#what do you mean 2018 wasn’t two years ago?

[incorrectsibunaquotes]

This blog is creeping up on six years old…

[overtrred28]

Something out of a rom com | Steph Catley x reader

Summary; The night of Steph’s 30th birthday party leads to the telling of your romantic love story that really should be made into a rom com. 

Words; 2.5k

Pairing; Steph Catley x reader

Warnings; none really, pure fluff

A/N; This is in honour of her birthday and I wrote it because I had the idea during a shower and I just had to write it. It might not be the best but hopefully it's cute and decently written. I’ve also got two blurbs for other players in the process atm so stay tuned for that!

The 26th of January. A seemingly normal day to most people, but it was in fact one of your favourites. It not only marks the day you met the love of your life and future wife, but it coincidentally happened to be her birthday as well. It also happened to be today's date once again. 

So here you sat in your shared living room, Steph snuggled up to you on the couch surrounded by some of the people who loved her the most after a very successful 30th birthday party. 

A lot of other party goers had left as it was getting late, except for almost half of her Arsenal teammates who always seemed to linger after events such as these, not that you minded. 

Different conversations littered the room, most didn’t make sense because of the alcohol that was still flowing. But it was the newest team member Emily Fox who brought the group back together. 

“So, how long have you guys been together?” Emily asked, sitting directly across the room from you and Steph. 

“Almost 3 years now.” Steph smiled at her and the rest of the group listened in. 

“Oh my god, their relationship story is like something out of a rom com!” Jen talked excitingly whilst looking at Emily. 

“What do you mean?” You looked at Jen first and then down to Steph who looked just as confused. 

“Wait, I’ve never heard the full story.” Kyra piped up from her place on the floor beside Alessia. 

“Me either.” Alessia raised a finger while looking between you and Steph.

“It’s not that exciting.” Steph let out a laugh which caused Kyra and Alessia to pout. 

“Yes it is. Now listen up children…” Beth cleared her throat from the other edge of the couch next to Viv who was rolling her eyes as Beth began to tell your love story. 

6 years ago, January 26th 2018

“Oh come on, just let us go out one last time before you leave me forever!” Your best friend was standing in your room as you laid on your bed and stared up at her. 

“Do I have to?” You tried giving her puppy eyes but it wasn’t working, she walked closer to your bed, sitting down and taking your hands in hers.

“You, my best friend of 10 plus years, are leaving me for London for who knows how long.” She pouted at you. “Of course you have to go out with me one last time. So get up, look hot and start drinking.” She pulled your covers off you and dragged you to your vanity, placing a drink in front of you and leaving to go get ready herself. 

Over an hour later you were both ready and a little tipsy, ready to leave and adventure into the Melbourne nightlife. 

It took a while for you to find a club that was half decent and didn’t have ridiculously overpriced drinks but you secured a place in the corner and were finishing your like 10th drink of the night. 

“I’m going to get another, you want one?” You shouted over the music to your friend and pointed to the bar. She shook her head before talking into your ear.

“I’m gonna go on the dance floor, come find me when you're done?” She pointed to where most people congregated and you sent her a thumbs up before weaving through way too many drunk people. 

You accidently bumped into someone as you tried to reach the bar, someone else pushing you in the crowd causing you to fall into her. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” You apologised as she began to turn around and you suddenly found yourself staring at the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen. 

“Don’t even, it’s so fine.” She replied with a sweet smile and placed a hand on your arm sending chills up it. 

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say it’s your birthday?” You laughed as your eyes drifted down the sash she was currently wearing. 

“My friends made me wear it, hoping I could score us a few free drinks.” She shook her head and laughed with you. 

“Well, let’s not disappoint and let me buy you a drink.” You smiled at her and if it weren't for the dark lighting, you would have seen the blush that accompanied her beautiful smile. 

“You don’t have to.” She immediately rejected but this time you reached down and held her arm. 

“I insist, birthday girl.” You winked before leading her through the crowd again and finally reaching the bar. “Order whatever you want.” You leant down to her ear as you waited for a bartender. 

She politely asked the bartender for her drink of choice before he looked over to you.

“Make it two, please.” You smiled before pulling your card out to pay. You both thanked the bartender before walking away and standing against a wall out of the way. 

“Thank you.” She looked up at you with a smile again. 

“My pleasure.” You couldn't stop staring at her, she was the most beautiful person ever and she was talking to you. “Wanna go dance? I told my friend I would meet her when I was done.” You asked after finishing your drinks in silence.

“I would love to, but…” She looked down at her watch and you could feel the smile falling off your face. “I’ve got an early morning and my cut off was supposed to be 12.” She made a pout at you.

“That’s okay, I get it.” You nodded and sent her a tight lipped smile.

“There is something I have to do before I go though.” She sent you a smirk and you creased your eyebrows in confusion. 

“What?” You looked down at her, barely having any time to think before she reached up and kissed you hard, placing a hand on your face. Immediately your hand fell to her waist and you fell into a rhythm.

The kiss was very nice and a little long but it ended and you parted with big smiles. 

“I really have to go now.” She smiled and let out a little laugh. 

“Okay cinderella.” You bit your lip before letting her go and she ran off through the crowd to find her friends. You stood in a daze for a second before a hand clasped your shoulder, shaking you out of your trance.

“Oh my god, who was that?” Your best friend had spotted the end of the kiss as she came to find you but didn’t see her face. 

“Um,” You blinked before turning to her. “I… don’t… know.” You realised she never shared her name and neither did you. And now she was gone; a mystery kiss from the mystery birthday girl. 

3 years later, May 19th 2021

You have been in London for 3 years now, working for an event planning company, establishing a close group of friends and having the time of your life. 

Some of the friends you made had managed to drag you along to a women's football match now that people were allowed back to the matches after the covid lockdown last year, despite your lack of interest in or awareness of the sport, either male or female.

So here you were at Meadow Park on a Wednesday evening, watching a sport you’ve never taken interest in but were enjoying to some degree in the fading spring sun.

“I told you. I knew you would enjoy it eventually.” Your friend shoved your shoulder after seeing you get up when it was thought a shot might finally go in for the home side and her team of choice, Arsenal. 

“Yeah, yeah.” You brushed her off, eyes focused on the game at play and becoming more and more invested with each pass. 

It wasn’t till halfway through the second half that a certain defender caught your eye as she ran past and towards the opposite end of the field. There was something about her that seemed so familiar but you couldn’t place it. 

The game ended in a 0-0 draw and left you with a new interest that would soon turn into a regular outing on Sundays and Wednesdays, instead of your regular dinner and drinks throughout the week. 

The players began to do their rounds and you stuck around, waiting to spot a certain defender once again and figure out the mystery that was the jersey with ‘Catley’ plastered over her back.

She had been talking with another player as they walked, eyes scanning the crowd for any fans with signs or hopeful smiles when she found your eyes further up, you resting along the barrier. The words fell from her lips and the player beside her was tapping her shoulder in an attempt to gain her focus once again but it was no use. 

“One sec.” She gently spoke before running over to where you were standing, now looking down at your phone and missing her completely until a familiar accent fell on your ears. 

“Hi.” She gave you a smile and your head whipped up from your screen, finding that beautiful face from all those years ago in your sights again. 

“Hi.” You breathed out as you assessed her features and reassured yourself you weren’t once again imagining those eyes that plagued your dreams every few months. 

