#usually when my mom likes actors we end up taking twice as long for an episode than the duration of the ep

[airenyah]

so i showed my mom the 10 years ticket trailer and long story short we're gonna watch it together when it airs

[imatechbummerliketomholland]

A Holland brunch is not a Holland brunch without a twist - S.H

hello there! This is my first request. I hope you all will like it, i want to say thank you to the beautiful and lovely @petersasteria, without her, my text would be such a mess. Word count: 1489 Warning: mention of car accident, a little angst. But it's fluffy at the end! Pairing : sam holland Request: yes! ღღღ

Since the pandemic, the Holland family could count on their fingers the times they were all together, in full. When it wasn't Sam who was in Scotland, it was Tom who had a filming project, often accompanied by Harry. And when Harry couldn't go with Tom, he had his own life, his own plans. Tom's birthday was therefore a good excuse for a family reunion. As Sam's girlfriend for a few months, you haven't had a chance to meet everyone yet. However, you were not unknown in the eyes of the family. Although discreet about his personal life, which you fully understood, Sam had left some clues on his social media, about you and your romantic relationship with him.

The man had taken a long time to get into this relationship. You were college friends. You attempted a move that he had initially refused the first time. Sam just wanted to live out his last days as a culinary student, finish his internship at this lavish hotel that he hoped would end up hiring him, and enjoy a few beers with friends. Having a love interest was, therefore, not in his priorities. But a simple evening changed his perspective. The rest is history.

Your schedule had not allowed you to go to London at the same time as Sam. Your boyfriend was already with his family the day before yesterday and you had only just arrived at the Airbnb you had rented— despite Sam's protests that you stay at his parents' or Tom's-. You liked your independence. Plus, you found it a bit opportunistic to stay with your boyfriend's family when they didn't officially know you.

On this Sunday morning, you put on an outfit that you felt comfortable in and that was still good enough for a family meal. You grabbed the keys to your rental car, quickly texted your boyfriend: "on my way. See you soon, babe". Then you're directed to the address Sam sent you.

☙♥❧

On the Holland side, Sam put his phone back in his pocket and put his glasses on his nose. He was wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt, a small miracle since the last time he actually put one on was for the shoot of Roses for Lily. But he had wanted to please you and hoped you would enjoy the effort. Harry was setting the table and Nikki walked out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her apron.

"So, sweetheart?"

"She's on her way. She shouldn't be late."

Nikki gave him a big smile. She had had the opportunity to speak to you once or twice on the phone, when Sam asked you to pick up when he was busy. She already found you so sweet and kind, she couldn't wait to meet you in person.

☙♥❧

You weren't particularly dangerous behind the wheel, but you had to admit you were a little over the speed limit. Yet you have been extremely careful. You were a few yards from the Hollands' residential area. You were on the A308 London Road when a driver left you right of way at the Station Road intersection. The impact was pretty harsh and you were pretty shaken up. When the paramedics arrived, they asked you who the emergency contact person was. And although they were your parents, you gave Sam's number. He was the closest after all.

☙♥❧

At Holland’s place, several minutes have passed without hearing from you. Sam was really starting to wonder what you were doing. It was sunny, maybe there was more traffic than usual? But the answer to his questions fell when his phone buzzed again in his pocket. The name of the caller indicated that it was you. But, when he picked up, a male voice stunned him. His face instantly paled as he took in the information. Harry immediately noticed the condition of his twin. And as soon as the apprentice cook hung up, Harry put a hand on his shoulder, looking worried.

"What is it, mate?"

"I need to go to Kingston Hospital now."

Nikki's eyes, who was not far from her sons, widened in shock. What had happened then?

"What? What's going on honey?" she asked

"y/n was in a car accident. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to go."

"Don't be stupid Sam, we're coming with you." Tom said, grabbing his keys.

Tom did this for a number of reasons: one, because he wasn't planning on letting his little brother drive in this state of shock; and two, y/n was, in a way, part of the family. Once you bond with a Holland boy, expect to be bonded with the rest of the group, even if it's only been a few months, and even if you haven't met them yet. You had a connection to them and you were important to Sam.

☙♥❧

You were now in a hospital bed with a slight bruise on your head and your arm in a cast. You really didn't expect to end up here on a Sunday over brunch time. What you even less expected was seeing your boyfriend tumble into the emergency room with a supportive platoon behind him. The whole family was there, or almost, after all, pets weren't allowed in the hospitals, so Tessa Holland was the little forgotten one in the procession. Sam walked over to you and inspected you from every angle, as if he were a doctor.

"You’re alright, love?"

You didn't know if you were still in shock from the accident or if it was the embarrassment to find yourself in the hospital in front of your boyfriend's whole family. But you just nodded. Sam then kissed your forehead under the tender gaze of those close to him.

“I have to say,” Harry began, "That for a first impression, you typed in a gigantic way."

It immediately relaxed the atmosphere. You let out a chuckle as Sam glared at his twin in a disapproving way. Tom, smirking, decided it was an honor to add a layer.

"You know, there were many other ways than getting a plaster to ask me for an autograph" joked the actor.

Dom held the bridge of his nose, cursing a little while muttering under his breath, "Such a movie star." Sam moaned as he hugged you while the others laughed, finding themselves extremely funny. You, yourself, found this rather a picturesque situation and let out several laughs. Nikki shakes her head, resigned to the idea that she raised such idiots. She walked over to you, flicking the back of Harry's head and giving Tom a disapproving look. Harry frowned, noticing the difference between him and his brother.

"We know who’s the favorite child." he said ironically.

The redhead turned to her son and gave one last look, a warning look. Sometimes you have to learn to be more serious. Plus, Nikki hated it when her kids implied that she loved one more than the other. She loved them equally and did anything to make them happy. The curly boy raised his hands in redemption as his mother finally turned to you.

"Nice to meet you my dear. You scared us pretty much." She finally said.

"Nice to meet you too, mrs. Holland. I'm sorry I ruined the brunch."

"Oh please, darling, call me Nikki. And you haven't ruined anything at all. A Holland brunch without a twist isn't a brunch." she joked, trying to make you as comfortable as possible.

You gave her a smile as the doctor who had been taking care of you walked into the room. He looked at the crowd in the room with a puzzled look.

"Okay, I didn't know we had a famous person here."

Tom opened his mouth and Sam interrupted him unprecedentedly

"Don't even dare to make that joke or I swear I'm going back to Scotland straight away!"

The rest of the family laughed at the exchange. The doctor then asked to clear the room and only Sam stayed with you.

"So from the x-rays and the pretty cast you already have. I can tell you that you don't have anything too bad considering the car crash. You can go home, just check for any symptoms of concussion. I'm leaving some papers here to sign and return to reception and you can go. "

You thanked the doctor. When he left the room, you turned your gaze to Sam.

"I'm so sorry I ruined this brunch."

"Hey ... you didn't. As my mom told you, brunch at the Holland's without a twist is not brunch."

"I know, but—"

" Furthermore..." Sam interrupted you

"What?" You asked

"I told you they would love you ..."

You couldn't help but offer a loving smile to Sam. He puts his lips gently on yours and you kiss him back. What had you done to deserve such a perfect boyfriend?

"I love you, Sam Holland."

"And me, even more."

[kyuublu]

Haunt me

Toji Fushiguro x reader (she/her)

Neighbor AU - angst

note: the bold passages are flashbacks + Megumi is an only child in this one lol

song inspo: How to dissapear - Lana Del Rey

Blue skies and big fields of green; the road had always stayed the same, y/n noticed as she left the bus. Once the young women made her way home, she took in all the familiar sights she hadn’t seen in years. She had missed walking through the familiar streets, despite disliking her home town when she was younger, since it didn’t have anything really interesting for teenagers around her age. There were no clubs, cool stores, really anything that was rebellious or at least didn’t look like it was owned by a 70-year-old man. Everything always stayed the same.

Y/n’s footsteps came to a halt, right before the door of her own home. Subconsciously turning her head to the side, she was suddenly aware of the presence that stood further away. The familiar figure leaned against the railing of his porch, back turned to her as he focused on something in his hands. Toji Fushiguro.

Had he stayed the same too?

For a moment, y/n had thought about greeting him but was interrupted by the sudden opening of the door infront of her.

“Y/n! Why didn’t you knock? Oh, come here-“ The older lady put her arms around her daughter lovingly and pulled them inside.

“I made a bunch of your favorites, but there are going to take a bit more time.” She pointed at the stove as both of them entered the kitchen.

“Where’s dad?”

Her mom rolled her eyes at the thought of her stubborn husband, they apparently had argued about the maintenance of their garden a couple of hours prior. Y/n chuckled at her mothers’ frustration, but went to look for her dad on her own, since her mom seemed too busy with cooking. After greeting him and exchanging a couple of words, the daughter convinced him to let her mow the lawn. “But you better not break it again like the first time!” The man teased playfully, earning an eyeroll from y/n as she ushered him inside.

“Damn it-“

Muttering under her breath, the girl almost kicked the device infront of her in a fit of rage. The lawnmower had suddenly been stuck before she could really even start, and was now only a rattling mess.

“Fuck...” She sighed one more time, putting her hand lazily on her hip and the other over her eyes, shielding her from the sun.

“For a young lady, ya do seem to swear alot.”

Y/n whipped her head towards the strangers’ voice, almost gasping as she realized who the voice had belonged to. He was the husband of the new family that had moved next to their house a few weeks ago. Before that encounter she hadn’t seen him up close, but now his appearance immediately burned itself into her brain. He was handsome, not the kind of handsome that she had seen from popular boys in school or the hollywood actors on tv, but the attraction she had to him felt a thousand times better.

“I- uhm-“ The girl stuttered as she avoided his eyes, only to look back at the problem at hand.

“It’s broken.” She pointed at the lawnmower dumbfounded, smacking herself internally at the way she was behaving like a 7-year-old.

“Let’s see if I can help, shall we?” A confident smile appeared on the mans’ face, making the girl’s knees even weaker, before he approached the device. He had quickly figured out the problem and got rid of the piece that had been stuck inside the lawnmower, but continued talking to y/n casually, throwing in a joke or two.

“I’m Toji by the way, but I’m guessing your dad already told you about us.”

She watched as the dark haired man held his hand out to her. His politeness felt strange from the start, as if he was playing a character in a movie and she couldn’t quite figure out why.

“What was your name again?”

“Y/n.” The girl shakily took his hand, getting even more nervous at the roughness that was contrasting her own.

“I also wanted to ask ya something - my wife has been buggin’ me about it for days now. Are ya any good with kids?”

That day Toji had asked her if she could babysit his 5-year old son, since he had a job that required to be available at any moment and his wife had to take night shifts at the hospital. Y/n agreed to it without any question, since her dad had taken a liking to the family and she wanted to earn some money on the side. She had just graduated in that same year and wasn’t sure as to what her next step should be in life or what her future looked like really. But right now, the man walking away from her seemed like the best distraction from the dull routine she had been used to.

Shortly after y/n finished the rest of the lawn, her mom waved her inside to eat. The dinner had tasted better than ever, y/n thought as she greedily dug into her plate and asked her mom for more. The older lady only chuckled at her antics, appreciating the sentiment behind it though.

“I really wouldn’t have thought you’d go through with it, honestly.” Her father spoke with his usual sarcastic tone as he watched his daughter take another plate full of food.

“With college? Yeah, I guess I understand what you mean. I’ve always been the lazy type.”

Y/n knew her dad well enough not to argue with him about what he believed his daughter was like. He only knew what she had let him see, and three years ago that had been an 18-year-old girl that took a year off to stay at her parents home without any plans or direction. Only she herself knew that lazyness hadn’t been the real issue, it was her fear of growing up and failing. Before they could dig any deeper into the topic, the daughter decided to ask about the one thing that had been stuck in her mind since she had seen Toji on the porch.

“So, how are the Fushiguro’s doing?” She casually picked at the food on her plate.

“I thought I’ve told you on the phone already? About Toji’s wife and kid.” The mother looked at her child in disbelief until she saw the genuine confusion in her eyes and started explaining.

“His wife died almost a year ago. She became very sick all of a sudden and then it just happened so quickly. Toji hasn’t really been the same since.”

Y/n’s eyes widened in shock, she couldn’t comprehend the fact that something did change so drastically around here, and it hat happened to the family she had wished it upon the least.

“W-What about Megumi?”

Ms.L/n eyes locked with her husband’s, both of their heads hanging a bit lower now.

“Toji gave him away for adoption. He didn’t seem to be in the right state of mind to be handling a child on his own after an incident like that.” The daughter only nodded her head slowly at her dads’ words, as she remembered the big pouty cheeks on that little boys’ face three years ago and his mother that had the same big blue eyes.

Since the very first time y/n had visited the Fushiguros’ house, the wife had always been extremely caring and sweet towards her, reassuring her that she’d be a great babysitter (and even mother someday, which always made her cringe a little). Eventhough she wanted to be grateful, she felt a tinge of jealousy, almost resentment towards her. The woman was beautiful in every way posssible and even stood up against her husband plenty of times, never doubting her confidence once - Y/n had been the complete opposite.

Especially confrontation was something she had always struggled with, even feeling bad when she overheard some of the fights that the Fushiguro’s had occasionally.

One night when y/n had been taking care of the little boy again, Toji came home earlier than expected, leaving her a bit taken back at the sudden appearance. Thankfully, Megumi had already been asleep at this point, making it easier for the parent to just arrive home without worrying about the whole putting him to bed routine. He had walked straight pass her, only muttering a short “Hey” before grabbing a beer and sitting down on the couch. The girl recalled the fight before the couple both headed off to work but didn’t expect to have to deal with his mood already.

What was she supposed to say to a man twice her age that was visibly pissed, sitting on the couch that she was supposed to sleep on tonight. She could only stare at the back of his head helplessly, wondering if she should just change into her normal clothes again and leave.

“Are ya gonna stand there all day?”

Y/n’s eyes snapped back to the man, as he streched one of his arms over the back of the couch.

“No, I just thought-“ Stopping herself from ending the sentence, she thought about actually engaging in conversation with him. The girl didn’t have the chance nor the guts to talk to him completely alone yet, since he always kept his ‘nice neighbor facade’ up around other people. Stepping closer to the couch, she could feel herself getting more tense. She knew Toji wasn’t going to give her much attention, since he hadn’t ever given her any signs of actually liking her in any way, but somehow the girl couldn’t overlook the weird tension. Once y/n settled down a bit further away from him, she noticed his eyes had been glued to her since she’d walked over.

“Wasn’t too hard now was it?”

He muttered with a slight smirk, before taking a swig of his drink. Y/n let out a nervous chuckle before leaning back more comfortably.

Just stay cool.

“So, I heard you’ve graduated not too long ago, congratulations.” It was more of a statement than a question but she still answered nonetheless.

“Yeah it’s crazy, actually- I also turned 19 a week ago too. Everything is going by so fast now.” She cringed at herself once she heard the deeple chuckle from the man beside her.

Why would you tell him that? Your age of all things?

“Well, why are ya still stuck here then? Ya should be out there in the world, not in this shithole.” Toji had his eyes back on the bottle as he tapped his finger on the dark colored glass.

“Or is a boyfriend of yours keeping ya here?” Glancing to the side teasingly, he leaned in a bit closer, making the girl’s heartbeat race even more.

“No! I’m j-just...” Y/n shook her head, staring at him with big eyes until she mumbled out

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Raising his eyebrows, he really began acknowledging her presence. The way she acted more shy around him and always seemed to be shaking a bit, making her look like a scared little puppy. Then he noticed her clothes, or rather lack there of. “What? Don’t tell me a pretty girl like you didn’t get chased by the guys at ya school.”

Does he really think I’m pretty?

Y/n almost held her breath once he lowered his eyes down her figure, remembering now that she was only wearing a top, without a bra, and shorts to sleep in, because summer had just started and the temperatures felt like hell at night.

“Not really, I guess I just wasn’t anyone’s type.”

The girl let out a nervous chuckle yet again, her body feeling like it was overheating and her brain was about to explode at any moment. It only worsened once the dark haired man loosened his arm on the couch and bend it towards her face, his hand slowly pulling a piece of hair behind her ears. Their eyes locked for what felt like an eternity; She couldn’t get enough of this feeling.

“Too bad.”

Y/n waited for something more, anything to explain what he had meant, but got startled by the sudden ringing in her pocket.

“A-ah uhm, sorry-“

She quickly picked up the phone, only to be bombarded by questions from her father. Eventually she ended the call and turned back to Toji, who still hadn’t looked away from her.

“I have to go. My dad he- he thought that I wasn’t going to babysit tonight and now he’s kind of mad, so...”

The man nodded understandingly until a smirk appeared on his face, as if he had just read her thoughts for a moment.

“I guess ya can’t keep me company then, huh?”

Y/n only shook her head, almost sighing in frustration. Tonight had already felt like a dream, but a way too short one.

Cleaning the dishes had always been a task assigned to y/n since she could remember, but hoped that she could’ve escape tonight. Sadly not though - making her the last one to go to bed. She dragged her feet up the stairs that led to her old bedroom but stopped before falling into the soft pillows. Instinctively the woman looked out her window, only to catch a glimpse of the one across from hers. Before the Fushiguro’s had moved in, it had always bugged her that the neighbors view directly faced her room. Her mom had always warned her daughter to close the curtains as much as possible and change in the bathroom instead, but like most teenagers often do - she didn’t listen, or just wasn’t planning on walking back to the bathroom for every time she had to change her clothes. But y/n did remembered the first time she had changed infront of the window on purpose.

With only a towel draped around her body, the girl quickly peaked at the neighbors house as she stood with her back to the wall. She had panicked at first, seeing the husband leaning against the window frame, a cigarette hanging on the side of his lips. Y/n didn’t know if he had seen her walk in with the towel but she was intrigued by his sight, the way he had just casually leaned forward, as the thick smoke escaped his lips. Without thinking any further she stepped away from the wall and infront of the window, her back turned towards the dark haired man on the other side.

Was he going to notice? Would he even want to see her like this?

Dropping the towel and slowly putting on the underwear that was layed out on her bed, she kept imagining what he might’ve looked like in that moment. Thousands of pictures would pop up in her head until she couldn’t help but want to see for herself. Her head moved on it’s own, as she turned it to the side, only to see that the figure was gone.

Y/n blinked a couple of times, utterly confused on how to feel, should she have wanted this? This was exactly the opposite of thing’s a girl of her age should feel excited about, but she couldn’t deny that the tiny bit inside of her that wanted him to watch, wanted to be desired by him - had been disappointed.

Y/n tossed and turned, never seeming to find any rest from her constant thinking. She couldn’t’ help but feel bad about disappearing from the small town, even though there had never been any reason for her to stay in the first place - there hadn’t been any jobs that would have been interesting to her, no new people to connect to. The deep heavy weighing feeling inside of her told her the opposite though, probably resulting in a restless and never ending night of overthinking.

I have to see him. Sitting up, her buzzing head turned to the side, she considered going with the idea that had popped into her head momentarily.

Y/n let out a huff, putting on the robe that had been draped over the chair in the corner of the room (and took the keys with her, of course) and made her way downstairs carefully, each step creaking slightly under her shaking feet. Fleeting moments of feeling like a teenager again went through her mind; even though she had rarely snuck out of the house back then, the young woman had only wished that those years would’ve been that exciting. Shrugging at the thought, she finally stood infront of the door of her home, opening it slowly. As her hands pushed the wooden surface back, she slipped through and looked to the side, towards the house she hadn’t stepped foot in in 3 years. Suddenly the pace of her heart quickened, not only by the thought of seeing the older man again, but by the figure that was leaving the house at that moment. Y/n squinted until she recognized that it hadn’t been Toji leaving the house. The long black hair immediately made her perk up and lean back, she didn’t want to be noticed by the guy - even though he might’ve been easier to approach than the man sitting in that very house next door.

It had been in the middle of the day that Mrs.Fushiguro called the young woman. Y/n had the spare time of course and agreed to come over, happy to see the little boy and maybe even catch a second to talk with Toji again. She hadn’t seen him often after that night and couldn’t quite place yet what the dark haired man thought of her now. How was she supposed to behave around him? Groaning in frustration the girl began walking towards the house, but as the door opened, the student began slowing down. An unknown man, visibly younger than the parents that lived in the house, suddenly locked eyes with her. Y/n imagined him to be around around his mid-tenties, which made her curious - Toji didn’t ever seem to invite any guests over, so why would he choose to be around a guy that young?

The stranger smiled politely, which she only returned while approaching the porch he had been standing on.

“Don’t tell me Toji has another kid he didn’t tell me about.”

Thrown off by the sudden comment, y/n’s eyes widened as she snapped her head back to the stranger. The mans’ soft laugh made her feel more at ease, ultimately making her laugh too.

“No, I’m just the babysitter slash next door neighbor.”

“I’m Geto Suguru, it’s nice to meet you.”

His smile was smug but sweet, she noted. Before Geto could leave, the girl spoke up once again, the curiosity getting the best of her.

“How do you know the family? Do you work for them too?”

The man turned, giving her his full attention.

“Oh, god no I’d never work for that idiot.” He chuckled yet again, shaking his head in the process. “I am a colleague of Toji. Sometimes I just come around, since he does have a charm that I can’t resist, you know.”

By the looks of it he had only made a joke, but to y/n, that only chuckled in response, the vibe had felt off.

“What do you do exactly? I’m not trying to pry or anything, but Mr.Fushiguro has never really told me about it, so...”

Geto quirked a brow, he had caught a slight glimpse of her in that moment that almost gave her intentions away - but he looked past it, she seemed too young to actually be interested in Toji’s personal life. “We work at a workshop not too far from here, repairing cars and all that. It’s probably not something worth mentioning to be honest.”

