taehyung lived at the facility together for the last three years on and off. 

While Jimin was absent, Taehyung had met Hoseok, another resident of Big Hit, and Hoseok fell for the young man, doing his best to protect him in his lover’s absence. When Jimin returned, the three of them ended up becoming inseparable, until Hoseok’s eventual release, and subsequent meeting with Namjoon which led to the twins' first breakout. 

“Come, baby,” Jimin whispered to his boyfriend, pulling at his hand and leading him out of the bathroom. They made the short trip down the hallway to the room they had settled in with Hoseok. Said man was already waiting for them sitting on the edge of the bed, fresh clothes in a pile behind him.

When the younger two entered the room, Hoseok immediately stood from the bed and made his way towards the sniffling Taehyung. Jimin still had one arm around the boy, both naked save for the white towels wrapped around their waists. Hoseok reached out for both men, one hand on each of their hips as he led both of them towards the bed. Jimin left Tae’s side for a moment, grabbing the clothes and dressing quickly before handing over the soft t-shirt and boxers to Taehyung. 

“T-thanks,” Tae muttered, keeping his eyes trained down, not wanting to see the worry etched across either of his lovers’ faces. 

“What’s going on, Tae Tae?” Hoseok asked gently, not wanting to push the younger. 

Jimin sat on the bed and scooted back so Taehyung could sit in front of him. Hoseok brought one leg up onto the mattress, turning his entire body towards Tae, giving him his full attention. The two on the bed watched as their once blue haired lover dressed and sat down with them.

“I- I don’t know, Hobi,” he squeaked out, rubbing a large hand over his entire face before letting both arms fall beside him, exasperated. 

Jimin scooched towards him, wrapping his legs around him and kissing his shoulder, “It’s okay, Tae,” he whispered against his skin, “I know what you mean. We might not know her, but it’s obviously affecting Jin and Kookie, maybe even Yoongi. And I know you don’t want to talk about it, but you have more knowledge about what goes on in there than any of us.”

Hoseok nods along with Jimin’s words, knowing Tae has been very private about the things that happened to him behind closed doors at the facility. Even though both Jimin and Hoseok were with him in there, at least for some of the time, he never gave them details about what exactly happened to him and was only vague in his explanations. Jimin wishes that he would talk to him, but understands that he doesn’t want to relieve the things that were done to him. He’s witnessed his nightmares enough times to know it’s not worth it.

Hoseok brings a hand up to rub at Taehyung’s back, his shirt slightly wet and sticking to his broad shoulders. His eyes soften as he watches the youngest in the room bring his knees up to his chest and hug tightly, laying his head on the top of his knees. “This is silly,” he scoffs, “I don’t even know her.”

“Hey, don’t do that,” Hoseok starts, a frown marring his handsome face. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to finish his thought as risk of upsetting Taehyung even more, but decided to voice his thoughts after a look shared with Jimin, “Just because you don’t know her, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care. Sh-she seems like a sweet girl, genuine. Jungkook and Seokjin really took a liking to her,” he bit his lip when Tae looked up at him through wet lashes, “and anyone who can make Yoongi think twice must be a keeper, right?” He tried to lighten the mood with his joke, but Taehyung’s frown only deepened. 

It was Jimin who broke the silence next, “We will get her back, Tae, and then we’ll get to know her alongside the other guys. I know you guys didn’t have much time with her, but it seems like she’s got most of you wrapped around her finger.” Jimin smirks at the older man next to him, bumping his shoulder against his. 

Hoseok smiles lightly, but it quickly turns into a lopsided frown at the reminder. He’s really the only one who hasn’t spoken to you in length. The most he ever spoke to you was when he woke you up last night. It felt like a lifetime ago already, even though it’s only been twenty four hours. Would he ever get a chance to know you better? He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the thought, if not for himself, then for the others. He can’t deny the weird feeling he gets in his gut when he thinks about you, and he’s certain the others have a similar feeling if the soft eyes Yoongi gave you was any indication. 

“How do you know?” Tae asked in a quiet voice, looking up at his hyung. 

“Hmm?” Hoseok snaps his attention back to the younger, reminded of where he was, “How do I know what?”

“You said she’s a keeper.”

“O-oh. Well,” Hoseok started, pursing his lips as he thought carefully about his next words, “to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jungkook-ie so heartbroken. He’s obviously really affected by this, and you know him. He doesn’t warm up to people very quickly, so for him to be this torn up is really telling of his feelings. Jin-hyung, too.”

Taehyung and Jimin nod along with Hoseok’s words, having seen the duo earlier, any attempts at comforting them had been brushed off, the two only seeking out the other. They saw it, they saw the way the others seem to break at the thought of you being at Big Hit. They could tell you were something special, and Jimin was determined to make sure he got to learn first hand what exactly it was that made you so special to the others. 

“We’re going to figure this out,” Jimin says to the others, to which Hoseok nods, “and you’re gonna help, right Tae Tae?” 

Taehyung perks up, turning around to look at the blonde behind him, “Of course I will.” 

Jimin gives him a soft smile, as Hoseok continues rubbing at his back and shoulders. “Let’s get to bed, hm?” Hoseok asks, standing up and gesturing towards the headboard. Both men nod, moving to get up as well. 

Once the three of them are safely under the covers, Taehyung sandwiched between the other two, Jimin presses a kiss to the back of Tae’s head. Hoseok leans in and does the same to Tae’s cheek, making the youngest smile softly. “Goodnight, Tae.” 

The younger two fall asleep rather quickly, having been spent from hiking all the way into town, but what Hoseok wouldn’t tell them is that he laid in bed until the early hours of the morning, listening to the soft sobs of Jungkook next door. 

To be continued... 

taglist:  @mrsstilinski96 @sammiilynn10192  @minifruity​  @mrcleanheichou @arantxaglz​ @chim-possible​ @kooksremedy @irishhbamb​ @sugashaye​ @lovelyseomin​ @strawberrygatorade @kookiebbyxx @itneverends15713

[weathergirl8]

Master of Deflection - Part 2

This is for you @ak47stylegirl and anyone else who enjoys Alan whump/smothering. Of course, there will be some extra Virgil in there too, because I just love the big guy.

As a friendly reminder, I originally came from the TOS and TB 2004 era. I’ve tried to write a few TAG point of views, but my comfort zone is the previous. This will take place with Gordon as the redhead, and I’ve always had Virgil as the middle bro. Sorry!

Summary: Being the youngest of five is always hard, especially when they pounce at the slightest hair out of line. Sometimes the art of deflection can sting.

Part 1 | Part 2

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A fuzzy feeling was the first sensation he felt as consciousness welcomed him. Turning to look at the clock on his nightstand, Alan sighed as 8:00 glared back at him. Throwing his back against his bed, the teen groaned quietly. He felt like he had just fallen asleep.

Forcing himself up, Alan sniffled as he noticed his nose was a little runny and his throat felt a little scratchy. Reaching for a tissue, he blew his nose without a second thought. “Maybe my morning run will help clear this fog,” he whispered to himself and quickly dressed into his running clothes.

Alan entered the kitchen and smiled at his father. “Hey, Dad.”

“Morning, Alan,” Jeff greeted as he took a drink of his coffee. “Late night last night. I’m surprised to see you up. I think you’ve beaten all of your brothers.”

“Wow. Been ages since I’ve beaten Scott up,” Alan said as he grabbed a bottle of orange juice and a breakfast bar. “I slept straight through and wanted to catch a run. I’m sure they’ll be down by the time I get back.”

“Well, John said things are quiet,” Jeff smiled. “I think you’re safe to enjoy your run without interruption, son.”

“Thanks, Dad. See you in a bit,” Alan nodded as he took one last bite of his bar.

Jeff watched as Alan made his way down the deck, vanishing into the trees along the path that led to the beach. He smiled as he allowed memories of nostalgia to fill him. Where had the time gone?

“What’s got you so happy this morning, Dad?”

Jeff turned to see his second youngest before him. “Just your younger brother continues to surprise me.”

“What’d the squirt do this time?” Gordon asked curiously as he took a drink.

“Nothing worth sharing,” Jeff sighed. “Going for a swim?” he asked as he noted the redhead’s attire.

“Of course,” Gordon beamed as he slung his towel over his shoulder. “Best physio after such a tough rescue yesterday.”

“You feeling okay, otherwise?” Jeff asked worriedly.

“Back is fine, Dad. I promise. A little stiff, but nothing to worry about. The pool always does the trick,” Gordon winked and headed for the pool. “Headed to the office?” the redhead paused at the door.

“Yes,” Jeff said. “John and I are going to go over the rescue last night. It was a straight forward mission, so I don’t think it’ll be necessary to have everyone there this time. Let you boys unwind a little while we can.”

“Thanks, Dad. We appreciate it. See you later,” Gordon smiled and headed to the pool.

Jeff chuckled at Gordon before heading up the stairs to call John. The plan was to talk about the mission, but the patriarch hoped to let John unwind as well. He knew just the topic to do so.

-TB-

Alan jogged along the sand, each step feeling weighted as he pushed himself toward the next mile. The blonde reduced to a walk as he slowed his breathing. He allowed his mind to wander as he watched the waves crash along the cliffside near the north side of the beach.

Taking a seat in the warm sand, Alan sighed. Apparently, today was going to be a struggle. Running was not proving to be the stress relief that usually worked for him. Today he felt off. His body felt sluggish and tired. Usually, the morning air he inhaled from his runs would wake him up.

Not today.

Placing his head in his hands, he groaned. The sensation made him realize his head was beginning to pound. All the feelings of an incoming headache becoming clear.

“I guess a run isn’t in the cards either.”

Forcing himself up from the sand, Alan made his way back toward the villa. He rubbed the back of his neck, hoping it would help ease the tension he was feeling but felt no relief. All the blonde wanted was meds and his bed again. The first thing he had to do was avoid his nosey older brothers.

“Hey!”

Alan jumped as he turned to see Gordon climbing out of the pool, the jolt sending a small pulse through his head.

“Hey, are you okay?” the swimmer’s concerned voice asked as he got closer.

“I’m fine, Gordon. Just a headache. Once I take something, it’ll go away.”

Gordon eyed Alan with uncertainly. “Are you sure? You look tired and a little pale.”

“Don’t we all,” Alan joked. “It was a late night.”

“Point taken, little brother. Go get something for that head before the smother hens descend.”

“If you need me, I’ll be hiding in my room,” Alan said but looked around cautiously. “That’s between you and me. I don’t need them hunting me down.”

“Aye, aye, captain!” Gordon saluted. “I’ll check on you later.”

“Thanks, Gordo,” Alan replied in appreciation and made his way back into the house. He quietly skirted past his father’s office, where he could hear the voices of his father, Scott, John, and Virgil.

Pushing his door open, he quietly shut it and took in a sigh of relief. The eighteen-year-old couldn’t help but chuckle at himself. He felt like he was ten again sneaking food from the kitchen.

His head pounded once more, quickly reminding him why he needed to be so stealthy. Alan walked into his bathroom and opened a storage drawer. His blue eyes immediately latching onto the meds he needed, ever thankful he had a stash for such occasions.

Grabbing a couple of the pills, he made his way to his nightstand as he opened a new water bottle. Downing the drugs and several gulps of water, Alan laid back on his bed, allowing his eyes to close for a few seconds…. Just a few….

“Alan!” somebody shook him.

Alan opened his groggy eyes, puzzled. “Alan?” Scott called, concerned. Where had Scott come from?

Scott placed a soothing arm along Alan’s shoulder. “Allie, you with me?”

“Scott, what?” Alan asked, confused. He just closed his eyes, hadn’t he?

“Hey, buddy,” Scott smiled, but the worry was visible across his features. “You missed lunch. Gordon said you had a headache and to leave you be, but it’s not like you to sleep the day away. Are you feeling okay?”

Alan slowly pushed himself up from his bed and leaned against his headboard. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I’m okay.”

Scott watched him suspiciously. “I don’t know, Allie. You look kind of pale. Maybe Virgil should check you o-“

The emergency klaxon blared across their watches and the house, immediately stealing the words from Scott’s mouth.

Scott stood but looked back at his baby brother with concern once more as the teen moved slowly from the bed. “Alan, maybe you should sit this one out.”

“I’m fine, Scott,” Alan said, shoving his eldest brother out of the way and rushing toward command and control.

“Alan….” Scott continued behind him.

“Scott, I’m fine! I’m only tired from our late night, and my headache caught me off guard. I’m good now,” Alan uttered in frustration. “Just drop it, okay.”

“Alright, but if you start feeling unwell, you better say something,” Scott ordered as they entered the command room.

Alan’s only response was a dangerous glare toward his oldest sibling.

“What do we have, John?” Jeff asked as he met his second eldest’s image before him.