“Fancy seeing you here, halfway across the world.” She spoke again, noticing that you were in a sort of daze still. 

“Uh yeah. Sorry, this is just so weird.” You shook your head, letting out a laugh. “Not in a bad way,” You spoke quickly. “I just never thought I would see you again. Especially not halfway across the world.” She smiled at your shyness, the opposite to the confident you she remembers; though you are quite confident with alcohol in your system. 

“Yeah.” Steph laughed and continued to analyse your features, every part of that night coming back to her in full view rather than scattered pieces of memory like she has for the last three years. 

“So,” You tried to keep the conversation flowing, realising you would have to wrap up soon so she could get back to her team and you to your friends. “Do you think I could finally get the name and number that's not on the back of your shirt? I think that’s something you forgot all those years ago.” You smiled at her and began pulling your phone from its place in your pocket. 

She let out a laugh, a real one before nodding. “Oh yeah. I guess so.” She held your phone in her hands and began adding a contact in, handing it back quickly. “There you go.”

“Thank you.” You took a look at your phone before returning eye contact with her, feeling once again that same thing inside your chest from the night you first met. “I’ll call you, Steph.” You nodded, beginning to retreat from the barrier and up the stairs. 

“And who should I be expecting said call from?” She called out to you, stopping you in your tracks to turn your head back around. 

“Y/N.” You smiled before being the one walking away this time and leaving her with a dazed expression and confused friends. 

“Who was that?” Beth appeared beside her, looking at the retreating girl Steph had just interacted with but couldn’t see the face. 

“Um,” Steph shook her head. “An…old…friend.” She turned her face to Beth who was more confused than ever but began walking towards the changerooms with the rest of the team. 

Over the next few weeks it seemed like you and Steph were texting every spare second you each had when she wasn’t training and you weren't working, even before you could finally arrange a time to meet up and have your official first date. 

She suggested you go out for dinner one night before she was set to go off and play in the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics over the summer. You had the best time together, chatting for hours and catching up on everything over the past few years, talking as if you had known each other forever. The night ended and she walked you back to your apartment which happened to be just down the street from hers, once again leaving you with a kiss that left you feeling dazed; but this time she couldn’t run and hide from you. 

After watching and cheering on Steph and the national team at the Olympics from home, you knew that this was the person you wanted to pursue a future with. 

So when she came back you made it official with one another, a private time for the two of you to continue to learn everything about one another until you were ready to share it with your friends and the world. 

After a few months of secretly dating, realising this is how the rest of your life was going to look like, you began to share with friends, family and eventually the media which caused a flurry in the football world because of Steph’s public status. It turned out to be even better for your relationship now that you could express your love for one another to other people. 

“And then last year, Steph decided to pop the question the day before Y/N wanted to do it.” Beth concluded the story, somehow managing to keep everyone invested despite the late hour and disappearing energy from tonight's events. 

“Thank you Beth, that was quite an accurate retelling.” You smiled over at the blonde, reaching out for a high whilst trying not to disturb Steph who had actually fallen asleep. “But I think you bored Stephy here to sleep.” You brushed the hair on her head and her eyes snapped open with a sharp inhale. 

“Huh?” Steph began to sit up, looking around the room in confusion, all of her teammates letting out small giggles, you simply looking down at her with admiration. 

“I think you’re too old now for all this partying darling.” You laughed at her watching her face form into a scowl. 

“I am 3 months older than you!” She pointed a finger at you, now pouting while looking up into your eyes. 

“Well this looks like fun, we’ll leave you two to it then.” Lia spoke for the group as they all began standing from their places, yourself and Steph rising from the couch too so you could say goodbye at the door. 

“Bye!” You both waved at the last people before you closed the door, Stephs arms securely wrapped around your waist, head against your chest. 

“Let’s get you to bed, cinderella.” You laughed, picking her up by her thighs and carrying her like a koala to your bedroom. 

“Thank you, my princess charming.” Steph mumbled into your neck, placing a soft kiss there while you let out a small laugh. Maybe this was like something out of a rom com.

THE END

[imagine-that-100]

Will We Talk? | Part 1 |

Description: Alex Turner x Reader | Being Katie Cook’s best friend means you see a lot of a certain band, so it’s too bad that the lead singer can’t seem to stand being in your presence. You’re all too aware that you get chatty when you’re anxious, and despite being around each other for a decade, Alex still makes your heart race (and not in a good way). But then he asks a question you never expected to hear, and it changes everything: “Do I make you nervous?”

Word Count: 13.2k

A/N: Well hello there besties! Alex stannies your time has come again because I’m back and this short series is going to be soooo much fun! This was inspired by a harry fic I read many moons ago and I just knew I needed to do a grumpy Alex fic. I started writing this fic on the 15th of December 2021 so it’s been a long time coming. That being said part 2 isn’t yet finished (blame @nriacc​ lol) but I felt we all needed a new Alex ficccc! Big thank you to the author of the harry fic for the inspiration, and to @red---moon​ and @alovesreading​ for helping me/ keeping me inspired for this one. I would loveeee to know what you all think so please give me your reactions! Just keep an eye out for the time jumps, it goes back and forth quite a bit but I hope it makes sense. Thanks a million for reading, hope you enjoy x

| My Masterlist |  

~*~*~*~ 29th June 2018 ~*~*~*~

Just do it Y/N. Be polite, stop being a child.

Internally, you’re debating pretending that you don’t need another drink and to go back to Katie and Kelly without a new one so you don’t have to suffer what’s bound to be another awful encounter. Alex is standing at the busy bar with his drink in his hand, and you’d think that after 8 years of knowing someone you’d feel comfortable enough to have a chat with them at their best mates birthday party. But no. Not with Alex.

He might just be the grumpiest person you’ve ever met. He’d never once started a conversation with you, it’s always been you making the effort with him since the day you met him.

Truthfully, your tendency to talk a lot more than you should when you’re nervous probably hasn’t helped that. You’d seen interviews of him over the years and it’s clear that he really didn’t like talking to anyone who he wasn’t close to. And you’re not stupid, just because Katie is your best friend doesn’t mean that you’re someone he has to converse with.

Of course over the years you’d seen each other a lot but you’d only had a handful of conversations with him. Frighteningly few of those conversations were just between the two of you, and you were happy with things staying like that.

But this time you’re going to have to brave it. You’d promised Katie you’d grab her another drink along with getting yourself a new one.

The bar is fairly busy with a few people standing around chatting as they wait for their drinks. A few people have been standing there for the majority of the evening in this decently sized function room.

Of course for Jamie’s birthday, and with the band being back off tour for a short break, Katie had thrown her husband an early birthday party because she’s the best wife possibly ever. You’d helped her plan it and sort everything out so she didn’t get too stressed like any best friend would do and you’re so glad everything has gone to plan and Jamie seems to be having a great night.

Equally, you’ve been having a great night too. Getting to see everyone again is fun. You’d not seen Miles for a while nor had you really seen any of the band because they’d been on tour but each time you saw them it was like no time had passed. Miles has always been your favourite to chat to, you think because the both of you are just as chatty as the other so you always feel at ease around him.

You’ve always had a tendency to talk someone's ear off and even more when you’re drinking or nervous. So tonight with you being both tipsy and nervous about seeing Alex standing at the bar, inconveniently for you the only free space being one beside him, you don’t want to go over.

But you need another drink.

Just fucking do it Y/N.