The girl infront of him didn’t believe a word. She didn’t have any evidence not to, but the way he talked had been so sugarcoated, that she couldn’t help but feel suspicious of him. “You’re probably right, I don’t know a thing about cars.”

Smiling innocently at the guy, she slowly began turning back to the entrance of the house.

“Well I’ll see you around then.”

Geto only held up a hand smoothly, smiling yet again - which only confirmed what y/n had been thinking this whole time. This man was too much of a flirt, a smooth talker to be around someone like Toji as a normal friend. It only raised the question as to why the father always seemed to avoided talking about his job, and what the hell it had to do with this Geto guy. Y/n shook her head lightly until she was met with the devil himself.

“Right on time as always, mh?”

Toji’s smirk only drew her eyes down his face, making her noticed the scar in the corner of his lips.

“Oh uh- yeah.”

Y/n nodded as he let her inside. She stepped in, thinking that maybe there was more to the man than she originally had thought, a side of him nobody knew about.

It took a long time before a shadow appeared at the foot of the door. To the young adult it had felt like hours until she could finally hear the lock being opened. The girl inside of her was screaming, begging to see him again - as to why she did feel that way still, she didn’t have an answer to. Then the door creaked open just a bit. Y/n could see him peak through for just a second, the dark bags under his eyes were alarming, but to be expected. He must’ve been through alot, things she wouldn’t be able to grasp at her age.

A sigh escaped Fushiguro’s lips as he leaned away from the door, only letting a crack of light fall through, contrasting the dark of the night. Suddenly the door swung open, the brightness of the light illuminating her completely now, as she squinted her eyes to adjust to it. Toji had his back turned to her, trudging towards the living room without a word. She watched as his body disappeared into the room and followed slowly after, unsure of what’s to come.

As y/n stepped in, closing the door after her, she began taking a peak at the rooms that she passed by. They had all been in the same conditions as the day she left, which made her wonder how much of that was really Toji’s doing - he had never been the one to clean the house or cook. It was always one of the things his wife had complained about the most, y/n remembered the bickering everytime the woman left for work. Mrs.Fushiguro had been right about the way her husband had never participated in doing his part, but the girl couldn’t deny that back then she would’ve done anything to be a housewife if that meant she could call the man she had been infatuated with - hers. Y/n often joked about it to her friends at school, but deep down she knew there was an inexplicable feeling she couldn’t get rid of as soon as he left her sight.

The young woman almost gasped once she stood in the doorway of the living room, it contrasting to the rest of the home so much that she almost wanted to laugh. Beer cans were scattered across the floor, half eaten food laying around on the table and in between the rest of all the mess, was Toji, his head hanging low.

Y/n had expected some sort of comment from the dark haired man that was now sitting on the same old couch that she had imprinted into her memories - but he hadn’t uttered a word.

She knew she was the one that had to initiate the conversation, but couldn’t shake off the anxiety that was creeping up. Once her feet were ready to move without shaking, she approached the man, sitting right on the spot next to him that she had been used to back then.

“What are you doing here...”

Toji’s low tone almost made her shiver. His question rather sounding like an accusation, an observation than anything else. It was the same old thing he’d always do, where he didn’t ask for the other person’s sake but rather to emphasize that what they were doing was almost a joke to him, something so obvious that he didn’t need an answer for.

She shouldn’t be here - nobody asked her to come and he was probably the last person to know what to do with her. They weren’t friends, y/n told herself as she looked at his disheveled state, she was only an old memory, coming back to haunt him.

“I just thought-“

The womans’ eyes began watering, but she swore to herself that she didn’t want to be that stuttering mess in front of him ever again. She didn’t want to remind him of that same girl he had met three years ago. Y/n was a grown woman now, and for some reason she felt the need to prove it to him.

“I heard what happened. I don’t know if it makes any difference, but I just wanted to give you my condolences.”

A creak of one of the beer cans made her look up to the man, his face unreadable. Toji scoffed as he watched the can crinkle between his fingers.

“Everyone says the same shit. It was stupid of me to think ya would be any different.”

Y/n watched as he let the empty can drop to the floor, making it painfully obvious how silent it had gotten.

“Did Geto say the same too?”

Toji finally casted her eyes towards her form, almost seeming caught off guard by the question.

“He came to the funeral after everything that happened. Suguru was never somebody I would’ve considered a friend honestly, but there he was, standing next to me in a black suit.”

The dark haired man paused for a moment as his eyes darted to the glass door that led to their garden. A sudden chuckle escaped his lips, without any certain emotion being evident on his face.

“He didn’t once pity me. The guy just padded me on the back and said he’d see me at work again.” His gaze found it’s way to the girl in the robe.

“So?”

She knitted her brows in confusion, unsure of what to say. “What?” He laughed at the quick response, turning away to shake his head.

“I never really understood you, y/n. Even before you left-“

Toji leaned forward, prompting his arms on his thighs as he looked down at his hands.

“You were always looming around but ya never got to the damn point. It was like you were hiding something in that pretty little head of yours.”

Suddenly the young woman felt defensive, finally grasping the fact that she didn’t have to stand back anymore - this was her only chance.

“And you weren’t?”

His head turned, as he looked over his shoulder questioningly. Y/n took the opportunity to go further, staring back at him intently.

“You always acted all polite infront of others, casually waved at the neighbors, talked to my parents with a friendly smile - but once you were in here...”

She scoffed at the memories flooting her thoughts again. The harsh words Toji had thrown at his wife, the way he wouldn’t as much as look in his son’s direction most of the time.

“You were awful, Toji.”

The mans’ eyes grew dark with every word she uttered, but y/n was insistent on not taking it back this time, she needed answers.

“Sure, make me the bad guy all ya want. I’ll let ya have that, but don’t act all innocent on me.”

Slowly the distance between them became smaller, as the man leaned closer to y/n with a devilish grin.

“Do you really think I didn’t notice your little attempts? Ya think my wife would’ve appreciated the way you acted around me?”

The hand that was propped onto his leg was dangerously closer to her thigh, y/n noted as her eyes flickered down nervously. He knew all along - but what did that mean for her? Y/n gulped before speaking up again and meeting his gaze.

“You were already fighting with her about every possible thing you could, but you think that the girl next door would’ve made her break? Really?”

Toji’s stare was cold again, his lips shut close as he almost mumbled to himself in disbelief.

“What did I ever do to you?”

“Nothing.” The woman shook her head as the tears slipped down her cheeks. “You didn’t even spare me a glance.”

Her voice broke as she smiled sadly, not knowing how to put into words why she had felt the way she did. Y/n couldn’t quite grasp it herself.

“I didn’t understand why even though you did everything your own way, disrespecting her multiple times and seemingly not even giving a fuck about your own family - you still never even dared to look at me in any other way than the fucking babysitter.”

A sniffle broke through the silence of the house, Toji still not wavering as he watched the woman break right infront of him.

“I know that you shouldn’t have and that it was selfish of me, childish to think you could ever see me as more, but I was so frustrated. I just wanted to be desired by you, and the little amount of attention you did give me just made it hard not to be addicted to you.”

In that moment, y/n felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She didn’t explain everything perfectly but she felt as if maybe this was the only way she could’ve made him understand, even just a little.

The girl back then already knew that her way of thinking had been selfish, and even now she couldn’t look past at how toxic it was to think that way about someone with a family, someone much older than her - but y/n still never stopped thinking about him.

Y/n closed her eyes, sparing herself the embarrassment she might’ve felt by looking at Toji’s reaction but suddenly felt his body moving beside hers. She opened her eyes as the man took her chin in his hand and looked down her lips longingly. Just for a moment, y/n thought that maybe she had been wrong all along - Maybe Toji had catched a glimpse of her when he smoked out of the bedroom window, maybe he too had wondered what it would be like to lay next to her and hold her for just one night.

Then his lips crashed into hers, softly but with a lingering determination. Before y/n could even react properly, Toji had moved back again. His eyes staying on the spot he had kissed her, tracing his thumb over it lightly.

“I can’t give you what you want. I never could.”

No. No. No.

Y/n thought back to when she had arrived today, when she claimed that everything had stayed the same. “Why?”

She pleaded with glassy eyes, her e/c ones boring into his.

“Because you don’t belong at a place like this - and I do.”

Even as the young woman sat there, watching him move away and stand back up, she didn’t feel any hatred towards him. He never did anything bad to her. He never treated her the way he had treated his wife. He never once took advantage of the situation.

But both of them knew he wasn’t a good person, and maybe letting each other go was the only way to avoid causing any more damage.

“I’m sorry.”

Y/n didn’t know what exactly she had apologized for; if it had been for leaving the town out of the blue, or for crashing into his home without any warning. Maybe even for something that only Toji could know, like what circumstances he had been in to become this way - but she did feel sorry. Toji’s steps come to a halt at the doorway, turning his head, only to give her one last smile.

He had left the room without a response.

Y/n knew there hadn’t been anything left to say - this was their last chapter and she was finally ready to turn the page.

————

My first jjk story for now, but I’ll probably write more for other characters from the show soon. Also please feel free to correct me on anything grammar related since english isn’t my first language & i’m only trying to get better. ^^

[amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines]

Reggie//i can't let you go now that i got it

Request: your last reggie mantle imagine was soooooo cute it was.... BIG FAV i'm still grinning! could you please do one where reader and reggie have been best friends their whole lives? she's super protective and sweet to him and like? she's been in love for years but has been hiding it well?? she gets him to come away with her to college because 'screw this town' and they live together? but eventually she starts going on dates and it makes him realize he's in love with her too?? mutual love confession

hey! so before you go any further trigger warning mentions of abuse, specifically around reggie and his dad. it’s not in detail but it is mentioned a few times so don’t read if that upsets you. the last thing i want you to be is sad. i hope you all have a good day anyway, whether you’re reading this or not! (title is from Børns ‘electric love’)

- For 18 years 

- Reggie Mantle has been the only constant in your life 

- Even when you were babies he was there 

- Your mom’s sat beside each other in baby class, cooing and awing over each other’s kids

- All while 6 month old you stole 6 month old Reggie’s toy

- And then he cried so hard he vomited on not only himself but you as well 

- Which then made you cry even louder 

- And then your mom’s were asked to leave 

- So instead

- It became a weekly thing for your mom to take you to The Mantle’s 

- While her and Mrs Mantle gossiped and drank tea 

- You and Reggie would hit each other with various stuffed toys. 

- As you got older 

- The weekly visits turned into daily ones 

- Especially when you moved three houses away from him

- You and Reggie started to see each other more than your own parents did

- Your mom still went over once a week

- But when she arrived you were always usually there

- Either stood in the kitchen getting a snack 

- Or lying on Reggie’s bed watching an awful movie he just ‘had to show you’ 

- They usually involved a hybrid of two animals

- Sometimes mythical, sometimes not 

- But in all of them they were usually taking over the world

- They also always had the same four actors in

- But despite how much you protested 

- ‘reggie? are you being serious? we watched this one last time.’ 

- ‘no, we watched molemaid last time. this is medusamaid. they’re completely different’ 

- ‘oh, sorry. my mistake’

- You actually secretly loved them 

- Because they made him happy

- You would watch in awe as he laughed at stupid jokes 

- And how his eyes would always light up at a particularly gruesome part, no matter how badly CGI’d it was

- You also listened to the countless of theories as to how ‘hurrik9’ is clearly the prequel to ‘hellhounds’ because ‘they’ve got the same main character! it doesn’t matter if they’re not played by the same person. y/n, they’ve got the same name.’ 

- You also listened to him complain about the inconsistencies between ‘werewombats 1’ and ‘werewombats 2’

- ‘no matter how much the director stands by the decision to make them turn on each other, despite the first film clearly stating that that’s the last thing they’d do.’ 

- But the thing you loved the most about it 

- Was that he was only ever this way with you

- You’d been sworn to secrecy when you walked in on him watching ‘dinocano vs uniquake’ 

- And you promised never to tell anyone about his secret passion

- Or the fact that he had a stack of notebooks filled with plots and mini scripts for his own films. 

- Reggie may have gotten popular

- But to you, he’s still the same Reggie you’ve always known.

- Whose scared of clowns but won’t admit it

- And cried when watching Edward Scissorhands but if anybody asks it was you

- And who hates hot chocolate, but its the only thing he’ll drink when he’s sick 

- He also only eats pink marshmallows in months ending in R

- And white ones every other month 

- But in December he has both...because its Christmas.

- Yeah, you and Reggie are best friends 

- Always have been, always will

- But it doesn’t stop you from wanting more.

- It doesn’t stop the longing looks when you think no one is watching 

- Or the lingering touches whenever he hugs you

- It doesn’t stop your heartbeat picking up whenever he walks into a room

- Or how you forget how to breathe whenever he looks at you

- You look forward to everyday, even if you have a pop quiz or homework you only remembered the night before

- Because he’s going to be there to make you smile

- Even if he isn’t doing it on purpose 

- You look forward to the countless of texts he sends

- No matter how weird or ridiculous 

- Like when he text you at half three in the morning to ask if birds were real because somebody told him they weren’t.

- You then got a text straight afterwards telling you that it would be great idea for a plot

- And you still answer every single one

- No matter how stupid they are 

- It’s really a wonder how you get any sleep with your phone being on loud all the time

- But it’s worth it

- Especially when you get texts like 

- ‘he’s done it again’ 

- Reggie’s relationship with his father complicated to say the least

- You remember when you were younger they used to be best friends 

- Reggie idolized him 

- And you’d have conversations in Reggie’s tree house, about how much he wanted to be just like his dad when he grew up

- But when he did grow up

- And started to develop a personality that didn’t just revolve around football 

- Reggie no longer wanted to be just like his dad 

- He wanted to be the furthest thing from him

- The first time it happened 

- Reggie tried his hardest to hide it from you 

- And for the first time in 8 years 

- You went two days without seeing each other 

- On the third day though 

- You’d had enough 

- So you went round to see him 

- But when you asked his mom if he was in 

- She lied and told you he had just gone out 

- Even though you could clearly see him trying and failing to hide on the stairs

- So you did what any normal friend would do 

- You climbed through his bedroom window 

- With about as much grace and steal as you could muster 

- Which surprisingly, wasn’t a lot

- And you gave him the fright of his life 

- ‘what the hell are you doing here?’ 

- ‘you’re avoiding me’ 

- ‘i’m not. i’ve just been...busy’ 

- ‘doing what? fighting?’ 

- ‘what?’

- ‘your eye’ 

- ‘oh yeah...that’ 

- That was when you knew something was wrong 

- You’ve known Reggie your entire laugh 

- And you know the three things he’ll always boast about 

- Girls, football and fighting 

- ‘what happened?’ 

- When he told you 

- You couldn’t believe what he was saying 

- You wanted to find Marty Mantle and give him a black eye...see how he likes it 

- But Reggie begged you not to do or say anything 

- ‘it’ll only make it worse’ 

- ‘but its wrong. he should be locked up’

- ‘who’s going to believe me?’ 

- ‘me’ 

- ‘see...it was only one time anyway’ 

- So you agreed, reluctantly 

- And you so wanted to believe it

- But then a few weeks later he turned up to school with a bust lip

- A month after that another bruise around his eye that he tried to hide behind sunglasses 

- And by the time graduation rolled around 

- Both of you had lost count of the sunglasses and excuses 

- For three years he’d been trapped in a house with a father who thought hitting was the same as love 

- And a mother who pretended it didn’t happen 

- But now college was round the corner and that meant a chance for both of you

- Or at least thats what you thought

- ‘you didn’t get in?’ 

- ‘i didn’t get in.’ 

- ‘to any of them?’ 

- ‘nope’

- ‘reggi-’

- ‘it’s fine. my dad has always wanted me to work for him. i guess this will make him happy. even if i am the cleaner’ 

- ‘reg-’ 

- ‘please go’

- That summer was the longest one of your life 

- It was even longer that the time Reggie had to get his appendix out and so you couldn’t hang out for a 3 weeks.

- For two and a half months 

- You heard nothing from Reggie 

- You text, called, DM’d and even E-mailed

- But you got nothing 

- You went round at all times of the day to try and talk to him

- And every time Mrs Mantle answered and told you he was either out or busy

- Doing homework was her favourite excuse

- And Reggie has only ever done homework when you were doing the majority of it 

- You even tried climbing in through his window again 

- But he locked it 

- So you watched every morning as he dragged himself into his dad’s car

- Wearing a stiff suit and a miserable expression 

- No matter how hard you tried to get to him before the left 

- How fast you ran or how early you got to his house

- They were always long gone before you managed to get anywhere close to him

- You missed the midnight texts about nothing 

- You missed his stupid jokes 

- You missed watching an entire room light up whenever he walked in

- You missed the way he made you feel, even if he was unaware of it 

- You even missed watching his god-awful movies 

- You just missed him 

- And when he missed your leaving party 

- That was the final straw

- At 7am the next morning 

- You shoved the last of your boxes in the back of your car 

- Said goodbye to your parents 

- And drove away

- Three houses down the street 

- Making sure your parents had gone back inside before stopping 

- You sat outside for a few minutes 

- Trying to think of what to do or say 

- You knew his mom would answer the door

- And that you’d get the same excuses 

- You also knew from the past few experiences that his window would still be locked 

- So you threw rocks at his bedroom window in the hopes that when he’d check to see what it was, he’d leave it unlocked 

- And he did! 

- You watched from behind a bush as he hung his head out the window to look around

- His brow furrowed and hair messy

- Clearly he’d just woke up

- You couldn’t help the smile twitching at your lips 

- You’d missed that face 

- Climbing the window was a lot harder than it used to be 

- Mr Mantle had taken the ladders away 

- Another reason as to why he sucked

- But you managed eventually 

- And you almost died only twice 

- Which is good 

- It’s better than three 

- You landed on the carpet with a loud thud that made him jump half way across the room

- ‘y/n. what the hell are you doing here?’

- ‘it’s moving day. and i must say i’m very disappointed at the lack of preparation on your part. have you even started packing yet?’

- ‘it’s not funny y/n’

- ‘i know. do you see me laughing?’

- ‘i’m being serious y/n. just leave’ 

- ‘no’ 

- ‘what?’

- ‘the last time you told me to leave, i listened and i didn’t see you for two months, so no’ 

- ‘what about college’ 

- ‘what about it?’ 

- ‘it starts in three days’ 

- ‘i know. and if we stand here any longer we’re going to miss it. so get packed and lets go. it’s a nine hour drive and i’m not doing all of that alone’ 

- ‘you know i can’t go’ 

- ‘says who?’ 

- ‘my dad, every single college i applied for and me’ 

- ‘listen to me reggie. you are my best friend, you have been since we were babies. there’s not a part of my life you haven’t been in. do you really think that would stop at college?’ 

- ‘we didn’t spend the summer together’ 

- ‘and it was the worst summer of my life’ 

- ‘same...but that might have been because i was spending 12 hours a day in an office’ 

- ‘rude. but i’ll take it!’ 

- ‘i did miss you though. it was weird not seeing your face everyday’ 

- That makes your cheeks heat up and you have to force the flutter in your chest to go away

- ‘it always cheers me up’ 

- There it goes again and you want to claw at your chest until it’s no longer there 

- Hope is a terrible thing to have when you’ve been in love with your best friend for your entire life

- ‘you always cheer me up’ 

- Oh dear...

- ‘i love you...a-as a friend. this summer has been the longest and most depressing for both of us. i don’t want to live the rest of my life like that. i need you reggie. so please pack your bags, say screw you to your dad and to this town and lets go’ 

- ‘what about money? where am i going to live?’ 

- ‘we’ll figure that out on the way there. just hurry up’ 

- And he did 

- You and Reggie threw the majority of his belongings into any bag you could find

- He took all the money he’d been saving out of the poorly disguised fake plant

- And wrote a nice little note for his parents 

- You also may have added a few choice words to it 

- But what Reggie doesn’t know won’t hurt him 

- And the two of you climbed into your car and never looked back

- The 9 hour car ride was the most fun you’ve ever had 

- It was like you were trying to fit the entire summer you’d lost into those few hours 

- It was filled with off key singing 

- And stories of your summer 

- His favourite being about Archie being tricked into going skinny dipping by himself

- You laughed loudly like nothing had happened 

- And cried silently because everything had 

- Thankfully when you arrived on campus, it was already night 

- So you managed to sneak Reggie into your room

- And when you nervously told your roommate 

- She just grinned at you

- ‘it’s fine, my boyfriend will probably be staying over a lot too’ 

- ‘oh, he’s not my boyfriend’ 

- ‘we’re not together’ 

- ‘...okay’ 

- She said with a knowing smile and you and Reggie shared a look

- And a year filled with adventures started

- Reggie got a job as a bartender with a little help from Veronica 

- And you started your classes 

- But nothing is ever easy 

- At least not when it involves you or Reggie 

- It turns out hiding a whole human is a lot more difficult that you anticipated. 