“Northwest Passage just north of Alaska. A cargo ship carrying metallurgical coal has run into trouble. Coast Guard is unable to assist due to another ship underrun,” John reported.

“Is Thunderbird 4 needed?”

“Affirmative, but it is rough seas as an early winter storm has ravaged the area. They’re hoping we can repair the ship,” John added, a layer of annoyance seeping through his voice. “I explained we are more interested in human lives than the precious cargo.”

Jeff smirked in understanding. “F.A.B. Notify the crew we are on our way. Alan and Gordon, you’re with Virgil, and I’m riding with you boys this time. This mission looks like it will require all hands on deck.”

“F.A.B,” his sons each echoed.

Nodding to Brains, Jeff stood inside his portrait. “Thunderbirds Are Go!”

-TB-

Thunderbird 4 dipped into the rocky water with ease. The yellow sub was heading straight for the penetrated ship’s underbelly. “What do you see Thunderbird Four?” Jeff’s voice spoke in Gordon’s ear. Gordon had been sent to investigate the ship's damage while Virgil and Alan went aboard the vessel to persuade the workers onto the rescue platform.

Gordon whistled as his ‘bird’s light illuminated the damage. A large, jagged hole stretched at least a foot of the ship’s belly. “I’m good, but not that good, Thunderbird Two. The damage is too extensive. She’s a lost cause.”

“F.A.B. John notify the Captain it’s time to abandon the ship. Scott, see if you can help steady the ship with a line and coordinate with John. Virgil, Alan, get those workers aboard before she sinks,” Jeff ordered. “Gordon, see if you can help slow the process. Any time you can buy us will be an immense help.”

“F.A.B, Thunderbird 2,” Gordon responded and began analyzing his situation. This was going to be fun...

-TB-

“Sir, I understand your frustration, but there is nothing more we can do for your ship. You must disembark. Your ship will sink,” John explained, trying to hold in his frustration.

“That is unacceptable!” Captain Sterns yelled. “You’re International Rescue. You’re supposed to be able to do anything!”

John looked pointedly at the image of his older brother to the left of him. When the man refused to accept John’s words, the field commander joined the line providing support for his space-bound brother. “We appreciate that sentiment, Captain, but even we have our limits,” Scott responded, taking a deep breath.

“I have a shipment full of coal that my boss is expecting to arrive in Europe. What am I supposed to tell him? I can’t just leave it!”

“I’m afraid that’s exactly what you’re going to have to do. Your crew’s lives are more important,” Scott demanded.

“I can’t!” the Captain’s voice shouted across the line once more. “I’ll be fired!”

“We can’t work miracles!” Scott screamed back.

“Scott!” John admonished. “Captain Sterns, with all due respect, you are running out of time. Our operative in Thunderbird Four is currently trying to give us more time, but even that won’t be much. You must get your men off that ship now! For the sake of their lives and our operatives who are risking their lives to save yours. You must see reason in that.”

“You called us for help,” Scott added, finding his calm. “Please let us do our job.”

The Captain remained silent on the line before emitting a long sigh. “Fine, we will leave.”

“Thank you, Captain,” John acknowledged. “We will begin to load your men aboard our craft immediately. Please make your way to the deck now. Our operatives will be waiting for you.”

“Understood,” Captain Sterns responded and closed the line.

John quickly turned back to the image of his older brother before him. “What the hell, Scott! What was that?”

“I’m sorry, John. I shouldn’t have lost it like that.”

“You’re just lucky Dad wasn’t on the line,” John said, shaking his head. “I better report to him. I’ll be sure to keep your incident out of the conversation.”

Scott nodded in appreciation. “Thanks, John.”

“You owe me,” the blonde exhaled.

“I know. Just add it to my list.”

-TB-

Alan helped Virgil load another round onto the rescue platform as a burst of cold water surrounded them. “Go! I’ll stay down here with them,” he yelled across the com as the boat swayed side to side.

Virgil hesitated but nodded as he shut the door to the platform and initiated the mechanism that rose them into the belly of Thunderbird 2. Once aboard the green Thunderbird, Virgil led them to the safety of the cargo hold. He provided thermal blankets to those who needed them before heading back to the platform for what he hoped was the last round of crew members.

The sea was anything but a friend right now. Fierce northerly crisp winds sliced across the area, each new gust rocking the doomed ship at a sickening pace. Each minute the engineer could tell the ship was sinking lower and lower into the ocean.

Heading back down the platform, he watched Alan as he helped a crew member up who had fallen on the floor deck as another wave violently splashed aboard. Fifteen crew members were remaining, including the somewhat disgruntled Captain.

The rescue platform came to a halt. Virgil opened the door and nodded to Alan. “Alright, let’s get the last of you on here, and we’ll have you warm and secure.”

Most of the crew members were agreeable. They were cold and tired and ready to be anywhere else. Captain Sterns, however, continued to hope they could help him transport part of his shipment.

“Sir, we must go.” Virgil heard Alan tell the older man, who reluctantly climbed aboard the platform. Virgil patted Alan along the back as he helped his baby brother into the platform and lifted them toward Thunderbird 2.

“You’re soaked, kiddo,” Virgil said, nudging his little brother.

“Yea,” Alan sighed as he noticed the water collecting around his boots. “You’re not much better.”

“We’ll have to change once we have the passengers secured,” Virgil realized. “Don’t need either one of us catching a cold, huh?”

Alan smiled but didn’t respond as the bay door sealed below them. Stepping forward, the youngest Tracy opened the gate to the platform and helped escort the remaining crew to the holding area while Virgil informed their father they were secure.

Captain Sterns grabbed his arm as the teen prepared to head toward his brother. “Kid, there’s plenty of room to store a few loads of my shipment. It’ll only take us a few minutes to load it onto your platform. It’ll be easy, I promise.”

Alan shook his head, trying to hide his dislike for the man. The guy didn’t know how to take no for an answer. “Sir, we can’t do that. Now, please just take a seat, and we’ll arrive in Prudhoe Bay in no time.”

Captain Sterns clenched his fists in anger and reached inside his jacket. Before Alan knew it, he felt the cold metal of a gun forced against his back, as the Captain grabbed his left arm forcefully. “We aren’t leaving without it. My life depends on it and now so does yours.”

TBC…

[oscars-wifeyyy]

Chapter 2 (The Innocent)

Two weeks has passed since everyone found out that Cesar was jumped into Los Santos and two weeks has passed that most of the group tried to find ways to get Cesar out. Elizabeth refused to take any part, knowing there was no way for Cesar to get out, only hoping that he could just fly by with no huge responsibilities. There was going to be a meet up at Ruby’s place to discuss the plans, but Elizabeth had a shift at the restaurant after school so she sent Oscar a quick text. After school, Elizabeth and Oscar met a block from the school to go to the sports restaurant and bar that she worked at.

She already had the uniform shirt on with her blue jeans with her waitress apron already around her waist. It’s almost weird because Oscar has been giving her rides lately and it was inevitable for them not to become great friends and get to know each other more, not the big details. Their rides were mostly laughing and getting to know small parts about each other. It was leading to Elizabeth gaining some kind of feelings for the big bad gang leader that was actually a really sweet guy.

After her shift was over, the gang texted the group chat to tell her about the plan of getting Cesar out of the gang, but she quickly texted back that it was a terrible idea. However, like all her other opinions, it didn’t go along with theirs so it was ignored. The next morning, she was with them in the morning sans Cesar so she could find out more even though she didn’t agree. They walked up the stairs as they talked about their failed plan.

“Cesar’s reaction was a wake up call. The plan isn’t fully formed. We need more time to let our ideas marinate before we take action,” Ruby explained.

“Marinate? No,” Monse insisted, “we gotta cook now. Longer we wait, the deeper Cesar’s in,”

“Guys,” Elizabeth sighed, “this is a gang we’re talking about. Cesar is in and he can’t do anything about it,”

Monse ignored her negativity, “right now he’s got no responsibilities. We gotta get him out before he puts in work,”

Cesar popped up behind them, “who’s putting in work? You’re still with that?”

“With what?” Monse acted dumb.

“Jamal?” Cesar wrapped an arm around his neck.

“We’re still with it,”

Cesar sighed, “this isn’t funny anymore. Trying to reason with my brother is dumb. You gotta promise you’re gonna drop it,”

“You’re overreacting-” Monse got cut off.

“Especially you,” Cesar looked straight at Monse, “Promise,”

“I promise,” Monse lied.

“Ok, good. See you after class,” Cesar nodded at Monse, “Eli, you coming with?”

“Sure,” Elizabeth shrugged, “my class is there anyways,”

The two walked away from the rest of the group and once they were out of earshot, Cesar cleared his throat, “Eli, I’m sorry. I had to claim Monse as protection for her,”

Elizabeth sighed, “alright. You’re forgiven,”

Cesar grinned, “so...am I Salad, again?”

Elizabeth laughed, “Yes, you’re Salad again,”

It was after school and Elizabeth was running to catch up with Monse and Jamal who were on their way to Ruby’s place. When she slowed down next to them, she heard Monse talking about Ruby’s diction so she quickly jumped in.

“Yeah. Sometimes I don’t get half of the things Ruby says,” Elizabeth agreed, out of breath.

Jamal grabbed his face in frustration and pulled, “what?” Monse asked.

“You’re driving me a migraine!” Jamal told Monse.

“Think about how I feel,” Monse disregarded Jamal, “I have no time to teach Ruby not to talk with his hands. He can’t do that stuff with Oscar. Dudes gesticulate a lot in prison. We don’t want to remind him…”

“Hey,” Cesar called out from inside a Santos car, “where you headed?”

“Nowhere,” Monse replied.

“Whatcha doing, Jamal?” Cesar asked.

“Decorating Ruby’s room,” Jamal lied.

“So there is no scheming?” Cesar pried for the honest answer.

Elizabeth groaned at the group, but took out her phone to see a text from the one and only Oscar Diaz.

Future Mans

Whatcha doing, mamita?

Eli <3

With the crew to “feng-shui” Ruby’s room apparently lol

Future Mans

Nice...not really. You got any work this week?

Eli<3

Nope. Thank God lol I’m not tryna do any work. Wassup with “Future Mans”?

Future Mans

Well, bebe. You’re gonna be mine.

The group finally arrived at Ruby’s place, but as soon as they knocked on the door, his head appeared through the half open door, “we’re here to feng-shui your room! That’s why we’re here!” Monse held her arms out.

“I don’t have my own room, but…” Ruby went out the door and ushered the group back, “I have a boner. My cousin just moved in. Not like my cousin-cousin, like ‘what up, cuz,’ you know like fam, but not fam,”

“Like if you can’t keep it in your pants, keep it in the family,” Cesar jokes.

“Exactly,” Ruby paused, “no. not exactly. There is no blood relation. There is no in-breeding. Oh, and call me Ruben. I go by Ruben now,”

“Ruby!” Geny shouted as she walked outside

“Ruben,” Ruby corrected.

“Ruby, aren’t you forgetting something?” Geny ignored his correction as inside, “guys, this is Olivia. She’s going to stay with us for awhile, ok?”

Geny went back inside as an awkward silence came, “is it me or did things just get weird?” the new girl said.

“It’s you,” Monse stepped up, “this is Jamal and Cesar,”

“Elizabeth,”

“Ignore the stares. They haven’t been neutered,” Monse smiled, “Jamal, why don’t you tell Olivia what you didn’t do to your neck. Ruby, can we discuss our chem assignment?” Monse pulled Ruby away to the side to, undoubtedly, talk about their plan to get Cesar out of Los Santos.

Elizabeth didn’t pay any mind to the two that just went to the side, instead engaged into the conversation; however, Cesar lifted the bottom of his shirt to wipe off some “sweat” that he had to show off his abs. The sophomore was glaring daggers into the boy as Ruby was glaring at the boy. Monse and Ruby were on their way back to the group, but Ruby had yelled out.

“I’m saving Cesar!” Monse glared at Ruby as Cesar looked at Monse with a disappointed look.

The next morning, Elizabeth got ready to meet up with the girls, but when she left her place she didn’t feel like rushing to rush to where they were so she just stuck with Ruby who she saw pacing. She approached the small freshmen with a concerned look as she heard Ruby call out to Santa Maria. Ruby started walking into the backyard of the Diaz house so she went up to the small friend and wrapped an arm around him, causing him to jump.

“‘Sup, compa? What are you doing?” Elizabeth smiled.

“Gonna talk to Spooky about Cesar,” Ruby stressed as he walked further into the backyard, “acid? I can’t. I can’t. I can’t,” Ruby tried walking away.

“‘Sup, fool?” Oscar called out causing Ruby to pause and turn.