Taking a deep breath you bite the bullet and head over to the empty space at the bar. You’re hoping that you’ll get served immediately but by the looks of the bar staff looking around like headless chickens, you don’t think your prayers have been answered.

Reaching the bar, you put your empty glass back down on the sturdy wooden surface and wait patiently for the bartenders to serve you.

“Hey.” You greet Alex as you turn to face him.

You smile once his eyes meet yours and you see the flicker of recognition in them. You expect a smile or something along those lines from someone you’ve known for almost a decade but no.

All you get from Alex though is a quick, “Hi.” before he glances back towards the rest of the party.

After a second of silence, you have to ask, “How are you?”

“Yeah, good thanks.” Alex smiles before taking a sip of his drink and looking away from you as if he’s searching for someone else to talk to.

Wow, great chat. Why do you actually still bother Y/N?

You make eye contact again and you can feel the tightness in your chest building as if storing up all the shitty conversations you want to blurt out to get rid of the silence. But you also don’t want to annoy him. So you don’t mention anything about the goatee that he’s grown since the last time you saw him. You want to be nice and complement him but you seriously don’t think you can survive the awkwardness of you doing that.

Thankfully you don’t have to think about it for much longer because someone else caught his attention.

Alex’s eyes flicked from yours to someone coming up behind you and you hear a male voice excitedly saying, “Alex, hey!”

A grin comes to the singer's lips then and you watch him as he enthusiastically asks, “Hey man, you alright?”

You've never seen the guy who’s taken Alex's attention before but it seems like they are friends. From Alex’s smile and the way they just shook hands you assume they must be, “Yeah good thanks, where’ve you all come back from?”

“Middle of the month we were in the States, then we went Germany, and we flew back from Denmark yesterday.” Alex explains enthusiastically and you can only imagine him ever being that engaged in a conversation you had with him.

“Christ, and you’re here now.” The guy shakes his head in disbelief, “I don’t know how you do it.”

You tune out of their conversation then and glance back at the bar. You really want your drinks so you can leave before the guy leaves and it gets awkward again.

It’s not that you want to be his best mate or anything close to that, you’d just love not to feel nervous around him all the time. In the beginning the nerves were probably due to you being a fan of the music and you’d never met him before.

Jamie was the most normal person so you didn’t quite believe Katie when she first told you that her boyfriend at the time was in Arctic Monkeys. But then you met him and clearly found she was telling the truth.

You’d met all the band by the end of the year and you got on well with them at various after parties that Katie had dragged you along to in your mid twenties. But Alex has always been quiet and marginally grumpy with you since day one.

Probably your nervous chatter that did it the first time considering he said ‘hi’ to you and nothing else. He just listened to you rambling on until he was pulled away by someone much more important than yourself.

But over the years you got to know him, even if it wasn’t directly through him.

Katie fed you all of her gossip as she thinks of you as her most trusted confidant so when someone in the band annoys her and she can’t show how annoyed she is to Jamie, she’ll have you over for a wine night. So you’re aware of everything that’s just happened between him and Taylor and a certain french bitch.

If he hadn’t have left the French bitch as what she was, a stupid fucking fling, you think Katie may have killed him. She was really close with Taylor and after finding out about the cheating she was round at your house for days trying to yell all her anger away. Obviously she didn’t want to make things more awkward by airing her current murderous feelings towards Alex to Jamie so you’re the one who heard it all.

Of course you disapprove of what he did too. But it’s not your place to have an opinion. You’re just there for Katie. But you have to admit, for Alex’s sake, you’re glad he just left the French girl. Katie would have murdered him if he started seeing her as something more.

You’re brought out of your thoughts by the guy who was talking to Alex accidently bumping your shoulder as he was turning round to head back to whoever he was with. After he apologised and you promised him it was fine, back comes the uncomfortable silence that hangs between you and Alex.

He makes eye contact with you again as he sips on his drink, the smile previous on his lips now gone, and you can feel that you’re about to start nervously chatting to him. So you’re eternally grateful for the voice from behind the bar.

“Hi,” The bartender grabs your attention, “What can I get you?”

Thank you, God.

“Can I get two Amarettos on ice please?” You ask for two of your own drink because you don’t want to come back over if the grumpy fucker beside you is still over here.

The bartender preps the glasses and adds ice before he grabs the bottle of Disaronno and the double ended measure before asking, “Singles or doubles?”

“Doubles please.” You smile and watch as he pours them.

You’re glad he isn’t stingy with his measures because you don’t want to come back for a while, and after pushing the drinks towards you, the bartender asks, “Anything else?”

Smiling, you politely ask, “Can I get a large glass of Montepulciano please?”

“Yeah sure…” You watch as the guy looks around for a second and you know from his irritated expression what’s coming before he even says it. “I’m just going to grab another bottle from the cellar, I’ll be just a minute.”

You smile, “Okay, thank you.” as you can’t even change which wine you’re after because he’s already gone. You feel bad as the guy disappears off but you can feel the nerves bubbling back up inside you.

The silence falls once again, and despite the room being busy and there being a lot of people-watching you could do, you feel like because you’ve known Alex for so long you should be trying to converse with him. You really wish you didn’t care about uncomfortable atmospheres but you can’t really help but avoid it with Alex, you wish you could get over it.

Both of you are awkwardly standing beside each other once more with nothing to say and you can’t stand the stiff air between the both of you. So you end up doing what you do best when tipsy and nervous: You talk.

“I know you don’t like me very much, but I really rate your music and I don’t think I’ve ever told you that.” You begin to nervously digress looking Alex straight in the eye, needing to get rid of the silence between you. You hesitate before oversharing, “I say that, but it took me a long while to get into your new album but I like it now. Think it’s the one I listen to most actually.”

“Right, thanks.” Alex nods, before adding in a little confusion, “At least, I think that was a compliment.”

“Yeah it was.” You nod, your mouth unable to stop from rambling now. “I know my opinion means fuck all in the grand scheme of things but I just thought ‘give credit where it’s due’, right?”

Stop talking Y/N/N, you’re embarrassing yourself.

“Right.” Alex smiles at you, but you can’t help but feel a little stupid under his gaze.

You’ve told Jamie time and time again how you felt about his music, but never once have you felt this awkward about it. It really is just a reaction to Alex at this point because you could tell he just doesn't want to know.

However, just as he looks like he’s about to say something else, probably him finally telling you to leave him alone, you’re saved from whatever it was. Whilst your blundering conversation took place the bartender had returned and had poured Katie’s glass of red and it’s ready and waiting just in front of you.

“That comes to twenty-two all together, please.” The bar man asks and you happily give him your undivided attention as you take a £20 and a £5 note from your purse and hand it over.

“Keep the change.” You smile at the bartender who looks pleased with the tip you’d just given and as you pick up your alcohol carefully you glance back to Alex who’s clearly only watching you because there’s no one else around taking up his time.

He probably wants you to get a move on so he can chat to someone who actually peaks his interest. You half smile at him as you politely say, “Can’t keep the birthday boy’s wife waiting for her drink any longer. See you later.”

“See ya Y/N.” He nods, sounding just as disinterested as when you started the conversation.

Christ. Get me out of here.  

Thankfully for the rest of the night Alex is easily avoidable. Most people want his attention all the time so even if he joins a conversation that you’re involved in, he gets ripped away from it.