- It involves Reggie squeezing into your closet 

- And a whole team of people to get him to and from the showers 

- But it was also difficult for another reason

- Because it was easy to hide your feelings from him when you lived in separate house 

- But now you’re sharing a room

- And a bed 

- And every time he would wrap his arms around you 

- And pull in for a half asleep cuddle 

- You’d forget how to breathe 

- You’ve never been more excited to wake up

- Because he’d be all messy hair and parted lips with just a little bit of drool coming out of them that it would be cute instead of gross 

- And when he said good morning in the same deep, tired voice 

- You wanted to live in that feeling forever 

- But then 2nd year rolled around and everything changed 

- It all started when you moved into your own apartment 

- You knew you had to but there was a part of you that hoped you could keep everything the same 

- You found a tiny, two bedroom flat that you could both just about afford 

- Reggie was so happy to have his own room

- ‘i won’t have to sleep next to you and your freezing cold feet anymore’ 

- ‘i’ll just sneak into your bed when your fast asleep and put them on you then instead’ 

- ‘i thought we were supposed to be friends’ 

- It took a few weeks to get used to an empty bed 

- But eventually you started to sleep properly 

- And it was quite nice to have your own space again

- It meant you could study without having to listen to ‘nighthawk nightmare’ 

- Honestly, you don’t really know what the plot of that one is 

- But you’ve still seen it 7 times 

- You may be in love with him but it doesn’t mean he can’t be annoying sometimes 

- And you were happy with going back to admiring from afar

- Your heart can’t get broken that way

- In fact a small part of you thought he felt the same way 

- That one glimmer of hope you felt a year ago

- Came back all of sudden 

- And soon 

- You became aware of the lingering touches 

- And the gifts he’d buy you just because 

- He also asked what you wanted to watch for your movie night 

- And he’s never, ever done that unless you were sad or sick

- And even then, when you broke your arm a few years ago, he chose the film

- The way he looked at you suddenly felt different 

- You would feel him staring, but when you would check he would always be scrolling through his phone 

- And you’re sure the was a little bit of flirtiness in his tone whenever he spoke to you 

- But just because you think you can’t be burnt if you stand far enough away from the fire 

- Doesn’t mean that the sparks can’t jump out and get you anyway 

- Because all of sudden Reggie started bringing girls home 

- And every time you saw a t-shirt that wasn’t yours on the sofa 

- Or a pair of shoes discarded by the door

- You felt yourself die a little

- After a few weeks of this 

- Something in you snapped

- You’d spent the majority of your life pining after some boy who saw you as nothing more than a friend 

- And sometimes a small part of you thought as just an escape route

- So you moped for a few weeks before deciding it was finally time to move on

- Reggie would only ever see you as a friend 

- And that’s fine 

- The only way to move on, is to move on. 

- So you waited for the right guy to move on with 

- And there were a few 

- But none of them were right 

- Until you met Daniel 

- Sweet Daniel with curly brown hair and dimples

- Who studied history 

- And spent his days sitting in the coffee shop on campus

- For a few weeks the two of you spent your short interactions stealing glances and exchanging shy smiles 

- That evolved to small talk with flirty undertones

- Until finally he asked you out 

- And you said yes 

- And you kept saying yes to each date afterwards 

- They were fun too

- He’d take you to museum's and on picnics and at night he’d pick you up and you’d go star gazing 

- He would make you laugh when he’d tell you a joke 

- And make you blush when he’s whisper in your ear while staring up at the sky 

- But he wasn’t him

- And that killed you

- It doesn’t matter how many time he takes you to watch some unknown indie film thats supposed to be the greatest thing ever made

- It has nothing on standing outside the only cinema in town that’s showing ‘sharkcano vs tigerana’ in the freezing cold with Reggie wearing an absolutely ridiculous costumes that Reggie threw together last minute and somehow roped you into wearing too.

- But what hurt even more was watching how Reggie acted around you when you and Daniel started dating 

- He looked hurt whenever he saw the two of you together 

- And you would watch him roll his eyes whenever you mentioned him 

- Until eventually he would just avoid you all together 

- Do you know how hard it is to avoid someone when you’re living in the same 2 bedroom flat that barely gives two foot to yourself? 

- It’s hard 

- But Reggie finds a way 

- Eventually you’re more roommates than friends 

- And you really don’t know how much more you can take 

- You feel like you’re about to break 

- And Daniel can see that too

- So on Friday night he invites you to go drinking with him and his friends instead of staying in and moping 

- ‘bye, i’m going out’ 

- ‘wait’ 

- The speed of which he runs from his room and into the living room where your stood, startles you to say the least 

- ‘what?’

- ‘don’t go out with him.’ 

- ‘why not? what ever george has told you about is a lie. george does that. he once told a bunch of people that you streaked in an old people’s home and almost killed his grandmother’ 

- ‘because he isn’t me’ 

- You’ve dreamt of those words 

- Built them up in your head for years 

- But in all of your daydreams, there’s never been a scenario like this one 

- Not one where you’re about to leave to go on a date with another guy 

- ‘reggie? what are you talking about?’ 

- You need to make sure he’s saying what you think he’s saying 

- Because you can feel yourself hoping again

- And you know if he doesn’t mean what you want him to

- You don’t think you’ll be able to recover

- ‘i love you y/n. you’re my best friend, you always have been, you always will be and i love you.’ 

- ‘reg-’ 

- ‘please tell me you feel the same way’ 

- ‘i-’ 

- In your head you had a full oscar worthy speech planned out just in case this ever happened 

- But now you’re here in the moment. 

- You have no idea what to say

- ‘it doesn’t matter. just leave’ 

- ‘no’ 

- ‘what?’ 

- ‘do you really think i’m going to walk away from you after that? when have i ever walked away from you?’ 

- ‘i-no’

- ‘i love you too by the way. if you care’ 

- ‘shut up...wait really?’ 

- ‘yes i do. i’ve loved you for as long as i can remember so are you going to just stand there or are you going to kiss me?’ 

- ‘i’m definitely going to kiss you’ 

- ‘good’ 

- And he does 

- He’s standing in front of you before you can catch your breath

- His hands reach up to cup your cheeks 

- His lips part as he stares down at you 

- And you’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he’s looking at you

- Like you’re everything good and light in the universe 

- And like he’s also been waiting just as long for this moment 

- Maybe he has 

- Maybe he’s been waiting all his life for this 

- He just didn’t know 

- You feel whatever breath you had left leave your lungs

- His lips are soft against yours, but he gets his point across 

- And you’ve never been happier 

- All the heartache and tears 

- The laughter and stupid jokes 

- The 3am texts 

- The constant worrying 

- The early mornings and late nights 

- The damage to limbs from trying to fit in tiny closets

- And the scrapes on your ankles and bruising on your legs from crawling through his bedroom window 

- They’re all worth it

- ‘are you still going on your date?’ 

- ‘what do you think?’ 

- ‘good. because they’ve just released werewombats 3’

[lizacstuff]

Your thoughts on the epi? And the trailers? I'm loving the in love Edser! We've waited so long for this!!!

This episode was so fun and fluffy! I don't know about you, but I am enjoying the tone during this second season. A lot. I don't care how stupid the audition process was for the spot in the school, it gave us some very good comedy and a lot of USTy, sexy, flirty goodness.

And like you, I also love in love Edser!

Thankfully this episode was dominated by Edser, and with Kiraz at Granny's house we even got some alone time. The supporting characters were used to good effect this episode, Engin and Piril were the funniest they've ever been, Kerem and Pina served to poke Serkan about his mentoring style, and it was actually nice to have an excuse for Ayfer and Aydan to share a storyline again.

(more under the cut)

However, we'll start with Burak and Melo. UGH. I mean I love Melo and Elcin has done a really good job of showing Melo's heartbreak and trying to hide her melancholy behind her usual bubbly personality, but I really can't stand that it's over such a dud of a character. I know I'm a broken record here but Melo deserves better than this fool. Honestly, he's such a bland sad sack I don't really get why Melo loves him, Eda wants to be friends with him and Ayfer thinks he's so great she wants him for a nephew-in-law. Well, for Ayfer the only qualification is that he's not Serkan, so never mind that question.

However, maybe there's some hope? Before this episode it seemed certain they were heading in a romance direction, but the way he told her she was like a sister to him? Is there really any coming back from him saying that after he remembered kissing her? On the other hand we're barreling towards the end here and there's not really enough time to introduce anyone new for Melo (and no indication from spoilers that they have) and I'm pretty sure Ayse and the writers want to give her a romantic happy ending (although I'd be fine if they didn't and instead had her go off and do something entirely for herself like go back to school or travel or open a shop). So we'll see, because even with the sister line they left some room open because Kerem was the one who suggested he say that (it wasn't necessarily his own idea) and with Melo he seemed to be coming from a place where he assumed he had forced himself on her and she was angry because she didn't want it. Which we know is not true, so might be a misunderstanding that leads to something more. Anyway, I guess we'll just have to endure whichever way they go.

Personally, I like the Serkan-Kemal father storyline. I think it's a good way to add a bit of drama in the waning episodes, gives Serkan a bit of an identity crisis, interestingly mirrors his own situation with Kiraz, and it just makes sense with everything we know of the characters. Because were we seriously supposed to believe that someone as sniveling as Alptelkin sired Serkan? I mean Serkan is the epitome of BDE, he has an inherent charismatic and commanding presence. Sorry to the actor who played Alptekin, but he didn't really have any kind of presence, however Sinan who plays Kemal, does. They've done a great job of casting, because it just feels true. I believe Kemal and Serkan share genetics.

However, even before that storyline starts in earnest, it's interesting that Serkan was being a big baby, not wanting his mom with a man she clearly loves. I wish Eda would have pushed back at him a little more when he was going off that Aydan shouldn't pursue love at her age! Does he think he'll be out of love with Eda by the time he's in his 50s and 60s? Of course not! I'm guessing Eda, though, is just letting him blow off some steam and come to accept the relationship on his own terms. Don't get me wrong, though, after all the meddling Aydan's done with Edser, she more than deserves to have Serkan's opinion of Kemal negatively impact her!

Loved that Kiraz and Can found out first that Kemal is Serkan's father! Cat is out of the bag, Aydan, you can't make a deal with a 5 year old, lmao. It put a nice ticking clock on the whole thing and gave us some good comedic moments where Kiraz is speaking the truth and everyone thinks she's just really fond of the dude. Hee.

Also I enjoyed the Aydan and Ayfer moments. To be honest, I also used to enjoy their true friendship moments when we got them, like when Kemal first appeared and Aydan was freaking out and needed Ayfer and Seyfi around her, and when they were trying to hunt down Deniz after the fake wedding turned real. After so much animosity, it was nice that Ayfer recognized that Aydan was truly in distress and needed a friend and they were able to actually talk. Also we got some (mildly) funny comedy with the two of them and the school lady. Speaking of Ayfer, thankfully she finally realized some consequences to her actions in pushing Burak at Eda. She hurt Melo! Glad she finally opened her eyes to see what should have been obvious to her (Eda never saw him that way, and Melo obviously did) and apologized to Melo. I'd like it if she would apologize to Eda as well, (and Burak deserves an apology as well because she most definitely gave him false hope) but since Eda wasn't influenced by her we probably won't see that.

Switching to Eda and Serkan this episode gave us lots of good stuff. This was a great episode for showing us where each of them stood. Eda is terrified of getting hurt and trying to hold him at arm's length even while he clearly is inching back into her heart, and Serkan is dreaming of their future together, and taking every opportunity to tie them together. How much did I love Serkan admitting he was poking at Eda, and doig things to make her angry, just so she would talk to him? Interesting that he's doing it and love that he's being honest and admitting it to her. One of my favorite relationship dynamics between them is around "talking." In the very beginning Serkan did a lot of complaining about how much Eda talked and how she never shut up, but starting around episode 18 all he wanted was for Eda to talk to him. And this is just more of that. The thing he wants most is to talk to her.

Plus watching domestic Edser is just so much fun, I could watch their full grocery shopping trip in real time and be perfectly happy, lol. At the age of 35 it's time that Serkan learn how to do a few things for himself, I don't care how rich he is, so it's nice that we see him evolving a bit as he embraces the dad role.

The jealousy gambits, even as mild as they are, are getting pretty eye roll worthy since Eda and Serkan are living together, care so much, and obviously are still so hot for one another. It's a bit more understandable from Serkan since Eda is the one creating the barrier between them, but are we really supposed to believe that Eda is jealous of Deniz when Serkan is so obviously in love with Eda and planning their future together? Especially when he clearly can't stand Deniz and tries so hard to avoid her? I suppose it's to show us that Eda is in a jumbled state, her head is trying to keep space with Serkan, while her heart wants him badly and is scared he's going to take her rejections seriously. Even so it was quite irrational for her to get angry at Serkan for having lunch with Deniz when she ordered him to leave with her. Poor Eda is in emotional turmoil.

It was hard to tell with shaky translations, but I guess Serkan claimed to have been injured while rescuing Eda and that's how he talked his way into her bed? Impressively done, Serkan. Love it because it meant we all got to wake up to snuggly family, snuggling together. This gave us another glimpse into Eda's psyche, she wakes up first, and is clearly enjoying it and feeling at home in his arms, until the sleep clears enough and her head realizes she's not supposed to be enjoying it. But once again Kiraz knows how to handle her parents and their complicated relationship beautifully and fixes everything with a pillow fight. That is one smart cookie.

One of my favorite moments of the episode is when Eda is trying to convince Serkan to go to Aydan about the school. Eda knows that her big eyes still work on him, and they did. He still can't say no to her, another one of my favorite relationship dynamics of theirs. I'm super glad some things never change. Speaking of their visit to Aydan's, how great that they went to meet the horse without a name as a family, and then Serkan finally came up with the perfect name. Definitely a star.

Love, love, love that Serkan and Eda beat Engin and Piril when it came to the 'how well do you know your spouse' game. They may have been separated for 5 years, but they both have a genuine interest in the other, so they remember things, and they always made a much more compatible couple than Engin/Piril who have absolutely nothing in common. Of course I adored all the fake married hijinx this gave us, not to mention all the opportunities for Serkan to touch, kiss, and hold her. SO MUCH UST!

The heart-to-heart on the bench was well done and it finally gave us Eda opening up and telling him what's been holding her back. She's scared. Of course she is, the poor thing. Serkan might have thought he was doing it for her own good both times, but he ripped her heart out twice (not even counting all the heart ripping he did during amnesia) how could she not have fears? Of course she's afraid! Whenever she lets herself love him and be loved by him, it's ripped away horribly, and often in ways that feels like it's him doing the ripping. She can take into consideration the circumstances, which she has or else he wouldn't be anywhere near her, and still need time to be sure she's not just setting herself up to get emotionally demolished again.

For Serkan's part all he can do is keep being there, being honest with her, and showing he's in it for the long haul, which I think he's doing and which is why they are where they are at the end of this episode.

Engin and Piril's dance practice is probably the first Engin/Piril alone scene that I thought was genuinely funny and fully enjoyable. I can't think of another... message me if you think there is one, lol. Elsewhere, I saw some folks saying that Engin and Piril should have won the dance competition, because they actually danced, and Eda and Serkan didn't. LOL, you think? I'm pretty sure that was the point. That Eda and Serkan didn't really dance, all they did was get up there and turn their sexual tension and intense smoldering towards one another up to eleventy and won because it's that powerful.

It's sort of a metaphor for this whole series. Sen Cal Kapimi is 100% powered by their chemistry. Of course they can win any competition by just pressing their bodies against one another! They can turn a ditzy Turkish summer romcom that probably should have gone 13 eps into an international hit that's going on 50 episodes, just by looking at one another.

I'm glad that the school officials overheard their conversations and dismissed them, any organization that requires this of the parents, is going to be a lifelong pain-in-the ass, lmao. Also it was good to see Edser and EnPir make up by the end.

Now, on to that ending. I'm glad the subject of the tatoos was brought up, interesting that Eda kept hers until a few months ago. Also interesting that she moved it... can't blame Serkan for wanting to see it. Was that one great seduction line, or what?

I join with everyone who thinks it was a slightly awkward place to leave the episode. We only have 13 (probably) episodes this season, and we've only had one kiss so far. That was definitely a moment for a kiss. Part of me thinks they were going for the cliffhanger, what will Eda do? Will she kiss him or slam the door in his face? Tune in next week to find out! Except that audiences have to wait no time at all for the fragman and that makes any such cliffhanger moot. So what's the point? Have her pull him in, kiss him, and the show can end with them passionately making out and the door slamming with the camera outside the house.

Oh well, it is what it is, and we can only hope they pick up next week right where they left off. As for the fragman, obviously they are fully back together for this episode which means she lets him in to hunt for her tattoo. (please oh please give us that internet ozel because I don't think I can stand being online in this fandom if they don't. Thankfully I'm traveling next week and will be too busy to spend much time on twitter.)

As I said in another ask, I'm not surprised Serkan is barreling them straight towards marriage. When you know, you know, so why wait? Once they emotionally commit to one another, they need to just get married. No waiting for psychos to interfere, family to meddle, or tragedy to strike!

Seriously can't wait for a full episode of them together and Serkan figuring out how to propose. I'm also looking forward to the Kemal/Serkan stuff, it will be interesting to see how he reacts once the news sets in... should be a great episode!

[cdt12345]

We've been friends many years but I've never thought to ask; Top 10 gay OTPs?

1.) Ian & Mickey (Gallavich) - Shameless us

What can I say about these two that we haven’t already said about them?! They are my absolute all-time favorite couple ever! Gay or straight. They perfectly complement each other, they love each other on a level I feel like I’ve never seen before (and I have watched a lot of tv/movies), they’re like a comedy duo, they support each other, understand each other better than anyone else ever will, they fell in love as kids, they bring out the best in each other, and they’re each other's best friend. I’m a sucker for opposites attract, who are also best friends. Gallavich really fits that bill. I wish they didn’t have to struggle so much to get their happiness, but I’m happy they finally got it. When they got married, it felt like the biggest victory ever! We went through those years of struggle with them, rooted for them, mourned for them when John Wells let Noel go after season 5. So much has tried to keep these two apart, even real-life circumstances tried to keep them apart. The chemistry between these two characters and between Cameron and Noel was so powerful, they were brought back to the show. That kind of thing doesn’t happen very often. When an actor leaves a show, they don’t usually come back as a series regular, let alone two actors who have already left the show. It felt like a miracle! I will never forget getting the news that Noel was coming back from you @luckyshazmrsmonaghansblog I was crying with happiness bc we wanted this for so long and I never believed we would get to see both Cameron and Noel back on the show. Or that they would get their happy ending outside of a jail cell. Especially after Cameron left the show in season 9. With their return we got a wedding, an entire season of them as a married couple, we got to see them dance with each other twice, we got them singing together, we got to see them start a lucrative business together, we got to see them free and happier than we’ve ever seen them before, and we got to see Terry get what he deserved after putting them through hell. We are only halfway through season 11, but I already feel so fulfilled with this extra time with gallavich that we were never supposed to have. JW tried to take that away from us. I will never understand why, but he failed. I am not surprised this is the one I wrote the most about. I can go on and on about gallavich!

2.) David and Patrick - Schitt’s Creek

This was everything I ever wanted to see onscreen, where there was zero homophobia. The pansexual character didn’t need to have a big coming out or tell everyone in the town of his sexual orientation, except his best friend. The gay character had a coming out with parents who loved and accepted him for who he is and was only upset that he felt he couldn’t tell them sooner. I dreamt of a day where I could see this kind of representation onscreen. The casual treatment of their sexuality was so refreshing and something I’ve been waiting for. There is no darkness or huge struggle they had to overcome to be together or a sad ending for them. They were allowed to be together without the major conflicts most LGBTQ characters have to go through. Once David made the first move Patrick was comfortable allowing himself to fall for David and start a relationship with him. He was so sure of his feelings for David after that first kiss, he never looked back and I loved that. They had such an adorable love story. Truly one I have been waiting to see for so long between two LGBTQ characters. They made me smile every time they were on screen. They are another of my OTPs that are exact opposites who complement each other perfectly. Patrick was welcomed into David’s family and blended in with them so well, even when he and David had very different upbringings. Patrick serenading David with Tina Turner and then Mariah Carey at their wedding is one of the most romantic things I have ever seen!

3.) Holt and Kevin - Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Captain Holt and Kevin are strange men on their own but together they are the perfect pair. They get each other in a way no one else does. The best part is their adorable fur baby, Cheddar! They seriously make the cutest family! I was so nervous when they went through a rough patch for a while because I didn’t want them to split up. Thankfully, they made it through and are still going strong!

4.) Will and Vince - Will & Grace

On the show's first run, Will and Vince were in a serious relationship and Vince was Will’s longest relationship on the show. They broke up a few times but were together by the series finale. The two reunite during the funeral of Will's father. There was a time jump on the series finale. Though I didn’t love everything about the last episode, I did love the fact that Will and Vince had been together for 20 years and raised a son together, who was conceived through in vitro fertilization with a surrogate. After the time jump, nearly twenty years later, their son goes to college and meets Grace's daughter, whom he would eventually marry. Though I wasn’t happy with the fact that Will and Grace didn’t stay close over the years, it did allow for their kids to one day meet, fall in love, and get married. I did like that outcome out of the finale. My family and I used to watch the original show, but we refused to accept or watch the 2017 revival because they completely changed everything from the original series finale. The second I found out they were changing everything; I knew I couldn’t watch it. They even wiped the existence of their kids from the first series finale. The revival was an attempt to cash in on the reboot craze and I wasn’t happy about that already, but even more so when they were going to break up one of my OTPs for easy money. Bobby Cannavale, who played Vince, has become even more famous since starring in Will & Grace. So, I already figured he wouldn’t be back for the show as a regular, but I know he did guest star. I won’t accept the revival and to me, Will and Vince stayed together, and their son married Grace’s daughter. THE END!

5.) Albert and Armand - The Birdcage

Miss Albert and Armand were the earliest gay couple I remember ever watching onscreen when I was eight years old. I have watched this movie more than I can count over the years. It is a family favorite that we quote often. Their son is planning to marry a girl whose father is in politics and is very conservative. They have to hide the fact that he has two gay fathers for one night, but everything goes awry, and comedy ensues. Nathan Lane and Robin Williams give a wonderful performance without resorting to using the stereotypes that are often used on gay characters, especially back then. It’s a classic!