Oscar advanced towards him with two bins so they could sit. Elizabeth walked further into the yard with Ruby and sat on the stack of tires while staring at Oscar’s shirtless body with his Dickies shorts and long socks with his high-top converse. He had a scowl on his face, looking at Ruby, who was beyond intimidated.

Oscar started leaning in closer to inspect Ruby’s face, “What’s with the glitter?”

“Late night at the club. You know how hynas be,” Ruby tried to play it cool, but it caused Elizabeth to try and hold her laughter in.

Oscar chuckled, “I feel you, homie. Sometimes my ruca wears the same shit. She be rubbing all up on me. I can’t get that crap out for days,” Elizabeth frowned.

Ruby shrugged, “Women,” Oscar offered him a cigarette, “trying to quit,”

“Whatcha wanna chop it up about?”

Ruby looked terrified, “Um, Mr. Oscar,” Oscar raised an eyebrow, “I mean, Spooky. I know you’re a busy man, so I’ll cut right to it. Is that acid?” Lilo slapped the back of Ruby’s head and took the lighter that Oscar had in his hand to light her cigarette, “you know what? Don’t answer. None of my business,” Ruby took a breath, “so, Cesar. I mean, can we just talk about how smart he is? You know, I’m smart, but he’s like...a certifiable genius. He has off the charts emotional intelligence, which is rare, combine that with his innate ability to empathize and problem solve and you get the real deal. A natural leader,” Ruby felt more confident, “which is a testament to you and how well you raised him,” Lilo felt offended but was taken by surprise by Oscar’s sudden grip on her and the force taken to make her sit on his lap.

Oscar nodded, “I feel you, homie,”

Ruby continued, “so, what I’m saying is, he has so much potential that hasn’t been realized. He’s just a baby bird waiting to take flight. Who knows how high a bird can fly given the right wind and lack of avian predators,”

“I never looked at him that way,” Oscar said.

“‘Cause he’s not one to toot his own horn. Yet another one of his many attributes,” Ruby smiled.

“You’re right. He just needs to be given that right opportunity, with good wind and no vultures and shit,” Oscar leaned forward a little bit.

“Well, vultures are more like scavengers. I was thinking hawks,” Ruby said.

“Hawks can suck a dick!” Oscar yelled.

Ruby leaned back, “exactly. I mean, you feeling me Spook,” Ruby immediately corrected himself, “Spooky,”

“Yeah, mos’ def’. You opening my eyes, homes,”

Ruby scoffed, “that’s what I do. You know...I will take that smoke,”

Oscar fished out his pack, giving one to Ruby as well as one in his own mouth, “Time to give Cesar his wings,” Oscar said, lighting his then moved it to Ruby’s cigarette.

Ruby immediately started coughing as Elizabeth rolled her eyes at her friend and laughter bubbled up to the surface.

“You alright there?” Oscar asked while Ruby nodded.

It was finally time for the high school kids to go to school, but as they were gonna exit the backyard, a voice called out, “Elizabeth, stay here,”

Ruby rushed out, leaving his friend behind to defend herself, “y-yeah, Spooky?”

“Oscar,” Oscar corrected, “why you going back to Spooky?”

“Spooky, whatever you’re trying to accomplish with me needs to stop. I got other things to focus on and I don’t need a guy that thinks that he can lead me on when he has a ruca the whole time,” Elizabeth shrugged, “bye, Spooky. Delete my number,”

Elizabeth walked out and to school with jumbled thoughts in her head like why he would even think to do that, why she was even dumb enough to actually almost fall for it. She has enough things to focus on and worry about, like her jobs and the money she needs to help around the house as well as her college. Fortunately, she was lucky enough that she could go to a nearby university on a full ride scholarship and the university being UCLA is a pretty big deal for anybody. Thoughts about her life and the future became jumbled so she took a breath and decided to take her earphones out and listen to music.

Her journey to school came to an end when she saw the school and entered the premises to go to her locker and grab her books and things that she needed for classes. However, she felt stares on her so she turned to see people staring at her, causing her to take out her earphones and hear the last part of the announcement.

“Congratulations to Elizabeth Hernandez. She received a full ride scholarship to UCLA, only being a sophomore,”

Elizabeth groaned and continued shoving books in her bag, as well as taking some out, then walked towards her class. There was a sudden force on her back as two hands pushed against her back and she fell down, laying flat on the floor, so she slowly got up and turned to see a group of seniors.

“Why you hangin’ with Spooky this morning?” the obnoxious gum-chewing girl asked.

“It’s nothing,” Elizabeth looked straight at the girl’s eyes, “we were just talking about important shit with my friend,”

“You’re friend left, but you stayed for a few minutes longer, por que?” another girl that stood next to the gum-chewer asked.

“It was a few minutes. We didn’t even do anything or talk for those few minutes,” Elizabeth groaned, “chill, he’s all yours. I ain’t got time for any of that,”

“Mhmmm, it better stay that way. Name is Lupe and I’m his ruca,” the gum-chewer said.

“Ok, cool. Now I gotta go so have fun with all that,” Elizabeth turned and began walking towards her class again, but on her way there Cesar caught up to her.

“Felicitaciones por la beca, hermana,” Cesar smiled at the slightly older girl.

“Gracias, mano,” Elizabeth grinned, “I learned about it this morning from my mom,”

The two bid their goodbyes as they arrived outside of Elizabeth’s class. Elizabeth walked in and took her usual seat next to the door, taking out her notebook and textbook to do tonight’s homework. Time passed and class dragged on until the bell rang and bodies rushed to leave the room and meet up with their friends while Elizabeth simply took her time and went to her locker to grab books until a hand touched her shoulder. She turned to see a guy standing there nervous.

“Hey,” the guy said, “my name is Damien. I’m in your english class,”

Elizabeth nodded her head, “hey. What’s up?”

“W-well, I was wondering if y-you wanted to maybe, I don’t know, go on a d-date with m-me?” Damien asked.

“Y-y-yeah sure,” Elizabeth blushed, “when and where?” “We can meet up at Dwayne’s then go to the mini golf course? 7 p.m, tonight?”

Elizabeth thought it over, “yeah sure. Why not? What’s your number?”

The two exchanged numbers, unaware of the eyes and ears of a Santo that was texting everything to Oscar.

Oscar was out doing business for Los Santos, but half of his head was out and cursing himself at his stupidity to say that he had a ruca. He doesn’t have a ruca because Lupe and him broke up two months ago, but he only said he had a ruca to Ruby because he didn’t want other people to find out about his thing with Elizabeth. A ding interrupted him from his thoughts so he pulled out his phone and became angry at the updates about Elizabeth.

She got a date with Damien @ 7

Dwayne’s BBQ and mini golf

Ok. gracias, mano.

No problemo, mano

The leader was angry as he looked at the time when he was done with business for the gang. He pulled out his phone to see the white numbers at the top of the iPhone reading ‘5:50 pm’ so he rushed home and showered. Cesar came home when Oscar was done and getting ready to leave. 6:45 pm.

“Mano, I’m leaving. Be back soon. la comida está en la nevera,” Oscar closed the door and to his car.

He arrived at the joint at 7:05 pm and saw that the two were sitting and looking through the menu, even though Elizabeth knew what she was getting. The cholo got out of his car and made his way inside the restaurant, bells dinging as he opened the door. Elizabeth turned and saw the cholo, causing her eyes to open wide and shake her head at him, but he ignored her as he stopped next to their table.

“‘Sup, fool?” Oscar looked at Damien with a raised eyebrow.

“‘Sup, Oscar,” Damien nodded, “this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, this is my best friend, Oscar aka Spooky,”

“Nah, homes,” Oscar chuckled with no humor in his phone, “we ain’t friends. Elizabeth is gonna be mine so back up,”

Damien flew out of the booth, “o-oh, sorry, Spooky. I-i didn’t know that. I thought you were still with Lupe?”

“We ain’t together,” Oscar crossed his arms, “we broke up two months ago. Tell everyone that we broke up two months ago,”

Damien ran out of the restaurant, leaving Elizabeth to Oscar, but she moved to get out of the booth and out of the restaurant to go home. Oscar blocker her way out.

“That ain’t happenin’ again, mamita,” Oscar nudged Elizabeth to sit next to the window, “I said you were gonna be mine and I don’t back out,”

“I don’t care, Spooky. I got other things to focus on, seeing as though you might be playin’ me and I am not gonna entertain that shit,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Forged Through Fire (7/13)

Summary: Amestris. Once democratic, now a military dictatorship. Prohibition is strict; personal freedoms curtailed. All alchemists must be state-licensed or face imprisonment. Foreigners are met with suspicion. It’s a grim place and a grim time, but there are some people able to bring a little light to the world. Behind an innocent-looking bookshop, speakeasy proprietor Chris Mustang has formed an unlikely alliance with unlicensed alchemist Van Hohenheim to provide alcohol to those who want it and medical care to those who need it. When Riza’s newly complete tattoo becomes infected, Roy brings her into this underworld, little knowing the way it will change their lives in the future – uncovering the secrets of the mythical Philosopher’s Stone and the schemes of a Fuhrer hell-bent on achieving immortality, all whilst navigating what they mean to each other.

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Rated: T

[One] [Two] [Three] [Four] [Five] [Six] AO3]

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Note: So, just in case you read the previous chapter before I edited it, a note on timing. I managed to  mix up centuries and millennia because… wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff. To clarify, Xerxes was destroyed about 450-500 years prior, like in canon. Not 50 years prior, like my brain decided to originally write…

Also, Atticus was picked as a random Ancient Greek name, there’s no deeper reasoning behind it.

===

Forged Through Fire

Seven

Riza looked up from the counter as the bell over the shop door tinkled and Gracia entered. 

“Hey Riza. How’s he doing today?”

Riza laughed. “He’s stopped rambling and he’s now annoying everyone, so I think he’s getting better. I know that Chris can’t wait to get him off her hands, but we’re a bit concerned that someone might try to shoot him again if we let him out of our sight.” She went and flipped the closed sign, locking the door. The speakeasy was still doing limited trade in order to keep the money coming in, but it was only open to trusted regulars who had forewarned that they would be coming in advance. 

Gracia followed her down into the bar. For all she could joke about it, Riza could feel the tension in the place. Hughes had stumbled upon something so big and so secret that it would affect all of them in the long run. 

As suspected, it now appeared irrefutable that Bradley had the military alchemists working on creating the Philosopher’s Stone. So far, they’d had several failed attempts, but a recent covert expedition to the ruins of Xerxes had uncovered some interesting documentation. Barely anyone could read it, but it was nevertheless causing a lot of excitement among the upper echelons of the military. 

Or, to put it simply, Fuhrer Bradley was trying to make himself immortal. 

“Can you think of anything worse than an immortal Bradley?” Hughes was saying as they entered his sick room. Roy was in there too, sitting in the office chair with his feet up on the end of the bed. There were papers scattered everywhere. 

“No, right now I don’t think that there’s anything worse than an immortal Bradley. Hi Gracia, hi Riza.”

“Hello Roy. Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“I’m very hard at work attempting to bring down a conspiracy in the military!” Roy protested, gesturing around at all the papers. “And no. Officially I am taking a leave of absence to care for my sick aunt.”

Madam Christmas, who had entered the room behind them, gave a pathetic cough. 

“See, my sick aunt. I’ve got Havoc and Breda running interference and Fuery’s been sending all kinds of mixed message telegrams. The top brass are so concerned with trying to work out whether or not Hughes is dead that they shouldn’t be paying too much attention to my whereabouts.”

“Right.” Riza shook her head in despair as Roy swung his feet up off the bed, leaving the room with her and Madam Christmas to give Gracia and Hughes some time alone together. 

She waited until he had poured himself some coffee from the large pot that had been left on the bar and they’d settled down at their usual table before she spoke again. “Have you found out anything new?”

“Bradley nearly declared war on Xing as an excuse to get in there and try to find the Philosopher’s Stone, but even his closest allies decided that would be a bit much and it would be better to try and create their own.” Roy took a long sip of his coffee. “You know, I wouldn’t put it past him to just lead a one-man charge on the place, he’s certainly bonkers enough.”

“Is it even the kind of thing that can be created twice? I mean, I know we should all take myths and legends with a pinch of salt, but at the same time, all the bits and pieces I’ve read about it talk about it as The Philosopher’s Stone, as if there is and can only ever be one.”

“Well, I think the military are certainly testing that theory.” Roy sighed. “The worst thing about it is that I have no idea what kind of unethical experiments they’re getting up to and as an alchemist I could be dragged into them at any time. I mean, my specialism sort of keeps me safe unless they need to burn a bunch of stuff but considering the lengths they seem willing to go to in order to both keep the secret and try to succeed, I don’t want to rule it out.” 

