#to see if it’ll get more engagement than my other posts | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ukulelevillainwrites · 2 months

Text

Heist time

One shot

Warnings: swearing, spoilers for the empty grave sort of

Content: I used the characters from the show, but it’s set after the events of the empty grave tho it’s a tiny bit canon divergent. B99 Halloween heist for our favourite agents.

Summary: Lockwood and Kipps engage in another bet, only this one involves a heist.

Word count: 7.3k

This fic was inspired and triggered by this post

Quill Kipps believed that the longest, most excruciating moment of his life had been when he almost bled out from a stab wound caused by a relic man’s sickeningly rusted blade. But now that he thought of it, he sort of missed the cold and comforting embrace of the Other Side. If it were up to him, he’d cross over again in an instant. Anything to get out of lifting yet another heavy piece of furniture up the never-ending stairs of this damned house. Lockwood might have been satisfied with the new look he was giving his home, but Kipps’s back certainly disapproved of his decoration choices. His former rival and current part-time employer had taken the easy side of course and led the way up to his bedroom, the last piece to complete the Portland Row puzzle. How had his life come to this? He had asked himself this question countless times since he had more or less joined the agency. One day he was a highly esteemed Fittes agent, the next he was playing mover for his much younger boss, which was certainly not part of his job description. He almost tripped over the carpet on the landing but at least they had reached the final floor. Lockwood could find a way to fix the headboard of his new bed on his own, Kipps had already done enough.

“Quill?” Lockwood started, obviously about to ask him another favor.

“Nope. I’m going to get some tea, ask someone else.”

The boy didn’t insist. Well, he was eighteen now, but he was still a boy to him. He probably always will be. What happened next certainly confirmed his intuition. As he headed down the stairs to go put the kettle on, he caught sight of the worst prank he had ever seen.

“Are you serious with this?” He asked, detaching a frame off the wall.

“Oh, nice look out, Quill! This is obviously in the wrong place! I usually hang it along the first flight of stairs, where more people can see it.”

Lockwood took hold of the framed article. He didn’t look ashamed, not even a little bit. Instead, he smiled. A wide and proud grin that Kipps really wanted to punch off his face.

“This isn’t funny. You know how badly written that article is! It made me look like a total fool.”

“My point exactly.” Lockwood winked before passing him in the stairs.

“Here! This is much better!” He said as he hung the frame on the first landing of the house. Kipps wondered if he had done it on purpose to hang the article in the one spot where sun shone brightly to reflect in the glass and make it even more apparent than it needed to be. Knowing Lockwood, he probably did. But for a moment he considered if even divine forces were against him in this fight.

“Take it down. I thought we’d grown past this.”

“Well, obviously you haven’t.”

Kipps stayed silent for a moment. However childish Lockwood was, that pesky boy had still managed to get him right where he wanted. Fine. If he wanted childish, he’d give him childish.

“Take it down or I’ll do it myself.”

His light but somehow threatening tone had gathered a crowd around the landing. Lucy was intently listening to their bickering, apparently very entertained. Holly and George were standing by, not sure where this conversation was headed.

“I won’t let you.” Lockwood responded with a grin.

“It’ll be when you least expect it.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“Wanna bet?”

George audibly sighed at the offer. Kipps didn’t look away from Lockwood’s defying stare, but he could sense the researcher rolling his eyes behind him.

“What are the stakes?” Lockwood asked back, seemingly eager to humiliate him one more time.

“If I manage to steal that article before 6pm today, I get to burn it.”

“Interesting. I’m willing to agree to your terms,” he kept the attention of the room, voluntarily lingering before certainly overbidding, “but if I win, you have to call me the best agent/genius and wear a shirt with this very article printed on it for a day.”

“Are you really this childish?”

“You’re the one getting mad over a piece of paper.”

Kipps paused to consider the offer. How hard could it be to out-think his pompous and overconfident rival? Lockwood held out his hand for him to shake and without hesitating much longer, Kipps agreed to his terms.

As soon as he shook his rival’s hand, Lockwood could feel the cogs turning in his brain. Besting Kipps should be easy enough, but he wanted his plan to be extravagant. After all, when was he not? With a proud grin, he looked back at his audience. George seemed exasperated.

“What? This one doesn’t involve the future of the agency!”

It did nothing to relax him. Instead, he cleaned his glasses with a concerned frown on his face, like a disapproving parent disappointed in his son’s poor life choices.

“So, how are you gonna do it?” Lucy asked with much more enthusiasm.

“Well, you could always help me out, Luce.” He winked at her and enjoyed seeing her blush slightly.

“Hold on,” Kipps interrupted from behind him, “if you’re getting outside help, I should too!”

“I’m out!” George exclaimed, “I have work to do for that case coming up in two days. A case we should all get acquainted with, by the way.”

“I’ll help you out!” Holly volunteered, “Let the responsible adults win for once.”

“I will allow no such courtesy.” He declared. “Now, time to strategize.” He grabbed Lucy’s hand and lead her towards his bedroom to discuss his plan behind closed doors.

He didn’t register the inherent intimacy of such a gesture until he saw Lucy lingering near the door, unsure where to sit. The desk was still lying in pieces on the floor, his office chair was downstairs, the headboard was resting sideways against the dresser and the only available seat was the bare mattress resting on the bed frame, the one piece of furniture he actually got around to building. Awkwardly, he signed her to join him behind his dresser that was acting as a protective sound barrier. Hopefully, the chest of drawers would keep Kipps and Holly from hearing anything in case they were trying to eavesdrop.

“Is this really necessary?” Lucy asked out loud.

He brought her near and whispered, “You can never be too careful.”

Besides, he would be lying if he said it wasn’t a good opportunity to stand closer to her. His hand didn’t leave her arm while he explained his plan.

“I need you,” he locked eyes with her and closed his hand around her forearm, “to take care of Holly while I distract Kipps.”

“That should be easy enough, how do you want me to proceed?”

“How good are you at making a mess?”

She smirked. “Good enough to drive Holly insane. What about Kipps?”

“Oh, don’t worry… I’ll get him to leave the house.”

He sent her a knowing smile and she looked back at him with a warning stare. He knew she would object to part of his plan, but she wouldn’t get mad over something so insignificant. Besides, she looked adorable when she gave him that look.

During her years at the agency, Lucy had become more than familiar with Lockwood’s tricks. She knew them so well that she could guess which ones he would use before he said it out loud. She even called some of them her own now. This experience also gave her enough hindsight to know that she shouldn’t get her hopes up. Every attempt Lockwood had made at costumes and disguises had failed horribly. The future of the company wasn’t at stake here, which was a relief. But she had already taken to the game, even though it had barely begun, and her competitive side was showing.

“Please, don’t do an accent.”

“Come on Luce! Don’t you have a little faith in me?”

“Only a little…” She mumbled teasingly. She was lying of course. She knew that he would find a way to make it work somehow. He still hadn’t let go of her arm and brought her closer. She felt flustered. She wasn’t used to this proximity yet. His eyes dropped down to the necklace that never left her neck and he smiled softly.

Suddenly, a thud knocked against the door, revealing the anticipated eavesdropping of their competitor. With a grin, Lockwood offered her his arm before heading towards the door and opening it in a dramatic swing. Kipps did his best to discreetly stand up straight and look like he was casually checking out one of the books on the nearby shelf.

“How about some tea to set the start of our bet, Kipps?”

Lucy felt bad for him. Sort of. He was clearly running out of excuses. He mumbled under his breath and led the way down the stairs with a defeated gait.

“I’ll prepare the mugs.” Holly declared, following closely behind him.

Lockwood and Lucy grinned at each other before joining them, ready for the first part of their plan.

They were sipping in silence. Each of them eyed the other over the freshly poured mug she had handed them. Lucy and Lockwood kept throwing side glances in the other’s direction and Holly couldn’t tell if it was just them being them or if she should be on high alert for heist-related shenanigans. She knew the point was to have fun. She knew the rivalry between Kipps and Lockwood wasn’t really relevant anymore. But it did little to prevent her from keeping a professional and watchful attitude. Old habits die hard. After another stare-filled silence, Lockwood put back his mug on the Thinking Cloth with more noise than necessary. He announced that he had some work to do and winked at Lucy in a very unsubtle way before exiting the room. Something was up, that much was clear. But what was he planning? Before she or Kipps could object, Lucy spilled the content of the honey bottle both on Kipps and the floor.

“Oh no Kipps I’m so sorry!” Lucy apologized. She talked loudly and there was an edge to her voice. This was a distraction and Holly knew better than to get caught up in it. She stared at the basement door, sure that Lockwood would try to sneak back upstairs in the commotion. She tried to stay focused but out the corner of her eye she saw Lucy approaching Kipps’s stained sweater with a tissue. She could already picture the bits of white paper sticking to his ruined clothes and the frustration in his brow. He did care a lot about his black turtleneck.

“Lucy, no! Stop! Start by scraping the excess honey then use dish soap.”

The girl took her jam-covered knife, loosely scraped it on the side of her plate and was about to make matters worse.

“No! Forget it, I’ll do it.”

She got up, and before she could attend to the sticky stains George came in with a call for Kipps. The room fell silent when he answered.

“Wait, who is this?”

He seemed perplexed. George went back to the library undisturbed, and Lucy jumped up to reach for the dish soap. Oh no. She wasn’t going to… Before Holly could react, Lucy covered Kipps in dish soap, making him jump up and walk into the pool of honey formed on the floor by the spill. He shrieked as he almost slipped and Holly couldn’t help her high pitched scream at the mess.

“You told me to use dish soap!” Lucy justified.

“Not like this! Is this your first day being alive?”

Kipps gestured them to shush but apparently the caller had hung up. He set the phone on a spared corner of the table, looking down at the mess.

“What did I do to you, Carlyle?”

“I’m… sorry?”

“A very touching apology, thank you! Well, apparently there’s an emergency staff meeting at the restaurant I work at… whatever that means. I guess I should go.”

“Please, don’t make a trail of honey around the house, it’ll take forever to clean up!” Holly said, already dreading the hours of cleaning ahead.

Kipps nodded and exited the room with his shoes in his hand. He gave her a weird look before leaving. “What about the heist?” she thought. She looked back at Lucy’s fake sorry look and before she could scold her, Lockwood came back up.

“What’s all this noise about? Oh, Holly, you’re doing that thing with your face again.” And then he smiled, his usual wide charming smile like he was a perfect angel who had never done anything wrong. Whenever she got stressed out, Holly had this unconscious habit of furrowing only one eyebrow, giving her face an asymmetrical tension that made the two idiots next to her laugh occasionally. A giant, impossible to clean, sticky puddle of honey was more than enough to stress her out. She did not laugh at his remark and he toned down his gigawatt smile.

“I’ll be with George working on our next case, if you need any help.”

No. He wasn’t getting away that easily.

“I know what you’re doing.”

“Working?”

“Who do you think I am, Lockwood? The fact that you thought this would work is seriously offending.”

“You can come watch me work if you want.” He asked with the same grin.

“Yes, Holly, you can go. I’ll clean, it’s my mess after all.”

At least, she was acknowledging it. She turned around to follow Lockwood into the library when a glass hit the floor, breaking into a thousand little shards most likely wedged in honey or hidden in unattainable corners. She shut her eyes tight, annoyed but also impressed at how easily they had played her.

When Kipps arrived back at the house, he already knew what he was going to find. A stressed-out Holly, a proud Lockwood and a missing frame. At least he wasn’t covered in honey anymore. His rival hadn’t been too discreet about his ploy. He had recognized the boy’s voice through his horrible accent when he had picked up the phone. His sudden disappearance and Lucy’s exaggerated efforts to mess with his favorite turtleneck only confirmed his suspicions. He wasn’t too offended by the simple and frankly idiotic way they had used to get rid of him. At least they felt threatened enough to need him gone before attempting anything.

When he crossed the door, he didn’t even go upstairs to look if Lockwood had bothered to replace the frame with a fake. He headed straight for the kitchen to relieve Holly from the work she was certainly still attending to. Lucy and Lockwood were nowhere to be found, probably too busy celebrating to keep an eye on their prized possession.

He found his partner in crime trying to get the honey out of the multiple sponges she had used. The floor was spotless, but now the mess had been moved to the sink. He came to stand next to her and looked out the kitchen window to surveil the garden at the back of the house. She turned and apologized for having been so easily distracted. She was ashamed of how simple it had been to sidetrack her. Kipps said nothing. After a minute or two of pensive silence, Holly asked if he was upset, worried she had messed up his plans for good.

“You did a wonderful job.” He simply offered, the shadow of a smile forming on his stern face. She looked back at him with a frown.

“What do you mean?”

“I knew it was Lockwood’s plan from the start.”

“And you let him get away with it?”

“Are you familiar with the Hungarian fencing term ‘husszú görcs’?”

She sent him a look to let him know how pedantic he was being. He knew that already, he just couldn’t resist.

“It’s a strategy-”

“Of letting your opponent win points early to give them a sense of overconfidence thus exposing a much easier target for you later.” Holly finished.

He stared at her in stunned silence.

“I was an agent at Rotwell remember? And our fencing coach was Hungarian.”

He had trouble hiding the thin smile slowly twisting his lips. Even though she took away his moment, he was incredibly grateful to have her on his team.

“Now the real question is: how do you know where he hid the frame?”