6.) Stefon and Seth - Saturday Night Live

Okay, hear me out on this one! They’re not the most conventional OTPs on my list, but I really do love them so much! Stefon started doing a correspondent segment on Weekend Update on SNL. The first time Stefon came on, he flirted with Seth Meyers. The second he did I was like ooh they would make a cute couple! Stefon the wild party guy and Seth the serious news anchor. It was a match made in heaven for me. Before Seth Meyers left SNL to do Late Night with Seth Meyers, Bill Hader came back to play Stefon for Seth’s last episode. I didn’t expect what happened next to happen at all! They gave Seth and Stefon the ending that I haven’t even gotten from some actual scripted shows. I never expected Stefon and Seth to have this big ending, but I could not be happier that they did. I’m posting the link to the six-minute skit/ending and I hope it works. It’s worth watching. Though the video says it’s Stefon’s farewell it was really Seth’s farewell episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj-wYWMdWNk

7.) Mr. Simmons and Peter - Hey Arnold!

Anyone who grew up watching this show already knew that Mr. Simmons, Arnold’s teacher, was probably gay. It was hinted at in the Thanksgiving episode. Arnold and Helga visit Mr. Simmons on Thanksgiving at his house and his family and “friend” Peter are there. Mr. Simmons mother says she didn’t know Peter was coming to dinner and Peter responds with the infamous line “There’s a lot of things you don’t know.” When Mr. Simmons mom tries to get him to take a woman friend to the ballet, he says he loves the ballet and Peter gives him a disapproving look and Mr. Simmons immediately declines. Those were enough hints for us fans to decide Peter was his boyfriend. Years later, the show's creator Craig Bartlett finally confirmed Mr. Simmons is gay and had them together in the 2017 Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie. It was so exciting to finally get the confirmation years later, even though I was already certain of it for many years. I was happy that the cartoon no longer had to settle with vague hints about it.

8.) Callie and Arizona - Grey’s Anatomy

I was very happy to see a lesbian couple on prime time tv and I really liked both characters. I was excited to root for them but sadly as most couples on this show, their relationship took a turn, and I wasn’t thrilled about it. I was disappointed that it came to an end. By then I was already getting tired of watching the show. It was starting to feel like a chore to watch it every week. I tried to stick it out because I don’t like to give up on shows in the middle of it, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. I’m glad I did though because the shocking events with Derek Shepard, is something I’m glad I wasn’t around for. Anyway, I heard things between Callie and Arizona got even worse, so I was even happier I left when I did.

9.) Sherwin and Jonathan - In a Heartbeat

This was one of the cutest things I have ever seen! I wish this got the full-length movie treatment instead of a short film. But it was still a step in the right direction for the LGBTQ community. Gay characters in cartoons always bring me such joy and that was the focus of this short. A boy with a crush on another boy with a cute ending. What is not to love?!

10.) Mitch and Cam - Modern Family

Another show I had to give up on in the middle of the series. The show began to be less funny and more annoying to me. Another reason, that really has nothing to do with the show itself, that used to annoy me was that this show repeatedly beat out Parks and Recreation during award season. Parks and Recreation is a superior show when compared to Modern Family. This show won almost every year for years and it got really annoying especially when the quality of the show started slipping and they kept winning. After a few years, they finally stopped winning all the time. But before all that, I was a fan of Cam and Mitch. They were a great couple who I loved watching on the show. They were the best part of the show most of the time. But sadly, my annoyance of the show no longer being as funny as it used to be, was enough for me to stop watching.

[imaginesmai]

Peter Parker - Health class, horny teenagers and sex

Plot: Your highschool tries to be as open as possible by giving a ‘sex care’ talk in health class. Flash is the typical teenager who watches porn and talk too much about girls. And Peter, is just nervous

or

Sex is not a rule and Peter Parker isn’t the exception.

or

Kind of a frustation-fic where the writer wants to show that it’s okay to be a virgin and don’t enjoy sex.

Warnings: NO SMUT

You sat on the toilet seat, knees pulled up to your chest and anxiety fluttering in your stomach as you kept staring at the wall in front of you. May’s bathroom was cute; it was filled with some beauty products, but on the majority it was small and neat. You had been there before, yet until that moment you hadn’t had stopped to really look at it. The shiny bath in the corner that still had the strawberry shampoo Peter loved so much. The pale blue towels that matched the walls. The white, wooden bin that was behind the sink.

You trailed your eyes from the wall to the door, that had been closed for more than ten minutes. Behind it, was Peter Parker, probably as nervous as you. You knew he was eaten alive by nerves more often than not, and you hiding in the bathroom was doing nothing good to the situation. But you couldn’t find the strength to leave the bathroom, at least not yet.

You had shared a bed before over the past several months, usually his since the apartment was mostly empty. You liked sharing his space, liked the warmth of his body and the sound of his breathing, his arms around you. You had just slept, curled together under the covers; nothing beyond kissing, and you had been happy with that.

But lately, both of you lived with the aching feeling that there was more, and that you wanted it.

In highschool you had heard about sex, maybe too much even, and in health class they had explained you how to put a condom and avoid STD. Through the whole hour, you had avoided Peter’s eyes and he had avoided yours. And now, the weekend after that talk, you were spending the night at Peter’s.

“Um, Y/N?” Peter’s hesitant voice came through the door. “Are you – everything alright?”

“Yeah!”

As if to prove your point, you rose up from the toilet seat and walked towards the door, not opening it yet. Moments ago, you had been laying in the couch watching a film, lazily making out. The film had ended and you had decided to go to bed, choosing not to notice how Peter kept a cushion on his lap while you ran to the bathroom. Where you were still locked, trying to decide if you were really going to do it or to jump out of the window.

Peter misunderstood your internal monologue as you being uncomfortable in his house, and even though you couldn’t see him, his shoulders slumped down and he dropped the smile.

“If you want to… call your mom or anything, it’s fine” he suggested. “Or I can swing you home”

That Peter was nervous only confirmed what you were afraid of; both of you were thinking about the health class and wanted to continue what happened in the couch. You cursed yourself because, to him, it seemed that you didn’t want to. Which wasn’t true, because you had gone to the mall with MJ after class earlier and you had bought some black lingerie. That was the whole motive of your doubts in the bathroom.

You looked to the mirror once more, thinking again that you had gone a bit overboard with it, and checked how the underwear looked on you. Indeed, it was so good that it boosted your confidence up a bit. You lowered again the long shirt-dress you wore at night and opened the door.

“Sorry, I was just – sorry” you chuckled, not being able to say any excuse. Peter blinked at you and attempted to brush off the sad face. “I’m staying. We’ve done this before. It’s – it’s fine”

Peter nodded to every word you said, not tearing his brown warm eyes from you. You smiled at him and walked past his frozen body into the hallway. The apartment was similar to the bathroom; small, but cute. It wasn’t as neat, probably because of Peter and his clumsiness, that tended to leave socks everywhere.

You felt  the previous tension left your shoulders when you finally entered Peter’s room. It was all the same as when you slept together before, with the space themed sheets and the parts of some technological device laying around. You laid on your usual spot on the bed, and waited until Peter took of his slippers and socks and got into bed. Instead of becoming a mess of arms and legs like usually, you didn’t move.

Peter’s nose brushed yours as you brought your hands close to your chest. The dim light that he always kept on in the hallway, and the night lamp behind him created an intimate environment. It would have been enough to doze you to sleep if your thoughts hadn’t been jumping crazy in your head. Knowing Peter wouldn’t say anything, you talked.

“This week’s talk was cool” you said, looking at Peter’s chin.

“Yeah” he rasped out. “Well, I was – Flash was behind me, and was saying… stuff.”

You hummed. Flash was the typical teenager who talked about boobs and ass all day but hadn’t seen one yet. He ogled the older girls and had some debatable pics on his phone. But Peter, as the teacher showed a female body on the screen and Flash took some photos under the desk, could only think about watching you like that.

“Betty was talking too” you looked at him in the eye, and decided you would just say it out loud. “She was – she said it’s something lovely if you do it with the right person, and I think you’re my right person”

Peter actually chocked on his breath, and his eyes went wide. Was he thinking about it during the whole film, even when he pressed a cold ice pack to his groin? Of course, and it wasn’t the first time he did it. He was, however, as awkward as he could be. Blush creeping his cheeks, mouth pressed in a tight line and not tearing his eyes from your eyebrow. Not even your eyes, because he felt as if he could melt into a puddle.

Thankfully for the both of you, you had known Peter for a while now, and you didn’t misunderstood his silence. MJ had made sure of it talking to you for a long hour that you didn’t enjoy too much. Your hand brushed his chest through his pyjama top, and you chuckled to yourself. It was nothing like the porn Flash talked about – he was wearing an iron man shirt with thousands small helmets.

“It’s fine if you don’t want anything else” you assured him, playing with the hem of his shirt. “Just kissing is fine with me. And you don’t have to feel pressured because of the talk and what the other boys –“

“It’s not that” Peter interrupted you, looking down to where your hand was. “I really want to, Y/N. I have – wanted it for a long… I just, dunno”

“You don’t know what?” you frowned, for a moment thinking it had to do what you had said. “About the right person?”

“No! It’s not – ugh, Y/N, you know it’s not – you know.” Peter tried to explain uselessly; and when he understood he wasn’t making sense, he sighed and lowered his voice.  “I have never done… it. Not like, Flash and them. I-I have, you know, like everyone. But I have never – I couldn’t”

“I’m a virgin too, Pete” you finally met his eyes. “It’s fine, we don’t have to be perfect. If you don’t feel ready, we can –“

“I’ve never masturbated!”

Peter’s outburst, compared with the quiet and soft room you were in, was quite surprising. It wasn’t what he said that surprised you, but how he did it. You had only heard him scream once or twice when there was too much noise around to be heard. He was always a shy boy with a hard time voicing out his opinion and thoughts. So when, right after the confession came the glassy eyes, you weren’t surprised.

“I can’t because every time I try it just, hurts” he whispered, sadness radiating off him. “I guess it’s because the bite, but I’m too sensitive and – and when I – it just… I’m sorry”

“You don’t have to be sorry. Having sex or not is not going to make me love you any less” you shifted closer to him, until it was as if any other night. “If you want to wait, or if you don’t want to, it’s fine. Last month talk was about different types of sexual attractions, and if you’re asexual or –“

“But I want to, Y/N. I promise” Peter whined again, sniffing slightly. “ When we’re, like, making out or something – I-I want to. Then I… try to do it, and I even tried one of the videos Flash sent to the group. I-I-I-“

You couldn’t help the grimace when he mentioned the video. There was something going on between some of the guys in the class that had them sending porn to the group chat. They had been kicked out a few times, and even some of the teachers knew about it and told them off. But they kept trying to spread those nasty videos, that had nothing to do with the reality of the moment and that usually used girls as sexual objects.

It was not a talk you were willing to have with Peter. A few moments ago, in the bathroom, you had thought it would go way different. You were even scared that Peter turned out not to be a virgin, or that expected too much from you, and your inexperience ass wouldn’t know what to do. You threw through the window every comment you had heard about the man comforting the woman and decided to do what you knew you had to.

“Those videos aren’t good, and the actors are just that; actors. We don’t have to be like that or – or that at all. Flash and his croonies can’t understand what we are or need” you assured him, finally making your way into his arms. “That’s our job. If you want to try with me, we can. And if we have to stop, you’re no less man because of it.”

You felt Peter nodding and internalizing your words, and you mentally high-fived yourself.

In health class, they hadn’t been as open as they wanted to. They had talked about how you have to take precautions and choose carefully who you sleep with. They hadn’t talked about being okay not wanting to have sex at your age, about being normal feeling insecure or just being different. Peter’s body ended up relaxing against yours, the previous tension leaving. There wasn’t any more the need of fulfilling other teenagers’ fantasies and sleeping with each other, or proving to anyone that you wanted to do it.

Eventually, Peter moved closer too, searching for that physical comfort he wanted. You weren’t two different persons nervous about being one; you didn’t have to have sex to do so. There was no space in between, and you felt good enough about it.

“You’re my right person too” Peter went back to his original voice volume. “And I want to… try it with you. Just – not the whole way there, yet. And maybe I have to, uh, stop. Or I can’t make you… you know…”

“It’s fine, we have plenty of time” you chuckled, closing your eyes already. “We don’t have to do anything, fuck health class and the horny teenagers”

Peter chuckled too, and didn’t say anything else. Tomorrow morning, May would be back and probably your mother would call you to take you back him. They had had their own conversations with you too; May with Peter which turned out to be a mess, and you with your mother which wasn’t so good too.

You were almost asleep when you realized that, without really noticing, you had said your first L word to Peter. MJ knew about that too – and she had bet that that night would be the first one where you said so. You already felt it, and Peter too. And it turned out, you didn’t need to have sex to know so.

“Love you too” Peter whispered into your hair.

Health class, Flash, horny teenagers and insecurities could fuck themselves that night, for sure.

Want to read more? Check out my side blog @imaginesmaimasterlists​, where I keep all the masterlists! Feedback is always appreciated

Tom Holland and Peter Parker Taglist

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[its-chelisey-stuff]

My 2020 in dramaland pt 1/4

I’m doing this at the start of december but I’m scheduling it to be posted on Christmas Eve, because that way I can say to everyone Happy holidays! Anyway, these are the Korean dramas I watched this year (listed in the order I saw them, NOT including my favorite dramas, those will have its own post!)

Love Alarm (2019): I don’t think I need to say what this was about lol if you haven’t seen it, chances are, you’ve heard of it. This is like all those Netflix shows I binge in one day, hate them but still can’t help but want to know what happens next and immediately need a season 2. Btw, this drama has the type of love triangle that I tolerate the most: the men who like the girl are also BFFs and never actually turn against each other, or at least suffer because they don’t really want to hurt the other. Bros before hoes! Kinda.

OTP: Jojo&SunOh. Hate that I love them tbh. But it’s mostly all thanks to him. To me, KimSoHyun’s chemistry with SongKang is the best chemistry she’s ever had with any of her co-stars. Well, maybe it’s a tie with Jisoo. Sorry Jang DongYoon. 

Thing I enjoyed the most: Knowing there’s a second season coming. I NEED CLOSURE! Dramas should never have seasons, it’s cruel.

Do I recommend it? Uhm... Yes. But beware of old tropes like Noble Idiocy super idiotic, a FL that never speaks her mind and a whole lot of nonsense angst and pining. Hey, your average kdrama basically.

Crash Landing on You: You know she actually did crash land on him. Twice. I loved that they were so doomed, it was awesome. A forbidden and beautiful romance, they were all in for each other. He was handsome and cute I mean is HyunBin! but she was my favorite: brave, sassy, bold and a CEO. I hated when they shoot her. A pity they can only be happy in Switzerland, but I liked that about their ending. (I made a sort of review of the finale here)

OTP: Awesome chemistry, have you heard about all those dating rumors? But my favorite couple was actually the second lol. I will never forgive this drama for NOT giving them a happy ending. WTF? And that’s why it’s not in my fave’s list.

Thing I enjoyed the most: Apart from the love stories? North Korean soldiers from Captain Ri’s team. Bless them.

Do I recommend it? Oh, is there someone who hasn’t seen it? For real, go watch it. It’s a romcom for the ages. Lots of nonsense and cliches. Loved it, just *one* little flaw. ALBERTOOOO!

Witch’s Court (2018): A law drama. I never watch these types of dramas. Only did it because I had a crush on Yoon HyunMin at the time, my sister made me watch it (she also had a crush on him) and I thought there was going to be way more romance. Heavy subjects, a great mom’s love and a lot of prosecutor bs.

OTP: They were cute. Wish I’d seen more of them though.

Thing I enjoyed the most:  Yoon HyunMin. But the FL was awesome in her own right.

Do I recommend it? If you like law/criminal dramas and barely a hint of romance, this one is great. And justice is served at the end.

Hospital Playlist: It was an adorable, peaceful and relaxing watch, not what you’d expect from a hospital themed drama. Very healing (no pun intended lol). And I loved the songs they played! The weird thing is that I kept forgetting about it, and that’s why it took me so long to finish it. 

OTP: I do have one, but not the one everyone ships: Dr Yang SeokHyung and his resident played by one awesome Ahn EunJin. She confessed, he turned her down gently, Buuu!!!. Waiting patiently for S2 and HOPE their love story develops more. Dramas shouldn’t have second seasons!

Thing I enjoyed the most: The friendship of the five besties duh

Do I recommend it? Awww but of course! if you liked the Reply Series and slice of life dramas, you will like this one. Only 12 eps but they were as long as a movie lol

WHY (minidrama) 2019: Two good friends trying to cheer up their bff who just got dumped (without any explanation hence driving him slowly into a mental breakdown and an identity crisis) by going on a Jeju vacation. In the guesthouse they’re staying, they encounter two awesome, chill and fun noonas. What you’ll see here: a moving story about heartbreak and letting go, bromance and noona romance.

OTP: While most of the time the lead was in deep heartbreak thanks to his awful ex, there was a subtle romance developing while he was healing. At the end, there’s a time jump and he’s totally in the right state of mind to completely be with her and give love another try. Lovely ending.

Thing I enjoyed the most: Jung GunJoo! AKA Dohwa from Extraordinary You!!!

Do I recommend it? Of course! It’s an adorable watch. And it only takes like 2 hours of your time, maybe less, I don’t recall. Here, you can watch it on YouTube. Also, not really a fan don’t hate me lol but there’s Hwang In Yeob as the bff of the lead. And he has a very meaningful role.

Where Your Eyes Linger (minidrama): First Korean BL drama I’ve ever watched and I’m so glad that it was a wonderful first. Given the amount of time and resources I was expecting a lot less from this but they all did a very good job. Beyond my expectations, really. Wonderful acting and such an angsty friends to lovers romance that was delightfully done. I don’t usually give out scores to dramas but omg 10/10!

OTP: THEY HAD SUCH GOOD CHEMISTRY! UGH THE ANGST

Thing I enjoyed the most: Oh, everything!

Do I recommend it? Like BL dramas and want to see more of them in kdramaland? Then YES YES YES. A thousand times YES! The reason why it’s not on my favorites’ list is because I wish it was longer.

It’s Okay to not be Okay: It had been so long since I’ve seen a KSH drama. Since his alien days lol Plus, my sister is a huge fan. Horniest kdrama of the year, for sure. Which is hilarious since the message of the whole thing was more about family. From the first episode I was waiting for the OTP to have a steamy makeout and have sex HAHAHA You know, they actually delivered, so I was happy. My review about the ending HERE

OTP: Queen MoonYoung and her horny but super restrained caretaker, KangTae. Love them.

Thing I enjoyed the most: All hail Queen Ko MoonYoung! And the best hyung, SangTae.

Do I recommend it? Yeah. Let’s be serious for a moment lmao it was a healing drama and the ending was beautiful. A few things here and there didn’t make sense though. The mom’s comeback was crazy, but meh, what are dramas without crazy? lol I guess this is not on my favorite’s list because I wasn’t as obsessed as I wish I’d been.

Was it Love?: Mamma mia, here we go again, my my, I should have resist ya! it was ALL right there but the writer didn’t have the guts to do the story right. It COULD’VE BEEN Mamma Mia, but all the potential went to waste. THE POTENTIAL!! You want to know who the dad of her daughter is? The only dude she ever slept with, her only ex! Big surprise. The writer! There, saved you the trouble. My rant on the ending here

OTP: Well, it wasn’t the leads, that’s for sure. It’s the second leads (or was he the third lead and she the second?)who ended up together, or at least it was hinted at. The female lead had way more chemistry with the one dude she was never romantically linked to, which is hilarious to me. Ugh so much wasted potential...

Thing I enjoyed the most: Gangster dude and his son! Bless them.

Do I recommend it? Jesus, NO. DON’T. Watch Mamma Mia with Meryl Streep, instead. That’s gold and it’s what they wanted to try to do for a moment here. Still wondering how I managed to finish this...

Record of Youth: Another drama I can’t believe I actually finished. A handsome model transitioning into an actor and becoming the main provider for the family that never fully supported him and had to pay for the debt of the dad that always belittled his dreams. Underdeveloped characters, a female lead that was outshined by CAMEOS of other women(in her 1 minute scene, KimHyeYoon had more chemistry with PBG), plots that went nowhere and a terrible pairing that had very little chemistry. A ranting about the finale and my wasted time, HERE

OTP: who? Ah, yeah, I guess there sort of was one... The photographer friend and the sister of the jealous friend. Their ending was ambiguous.

Thing I enjoyed the most: PBG, he carried this mess on his back.

Do I recommend it? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA No. Please, don’t watch it.

Private Lives: An orphan who was recluted to become a spy and works for a conglomerate that holds the power to decide the next president of Korea AND a con woman who wants revenge because her dad got sent to jail. They meet and fall in love and it’s the cutest thing ever but on their wedding day he misteriously disappears and... that’s it. Everything that happens after that makes zero sense. By the end I was more interested in the second leads.

OTP: TWO (but mostly the second couple) and the reason why I finished this drama at all.

Thing I enjoyed the most: Second leads. BokGi and Eduardo (yeah, I know that wasn’t his real name). I’d watch a drama of those two. Even if it was by the same writer.

Do I recommend it? Well... not really. LOL If you’re interested to know more about it, read my “recaps” of each episode HERE or read about the last ep here. You’ll understand about the same as if you were to actually watch it, but you will not waste your time. I hope? LOL

Start Up: A grandma with good intentions, a FL that lost it all as a kid, letters that weren’t really that genuine, a rich, cocky and petty jerk who wasn’t the ML (I mean by definition he had everything to be the male lead lol) and the actual ML (a genius who suffers from the biggest case of Impostor Syndrome I’ve ever seen). No one except for the FL mostly is honest. A time jump that was there just for the sake of angst and not quite done right. Also, making a business with your friends involves a whole lot of nonsense and drama. And a “love triangle” that drove the fandom to madness. And wait, the sister was the second female lead? She was more secondary than the secondary characters. This drama is seriously not what it seems at first lol

OTP: DalMi&DoSan. Adorable. The oly reason I finished this. From the moment they announced the cast and learned who the leads were, I knew I was gonna ship them. And that’s how I never get SLS lol

Thing I enjoyed the most: The answer to that question is HERE

Do I recommend it? Honestly, yeah. Just turn off your brain and never discuss it on social media. Binge it and move on with life. Not the best drama, but tbh not the worst. Well it is the worst by the writer lol Wow it sounds like I hated it, but it’s just that the fanwars really got to me haha and it’s all so recent, but I actually did love the love story and the grandma was a treasure.