Miles keeps you entertained for a good portion of the evening, both of you chatting more as you drink more and more. Closer to the end of the night, Jamie gets up and does a speech thanking everyone for coming and that’s when Alex comes up beside you and Miles.

You just about hear him say to Miles that he’s just paid for a drink for him at the bar and for him to go and choose what he wants and then once again, Alex is left standing beside you with a full beer in his hand as you both listen to Jamie’s short and sweet speech.

Obviously, the guitarist brings up his lovely wife and thanks her for everything. Jamie gives Katie a stunning bunch of flowers which you can instantly tell that she loves, but as he hands the microphone over to her, Alex grabs your attention.

“Why do you think I don’t like you?” You're shocked as you hear that question fall from his lips, but you don’t hesitate to be honest with him.

You’re a little taken aback if you’re honest. He may as well have just shouted it at you because you’re genuinely that shocked by the question despite his voice being just above a whisper.

“Erm,” You swirl your drink around the glass before looking up into his brown eyes, “You never say more than a few words to me whenever I see you.”

Jesus, this is fucking awkward.

You see him frown a little then though, and after a second's thought, he asks, “That makes you think I don’t like you?”

“Well, it doesn’t make me think that you’re overly fond of having a conversation with me.” You say with a little chuckle of disbelief as to why you had to say it outloud. “And you’ve never tried to get to know me like the rest of your friends have and whenever I try with you, I don’t get much of a response.”

“Never intended for it to come across like that.” Alex tells you, and he does look like he feels bad, but it’s not like you’re holding it against him. So you don’t need his, “Sorry.”

All your brain is telling you right now is ‘Avoid confrontation at all costs’. You’re really not equipped to have that conversation with him drunk but you did tell him the truth.

“Don’t be.” You shake your head before looking back at Katie, “It is what it is.”

You can still feel his eyes on you and you’re half sure you hear him say the start of your name but your attention is clearly ripped away from him when Katie say’s your name down the microphone.

“Y/N,” She grins at you gesturing for you to come to her, and you see Jamie now holding a bunch of flowers that turns out to be for you, “Couldn’t have done this without you Hun. I had to get you these.”

You shake your head and go over to thank and hug her, leaving Alex watching after you. He just stays in his head and drinks his drink, silently processing your previous words.

~*~*~*~ January 26th 2018 ~*~*~*~

“Hey!” Jamie shouts as he runs through the front door and quickly starts routing around for whatever it is he’s looking for.

Katie says a surprised, “Hi?” and you can see and hear the distaste that he’s back so early.

Tonight Katie had invited you round once Forrest had gone to bed because Jamie was meant to be out for the evening with the lads. She needed a wind down after a long week of work and looking after her toddler whilst Jamie was away doing PR for the new album.

You’re both half way through your first bottle of red wine as Jamie now comes scurrying into the lounge, almost frantically searching around for something. You find it quite funny too because he definitely hadn’t noticed you sitting in his lounge.

That changes a second later when comes towards you and pulls out the messy drawer on the side table just near you. He smiles quickly, “Hey Y/N, good to see you.”

“And you Jamie” You grin, seeing his wife still waiting for him to announce why he’s intruded on your night in.

After scurrying around the lounge, clearly trying to find whatever it is he’s lost, she asks, “What are you doing back here?”

“I forgot my wallet.”

You’re desperately trying not to laugh at Katie’s silent sigh, or when she lets out an annoyed, “You left the door open J.”

You look towards their door and you can see it’s half open, letting all the precious heat inside their cosy house out. The winter air is absolutely freezing and it’s causing a draft that both you and Katie can feel without coats on.

“Al, you tosser!” Jamie shouts as he continues looking around for his wallet, “Don't wait outside come and help me find it, you prick!”

You can almost hear Alex’s sigh as he steps into the house, “Not my fault you left it here.”

“Alex, please come in and shut the door.” Katie waves him in from her seat, “It’s fucking freezing.”

He sighs a little as he says, “Yes, Miss Cook.” before closing the door and walking into the house with his coat wrapped tightly around him.

He looks like he doesn’t want to be out of his own space, let alone be here. He’s not smiling like he usually is when he sees Katie and he’s practically rolling his eyes watching Jamie run around like a headless chicken.

“Ignore him. He didn’t want to come out at all.” Jamie shakes his head as he walks around the lounge and back around the corner to the hall where he came in and heads past Alex and up the stairs.

Katie continues talking to you about your previous conversation and Alex just stands under the open arch between the hall and the lounge. Or that is until you all hear a loud bang come from upstairs.

A few seconds later all of you hear Jamie make another loud bang and Katie inhales sharply through her nose. Annoyance is bubbling through her system when you all hear him say “Shit.” from upstairs, clearly very loudly.

“He better shut the fuck up or he’s going to wake Forrest up.” Katie looks at you with a death glare that’s definitely meant for her husband.

Katie gets herself up from her seat opposite you and walks past Alex to half mute her voice as she yells, “Jamie!”

“Don’t mind me,” She looks from Alex back to you as she half smiles, “I'm just gonna go kill my husband.”

Alex chuckles at that and you let out a little giggle before taking another sip of your wine as you hear your best friend walk up the stairs. That leaves a silence between you and Alex and one that you’re itching to fill. You hate that it’s always awkward between you both.

After taking another sip of your wine, you politely ask, “How are you?”

“Good, thank you.” Alex nods, walking towards the wood burning fireplace that Katie was lighting when you arrived.

You debate mentioning that his hair is a lot longer since the last time you saw him, but you decide not to. The last thing you want is to make anything more awkward, so you go for something that he’s used to talking a bit more about.

“You enjoying the build up to the album release?” You ask, praying the conversation will being to flow a little easier.

But all you get is a half hearted, “Yeah. It’s been alright so far.” as he crouches by the fire and puts another piece of wood onto it.

“Good good.” You smile despite him not even looking your way.

… And nothing. No follow up question about you, not even a smile.

You’re sure he hates you. There’s absolutely no other possible explanation for why he would make things this uncomfortable for you both if he didn’t. You can’t stand uncomfortable silences which makes you more nervous and the need to chat takes over again.

You’d think that someone who does interviews for a living would know how to make people feel comfortable and you know for a fact that he does. You’ve seen a fair few in your time being their friend, and you’d seen Alex interact with his friends and his fans. You have no idea why he makes life so awkward for you.

You try again, hoping to ease your awkwardness by asking him about something he enjoys.

“How did you find writing this one?” Is the only thing you can come up with that you’re genuinely curious about, “I think Jamie mentioned that you got writer's block or something for a while, is that true or was he bullshitting me? Because you’ve always seemed to write and record really quickly from an outsider's perspective.”

“Yeah,” Alex nods with a sigh, still not even glancing at you, making you wish you never asked, “Was difficult at the beginning, got there in the end.”

Wow.

Amazing.

Enthralling story.

Taking another sip of your drink, the uncomfortable tension feels like it's suffocating you and you’ll do literally anything to ease it. Blabbing on about where they are going seems to be the direction you take.

“Where are you being dragged out tonight? Just to the George and Dragon,” which is about a 2 minute walk from here, “Or are you going into town?”

“Heading into town I think.” Alex stands himself back up and tucks his hands back into his pockets, glancing at you as he walks back to the centre of the lounge.

After taking a sip of your wine, you politely ask, “Anywhere nice?”

“No idea.” He shakes his head.

Smiling, you try to make light of the situation. “You really don’t wanna go, do you?”