He lifted an eyebrow and looked back at her with a smirk.

“Oh. Right. Lucy.”

They looked back at the garden in unison. There were two things that even a stranger could figure out about Lockwood by just looking at him: he had too much confidence and he was head over heels in love with Lucy Carlyle. This specific girl happened to have done a lot of gardening in the last few weeks, planting flowers in the back garden, which made for a perfect hiding spot in the turned soil.

“How do you know for sure he hid it there?”

“I have eyes everywhere.”

They stepped outside and a small shadow emerged from the apple tree at the end of the garden. Bobby Vernon had stayed loyal to Kipps even after his humiliating demotion by Penelope Fittes. Or should he refer to her as Marissa now? He was grateful for the boy’s admiration and even more grateful for his help.

“Is that where he hid it?”

Bobby nodded. “Just like you said he would.”

The three of them stayed out of view from the windows and approached the new patch of purple and yellow pansies freshly planted last week. Kipps took the lead, crouched down and looked around in the dirt, trying not to disturb Lucy’s recent work. Lockwood wouldn’t have been so careless as to mess up her gardening for the sake of a bet. He must have hidden it somewhere he could disturb without risk. The three of them crawled out of sight to the next empty lot where the soil had been turned recently.

“That’s where I saw him.” Bobby confirmed.

It didn’t take much digging to reach the white plastic bag sticking out of the dirt. Inside sat the frame and its perfect example of bad journalism.

“Thank you for your time, Bobby. That’ll be all.”

He dismissed the boy, hid the frame underneath his sweater and asked Holly if she wanted to keep the bag. It was covered in soil but she had the habit of keeping every plastic bag they used since it could ‘be useful still.’

They were surprised to see George back at the Thinking Cloth, scribbling away something probably regarding the upcoming case.

“I thought you were working in the library?” Holly asked innocently.

Her tone was far too conspicuous to Kipps’s taste. It was obvious they were hiding something. Karim would figure it out instantly. He nonchalantly bent slightly over, hunched over the frame to try to hide its shape under his clothes. A sudden pain in his lower back reminded him of his labor earlier that day. It also made him realize that he must look ridiculous. The bet was messing with his head. But he’d need to stash the article somewhere safe before letting his guard down.

George asked Holly further details on the clients’ rendition of the events, what they had described precisely on the phone to get a better idea of what they should be expecting in the coming days. Her professionalism took over, she sat down at the table and took out a notebook he didn’t realize she had with her this whole time. Kipps used the distraction to slip out as discreetly as possible. He checked on Lockwood through the library door ajar. He could see why Karim had preferred to move back to the kitchen. They were lying down on the couch, sharing one magazine, tangled together under a blanket. Lockwood seemed to be reading the article out loud, Lucy staring at him starry-eyed. He had to admit that it was rather sweet, a bit nauseating if you stayed with them too long perhaps. He didn’t mind though. It provided him the perfect distraction to complete his plan.

He started up the stairs slowly and carefully. They may have redone a lot of the house in the recent months, but the foundations were still old. Those stairs can reveal any attempt at sneaking around. Luckily for Kipps, he had worked on those very steps when fixing the damages. He knew them like the back of his hand by now. Every single one that creaked and where to step to remain invisible. This part would be a piece of cake. He made his way up the first set of stairs without trouble. He smiled to himself. He couldn’t wait to see Lockwood’s face when he would pull out the frame from its cache at 6pm. Right under his nose from under his bed. He began his way up the second flight of stairs confidently. Despite his boots, he could feel where he had worked, where the wood was solid and silent. He was three steps short to the landing when suddenly a loud reverberating creak alerted everyone of his whereabouts. Betrayal. He had worked so long on those stairs, listening, learning their pattern, but most importantly renewing them. He gave them his time and patience to rebuild them and for what? He wondered how it was even possible for him to have missed a stair in such bad shape. He heard shuffling downstairs. The love birds had probably been alerted by the wooden backstabber. He didn’t have time to dwell on treachery, he needed a place to hide. Fast.

He made no effort to conceal his footsteps anymore. He rushed to the landing and into Lockwood’s room but the others were already catching up to him. He didn’t have time to lift the mattress and secure the frame there. Panicked, he looked around for a new hiding place. There were still some cardboard boxes lying around the landing. They would have to do. He picked the one filled to the brim with random items and buried the frame among them. When his rivals reached the floor, they found Kipps leaning in that same falsely casual stance he had when they caught him eavesdropping earlier.

Creak. Something wasn’t right. Lockwood could hear Holly in the kitchen. It must have been Kipps. He had to check what he was up to. But doing so meant getting up. Getting up and giving up on having Lucy in his arms. It was a tough choice. So tough that he considered letting Kipps win the bet for a moment.

“Did you hear that?” Lucy suddenly said, listening intently.

Before he could answer she rose to her feet, determined to see who was making a move on the frame. It didn’t matter much since he had replaced it with a fake. However, it did little to stop her. She would hinder the plan of anyone who dared try to take victory from him. Lockwood couldn’t help but stare for a moment, watching her fondly while she resolvedly climbed the steps to investigate the noise they heard. His heart was beating fast when he caught up to her. He reached for her hand and tangled his fingers with hers.

They arrived on the landing hand in hand to find Kipps looking at the same bookshelf he had earlier. He was visibly panting, his chest rising fast despite his best efforts to seem casual.

“Still can’t find that book, Quill?”

“Erm… I was just uh…”

“Maybe you’ll have more luck in the library. There’s plenty more there. I can help you look for it if you’d like?”

“No need for that.”

“No, please, I insist.” He offered him a gracious smile, internally proud they managed to disrupt his plan.

Lockwood took pleasure in watching his opponent’s defeated face as he slowly turned back towards the stairs. He squeezed Lucy’s hand before letting go and escorted Kipps back downstairs.

While the two of them were busy squabbling on their way to the library, Lucy used the distraction to check on the decoy and on their hiding spot. The fake frame was still hung on the stairs which was a good sign. What worried her was what she might find in the garden. It would be bad if Kipps’s team got the frame, but she would be lying if she said it was her only source of worry. Lockwood had been mindful of the freshly planted flowers but she feared his rival had not made the same effort. She quickly followed downstairs and waited for them to enter the library. Out of the corner of his eye, Lockwood slightly smirked at her to signal her to go check their hiding spot. She made sure Holly wasn’t spying from the living room. The coast was clear. She silently reached for the handle on the kitchen door she overheard George mumbling, probably about that case he had been talking about. It wouldn’t be the first time she heard him talk to himself out loud. She could always ask him to stay quiet. Maybe bribe him by giving him her next biscuit in the rotation. She turned the handle and before she could step into the room, Holly’s familiar voice answered George’s. Lucy froze in place. This was perfect, Holly wouldn’t be watching her every move. But she had to release the handle unnoticed, and more importantly a much more acrobatic mission awaited her. As delicately as she could, she released the handle and stepped back from the door, silently aiming for the entrance. Walking backwards, she passed Lockwood again, who made Kipps carry as many books as he could before the poor man had enough of his nonsense. When he saw her going towards the front door, he dropped yet another book onto the pile Kipps was already carrying, making him drop everything. In the commotion, Lucy quickly opened and shut the door, slipping outside without anyone knowing.

The next part would be harder than anticipated. Without taking the time to think too much about it, she jumped to reach the top of the garden wall and pushed on her arms to pull herself up. It was easier to do when she didn’t have an eleven-pound silver-glass skull on her back commenting on her form and mocking her graceless performance. She let herself drop in the garden and remained low as she made her way to the flower beds. She was relieved to find them untouched. Kipps and Holly had had the good sense of digging into the empty patch of dirt next to it. It was good news for her gardening, but the turned soil also meant that their rivals had the frame in their possession. Luckily for them, they had a grouchy reluctant ally to keep track of the frame’s location.

Getting back upstairs hadn’t been easy. Lucy tried her best to sneak around the landing as silently as she could. Coming through the front door, she hadn’t had the chance to check if Holly was still busy with George. She counted on the researcher’s inability to keep his explanations short to keep her cover safe. She retrieved the ghost-jar from its hiding spot and made her way into Lockwood’s room, their rendezvous point. It still made her queasy to go into that room like it was her own. He had said to make herself at home, even in the middle of half-finished furniture. She hesitated, unsure where to settle the skull before getting answers.

“Just put me anywhere but the bed. Lord knows what you did there.”

She put it down on the floor with a crash, no longer caring about being discreet.

“Looks like I hit a nerve,” the annoying ghost said, “Will lover boy be joining us?”

As if summoned by the nickname, Lockwood entered his room and sat on the bed with giddy anticipation.

“So? What did you find out?”

“Kipps has the frame. He dug it up from the garden.”

“Damn it. Did the skull see where he hid it?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Skull answered with a crooked smile.

“Yes, we would. Now tell us!” Lucy asked not so nicely.

“I’m not sure I was paying attention.”

Oh, how that ghost could push her buttons.

“You were the one begging to participate in the first place! But fine if you won’t tell us maybe I’ll leave you in the oven again so George can get back to his experiments…”

“I was not begging! It’s just nice to be included for once. Fine. I saw the ginger head run upstairs and he hid the frame in a cardboard box on the landing.”

“Perfect!”

She ran back outside.

“What did he say?” Lockwood asked, his eyes following her to the landing.

She came back in disappointed.

“It’s supposed to be hidden in a cardboard box there but I’ve looked through all of them… it’s not here. Looks like Kipps was faster.”

“Damn! That son of a bitch is good…”

Kipps joined her and George after a loud bang was heard from the library. It sounded like books being dropped, another task for her later. Probably seeing the exhaustion on her face, he told her that he had taken care of it.

“Another meagre distraction of Lockwood’s.”

She laughed at his comment before asking George if he still needed her help.

“No worries, Holly. I can finish this by myself, thanks.”

“So, what is our next move?” She asked her partner.

He threw a sideway glance at George who was back to reading his casefile intently. He nodded towards the door and she followed him without a word. She thought he might be taking this whole thing a little too seriously. George said he was too busy with the case to participate, he wasn’t a threat. Still, she followed him in a corner of the library and listened intently as he whispered his misadventure with the steps. She tried as hard as she could not to laugh when he rambled about the steps of the house betraying him. It got especially tricky when he went on about dishonor and treachery.

“Now, I need you to go back upstairs and get the frame from that box I hid it in.”

“On it.”

“I’ll keep an eye on George.”

She refrained from rolling her eyes and went upstairs. When she got on the landing, she heard Lockwood’s muffled voice coming from his room. He must have been elaborating a new plan to steal back the frame with Lucy’s help. Hopefully, that would distract him enough while she looked through the boxes. They really needed to unpack them soon, it clogged the stairs and the access to their rooms. She opened the first one she could find. Inside were items that certainly belonged to Lockwood’s parents. She felt uncomfortable rummaging through them like this, especially for a silly bet. She opened the rest of them and looked but tried not to disturb anything. Her search was not successful. Instead of disrupting the items, she tried to call Kipps discreetly.

“Do you remember which box you put it in?”

“I think it was that one…”

He opened the box and looked delicately through it, just like she had done. One box after the other, his face went from relaxed, to worried, to panicked.

“Where is it, where is it?!”

“Lockwood must have taken it back.”

“Damn! That son of a bitch is good…”

He barely had time to think of a plan when the door to Lockwood’s room opened, letting his rival on the landing with them.

“Kipps! What a surprise…” He said in that smug tone of his. “It’s almost 6.”

“It looks that way yes.”

They stood face to face, each glaring daggers in the other’s eyes. Lockwood might have come back before he could get the frame from where he had hid it, but Bobby was still watching his every move, standing by behind the apple tree. Kipps was still sure of himself and he knew he would best his rival at that game.

“I’m gonna get that frame back!” They both declared at the same time.

Kipps’s faith in his plan and in himself evaporated before his very eyes. His conviction was shaken. Was Lockwood imitating him poorly? Was he making fun of him? Or was he genuinely convinced that he had the frame in his possession? His rival’s mask slipped too. So Lockwood did not have it. And he didn’t have it. Then who did?

“I’m gonna get that frame back!”

As Kipps exclaimed the same sentence, Lockwood took a step back in surprise. What game was he playing? He stared at him for a few seconds, trying to read whatever ruse he was attempting. The longer he stared and the more obvious his confusion was. How could he look so sincere? Kipps had really worked on his poker face, he thought. Unless he wasn’t acting and the frame was actually out there, out of both their reach when time was running out. Lucy might have an idea. But before he could turn to her to try to read her expression, she bolted down the stairs.

“I’m gonna get that frame back!”

The fact that both boys exclaimed that sentence at the same time threw a gust of cold air through the landing. Everyone stood silently, staring, observing, waiting for someone to stop pretending. The moment never came. One voice broke the silence.

“How strange. It’s almost like that box just disappeared, isn’t it?” Skull asked in that smug know-it-all tone Lucy was so used to. “Didn’t Karim take care of the boxes? No that must have been another day. Unless…?”

Without thinking, Lucy rushed to find George. She didn’t know whether it was the adrenaline, her feelings for Lockwood or her sense of competition, but she had never climbed down the stairs so fast. She called for Lockwood to follow her and heard the hurried footsteps of three eager agents rushing to meet her first. She made a mental note to stick that bloody ghost-jar in the oven for a good forty-eight hours for being so unreliable.