[agirlwithachakram]

With how many of them there are, I feel like the Eternals lends itself pretty well to alternate universe fics. I'm not sure if that's your thing, but what cliche AU would you like to see them in? I feel like roommates is fun and obvious but maybe doesn't have a lot of plot, but I also just rewatched The Old Guard and instantly thought about how they would fit into that world(Sprite/Ikarus as Booker and Thena/Gil or DruigMakkari gives me Joe/Nikki)t's the same immortality thread but grounded.

I may not be the best person for this because I am not super into AUs these days, and I actually have a post about how I don't know what to do with Druig in a no-powers AU, what with his powers shaping his personality more than anyone else's. But I'll give it a go, but I'm going with fusions because I don't have any cliche AUs in mind. Hope that's cool.

Leverage, but with twice the number of people. Unfortunately I genuinely don't know who would be the mastermind because they have very blunt force battle tactics. No one has an ounce of finesse except maybe Sersi. Ajak, obviously, but like, I think she's not on the team, she and Ikaris are the Sterling characters. So yeah I guess Sersi is the mastermind, because she's learned that compassion can be hard by the end of the movie.

Makkari is the thief, duh. Phastos = hacker. Sprite is a grifter! Thena and Gilgamesh are hitters. Druig is also a grifter; he's just not as good at it. Kingo is the guy they call in for big jobs when they need another actor because "child" and "mean guy with unsettling smirks" won't always cut it.

Dane can be the sad guy who's like "My boss is stealing from us and we can't do anything about it :(" and Sersi is all "Oh we have to help him!!"

--

Mass Effect and this can be in the canon timeline, ish. (I guess this is a crossover, not a fusion.) 2148 and suddenly humans know stuff. All the Eternals can be like "yeah we're biotics"

"I just saw you transmute that boulder into BIRDS"

"uh...my mom drank eezo milkshakes when I was in utero"

"that doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about element zero to dispute it"

The Illusive man's dossier on "Phil Stoss" -expert engineer -human biotic with incredible ability to manipulate his technological creations -friendly, lonely, older than he looks

Stoss is skittish and mysterious, and known to mistrust Cerberus. His skills will be invaluable for finding the Collector homeworld. He is usually found at his workshop on Earth. Caution advised: Known associates include human biotics who take privacy very seriously.

Paragon Shep can recruit "Phil" quickly but he turns Renegade Shep away initially, until Druig, who has poked around in Shep's head (because WHAT is going on in there) is like "Uhhh yeah no we're going to sign on with this person, we have to." and then four more people are suddenly on the Normandy SR-2. (because...she got old and died, so it's only six left, sorry).

Long story short, Druig ends up in a long distance telepath fight with Harbinger and later almost gets killed by the Leviathans who are like THAT THING IS A THREAT.

--

The Old Guard, you know, Druig is Andy! the obvious choice is Andy is Sersi or Ajak but no, it's Druig. He really does go through a similar arc, like, I can't do anything that matters, and at the end, Andy learns that EVERYTHING she does matters, she gets a new sense of purpose while Druig gets a) revenge on Arishem, b) freedom from Ajak and Ikaris, c) knowledge that he really made a difference in billions of lives, namely that they weren't cut short, and d) PURPOSE, new purpose to start a full scale revolt against the gods.

I probably wouldn't call Makkari Quynh, although...she was the one who was alone (ish) for five hundred years, so...maybe...

Joe/Nicky is Thena/Gil, yeah. just that level of easy devotion, never questioning their bond.

I very much agree that Sprite is Booker, for obvious reasons. Ikaris is a true believer. Sprite just wants her pain to stop. So Ikaris might be, uh, Dr. Kozak? That seems harsh.

Nile though...Nile might be Sersi? Or Phastos, I don't know. They're both pretty hip with modern humanity. I'm leaning toward Phastos, because family, but then again, Sersi is the one who finds herself suddenly the main character, her entire worldview turned upside down, facing an entirely different world than the one she thought she lived in.

I don't know if this was really what you were looking for, but it is what I have. Thanks for writing!

[quicksilversquared]

An Unusual Run-In

Mrs. Rossi was expecting a quiet lunch out, a little reward to herself for finally getting completely caught up at work. What she got instead... well, it was much less pleasant.

links in the reblog

Mrs. Rossi wandered down the sidewalk, enjoying the Paris sunshine as she headed towards a nearby cafe that she had heard good things about. She had managed to get caught up with things at the embassy and gotten them in a good enough place to be able to have a bit of time to spare for lunch out for the first time since she had arrived, and she was determined to enjoy the break.

Soup and a sandwich sounded like it would hit the spot just right.

There were students all over the place as Mrs. Rossi headed towards the cafe, some headed in the same direction while others were simply heading home or to the park to enjoy the weather. She wondered if she might spot her daughter among the students, but it was probably unlikely. Lila seemed to enjoy staying at the school to eat lunch there with her friends, and she hardly had a ton of pocket money to spend on eating out on a regular basis. Mrs. Rossi generally didn't eat out, either- it was a waste of money, in her opinion, and ate up time- but she had been working hard enough lately that she deserved a treat.

She reached the cafe and joined the line, waiting patiently as the workers at the counter filled orders. A lot of the tables outside were already filled- a pity, she would have liked to enjoy the sun a bit more- but there were certainly enough spots inside and a number of the students in the line seemed to be getting their orders to go, so at least she should be able to find a spot to sit.

The line worked forward at an impressive rate, and soon enough Mrs. Rossi was approaching the counter and placing her order. She stepped over to the side to wait for her order to be ready, and when she did, she spotted a very familiar face, apparently just ducking in to grab a few more napkins.

She hadn't met her daughter's boyfriend before, between her work and his busy schedule (and, well, she hadn't met any of Lila's friends, really, but soon! She had time now, it could happen soon!), but she had seen pictures of Adrien Agreste before. There wasn't really anyone else it could be, and so after a moment's deliberation- maybe she should just wait until Lila introduced him, but realistically, how long could that take? And maybe if she said hi now, he would introduce her to some of Lila's other friends- she stepped forward, eyes trained on the boy. He caught her eye when he turned away from the napkin dispenser and paused, clearly puzzled by the unknown lady staring at him.

"Hello," Mrs. Rossi greeted him, figuring that there was no going back now. She stuck out a hand for him to shake. "I know we've not met before, but I couldn't not say hi when I spotted my daughter's boyfriend."

The boy blinked at her, clearly puzzled. He didn't shake her hand. "Um, I think you have the wrong person. I'm not dating anyone. And I haven't- the closest I've ever come to dating someone- I met her mom, and you're definitely not her."

Mrs. Rossi frowned. Had she somehow found Adrien Agreste's doppelganger, or misremembered what he looked like. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were Adrien Agreste-"

"I am Adrien Agreste." He was frowning now too, and looking more than a little uncomfortable as he glanced towards the door. "And I'm not dating anyone."

"But Lila said that you've been dating since she first arrived in Paris!" Mrs. Rossi exclaimed, confused for a moment until it hit her. Ah, of course! She should have mentioned Lila from the start. Adrien was a popular model and of course he wouldn't want to go around telling people who he was dating, just in case there were any jealous fans around. "And she's told me about dates that you two have gone on."

Adrien's expression flickered with something unreadable, then went oddly blank. "I'm not dating Lila. I don't date liars, bullies, or thieves, and Lila is all three. I don't know why Lila is trying to claim that she's dating me, but it's not remotely based in any sort of truth. Good day."

With that, Adrien Agreste spun on his heel and vanished into the lunch crowd. Seconds later, Mrs. Rossi saw the door open and a nest of blond hair bob outside. She was still staring after him when the worker at the pick-up counter called her name once, twice, three times. Mrs. Rossi jumped as her name finally registered, and she hurried to pick up her order with a quick apology before she found a seat at a secluded table in the corner. Her cheeks were hot with embarrassment, though she wasn't sure if she was more embarrassed about- well, whatever had happened with Adrien- or about being so out of it that she hadn't heard the worker calling her name.

Now that she was seated, she could properly puzzle over her brief exchange with Adrien. He had claimed that he wasn't dating anyone, had never dated anyone, and that Lila was a liar, a thief, and a bully. Which... well, that just didn't sound like her daughter! But Lila had said that they were dating, something that Adrien had said was false. And he hadn't acted squirrely or anything, like he might if he was making up a lie on the spot.

But Lila hadn't hesitated at all when telling her mom about the dates that Adrien had taken her on. And Mrs. Rossi knew her daughter, even if they hadn't had as much time together as they used to due to their moving and Mrs. Rossi's busy schedule. She would know if Lila was lying, and, well. Adrien Agreste was a model and, if she was remembering correctly, an actor. He would know how to hide his emotions and look as though he was telling the truth, even if he wasn't. That made him the more likely candidate for not telling the truth.

But why would he reject the very notion of dating Lila like that?

Mrs. Rossi puzzled over that as she ate her sandwich, almost not tasting it at all as she tried to work out what might have happened. The pieces just weren't fitting together- until they did.

Lila and Adrien must have broken up- recently, considering that they had had a dinner date just that weekend- and Lila just hadn't wanted to admit it to her mom. Either that, or she had thought that she and Adrien would reconcile and get back together, so she hadn't wanted to trouble her mom. If Adrien's attitude was anything to go by, though, that hope was a little overly optimistic.

Frankly, Mrs. Rossi thought that was probably for the better. If Adrien was immature enough to start making baseless accusations about Lila to her mom because he was angry at her because of their break-up, then he wasn't ready for a relationship. She would have to talk to Lila about it, which was bound to not be a very happy conversation but it was definitely an important one.

With that settled, Mrs. Rossi went back to her lunch. She had earned this break, after all, and she was going to enjoy it. She wasn't going to let a moody teenage boy ruin it for her or spend the whole time doubting her daughter, not when it was so easy to puzzle out what happened.

  She was second-guessing herself.

Huffing, Mrs. Rossi set aside the paperwork that she hadn't really been reading, rubbing her forehead as if she were trying to banish the thoughts that kept haunting her. It didn't help, unsurprisingly, and so she flopped back in her chair to give herself a moment to try to pick out why she couldn't put that morning's encounter behind her.

Maybe it was because of how oddly specific Adrien's accusations about Lila were. Maybe specific wasn't quite the right word, but something about the names that he had called Lila seemed just a bit off.

A liar. A thief. A bully.

In Mrs. Rossi's experience- from what she remembered from her teenage years- less-than-friendly breakups usually resulted in name-calling of a more general sort. Accusations of being selfish, of being jealous, of being rude or smelly or inconsiderate or petty. They weren't nice names to be called, but it usually related somehow to the reason why they broke up.

But Adrien hadn't used those names, and that was what was throwing Mrs. Rossi off. It was possible- likely, even- that something had just gotten blown out of proportion and that was why Adrien had called Lila a bully, a thief, and a liar instead. Since the school hadn't called, it probably wasn't that big of a deal.

But it would be smart to call and check in, maybe. At the very least, she could make sure that the teachers were keeping an eye on the dynamics in the classroom following the break-up. It would put her mind at ease, and then she wouldn't risk falling behind again when she had only just managed to get on top of things. Hopefully it would only take five minutes at most, and then she would be able to get some quality work done and surprise Lila by actually getting home early enough to make a dinner that wasn't rushed.

Plan in place, Mrs. Rossi picked up her phone and looked up the phone number for the principal of the school. The phone rang once, twice, and then picked up.

"Hello? This is the office, Mr. Damocles speaking."

"Hi, this is Elena Rossi," she told the man on the other end of the line. "Lila Rossi's mother, I'm calling because-"

"Oh, yes, perfect timing!" Mr. Damocles boomed, cutting her off. "Lila just informed us about the trip you're about to be making and I was going to reach out and see if I could actually get through this time. I really must insist that all of the paperwork gets filled out this time- I know we let it slide for the last trip, since it was so sudden, but we can't do that again. And Lila really does have to actually complete all of her schoolwork this time around- if she falls any more behind, we'll have to discuss either summer school or holding her back a year-"

"I'm- I'm sorry, what trip?" Mrs. Rossi exclaimed, completely thrown off. "We're not going on any trips, we haven't been out of the country for more than a weekend since we got here. We've been in Paris the whole time, and- and the only time Lila wasn't in school was when it was closed for several months because of akuma attacks!"

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

"Ma'am, the school has only ever closed for an hour or two due to akuma attacks," Mr. Damocles said slowly. "Never for several months, Ladybug and Chat Noir would never let battles drag out that long. Lila told us that you had to go on an extended diplomatic trip and that she couldn't stay in Paris alone so she would be going along. She appeared to call in from several different locations."

Mrs. Rossi's stomach was sinking and twisting into knots. "No- that's not even part of my job description! I- I don't understand."

There was another pause, followed by the shuffling of paper. "Ah, perhaps her lying disorder was acting up? I must insist, if that's the case, that Lila get medical attention because keeping a lie going for that long, she was insisting that it only makes her tell small white lies every once in a while-"

"Lying condition?" Mrs. Rossi couldn't believe her ears. "She- no, Lila's perfectly healthy. She doesn't have any sort of lying condition. She- she-"

She didn't know what to say. Her five-minute conversation to set her mind at ease was going in a completely different direction than she thought it would, and now she was left floundering.

Surely she hadn't been paying THAT little attention while she got things at the embassy under control?

There was another pause, broken by a small cough. Mr. Damocles sounded as uncomfortable as she felt, which- well, it was no real comfort.

"Ma'am, I think we might need to ask you to come in. The sooner, the better."

  Mrs. Rossi rushed to let her coworkers know that she had to step out for an incident at her daughter's school, then hurried over to the collège. She was ushered into Mr. Damocles' office at once, and then got caught up on what, exactly, her daughter had been up to at school.

Needless to say, she was appalled. The number of lies that Lila had told- pointless lies, sometimes, presumably because she didn't feel like doing something (or eating something)- was absolutely off the charts. Mr. Damocles wasn't even sure that they had everything recorded, since his records were based almost entirely off of what the teachers overheard and had considered relevant information to write down and pass along. The other part of his records were based off of doctor's notes- but they weren't doctor's notes that Mrs. Rossi had ever seen before, and they were for conditions that she had never taken Lila to the doctor for. Closer inspection revealed that they were definitely written with Lila's handwriting, only slightly modified to hide the immediate similarity.

The lies were bad enough. Forged documentation so that she would get all sorts of accommodation that she didn't need? That was horrifying.

"We may need to get the police involved," Mr. Damocles informed Mrs. Rossi as he gathered up all of the "doctor's notes". Not a single one of them had been valid. "This is a very serious situation and we want to treat it as such. Add in the whole situation with Miss Dupain-Cheng, and- well, there might be a case for emotional distress or something there, I'm not sure what it would be called."

Mrs. Rossi sat up straight. Now this wasn't something she'd heard about yet, but it might explain the bully comment from Adrien. "What happened with Miss Dupain-Cheng?"

"Well. Ah." Mr. Damocles shuffled his papers, looking a little uncomfortable. "There were several accusations leveled at Miss Dupain-Cheng by Lila- that she had cheated on a test, that she had pushed Lila down the stairs, and that she had stolen a necklace from Lila. We thought that we had evidence, as the answer sheet was found in her bag, and the necklace was in her locker, and- well, Lila had been at the bottom of the stairs. So Miss Dupain-Cheng got expelled. But then Lila said the next day that her lying disorder had been acting up, which- hmm." He frowned. "In retrospect, that doesn't quite make sense. She would have had to plant things in advance, which suggests- well, anyway, Miss Dupain-Cheng was allowed back. But I do believe we asked her to thank Lila for coming forward and admitting to her condition, which, ah..."

Mrs. Rossi only just resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands and groan. She suspected, based on what she was hearing, that the girl targeted had probably known full well that Lila was lying and that she was lying on purpose. Being asked to thank Lila after going through that kind of ordeal...

Frankly, at this point, if Mrs. Rossi had heard anything about her daughter getting beat up by one extremely ticked-off classmate, she would probably conclude that Lila very much deserved it. Sure, Lila had 'allowed' her to come back- and why Lila had decided to make up a 'lying disease' to walk back what had presumably been a fairly planned set-up to get rid of the other girl was still a mystery- but that didn't change the fact that she had been targeted and been forced to go through what was probably a fairly distressing ordeal in the first place.

She was going to have to track down the student and her family and apologize to them for everything that Lila had put them through. Ideally Lila would be the one apologizing, but frankly, she didn't trust Lila to do it. She wouldn't be sincere, for one, and just based on what Mrs. Rossi had been hearing, she would probably try to twist the situation to get in another dig at her classmate.

"Anyway, we should probably discuss punishment," Mr. Damocles said, pulling Mrs. Rossi out of her thoughts and bringing her attention back to him. He looked uncomfortable, fiddling with his pen. "Ah, Lila has been akumatized a number of times. I worry that if we administer punishment fitting to the actions within the city limits, we might end up endangering the staff and students here."

Mrs. Rossi took a deep breath and let it out. She didn't want to think of her daughter endangering anyone and physically hurting them, but she had to consider Hawkmoth's presence in the city and the fact that Lila was clearly a lot more manipulative and vindictive than she had thought. She had failed so spectacularly as a parent until now, what with not catching on to what her daughter was up to, and that had resulted in not insignificant damage. Now, she had to make it right for those her daughter had hurt, even if that meant not giving in to the urge to give Lila one last chance.

"I agree," Mrs. Rossi told the principal, swallowing hard. She hadn't wanted to do this before, but Lila left her no choice. "And while I don't like it, I have a possible solution. My parents have offered to send Lila to the same school that I went to, back in Italy." She had always declined the offer before, for several reasons. It was a boarding school, and she hadn't wanted to send Lila away. While it was a good school that pushed for academic excellence, it was very strict. The sort of things that Lila had been pulling would not be entertained for even a minute, which- well, that was a good thing, but wouldn't any parent have some concerns about how fast punishments were doled out? "I suggest that I send her there. Whatever punishment needs to be carried out, it can be dealt with there. It will be out of Hawkmoth's range and she won't be able to harm her classmates more."

Mr. Damocles nodded, looking relieved. "Yes, yes. That sounds like a good idea. But..." He tapped his fingers, still anxious. "She'll still be in Paris when she finds out, won't she?"

Mrs. Rossi shook her head, her mind whirring as she puzzled together what she needed to do. As soon as this meeting ended, she would have to call both her parents and the school to make arrangements. Then- well, there would probably be more meetings with Dupont and the police to figure out the details of the punishment. She would be incredibly busy. "Once things are set up for Lila to transfer, I can tell her that we're going down to visit my parents for a weekend and then break the news there. It means that I'll have to be the one to deal with packing up her room, but I'd rather do that than have Lila akumatized again and hurt someone. I can get started on those arrangements right away."

"If you want to make any calls right now to get the process started, I can step out and let you use my office to make those calls in private," Mr. Damocles offered at once. "The sooner this is settled, the better, I think."

"Yes, yes, of course." Mrs. Rossi's head was spinning and part of her mind was absolutely screaming about how she was going to fall behind at work again, but she ignored it. There were more important things to prioritize right now, and once Lila was back in Italy, she could work as late as she needed to catch up without worrying about her daughter left alone at home. "That would be much appreciated, thank you."

"Of course, it's no problem." Mr. Damocles was standing up already, stepping towards the door. "If you need me, I'll be in the library."

"Thank you." Mrs. Rossi waited for him to step out, then pulled out her phone and dialed her mom. The phone rang once, twice, and then picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi mom, this is Elena," Mrs. Rossi said, sinking back in her chair. "I know this is an odd time of the day, but I have a very big favor to ask of you..."

  It actually took very little time to get Lila registered for her new school, her files transferred over and her behavior record caught completely up. The Dupont staff took care of briefing the staff at the other school on what Lila had done, and over the course of several video conferences they figured out fitting punishments for at least part of Lila's behavior.

Some of it, like the emotional distress and truancy, would have to be settled in court later on. But they could at least address some of the lesser offenses right away, and they could remove Lila from Hawkmoth's range before she hurt anyone else.

Thankfully, it was easy enough to get Lila to join her on a trip back to Italy. They left mid-afternoon on Friday- what Lila had told her friends, Mrs. Rossi didn't know and at this point, didn't care- on a trip to 'visit her grandparents for the weekend'. On the drive between the train station and Mrs. Rossi's parents' house, Mrs. Rossi took an early turn and pulled up to Lila's new school.

Lila's new school, which wasn't the same as Mrs. Rossi's old one. They had told her that they weren't well-enough equipped to deal with someone like Lila and had recommended another boarding school that was specifically geared towards students with behavioral problems. Mrs. Rossi hadn't been a fan at first- there was still a part of her that wanted the best for her daughter and didn't want to subject her to the sort of environment that a school for kids with behavioral problems was bound to have- but she also wasn't willing to subject any more innocent students to Lila's behavior.

Thankfully, several campus police officers had been there and on hand to help, because Mrs. Rossi had never been more scared of her own daughter than she had been in the minutes after Lila got informed that her lies had been discovered and that she was being transferred to the boarding school. She had screamed, she had thrashed, she had threatened, she had tried to bargain and persuade her mom that it was actually everyone else who was lying. Mrs. Rossi had forced herself to ignore it all, simply unloading Lila's luggage and handing it over to one of the employees who had come out to get Lila moved in before getting back in her car. Lila had raged after her, screaming that she was a terrible mother.