Riza inched a little closer to him, chancing to put an arm around his back, and he leaned into her side, head drooping onto her shoulder. 

“I’m so glad you’re here,” he mumbled to her. “Thank you.”

“Any time.”

He gave a little huff of laughter. “That’s my line.”

“Well, maybe it’s time for me to take care of you for a little while. You’ve taken care of me enough in the past.”

“Thanks for following us out the other night, as well. I was so frantic; I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there being calm and wonderful.”

Riza laughed. “I’m sure you would have survived somehow.” She held him a little tighter, and he burrowed in closer. 

“It feels like everything’s been turned upside down. Except you.”

He looked up at her then, his dark eyes so sad and tired, and Riza’s heart went out to him. 

“We never got to finish our conversation from yesterday,” he said. 

“The ‘What happens between us now?’ conversation.”

“Yeah. That one.” Roy sighed. “I know that we’ve just ended up in a potentially really dangerous situation, and I know that this is the worst time ever to be talking about it, and thinking about it, and God forbid thinking about the future. But I also know that you’re the only person I would ever want by my side throughout this whole thing, and if we all end up skewered through with one of Bradley’s not-at-all ceremonial swords tomorrow, then I know that not taking a chance with you would be my only regret.”

“Oh, Roy.” Riza leaned in to kiss him softly. “There’s nothing like people being shot to put things in perspective, is there?”

“Nope.” His hand came up to cup her cheek and he returned the kiss, gently and a little hesitantly, but with definite hope and want behind it. “Perhaps I’m starting to see that sometimes the universe just really wants to screw us over, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“Exactly. It’s time to let go of the guilt, Roy. There’s nothing anyone can do about it.” She found herself stroking his hair as he resettled against her shoulder. 

“We make quite the pair, don’t you think? Both broken up in our own ways.” 

“Perhaps.” Riza kissed the top of his head. “But we’ll stick ourselves back together. I think that’s the one thing that I’ve learned the most since leaving home and coming here. The sticking myself back together part. Because I haven’t been sticking myself back together, not really. I’ve had you and Rebecca and Madam and Hughes and Trisha and Hohenheim and all the rest of the crew helping me stick myself back together. And when you get broken, I’ll help you stick yourself back together as well.”

“Thank you, Riza.”

They stayed like that for a long time, and although her arm was going numb, Riza didn’t mind at all. She was enjoying this easy closeness. They had been so close back when he had first known her – perhaps they had never been this physically close, but they’d been so close as people. A part of her had always known that they would end up like this somehow. Maybe not as romantic partners, but definitely as friends. 

It was only when Madam Christmas came out into the bar to take over serving and gave them a knowing look that Riza realised Roy had fallen asleep on her, and she just smiled. They’d had a fraught couple of days of it, what with everything Hughes had found out and the aftermath of that; she wasn’t really surprised that it had taken it out of him so much. She was just glad that he trusted her enough to be this vulnerable around her. Well, she trusted him that much, and she guessed that it went both ways. 

Madam Christmas came over with a glass of wine; Riza took it with her free hand. It was her favourite, and she savoured the rich taste. 

“On the house.” Madam Christmas winked. “I think we could all use a little pick-me-up right now. It’s been a day. I had Rebecca on the phone earlier, she’s been picking up all kinds of stories at the paper.”

Over the last few months or so, Rebecca had become a great friend to them in giving inside information as to what kinds of propaganda were about to be sent out to the general population. Of course, most of what she wrote herself ended up cut and censored by the government-employed editors by the time it appeared in print, but the unredacted versions were always circulated through the speakeasy to great interest. Riza had been happy to set her up with Havoc.

“Good stories or bad stories?”

“A bit of both. Everything’s being swept under the rug, though. As far as Central City’s citizens are concerned, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happened in the park two nights ago.”

“Huh.” Riza felt the uneasiness beginning to creep back in. “I don’t like how that implies that people do know that something out of the ordinary happened in the park two nights ago.” She thought back to Hohenheim and the frighteningly powerful alchemy that he’d performed on Hughes, something unlike anything she’d ever known before, and in turn she found herself thinking back to the day she’d burned her back, and his warning that removing her tattoo completely would be too traumatic. 

If that was what he would have had to do, she could well see why. Hughes had been unconscious and on his last breaths; she wouldn’t have wanted anything like that to happen if she was anything other than at death’s door. 

“No,” Madam Christmas agreed. “It’s worrying. I’m just hoping that there’s nothing that can tie it all back to this place. Rebecca doesn’t think that there is, and she’s running as much interference as she can. Still, I think keeping a low profile for a couple of weeks will be a good idea.” She glanced at Roy. “Are you comfortable like that?”

“Not really. My shoulder’s gone dead. But I don’t mind.”

“Oh, to be young and in love once more. Don’t deny it, Miss Hawkeye. I’ve known you long enough.”

Riza shook her head, but she didn’t respond. Something good would come of it all. It had to.

X

“Do you really think that Bradley would risk wiping out the entire population of Amestris in order to gain immortality? I mean, surely the whole point of him gaining immortality is so that he can remain Fuhrer and rule over us forever. It wouldn’t be much fun being immortal if he was literally the only person in the country.”

Two more days had passed, and the rag-tag bunch of investigators had become a full-on research force, although they weren’t any closer to finding out what was going on in Central Command than they had been before. Every new piece of information they uncovered just seemed to be adding to the confusion without clearing anything up. 

“I mean, if the legends of Xerxes are anything to go by, then he’d get wiped out too.” Hughes brushed some peanut shells off the table and slammed down another piece of paper. “Take a look at that.”

Riza looked up at the clock; it was almost eleven but none of them showed any signs of stopping. The entire crew of Roy’s friends from Central Command were gathered in the bar, and Madam Christmas had closed up shop temporarily to allow them more space to spread out in the main area rather than everyone being cramped in the office that had been Hughes’s recovery room. Hohenheim had given him the all-clear earlier in the day, but he still hadn’t actually left the speakeasy and gone home. Gracia and Rebecca had joined the party as well, and although Madam Christmas was trying to remain as aloof from it all as she could, more concerned with keeping them all safe in the bar than with the military conspiracies going on, she was offering insights wherever she could. 

Hohenheim and Trisha had gone home. Riza hadn’t seen all that much of them since the night Hughes had been shot, and she got the impression that Hohenheim was trying to avoid everyone in the wake of what he’d had to do. Not that anyone who had been there and who knew what had happened held his strangeness against him, quite the opposite in fact; they were all extremely grateful that he’d managed to save Hughes’ life. Still, if he wanted space then they would give it to him. 

Riza craned over the others to take a read of the paper that Hughes had put down, but the writing was too small for her to make it out. 

“What is it?”

“It attributes the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone to an alchemist named Atticus, who was the King of Xerxes’ personal alchemist. But it also says that Atticus died in whatever catastrophe wiped out the rest of Xerxes, so even if Bradley does succeed in creating the Philosopher’s Stone again, it won’t leave him any better off than when he started.”

“Just another hunk of rock in an empty country waiting for some Xingese merchants to take it home to Tim Marcoh,” Roy mused, and Riza couldn’t stop herself from bursting into laughter.

“Sorry, sorry. I know it’s really not that funny. I think I need more coffee.” She extricated herself from the gaggle around the table and went over to the coffee pot. Considering the vast array of alcohol that was available behind the bar and the fact that the coffee pot had never seen all that much use before the night Hughes had been shot, it was certainly earning its keep now. They’d been refilling it almost constantly all day. 

“Hey.” 

She looked up to find that Roy had followed her over. They hadn’t really had the chance to spend all that much time together since they’d had their talk. Well, that wasn’t strictly true since they’d spent most of the intervening two days in each other’s pockets whilst trying to work out what on earth was going on in the country, but they’d always been surrounded by other people. This moment leaning on the bar was as close as they had come to having a moment to themselves. 

“Hey yourself.” She smiled at the memory of the other night. Roy had been so embarrassed when he’d woken up, and it had been sweet to see him so flustered. Naturally, she’d had to kiss him to stop his litany of apologies for falling asleep on her. 

He helped himself to another cup, draining the pot. “How are you holding up?”

“All right, I guess. It’s just so surreal that I’m having trouble believing that it’s all happening and I’m not in some kind of crazy dream. More like a nightmare, actually. How come none of this has ever come to light before? Something this big and all-encompassing, surely someone would have found something out.”

“Someone probably did,” Roy said grimly. “And that someone, and all the someones who came before and after them, probably met the same fate as Hughes would have met if he hadn’t had a handy Hohenheim around.”

“It just boggles the mind. Who would even want to be immortal in the first place? Can you imagine having to live on and watch everyone around you grow old and die?”

“I don’t think psychopaths like Bradley really see it in that way.”

“But what about his wife? Their child?”

Roy shrugged. “I don’t think he sees it that way. If you want something badly enough, then everything else falls by the wayside.” He paused. “I… No. Sorry. That’s not an appropriate train of thought.”

Riza raised an eyebrow. “Well, now you have to tell me.”

“It’s about your father. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

Riza nodded. Although her feelings for her father remained complicated, the time and space between them made it easier to look at things through a more neutral lens. She didn’t think that she was ever going to forgive him for what he had done to her, but at the same time, she was no longer wasting her energy being angry at either him or herself. He simply wasn’t worth the emotional investment she had given him for so long. 

“I was thinking that I can see certain similarities between Bradley and your father.” Roy glanced at her, but she nodded for him to continue. “There’s something about them both, that single-mindedness and that disregard for others. Your father’s desire to protect his complex array above all else, his willingness to completely destroy your life in order to achieve his own ends… I can see that same drive in Bradley, and I dread to think what would have happened to you if Hawkeye’s goal had been immortality instead of anything else.”

Riza shuddered. “Yes. When you put it like that, I can see why Mrs Bradley and Selim wouldn’t cross his mind at all. I don’t even want to think about my father being immortal. He did enough damage in the fifty-three years he had.”

Roy reached across and took her hand. He didn’t apologise; perhaps he knew better than that now. After so many years of carrying guilt around, Riza had hoped she’d made it clear that he didn’t have to anymore. 

“At least it’s over now.”

Riza nodded. “Yes. It’s over now. And in the end, I don’t think my life has been completely destroyed. I mean, it might be if Bradley does something drastic, but I can’t lay that one at my father’s door. I think that I’ve still found something good in spite of him and his disregard for everything.”

Roy smiled, and Riza could see the colour coming up in his cheeks. It was sweet to see it; the persona he wore within the military and when he was around the rest of the customers in the bar was always confident and self-assured, an easy-going ladies’ man, but Riza had known him long enough to know that the real Roy was just as flustered around her as she had been about him when she had first realised that she liked him as far more than a friend. 

They were settling now, having put the cards on the table the other night, and Riza knew that, if the circumstances in the outside world had been easier, they would have been moving ahead with the relationship without any concerns. But the circumstances were what they were, and with danger lurking in every corner, it felt premature to be making any kind of long-term plans beyond the fact that they wanted to be together right now in case they never got the chance in the future. 

Roy’s fingertips brushed her face, touching the frown line between her brows. 

“It’ll be all right.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Somehow, it’ll be all right.”

It wasn’t the firmest or most confident of statements, but it gave Riza some hope, and she smiled, knocking her coffee mug against his in a toast before they went back to join the others. Breda and Fuery were pouring over a book so old it was practically falling apart, and Riza wondered if it was stock from the shop upstairs. 

“Can you make out this transmutation circle?” Fuery thrust the book at him. “Armstrong doesn’t recognise it, but he thinks it’s a forbidden one.”

Roy grabbed the book and turned it this way and that, before his eyes widened.

“I think that’s for human transmutation.”

“Ah.” Breda and Fuery exchanged a worried look. Even the layman most ignorant of all things alchemic knew that human transmutation was the ultimate taboo, not just in Amestris but in general. 

“So, once we get our hands on someone who can read Ancient Xerxian, that one could prove to be a game changer,” Breda muttered. He shoved it on the ‘keep’ pile of documents, and Riza went to sit beside him and take a look at what they had so far. 

She had only just settled down when she jumped out of her skin as a pounding against the door began. It was the back door that led out into the alley with the garbage, the door that Madam Christmas brought all the booze in through; the door that would serve as their emergency exit if the speakeasy ever got raided. 

No one used that door on a regular basis, and Riza felt her blood going cold. She looked over at Madam Christmas, who, although as guarded as ever, looked genuinely concerned. She gave Riza a nod and reached under the bar, grabbing the rifle that was always kept there in case of problems and tossing it to her, and the two of them made their way through the bar towards the door. Roy followed them, pulling on his gloves and getting ready to strike. The pounding was not letting up, a steady and frantic hammering, and as tense as the noise was making her, Riza thought that the fact it wasn’t being punctuated with ‘open up in the name of the law’ and threats of the door being blown in meant that they weren’t being raided. 