“No,” Alex shakes his head, and says under his breath probably not meaning for you to hear, but you do, “I don’t even want to be here.”

To you that’s another way of saying shut the fuck up. Biting your tongue after that is difficult, but it's easier than letting him make you feel like shit again.

After drinking your last mouthful of wine, you get yourself up and out of this uncomfortable situation. You don’t bother telling him where you’re going as you doubt he cares but you’re just thankful that you don’t have to deal with him anymore.

Disappearing to the Cook’s downstairs toilet, you’re glad when you hear Jamie race down the stairs a minute or two later, shouting, “Right Al, come on. Let’s go.”

As you open the door and make your way back round to the hall, you hear Jamie say bye to Katie, followed by Alex politely saying goodbye to Katie. He gives her a hug and his eyes make contact with yours as he slips out, not even nodding a ‘bye’ as he leaves, closing the front door behind him.

“Hiding again?” Katie turns to grin at you, knowing just how uncomfortable you find interactions with Alex after years of the same behaviour.

“He’s so awkward.” You nod laughing, but you’ve got better things to be thinking about tonight. “Come on babes, I need another glass of wine.”

Thank fuck for that.

~*~*~*~ 21st September 2018 ~*~*~*~

“Y/N, Hey!”

“Jamieee.” You grin, walking towards his open arms so you can give him a hug.

You walk into his arms and you appreciate the tight hold he traps you in. As you give him a squeeze, the guitarist says, “Missed seeing you in my house.”

You can’t help but chuckle a little at that. After greeting Nick and Kelly as you walked in with Katie, you couldn’t wait to see Jamie backstage tonight. Matt unfortunately doesn’t seem to be around this communal area just yet but you're grateful for the lead singer's absence.

“Ahh well, I've been there more than you.” You tease him, his tour has been so long it feels like forever since you last saw him, “I’ll be sleeping in your bed next.”

“Surprised you don’t some nights,” Jamie laughs as he releases you from the embrace, “You’re both piss heads.”

You can’t help but laugh and nod. You just end up shrugging, “Well, red wine calls us both.”

Both you and Katie can’t help it. You’re just living your best lives and the wine nights you share are the highlight of your week.

“Thanks for inviting me tonight.” You grin at Jamie.

You’re actually thrilled you’ve been invited to their gig tonight. Them being back home in Sheffield must be awesome for them and the fact that they have four shows back to back at the FlyDSA arena makes you happy too. It���s a proper homecoming. And after a stressful week this is definitely what you needed to let loose a bit.

“Oh, I’m not the one that you need to thank.” Jamie smiles and you think nothing of it, assuming Katie’s told him you have to come.

She usually does that when she’s invited somewhere anyway. She really likes taking you out with her and sometimes out of your comfort zone.

Katie calls you over to the fridge in the communal area where she asks you what you want to start the night off with. You’re shocked as to how much alcohol is in the fridge, there’s got to be at least 30 cans of beer and there’s also wine in there. Bottles of red are left on the side beside it too.

“Fucking hell, I can’t believe they get this much stuff every night.” Your eyes go a little wide seeing the fridge.

Katie laughs at that, “I know they are greedy, I’ll have a route to see what there is.”

You watch her astounded at just how much alcohol is in there. But your attention moves to the scouser who’s just walked through the door.

“Y/N.” Miles calls your name from across the room and you grin when you turn to see him.

“Course they had you come for their home shows.” You laugh, throwing your arms around him.

You adore Miles. He’s been a good friend for a long time and you feel really comfortable around him. Unlike his best friend, Miles seems to listen to what you have to say and he’s interested in it.

It meant that you’d been close for a long while and he always makes an effort to check in with you every month which you love him for. He’s honestly such a good person and you think the world of him.

“I’ve been here the past two days and I’ve been asking for you.” Miles informs you, “I was going to text you but Katie said you were busy?”

“Yeah sorry, I’ve had some planning to do for work and had to see family the last few days.” You shake your head, not wanting to think about all that right now. You grin at Miles, clearing your head, “So glad to be here now.”

“Ooo Y/N/N,” Katie gets your attention and she has a big grin on her face as she tells you, “There's a full bottle of Amaretto in here. Not seen this before.”

“Oooo amazing.” You grin, selfishly loving the fact you won’t have to pay for your own drinks until the after party later.

Miles traps you in another conversation whilst Katie makes you your drink. Before she pours your drink though, she can’t help but wonder why the bottle is there in the first place.

“J?” Katie calls her husband over and when he’s standing beside her, she asks him, “When did you add this to your rider?”

“I didn’t know we did.” Jamie frowns in confusion looking at the bottle of Disaronno. He knows no one in the band drinks it so he asks his wife, “Why? Who drinks it?”

“Y/N does.” Katie tells him, ”It's her favourite.”

“Well, happy days then.” Jamie smiles and shrugs it off, thinking nothing of it.  

Drinks flow for a while after that. Now you’ve had two glasses of your favourite, you really feel like it’s a Friday night and you can finally have a bit of fun.

That thought slowly dies though when Alex comes into the room with Matt in tow. You’d seen him a few times since the night you couldn’t get an Uber home from the Cook’s house and he walked you home but he still wasn’t all that chatty with you.

It was a little easier but you were still the one making all the effort and actively trying to make conversation with him. You can’t imagine anything different happening tonight, christ, you’ve still not mentioned to him that you like his new buzzcut.  

In fact, you imagine he’ll be a little worse because he’s got everyone who he wants around him and you’re just Katie’s plus one. Thankfully you’re distracted for a minute by the bubbly man that is Matt Helders.

He’s a gooden too. You do love him but you can’t lie, he made a questionable decision with his love life. Why anyone would leave Breana you have no idea.

Like Katie’s rants about Alex doing the dirty on Taylor, you heard the same rants for her about Matt cheating on Breana. Once again, it wasn’t really your place to have an opinion so you just let her rant at you.

But Matt had always been lovely to you, so obviously you wouldn’t bring the things you heard about him into your dynamic. You chat to the drummer for a few minutes and he makes you laugh countless times at how tipsy he is.

You genuinely don’t know how he can perform for two hours when he’s like this before. But you can’t blame him, and he seems to be having fun and you know he’ll put on a good show.

Matt wonders off to grab himself another drink leaving you alone at the side of the now busy room. But you don’t mind people watching, it’s quite a good pass time for someone like you who doesn’t like awkward encounters. Anything to keep you from rambling on like you always do when you’re drunk and nervous.

Your eyes mostly roam over the people you don’t know, you find them more interesting to try and figure out. Guess which members of the band they know and how they’re friends.

But your people watching hobby fucks you over royally. As you eyes glance over at who Alex is chatting too, the singer's eyes connect with yours and you avert your gaze immediately.

You honestly just can’t deal with the awkwardness today. You need more alcohol to deal with that. Being drunk was the only reason you survived that walk home with him.

But turns out you’re not so lucky, because when you glance back, Alex is on his way over to you which almost makes you spit your drink out. What the fuck?

Miles, your absolute saviour, runs into his best friend though and wraps him into a hug which you can’t help but laugh at. He kisses his cheek which makes Alex laugh and the smile lingers on his face after Miles tells him whatever it is he needs to tell him.

They chat for a minute and you just find yourself watching them. They chat so easily. It really makes you wonder what you’ve done to piss Alex off so much that it seems like he couldn’t care less if you were in the room with him or not.