They found George still hunched over his research in the kitchen, so focused that he didn’t seem to register their arrival, no matter how loudly they opened the door.

“Please don’t bother me because of your bet.” He said without looking up from his notes.

Lucy took a tentative step forward.

“Actually… We were just wondering what you might have done with one of those boxes that

are on the landing.”

“You mean the ones I asked you to sort out about a week ago?”

“Better late than never?” she tried to justify.

“I put most of them in the basement.” He answered after a long sigh.

The four of them rushed through the cupboard-like basement door. Lockwood and Kipps tripped each other the whole way down, resulting in loud banging noises against the iron spiral stairs leading the way to their office. Kipps threw himself on the first box he could find, hurriedly but somehow delicately pulling everything out of it and laying all the items on the floor next to him. Lockwood and Holly did the same, and she joined the party a few seconds later without results. Both rivals looked up from their respective boxes visibly panting with matching defeated looks. Apparently neither had prevailed from their thorough search. Where could that frame be?

“Look there’s another one in the storage room!” Holly exclaimed.

With one last race, they all scurried into the room. Before they could turn around, the door slammed behind them, effectively trapping them among magnesium flares and iron chains.

Kipps spun around first to see the iron door sliding shut. He put all his weight to try holding it back but it was no use. Panicked, he tried to go for the back door, rattling the handle vigorously like it would make a difference.

“It won’t budge, Kipps. I made sure of that.” Came a mocking voice from outside.

“Is this your idea of a joke, Karim?”

The gap in the storage door slid open, and mischievous eyes peaked inside.

“Indeed, it is.”

Only his eyes were visible, but it was obvious from his tone that he was smiling in that self-sufficient way of his.

“Cut it out, I’m claustrophobic.”

“You weren’t that claustrophobic when you slept in that broom closet to avoid bunking with me. I think you’ll be fine.”

The humiliation slowly dawned on him. The four of them looked around the room, unsure of their fate. Kipps looked at his feet, defeated. When he looked back up, he saw the three others at different stages of confusion. They didn’t seem to know what was happening either. However, he noticed that Lucy had a small smile on her face, almost satisfied. Did she betray Lockwood to win the bet? Or worse, was Lockwood up to this?

“What is this about, George?” Lockwood asked before Kipps could.

“This,” he paused dramatically, “is how you lose.”

Slightly squinting through the hatch, George reveled in seeing his friends squirm. He wondered if that made him some sort of evil villain, but he liked seeing Lockwood stare at him with that fly-catching gape way too much to care. Even more so when it was joined by Kipps’s despair-filled eyes. He took the general tensed silence as a sign that they had not in fact anticipated this turn of events.

“So you were playing all along?” Lucy asked.

“No. I just saw an opportunity and took it.”

Kipps rolled his eyes and George couldn’t help smiling wider.

“I knew I had to be weary of you Karim.”

“I appreciate the compliment, Kipps. Though, obviously, you weren’t cautious enough.”

“So how did you double-cross us all?” Lockwood asked. If he didn’t know any better, George could almost hear a certain pride in his friend’s voice.

“Well… Since you’re dead set on turning anything into unnecessary races, I had to find a way to teach you a lesson.”

He heard Lockwood scoff.

“I’m with him on that one.” Lucy added in a lower tone.

“So, when you asked me to make you that fake article to use as decoy, I saw an opening.”

“Hold on. Karim was helping you too? How is that fair?”

“I know Bobby’s pocket-sized, Kipps, but since you had him surveil the house I’d still say your teams were pretty equal.” George retorted.

“You knew about this?”

“You had Bobby watching us?” Lockwood asked his rival.

“I mean, we planted Skull too.” Lucy tried to reason him.

“The skull was in on it too?!” Holly exclaimed.

“When Lockwood asked for my help,” George started again, effectively shutting up any other protest emerging from the small room, “he asked me to replace some parts of the article with more modest words like ‘Lockwood is the best agent/genius.’ Instead, I added my own version, almost certain that Lockwood wouldn’t even bother to check. Turns out I was right.”

“Lockwood! You couldn’t even look through it?” Lucy said.

Kipps let out a self-sufficient laugh.

“Yeah, well, you didn’t check either!”

Before any other fight could erupt, George carried on with his explanations.

“Even though Lockwood kept his hideout secret, it wasn’t hard to figure out that it had something to do with Lucy. I mean… even Kipps thought of it.” Through the hatch, he saw Kipps’s eyes throwing daggers his way. “Which left either the attic or the garden and given the number of times I caught you all coming back inside, it was obvious it was the latter. I didn’t need to bother getting it myself though, Kipps did an excellent job retrieving it, as I knew he would. What I needed was to mess up his plans instead.”

Silence had returned inside the storage room. They all had their eyes focused on his, waiting to hear more about their defeat.

“While Kipps and Holly were outside, and Lucy and Lockwood weren’t paying attention to anything besides themselves, I slipped into the hall to mess with the stairs. I made sure enough of them creaked to make sure Kipps would panic-hide the article. I have to say, you avoided a lot more creaky steps than I thought you would, I was impressed.”

Kipps stared back expectantly, clearly curious to know how he had managed the rest of his plan.

“When you hid it on the landing, I had a much easier target to disrupt all future strategies. Now the last part was harder. I had to move the box one step at a time very quickly to make sure you wouldn’t see me. First, while Lockwood and Kipps were in the library, I kept Holly busy with the case, pretended to go to the bathroom, saw Lucy sneaking out the front door and I ran to put the box in my room. Then, Kipps’s paranoia dragged his team in the library while Lockwood and Lucy where in his bedroom, so I took the box back into the kitchen. Finally, while you were realizing the box was missing, I was busy placing it inside the storage room, like a piece of cheese on a mouse trap. A trap in which you all fell being none the wiser.”

He paused for a minute to savor their reactions. Lucy accepted defeat and laughed at the situation. Holly looked stunned. But the most priceless reactions were the two rivals going through different stages of grief. He wished he could record this moment to look back at it a hundred more times.

“I bet with this whole getting-locked-in-the-storage-room thing you didn’t even see the frame I placed inside the box, right?”

Lockwood and Kipps exchanged a glance and jumped on the box. They battled to get hold of the frame first. Lockwood prevailed, holding the prize up high before looking at it more intently. He scoffed and looked back at him through the hatch.

“Well, what does it say?”

“George Casper Karim is a genius hidden two, no three times-”

“It’s actually four times.” George said with a smile.

“Lockwood is a loser” he continued, “Kipps must incline in front of George and so does Lockwood, Kipps still managed to lose spectacularly to George Karim.” He concluded.

They all looked back at him, Kipps’s murderous eyes contrasting with Lucy’s barely contained laughter.

“Are you proud of this?”

“Very yes, thank you for asking.”

“But where is the actual article?” Lockwood asked, almost too certain he found a chink in his armor.

“Oh, you mean this?” He said as he pulled the piece of paper from his back pocket and unfolded it through the hatch.

There was another stunned silence. Lockwood shook his head, slowly admitting defeat.

“So, what now?” Lockwood asked.

“I believe you both need to say something.”

They exchanged a look, Lockwood now amused.

“George Karim is the best agent/genius.” They said in unison.

General relief flooded the storage room now that the bet was over. George certainly hoped it would deter them both from making more bets any time soon.

“Well, maybe we can celebrate with a cup of tea?” Holly offered.

“That’s a sweet sentiment Holly but I’m not opening this door.”

“What?!” They all exclaimed, louder than necessary.

“You see, I’ve worked all day on our next case and you’re all way behind. I’m gonna need you to catch up. You’ll find the materials on the shelf next to Holly.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Don’t worry, I left some water and a box of doughnuts for you, I’m not a monster.”

Lockwood tried to force the door, like Kipps had earlier. They all shouted a mix of indignation and insults his way. It all sounded like incomprehensible gibberish.

“You can keep screaming if there’s more, but I’ve got a date with Flo!” And with that he left them there, the protests and the clattering of the metal door fading as he went up the stairs.

Note: I’m guessing that, just like Lockwood, you didn’t check the article hanged at the top of this post. You might want to check it out. *wink* (you have to zoom in because it blends in)

#lockwood and co #lockwood and co fic #heist time #brooklyn 99 #anthony lockwood #lucy carlyle #george karim #quill kipps #holly munro #lockwood & co

26 notes · View notes

tarotwithdanise · 2 years

Text

Why are you still single?

A request from anon dropping an ask on my inbox.

༉ ‧ ₊ ˚ how to choose pile? ✧ . ˚

꒰⠀from left to right ; intuitively choose the pile your mind, heart and soul desire for. if you are having trouble choosing the right pile for you, here’s some tips you can do ; (1) take a deep breath (2) close your eyes (3) ask guidance from your guides (4) finally open your eyes and you can choose the right pile for you by the guidance you ask from your guides. if you are still having trouble by choosing the right pile for you let me know because i am willing to help and guide you.

PILE ONE PILE TWO PILE THREE

rules, disclaimer and notes ☆

[ 1. ] just a quick disclaimer : this reading was made for entertainment purposes only. this is obviously a general reading so takes what resonates and leave when it doesn’t, you don’t need to force your energy to read this and leave such a bad comment just to say it doesn’t resonates with you at all because the answer is very obvious! i don’t own any these pictures i collected them from pinterest so credits to the rightful owners.

[ 2. ] please ignore any grammatical errors on my reading since english is not my first language, thank you for understanding!

[ 3. ] third to the last one, if you are not an avid fan of this kind of readings and not totally 100% agree about the outcome of this pac please just ignore this post and don’t engaged anymore, this pac can contains harsh, hurtful comments about you or the other person that can trigger you if possible, so kindly read at your own risk and take how it’ll resonates.

[ 4. ] lastly, be happy and enjoy reading my works — feedbacks, comments, likes, reblogs and follows are really appreciated by the reader. (that’s me, lol :3)

for tips, donation, masterlist and paid readings ☆

TIP JAR DONATION BOX

MASTERLIST PAID READING SERVICES

[ ♡ ] check out my second account @danisetarot.

SOURCE AND CREDITABLE : All of the pictures are collected and downloaded from pinterest , i don’t own any of them but credits goes to the rightful owners however the reading goes and belong to yours truly.

(?) deck used : the antique anatomy tarot.

Pile one

You are still single because you still wanted to uncover the things you didn't know about yourself. You wanted to get to know yourself more deeper than you always sees, you wanted to heal yourself from every pain and traumas you've been experience from your past. You want to achieved and enjoy the life of being single before settling down in a relationship because you might think it might be a distraction to your personal goal. Because right now you may find yourself questioning how challenging is life is. You are still finding a balance when it comes to money, health and emotions. You still in the phase of life where you are improving. Focusing on yourself and needs is your number one priority right now. You are still single because you want to improve and transform yourself first into someone you wanted to be in mind. And might be your ideal type person is someone who is very original about themselves, someone who is very fond of adventure and creativity and someone who will help you to get out of your comfort zone.

Pile two

You are still single because you are still waiting for someone to reach out to you, this person can be your ex, a crush or someone who you currently manifesting. But as far as i see here, they won't reaching out to you anymore because they turning their back to you. You see many readings that they might reached out you with these previous months ends that never even happen because the truth is you are not the part of those topics, those readings wasn't made for you. You barely have self-love for yourself, you still need to find your soul before commiting in relationship. Find what's triggering your red flags and try to fix and heal them. Right now, your guides wanted you to find your purpose in life and be that person. Being a single is the best of option for you right now rather finding love to other people.

Pile three

Idk, pile 3 people but babes. You totally asking why? I mean you have a very high standard to the point no one or real people can't reached that out. It's better if you will get down that standard a little bit so those people who wanted to pursue their love towards you can be somehow suited and applicable for your love. You think very highly about loving someone because you are fond of reading and watching perfect ideal type person. Because you think you deserve better and deserve your deep love. Right now, you may find yourself being fine with your single life and not being in relationship. You somehow love and enjoy being single currently and you might doesn't even bother to find love because you know it always on the corner.

#pick a card #free tarot reading #pick a pile #tarot #tarotcommunity #witchblr #tarotblr #tarot witch #divination #spirituality #intuition #magick #cartomancy #fortune telling

329 notes · View notes

theforgottenmcrmy · 3 months

Text

live reactions to house of the dragon season 2, episode 2

once again, these are just my opinions (about a fictional show and characters, no less). I will not engage with incendiary arguments (if there are any) , but I am always open to polite discussions or thoughts🖤

spoilers below the cut

still loving this new intro🖤

can you imagine how terrifying it would be to be a servant in the Red Keep post 🩸 and 🧀?

Aegon’s voice literally doesn’t even sound like Aegon👀

And just WHERE have you been, Aemond?!

“We mustn’t me shaken by this.” BROOO are you kidding me?!?! That was your great grandson?

“The gods punish us. They punish me.” Yes.

Tyland I can’t even with you lmao-

Paranoid Aegon here we go…

I will give Aegon major kudos for initially objecting to Otto’s plan to parade about his son’s body. 💚 his instincts are there at times, he has just always been coddled, misguided, and not reprimanded when he needed to be.

Why is Aegon the only one spared from this parade? They 110% could have had her refrain from going out in public, and it might have been more effective. “The queen is so distraught, she is unable to leave her chambers.” Where’s the lie? And you spare that poor girl even more torture.