Mrs. Rossi had bit back the and you're a terrible daughter as she shut her car door and drove away. It wouldn't help anything, and it would just make Lila resent her more, if that was even possible. She spent the rest of the weekend with her parents before returning to Paris late on Sunday. It felt like an elephant-sized weight had been taken off of her shoulders, though there were still things that she had to take care of. She had to get caught up at work (again), pack more of Lila's things to ship down, and check in with- well, if perhaps not with Lila, then at least one of the staff at the school.

Then, of course, she had to deal with classmates that Lila had left behind. Lila's former teachers had offered to break the news to their students that none of Lila's stories had been true, but Mrs. Rossi felt somewhat obligated to fix things herself. She had ended up too focused on her work to check in with the school, too trusting that Lila wouldn't get into any trouble and would faithfully report what was going on, and the class had suffered for it.

Besides, without a daughter in the city to look after, it would be easy enough to catch up on her work on the weekend. It wasn't ideal, of course- she would prefer to have the weekends to explore the city, perhaps, or to clean the apartment or take care of the multitude of other things that had been neglected ever since their move- but it would be easy to do.

On Monday, Mrs. Rossi headed into Lila's old school. She briefly stopped by the principal's office to check in with him, and then headed to what had been Lila's homeroom. As she drew closer to the door, she was very, very glad that she had come in person.

Because just inside the door, there were a few students chatting. And the topic of their conversation was Lila.

"Wait, Lila's not coming back?" one girl asked, high-pitched and upset. "It's not just another trip?"

"No, not this time," another classmate- Alya, Mrs. Rossi was guessing, just based on what she had heard about Lila's classmates- said. She waved her phone, grinning. "She texted me last night! She apparently wasn't actually visiting her grandparents this weekend. That was just a cover! She was actually trying out for some super-secret role in a movie and she wasn't allowed to tell anyone ahead of time, because there's a lot of details that the project wants to keep secret. And she got the part! But that means that she'll be getting a private tutor while on set instead of calling us here, because her schedule's going to be so intense that it would be impossible to keep up otherwise."

...well, if that wasn't the biggest load of bull Mrs. Rossi had ever heard, she wasn't sure what was.

"Oh, I'm so excited for her, but I'll miss her!" another girl exclaimed. "Presumably she'll come back after filming is done, though? So maybe we'll be in the same lycée class!"

"And it'll be super-cool to see her movie," the first girl added. "We'll have to all go together as a class to see it when it comes out! Did she say when-?"

Alya was shaking her head. "No, it sounds like it's a longer-term project. And after this comes out- well, they're going to be working wit a lot of big names. How often do child stars come back to normal school? I bet that she'll get offers for other projects. Which- how cool will it be to be able to say that we knew her before she got super-famous?"

"I hope she doesn't forget about us when she gets famous!" another classmate chimed in, twisting around to join in the conversation. "I mean, I know she's got more important stuff going on at the moment and I don't want to distract her at all, but there were people that she said she would introduce us to and she just didn't get around to it before."

"Oh, I'm sure she remembers!" the first girl piped up again. "Maybe she won't be able to introduce people in person, but Lila's not going to forget about us. And maybe she'll even invite us to screenings or cast parties for her movies and we'll get to meet people that way! That would be amazing!"

"It would be very cool, I'm sure," Mrs. Rossi said, stepping into the classroom. All eyes swung around to her, and- oh, good, the entire class was here. "If it was at all true, which it isn't. Clearly Lila has learned nothing."

"Uh, who are you?" Alya demanded, crossing her arms and arching an eyebrow at Mrs. Rossi. One row down, Adrien glanced up, caught sight of Mrs. Rossi, and immediately leaned over to whisper something to the girl standing next to him. "Lila wouldn't lie to us, not unless she had to, to keep her project secret!"

"I'm Lila's mother," Mrs. Rossi told her dryly. "And oddly enough, I think I have a better idea of what's going on in my daughter's life than you do at the moment. She got shipped off to a boarding school for children with behavioral problems because she wouldn't. Stop. Lying. The fact that she's decided to double down and make up some story instead of coming clean tells me that I did the right thing. I hear that she claimed connections with all sorts of celebrities and said she had a whole bucketful of ailments. Neither of those is remotely true."

Alya blinked, clearly befuddled. "But..."

"That's what I came in for today, actually." Pressing past the disappointment of finding out that Lila was clearly digging her heels in and refusing to change- it really shouldn't have been a surprise at this point- Mrs. Rossi strode to the front of the room. She refused to break down in front of her daughter's former classmates. She had done enough of that in her parents' house in Italy, wondering where she had gone wrong and if she would ever get the daughter she thought she knew back. "I wanted to break the news myself, so that I could be available to answer any questions you might have. So. If everyone's here, I might as well start, if that's okay with your teacher." She glanced towards Ms. Bustier, long enough to see her nod, then back at the class. "Okay. So, early last week, I first found out that what my daughter was telling me and reality didn't quite line up..."

  As soon as she finished fielding the last of the students' questions and left the school, Mrs. Rossi leaned against the side of the building with a sigh. This wasn't what she had pictured her life being, not at all. Sure, she had her dream job, and was earning enough to be comfortable, but losing her husband and having her only daughter turn out to be some sort of twisted bully, unwilling to acknowledge when she was wrong, to the point where she had to be sent away...that hadn't been in her life plan. Not at all.

But there was no point in lingering too long on that unpleasantness, especially in a city where a supervillain lurked, ready to take advantage of negative emotions. She had to focus on the positives. By coming in and telling the class the truth about her daughter's stories, she had set at least one friendship on the road to repair. The entire class would no longer be subject to the whims of a bully. And perhaps most importantly in her own life, Lila would hopefully be getting the help that she needed now, in a school that had all of the resources to address her behavioral issues and do their best to correct them.

Mrs. Rossi took one deep breath, then another, then pushed herself away from the school building to head across the street to the bakery there. She wanted to apologize to the Dupain-Cheng family for the trouble that Lila had caused them and their daughter, and then- if the apology didn't go over badly, if the Dupain-Chengs didn't blame her for Lila's actions- she might purchase a breakfast pastry to go. That would be a nice start to the day, a little bit of sugar to wake her up before she returned to the embassy and threw herself back into her work.

And maybe, by the end of the week, she would have enough time to go out for lunch again. And this time- well, hopefully that lunch out would be a lot more peaceful.

[psychemeanscure]

PART 20 {After two consecutive parts with full Jang Taeyoung, yeah I do need a Sung Eunyoung indeed. Enjoy y’all}

That was the last thing she can remember before she went blackout. Approached by a couple of men after a newly ended meeting. She tried. Tossing her leader bag sling from own shoulder, running after their chase over her, pulling out the only pepper spray weapon she had. Yet, none of that paid way other than her being smelled by a chloroform in handkerchief, then history happened. They successfully taken her.

Regaining consciousness, she learned that her head was actually cloth with garbage bag. Peeking a possible person, she can see but failed as the bag was pure black for her to take chances. Hands tied tightly from behind, both ankles wrapped by metal ropes. Much the duct tape plastered on her lips isn’t helping, useless screaming as only muffled sound is heard. She gave up, as only heavy breaths left.

Until someone finally take it off the bag on her. Meeting the eyes of the person she expected it to be. ‘Veeros Alcaziar.’ Her raging mention in mind. It innocently looks at her surprised as if no idea as well. “It was you?” its disbelieving words even.

‘Cut the act, old hag’ a retort from her mind once again. She may can’t blurt it out yet her blazing glare says it so. “I never thought you’ll be the co-partner of that industrial company director who wasted my money. You see señorita, I invested a sum from that Xi industry knowing that it could profit my business carefully. They promised, I trusted them, and they just flee. I had no choice but to look for the other proprietor hoping to bring back mine. If only I knew you were the other person, I could have just settle to you properly. I’m sorry.”      

Sensing another of her muffling sound, the latter takes away the duct tape without care for she need to whimper in no time. “F*ck you.” Her convicting reply as the old Alcaziar only awed in snigger, revealing its true colors. Sighing as if disappointed on its own action. “Is my acting really that bad to notice easily?” it even snaps his own forehead as if remembering where he slips a word. “Ah! Right. Flee. Tsk, how can I say that when you just met him with your last meeting? What a bad actor I am.”

“Shut the crap out, Señor Alcaziar.”

Her cold stone response, as its evil grimace slowly showed up. “So you knew.” Does, the retaliating laugh resonate the illuminating room. The only hanged fluorescent bulb swaying from the ceiling makes it more irritating. “I thought I have to work too much threat with you but damn my dear Amilia--- oh scratch that, my little Sung Eunyoung-ie… You wholeheartedly offer yourself instead. So proud of you. So like your mother, just as wise as her.”

And it stilled her. For she admits she starts to get nervous by his presence. Given the mere mention of her mother, she knew a glimpse of Pandora’s box will reopen. “W-what do you mean?” her urging eccentricity. Responded by the clicking of its shoes, arms crossed with ascendency, fully welcoming her awaiting answer. “Hm. Alright, let us put it this way.”  Removing its usual cowboy hat he’s wearing by a near table, lighting up own tobacco while pulling out something on its shirt pocket, she acknowledged it. Strands of hair tailed neatly as she can only think of one person. ‘Eomma.’

She never expected the extent of obsession the geezer has, until today. Possessing a part from a deceased is too much considering years had passed already. Inhaling like he has been familiar for such a long time, he reminisces. “God, your mom’s smell lingers my senses over the years still. Such my favorite scent.” Its interleaved remark before turning back at her with the original answer she needed.  

“Have you ever wonder of your mom’s death was actually?”

Blowing the smoke of its tobacco close to her while she remained unwavering, he continued. “Cancer?” his questioning stance after proceeding with another as he shakes his head and takes her chin, up to level his gape.

“She was killed.”

Firm and self-assertive statement before letting go of its hold, opposite to how she’s already clenching her fist tightly from behind. Observant stares from the latter but just a stern look she does. Hot fire ready to explode into her, a little more and she won’t be surprised if she blasts out any time soon.

With a tilting of its head, the old Alcaziar continues. “Brave.” A compliment she did not bother. “You being jeopardize and all, I must say you applaud me with your calmness.” Him, leaning its face closely to her, “Now listen, my sweet little pea…” he speaks. And just like that, she spits him while it’s also too fast for his countered slap.  

It was a hard one. Hard enough to leave a reddened mark on her face. It hurts her, yes but she holds it in. Letting herself satisfy with her work instead. Her contoured saliva which successfully spread all over the latter’s face gives her pride for she thought it was her chance to fight back just to shiver by his touch after fiercely wiping its own face, cupping her face tracing every part of it like his own. 

“You only had me realize a while ago that you resemble so much of your mother that I keep stopping myself on hitting you, but just looking by your behavior right now you left me with no choice. The next time you will then I, your father won’t let it slide anymore.”

“You aren’t one to begin with, geezer!”

Dodging her cheeks from his hold, she retorted. “Father! Call me father!” as his domineering affirmation came after an irate throwing of its own tobacco. Eyes of obsession starts to ponder, jaws clenching with delusion. “Your mother died…  Isn’t because of the unexplainable rapid of her cancer but rather she stopped it on purpose.”

A series of sham speech begins to create. “All of it. Each reason, is always because of that Sung Chanhyung! The f*cking coño stole the love of my life from me! You understand that?”

“You have no right!” she countered.

“I met your mother first! And that alone, gives me a right. That crazy s*cker killed her!”

“No, it’s not for you are the crazy one who killed them!!!”

She can’t attain anymore. That with the mere mention of his father being accused, she exploded. Finally, as it’s too fast for another heavy slap to earn a cut on her lips this time. Yet, none of it matters for she’s occupied with one thought and only. As her brows furrows, connecting its illusive stories to reality. Half-truths or not, she can only sum up the emotions her parents felt back then. 

Threatened, deceived, betrayed. Just three things but left a large impact for their blissful family to fall apart. “Is that how the bastardo taught you?! That puto! Why am I surprised, even? He had brainwashed my wife what more with you.”

“She had never been yours!”

“She loved me! And that you should put in mind. We were in love until he came she became unwise, giving her all as sacrifice from that foolish man!”

“Wake up with your f*cking illusion now Señor Alcaziar!”

He’s insane! A very factual word that best describes the man in front of her. That’s for sure. How can she believe him even when she herself was the witness of the unconditional love her parents had for each other? She, who begged for the both of them to share their love story during bedtimes. She, who always wonder about how lovesick they are just by staring gazes. She maybe still a little kid then but for a young age she had once known what true love is. Her parents, was undeniably each other’s first love.      

“Eh. You, stubborn child. You’re being hard to persuade still, huh?” Hair being clutched by the senseless old man, she yelps. By its menacing impatience, she’s cornered. “You better kill me instead, Señor Alcaziar. You will never hear anything from me. Besides, I’m all that you need anyway. What stopping you?”

Her spoken counter finally. But yet until a deafening laughing mockery from the latter. “Oh! No, no, no. You can’t always be exact my kid. I guess I did, at first. I had only asked for you alone, but learning about you further I got to think twice after. Then at second, I thought. Why not a little gratification, right?”        

Seconds later, the once darkened room she’s in, becomes brighter. It relieved her somehow, little not knowing that it would fade away too fast as her eyes begins to go round in shock. She was frightened.

The sight of her foster parents, seen from the monitors of the LCD TV, tied up on a chair unconscious. And to the person whom she never expected to get harmed. Being kneeled helplessly across her, appearance being tormented from its usual dominancy.  A bleeding cut from the eyes streaming on its face, swollen lips that had break its original luscious form, but most specially… the part which worried her too much.

Its wounded stomach. 

“No…”

“No, no, no.”

‘This can’t be real.’ Her disbelieving pushing of her own thoughts as she shakes her head hoping that is was all a dream. But it’s not. Her shuddered eyes never left the figure in front of her. Twisting herself trying to get away from her own situation even if it means failing. “There you are, Mi niña.”

Not even the voice of the crazy Spaniard bothered her for all she could think of is him.

And like a sinking lioness, she bawled.

Into what just the hell happened?!

“Jang Taeyoung!”

[companionjones]

Such As Life

Fandom: Henry Cavill

Pairing: Henry Cavill x 18yo!Reader

Summary: Because he’s friends with your father, Henry comes to stay at your house. The two of you know each other very well, and things escalate.

Warnings: READER IS 18 YEARS OLD

Author’s Note: The Reader’s 18. I know. But this is loosely based on a dream that I had, and the dream wouldn’t leave my head until I wrote this. Mr. Cavill, if by some unfortunate circumstance you’re reading this, I’m sorry.

*******

    The life you lived was normal. You were 18. You were due to start college in the fall. Until then, you were stuck at home with your parents. Henry Cavill was coming over for dinner.

    Okay, that last part might’ve seemed a little out of place. The truth was, that was normal for you. Your father was a well-known director. He had directed Henry very early in Henry’s career, and the two became good friends. Their friendship was still going strong a couple years later. That was why Henry was coming over for dinner.

    It wasn’t going to be the first time you would meet the actor. Because he was such good friends with your father, Henry and yourself had gotten to know each other pretty well, too.

    You’d met him when you were 16, and since then, you could’ve been considered even closer to the actor than your father. The two of you would play different video games together, you would help Henry run lines, and you wouldn’t interrupt Cavill even once if he went on about football for hours.

    Henry had planned to surprise you by sneaking up behind you; however, you turned around before he could get too close.

    “Wow,” he immediately breathed out.

    Upon seeing him, a huge smile broke out across your face. “Oh my God! Henry! I missed you!” You charged forward and hugged the man.

    He accepted you with open arms. “I, uh...Hey, Y/n. You look great.” He was telling the truth. You’d always been good-looking in the eyes of Henry, but something had changed. He couldn’t put his finger on it.

    “Thanks,” you accepted the compliment with a bit of a blush. “I decided in January to get a new wardrobe and haircut. You know: New year, new me.”

    Henry smiled, reluctantly letting you go. “It definitely suites you.”

    Beaming, you pulled Henry by his hand to your living room where you had your PlayStation.

    The next hour was spent playing Uncharted 4, but the two of you didn’t get very far. You planned Henry. You weren’t being serious, but every time the two of you failed a level, you would complain that Henry was distracted.

    He was. Henry hadn’t gotten over your new look. He was trying to stop himself, but Henry was suddenly remembering just how close the two of you were. When together, Henry wouldn’t leave your side; and when apart, there wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t texting or calling you. Had Henry had feelings for you all that time?

    Well, you were 18. He could finally do something about his feelings.

    NO. No. Sure, you were 18, but you were only 18. And you were the kid of one of his best friends. And what would the public think about the two of you being together? They surely wouldn’t be accepting of the age difference. And all of that didn’t even matter if you didn’t feel the same way--

    “Henry? Henry. Hey!” You were trying to get his attention again.

    The actor shook himself out of his thoughts. “Huh? Oh, did we lose again? I’m sorry, Y/n.”

    “Eh, it’s okay. Maybe today’s not the day for Uncharted.” You saved and turned the game off without a second thought. “Now, would you please tell me what you’re thinking about?”

    That took him off guard. “What do you--”

    “Oh, come on.” You crawled closer to him on the couch. Your mind’s been on something since you got here. Tell me!”

    “No way,” you refused. “It’s something. I know it’s something, and you always tell me when something is bothering you like this.” All that time, you were getting closer and closer to Henry. You meant it as a tactic to get him to share his thoughts with you. “What is it?”

    Suddenly, the climate between the two of you changed. Henry’s eyes flicked down to your lips. He looked at you in the eyes again less than a second later, but it was too late. You definitely already noticed.

    Neither of you moved. The only sound that was heard was the two of your breaths. Then, you were leaning in. Then, you were both leaning in.

    “Dinner’s ready!” Out of no where, your mother called from the kitchen.

    At that point, you were practically on top of Henry. You scrambled away from him at the sound of your mother’s voice.

    You and Henry took a second more to look at each other before you yelled back, “Coming, Mom!”

    You looked back to Henry. Biting your lip, you took his hand in yours again and pulled him with you to the dining room table.

    Dinner was awkward, as far as you and Henry were concerned. Neither of your parents noticed. You had Henry to thank for that. He kept pleasant conversation with your parents while you drowned in your thoughts.

    For you, what had just happened with Henry had come out of no where. You had never thought about Henry in that way before. Now that you were, you couldn’t stop. He was more than attractive, and you loved when he came to visit. The conversations the two of you shared had always been invaluable to you.

    What if the two of you were together? The last things you’d ever want to do would be to hurt Henry or his career, so no one could know. At least, not until you were older. Would the two of you even last that long? You zoned back into the conversation.

    “Sorry to leave so early, but I got called in by the screenwriters. I’ll probably be gone until late tomorrow. I’ll just finish here and get some blankets for the two of you. Y/n, you’re sleeping down here with Henry again, right?”

    You forgot about that. Every time Henry stayed at the house, you would sleep downstairs with him. You’d done it enough times that your parents didn’t question it. You were definitely questioning it then.

    Not knowing how to respond, you looked to Henry. He was looking for your opinion on the matter just as much as you were looking for his. “Yeah. Yes, I am,” you responded before it was too long of a wait. “And you don’t need to worry about the blankets, Dad. I’ll get them.”

    “Thank you,” your father smiled before taking the final bit of his meal. He got up and kissed your mother. “Goodbye. See you guys tomorrow. Henry.” He nodded to the actor.

    Henry returned the sentiment, and your father left.

    Two hours later, it was dark in your living room. You and Henry were on separate couches. The two of you had avoided each other since dinner ended. Henry went back on your PlayStation, and you scrubbed each dirty dish clean twice to pass the time.

    After staring up at the ceiling for what felt like forever, you broke the silence. “So, are we not going to talk about it? Or...”

    He was quiet. For a second, you thought he was already asleep. Then, he chuckled, “I was hoping you didn’t notice.”

    “Didn’t notice?!” you laughed, and sat up to look at him. “How could I not have noticed?!”

    “I was being optimistic!” Henry’s rebuttal was light. He sat up, too.

    The two of you laughed for a few seconds, quietly. Your mother was asleep upstairs.

    While the mood was light, you got up and moved over to Henry’s couch. He pulled his legs up give you more room.

    “Is this okay?” you wondered. Boundaries hadn’t exactly been set.

    Henry smiled at you. “Of course it is.” He moved closer to you. “Is this?” He gently cupped your chin to angle your face up to his.

    You just nodded before leaning up to kiss him.

    The kiss was slow. Both of you were exploring new territory. It must’ve lasted longer than you thought, because when you separated, you had your hands tangled in his hair and were somehow straddling Henry’s lap.

    He chuckled when he noticed your position. “Someone’s eager.”

    “You started it,” you smiled before leaning back in.

    It could’ve been hours or minutes until the two of you finally pulled away from each other.

    “I wish you could sleep in my arms,” Henry quietly admitted.

    His words caused a smile to form on your lips. “Well, my dad doesn’t get home til late tomorrow, and my mom doesn’t usually come downstairs until the afternoon. Does that work for you?”

    Henry barely let you finish. He kissed you one last time before pulling you closer to him and re-situating the two of you so you were laying on top of him. His comfortable body and semi-frequent forehead kisses helped lull you to sleep.

    Yes, the life you lived was normal.

*******

Author’s Note: Thank you for reading! Fill up that heart and reblog if you liked it! If you would like to read more, I have more fics over on my page. You should go check it out. Have a nice day, night, or whatever time it is for you! <3 <3 <3

[wigwurq]

WIG REVIEW: THE UNDOING

You guys. Remember that time I said I was going to try to watch new movie releases and do more wig reviews in preparation for the weirdest Oscar season ever? Well instead I watched a lot of prestige TV. So. Here we are! Movies be damned, there are a lot of tv shows with women in bad red wigs and I watched them! The Undoing is one of those shows. Having already suffered through two whole seasons of Nicole Kidman in another David E. Kelley prestige HBO show (AND THE HORROR OF HER WIGS!) I wasn’t sure if I could stomach another one, but you guys - this one is TOTALLY DIFFERENT. It’s in NYC and her wig is curly not straight!!! Let’s discuss (and a whole lot more!) I will be going episode by episode...