“Please!” The voice was muffled through the thick wood and obscured by the constant pounding, but Riza could recognise it in an instant, and ice ran through her veins afresh. “Please let me in! Please!”

Madam Christmas unbolted the door and threw it open, catching Trisha as she fell in through the doorway. 

“Trisha? What’s going on?” Riza rushed to help her back on her feet.

“They’ve got Hohenheim!”

[redrebecca]

His Muse

After years of keeping it to himself, he finally confesses who his muse, ‘Mystery Girl’, is.

A/N: A friend to lovers trope because why not? I’ve fully accepted the days when i would write a fic in an afternoon are over because this took agessss. Anyway, feedback is always appreciated, have a great day!

Words: 5.6k

*

“What’s next?” You asked, opening the notes app in your phone.

“Where were you in the morning.” He replied, his voice suddenly muffled by a cushion as he hid his face. You giggled.

“You embarrassed Mendes?” You teased. He pushed the cushion off his face and scowled at you.

“Okay, okay,” You held up your hands in surrender knowing that Shawn really didn’t like being mocked about his failed one night stand – he got enough teasing off his crew, he didn’t need you to start as well. A satisfied smirk remained on your face as you read what you had written on the flight to Toronto.

“It has to be Rosie” You said confidently.

“Rosie?” He raised his head to look at you, supporting his weight on his elbows. You forced yourself to keep your eyes trained on his face and not the tight shirt he was wearing that just got impossibly tighter.

“You know, the brunette with the blue streaks in her hair?” Shawn raised his eyebrows.

“I think she had an eyebrow piercing?”

“Oh!” A look of realization crossed his face before his eyebrows pinched together once more. “Wait, wasn’t she called Rosa?” There was a moment of silence as you both thought back to whenever you had met her before shrugging your shoulders simultaneously.

“So it wasn’t about Rosie.” You muttered, deleting her name from the list you had under the song title.

“I’m sure she was a Rosa.” You barely heard his mumble from the other end of the couch.

You were currently on Shawn’s couch, the two of you lying head to toe – well, your toes didn’t quite reach Shawn’s head but chest to toe wasn’t as catchy.

It had been a tradition since Shawn wrote his very first song that you would guess who they were about. At the start Shawn had been hesitant about telling you – his music was open to the public but the muse had always been something that was very private to him. But gradually, as the two of you became closer and bonded over the stress of your high school physics class, the more honest he was and more inclined he became to discussing his music and letting you into his thoughts.

It was when you saw the tweets that SM3 was a year old that you realized that you hadn’t had your customary album sleepover – your uni classes and his festival run made finding free time almost impossible. It only took a quick facetime call to Shawn, a few clicks on an airline’s website and you stuffing a backpack with anything you considered to be an essential and you were on your way to the airport.

“I give up.” You sighed, flopping back on the couch and nudging his ribs with your foot. “Who was it?”

“D’you remember that girl at the bar in Toronto? The one in the red dress?” You were silent for a second, racking your brain for any memory you had of someone in a bar.

“It was on Brian’s birthday.” He added, trying his best to help you remember.

You sat up abruptly. “The hot blonde?” You said, disbelief weaved into your tone. He nodded with a smirk on his face.

“What can I say, I’ve got game.” He winked at you, no doubt causing your cheeks to flush as you desperately shoved the tingly feeling to the back of your consciousness. After all, you’d been denying your feelings for more than two years now and there was no way you were going to let one wink crack your resistance. So instead of blurting out your feelings, you rolled your eyes.

“Well, clearly not enough to make her stay.” You grinned cheekily as his eyes snapped from the ceiling back to you. He huffed, cutting you a glare.

“I am this close,” He held up his thumb and index finger, “To kicking you off my couch.”

“Do it.” You challenged. “And when you wake up with no chest hair, we’ll see who’s laughing.” He swallowed, his Adams apple rising and falling.

“And last but not least, the next song is?” He said, not even bothering to hide the blatant change in subject. You snorted but looked at your notes nonetheless.

“When you’re ready.” You smiled, it was your favourite from the album and something Shawn was very aware of.

“Who do you think?” Shawn said softly, but you were too busy scrolling through the long list of possibilities to notice the way he was looking at you. He took a moment to appreciate your look of focus as you narrowed down the list, stopping himself from chuckling as he knew you would never be able to guess who it was about.

He watched intently as you nibbled your lip, your front teeth sinking into your bottom lip did things to him he knew it shouldn’t. But at the same time he was so mesmerised, completely captivated by even the smallest things that you did, that he couldn’t bring himself to care about the teasing comments Brian gave him whenever he caught Shawn’s lingering gazes as you laughed at a cheesy joke Zubin told, or how Manny would send him knowing smirks when Shawn had to dash to the toilet after seeing you in a figure hugging dress.

He brushed them off and eventually stopped trying to deny it, because why should he? He had spent years trying to fight his feelings, but to no avail. So he stopped trying because he realized that it wasn’t just a teenage hormone fuelled phase - he was hopelessly falling head over heels for you and although it was scary, it was equally exhilarating and exciting (and it had been creating some damn good lyrics).

“You there?” He was broken out of his thoughts by your voice and a soft kick to his side.

“Sorry, just thinking.” He said, clearing his throat before giving you his full attention. “What did you say?”

“I said I don’t know. Who is it?” You clicked your phone off and left it in the gap between Shawn’s calves and reached to tug the blanket a bit closer to your chest.

“Guess.” He quipped whilst grabbing onto the blanket and pulling it back down to your waist and up to his chin.

“But I don’t know.” You groaned, continuing the small game of tug of war the two of you started as you yanked the soft throw from out of his grasp. However, instead of retaliating once again, Shawn stuck his foot in your face.

“S-Shawn” You spluttered as you pushed at his foot, which only caused the fabric of his sock to rub against your cheek.

“What?” Despite his best efforts, you could easily hear the mischievous lilt to his voice. It was the tone you had become very familiar with. Whenever he tried to appear unaware of something he was obviously doing or when he couldn’t keep the smile out of his voice, his tone rose. You always loved the cheeky and stress free side of Shawn, but not when his foot was pressed onto your face.

“Get your sweaty foot away from me!” You let out a scream as he began to inch his other foot closer to you, which quickly halted his attack on your sense of smell as he bolted upright and stared at you wide eyed.

“Shhh!” He urged, frantically glancing to his watch, “It’s 3am, you can’t start screaming.” He quietly scolded, his eyes darting anxiously towards his front door, as if his entire apartment complex would be knocking it down at any second.

“3am my backside! You had your stinky socks in my face, what was I supposed to do?” You sat up as well, shoving his leg off your torso. You hoped you looked as intimidating as you wanted to, but had to remind yourself that in your fluffy sheep print pyjama bottoms (the ones Shawn himself had bought you as a joke for your birthday) and an old harry potter t-shirt you had claimed from the bottom of Shawn’s drawer, you probably weren’t achieving the ‘I’m a bad bitch, try me’ look that you were going for.

“I don’t know! Maybe not scream when my neighbours are asleep down the corridor?” He whisper-shouted back, flinging one of his long arms towards the door.

“I couldn’t breathe!” You argued. You both glared at each other, his hazel eyes staring right back at you. As the seconds passed, the wrinkles became more apparent by the corners of his eyes and you had to bite the inside of your cheek to subdue a grin from breaking onto your face. Mere moments later, Shawn spluttered, unable to remain stoic and you both burst out laughing, the stupidity of your situation eventually catching up to the two of you.

A pathetic “Shh.” left Shawn’s lips but it only was drowned out by even louder laughter as you clutched at your stomach while Shawn gasped for breath only a few centimetres away. Neither of you were sure whether it was the early hour delusion or the fact that you had been deprived of each other’s company for much longer than was considered to be acceptable by either of your standards. That said, neither of you particularly cared, especially not when the jarring sound of a snort briefly filled the room which only sent you deeper into hysterical laughter as Shawn rushed to cover his nose and mouth with his hands.

You started to tip back and if Shawn hadn’t have grabbed your wrist at the last moment you would’ve landed on the hardwood floor. He pulled you into his chest, securing you a safe distance from the edge of the couch as his body shook with silent laughter. The giggles slowly faded but the smiles never faltered, the only noticeable difference was the red flush of your cheeks as you finally registered your position. Your legs were over his lap and you were basically sitting on him. Usually he would let you go after a minute or two but when you felt his arms tighten around you, there was nothing you could do to stop the even brighter smile as you wrapped your arms around him.

“Kayleigh?” You breathed. Shawn’s chin left the top of your head to peer down at you.

“Huh?” He replied.

“When you’re ready.” You twisted to see his face. “You told me to guess.” You could see the realization in his eyes as it clicked. You also saw the smug smile as he shook his head.

“Nope.” He said, purposefully popping the p. “Guess again.” You huffed slightly, but still did your best to try and remember the list on your phone – your lack of photographic memory really not helping you out. You quickly scanned the couch.

“I need my phone.” You said. As Shawn began to shift underneath you, you sighed, cursing yourself for ending the precious moment you had with his strong arms looped around you. However, his arms never moved. Instead he looked at you with a slight grimace.

“I think I’m sitting on it.” He shuffled again and looked at you sheepishly. “Yeah, I’m definitely sitting on it.” You giggled.

“You know what, I don’t want it anymore.” You teased causing him to tilt his head back and laugh softly. You had to tear your gaze away from his exposed neck and remind yourself that you didn’t want your phone because it was currently under his ass – not because you wanted to stay in his arms for a little longer.

“Jessica?”

“Na-uh.”

“The barista you were talking to?”

“Gold digger.”

“Morgan?”

“N-” He paused and pulled his head off the back of the couch to look at you, an amused chuckle leaving his lips. “I don’t even know a Morgan.” You shrugged and leaned into his shoulder.

“Was worth a try.” You murmured against the cotton of his t-shirt. Your close proximity meant you felt every vibration as his chuckle reverberated through his chest. “So,” You started, but the words didn’t come.

“So…” Shawn repeated, drawing out the word.

“Please just tell me.” You whined. He looked, no – he gazed at you before he let a soft breath pass through his slightly parted lips.

“Mystery girl.” He murmured. You pulled back, eyes wide in disbelief and you desperately tried to ignore the tinge of jealousy you felt in the pit of your stomach.

“Again?” He nodded bashfully, his cheeks flushing as blood rushed to his face. Noticing the unusual shyness in his expression you stopped yourself - you didn’t want him to start building his walls back up, not after so much time and effort had been put into getting him to freely open up to you. Nudging his shoulder you finally brought his attention away from his hands and towards your face. “So she’s got 20 songs dedicated to her by Shawn Mendes himself.”

He squeezed your knee gratefully and sent you a warm smile. “Yeah, something like that.” He said quietly. “That’s only the released ones.” He said impossibly quieter.

This time you made more of an effort to hide your shock. “There’s more?” You knew you were on thin ice, you made sure to tread lightly knowing that one poorly judged action could send you into ice cold water. He squirmed, an obvious sign that he was getting uncomfortable. To your surprise, instead of brushing off the comment, he took a deep breath and cleared his throat.

“I have journals and stacks of paper that are filled with words all the way through to completed songs.” Stunned, you remained quiet. You had known he liked her but damn he was in deep if he had pages and pages dedicated to her. But Shawn took no notice of your sudden silence. “She doesn’t know though.” You opened your mouth, but always one step ahead, Shawn had already anticipated your reply. “She can’t either.”

“Why not? I mean, if she has such a big effect on you she must be perfect, so why not go for it?” He shook his head and focused on his feather ring instead of your questioning gaze. “Shawn.” You said softly. His hazel eyes hesitantly returned to yours. “Do you love her?” You hated the words that left your lips for you already knew the answer. Every word he sung and every lyric he wrote held so much passion and emotion that you didn’t need his confirmation at all.

He closed his eyes and sighed. “I think,” He paused, processing his thoughts into words. You could do nothing but watch as he ran his hand through his curls and tugged in frustration. For a man who had an amazing talent with words, his feelings for this mystery girl had rendered him speechless. “I think it’s too early for that,” he sent you a look, imploring you to understand, you nodded reassuringly at him. He paused for a moment but not once did he take his eyes off you until he spoke again. “But I think I’m in love with the idea of loving her.”

At that moment, as much as you wanted to scream, shout and yell about how unfair and cruel life was, you couldn’t help the happiness you felt for him. After all, you had always wanted him to find his person and although you were having to accept the unwanted reality that it wasn’t you - one look at his love-struck expression as he gazed out of the window at the skyline made you push away all the bubbles of jealousy. He was happy and there was no way you’d let yourself stand in the way of that.