If you had to bet, it would be your nervous rambling. But that’s not your fault. That’s your shyness taking over and your hatred of awkward silences.

Your jaw almost falls open though when Alex smiles at you from over Miles shoulder, and even more so when he moves around his best mate as greets you, “Hey Y/N.”

“Hey,” You say, a little surprised that he’s stopped his conversation with Miles to come over.

“How’ve you been?” He asks, which makes you want to pinch yourself.

Did he really just ask me how I was before I asked him?

You just about manage to smile as you say, “Yeah I’m great, how are you?”

“Good thanks, excited for the gig.” The singer smiles, and you can’t help but find it unnerving that he’s giving you his undivided attention. Alex follows up like he’s curious, “I didn’t think you were coming to any shows?”

“Oh no.” You shake your head, thinking Katie must have forgotten to tell the lads she invited you. “What's better than a gig, right?”

“Right.” Alex smiles, and it shocks you because it actually seems genuine, “Glad you could make it.”

Is he drunk? Why is he talking to me? He’s glad I could make it????? What now?

You smile at each other then. But your brain is all too aware that after two seconds there’s nothing more to say. So as you try to stop yourself from getting skittish, or making it more awkward.

“You been enjoying the tour?” You ask him, but you don’t give him any time to reply because you start your nervous talking, “I’ve seen a few videos and they’ve been good. Four Out Of Five seems to really pop off. I like that one, might be my favourite off the new album actually. But I really like One Point Perspective too.”

“Good choices.” Alex chuckles and you can’t help but silently scorn yourself for being awkward.

God, you wish you could have one normal interaction with him.

“Oh,” Alex’s eyes seem to light up for a second before he tells you, “Follow me a second, got something for you.”

You frown at him, not believing what he said in the slightest. You ask in confusion, “Me?”

“Yeah.” Alex nods and turns with a gesture for you to follow him.

The shock of it is what actually makes you move. You can’t help but whisper a small, “Oh.” though.

He surely has to be drunk?

But what’s mind-boggling is that he really isn’t. On the way out Miles asked him if he wanted another drink and Alex responded yes and added ‘this is only my first, definitely need one more before I go on’.

He leads you out of the room everyone was in and around the corner to where a group of the crew guys are. There’s a quiet word exchanged with who you assume to be the main crew guy and you watch from behind Alex as the guy nods at him and a second later he hands the lead singer something.

You shake your head as soon as you see Alex turn back to you and hold up the AAA pass that’s hanging from the lanyard he’s trying to give you.

“Oh Alex, I don't need that.” You shake your head, “I like watching from the arena.”

Half of them in that room watch from a box which is where you expected to be watching from. It’s no issue to you where you are in the arena, it’s nice enough you were invited by Katie to come tonight for free. Christ knows you wouldn’t have been able to get a ticket on Ticketmaster.

“Come on,” Alex presses on, “I’ve never seen you back here.”

Because you really like watching from the arena. You’ve never been at the side of the stage and you’re not sure if you want to be. You’ll just feel like you’re in the way.

You try to argue your point, “But-”

“No buts,” Alex smiles as he puts the lanyard over your head so it falls around your neck like a necklace. The singer continues, “You can’t be leaving Katie on her own. She’s been missing you for the last two weeks. I’m sure Jamie will like you being at the side of the stage too.”

He gives your shoulders an encouraging squeeze and the smile on his face makes you believe that you’ve swapped bodies with Katie for a hot second. He’s never talked to you like this before.

“Thanks Alex.” You smile sheepishly, not really knowing what else to do other than accept in this situation, “You really didn’t have to do that.”

The singer shakes his head like he doesn’t need your thanks. He just smiles at you and says, “It's nice seeing you here.”

It goes silent for a second then between you and your mind scrambles for something to talk about so this surprisingly good interaction doesn’t take a turn for the worst. You’re thankful it’s not your rambling that ends the conversation though.

Someone from the crew a bit further down the hall shouts Alex’s name then which makes the both of you turn to look at where the voice came from. You both see someone wave and then they tap their ear at the same time they almost do the Asda Price bum tap thing.

Whatever it is goes straight over your head. But Alex seems to understand because he nods and holds up a finger telling him one minute.

“Sorry to be a pain,” Alex says as he turns back to you, “They are shouting me for something about my mic pack.”

“It’s okay.” You smile.

Alex smiles back at you, and he says, “See ya in a bit Y/N, hope you enjoy the show.”

“Always do.” You smile and as you turn back around, you say, “Break a leg.”

The singer just smiles at you and you head your separate ways.

Great. Now you just sound like a fucking suck up. Go and get another drink Y/N/N. For fucks sake.

~*~*~*~

Surprisingly, that isn’t your only interaction with Alex tonight. During the short interval between the encore, when they came off stage both Alex and Matt came over and talked to you whilst Nick and Jamie spoke to their wives.

You were tipsy at that point so you started chatting their ear off like you usually did and Matt of course entertained you, but what surprised you most is that Alex was actually smiling. He actually seemed interested in what you had to say - even if it was just nervous bullshit - and he didn’t try to look for someone else to talk to which was very surprising to you. But that was probably just because Matt was there though.

Expecting that to be it, you didn’t give the singer much thought other than that. Knowing that you’re all going into town after this with quite a lot of people settles your nervous energy. You’ll probably have Katie and Kelly to yourself for most of the night because of their men interacting with everyone who wants to speak to them.

And for the most part you’re right about that. Katie gets you drunk, to the point where you’ve had to stop drinking for about an hour so you don’t throw up in the toilets. But the party is still in full swing and you - along with everyone else - have had a nice night.

You’ve just come back from the toilet and you’re looking around for Katie who has now disappeared from the table you were previously at. Kelly had gone home a little earlier, leaving Nick here to have his fun, so you and Katie had been chatting the night away and you’ll be getting a taxi with her back home because you live a 10 minute walk away from her house.

You just take your seat back at the table you were previously sitting on and pull your phone out. The last thing you wanted to do was interrupt anyone else's conversation so you were happy waiting for Katie to find her way back to you.

Sitting there, your still tipsy mind is paying no real attention to what you’re seeing on Instagram. You do find yourself singing along to the Tame Impala song that's playing in the room which you can just about hear over the noise of the busy chattering.

“Hey,” Alex's voice startles you out of your thoughts as he comes and sits himself down next to you with a smile on his face as he asks, “You enjoy the show?”

“Hey, yeah,” You nod, taking a deep breath to stop your shocked heart from giving out. Smiling, you tell him, “Well done.”

“Thanks, Y/N.” Alex grins back at you, and he places a glass down in front of you, “Got you a drink.”

“Oh,” Your eyes go a little wide looking at the whisky glass he’s put down in front of you, “Thank you.”

You pick it up and swirl the liquid around the two ice cubes and initially you thought it was whisky like he’s currently drinking, but you notice the liquid is lighter and a little thicker. Is this your favourite liqueur?

And the singer confirms that it is your favourite drink when he must notice you glancing at your drink. He brings you out of your thoughts and you look back at him as he speaks.

“You drink Amaretto on the rocks when you’re out, right?” Alex nods down to your drink like he’s worried he got it wrong.

“Yeah, yeah.” You nod, completely baffled that he knew that about you, but you smile nonetheless, “Thank you, you didn’t have to get me that.”