Episode 1: The Undoing

First off, I love that this episode name is just the same name as the show. I can already tell we are in for some real creativity with this show! Anyway, we meet Nicole Kidman who probably has a character name but who cares! She is super rich and married to Hugh Grant which I absolutely love as a fan of the Paddington movies - she is the villain in the first one and he is in the second - and this show already feels like a villain supergroup movie because I definitely hate both of them. They’re both doctors, their palatial house looks like a magazine, and they have a seemingly well adjusted tween who doesn’t look like either of them (but he is the kid actor from A Quiet Place and Ford v Ferrari so ok I guess he can act?) Their one problem is that said kid wants a dog but they can’t have one because Nicole Kidman tells the kid that Hugh Grant once accidentally allowed his family dog to run into traffic and his family blamed him and that definitely sounds like a lie! A big little lie!!!

Speaking of which, Nicole Kidman’s wig. As we know from my harrowing journey through her Big Little Lies wig, David E. Kelley likes her as a redhead and I hate all her wigs. This wig harkens back to the 90s when she was still a scientologist and didn’t wear wigs all the time (what a different time!) Unlike back then, Kidman now has a new terrifying face to match her terrifying wigs. Truly, I don’t know what plastic surgeon she pissed off but her mouth is in a constant Joker grin and she is barely able to move parts of her face anymore? The wig is a tangled mess but the true horror is the seamwork - the part is from places not real and also imagined and the texture is something close to a Halloween fright wig.

Which brings me to the real theme of this show: Nicole Kidman’s addiction to midweight duster coats. She owns them all, y’all. We first see her in this green velvet number which looks like a robe, spans no seasons, and also carries you nowhere. BUT paired with this red curly mess, it does look like she is paying homage to Bette Midler in Hocus Pocus, and for that I say: amen. And also: PLEASE PUT A HEX ON THIS ENTIRE SHOW PLEASE.

Now to the plot??? Nicole Kidman sends her kid to a fancy schmancy private school and she is on some fundraiser committee with her only gal pal, Lily Rabe (praise be!) plus some other harpies that definitely won’t matter to the rest of this show at all. Also present is a new interloper of indeterminate ethnicity who has the audacity to be young, attractive, bearing curly hair WITHOUT a wig, and a small child who she has to feed from her own perfect bosom. THE HARPIES ARE SO PISSED BY BREASTFEEDING Y’ALL.

Anyway, this interloper chick is definitely weird and shows up at Nicole Kidman’s gym (where she does rigorous foot pointing exercises and somehow tames her wig back, kind of). The chick approaches Kidman in the buff with a combination of aggressiveness and openness that makes Nicole Kidman really uncomfortable though I definitely choose to believe that she’s mainly intimidated by bitch’s non-wigged hair.

Fast forward to the school fundraiser where Nicole Kidman switches up her midweight duster coat obsession for a friggin cape IF YOU CAN EVEN and all the harpies are present in their best dresses which could all definitely be worn to the Golden Globes and somehow the interloper is there also in a gown. HOW DARE SHE! THE HARPIES ARE PISSED! So is the vile Donald Sutherland (Nicole Kidman’s dad who just HATES Hugh Grant for reasons unknown). 

But Hugh Grant leaves for a medical conference just as....dun dun dun....the interloper is murdered!!! ALSO NICOLE KIDMAN CAN’T REACH HUGH GRANT. Also he left his cellphone in a random junk drawer! I refuse to believe this magazine apartment has a junk drawer! Kidman’s wig magically stays halfway up without use of pins or elastics because that is just how horrifying this wig is! This show is so stupid!

Episode 2: The Missing

So Hugh Grant is fully on the lam and mainly NOT at that medical conference which may or may no exist but Nicole Kidman is not interested in googling it and that hot interloper remains to be murdered. Also Nicole Kidman’s wig is still a tangle of complete and utter nonsense AS IS THIS SHOW. Also this wig has two settings: dried out desert or oily sweat lodge. This episode starts on sweat lodge. Anyway, Nicole Kidman goes looking around for Hugh Grant and only finds more questions at his hospital and then goes to her job where she is kind of an ineffectual couples counselor. Also David E Kelley/Nicole Kidman prestige HBO shows I guess always require some couples counseling that is highly questionable.

ANYWAY! I forgot to mention that the lead investigator in this murder is Edgar Ramirez who is hot but also kind of shifty. He starts questioning Nicole Kidman about all kinds of crap involving Hugh Grant and then lays down some hard truths: HUGH GRANT SUCKS!!! He got fired from his hospital job curing children’s cancer after he got too close to one of his patients’ moms and DUH IT’S THE HOT INTERLOPER. Nicole Kidman has to gather a calming circle of midweight duster coats to even deal with this new development. 

I really love that Hugh Grant is basically just starring as himself in the mid 90s (REMEMBER DIVINE BROWN?) and I’m kind of here for it. Regardless, Hugh Grant is now the prime suspect in this whole mess and Nicole Kidman’s beautiful magazine apartment is now being completely pulled apart and all she can do is look at her terrifying face and touch it with her terrifying talons and pack up all her midweight duster coats and get the eff out of there. BUT TO WHERE?! 

DUH NICOLE KIDMAN OWNS A BEACH HOUSE OBVS. So she drives out there and is somehow able to braid her damn wig! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE. THE WIG IS VERY UPSET ABOUT IT AS AM I. She and her tangled tiny braid (she has so much hair in that wig - why is the braid so small??) stare out into the ocean a lot and ignore her child. Also new coat alert and this one is PLAID!!!

And then Hugh Grant shows up and is super creepy and chokey. He tries to explain his actions and confirms his affair with hot interloper which is basically just all a plot synopsis of Fatal Attraction but says that he definitely did NOT murder her. WE SHALL SEE ABOUT THAT. Nicole Kidman calls 911 anyway. 

Episode 3: Do No Harm

OMG GUYS THIS EPISODE STARTS WITH EDGAR RAMIREZ SHOWING UP AT NICOLE KIDMAN’S BEACH HOUSE IN A HELICOPTER. How much money is the NYPD really willing to spend on Hugh Grant? All of it? Anyway, Hugh Grant ends up in jail (which is not as fabulous as his prison time in Paddington 2) and we find out that he fathered that baby the hot (murdered) interloper had and willfully breastfed in front of those harpies in episode 1. THIS SHOW IS WILD AND ALSO STUPID.

Speaking of wild and stupid, Nicole Kidman visits Hugh Grant at Rikers and we are led to believe that Rikers Island has a COAT CHECK?!?!?! Look: she shows up in one of her millions of midweight duster coats and in the visiting room she has none. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, SHOW?!?!?! THIS ALSO HAPPENS TWICE BECAUSE THEY CHECK BOTH HER AND HER SON’S COATS THE SECOND TIME WHAT.

Hugh Grant maintains his innocence and somehow Nicole Kidman’s bent ass wig is convinced and they hire a fabulous defense lawyer which the vile Donald Sutherland is none too thrilled about paying for and spends lots of quiet time at the Frick Museum about it also WTF show you’re willing to pay for the Frick and not frickin wigs. Also Nicole Kidman is confronted by the hot interloper’s husband and it does not go over well. No social interactions in this show make any sense, also.

In the end, Nicole Kidman gets ANOTHER midweight duster coat, Edgar Ramirez questions Nicole Kidman AGAIN but this time with video surveillance footage of her walking outside the hot interlopers studio...the night she was murdered and YES IN THAT DAMN CAPE. WAIT WHAT?! Also even in surveillance footage, Nicole Kidman’s wig is a mess.

Episode 4: See No Evil

This episode introduces the idea that Nicole Kidman really likes taking walks. Long walks, nighttime walks, sleepwalks? Nobody knows, especially Nicole Kidman. When asked why she was walking near the murdered interloper’s studio, Nicole Kidman just kinda shrugs and says “I take walks!” AND EVERYONE BELIEVES HER!!! WTF IS THIS SHOW. It should be noted that this long walks are taken in her usual midweight duster coats (WHICH ARE SUBTLY DIFFERENT COLORS AND FABRICS FROM OTHER MIDWEIGHT DUSTER COATS SHE OWNS) and very not sensible boots. Her walks can last between 10 minutes and 10 hours and who is to say where she even goes and who she is followed by? Maybe the interloper’s husband follows her around or maybe it’s in her head? Maybe she murdered the interloper and didn’t quite remember it? Regardless: it’s a lot of walking and it is EXHAUSTING for us all and finally Nicole Kidman just passes out in Central Park after minutes or hours of walking around and a bunch of kids form a literal calming circle around her and my eyes rolled into the reservoir.

This episode is also all about money, hunny! Nicole Kidman has a lot of it - so much that it was revealed in the last episode she didn’t even notice that a lot of it was missing from that time Hugh Grant lost his job and didn’t tell anyone for a few months except the vile Donald Sutherland who loaned him $500K AND NO ONE KNOWS WHERE THAT MONEY WENT!!!! Well I hope you kept your check book out, Donald Sutherland because now you need to pay $2 MILLION DOLLARS to get Hugh Grant out of jail. Ok? OK. ALSO DO YOU JUST OWN THE FRICK MUSEUM????

So now Hugh Grant just lives in his old magazine apartment which has somehow returned to magazine status after Edgar Ramirez and a thousand cops completely ransacked it. Also now Nicole Kidman and the son live at the vile Donald Sutherland’s house so all is...well? Well no not really because Nicole Kidman STILL HAS THAT DAMN WIG. 

AND THAT ISN’T EVEN THE MOST HORRIFYING PART OF THIS EPISODE! That came when Hugh Grant, now free from jail and left to his own devices, visits the interloper’s widow and children! WHAT IS HE DOING!! Somehow, interloper’s husband lets Hugh in and lets him hold the baby which he fathered. AND THEN HUGH REVEALS HE’S MET THIS BABY BEFORE AND OFFERS TO TAKE CARE OF IT! WHILST ON TRIAL FOR MURDER! THIS SHOW!!!!!

Episode 5: Trial by Fury

WHAT IS EVEN DONALD SUTHERLAND’S APARTMENT?!?! It has a balcony, and it seems to have a balcony cover because no one gets wet when they go out on the balcony and it’s raining. Rich people really live in a different climate zone than the rest of us garbage people. Regardless, Nicole Kidman’s frizzy wig is at PEAK FRIZZINESS on this balcony.

Anyway, the trial of the goddamned century is finally here!! And Nicole Kidman’s wig part still remains an elusive mystery. What is being kept in there? NO ONE CAN SEE ACTUAL SCALP OR ANSWERS. Another question: why did everyone bring their kids to the trial where they could see very upsetting pictures (that I didn’t even look at!) of the murdered interloper. CHILD ABUSE! ALSO! WOULD EVERY SINGLE GODDAMNED CABLE NEWS NETWORK REALLY COVER THIS CASE SO CLOSELY??? I guess it’s not an election year in this alternate reality.

Which makes this scene where the whole family dines out and no one bothers them at all the more improbable. Also completely insane? At one point, Hugh Grant just storms out of the dinner and into the bar area of the restaurant (omg remember restaurants?) and Nicole Kidman follows him there and they have a very intense conversation about family secrets literally in the entrance of a busy restaurant. WHAT REALITY IS THIS SHOW IN?!?!?! The family secret? Remember that time Nicole Kidman told their son that he couldn’t have a dog because Hugh Grant accidentally killed his family dog? IT WASN’T A DOG IT WAS HIS 4 YEAR OLD SISTER. WHAT IN THE DAMN HELL!!!!

Nicole Kidman attempts to corroborate this insane story that she has never ever heard before with Hugh Grant’s family who don’t return her calls but do facetime her out of the blue in the middle of the night. Sure! And who is Hugh Grant’s mom? TONY AWARD WINNING ACTRESS ROSEMARY GODDAMNED HARRIS. WHAT. Not only does she confirm that Hugh Grant definitely accidentally killed his sister, but he also was never ever upset by it! Sure looks like Hugh Grant is a sociopath! MMkay!

Oh and then in the final moments of this episode Nicole Kidman finds the murder weapon - a sculpting hammer - in her son’s violin case. THIS SHOW IS A FRIGGIN LUNATIC.

Episode 6 - The Bloody Truth

So at this point in this show, I have fully gone. I don’t even know what is real or fantasy at this point: all I know is that Nicole Kidman’s wig is my nightmare. ALSO! She has a new midweight duster coat and it is the absolute most outrageous - a silk embroidered number you can literally wear NOWHERE EXCEPT FOR THE MURDER TRIAL OF HUGH GRANT.

The main concern in this episode is how Nicole Kidman’s son happened to get ahold of the murder weapon. So he just found it....in the beach house fire pit?!?!?! WHAT A DUMB PLACE TO PUT A MURDER WEAPON WHEN YOU HAVE AN OCEAN INCHES AWAY TO FLING IT INTO! Even dumber: this show wants you to believe that this 12 year old kid would have the wherewithall to put this murder weapon through the dishwasher - TWICE!! Vulture and I both say NAH to that. 

Anyway, Nicole Kidman’s wig which is somehow pushed back with clips unknown spends a lot of time in a robe (or a coat? WHO KNOWS AT THIS POINT) making secret phone calls to Lily Rabe (who I am happy is back because she’s kind of the only fun part of this show). WHAT IS NICOLE KIDMAN UP TO?!?!?!

Much like Big Little Lies season 2, it all comes down to Nicole Kidman taking the stand. BORING! Hugh Grant is all but gonna win this thing and then Nicole Kidman gets up there and totally backs him up...until she is cross examined by the prosecuting attorney (WHO IS OLD PALS WITH LILY RABE) and magically knows all about Rosemarry Harris’s facetime! Now everyone knows that Hugh Grant is a child murderer and sociopath! AND HE IS PISSED!

The final sequence of this show is just far too insane to even fathom BUT basically before definitely being found guilty, Hugh Grant texts his son and they meet for breakfast but then breakfast turns into a car chase upstate! It is never explained how Nicole Kidman would allow her son out of her sight OR how Hugh Grant wouldn’t already be tailed by cops but whatever! Also not explained: how Nicole Kidman is able to issue an Amber alert for her kid and then get into a GODDAMNED HELICOPTER and follow Hugh Grant north and then land on the very bridge he’s about to jump off of but WHO CARES!! THIS WHOLE SHOW IS WHO CARES BECAUSE IT TURNS OUT HUGH GRANT WAS THE MURDERER ALL ALONG JUST LIKE WE THOUGHT IN EPISODE 1 AND EVERYTHING ELSE HAS JUST BEEN A MIDWEIGHT DUSTER COAT FASHION SHOW!!! ALSO THE WIG SUCKED! GOODBYE YOU TERRIBLE STUPID SHOW! 

Verdict: Doesn’t Wurq

[pandawritespoorly]

With Time: Chapter 29 - Lila’s Plan

Author’s Note: Ooh! Bonus chapter! With a bonus scene I quick wrote at end while editing because I couldn't help myself.

Stay tuned for the summary of the next chapter at the bottom!

Chapter Summary: Where was Lila in chapters 27 & 28?

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She’s honestly disappointed in herself that it took so long for her to think of this. Lila had been hoping to find Marinette’s new school ever since the girl had left Dupont, and now Lila had finally realized she’d had the answer since December.

Felix Voclain.

He’d been one of the ones to assist Marinette at the Louvre that day, so it made sense to guess that the two attended the same school.

Already knowing where the boy went, Lila didn’t hesitate to go to the school ‘for a tour’. The class is under the impression she’s in South America or something like that.

She doesn’t really care - the morons can believe whatever they want.

Today is about finding Marinette.

Once in the office, she’s told her student guide will be arriving momentarily.

“Ah, here he is! Claude De Rosier! Claude, this is Lila, you’ll be showing her around today.”

The boy and girl stare at each other blankly. Lila isn’t sure what to think, because she’s sure she’s met him before - twice - but he’d insisted it had only been once, with legitimate proof to back up his claims.

The boy grins, sticking his hand out for her to shake, “Welcome to my school, Lila! I’m so excited to show you around!”

She isn’t sure what to make of his strange emphasis. It’s so slight, she isn’t sure if she imagined it or not.

As they shake, she smiles easily, “Thank you so much! I’m sure you’ll be a great guide!”

“The best!” he winks at her.

As they exit, Lila swears it looks like Claude wipes his hand on his leg. He rubs fingers against his palm a few times - confused - before subtly sniffing it, and frowning slightly. When he notices her glancing his way, he smiles reassuringly and leads her onward.

“Well, if you’re interested in transferring here, I can assure you this is a very welcoming school! There really wasn’t any need to rush out the door!” he takes some hand sanitizer from a dispenser on the wall - a lot more than what would be considered normal. Lila wipes her hand on her leg nervously as she responds.

“What do you mean?” She’d spent extra time on her appearance today. Being attractive helps sell a story more.

“Oh, well I just-” he pauses, looking over her slightly, “It’s nothing! Nevermind! Uh, here’s the math wing…” he hurriedly moves on to describe the current area of the school, commenting on teachers and the different subjects taught.

He is going over the locker arrangements - grade-wise - when he interrupts himself to say, “You know, my locker is close by. I’ve got a hairbrush you can borrow if you want…”

“I- uh- What?” Lila touches her hair self-consciously. It seems fine to her, but she can’t see all of it, “Is there something wrong with my hair?”

“Oh no! I just- nevermind! It’s fine!” he rushes to reassure her, but she can tell he isn’t being entirely truthful. Before she can ask for that hairbrush, he hurriedly moves onto another aspect of the school.

Lila keeps touching her hair, glancing in any reflective surface she could find, but none of them seemed to show her what was off about her.

“Oh! This is the theatre department! I can introduce you to some of my friends.”

The taller boy pushes through a door, holding it open just long enough that she had to catch it as she entered. He runs ahead, seemingly unaware.

“Amy! Victor! I was just showing a student around, and was wondering if we could talk to you!”

Claude has attracted the attention of two students, clearly a few grades above them. They turn to the boy welcomingly, agreeing as they turn to face the touring student.

She could have sworn that she saw recognition - and disgust - flash across their faces, but it’s gone before she gets a good look.

“I told her about that trip the three of us - and some of the other theatre kids - took to England! In December.”

Amy and Victor glance at each other. They went on the trip, as did many others, but Claude? Claude did not. There had been a running joke that ‘Claude was always with them’ to the point that one of the group had jokingly photoshopped Claude into several pictures, but Claude hadn’t actually gone.

He’d stayed home in Paris, especially since one of his friends - Marinette, sweet girl, a shame about the bullying they’d heard about - was going through a rough time. That wasn’t the only reason Cladue had stayed of course, but still. The point stands.

“Oh it really was a blast! We’re a really close group here!”

“Mhm! One big family! London was so fun!”

The pair may not know what’s going on, but they can play along. Amy and Victor both vaguely recognized the girl as someone they disliked, so they don’t have a problem screwing with her.

Lila grows uncomfortable as the boy keeps glancing at her head before correcting himself to make proper eye-contact. The girl seemed startled by some aspect of Lila’s appearance and frowned slightly before covering it up with a too-big smile.

“Oh, I forgot to introduce her! This is Lila Rossi.”

Oh, they most certainly know her. Most people in the school are familiar enough with her. She’s the one that was rumored to have done something to Marinette.

No one is quite sure of any details, but there’s a silent agreement among the school that the only ones allowed to bring up that girl around Marinette are her close friends. All others pretend she doesn’t exist.

Marinette doesn’t seem to have realized she joined a popular friend group. The former-quartet (now quintet?) had been known for being kind people who were fun to hang out with. Marinette had been adopted so quickly, and her nature seemed to be just as good-hearted, which made her just as popular. Not that she seemed to realize it.

When rumors started about bullying people were horrified. Then a name came up. 

Lila Rossi.

The girl who is apparently currently standing in front of them.

Claude’s actions make so much sense now.

“I’m really not much of an actor! I haven’t been able to do much work since the accident…” she trails off, playing melancholy and waiting for the usual sympathy. It never hurts to pull her tricks in a new place.

It doesn’t come. Each person before her seems fixated on whatever they’d been looking at on her earlier.

“Oh! I’m sorry, did you say something?” Amy looks at her apologetically and the others break from their staring to make eye contact, though the older girl has to nudge Victor a little to get his attention.

Lila is really starting to wonder what’s wrong, but she’ll never admit to it. Repeating herself won’t do any good so she changes topics, “I just, uh, was saying that fashion is more my thing! My, uh, friend Marinette might have transferred here I was wondering if you knew her?”

“Nope! I don’t know any Marinettes!” Claude shakes his head regretfully.

Victor shakes his head as well, but Amy speaks up, “There is Marinette Pontbriand, but she’s in the musical arts department, and she’s not a recent transfer…”

“Uh, no. That’s not her. I must have gotten the school name mixed up…”

“Well, it was nice meeting you! We do have to get back to work now though.” Victor says, then he leans in, patting her hand comfortingly and speaking softly, “You’re so brave. It’ll get better I’m sure.”

He turns, and Amy waves. The taller girl pauses and turns back to Lila, similarly leaning in and speaking softly, “We all have those days.” the girl looks over Lila sympathetically, then digs in her bag to subtly hand her a pad and tampon. Amy hurries to join Victor.

What the-?

“Anyways, we should get back to our very important tour!” Claude breaks her out of her confused stupor.

“Y-Yes! Let’s!” She stuffs the period products into her bag and follows the boy. 

---

By the end of the one hour tour, Lila feels shaky and confused. Everyone they spoke to seems to know something she didn’t - and that something had to do with her.