Helaena never wanted this, never wanted to be queen.💔 She’s not a queen who lost a prince, she is just a mother who lost her son.

Helaena is seeing something, I just don’t know what…

Where are the damn guards in this show?!?! So six go to unstick the carriage, you telling me you only have a handful of guards escorting the queen and dowager queen out and about in public?🤔

Daemon’s side eye I cannot😭😂-

Even Rhaenyra knows Helaena is innocent🖤

Anyone else’s Max suddenly run into an error at this point?

The fact that Daemon actually thinks it’s humorous😅

Godssssss this argument is painful but good, and it’s needed, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it💔

“You struck down a child.” The audible HURT in her words-

Baela has had a handful of scenes, if even that, and I already feel like we as the audience know who her character is and what she’s about right away. And her and Rhaenyra’s relationship dynamic is so honestly wholesome.

Whatever brownie points Aegon gained earlier are lost for him not having the balls to say even a WORD to Helaena, who ALSO lost a child, who, unlike him, had to go be paraded about the public for HIS political advantage.

Seeing Rhaenyra with her younger sons makes me seriously wonder what if🥺

Feeling guilty, Ser Crispy? Good.

REALLY? This b*tch really out here preaching about purity rn?! Gtfo now.

And NOW he’s pointing fingers?! Is this guy 35, or 5?!

“He’s murdered, on YOUR watch-“ is he dying soon? He’s dying soon, right? Honestly his death can’t come soon enough and I doubt it’ll even be this season-

Otto and Cole are probably the two most irredeemable characters on this whole show. Literally, team black or team green, I think just about every other person you can make an argument for. But these two have got nothing. Name me one thing, one expression of care for another that was not ultimately self serving for either of them in the end. I’ll wait.

“And Ser Harwin Strong?” BAELA KNOWS 🚨 BAELA KNOWS, and she doesn’t give AF, we stan🖤🖤🖤

This little relationship Aemond has going on is 🚩 🚩 🚩 where are this boy’s parents at-?! … Oh, wait.

“Where he does, he wishes to be his own master.” Rhaenys and Daemon just get each other. Their dynamic is so interesting.

“A week, or forever I do not know.” She sounds so unbothered😂😂😂

Uh oh Alicent, Rhaenyra may have just found a new bff👀 and it only took 16+ years

Seasmoke is that you?!?!?! Wait, what does this mean for Laenor though?🥲

Errors are STILL being made in the wake of Viserys’s death I see…

The dog’s reaction nooo😭😭😭

“The king is my grandson, and my grandson is a fool. He’s worse than a fool, he’s murdered innocent men!” You can say allll the foul stuff about Otto you want, and you’d be right. But he is not wrong in this moment. This reaction is valid, and in my opinion sound council. The delivery could be tailored to better fit Aegon’s current headspace, but Otto’s reaction is still valid here I feel.

Crazy how Aegon went from wanting the small folk’s approval to scoffing at the need for it.

“Ser Criston Cole has acted.” BOY if you knew HOW Ser Criston Cole has been acting-

Also crazy how fast Aegon went from being pissed with Cole being “in bed” at the time of Jaehaerys’s murder to praising him and putting him in a pedestal.

“It’s time the bitch queen paid the price.” Could Larys have his guys cut out HIS tongue now?! Please??? Literally no one but Aegon, who’s grieving, paranoid, and a little off the rails rn, wants to hear a damn thing from him. Not even his dowager queen booty call wants anything from him rn.

I think Otto’s gonna give himself a heart attack.

Yooooo, Otto realizing that Aegon is going to be waaaaaaay harder to control than Viserys ever was😭😂😂😂 I love it. I need more. This is wonderful.

“He made me king.” *Otto laughs.*

“You will regret this.” THAT actually may be the truest words Otto has ever spoken to anyone, any king, in his life.

Mysaria is already proving her loyalty, we love to see it🖤

Moral of the story is everyone, the Greens and the Blacks, need better guards like😅

If anything happens to Elinda-

Oooo, we’re doing this here and now?🥲

Ser Erryk died with more honor than Criston EVER had. And that is a hill I will die on myself.

Hell, even Arryk had more honor than Criston.

DAERON?!?!?!?!??!!?? LET’S F’ING GO

Oh, you can ask for the Tyrell’s to help, but something tells me you won’t get it👀

It’s honestly tragic as hell how Alicent was a victim of her father’s plots in her youth, and continues to be one as an adult. (I am in no way saying she has not made her own choices throughout her life, but I still stand by this statement.)

THE NERVE OF THIS MAN-

THE NERVE OF THIS WOMAN-

Okay, team black, team green, team small folk, idc- can we please all agree that everyone is anti-Criston Cole?

Aemond was not in this episode nearly enough for what happened in the last one.

#house of the dragon #HOTD #house of the dragon season 2 #hotd2 #game of thrones #got

13 notes · View notes

pixelatedraindrops · 4 months

Note

So I know this may be a weird one but i really like the idea of a platonic lightningbolt (desuhiko and vivia) where either Vivia or Desuhiko somehow get themselves sick and the other looks after them to the best of their abilities. What would you think about that?

(Sorry for my late response!! Yuma Month kept me busy 💦)

Okay first of all, Lightningbolt is such an adorable pairing name platonic or not. I love it xD

Second, I’ll try to think of a scenario for both parties since that sounds more fun. I’ll start with sickie Vivia and caretaker Desuhiko.

📖 Vivia would likely get sick more than Desuhiko due to his already poor health and how much he willing walks in dreary or rainy weather with little to no protection to himself. Vivia would likely contract a cold (which is Japanese media is usually just a fever) Desuhiko would likely try to keep Vivia warm, loaning him various warm garments from his disguise bag such as a robe or a sweater and scarf to keep warm, and maybe he also has a warm blanket in there too. Since Vivia prefers peace and quiet, Desuhiko despite being a loudmouth would respect it and try to keep his volume down. He’d likely try to tell Vivia a story to try to help relax him, but the story would be pretty jumbled and make little to no sense. (he’s never done this before) So Vivia tries to alter the story to make more sense and fit his tastes better, and despite Vivia not getting any rest as intended, he seems to be very engaged and looked distracted and happy, so Desuhiko doesn’t stop him.

⚡️ Desuhiko on the other hand I feel is a fairly healthy individual. Seeing him ill is honestly very hard for me. So if I do give him an illness, it’ll be the one I gave him in my NDA illness post; Laryngitis. If Desuhiko gets any sort of ailment, it would likely involve his voice being lost. The first thing Vivia would do is diagnose the issue and since he likely has read medical books, he knows various methods of how to treat it or make things easier for him. He guides Desuhiko through all the steps to gargling water, not speaking, and drinking warm ginger honey tea. Vivia reads Desuhiko one of his various forms a literature while he rests and sweats out the small fever he has, and he lets Desuhiko pick which book he wants to hear. Vivia also takes a nap with Desuhiko because he starts to get sleepy after reading to him, so once he’s done and Desuhiko falls asleep, he falls asleep either beside him, or at his feet like a pet. They’d nap together for hours.

I hope this is something for you!! Thanks for the ask! And apologies again for the delay!

#pixel answers #rain code #whumpcode #whumpcode ask #desuhiko thunderbolt #vivia twilight

13 notes · View notes

blazinginsquids · 8 months

Text

Utena Black Rose Arc Elevator Analysis (Case by case)

(Quick context- I’m going to do the rest of the characters, but I wanted to post what I’ve written so far. I’m going to post one character at a time as I do their analysis.)

So, i wanted to take my own jab at analyzing the elevator in Revolutionary Girl Utena. I can’t promise it’ll be the most extraordinary analysis of this scene only because it’s been analyzed a million times (As has everything in Utena, with good reason of course.) I doubt I’m the first person who’s reached this line of thought or chose to analyze these scenes this way, but I still thought it’d be fun.

So, in the black rose arc, every time somebody went down the elevator and told a confession, the picture in the frame would go from butterfly, cocoon, caterpillar, and leaf. I think this is an allegory for how the deeper into the duelist’s motives they get, the less complicated their motives are, as they become exposed as results of more raw emotions such as anger or jealousy. I also believe that the butterfly represents the way the duelist believes the situation is in the outside world, whereas the leaf represents their truest opinion of the situation, which tends to have some sort of shift from what the originally said about it. The subsequent duels are allegories for causing revolution, but rather than being about a historical revolution, I believe it’s in reference to the dilemma that the character revolves around. I thought it would be interesting to look at this case by case.

Kanae:

Butterfly: Kanae explains that she’s engaged to Akio and that she wants to love him, and genuinely likes him as a person. She feels lucky to be as well off as she is. The complication here is that there’s an exception. She doesn’t explain the exception until after the frame is changed from butterfly to cocoon, implying that she tries to hide this.

Cocoon: The only thing mentioned in this stage is that Akio has a younger sister, who Kanae believes doesn’t like her. This could be because there’s something about this information that she feels the need to filter more, whether out of paranoia or some other fear. It is the truth about how she feels, but it’s deeper than that.

Caterpillar: She gives an anecdote about a time she gave Anthy her favorite scarf, and Anthy wiped her glasses with it, despite Kanae being sure she’d told Anthy that wasn’t what the scarf was for. She had grown anxious after Anthy smiled at her, and later her father had gotten sick. She was convinced that Anthy was somehow responsible. Here we can see what seems to be the whole truth, that Kanae is paranoid regarding Anthy. While this in of itself it still very true, it is by no means the rawest layer of these feelings that Kanae has.

Leaf: In the final stage, Kanae finishes by saying she’s tried everything to get Anthy to like her. This reveals the rawest understanding. While Kanae’s reaction to Anthy could be chalked up to mere paranoia, it’s much deeper in the sense that the paranoia was not the origin. The origin seems to be a desire to gets others to like her. This tells us that Kanae is a people pleaser by nature and that her dilemma in life revolves around whether or not people like her. She fights for her desire to be a likable person to others.

#revolutionary girl utena #revolutionary girl utena analysis

20 notes · View notes

duckiemimi · 28 days

Note

i love what u had to say about second chances as a theme in jjk, and I don’t remember if u said anything in relation to megumi. sorry if this is incoherent or nonsensical, I binged the manga so I could be missing things!

I’m trying to think about what megumi is facing right now & how it’ll effect the plot later? I don’t think he’s as good as dead, but i also don’t think we’re getting that ultimate power re-up or whatever once he “deals with his soul” Or something 😭…

idk what I’m trying to get @ here bc i def lost my train of thought but in no way am i trying to center megumi when yuji is the mc!!!! but in a way, I think megumi was a marker of the new gen for gojo, a second chance? i think saving megumi once more could also reflect the passing of the baton. if this makes any sense? beyond my frustration with the unnecessary megumi hate, i think gege’s emphasis on megumi’s lack of will makes a lot of sense & is deliberate. i would’ve loved to see the survival of megumi, esp w the help of gojo, it would reinforce those themes of hope & community & Allie’s we saw from jjk 0!

i just really hope megumi isn’t killed off, especially in this way. i would love to hear ur honest thoughts about what u think megumi’s role in this arc is!! if u also don’t have thoughts regarding this maybe something related? thank u for always engaging

i hope ur doing well, we rlly miss u! 🩷🩷

i'm sorry for taking so long to answer! but given the recent leaks (which i hope you're caught up with before reading this), i thought it'd be nice to look back on how we thought before knowing what happens! and i'm really really happy you took the time to read the posts i've written to discuss them with me :)

268 leaks ahead, i hope you've caught up before reading!

have you caught up yet?

yes?

well! megumi is alive and in one piece! 268 felt like whiplash at breakneck speed, but you're on the nose here. saving megumi (it's fitting that his name means "blessing") is everything the last generation couldn't achieve, from camaraderie and finding meaning to life other than a cog-like role. i think both megumi and yuuji serve as a marker for the story's second chance at ending generational cycles. after chapter 265 and 266, i can now confidently say that megumi's lack of will was exactly what gege was going for. that was why he needed "saving," just like geto once did more than a decade ago. saving megumi would be saving jujutsu at this point, rectifying the "sins" of the past and moving forward with new hope. (i wrote something about geto and fatalism here! click!) after rereading some chapters, aside from geto and gojo parallels, i could even pull some parallels with kenjaku and tengen, but i'll write that piece sometime later.

yea! megumi is quite literally the blessing the ending needed! he needed to live and be saved to finish the overarching thesis of love and ending cycles!

(also, thank you for checking up on me there! well-appreciated, this made my day <3)

#again i'm very pleasantly surprised my guesstimations were right like i'm dumbfounded #still a relatively rushed ending but not as bad as i thought it'd be! or maybe i'm just too elated right now...#jjk #jjk 268 #jjk leaks #jjk spoilers #jujutsu kaisen #megumi #asks

8 notes · View notes

ivryne · 2 years

Text

. . . 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐲 ! ✧

SYNOPSIS. Genshin men’s voicelines abt you as their lover !