Suddenly it felt wrong to have your legs across his lap and your arm wrapped behind his back. You swung your legs back to your side and moved to pull out of his arms but gave up rather quickly when Shawn kept his hold tight with no intentions of letting you go.

“What are you doing?” He asked, a tinge of hurt seeped into his tone.

“My legs were going numb.” It wasn’t exactly a lie but it was a terrible excuse. Whether Shawn believed it or not, he made no attempt to press you further.

“I just don’t know what to do.” You felt an ache in your chest at his words. He sounded so defeated and tired.

“You have to talk to her.” He stayed quiet so you continued to talk. “What would you do if another boy asked her out and she said yes because she thought no one else was interested?” He opened and closed his mouth several times but you didn’t stop. “This could be your only chance Shawn,” You nudged his shoulder. “Stop playing it safe you big baby.” He sent you a light hearted glare and mock huffed, crossing his arms over his chest as best as he could considering he had you tucked under one of them.

“Maybe I’m scared.” He wondered aloud. You pushed back from his side as far as you could in his embrace.

“Don’t you get all wimpy on me Mendes.” You chided, playfully pointing your finger at him. “I will not hesitate to recite Life of the Party.” He chuckled.

“And I will not hesitate to push you off the couch.”

“We’ve already had this discussion so you should remember the consequences.” You reached forward and pulled a chest hair that was peeking out from under the neckline of his shirt. He yelped and swatted your hand away before scowling at you which only caused you to giggle.

“I’ll figure something out.” He murmured.

“You better do it quickly because there’s no way I’m letting you avoid telling her the truth.” He chuckled softly at your words, knowing you well enough to know that it wasn’t an empty threat. Shawn was certain if you really wanted to that you would march him to Mystery Girl’s front door and make him proclaim his feelings to her. If only she knew, he thought.

“I’ll try.”

“Good, ‘cause we don’t have the time to be sorry.” He whipped his head back to you, raising an eyebrow daring you to push him a bit further.

You held his challenging stare. “So baby be the life of the party, I’m telling you t-” The next lyrics were cut off by your own muffled squeal as Shawn shoved you towards the edge of the couch, he kept his arms around you to ensure that you wouldn’t fall – he had fallen over on that floor too many times to know that it hurt like a bitch.

“You’re gonna get it Mendes.” You threatened as you heaved yourself back up. Once again, your threatening glare had no effect on him as he enveloped you in his arms.

“Just go to sleep.” He murmured. Instead of fighting him and your exhaustion you shuffled closer to him and threw the blanket over the two of you.

“Night Shawn.” You said whilst yawning. Shawn chuckled quietly.

“Goodnight honey.” He replied softly. It didn’t take long for your breaths to become slower and deeper as the early hours and the warmth of Shawn made it impossible not to fall asleep. Shawn tucked a stray strand of hair behind your ear and smiled at your sleeping form – completely passed out in a few minutes.

He didn’t get any sleep that night. He blamed it on his self-diagnosed insomnia and how he needed to be prepared in case you followed through with your chest hair threat. It certainly wasn’t because he was too busy admiring you.

 *

“Hey, are you nearly here?” Your teeth chattered as you alternated the hand which was holding your phone with the one that you had tucked under your armpit.

“I’ll be two or three minutes honey, go and wait inside I’ll text you when I get there.” You didn’t have to be told twice and hurried into the warmth of the foyer, thanking him before you hung up and stuffed your phone into your clutch.

“Y/n?” You looked up to see your best friend walk over to you. “I thought you had gone home, do you not have a lift?”

“Shawn’s picking me up, he’s just a little bit late.” Natalie smiled at you before leaning in a bit closer.

“So… Shawn.” You rolled your eyes and nudged her shoulder.

“Stop it, we’re just-”

“-Friends. Yeah, yeah you’ve said it before. But do you know what it reminds me of?”

“Bring up the sit-com and I swear I will walk out.” You warned, not wanting to hear her painfully long explanation about a character’s development or what happened in one particular episode.

“No, just shh.” Natalie pressed a perfectly manicured fingernail to her lips. “It was the exact same thing I used to say about me and Jacob,” She motioned to the man who was chatting to his friends behind her. “And look where we are now.” Natalie grinned triumphantly, knowing she had made a great point. But were you going to accept that? Nope.

“You’ve still got your dress on?” She rolled her eyes but humoured you nonetheless, brushing her hands down the front of her white gown.

“Sweetie, you were there at the fitting. It cost so much that I’m not gonna take it off for the whole honeymoon.” You both broke out into laughter, however Natalie quietened down first, her eyes moving to something over your shoulder. Before you had a chance to question what she was looking at, you felt a hand on your waist. Your first instinct was to move away but your body instantly relaxed when you smelt the familiar scent of Shawn’s cologne. Shawn smiled a bit wider as he greeted Natalie, he too had noticed the shift in your posture and it made him happier than it probably should have.

“I was calling you but you didn’t reply.” He said, turning his attention to you and answering your question before it even left your lips.

“My phone was in my purse, I must’ve missed it.” You opened up your bag and sure enough there was a copious number of notifications of missed calls and texts. He nodded and wrapped his arm around your waist.

“Right, let’s get you home. Congrats Nat!” He sent her one last wave as he turned to go, his arm around you making it very difficult to not go with him. You looked over your shoulder to where Natalie was still standing, a large smirk adorned her face as she winked. You exaggeratedly rolled your eyes and stuck your tongue out at her before wrapping your arm around Shawn.

The air was cold against your bare arms. You huddled closer to Shawn’s side in an attempt to try and stop yourself from shivering. It didn’t work but it was worth a try. And it meant you were closer to Shawn, so you weren’t exactly complaining “Nearly at the car.” He murmured into your hair as you made your way through the carpark. Just as Shawn had said, his car was only a few meters away, much to your delight. He unlocked it and you hastily clambered into the passenger seat before Shawn even had a chance to politely open the car door for you. He chuckled and made his way around to the driver’s seat. Once he was in, he was quick to start the engine. “Do you want the heated seats on?” He asked as he glanced at your shivering form. You had lost count of how many times you had teased him for having heated seats in his new car, after all that’s where the nickname ‘Sweaty Bum Shawn’ originated – it was also where you realised Shawn’s defensiveness towards being called that nickname. Trying your best not to think about how Shawn will never let you live this down, you begrudgingly nod. His smirk is the only indication you need to know that he is never going to let you forget this.

“How was the wedding?” He said, turning down the radio to hear you better.

You sighed. “The cake was really nice.”

“Did you bring me any?” He asked, you weren’t entirely sure if he was being serious – he probably was because nothing came in between that boy and chocolate cake. You shook your head and he was quick to switch off your heated seats.

“What are you doing?” You exclaimed whilst reaching over the centre console to turn it back on. However Shawn caught your wrist before it reached anywhere remotely near the button and placed your hand back on your lap.

“If I die of hunger I’m blaming you.” He accused, a slow and sarcastic tutting sound coming from his mouth as he looked over his shoulder to change lanes.

“Well if I die of hypothermia it’s all on you. I can’t imagine that being great publicity, y’know the death of your best friend on your conscience. But I reckon E! News would have a field day with that story.” Despite himself, he couldn’t help but laugh and flick the heated seats back on. You instantly sunk back into the car seat.

“So apart from the food, did you enjoy yourself?”

“Yeah I did, I mean its Nat’s wedding and wherever she’s involved there’s always one hell of a party.” Shawn chuckled beside you. He didn’t know her as well as you did, but he had met her enough times to know that she was a… lively character.

“But I-” You paused and shook your head, playing with the silver bracelet on your wrist.

Shawn quirked an eyebrow at you, his voice softening as he sensed the tinge of unhappiness in your voice. “What is it honey?”

“It’s just that.” You stopped again and swallowed. Shawn’s hand came to rest on your knee, his thumb rubbing smooth circles against the material of your dress. The action threw you off slightly and you took a second longer than necessary before you spoke. “Natalie is the last one of my friends to get married.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m sure there’ll be more weddings to go to. I’ve still got a few single cousins.” Shawn reassured you, completely misunderstanding the way you were heading.

“No it’s not that. I- I think I’m jealous.” His thumb stopped moving, his whole body froze.

“What do you mean?” He breathed.

“They always talk about how great love is. That they always have that constant person who they can talk to and get advice from or how they can trust them with their life and how they can’t wait to wake up to the same person for the rest of their lives. I just want that – I just want someone to love me.” You weren’t sure when the tears had started or when Shawn had pulled the car over. He wiped the tears off your cheeks with the pads of his thumbs.

You offered him a watery smile and he pulled you into him. His hand trailed up and down your arm as you sniffled into his shirt. You finally pulled back and willed the tears to keep at bay.

“You are loved.” You shook your head, the tears once again threatening to spill.

“Stop it.” You whispered. You didn’t want to be fed spoonfuls of false hope, not now, especially not in your emotional state.

“No, you stop it. You are loved, so, so much.” You snorted and pushed his chest. It was what you did best, pushing people away if they came too close – literally and metaphorically.

“By who Shawn? Go on, enlighten me – who is the guy lucky enough to love me?” Your words dripped with self-disdain and sarcasm and Shawn visibly faltered at them.

“Me. I love you.” His voice was hoarse and frail but it still managed to hold the weight of the meaning behind his words. The words you had waited so long to hear – so long that it didn’t seem real, it couldn’t be.

“As a friend, Shawn.” You repeated the words you had told yourself so many times. You couldn’t bring yourself to look him in the eyes - you were scared of what you would see. Pity? Frustration? Love?

The sound of his chuckle was jarring and you couldn’t help but look at him, your face a picture of confusion. “I think we both know this is a bit more than just friends, it always has been.” His stare was so intense and yet you couldn’t bring yourself to look away. He was right as well. You had grown up with Shawn and Brian as your best friends but you and Shawn had always had something more. He took notice of your silence and the mix of emotions in your eyes. “Don’t make me sing Life of the Party.” A small breath of laughter passed through your lips. He took this as a good sign and moved his hand to gently cup your cheek.

It took a moment to fully register his reference to the night when you talked about his album, his stinky socks and mystery girl. Mystery girl. You froze and Shawn realised, his eyes became concerned and his movements were hesitant and cautious.

You shook your head and his hand dropped to your side. “You don’t mean that. What about your Mystery girl? Or is she irrelevant now?” Your words sounded more like a sneer than you intended them to. To your surprise Shawn didn’t reel back at your tone. Instead, a second later he chuckled quietly.

“You really don’t know?” His eyes rove across your face, taking in every last detail of your features. If you weren’t so confused you would’ve been hiding your face in your hands self-consciously. You dreaded to know what you looked like, the black smudge on Shawn’s thumb was enough indication to know that your tear tracks were stained with mascara. Brilliant.

“What?” You sounded exhausted, tired of always playing a guessing game with him, because even when he wasn’t aware of it he always left you questioning what you had.

“It’s you, sweetheart. Mystery Girl is you.”

Your breath hitched in your throat.

This wasn’t real, this wasn’t happening - this was a joke. But the look in Shawn’s eye had no trace of mischief, he was serious, and it was you. The girl you had envied so passionately for so long, the girl who had Shawn desperately falling for her without knowing, was you.

“Honey breathe.” He shook your shoulders and emphasized his own breathing, just like you did with him when he had his panic attacks. You mirrored his inhales and exhales, your shallow breaths becoming more even and steady. He didn’t speak, he simply waited for you to find your voice again.

“Me?” Even you cursed yourself for your stupid reply. Shawn smiled a bit and trailed his hand up and down your arm.

“Yeah. Who else would it be?” His question stumped you. You guessed you never really questioned it – the less you knew, the less pain you would feel whenever you heard about her. You, you reminded yourself, not her, you.

“I don’t know, I didn’t really want to either.” You weren’t sure if he had heard your whisper. His hands stilled around your arm and squeezed – he heard every word.

“So, you like me too?” His eyes desperately searched yours, looking for the answer he had been secretly wanting for way too long. You shut your eyes, and your mouth, not wanting to let a rushed decision ruin the moment. You knew how you felt about him, it was impossible to ignore it, but you were trying so hard to stop yourself from saying the words. Shawn remained quiet. Patiently waiting and letting you take your time like the gentleman he is. Always a gentleman, always kind and caring, always supportive, funny and you can’t remember a time when you had needed him and he hadn’t tried his best to help.

You opened your eyes and met the hazel ones in front of you. You had come too far to back out now simply for the fear of being too forward.

“Shawn, I think I love you.” His eyebrows shot upwards, almost disappearing into his hairline. He didn’t give you time to misinterpret his shock – his lips were on yours before you even had the chance to open your mouth. He smiled into the kiss, his lips pressing against yours perfectly as his tongue traced the line where your top and bottom lip met. The sensation was overpowering – you were kissing Shawn and he was kissing you. That thought alone was enough to make you grin against his lips. Is this what you had been missing out on?