Christ, what a good guess on his part.

Alex smiles, “Least I can do.”

You take a sip of the drink and you can’t help but love the taste of it. And after not drinking for an hour or so, the taste is lovely and refreshing on your tongue.

“Did you enjoy your show?” You ask to fill the silence between you.

Granted the noise in the busy room makes his absence of conversation not as bad, but you hate the awkward feeling in your chest. Talking always makes it feel better and your tipsy self can’t control what you say anyway.

“I bet you don’t hear that a lot, or I guess you might.” You ramble, “But I imagine, with performing like that, you just get a lot of people telling you that they enjoyed themselves despite you maybe not feeling it was your best or whatever.”

You notice his lip twitch up at that and you feel like you’ve just shot yourself in the foot. “Sorry, that made it sound like I’m saying you were shit. I’m not. You weren’t. I’m just saying, bet you don’t really get asked a lot. So yeah, um, sorry.”

After the singer takes another sip of his drink, he smiles, “You don’t need to apologise… Yeah, I enjoyed myself. It was probably the best night this week.”

You nod at that, taking another sip of your Amaretto before you open your mouth again, “That’s good. I guess it makes the home shows more special. Has anywhere ever beaten home shows? I imagine all the UK ones are pretty special with you all literally travelling around the world.”

“God, big question.” Alex chuckles a little, before looking at the ceiling as if the answer was written up there. He comes back with, “I think home shows are the rowdiest and loudest which is fun. I think the best ever was Glastonbury though.”

You grin, “Which one? First or second time?”

“Full of good questions.” Alex smiles before he swirls his glass around as he thinks which reminds you of something else entirely.

“Oh,” You practically giggle, which brings his attention back to you, “You make me laugh when you do that ‘losing your train of thought’ thing on stage. Wasn’t aware that an Arctic Monkeys show is actually shitty stand up comedy these days.”

“Offended you think it's shit.” Alex scoffs which makes you drunkenly giggle.

As you finish laughing you shrug and tell him, “Was better in the days that you did the kung fu fighting thing still.”

“Damn,” Alex shakes his head, “Need to step my game back up. Any other suggestions?”

You think about it for a second and you’re just about to give him a long spiel of awkward suggestions that probably should never leave your mouth. But they thankfully don’t because the most gorgeous wife in the world comes back over and grabs your attention.

“Hey Y/N,” Katie grins at you with her coat folded over her arm and she asks, “You ready to go?”

“Yeah,” You nod, grabbing your coat from just beside you, “Yeah.”

As you slip your coat on and finish your drink in a quick mouthful, Alex keeps Katie entertained.

“Mrs Cook.” Alex grins, taking a sip of his beer after calling her out, “You lightweight.”

You have an amused grin on your face as she frowns at him, “Some of us have kids to look after in the morning, Turner.”

“I’m so glad I'm not you right now.” You laugh honestly.

The last thing you’d want was to be hungover and then have to get up early to deal with kids in the morning. Definitely not happening any time in your near future.

“You and me both.” Alex chuckles before he glances back at Katie. “Did you have a good night Mrs Cook.”

“Stop calling me Mrs Cook, you make me feel old.” She playfully scorns him.

“You are old.” Alex fires back just as cocky as she was, pointing out some fair points, “You’ve been married for half a decade and you have a child.”

Katie scowls at the singer then, and she fires back, “Well at least I don’t have a fucking ugly orange settee where I choose to live.”

You have to laugh at that. You’ve heard about how weird and wonderful this sofa is. You know she’s hated it ever since she’d seen it when he moved in, but Alex apparently likes how his furnished flat came. So he’s not changing it.

Alex argues back, with a look of determination, “It matches the blue walls.”

“Your flat looks like a pop art painting.” Katie fires back, narrowing her eyes at him.

“You’re just jealous because you can’t have pretty things like that because your kid will draw on it.” Alex defends himself with a grin, before adding his final joking remarks, “And you’re boring because you have your Mum brain on all the time.”

“At least she’s a milf.” You grin at her, “It’s very lucky Jamie is away so much. Get her all to myself.”

Katie burst out laughing at that and you hear Alex chuckle at you too. Not that you’ll remember any of this tomorrow, you can practically feel the memories already leaving your mind.

Christ, that one extra drink has really done you over. You feel just as drunk again. God you already don’t want the hangover tomorrow.

Katie tells you that she’s going to go and find a few people to say goodbye to and that she’ll meet you over by the door in a few minutes. So you politely ask Alex to let you up from the booth you’re in and he does so without any argument.

As you stand in front of him, the singer wonders aloud, “You’re coming tomorrow, right?”

“Oh I, um,” You don’t really know what to say other than, “I didn’t know I was invited?”

The last thing you wanted to do was be in the way again. Because god knows at some points tonight when the crew was running around you, Katie, and Kelly you felt like you were in the way. And you never want to outstay your welcome anyway.

“Course you are,” Alex tells you, and he says as if it’s obvious, “You’ve been on the guestlist all week, Y/N.”

“Oh.” You say, a little dumbfounded because you really didn’t know and his gaze still makes you feel a little uneasy.

Well if Katie had told you she’d done that for you you might have been able to come a few dates earlier. Or maybe not considering it’s still been a little awkward tonight with Alex, you’re grateful for the conversations you’ve had though.

But you won’t remember your discussions with him because you’ve had so much to drink. And tomorrow you’ll blame your hangover on Katie for more than likely asking Jamie to put the Disaronno in his rider.  

“You don’t have to,” Alex backtracks a little, but it’s nonchalant and you think nothing of it anyway. He follows it up with, “Just thought that you usually spend your saturday nights with Katie and she's here anyway. You’re welcome to come again.”

How kind of him. He must have been abducted by aliens and this is a nicer clone. There's absolutely no other explanation to your tipsy mind.

“Thanks, yeah,” You nod and the singer smiles at you when you confirm, “I’ll be there.”

Because you won’t be turning down free live music or alcohol any time soon.

You glance at the door and notice Katie giving Jamie a kiss so you figure it’s time to get going yourself. You look back at Alex and he smiles knowing what you must already be thinking.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow Y/N/N.” Alex grins and you give him a smile and a small ‘bye’ as you turn to leave.

But the singer shouts your name after you take a few steps away, so when you turn back to him, he answers your earlier question, “First time. First Glastonbury blew my mind.”

All you seem to be able to do in response to that is grin. You nod a little before saying, “See you tomorrow Alex.”

~*~*~*~ 20th August 2018 ~*~*~*~

“I want to cry, the Uber cancelled again.” Katie whines, pouting slightly as she looks out of the window at the rain.

“Just our luck for not booking a proper taxi in advance.” Jamie sighs, scorning himself for not thinking better of it earlier.

Tonight you, Katie, Jamie, and Alex had been out separately but you’d all convened back together at the Cook household so Jamie’s parents could be relieved of babysitting duties. You and Katie shared another bottle of wine and gossiped for another 2 hours whilst the boys drank their beer and chipped into the conversation now and again.

“It’s not the end of the world,” Alex tells them, “We don’t live that far away.”

“Yeah, I’ll just brave the cold.” You assure Katie, and add in a little jest using air quotes, “At least it’s ‘summer’ and not snowing.”

“But the rain.” Katie points to the window.

Yeah walking home at the end of the night in the rain can be a little shit. But it was nothing you’d not done before. Granted you were like 21 the last time you’d done that but it’s really not the end of the world.