✦ ╮ayato, kazuha, albedo, xiao

✦ ╮gn!reader

✦ ╮might be ooc but I’ll try my best hehe

NOTE. I’ve been seeing posts like this all over tumblr so I wanted to try too hehe. So you can say this post is inspired by those ppl <3 Also not proofread bc I’m so lazy :0

01. Kamisato Ayato

About [ Name ] : Whispers of the citizens | 🔓friendship lvl 4

“Ah I see…there are rumors regarding my engagement. Well fortunately, I can confirm such rumor. Hm? You would like to know more about them? Well it’ll be my pleasure to oblige. [ Name ]…they are my definition of perfection. I cannot imagine being engaged with someone rather than them. They’re determined—well principled, yet so full of compassion. I apologize, I’m afraid I have to stop now or else I wouldn’t be able to contain myself to stop. hehe. But perhaps if you’re quite keen on getting to know them, we shall schedule a tea time with them. When they are not busy, of course. I’m sure they’ll adore you as well.”

The traveler and Ayato eventually scheduled a tea time with you. And of course, who are you to refuse a tea time the the most renowned traveler. In the tea session, you both learn so much about each other. You definitely get along with the traveler and plans more tea sessions for the future—along with Ayaka too even. Ayato watches you get along with his friends and he can’t get rid of that small smile on his face as he looks at you with admiration <33

About [ Name ] : Sweet treats | 🔓 friendship lvl 6

“ [ Name ] is always so fond of sweet treats. Ah I see a dango stand not quite far from where we are now. Perhaps I should get a few for them before returning home…”

The ever so caring commissioner. He’s definitely one to buy things that reminded him of you with no question. Never minding the price. As long as it will bring a smile to your face, he doesn’t really care how much it’s going to cost. Because the joy on your face, is definitely priceless ^^

02. Kaedehara Kazuha

About [ Name ] : Wherever the wind leads | 🔓 friendship lvl 4

“ [ Name ]? Oh? You know of them? Ah why am I surprised. They seem to put that effect on people. Hm? You would like to know more about them? Of course. [ Name ] and I have known each other since we were young. It only makes sense as the [ l/n ] clan and the Kaedehara clan has always maintain a deep connection. So it was no more than a pleasant surprise when both clans found out about our relationship. Ah yes, I do miss them. But I know, wherever the wind leads, it will always lead me back to them.”

Distance brings fondness is what they say. Though it is partly true, you cannot help but miss those days spent with your lover. However, all your worries and despair are swept away when you feel a familiar breeze engulfing you. With a familiar scent lingering in the wind, you know just who it is. Every once in a while when the Alcor lies in Ritou, Kazuha never forgets to visit your family estate. Giving alongs gifts and greetings to you and your family yes he’s definitely that son-in-law material. Even with his constant life of wandering, he will always come back home to you <33.

About [ Name ] : Traveling | 🔓 friendship lvl 6

“I’ve always dream of traveling with [ Name ]. Exploring the wanders of Tevyat with them. The human life is still bound to time and I would like to spend my outmost time with them. Hm? Why don’t I ask them? Well, being the first child of the [ l/n ] clan, they have a plethora of duties. It’s only fair for me to wait for an opportunity. I do not wish to bother them. However, [ Name ] does need a little break…”

As like Kazuha mentioned, being the first born in your clan, you have thousands of duties. Though, once Kazuha persuaded your parents for your much needed vacation, you obliged. Because your clan isn’t going to die without you around for a few weeks right?

03. Albedo

About [ Name ] : Company | 🔓 friendship lvl 4

“ [ Name ] ? Yes, our scribe of the Knights of Favonius. It wouldn’t be a surprise if you do know of them. They are quite popular amongst the citizens. Oh? You’re curious about our relation? Ah it’s nothing much. They just like to accompany me during experiments in Dragonspine sometimes—to document the experiment of course. It’s only because of their job, really.

Albedo might not be one to indulge on such mortal emotions, but right now, dusty pink seems to take over his pale features.

Albedo is definitely one to keep a mental or physical note on his symptoms whenever your around. ( Increased heartbeat, nervousness, flushed cheeks, etc )

And when he finally realized his prolonged feelings for you, he’ll try to analyze your movements around him to see if he can confirm that you feel the same. And once his hypothesis can be confirmed, he’ll ask you out 😵‍💫

About [ Name ] : Sleepless nights | 🔓 friendship lvl 6

“ Being the scribe of the Knights of Favonius, there are quite many things to be done. Although, it is still not an excuse to spend sleepless nights. I have warned them multiple times about this. How sleep is important for the human body. But they are still always so stubborn. Huh? What do you mean I’m one to talk? ”

Bro Albedo is a hypocrite fr bc he also likes to spend sleepless nights. Though, in nights like this, where your work is piling up more than usual, Albedo takes the liberty to visit your office. The alchemist watches your scribbling figure with a displeased expression. And once your tired eyes met his, you know your done x_x. Now he’s definitely gonna drag you to bed for your much needed rest. But don’t worry, he’s only doing that because he cares abt you and don’t want to to die of exhaustion <3.

I feel like he is one to leave like a kiss on the forehead when you want to sleep and definitely in for cuddles. So the both of you sleep all your tiredness away, leaving all the pain of work for tomorrow.

04. Xiao

About [ Name ] : Insufferable | 🔓 friendship lvl 4

“ You want to know what I think about [ Name ] ? Why is that important? I’ve got other things to do…Fine. I think [ Name ] is insufferable. Everywhere I go they’re just…there. They clearly know how to get on my nerve. That cheeky smile of them makes me- Ugh never mind. ”

It’s been centuries since you know the yaksha. Being one of the Adeptis that contributed in the Archon war yourself, you empathize on his pain. So you took the liberty to make him at least a bit happy. To bring at least a little light to his lightless worldview. Even though it might not seem like it, your occasional visits to the Wangshu Inn, brings joy to his tainted soul not that he’ll actually tell you. But ofc you know it :p

About [ Name ] : Karmic debt | 🔓 friendship lvl 6

“ Yes. Although it is quite hard for me to admit, being with them does ease my karmic debt. Don’t even think of mentioning this to them. What? They already know? Tch of course they do. It’s just- Not everyone can handle my karmic debt. But [ Name ] isn’t one of them. Though [ Name ] is still so much to handle. They are too careless. They would sacrifice themselves in a heartbeat for someone they don’t even know- Why are you looking at me like that?

Like Albedo, he’s definitely also a hypocrite 💀 Like ur one yo talk mr. self sacrifice. But alas, he really does care for you even though it look centuries for him to admit it yes that long.

Though he is right. You are too careless sometimes like him. He just doesn’t want to see you hurt like last time.

After hearing a call of his name, the Yaksha did not think twice to head to the location of the caller. His amber eyes that once show no emotions, averted to panic and worry as he sees you and specifically your condition. Sitting on the field of grass with an large gash and blood dripping from your leg, you look up to him with a small innocent smile. “Hi”. It’s safe to say that Xiao is not pleased.

do not repost, share, or copy ! Reblogs and likes very much appreciated!! Tyyy for taking ur time to read this. I’m planning on a part two w this so stay tuned! hehe

#genshin headcanons #genshin impact #xiao x reader #kazuha x reader #ayato x reader #albedo x reader #kamisato ayato #kazuha #albedo #genshin xiao #genshin x reader #genshin imagines

364 notes · View notes

emotionallychargedtowel · 2 years

Text

re-evaluating pursuing & distancing in Utsukushii Kare season 1

I promised an analysis of Utsukushii Kare season 2 overall a while back. I ended up rewatching the whole series to try to get everything fresh and accurate in my mind, which was helpful, but it also gave me, well, too many ideas for one post. So now the plan is to address these thoughts in chunks that will hopefully add up to something useful.

I started my examination of pursuer-distancer dynamics in Utsukushii Kare with a pretty strong assumption that while their ways of fulfilling their roles were sometimes unusual, Hira was definitely the pursuer in the relationship and Kiyoi was the distancer. As I watched season 2, I increasingly saw Kiyoi as pursuing Hira. But now that I’ve gone back and rewatched the whole series, I think I failed to recognize the ways in which Kiyoi was always pursuing Hira. I think this shift in my thinking really sheds some light on other aspects of their relationship and the story more broadly, and it shows more continuity between seasons 1 and 2 than I had previously noticed.

I’ve mentioned this before, but there’s a real difference between the kind of pursuit where you are seeking to establish a relationship with someone and the kind where you are seeking intimacy with someone you’re already in a relationship with. And these differences often map onto role differences and relational styles, including gendered ones. Think about how things go in a stereotypical, heteronormative relationship. Before a relationship is established, men are supposed to make the first move (women, on the other hand, can face negative consequences if they try this). But once a relationship is under way, we’re more likely to see women pursuing and men distancing when it comes to intimacy. (A frequent exception is pursuing physical intimacy, which can often be an area in which roles are flipped, with pursuers becoming distancers and vice versa.) At the same time, intimacy-seeking can happen outside of a fully formed romantic relationship. In other words, the kind of pursuing that happens within a relationship can also happen before a relationship has fully gotten off of the ground.

I’m going to try to maintain distinctions between the following types of pursuit:

Pursuing contact; making an effort to spend time with the other person. (This type can happen within an effort to form a relationship or within an existing one and these contexts can cause big differences.)

Pursuing emotional intimacy, including showing vulnerability, self-disclosing, and processing/resolving problems in the relationship. (This type is most crucial after a relationship has started but not only can it occur before that, it really needs to in order for the relationship to start on a meaningful basis.)

Pursuing physical intimacy; this doesn’t necessarily have to mean sexual contact only, but some non-sexual types of physical intimacy could be primarily/entirely about emotional intimacy and then they’d be a better fit with that category than this one.

(By the way, these aren’t from any sort of existing typology I found or anything like that. They’re just categories that came up and seemed significant as I was looking at examples here.)

Next, I’m going to to through a timeline of Hira and Kiyoi’s relationship in season 1 with an eye toward who is engaged in some kind of pursuit of contact and/or intimacy. This is a close read and rather lengthy but for folks who are engaged enough with this show to want to dig into the story deeply I hope it’ll be interesting.

This is also the kind of thing that I would expect folks to be able to legitimately disagree about. A lot of our perceptions of these things will be affected by our own frames of reference and the roles we tend to take up in relationships.

I want to note that I think there’s a real difference between pursuing vs. distancing and the seme/uke trope. Actually, looking closely at Utsukushii Kare has really informed how I see this. I’m still working out what I think about it at this point, but for now I’ll just say that despite seeming like they’d overlap a lot, pursuer/distancer and seme/uke roles don’t map onto one other very readily. Actually, I’m increasingly finding that it’s often ukes who do more pursuing with regard to emotional intimacy than semes, which seems important. Anyway, I’ll circle back to that eventually.

One final note before I get started: I keep forgetting to credit @lollipopsub for their excellent subtitles, which I’m referring to in almost every case here and in my other posts, so I’m circling back with an edit to add a tag for them here. I highly recommend checking out their stuff. They pay a lot of attention to important details, give well-placed translator’s notes, and have really helped with my understanding of the show.

On to the season 1 timeline!

Kiyoi “saves” Hira on their first day by walking into class late when he’s struggling with introducing himself to the class. Not really an interaction, per se. They do make strong impressions on each other that set them up for what happens later. Hira says Kiyoi “grabbed hold of me like a tidal wave” from that first time he saw him. Kiyoi sees Hira as a “useless loser” but he’s so struck by “the look in his eyes as if I were the only thing in the world” that he becomes curious about him.

Who’s pursuing here? No one, really. Except that Hira’s way of looking at Kiyoi is so intense and conspicuous that it could really be considered a kind of pursuit (a theme that continues as the story progresses).

(screenshot via Foreigner on MDL )

Hira walks up to Kiyoi as he’s laying down (seemingly asleep) on a bank of lockers in an otherwise uninhabited classroom. Kiyoi is actually pretending to be asleep. “I didn’t care about him,” he says later, “I just wanted to see what he’d do–this guy who was always staring at me. That was all.” When Hira looks at him pretending to sleep and whispers “so beautiful” to himself, Kiyoi says it’s “the first time I’d received a compliment so earnest,” and that he “wanted those eyes on me again.” In retrospect, he realizes there was “a desire in me” that he “didn’t yet know how to name”--that he was starting to have feelings for Hira. Hira also thanks Kiyoi for what happened on “introduction day” and Kiyoi responds by saying, “What the hell. You’re gross.”

Who’s pursuing here? Kiyoi set up the interaction in a way, but it’s also partly a matter of chance. Hira isn’t pursuing Kiyoi when he calls him beautiful as he doesn’t think he’s awake. Kiyoi’s rude comments could be seen as distancing (though they may appeal to Hira).

(screenshot via amigo_love on MDL)

Hira and Kiyoi get assigned to cleaning duty together and stuff ensues. At first, Hira is distressed by this. “A king and a commoner like me aren’t supposed to mingle,” he thinks. Kiyoi uses the cleanup duty assignment to rope Hira into doing things for him and the whole Shirota crew. This is one of the few times that Kiyoi actively chooses something that leads to Hira being bullied or dominated, and it’s a decisive choice. He’s not thinking about it that way, of course. “It started out just as a whim. I had to know what he wanted from me. I had to know the emotions hiding behind those eyes.” But once Hira waits for a table at the diner for the group, his “gofer” role is pretty much established.

Who’s pursuing here? Kiyoi. Neither of them chose the cleaning duty assignment, but once it happens, Kiyoi wrangles Hira into being a “gofer” in order to find out more about him.