All too soon, Shawn pulled back for breath. You weren’t even sure how you were still breathing, everything seemed surreal, almost too perfect.

“Are you sure you want this?” You want me? Shawn read you like a book, your unspoken words were written as clearly as day across your pages.

“Of course I do. I want you, I need you. I always have.” For the first time, you let yourself fully believe in his words because when had he ever lied to you?

“You could have said something earlier.” You playfully pushed his shoulder. He laughed, dipping his head so his face was dangerously near to your chest.

“Anddd, she’s back.” His laughter eased whatever tension you had left from earlier. You giggled too, surprised by the feelings that coursed through you, it was almost as though you had returned back to your blushing teenage years.

“You are loved, I promise you. I love you and you better remember that.” His light-hearted voice did little to hide the serious tone and meaning to his words. You knew better than to tease him about this.

“I will, I promise.” He pecked your lips and pulled away leaving the two of you supporting large, beaming smiles.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

[dragonrajafanfiction]

The Yamal Mission

In the first book IV quest of Dragon Raja appears to take place immediately after Luminous is installed as the Student Union President. However, this is not the case in the novels.

In the game, right after you celebrate Luminous’s new job, you are called in for a mission from EVA that will send you on a mission with Johann on the “Luxury Cruise ship.”

However, in the novel, Johann’s mission takes place a full year after these two scenes!!! I’m not sure why they did this, your character in the game should have reflected a whole year’s worth of new dragonslaying experience. At this point, your character is not a freshman, but a student well into their second year.

It also doesn’t make sense that Johann is in charge of the mission when the School Board tends to prioritize Hybrid bloodline over experience. For example, in Book 2, Johann is reporting to Luminous in the Quest to find the King of Earth and Mountains even though Luminous is otherwise inferior in everyway. It makes no sense that on a lesser quest of investigation, he’s your supervisor.

I just wanted to clarify these things to anyone who is going to do these quests in case they become confusing later.

Anyway, below is the translation of the second half of the Story Quest for 118

72 degrees north latitude, Greenland Sea

Under the dark night, the big scarlet boat rushed through the broken ice, leaving a 20 meter wide blue-black waterway behind.

This place is well within the Arctic Circle, and it is in the dead of winter. Although the sea surface is not completely frozen, the floating ice is all over the sea surface. Only this monster-class ice breaker dared to continue to rush towards the North Pole at this time.

The YAMAL, the world’s largest icebreaker, belonged to Russia. Two heavy water nuclear reactors provided it with almost endless power. The thick armored bow can easily smash a 6 meter iceberg. Among the icebreakers in the world, except for a few military monsters who identities cannot be disclosed, only this ship has sailed to the North Pole.

The tragedy of the Titanic will never happen to the YAMAL. What is an iceberg when you can just ram into it? The crew of the YAMAL has always  thought about the problem this way, which is why they can’t be hired by other polar cruise companies after they are retired... This group of people might end up driving an ordinary ship into an iceberg just out of habit.

“Hello! Hello! This is the YAMAL. We are sailing on he 72 degree North latitude line. Is there a dear friend nearby who can chat? I hope you’re an American with a sense of humor, ha! I met one German guy before who lived in Munich and he told a really cold joke. I didn’t get it until a week after I went ashore. Everyone thought I was crazy when I suddenly burst out laughing in the middle of a bar.”

A middle-aged Russian captain drank vodka straight from the bottle and yelled into the radio system, as if he were the host of an evening radio show.

The radio remained absolutely silent, without so much as static.

This was par for the course. In this season, there may be ten ships in the world that dared to sailed openly in the Arctic Ocean. At this moment, other ships  are either docked at military ports or scattered in other corners of the Arctic Ocean and the most advanced long-wave radio can only call a few hundreds of kilometers out.

In other words, they sail in a dead end space where almost no one can reach. A crew who frequently runs this route can suffer depression if they’re not careful and the best medicine on board for this malady is alcohol.

The captain was just trying his luck after having a drink. If he happened to be able to call other polar ships, usually everyone would change voyage a little and go for a short period of time, staying close enough to each other to talk over the radio for an hour or two.

“Oh! I can’t find anyone to chat with tonight!” The captain sighed, “Then I’ll go to the casino to try my luck, Mr. Chief Officer, this ship will e handed over to you temporarily!”

He staggered out, completely unaware that the first mate entrusted with the task was drunk and had been lying on the steering wheel for half an hour.

The casino on board was magnificent. The warm air was wrapped in the rich smell of whiskey and high-end perfume. The Belarusian girl, standing 5′9″ and wearing high heels acted as the dealer. A waiter who can speak various languages enthusiastically advised the guests to experience the richness of Tibetan wine and hand-rolled cigars from Cuba. A source of enormous wealth has created a small Las Vegas in this lifeless dead-end space.

The YAMAL was originally planned to be used as a scientific research ship, and it assumed the strategic goal of the former Soviet Union to head towards the North Pole. However, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, this strategic goal also fell into disuse. The hugely-built ship could not be left idle and was put to civilian use, transformed into a luxury gambling ship, cruising on the Arctic Ocean all year round.

The Arctic Ocean is the high seas, you can’t help but gamble. Plus, you can enjoy the polar scenery on the way. So even if the tickets are expensive, the ones for this “Christmas Journey” are sold out.

There are eleven floors on this ship. Six floors have been transformed into luxurious cabins. At the moment, these cabins are full of 1,200 tourists, plus a crew of almost 1,000 people and service personnel. This ship can be said to be a small city floating on the Arctic Ocean.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please look out from the porthole on the left. You will see a medium sized iceberg with a height of more than 25 meters. Anyone who knows ice bergs must know that only 1/10 of the volume of an iceberg will surface. The underwater part occupies 9/10. This means that the height of the entire iceberg is almost 250 meters, of which more than 200 re below the sea surface.”

The navigator’s voice echoed in the hall. “That ice berg is the giant remains of the ice sheet, and feel off the arctic Ice cap 32 years ago and is always floating in the nearby sea. In summer, it will move further north, and it winter, it will be close to the edge of the Arctic Circle. The crew affectionately calls it the “Mary Girl” but as you can see, after 32 years of melting, the once hugeg “mary Girl” has only 250 feet of ice left. This year maybe the last time that Mary Girl will accompany us on our ice sea journey. Goodbye, Mary Girl, we will miss you.”

The wall-like ice cliffs slid past the hull of the cliffs, showing a dazzling blue color The white water fowl stood on top of the Mary Girl, staring blankly at the red behemoth driving by. After that, it floats far away.

Few tourists actually went to see the last side of the Mary Girl. Sexy Belarusian girls, hot gambling games, and mellow wine, kept their eyes on the gaming table.

The captain woke up a bit from the wine, pace to the porthole, looked out and let out a faint puff of smoke.

“Is it like seeing off an old friend?” A very young voice spoke next to him, but it was low with an iceberg-like feel.

The captain raised his head and was surprised to find that there was a young man in a black suit standing beside him, with black hair and an extremely clear face, carrying an elegant suitcase in his hand and a long black bag on his shoulders. He should be Chinese, but his accent is standard American English. The captain had been standing by the porthole for five minutes but didn’t notice when the young man approached him.

“It is, isn’t it? Always sailing in such lonely waters, we give each iconic iceberg a girl’s name in our hearts. Mary is like a bright girl in white, waiting for us in this sea forever. Seeing her, we don’t need to look at the theodolite to know which area of the sea we’re sailing in.” The captain emotionally explained. “So what’s your name?”

“Chu. Chu Zihang.”

“is there anything I can do for you? Mr. Chu.”

“I want to see the captain.”

“Then you are looking for the right person!” The captain smiled and straightened his captain’s hat. “The name’s Sasha Rebarko, Captain of the Yamal. Ready to serve you!”

“No. I don’t want to se you. I want to see the real captain.” Chu Zihang said lightly.

The captain was stunned, a sharp light flashing in his pupils. But it was fleeting.

“How can there be two captains on a ship?” He shrugged. “Only when I am sick and unable to perform the duties of captain will the chief officer take over. As as you can see, I’m as strong as an ox!”

“Your real name is not Sasha Rebarko, but Alexander Rebarko. You were a major of the Alpha Special Forces of the Russian Federal  Security Service. After retiring in 2001, you were hired by the real captain. The ship’s technology is actually very rudimentary. This ship is usually managed by the chief mate, but you are a proficient marksman, skilled in unarmed combat, and practiced in using almost all military equipment. So You’re responsible for the security of the ship.”

“You have been married once, now divorced. Your parents live in St. Petersburg. You have a 16-year old sister.” Chu Zihang’s one was steady like this big ship, but the captain’s heartbeat was as steep and tortuous as the icebergs outside.

He subconsciously bent his knees slightly and leaned forward and his hands drew into his sleeves. This was an attempt to grasp the dagger hidden inside, but he felt empty.

This kind of “muscle memory” came from being trained to be very skillful with a knife. Major Alexaner Rebarko, when he was wearing the Alpha Force uniform, he would have had a dagger in his sleeve at all times.

But he hasn’t used the name Alexander in more than ten years. In order to sever his relationship with the past, he took great pains to change. He changed his address, phone number, broke off contacts with old friends and hired hackers to break into Alpha Forces serves to delete all his files. He performed a bit of facial surgery... Since then it was like Alpha Elite Major Alexander Rebarko had never existed in this world and was replaced by senior captain Sasha Rebarko.

Now the past buried by his own hands has been completely restored in the cold and plain narration of this young man, as if he were some sort of guardian angel that had seen his whole like with his own eyes.

Anyone, as long as he has existed in this world, will always leave countless marks, which can not be easily modified.” Chu Zihang finally said. “As long as the Cassell Academy is interested in anyone, they can always be investigated and found out.”

The people around them flowed like water around rocks.

After a long silence, Sasha’s body relaxed from being tight as a bow. He looked at Chu Zihang again. “Cassell Academy?”

Of course, they can’t really use force in such a public space. The offensive posture was just Sasha’s stress response.

Chu Zihang flipped the collar of his suit and showed Sasha the silver coat of arms pinned inside it. On the coat of arms was a huge tree with lush branches on one half and completely withered on the other half.

“I’ve never heard of it, and never seen that emblem.” Sasha shook his head.

“I think the captain may recognize this emblem. I’m referring to the real captain.”

“What do you want?”

“I just want to meet the captain. I know there is a hidden rule on this boat. The person who gambles the most is eligible to go up to see the captain.” Chu Zihang raised the suitcase in his hands. “I prepared funds before I arrived here.”

Sahsa glanced at the sturdy suitcase. The suitcase seemed to be right. High gamblers liked to carry such suitcases, full of two million dollars in cash. Two million dollars is not a lot. Some gamblers have subordinates to help carry a dozen or so cash boxes in and out. But if he just wants to meet the captain, two million should be fine.

“Okay,” Sasha shrugged. “It’s okay to take you to the captain, but I must first wish you good luck.”

“Wish me luck?”

The captain doesn’t like to see outsiders very much. If he sees an outsider and doesn’t like him, that guy will be brainwashed. Brainwashed people end up a little messed up if it doesn’t go right.” Sasha said. “I don’t want you to be so unlucky.”

[souvcniir]

*  bopping  along  to  rude  boy  by  rihanna  is  𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐙𝐎𝐍𝐀  ❝   𝐑𝐈𝐙𝐎   ❞  𝐆𝐈𝐋𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐓  ,  the  twenty  one  year  old  cis  woman  thrown  back  to  their   hospitality  management with  some  of  her   memories  .  voted  most  likely  to  star  in  their   own  reality  tv  show ,  rizo  was  known  for  being  flamboyant  &  loquacious ,  go  figures  you'd  always  find  them  giving  drunk  pep  talks  in  the  girls  bathroom ,  but  grew  up  to  be  punctual  &  hard  headed.  

hi  ..  how  ya  doing  ?  it’s  me  ...   again  .  gi  back  again  with  my  second  muse  who  is  just  ...  have  you  seen  her  ?  stunning  .  beautiful  .  the  mother  i  never  had   ,  the  sister  everybody  would  want   ,  and  the  friend  everybody  deserves  .  ASDFGHJ  .  let  me  stop  .  down  below  is  a  little  about  my  baby  doll  and if  you  already  liked  my  last  post  i’ll  definitely  be  bothering  you  about  plotting  with  this  baby  too  !!

*   𝐎𝐍𝐄                          𝐓𝐇𝐄   𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒  .

gold   wings   dangling   in   between   collar   bones   ,   sun   light   parting   cloudy   skies   ,   vowels   dipped   in   honey   ,   baths   filled   with   rose   petals   ,    sketches   under   a   cotton   candy   sunset   . 