She’s never felt so self-conscious before. It’s driving her crazy, because she has no idea what’s going on. What do they all see?!

She smiles at Claude weakly as she heads out the door.

Lila turns to go home, deciding to not bother with school for the day. 

Once home, she spends hours in front of the mirror, studying herself.

By the end of the day she’s taken 5 showers, washed her hair 3 times, tried ten new makeup routines, washed her clothes twice, and considered three different outfits for school tomorrow.

---

Bonus:

Kid Mime: so

Kid Mime: remember how i was suposed to be leeding a new studnt arownd 2day?

The Mom Friend: yeah? is somthin wrong? r they ok?

Kid Mime: i sure hope not

Kid Mime: it was liela

Melodie: Excuse me?! She has the nerve to come here?? Does she think we’re stupid?? That little brat had better count her lucky stars that I didn’t see her.

The Mom Friend: o goodness wat did u do

Kid Mime: i pretended that there was something wrong with her

Kid Mime: u no

Kid Mime: besides everything else about her

Kid Mime: i had to shake her hand and i made sure she saw me wiping my hand on my leg and using a ridiculus amont of sanitizer

Felix: As you should, after being in contact with her.

Kid Mime: of corse

Kid Mime: anyways i kept suggesting somethign about her lookd weird

Melodie: Besides the sausage hair?

Kid Mime: bsides the sasage hair

Kid Mime: i had her catch every door

Kid Mime: it was almst as satisfin as slaming 1 in her face

Kid Mime: uh

Kid Mime: o!

Kid Mime: teh best part is that as soon as i introducd her to peaple as liela evry1 messed w/ her 2

Kid Mime: i think amy gave her a tampon

The Mom Friend: well mari is a sweetheart 

The Mom Friend: the scool is gunna protect there own

Felix: She has certainly made an impression here. I cannot think of anyone that does not like her.

Melodie: I’m so proud of her. Like, remember when we first met her Claude? She tripped over one of us or something and seemed to think we were going to yell at her, poor baby.

The Mom Friend: 2020 hindsite tho that makes a lot of sense

Kid Mime: she was so quietttttttt

Kid Mime: an it took like a month b4 she actualy hung out w/ us outside of scool

Kid Mime: :((((((

Melodie: She’s doing a lot better.

Felix: Speaking of, how is she now?

The Mom Friend: asleep

Melodie: Rest well, honey!!

---

Author’s Note: Lila, Lila, Lila. You are no match for my baby boy. I really do enjoy this chapter. Showing off my baby boy in a 'fox' v fox chapter.

Anyways, I know why you all stuck around. You want the chapter summary. Well, just so you know, the reason I'm giving it early is because I just love worrying you guys. Here it is: Ladybug goes down during a battle and Adrien can't find a pulse. 💕💕💕

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any thoughts, theories, constructive criticism, or anything really in my ask box, in replies or through reblogs. I love seeing what you think!

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[dogcopter]

In the midst of all this pink angst I'd like to know what your take is on onion

ONION: Clearly deep lore. Clearly cursed. I believe pretty firmly that he can perceive the astral plane somehow, and I think his ability to teleport is not just a gag for the movie but canon. (possibly travel via mindscape? I’m not sure how he’s bringing his physical body along) He may know about Steven’s mom’s ghost? 

Takeaways from reviewing Onion appearances that add up to that: Onion can understand written and spoken English, but only speaks mwah mwah and usually to people other than Steven. He likes to hang out inside a vending machine in Funland Arcade. There’s a running joke that he does criminal things and is a chaotic force - he’s been shown with a crowbar, stealing, destroying things, and entering other people’s places. Sometimes he breaks into Steven’s house and hides in his cabinets. He seems to adore Steven.

This got REALLY REALLY long so I’m putting it under a cut, but heres my pre finale Weird Deep Onion Lore Summary, if anyone cracks the onion lore I’d love to know.

He’s tried to convince Steven to kill an animal at least twice, and each time after Steven spares the animal, Onion shows him it’s still safe at the end. In Onion Trade, he demonstrates an ability to haggle for what he wants and then tricks Steven into giving him a magic artifact by trading Steven his own Ranger Guy toy. He steals Baby Melon. In Rising Tides/Crashing Skies, Ronaldo says, “You can’t keep quiet forever!” and Onion seems to dislike Ronaldo. He appears to recognize Steven in Lars’ body in The New Lars. He has no problem openly committing crime in Beach City, but won’t take credit for someone else’s crime in Doug Out.

Sometimes their surroundings go dim when Steven’s with him (sinister trade face in Onion Trade, the multiple power outages in Onion Friend when Steven is in Onion’s home, whistling to summon friends in Onion Gang) and I think this may have to do with astral lore somehow, not simply dramatic effect from Steven’s POV. His office seems to have Rose Quartz symbolism: it’s hidden behind a poster that says THE DOOR, down a dark vent/tunnel. It’s a warmly lit private room with a massive angelic portrait of Onion, on a blue background surrounded by white and pink bubbles and yellow and white stars (diamond colors). There’s a rug, some string lights, and a blue chest full of bubbled gems collectible figurines from the arcade machine he lives in at Funland. He offers Steven the coveted Rose Quartz Explorer Gal as a gift, and shows off a psychic ghost Invisible Gal to him as well.

Lore sidenote in case it’s relevant: in Monster Buddies we know someone can be teleported inside of a bubble and then break out if conscious; as of Gem Drill we know the consciousness - of both Steven and Cluster fragments - can create a bubble from within the mindscape that is also somehow in the physical world, bubbles seem to bridge the gap between astral lore and physical world. the bubbles are somewhat fragile and match the color of the gem who created it. In Kindergarten Kid (I think?) Peridot’s bubble goes somewhere other than the Temple, explained as “home”. So the creator of the bubble has something to do with the location it goes to, it’s not a property of the bubble itself. It’s possible “home” isn’t the only destination. Steven also sees a similar star when astral projecting in Escapism as appears on Onion’s portrait. Maybe this tells us something about how he teleports?

He seems genuinely afraid when Aquamarine and Topaz are hunting down Steven’s friends. His office is referenced again when he goes missing and Sour Cream is putting up posters. He talks to Topaz, and if mwah mwah language works the same way as the watermelon language (sometimes they have actual dialogue written and Zach is imitating the same syllables with mwahs, kinda like Pikachu’s voice actor) I think he might be saying “Topaz, help”? He says a Mwahmwah that really sounds like the way Aquamarine said Topaz a moment before. He’s frightened or startled to hear Aquamarine mention the Onion on Steven’s list. He has an odd look on his face when they enter the gem ship and seems calm but books it ASAP once they’re free.

And (support for possible teleporting Onion) at the end of I Am My Mom, he disappears into thin air at some point while Steven is giving himself up. (He’s not shown in the reaction shots with everyone)

He has a couple cameos where he looks directly at the camera; I know he does it in Raising the Barn and What’s Your Problem. In Reunited he points out the Diamond ships arriving on Earth and he looks neutral while everyone around him looks afraid, despite his fear during the Aqua/Topaz debacle. In Change Your Mind while Lion (Rose) is looking up at the Diamonds, Onion is looking up but in the opposite direction. In the movie ofc he teleports around. He also cries out to Lion for help and Lion rushes over to help him when the town is falling apart. 

In Future he has still been weird and appeared in a lot of episodes. In Guidance, Smoky somehow misses him when getting everyone off the rollercoaster in slow-mo, but he’s riding in it again while it floats in the sea. He’s funny and weird during the acting bits of AVSE, including the “NEVER LEAVE” collage, his psychic waving doll (ROSE QUARTZ?) and pied-piper whistling a bunch of LH Gems off a cliff. There’s some kinda message there but I’m not high enough to understand anything related to Onion in a coherent way. He showed up in Steven’s dream in In Dreams, too. Back in the first series, he’s strangely realistic in Rose’s Room - legit, all this spooky Onion stuff put together HAS to mean he’s related to the astral projection mindscape bullshit right???

Here’s my most galaxy brain pre-finale Onion headcanon: The reason Onion showed Steven his tape in Onion Friend is because Onion has seen Steven’s tape from Rose Quartz or knows about it from her. It sounds like an explicit birth video but is labeled “Happy Birthday Onion” kinda like Steven’s is “For Steven”, and ofc Onion can read, so my headcanon is he didn’t receive that tape from Vidalia but found it himself, following Steven’s example.

I’m suspicious he might have a connection to the pyramid temple story (just bc that mural is the last unexplained bit of astral lore, who knows if it’s gonna come up in Steven’s story at all, there’s not much time left) but have very little to base that on. Onion is a big fat mystery and I’d love to know what ideas people have about him.

[purplesurveys]

1045

surveys by lets-make-surveys 1 - What did you do to celebrate your last birthday? Did you get any decent gifts? Guh I honestly barely want to recognize my birthday this year because 2020 has been a huge waste of my time...but fine, I guess I’m 22. It had been during the peak of the quarantine/pandemic, so we had no choice but to stay home. I just played the Switch all morning, then I think I watched my dad play video games, and then Angela and Hans sent over a box of sushi to our place. Real chill day.

2 - What was the last “random act of kindness” you experienced? It was my first day at the office today and I had to go up and down the stairs several times to bring packages to delivery riders, since I had to send those out to certain people. A member of the maintenance staff in the area was super nice and offered to carry some of the boxes for me, since he saw how much I was struggling with the boxes.

3 - Have you ever “paid it forward” by putting money behind the counter somewhere so the next person can get a free coffee or similar? Not yet. I’d love to be able to do that soon.

4 - What caused the last injury that made you bleed? Was it a serious injury? I was trying to open a bottle of soju last night but the cap just would not budge. Next thing I knew my finger was already bleeding. Never got to drink my soju :(

5 - Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Are you close to that person at all? One of the delivery riders who took my package earlier. Bless his soul, he was very new to the delivering thing and I think I was his first-ever customer, and he kept asking for my help. I did my best for a while but eventually I had to tell him I genuinely did not know how to answer some of his questions as I wasn’t a driver myself.

6 - What was the last item you received in the mail? Something I had ordered online. It was the gift I’m planning to give my grandma for Christmas.

7 - When was the last time you received flowers? What kind were they? A year ago, I think. It was a single stem of a rose. We were saving up last year hahaha so I had gotten her a single stem as well.

8 - Are you a fan of salted caramel? What about other “odd” combinations like sea salt and chocolate or chilli and chocolate? Ooh, I didn’t know salted caramel was considered odd; it’s a pretty common flavor here and has even gotten more popular in the last few years. I like it as a flavor in desserts, like cupcakes with salted caramel frosting. When it comes to food, I’m generally open-minded and will try any combination that exists at least once; that said, chili and chocolate sound especially intriguing haha. I’ve only ever tried chili ice cream, which was delicious.

9 - Do you enjoy watching bloopers or outtakes from TV shows? If so, which series do you think has the funniest ones? Yes. Bloopers in general are great but it’s best when they come from shows that have a reputation for being more drama-heavy and serious - that said, Breaking Bad bloopers are the fucking best. ‘Bloopers’ from animated movies are hilarious too; they were always made so well too that as a kid, I legit thought the characters were actual actors as it never crossed my mind that animators would take the extra effort and time to make bloopers out of fictional characters and that they had to be real actors in some way lol.

10 - What’s your favourite dessert food? OMG macarons for the win. I’ve been craving them so much. Cheesecake is great too, and also cupcakes.

11 - Do you have any really dangerous wild animals where you live? Have you ever encountered any of them? Nope only stray dogs and cats, and probably some chickens somewhere.

12 - Have you ever dreamed of owning your own shop? What kind of thing would you like to sell? I’ve never dreamed of this; it’s never been a goal of mine and running a business doesn’t sound like my kind of thing.

13 - Are you a twin? If not, would you ever want to be a twin? If you are a twin, do you ever wish you weren’t? No. I’ve never really found myself wishing for it, either.

14 - Do you prefer wearing your hair straight or curly? Maybe just a little wavy. Definitely not in the extreme of either side of the spectrum.

15 - Would you ever want to go and visit the moon? If I had the chance and everything was paid for and stuff, hell yeah. It’d be cool to get to cross out one of my childhood bucket list items.

16 - What was the last hot drink you had? What about cold drink? Or alcoholic drink? My last hot drink was...probably the coffee I asked my mom to make last Friday, but I did wait it out until it was considerably cooler as I didn’t want to drink it hot. My last cold drink is the iced caramel macchiato I ordered tonight and still have with me at the moment. Then for alcoholic drink, I had soju mixed with Yakult about two weeks ago.

17 - Does anything on your body hurt or ache right now? My lower back, unsurprisingly. I also cut my right middle finger trying to open a soju bottle last week, andddd I gained a blister on my right foot today because of the shoes I picked to wear for work.

18 - When was the last time you struggled to get to sleep? Was there was a specific reason for that? I can’t remember exactly when, but it happened within the last week or the last two weeks. Sometimes I just drink too much coffee during the day that it affects how sleepy I’d ultimately feel at night.

19 - What three countries would you most like to visit? Morocco, India, and Thailand.

20 - Who’s your closest friend from another country? How did you come to meet this person? I don’t really have one anymore...I’ve grown apart from my internet friends from different countries a long time ago, and I also don’t tend to keep up friendships with my friends who’ve since migrated from the Philippines to another country. I suppose the one I’m on best terms with is Angel who migrated to Toronto around a decade ago; but I use ‘best’ very loosely as the most we do is comment on one another’s posts whenever we reach like a life accomplishment, like when we graduated college.

21 - When was the last time you had a cold? With everything going on in the news, did you worry that it was COVID? It’s been a while. I can’t remember; it was definitely pre-Covid.

22 - As of today (10th December, 2020) the COVID vaccine is being rolled out in the UK. Are you going to have it once it’s available to you (if it ever is)? A part of me is a little concerned because I know vaccines take years and sometimes even decades to be fully developed, but that doesn’t mean I don’t trust doctors and science. I very much do, of course. It’s just that I’d personally prefer to wait it out first to see if it’ll have any negative effects once rolled out on a massive scale.

23 - What are your favourite websites to browse when you’re bored? Wikipedia black holes are the way to go.

24 - Do you think people should have to pass a test in order to own pets? A local animal welfare NGO already does that; Nina had to go through several tests before she was allowed to adopt Arlee. There was a verbal interview, a written form she had to fill out, and a representative from the organization even visited our house to see if it was a suitable environment for Arlee; I’m sure there was a few more steps she was required to undergo. I certainly think it’s a good and responsible process. 

25 - When was the last time you fell asleep/had a nap during the day? Is this something that happens often? It’s been monthssssssssss. I don’t really take naps during the day anymore.

26 - Do you suffer/have you ever suffered with bad acne? What kind of things did you do to try and improve it? I’ve never had issues with acne and was always rather fortunate when it comes to my skin. I’ll have a pimple or two show up once or twice a year, but they go away within a week or so. Since I don’t want to jinx it, I just wash my face with water and I’ve never experimented with any skincare products ever.

27 - When you think about it, do you think it’s odd that we stop drinking human milk at a young age, but we happily drink milk from other species instead? Not really.

28 - How’s the weather where you are? Is this a good or a bad thing for you? These days it’s humid and hot during the day (as always), but now that it’s Christmas season the weather tends to plunge to like 24-26C during nighttime. I’d say the night part is good for me as I prefer being cold than hot, so I’m glad we’ll be having this weather until March at most.

29 - When was the last time you ate a pizza? What toppings did you get? Tuesday. Relatives came over then and my cousin got us pizzas. I don’t remember what toppings he got but both pizzas had stuffed crust in it.

30 - How often do you wear make-up? What kind of make-up do you wear? Wow, almost never. Gab used to put makeup on me but now that she’s gone, I don’t really see myself wearing makeup for the meantime as I definitely wouldn’t apply them onto myself. 

--

1 - If you have caffeine late in the day, does it cause you to struggle with your sleep? Eh, sometimes. Sometimes it’ll do what it’s supposed to and make me stay up for a while, but other times it doesn’t work and I’ll end up getting sleepy the same time I usually start feeling so.

2 - When you struggle to sleep, what do you do instead? Watching videos has eternally worked for me.

3 - Who was the last person you spoke to for the first time? How did you come to speak to this person? Hmm I met my co-workers Ysa and Bea for the first time today, if it counts. I’ve only ever talked to them through Viber since we’re on a WFH set-up, but we had to go to the office today to fix up some boxes that we needed to get delivered. But the last person that I really hadn’t met nor spoken to before was Jhomar, the company messenger who takes care of pickups for the day. 

4 - If you have a pet, have they ever embarrassed you in public or in front of friends or family members? What happened? Kimi is typically unfriendly towards strangers, so as cute and cuddly as he looks he would probably bite your finger off. I’ve had to explain that to guests who’ve felt puzzled about his demeanor. He’s my little baby though and I wouldn’t say he’s embarrassed me because of it. Cooper on the other hand is hyper-friendly to the point that he looks aggressive and it has scared some people away; in reality, he’s always SO pumped to meet anyone and everyone and can never contain his excitement haha. He’s literally the nicest dog.

5 - Do you leave the house every single day? I never leave the house, except if it’s to withdraw cash or go to the Starbucks drive through to pick up a coffee.

6 - Would you rather spend the day at the beach, or a day in the snow in the mountains? I would normally pick beach, but I think the mountains would be best for me at the moment.

7 - Do you prefer tops that are plain, or ones with patterns/logos/slogans? Plain.

8 - Are there any TV shows from your childhood that you still watch today? I’ll watch Spongebob every now and then. When I’m bored and have enough time on my hands I’ll sometimes watch other shows from my childhood just for that nostalgia wave, like Barney or Hannah Montana.

9 - How many texts would you say you send on an average day? Used to be hundreds, but now it’s probably like...5, on average. Sometimes I’ll need to text media for work and that’ll come up to around 15-20 texts but that happens only occasionally, like once every two weeks.

10 - Do you enjoy buying gifts for other people, or do you never know what to buy them? I never know what to buy for people. I like buying gifts for a significant other, though. I tend to spoil one to no end.

11 - Girls - if you get periods, do you suffer from period pain or any other horrible symptoms? I get the hormonal symptoms, but the physical symptoms are almost never there. My stomach will usually contract in a way that tells me it’s coming soon, but it never really aches. Most of the time, I just cry and mope a lot and that’s how I know it’s on its way, ha.

12 - The last time you were in a car, where you were travelling to? Were you the driver or a passenger? I was headed back home. but I came from the office. I was the driver as always.

13 - Who were you with the last time you went out for a meal? I took myself out on a date.

14 - What book do you wish they’d make into a film or TV series? The Septimus fucking Heap series, please. They’ve been trying to get it made into a movie series for years but as far as I know the talks have always fallen through.

15 - The age old question - do you prefer coke or pepsi? That’s a big ‘or’ for me. I don’t drink soda.

16 - What’s the last thing you watched on TV? Is this a programme you watch regularly? Bea took over the office TV earlier and she had it set to a BTS + Taylor Swift music video playlist so that we had background music while working. No, neither are my artists of choice, really.

17 - Do you have a favourite documentary subject (eg. nature, celebrities, history, crime)? Pro wrestling (a seriously underrated documentary subject) and crime. Documentaries on anthropological issues or discoveries are great as well. I do love history, but I prefer to absorb it in text/museum form.

18 - Do you prefer sweet or savoury snacks? What snack would you say is your overall favourite? Savoryyy. I get tired of sweet snacks pretty quickly. My current favorites to munch on are any salted egg flavored chips.

19 - Does having to wear a mask stop you from doing anything, just because you dislike them or find them uncomfortable? It can be harder to breathe and I get exhausted a lot faster with a mask on, but I keep it on because I would want to keep other people safe and because it’s so easy to keep a damn mask on.

20 - Do you prefer zip-up or overheard hoodies? Either is fine.

21 - If you have a yard or garden, how much time do you spend out there? I prefer the rooftop, and if I do go there I usually stay for a few hours during the evening just to have some time to myself. Being in a house with four adults can get pretty overwhelming and taxing sometimes.

22 - When was the last time someone bought you flowers? What was the occasion? I think it was for Valentine’s Day last year. If not, it was for the anniversary which was a week after Valentine’s Day.

23 - How often do you get takeaway? What’s your favourite thing to order? I don’t really do takeout. I usually dine-in or have food delivered to my place.

24 - Do you own a lot of clothing items in your favourite colour? What is your favourite colour, anyway? I don’t have a lot of clothes in pink. It’s not my best color, but I like it in everything else hahaha.

25 - When was the last time you stayed overnight away from home? Was this with friends, family or in a hotel somewhere? What was the occasion? Idk probably a sleepover at Gab’s place early this year.

26 - Would you ever be interested in seeing a live magic show? Sure. Magic shows are already a staple at kids’ birthday parties here, and I’ve always enjoyed them especially since magicians are quite the comedians too.

27 - What’s your favourite period to learn about in history? What got you interested in this particular era? I don’t have a favorite period per se but I’ve always had an affinity for the royalty. I like reading all about them, no matter what period they reigned or what house/country they’re from. Historians have kept impressive and super detailed accounts or records for most of them, so reading about their lives has also allowed me to learn more about the culture they lived through.

28 - Do you still use or carry cash, or do you pay for everything via card? I heavily rely on cash and I actually realized how behind I am just today, when Bea ordered lunch for the office. I paid her with cash and she looked at me all puzzled and was like, “Can you do bank transfer instead?” another big girl stuff I had to learn lol. Everyone in college used cash pls forgive me

29 - Are there any TV shows that remind you of your grandparents for some reason? Not really.

30 - Have you ever had to wear a tie for school or work? If not, do you know how to tie a tie without looking it up? I had a necktie as part of my uniform in my old school. I never knew how to tie it and always asked someone else to do it for me whenever it came loose.