Hira follows Kiyoi after seeing him on the street and learns he takes dance classes; they have a conversation in which Kiyoi asks him to keep this a secret from the others at school. Hira isn’t trying to interact with Kiyoi here. He just wants to watch him. Kiyoi’s wise to ask Hira not to talk about the dance classes. Later events show that if their peers had learned about them he may well have been targeted for bullying. The interaction about the secret is important. Kiyoi is left wondering if Hira is “different from the rest” and finds his heart racing during their conversation, and Hira thinks, “it’s the first time I ever looked this directly at someone.”

Who’s pursuing here? Neither of them. They get to know each other better and end up sharing a secret, but neither intentionally created the situation or took advantage of it much. (

(screenshot via Vanessa Ferey on MDL)

Kiyoi suggests having the summer break get-together at Hira’s house and he chooses to come with Hira to get ice cream when he could easily have avoided it. The fact that Hira lives alone is a handy excuse to meet with the others there. We never get any detail on Kiyoi’s perspective on this interaction, but it would stand to reason if he had remained intrigued by Hira. After the girls protest when Kiyoi draws the short straw that would make him accompany Hira to the store, Hira offers to go on his own. But Kiyoi leaves soon after and catches up with him. It’s completely his decision. This leads to Kiyoi riding on the back of Hira’s bike and the two of them getting in trouble. Hira, of course, comes up with other reasons in his mind for Kiyoi’s decisions, such as wanting to make sure Hira was really keeping his secret.

Who’s pursuing here? Kiyoi. He creates the situation by initiating the hangout, then makes a point of going with Hira on his errand.

Hira and Kiyoi speak alone after Kiyoi loses the contest. Hira plays a more active role in creating this situation. He follows Kiyoi backstage and sees him cry and punch a wall in response to not performing as well in the contest as he’d hoped. Then, when Kiyoi leaves the diner, he follows him to, well, whatever that place is with the circular bench and the fairy lights. I’d actually forgotten something important about this scene. Hira follows Kiyoi, but Kiyoi does something surprising once he sees him. Well, first he calls him “stalker.” But then, pretty much out of the blue, he tells Hira, “As a kid, I dreamed of getting inside the TV,” and goes on to confide in him about his childhood dreams of becoming a performer. This is very out of the ordinary for him and involves seriously vulnerable stuff. This is probably one of the reasons he turns on Hira so quickly afterward–he seems to feel overexposed. At that point, he pushes Hira away more strongly than at any other point in season 1, responding to his declaration that he likes him “like crazy” by saying, “I hate you like crazy! You’re fucking disgusting.”

Who’s pursuing here? Hira is literally pursuing Kiyoi by following him around at two different points. But it’s notable that Kiyoi pursues Hira emotionally by opening up to him in such an unguarded way (even if he does become guarded again super quickly).

Shirota dumps tomato juice on Kiyoi, Hira defends him, and they talk in an empty classroom afterward, leading to the famous hand kiss. Neither Kiyoi nor Hira initiates the event that brings them together–it’s obviously not either’s idea for Shirota to bully Kiyoi in this way. Hira responds with a degree of loyalty (and violence) that makes a huge impression on Kiyoi. Hira also goes and sits with Kiyoi afterward of his own accord. Their subsequent conversation is a turning point in their relationship. Kiyoi guides the conversation into very personal subject matter, asking if Hira “likes men.” Hira, of course, completely misses the subtext that this would be something he’d have in common with Kiyoi. He responds by telling Kiyoi that he is the only person he is now, or has ever been, attracted to. Then Kiyoi asks Hira if he wants to kiss him and offers him his hand. He fakes him out at first, pulling his hand away at the last moment. But he still presents it again and lets Hira kiss it.

Who’s pursuing here? Hira does take some initiative, both by defending Kiyoi and going to sit with him. But it’s Kiyoi who controls the conversation and steers it toward personal topics and subject matter related to their relationship, and it’s Kiyoi who offers to let Hira kiss his hand.

Hira and Kiyoi start hanging out together regularly. After the juice incident, they start spending time together pretty often. Hira doesn’t seem to invest any meaning in the timing of this, but it’s obvious that between the way he defended him and the significance of their interaction afterward, there’s been a shift in how Kiyoi sees their relationship. Kiyoi actually hinted at their spending more time together even before this, like after their water-fight when he tells Hira that he needs to stay stocked up on ginger ale at home (and then good ol’ oblivious Hira thinks, “Why would he say that?”). But the day of the juice incident clinched it for Kiyoi. He still has his doubts about Hira in some ways, but his loyalty and protectiveness at a time when others abandoned him was a big deal. As Kiyoi puts it, “he sacrifices everything for my sake.”

Who’s pursuing here? We don’t see anyone initiating hanging out, but let’s get real. It was Kiyoi. Hira would never.

And then we come to the final moment of their time in high school: the graduation day kiss. This is almost entirely Kiyoi’s doing. He goes off by himself to a secluded place after making sure that Hira hears him announcing he’s leaving. It’s up to Hira to follow him, which he does. Kiyoi desperately wants Hira to make some kind of declaration of love or put the moves on him somehow, but as usual Hira is way too oblivious to pick up on any hint of that. So Kiyoi has to take action himself. He kisses Hira, freaks out, and runs off. To most people, kissing someone is interpreted as a sign that you might be interested in them romantically and/or sexually. Naturally, Hira interprets it as “a kiss given out of pity,” Kiyoi’s way of “telling me to stop chasing him.” It’s pretty frustrating to hear Hira go on from there to say that “every word that passes Kiyoi’s lips never leaves my mind….I embrace everything that Kiyoi gives me,” when he’s actually rejecting what Kiyoi is offering him and putting words in his mouth. I guess he’s just working overtime to convince himself. And then, of course, he changes his phone number for no actual reason.

Who’s pursuing here? It’s Kiyoi again. Hira followed him to the back of the school, as he was intended to. That’s his contribution. Kiyoi orchestrated the whole thing and when it was clear Hira wasn’t going to do anything, he planted one on him. And then Hira pulled a massive distancing move. He misinterpreted Kiyoi to an extent that seems almost willful, stopped trying to see him, and changed his phone number, making it impossible for Kiyoi to reach him.

Aaaaaand then after more than a year apart, Hira and Kiyoi meet up again when Koyama takes Hira to the play Kiyoi is in. Kiyoi hears about someone named Hira from the older Koyama, one thing leads to another, and he arranges for Hira to be invited to the play. He’s not exactly friendly when they do see each other, but for Hira, being called “stalker” is a form of flirting. Hira provides his trademark stare which, to be fair, seems to be a big part of what Kiyoi was hoping for. But he doesn’t stay for the afterparty or do anything to maintain contact with Kiyoi.

Who’s pursuing here? Kiyoi pulled all the strings and all Hira did was do his trademark stare. Though maybe I shouldn’t downplay that since it’s actually a pretty big deal to Kiyoi.

(screenshot via Ginger Ale on MDL)

Hira goes to the play a second time in a terrible disguise, attends the afterparty, and hangs out with Kiyoi in the park, after which Kiyoi asks him if he’s dating Koyama. Did Hira actually make a move this time? Maybe. He went to see Kiyoi’s play again, without Koyama this time, while wearing a really obvious disguise that made him stand out even more than his usual appearance. Kiyoi invited him to the afterparty again and he went. Those two weirdos spent the whole party obsessing over each other from across the room, drank too much because they were too worked up, and ended up sobering up in the park. They have a pretty decent conversation where Kiyoi dropped lots of hints and Hira got none of them, culminating in Kiyoi asking him at the train station if he’s dating Koyama and an oblivious Hira being like, “why do you ask?”

Who’s pursuing here? Well, Hira does come to the play of his own volition, which is something, but his disguise implies he wasn’t actually trying to interact with Kiyoi, just watch him from afar…unless a part of him knows it sucks? Kiyoi makes a good effort with the hints and making cute lil faces at Hira. It’s all for nought but at least he’s trying.

Kiyoi calls Hira (while pretending it was a wrong number), uses it as an excuse to ask if he can rehearse at his house, then shows up and finds Koyama clinging to him. Kiyoi plays off the phone call like it was an accident, which is somewhat shitty. But at least he reached out. Hira says yes to the rehearsing thing. It’s not his fault Koyama tackles him just as Kiyoi is walking in (on purpose?). Kiyoi pulls his usual “I don’t give a shit” thing in response.

Who’s pursuing here? Kiyoi initiates contact, albeit in a fairly cowardly way. Hira is receptive but doesn’t do much. But it’s not his fault Koyama cockblocked him.

Hira fills in for the lighting person at Kiyoi’s play, stuff happens, yada yada, he licks the blood off of Kiyoi’s hurt finger, almost kisses him but doesn’t, then tells Kiyoi he can’t date him because he’s a king and he’s just his servant, after which he totally ignores Kiyoi telling him he likes him back. This is all after Koyama tells Kiyoi what Hira told him about the one beautiful person he’d taken photos of and how he loved them beyond reason and arranges for Hira to pick up that lighting shift so they’ll have a reason to see each other. Kiyoi kicks a table leg out of frustration and they end up getting knocked down by a bunch of junk and Kiyoi’s finger gets hurt, which leads to the licking situation, and almost-kiss, and Hira full-on rejecting Kiyoi whether he realizes it or not.

Who’s pursuing here? Well, honestly, Koyama’s doing more to help than either of these two goofballs. Kiyoi’s fed up from the start and I can’t blame him. Hira’s inability to process information that doesn’t match up with his personal mythology is on clear display here. There’s a reason this is their lowest point during season 1.

Hira tells Kiyoi over voicemail that he’s going to the place he first “saved” him (their high school) to “dedicate the night” to his love for him, after which he’ll forget him (sure you will, buddy). Kiyoi shows up, there’s a chase and a scuffle, and they finally have it out, then get together. Hira does something decisive here for once. He says he’s serious about putting their relationship behind him, but he’s clearly disappointed when he thinks Kiyoi won’t come. It’s extremely on-brand for Hira to reach out to someone not by explicitly seeking connection but by expressing his (supposed) resignation and hoping they’ll swoop in. Kiyoi tells himself he won’t come, then does, then runs away as soon as Hira sees him. When they do start to talk, Hira says a lot of the usual Hira things. Talking about how much he loves him, begging him not to go. But he offers little else until Kiyoi shifts things by opening up big time, including telling him yet again that he returns his feelings (in a really angry way–I’m pretty sure it’s the only confession I’ve seen in a drama that involves someone yelling “baka!” at the object of their affections–but it’s understandable). Kiyoi goes through their history and points out example after example of how Hira expressed through words and actions that he loved Kiyoi but failed to follow through, even though at times he was pretty clear about reciprocating his feelings (especially when he kissed him). We know from season 2 that Hira doesn’t really internalize the part about not viewing Kiyoi as a “king,” but at least in this moment, he seems to at least sort of get that Kiyoi likes him back and that he needs for him to see that and respond instead of talking himself into an imaginary rejection. Hira does put himself out there in one really notable way: he asks if he can touch Kiyoi, hugs him, and then lays him down on a danged desk and makes out with him. It’s honestly a red letter day for Hira showing some guts.

Who’s pursuing here? Although it’s in a backhanded way, Hira initiates this interaction. And in a way, he shows vulnerability and genuinely tries to engage Kiyoi. But things only start to change, start to open up the possibility of a real relationship, when Kiyoi opens up about his feelings for Hira and how Hira’s behavior has affected him. That said, Hira makes a big contribution too by literally reaching out to Kiyoi and initiating making out with him like he’s an “ordinary” human being.

That’s the timeline. Now, a few big themes and tendencies to note:

Most opportunities for contact were created or facilitated by Kiyoi.

When someone showed vulnerability or made the first move to connect emotionally, it was almost always Kiyoi (though both characters are still very guarded at this point).

Hira’s declarations of love and frequent compliments are tricky to categorize here. There can be an element of vulnerability in expressing these feelings, but it’s not the same as the kind of self-disclosure Kiyoi engages in, and sometimes Hira’s idealization of Kiyoi is itself a form of distancing (e.g. not being able to date “the king”).

Hira’s way of looking at Kiyoi–like, literally, the staring, meaningful looks, eye-fucking, whatever you want to call it–does seem to function as a kind of pursuit at least some of the time. It often impacts Kiyoi in that way. But it’s not exactly a straightforward move.

Both characters seek physical intimacy in different ways/at different times. Kiyoi proposes the hand kiss and kisses Hira on graduation day, while Hira does the hand thing (!) and initiates touching, hugging, and eventually the whole classroom table makeout situation.

There are also some obvious contextual factors that should be kept in mind here. The big ones that come to mind for me are:

Their power differential–Kiyoi has a great deal more social status and related power than Hira, particularly in high school.

The fact that they first got to know one another in this hierarchical context is bound to set them up for certain habits and expectations. Hira literally acted as a kind of servant for Kiyoi and the rest of the Shirota crew at first!

Both characters are deeply affected by their past experiences with peers. For Hira, this mostly involves a history of bullying, being ignored, and being excluded (in part due to ableism). For Kiyoi, his past experiences looked favorable on the surface but were seriously lacking when it came to authenticity or real intimacy.

We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Hira’s stuttering is a disability. The negative peer experiences I just mentioned had at least some basis in ableism and really, it might account for all or nearly all of them. The wear and tear on his psyche of dealing with pervasive ableism and the bullying and aggression that comes with it can’t be overstated. This also helps with understanding some of his maladaptive coping strategies (which it seems were actually pretty adaptive in the past).