*   𝐓𝐖𝐎                          𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒 .

full   name.   arizona  scarlett  gilbert  .   nickname(s).   rizo  ,  ari  ,  zo  ,  zona  .   preferred   name.   rizo  and/or  ari  .   past  age.   twenty  one  .   present  age.   thirty  one  .   date  of  birth.   october  eleventh  .  zodiac.  libra  . gender. cis  woman  .   pronouns. she  and  her  .   sexuality. heterosexual  .   younger  faceclaim.   charlotte  d’alessio  .   older  faceclaim.   alycia  debnam  carey   .

*   𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄                          𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐓𝐒  .

(   death  ,   specifically  cancer   ).  

    in  her  first  cry    ,     she  was  gifted  an  echo   .    something  said  to  be  a  miracle  especially  upon  ears  that  had  once  suffered  the  news  of  a  lost  future  of  bearing   children  .     that  night  ,  prayers  of  thank  you’s  were  sent  to  the  heavens    ,  and  mouths  were  stuff  with  love  sculpted  by  two  pairs  of  glimmering  emerald  hues   .   

    granted  fifteen  years  of  sweetness  and  happiness  that  painted  countenances  .    the  two  were  split  from  the  same  soul  .   her  sister  was  contagious  and  arizona  was  syrupy  .   never  each  other’s  shadow  ,  just  each  other’s  biggest  fan  .  the  girls  were  great  apart  ,  but  together  they  were  unstoppable  .  but  just  like  summer  sunshine  ,  rapid  thunderstorms  creep  up  on  you  without  warning  .  their  thunder  fell  into  their  ears  as  a  disease  too  far  along  to  promise  hope  .   in  the  blink  of  an  eye  ,  cancer  had  disguised  itself  as  her  twin  sister  ,   the  light  that  once  sparkled  in  her  eyes  died  out  .

    equivalent  to  a  nightmare  ,  when  the  sun  forgets  to  rise  and  feet  forgot  how  to  move  ;   she  was  haunted  by  a  ghost  who  had  her  face  .   swore  she  could  hear  her  in  the  dead  of  the  night  ,  and  sometimes  even  in  broad  daylight  .   grief  left  her  clinging  to  bedsheets  that  still  lingered  of  her  sister’s  memory  ,  and  soon  her  emerald  hues  became  a  reminder  of  a  child  lost  .   she  no  longer  had  her  sister  to  hide  behind  ,  and  her  parent’s  were  no  longer  able  to  pretend  they  could  look  her  in  the  eye  .

reminded  herself  she  was  alive  until  tears  hung  in  her  eyes  and  screams  left  her  mouth  until  voice  was  no  longer  recognizable    .  she  might  not  be  able  to  live  life  by  her  sister’s  side  ,  but  she  could  live  life  for  her  sister  .    that  night  ,  her  hands  were  drenched  in  cold  glue  from  gluing  herself  back  together  .  and  after  that  ,  cloudy  skies  cleared  and  only  the  lingering  smell  of  raindrops  remained  .  she’d  never  get  over  it  ,  but  she  would  not  become  it  .

*   𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑                         𝐓𝐇𝐄   𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓  .  

grief  no  longer   visible  in  tawny  features  ,   she   radiated  a  warmness  that  seemed  to  be  nothing  but  intoxicating  .   clung  to  a  desperation  to  escape  a  town  filled  with  broken  hearts  and  disappointment   and  took  a  big  deep  breath  of  a  new  beginning  at   rom  valley  university  .

she  was  a  face  you  spotted  everywhere  ,  on  the  sidelines  with  pom  poms  in  her  hands  and  in  class  whispering  about  how  she  had  no  idea  what  was  going  on   .   being  involved  was  something  she  thrived  on  ,   and  because  of  that  she  was  known  for  being  the  social  butterfly  ,   the  chatter  bug  ,  and  the  girl  who  always  had  a  smile  on  her  face  . 

 not  a  dumb  girl  ,  but  she  happened  to  be  one  of  those  people  who   prioritized  their  social  life  instead  of  their  grades  .  had  to  really  apply  herself  for  anything  above  a  low  b  ,   but  as  we  all  say  c’s  get  degree’s  .  and   truthfully  she  was  more  worried  enjoying  life  rather  then  having  a  break  down  over  a  calculus  class  .  

had  a  bad  habit  of  speaking  without  thinking  ,  and  feeling  without  processing  .  life  is  too  short  so  she  refuses  to  be   someone  who  keeps  her  emotions  bottled  up  .   instead   wears  them  in  facial  expressions  and  words  of  anger  or  joy  or  sadness  .  if  you  did  something  wrong  ,  she’ll  tell  you  .  if  she’s  feeling  a  type  of  way  ,  you’ll  know  .  but  because  of  this  she  is  very  forward  with  showing  those  she  cares  about  ,  she  cares  about  them  .  her  love  language  is  pecks  on  the  lips  and  i  love  you’s  before  she  ends  the  call  .   

*   𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄                         𝐓𝐇𝐄   𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓   .

not  as  open  as  she  used  to  be  ,  but  she  still  shines  bright  .   learned  to  bite  her  tongue  and  control  her  careless  ways  .  in  some  ways  ,  she  simply  just  matured  ,  no  longer  that  twenty  year  old  something  that  can  get  away  with  screaming  in  the  rain  because  she  needed  to  get  it  off  her  chest  .

thinks  about  her  sister  more  then  she  did  before  ,   her  mother  says  it’s  because  she’s  experiencing  firsts  that  she  wishes  her  sister  was  there  to  see  .  she  still  refuses  to  show  her  bleeding  wounds  ,  instead  bandages  them  up  every  night  and  whispers  i  miss  you’s  to  the  sky  .

fell  into  the  career  of  a  wedding  planner  and  has  never  been  so  in  love  with  a  job  before  ,  it’s  everything  she  had  ever  hoped  for  .  she  gets  to  be  creative  ,  interact  with  people  on  the  daily  ,  and  make  other’s  happy  .  though  ,  it  has  made  her  a  true  romantic  .

her  relationship  with  her  parents  is  special   , something  that  formed  as  she  got  older  and  began  to  understand  that  yes  she  lost  her  other  half  ,  but  they  too  lost  a  child  .   she’s  grateful  for  her  parents  and  is  constantly  reminding  herself  to  give  them  some  extra  love  .  at  the  end  of  the  day  ,  they  are  all  she  has  . 

she  lives  in  the  city  of  new  york  in  a  beautiful  apartment  ,  and  while  it  is  such  a  different  atmosphere  then  the  small  town  she  was  raised  in  ,  she  enjoys  it  .   but  her  being  her  ,  she  still  needs  to  experience  as  much  as  she  can  and  so  you’ll  her  packing  her  bags  every  so  often  and  living  it  up  in  a  different  country  or  a  different  city  for  a  few  weeks  and  of  course  dragging  a  few  of  her  friends  with  her  .

*   𝐒𝐈𝐗                         𝐓𝐇𝐄   𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓  𝐈𝐍  𝐓𝐇𝐄   𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓   .

it  feels  like  a  case  of  deja  vu   ,  so  familiar  she  has  to  stop  and  think  about  it  for  a  little  .   swears  she  see’s  pieces  of  her  future  in  her  dreams  ,  and  yet  they  feel  so  real  it’s  almost  as  if  she’s  already  lived  it  .  sometimes  she  feels  like  she’s  going  crazy  ,  but  most  time  she’s  losing  herself  in  the  moment  .  

*   𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍                          𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐒  .

she  wears  her  sister’s  ashes  in  a  wing  shaped  necklace  ,   and  later  on  decided  to  get  something  permanent  via  tattoo  .   her  tattoo  is  located  on  her inner  arm   and  looks  a  little  something  like  this  . 

she’s  a  travel  bug  ,  and  has  been  to  countless  of  places  .  she’s  one  of  those  people  who  has  a  journal  tucked  away  with  every  single  place  she  has  ever  wanted  to  visit  and  she  will  complete  her  list  .

in  college  ,  she  was  one  of  those  people  who  wrote  the  prettiest  notes  that  you  have  ever  seen  ,  did  she  waste  more  time  writing  them  then  actually  studying  ?  yes  .

she  started  playing  soccer  in  elementary   school  and  actually  studied  at   rvu  on  a  scholarship  .  it  was  one  of  the  first  activities  that  arizona  did  outside  of  her  sister  and  after  her  passing  it  because  a  way  to  get  her  mind  off  of  her  passing  .

*  𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓                          𝐓𝐇𝐄   𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒  .

*   again  ,  these  are  simply  just  ideas  to  give  us  something  to  start  with  ,  i  am  open  to  anything  that  is  not  mentioned  as  well  am  completely  and  totally  okay  with  switching  things  around  and  adding  things  to  these  ideas !!!  i  love  plotting  and  bouncing ideas  off  of  each  other  so  don’t  be  afraid  to  stray !

                    LOOK  ,  WE’RE  IN  TUNE  ,  WE’RE  IN  SYNC   .  EYE  TO  EYE  ,  DON’T  NEED  TO  THINK  (  PAST/PRESENT  CONNECTION  ┋  OPEN   )  .     labeled  as  the  duo  to  be  reckoned  with  ,  there’s  love  between  these  two  that  not  even  words  could  explain  .    a  friendship  that  has  last  a  decade  ,  you  can  hear  them  constantly  giggle  how  they’re  soulmates   .    that’s  just  their  bond  .  secrets  ,  laughter  ,  memories  ,  communication  without  words  ,  a  lifetime  of  inside  jokes  ,  being  attached  at  the  hip   .   this  is  just  a  forever  thing  .

                  WE’RE  BOTH  DROWNING  IN  GASOLINE  ,  BURNING  OVER  TIME  .   (  PAST  CONNECTION  ┋  OPEN   )  .    this  friend  is  someone  that  arizona  held  close  to  her  heart  ,  when  memories  crept  back  up  on  her  and  that  empty  feeling  in  her  heart  escape  bars  she  seemed  to  always  find  comfort  in  this  person  .  and  always  promised  them  ,  that  they  could  find  comfort  or  at  least  a  set  of  ears  in  her  .

                  I  KNOW  YOU  SAID  LEAVE  ,  BUT  FUCK  WHAT  YOU  SAID  .  CAUSE  YOU’RE  STEADY  CRAWLING  ON  YOUR  KNEES  AGAIN  ,  YOU  NEED  A  FRIEND  (  PAST  CONNECTION  ┋  OPEN   )  .    this  was  someone  that  brought  the  worse  out  in  arizona  .   they  are  the  whispers  of  careless  actions  in  each  other  ears  and  blurry  lines  of  what  they  are  to  each  other  .  stolen  kisses  and  screaming  voices  the  consequence  of  that  .  but  regardless  of  where  they  stand  in  one  another’s  life  ,  they’re  the  prime  example  that  not  every  bond  should  last  .

                  SAME  CREW  ,  I  AIN’T  HANGING  WITH  NO  NEW  BITCH   (  PAST/PRESENT  CONNECTION  ┋  OPEN   )  .    a  group  of  friend  who’s  energy  is  contagious  .  in  college  they  were  the  ones  people  watched  from  afar  and  earned  for  something  just  like  it  .  they  had  their  fair  share  of  fallout’s  ,  nights  of  blacking  out  and  holding  each  other’s  hair  back  ,  hungover  brunches  ,  embarrassing  stories  during  each  other’s  weddings  ,   but  their  bond  is  for  life  .  

              I  MIGHT  BREAK  UP  WITH  YOU  ,  JUST  TO  MAKE  UP  WITH  YOU  .  AT  THE  END  OF  THE  DAY  ,  BOY  ,  YOU  KNOW  THAT  I’M  ABOUT  TO  WAKE  UP  WITH  YOU  .  (  PAST  CONNECTION  ┋  OPEN   )  .    the  most  serious  relationship  arizona  had  in  college  ,  and  it  was  mixed  with  such  high  and  low  moments  but  regardless  the  two  always  found  their  way  back  to  each  other  .    for  arizona  ,  she  was  in  love  and  they  were  all  she  wanted  .  no  matter  what  .

             MANY  TIMES  WE  FELT  IT  ,  CAME  CLOSE  FOR  A  MINUTE  .  WRONG  PLACE  ,  WRONG  TIME  ,  YOU  WERE  ALMOST  MINE  . (  PAST  CONNECTION  ┋  OPEN   )  .    it  always  felt  like  more  .   lingering  touches  and  avoiding  the  conversation  ,  almost  never  given  the  right  opportunity  to  say  how  they  really  felt  and  in  return  for  years  watched  one  another  fall  in  and  out  of  love  with  other  people  .