I’ll return to the pursuer/distancer thing in another post about season 2 and I have some additional thoughts about how to put it in context with BL/yaoi tropes as well as some other relevant ideas.

#pursuer distancer dynamic #psychology of BL #utsukushii kare #utsukare #utsukushii kare season 2 #hira x kiyoi #hira kazunari #kiyoi sou

96 notes · View notes

ms-nesbit · 1 year

Text

Jason Todd imagine

Rating: 17+ (language, adult themes, implied sexual content)

Summary: you, with the help of Jason, escaped prison, and ran off to live with the ex-Robin while he pursued his dream of becoming a baker.

Warnings: implied sexual content, prison themes, implied abuse, reader and jason are trauma-bonding

Note: i had a dream about this days ago, and now i cant sleep. Idk what it is about these vivid dreams, but i will admit, having jason reach out his hand and tell me to trust him? Wow.

As always, please reblog this post to share, and don’t repost it. Thank you!

“It’ll be okay, yeah?” Jason asked, head bowing and smile cocky.

Yeah, you said, grinning back.

The bakery was warm, inviting, as was the tall, muscular man behind the counter, restocking the countertop case with a delightful array of cupcakes. His red apron - which fought to stretch barely past his knees - hugged his figure well, and although he often caught your eyes too attached to him, it was the most positive attention he’d had in…ever.

The prison stairway was quiet underneath the sound of footsteps approaching, and your heart beat faster, only to be relieved, as Jason quickly greeted you in a forced whisper. “Hey,” he started, crouching down on a stair above your seated place, “do you… do you think we could make it out?”

You blinked at him, baffled by his idea. Jason was always one for grand everything, but escaping prison? It seemed too far-fetched, especially with you in tow. “Okay, I get what you’re thinking here.” Jason defended, hands raised, “I…I’m getting out in a couple days. I dunno what is out there, but I want it to be with you.”

Jason’s confession still sat with you, words a catalyst to your heart’s rising like treated dough. It hadn’t mattered that you were far different than before your incarceration, nor that you were necessarily the hottest - he loved you. He felt the spark ignite between you two the moment he bumped into you in the yard of the prison, and you spat on him with great hostility; you felt the spark months later, when he walked in on you crying silently on the staircase - the very same one he’d ultimately confess his feelings for you - and comforted you.

“Whoa.” the words came from overhead, and you glanced to find a worried Jason, at the top of the staircase, beige prison uniform sleeves rolled up. “You uh, you ‘kay there?” You turned away and huffed. “Okay, bitch still bites, I guess.” he commented, baiting you successfully, as you tossed him a deadly glare through tear-stricken eyes.

“Fuck you.” you spat, voice unstable.

He sighed, skipping down the stairs bountifully until he was next to you, taking a seat on the other end of the stair. He folded one leg, but rested his other on the stair below him, his spine relaxing against the stairwell handle. “Take it out on me,” he waved his hands dramatically, before quietly adding, “like everyone else.”

The words hurt you more than his insults, and you felt compelled to reply earnestly, swallowing your distaste for his arrogance. “Sorry, I uhm, I-I just don’t know what got in me.” you admitted, face heating up from Jason’s hazel eyes falling on you. “Been going through a rough patch lately.” Jason nodded in response, fixing his posture so both feet were planted on the stair below him, leaning forward away from the railing to shift his weight to his elbows, which were placed on his thighs. You noticed the tattoos on his biceps as they revealed themselves when Jason moved. “Why have you been so forgiving to me?”

Jason laughs to himself. “Wouldn’t say forgiving as much as tolerant.” he corrected. “But I could ask the same about you, seeing as you don’t engage much with other inmates here, but completely acknowledge my existence, even from miles away.”

It was true. The staircase fell silent after his observation, and you processed the times you’d seen him: as much as you detested him, you didn’t.

It made sense.

“Hey, Babe, can you try this for me? I made it this morning since Sven was having me be senior baker for a week.” Jason erupted from behind the counter, shoving a black, red, and yellow cupcake in your face the moment you walked through the bakery entrance. You took the cupcake from his hand and investigated it, noting the careful piping of buttercream, and the yellow paper liner. Taking a small bite from the cupcake, Jason stared at you, on his toes. “Vanilla…” you smacked your lips, unable to identify the mystery flavor, “...with a ganache filling, and… what is that? Is it almond?”

The prison guards entered the staircase through a lower-level door below you and Todd, searching for him. You held his hand, afraid to let go, and he placed it over yours in reassurance. “I think I love you.” your voice was shaky, scared, as it was years since you trusted someone this much.

Jason felt the tremor in your voice, one that was so different than your rendezvous with him in the library, and he squeezed your knuckle. “You know that I do.” he said confidently. It was true: Jason loved you from the moment he stepped off from the prison bus, cuffed and lined with other transfers from federal; you sat on the grass, chewing on your lip, as you sped through the remaining chapter of a book you borrowed from the prison library. Whether it was the way you reacted in real-time to the events unfolding in the chapter, or maybe the way that you threatened a guard that kicked the book from your hands, Jason doesn’t know. To him, it was irrelevant, as long as he had you.

The guards cornered Jason, ordering him to stand and follow them to his exit back to the real world. Back to reality. Away from you.

And as the guards attempted to usher Jason to the door, he kissed your hand, giving you a mischievous wink before a fight broke out on the upper floor, causing the guards to leave Jason unattended, and with door cracked.

“Now’s our chance.” Jason smiled widely, extending his hand to you. “Please, y/n. Come with me. I can’t do this without you.”

You rose to your feet, immediately taking his hand into yours. “What the hell, Jason? Are you stupid? I’ll get ten years added, and you’ll get your sentence extended, too.”

He took both of your hands and held them in his, his big hazel eyes gleaming in admiration and hope. “Do you trust me?”

“Pistachio, actually.” he grinned at you. “Is it a good combo?”

You appreciated how much he confided in you, even after all this time.

“Yes.”

Jason pulled you into his arms, rushing you and him out through the prison exit, and into the real world, your fingers intertwined in his. He looked back at you with heavy implication, a wedding proposal on the brim of his iris, as you two fled the prison property, and into your fantasy world.

“Good.” he locked his jaw and scanned your body, giving you a suggestive look before locking the bakery door behind you, and leading you to the main floor of the bakery, pulling you into a passionate kiss. His lips were soft and plump, and he touched you with delicacy, swirling aromas of vanilla and brown sugar winding into your nose. It was familiar - his touch, embrace, possessive eyes - but it was welcomed, always.

And as you two lived a life in secrecy, privacy, united in a love neither of you thought of, the daffodils on the bakery garden swayed, and the sunflowers rose tall - taller than Jason, and the chrysanthemums, sneaking past their counterparts, smiled at you two.

#jason todd #red hood #mine #robin #my post #batfamily #dcu #jason todd x reader #prisoner!jason todd #inmate!jason todd #baker!jason todd #baker!jason todd #soft!jason todd #red hood x reader #jason toddheadcanons #jason todd imagine

49 notes · View notes

startrekfangirl2233-writes · 10 months

Text

Love Conquers All (Supposedly)

Chapter Five of Sweet Home Alabama

Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin x OC (Linley Mitchell/Floyd), Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw x OC (Linley Mitchell/Floyd)

Description: It's been challenging - to say the least - coming back to Pigeon Creek. How is it possible for everything to be so different and yet it all feels exactly the same? Linley's not sure. All she knows is that she misses New York City, the glitz, the glam, the fashion, and Bradley Bradshaw. God, does she miss Bradley Bradshaw. Like a night in shining armor, it's a phone call from Bradley that reminds her what she's fighting for. It's just her luck that she'll have to fight for Bradley by fighting Jake until he signs the divorce papers, right?

Themes: angst, love, smut, attraction

Warnings: None!

Word Count: 3757

A/N: Oh, here we go! This is the chapter where we finally get to see more of Linley's relationships with the other denizens of Pigeon Forge, not just Jake and Mav! I hope you all love it!

AO3: Cross-posted here!

Wattpad: Cross-posted here!

My Masterlist

Previous Part | Series Masterlist | Next Part

New York City - Mayor’s Residence

Bradley can’t believe that his mom is still going on and on about Linley and the wedding. Linley’s only been back in Alabama for a day; they’ve been engaged for just a little bit longer than that, and Carole Bradshaw is on the warpath.He never would have agreed to meet his mom for breakfast.

“Do you even know who she is, Brad? I mean, what her family is like, where she comes from? Don’t give me that shit about how she’s told you stories. Do you have any proof that Linley Floyd is who she says she is?” Even at home, his mom always looks like she’s ready to attend a board meeting or kiss babies for a few additional polling points. But more likely, she’s expecting photographers to pop up when she least expects it for an interview with the mayor of New York. If it’s happened once, it’ll happen again. That’s one of Carole Bradshaw’s favorite mottos and it’s one she lives by.

“I love her, Mom.” Bradley can’t help trying to reason with her.

“That’s nice, sweetheart. But you have to understand, we’re not better than the people we serve, or worse. We’re just different. We serve the people to the best of our abilities, and we have to be good examples.” She’s got a frown on her face as she puts the newspaper down.

“Do you have to be so controlling?” It’s a question Bradley’s been meaning to ask for a very long time, and even if he probably shouldn’t ask it, it still slips out.

“Is it controlling if I know what’s best for you?” She takes a sip of her coffee before continuing. God she’s impossible.

“In any case, you tell Linley that I’ve put a hold on the Plaza Hotel here in New York for June. It’ll give you both a nice, long engagement to look forward to.”

Bradley waits until she’s mid-mouthful of her poached eggs and toast before he interjects, “We’re getting married in Ireland over Christmas, actually.”

She swallows hurriedly and that’s the most satisfaction Bradley’s had in a long time. That feeling doesn’t last however, because she spits out, “If you think I’m going to let some girl talk you into getting married in some foreign country…”

This is about when Bradley starts seeing red. “She’s not some girl, mom. She’s my fiancée.”

“You are just like your father. One minute you’re brilliant, controlled, and steadfast, the next minute you’re throwing it all away on some girl. You know how hard it was for your father to claw his way back into politics once he married me. Why would you make the same mistake he did?!” Bradley’s left in shock as his mom races out of the dining room like something he said just burned her. Okay, so maybe reconciling Carole Bradshaw to the fact that Bradley’s marrying a fashion designer from Hicksville, Alabama is going to take a bit longer than initially expected.

Pigeon Creek, Alabama - Main Street

A couple of hours later finds you in your dad’s beat up old truck rattling back into town. The midmorning sun is hot already as it beams down on the road. You weren’t planning on being in Pigeon Creek for so long. This errand should have taken max half an hour. How could you forget how stubborn Jake could be when he wanted to be? With Jake being a complete idiot, it’s going to take much longer than you expected to get the divorce you’ve been trying to get for the past seven years. So you’re going into town to withdraw some cash and prepare for the day. You call your lawyer while you’re on the road. You need to know how long it will take to get this divorce signed, sealed and buried away.

“I understand Mr. Fitch. Tell me, how long does a contested divorce take?” You pull into a parking spot in town.

“Eighteen months?! I don’t even have eighteen days, Mr. Fitch!” You continue talking to Mr. Fitch as you walk down the street to the bank. Of course, just then, one of the hicks in town starts cat-calling you from his truck. But the more he says, the more his voice sounds familiar. “I have to call you back, Mr. Fitch. In the meantime can you please see if there is anything you can do?”

You hang up on your lawyer with every intention of giving this hick a piece of your mind. At least, that is, until you see who it is. The sight of an old friend is enough to have you veering across the side of the road towards the truck stopped right in the middle of the dusty street.

“Bobby?! Bobby Floyd, look at you!” You wrap your arms around him and it finally, finally feels like you’re home. If there was anyone you could call your best friend other than Jake, it would be Bob.

“Look at you, Lin! You look fantastic! New York's been treating you well, huh?” You grin up at Bobby, nodding as he pushes his glasses up his nose.

“How’ve you been?” As he sets you down you see a couple of members of the town’s gossip circle looking at you and Bobby. The hug alone would be enough to have tongues a-waggin’.

“I'm good, Bobby. Though, I shouldn’t keep you too long. Wouldn’t want to make your girl back home angry.” Though you’re not sure he has a girl, looking at the slight blush on his face, and well, who are you if you don’t ask?

“You do have a girl, don’t you?”

When you prod, gently, because this is Bobby, sweet, soft-spoken Bobby, all you get is, “I can barely afford to take care of myself, forget some high-maintenance babe.”

“Weren’t you dating Cindy in high school? I thought you guys were getting really close!” You’re smiling at him as he grins unrepentantly and a little sheepishly at you.

“Naw. She’s a women's softball coach up in Nashville.” You truly can't believe that he and Cindy didn’t stay together after high-school. They were so close.

"I'm sorry about that, Bobby." You really are. Bob's got a heart of gold. If she couldn't see what a catch he is, someone somewhere is sure to. As you look at one of your closest friends you’re not surprised at all to see mischief in his eyes.

“Don't be, Lin. People grow and change and keep secrets. I mean, you have your own fair share of secrets, huh? Of course, yours we can all read about on the internet. Guess we know all about the cock in your henhouse.”

You gasp and smack his arm. “You sure do know how to make a girl blush!” You have less time than you thought if Bobby Ray already knows about Bradley, and his nickname the tabloids so lovingly bestowed after the first snaps they got of him on the beach in close-fitting swim trunks. Honestly the paparazzi need to get better at nicknames for people, because Rooster Bradshaw is far from tongue-in-cheek. Come on Joe Nobody, you really want everyone to know you think the New York Secretary of Housing has a big dick? Natasha had laughed until she cried and then immediately asked you if it was true. But you digress. You need Jake to sign those papers before all the paparazzi in the country descend on Greeneville and by extension Pigeon Creek. It’s only a matter of time and it’s your worst nightmare. You know how to talk to reporters about clothes, not scandals.

“I have to get back to the factory. Are you going to be in town for a while? I’d love to catch up.” Bobby seems none-the-wiser to your inner turmoil as he hugs you tight one more time before opening his truck door.

You smile at your friend, murmuring, “I hope not. I just need to hit the bank and talk to Jake about something and I should be out of town pretty soon.”

The minute you say the words, “hit the bank”, Bob is already recoiling in terror and you know why. You wave him away with a smile as he drives away. But that leaves you to look at the Pigeon Creek bank. It still looks the same as the last time you saw it. But you also remember why Bob recoiled in terror. Accidentally blow up a bank one time and everyone automatically assumes that you’re going to do it again. Eugene at the bank still looks terrified to see you, for one, when you walk through the doors.

“Good to see you, Miss Linley. Miss Dorothy, I’m taking my lunch.” Is all you get out of him before he’s running out of the bank like you’re going to blow it up again.

You walk up to the teller window, and are surprised to see someone you think you vaguely recognise standing there.

“Dorothy?! Is that you? You look amazing!” You’re not lying. The last time you saw Dorothy Thompson she had on braces and looked completely different.

“Hey Linley. It’s good to see you. Thanks. The last time you saw me, I was about 110 pounds heavier.” She smacks her gum as she looks you up and down. "You look great too."

“I was looking for an ATM, but I didn't see one.” You point out the front like it’ll show Dorothy the lack of an ATM outside.

“Yup. Russ hates ‘em. He thinks it’ll detract from the customer experience in the bank. Call me Dot, Lin.” She leans through the window a bit closer. “We’ve known each other for years, after all!”

You’re not sure what to say in the face of her overwhelmingly Southern Charm. Oh, Toto you’re not in New York anymore. When did backstabbing double-speak become more comfortable than well-meant small-town nosiness for you, anyways?

“So…” Her voice drops to a whisper as she murmurs, “I hear from Mickey that you and Jake had a pretty wild reunion. But then again, it’s just pillow talk, talkin’.”

“You and Mickey?” You can’t believe it. Dorothy hated Mickey when you were in school.

“Yeah, it’s been three years.” She shows you her ring, smirking, as she says, “It isn’t Tiffany’s or anything, but anyways, you can’t believe everything you hear on TV, now can you?”

Yeah, you’re definitely running out of time if the news of your engagement is already on TV.

“Um, I’d like to make a withdrawal out of my …” You fumble in your purse to pull out your wallet.

“Your joint account?” At Dorothy’s innocent suggestion, you get a wonderfully wicked idea. “You know, your joint account with Jake? From what I hear, y’all are still married.”

“Yes.” You grin at Dorothy as innocently as you possibly can. “Yes we are. From my joint account, please.”

With the frankly eye-watering amount of money you’d withdrawn from the joint account, you’re ready for war. You spend the rest of the morning going to all of the home decor stores in the greater Greenville area and buying things to make Jake’s house look like home. You finish up with a batch of groceries and let yourself into the house with as much aplomb as you can muster. Jake wanted a wife, he’s going to get a wife. It’s just icing on the cake that hopefully he’ll be so pissed off that he signs the papers and you can escape Pigeon Creek with nothing more than the accent.

When you see the old sea-plane land on the lake with a plume of water from the kitchen window, you're ready to play the part. What part? The part that will get you a divorce in a spectacular style and with spectacular speed. Jake looks exhausted as he walks through the front door - which you'd expected. But the exhaustion soon fades into pure rage when he sees you walking out of the kitchen wearing an apron and carrying a bottle of wine.

"Hi, Jake!" Your voice is all saccharine Southern sweetness. "Welcome home, honey! How was your day? How's your mama doing?"

He chucks his leather jacket through the open bedroom door, uncaring of how it thuds heavily to the ground moments later, before glaring at you.

"Cut the shit, Linley. Where's all my stuff?"

"I just picked up after you, sugar." You cup his cheek gently, rubbing at a bit of grease on his cheek. "It's what a wife ought to do, isn't it?"

"Not a wife who doesn't live here." You just shrug before walking back into the kitchen to continue chopping up veggies for the salad you're making as the final touch to dinner. The kitchen smells fantastic, if you do say so yourself. You’d gone to all the trouble to bake up a lasagne after all, his mom’s recipe, and you know he’ll be hungry the moment he smells it.

"Can you just tell me where the hide-a-key is, Linley?" He sounds like he's at the end of his rope as he takes in all of the things you've bought for the house. You just ignore him.

"I spoke to Mrs. Garcia about her tractor. You know, I'm so happy that we can let bygones be bygones. We’re all clear, though I will say that it isn’t nice that you called the police on your wife, Jakey." You add the final bit of cucumber to the salad before setting it on the dining room table.

"It's nice to hear your accent again." Jake's looking at the ceramic fruit on the mantel like it's an alien creature. "I wasn't aware you could find and lose it so easily, though."

"I found a lot of things today." You toss the salad a bit before walking back into the kitchen where Jake is looking at the magic you've wrought in his filthy old kitchen.

"What the hell happened in here?!" He sounds shocked and it makes a wicked glee spark in your chest. "My magnets are all gone,” His voice hushes as he opens the fridge door and sticks his head in. “And what the hell happened to my fridge?! It's all chick food!"

"That's not chick food, honey! It's light beer. Fewer calories, you know? You're getting a bit of a tummy, baby." You pet his stomach a couple of times before walking back over to chop some parsley on the cutting board. You’d found a singular bottle of ketchup and six-pack of beer when you looked in it earlier. The man’s been eating takeout every day, for every meal, and he’s still got rock-hard abs. It doesn’t escape you how his stomach growls at the smell of a home-cooked dinner in the oven.

"I tried to pick out a new bed at the Sit 'n Sleep but everything was disgusting. Have you been there lately?! I guess I should just order something in from New York." You keep your eyes on the cutting board, even as you hear Jake's boots clomp back out into the living room.

"Darlin' you can buy whatever you want. It's your money, after all." Your grin is vindictive as you hear those words.

"But I thought you told me I should think of it as our money when we got married, Jake?" He freezes in the doorway, beer can still held in his hand and you can't resist stepping just a little closer.

"Are the words 'joint checking' ringing a bell, Jakey?"

His green eyes are flashing dangerously when he turns back to you.

"How much of that money did you take?" You can hear the rage in every word as you look innocently up at him.

"All of it." The words drip off of your lips like the poison off of the apple the Evil Queen gave to Snow White as a flush builds on his cheeks.

"Sunovabitch!" His roar is deeply satisfying, as is the way he crushes the empty can and chucks it away.

"Why do you have so much money anyway, Jakey? There's no way you made it all working at the tire factory. You're not doing anything illegal now, are you?" You're so close to victory you can nearly taste it. He doesn't answer your questions, his face stony as he glares at you.

"Just sign the divorce papers and I'll give it all back." You proffer the papers and pen to him.

"Fine." You're already grinning in victory when he grabs the pen. "On one condition, I don't ask you about your boyfriend and you don't ask me about my life. Deal?"

Your joy at your near victory slips away in an instant. Jake looks disappointed in you.

"Who?” You clear your throat and try again, “Who told you?" You're more than a little shocked that the news has spread so far around town already.

"Nobody told me, sweetheart. I may talk slow, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid." He snatches the pen from your hand and pulls the papers out of their envelope. “ I know how to use the internet just as well as the folks in New York. You know the cafe Mrs. Garcia runs? It has a computer in it now.”

There's an imperceptible shake to his long fingers as he glances over the papers.

"I guess it's true what they say, huh? Nobody finds their soulmate at ten years old." His words make you feel inexplicably sad. But just as soon as he says those words, a smirk is taking over his face. You should’ve known better than to fall for his bullshit.

“Actually, you know what, Linley?” Jake sets the papers and pen down before walking into the open bedroom. You pretend not to notice how the muscles in his back ripple as Jake tugs on a plaid shirt the color of his eyes.

“I forgot that I have a date tonight. And you know what? I should probably have my lawyer look over those papers. I’m just a dumb corn-fed hick, weren’t those your words, sweetheart? I should probably make sure you’re not taking me to the cleaner’s or anything.”

Your scream of frustration echoes in your ears as you follow Jake’s truck to The Hard Deck a couple of hours later. Dinner had been tense, incredibly so, considering how Jake couldn’t seem to stand looking at anything but his plate and you were busy trying to envision how easily you could wrap your hands around his throat and strangle the smug grin off of his face. It’s typical of Jake to take a date to his mama’s bar, the one place where he will never have to pay for drinks. The live band sounds just as tuneful (and loud) as always as you pull up to the gravel lot in front of the Hard Deck. Just before you get out, you pull out Bradley’s ring and put it on your finger. It makes you miss him just a little less, and fills you with enough confidence to face all the old friends you’ll no doubt find inside. Just hearing the country songs getting butchered has your blood pressure rising. What you wouldn’t give to be back in New York getting dinner and drinks with Bradley right now.

You can picture it, practically in front of your eyes. The bartenders who are always polite and know how to pour the perfect martini, the jazz band playing softly in the background, and Bradley, your Bradley, sitting in front of you in a perfectly tailored suit smiling at you. A place where all you can smell is his cologne and sweet perfumed air. It sounds like heaven and absolutely not like the Hard Deck, which stinks faintly of horses and cows and strongly of spilled beer and liquor, even from where you stand in the parking lot near your car, quite far away from the swinging doors.

When your phone rings, you don’t even hesitate to pull it out, you’re that desperate for the reminders of the life you were leading just days ago. It’s a phone number you’ve had memorized since the first week you met the man who owns it, and as you pull open the phone, you’re chanting, “I love you” until the sound of Bradley’s laughter washes over you.

“Aww, honey. Miss me that badly?” You can picture his smile even thousands of miles away.

“More than you know, baby. More than you know.” You’re filled with a sense of homesickness even as you’re smiling into the phone.

“I miss you too, honey. But, I actually called because I saw something that might make you smile. I picked up a copy of New York Magazine, and I was reading the articles. I’m going to read this quote to you, and you tell me what you think.”

“Linley Floyd is a cool breath of fresh air blowing through Fashion Week. Her designs are fresh and exciting. We’re going to be keeping our eyes on her as her star in the fashion world is on the rise!”

You giggle and jump up and down a little in excitement at hearing his words.

“Bradley! I needed to hear that almost as much as I need you here with me, right now.” His groan makes you ache to have him in your bed and in your arms.

“I can fly down whenever you’d like, honey. Just say the word and I’ll be right there.”

You blow a kiss down the phone before sighing out, “I know, baby. And while I’d love to have you here, I still haven’t had the chance to tell my dad about us. And it’s a small town. The minute you drive into town wearing one of your nice suits, everyone would know. Let me tell my dad first, alright, baby?” You can’t help your soft smile or how missing Bradley feels like something is missing in your life. “I love you, baby. Goodnight!”

Thanks to Bradley, you finally have enough confidence to walk through the doors and enter the Hard Deck. You’re getting looks, from the boys and men you’ve known practically your whole life, and it makes you wonder, just once if you should’ve taken your Dad’s offer to borrow one of his old flannels. But you shake those thoughts off. This is who you are now. Pigeon Creek can deal with it if they don’t like it. You elbow your way to the bar. If you’re here, you might as well grab a drink, right?

I DO NOT CONSENT TO HAVE MY WORK POSTED, TRANSLATED, OR PUBLISHED ON ANY SITES OTHER THAN HERE, ON WATTPAD, OR ON AO3 BY ME. IF YOU SEE MY WORKS ANYWHERE OTHER THAN HERE, ON WATTPAD, OR AO3, THEN THEY HAVE BEEN POSTED WITHOUT MY PERMISSION AND I WILL BE WORKING TO TAKE THEM DOWN.

Taglist:

@sarahsmi13s @atarmychick007 @the-romanian-is-bae @lt-spork @buckysdollforlife @blackwidownat2814 @praline357 @seitmai @cheyrenee @trickphotography2 @abaker74 @marrianena-library @angelbabyange @temptest13 @kmc1989 @im-an-adult-ish @chaoticassidy @inkandarsenic @lynnevanss @shanimallina87 @khaylin27 @mizzzpink @emma8895eb @hookslove1592 @leahnicole1219 @desert-fern @horseshoegirl @thedroneranger @roosterforme @dakotakazansky @cherrycola27 @mak-32 @beyondthesefourwalls

#star writes #top gun fanfic #top gun fanfiction #top gun maverick fanfic #top gun maverick fanfiction #top gun imagine #sweet home alabama #a top gun au #star's sweet home alabama top gun au #jake hangman seresin x oc #hangman x oc #jake seresin x oc #bradley bradshaw x oc #rooster x oc #bradley rooster bradshaw x oc

32 notes · View notes