“It’s not heavy, I'll be okay.” You promise her to try and ease her worries, “At least I’ll go home looking like a drowned rat and not the other way around.”

You grab your coat from near the door and Katie follows you saying, “You can’t walk home on your own at three am, Y/N.”

“I’ll be fine.” You tell her as you slip your shoes back on.

Alex shocks both you and Katie to your cores when he says, “I’ll walk her home.”

Katie mustn’t be able to believe her ears because she asks, “What?”

You almost laugh, because she sounds like she’s as shocked as she was when Alex walked in on your wine night with Jamie and Nick the other month and she first saw his buzzed hair cut.

“We live the same way with about five minutes between us.” Alex points out, and he looks at you and nods, “I’ll walk you home.”

So that is how you’re currently walking from the Cook’s house to your own with Alex by your side.

Since Jamie’s party when he came up to you and asked why you didn’t think he liked you, the singer had surprisingly been a little better with you. He said hello to you and he seemed to engage a little more.

He’s still quiet around you, but you’ve noticed now that he goes like that around most people he doesn’t really know that well. You guess you can’t really change that though considering whenever you start asking him questions he doesn’t really give you much of an answer.

You’ve come to terms with that thought which is why you’re biting your tongue as you walk beside him. The urge to start asking him a bunch of questions is really strong but you’d rather not have the sinking feeling in your chest when you just receive one word answers back.

To occupy yourself as you’ve been walking the past few minutes, you’ve been running over the lyrics of your favourite song in your head. Alex seems to be in his head as it is so you don’t feel too bad as you walk despite the strong urge to rid yourself of the awful silence between you.

All you really focus on is making sure the umbrella that Katie lent you keeps you dry. Alex had a coat with a hood and even when you offered to share the umbrella with him he told you it was fine and that was the last thing you said to each other.

Or that was until Alex speaks up and asks you, “Am I right in thinking you were married?”

“Yeah for four years.” You nod, glancing over at him, and chuckling a little, “If you can believe it.”

Thank fuck he spoke up. The silence was eating away at you.

Alex’s eyes go a little wide, “Really?”

The poor man probably shouldn’t have asked, because the floodgates you were holding shut have just burst open and your nervous chatter just comes out. And considering you’re drunk, there is no chance you can stop it.

“Yeah, together since we were sixteen. Married at twenty one and stayed together for four years. But we just didn’t love each other anymore. Well, not in the way that qualifies you still be married to someone.” You ramble on before continuing, “Don’t get me wrong I would be devastated if something happened to him. Touch wood nothing does. But we just lived separate lives, went to work, came back home, and went to bed. Half the time he did shifts so I never saw him.”

You carry on to explain, “My life was just boring and I thought to myself I shouldn’t be feeling bored aged twenty-five. I wanted to travel and see the world but I just got a mortgage straight away so the only travelling we ever did was when we went to Vegas and got married.”

“So I got divorced, and how sad is it that I've got to tell people I'm a thirty one year old divorcee.” You finish off with.

But then you realise who you’ve said all of that to. And that he doesn’t like chatting to you at the best of times. So he probably didn’t care about anything you just told him, or appreciated the amount of rambling you just did.

You feel the need to say, “Sorry.” and you glance at Alex as you sheepishly say, “You didn’t really ask that, did you?”

For fucks sake Y/N. A ‘yes’ would have done!

“It’s okay.” Alex assures you with a small smile.

“No, it's just me rambling when I'm drunk and nervous.” You scorn yourself, hating the uneasy feeling in your chest. Unable to understand why you do it, you still end up saying, “I’m sorry. I’m a chatty person in general and getting alcohol into my system just makes me worse. Not to mention if I'm nervous too… Can never stop me going then.”

You guess getting it off your chest and him knowing that about you may make you easier to understand. Maybe he won’t find you as annoying because the last thing you want is to annoy him. You’re close with Katie and Jamie so you’re bound to run into each other more now he’s going to be living in Sheffield.

The singer frowns a little then before looking back to you to curiously ask, “Why are you nervous?”

Because you’re the most awkward man to talk to possibly ever?!!??!??!?

Course you can’t say that though. So you give the other true reason.

“I don’t like walking home in the dark usually.” You tell him sincerely, because it does freak you out. “I don’t know, bit of an irrational fear at this point but someone followed me home when I was younger and it really freaked me out. So um yeah… Thank you for doing this.”

“It’s really not a problem Y/N/N,” He smiles at you in what seems like a genuine way then, “I wasn’t going to let you walk home alone.”

You can’t help but think that’s really kind of him considering he really doesn’t know you very well. You tell him, “You’re a gooden, Alex.”

The singer just smiles a little at that, but you can see he’s being completely genuine when he says, “Sorry that happened to you.”

You give him a small smile then, appreciating how sincerely he said it. But you don’t really want to dwell on that whilst you’re walking in the dark so you change the subject.

“Do you prefer being back in Sheffield after all your time away?”

Alex wonders in what context you’re on about, so he questions, “You mean like over tour?”

“No, I mean like from living in different places because you were in New York when I first met you. Then you were in LA and you’ve got a place over there, right?” You double check, looking to him for assurance.

Alex nods and you continue, “Then you were to and from LA and London, right? And now you decided to come and stay back home? Or do you not plan on staying now?”

And you’re pleasantly surprised at the lengthy answer he gives you.

“Oh I'm definitely staying in Sheffield now… At least for a little while after the tour is finished.” He explains, “I think I just need time back where everything is normal and familiar again. Like Miles goes and stays back home quite often and I’ve not been back here for more than two months maybe since I was twenty two… It’s a long time away and it's quite nice to just come back and feel normal.”

You understand what he’s saying completely, but you can’t help but jokingly add, “Well… As normal as you can, being the front man of Sheffield's pride and joy.”

Alex laughs a little at that which shocks you because you never expected to make him laugh. But he does remind you, “You’re forgetting about Pulp.”

“You’re forgetting Pulp haven’t released anything since 2012.” You raise your eyebrows at him as your defence.

“Fair dos,” Alex laughs a little and you take what joy you can out of the fact that you made that happen. “But yeah, I like being myself back here and I like that I’m with most of my good friends and I get to be a proper uncle to the kids over here now.”

“They talk about you all the time. It's funny.” You can’t help but grin at the thought of your little god children, “Katie blames Jamie for being gone on you so when Katie has Kelly and Nick’s kids round too they complain like ‘Why has Uncle Alex taken Dad away again?’” You mimic in a whiney voice that again makes Alex laugh.

Alex chuckles, “I need to have a word with that Mrs Cook. She’ll get me into trouble with them.”

You promise him, “It’s nothing a chocolate bar wouldn’t solve.”

“I must owe them so much chocolate.” Alex grins.

You nod and begin to slow your walking down because you’re about to reach your house, “Oh yeah, you definitely do.”

“I’ll get Katie to invoice me.” The singer says as he notices you glance to the houses just beside you both and you slow down.

Matching your speed, you both come to a stop just in front of your house and you smile at the singer, “Thank you for walking me home.”

“Not a problem, Y/N.” Alex smiles back and you’re really glad that

You start slowly moving closer to your house as you say, “I hope the next leg of your tour goes well.”

“Thank you.” He says as he watches you get closer to your house.

“See you soon Alex.” You say with a smile as you unlock your door and push it open. “Thanks again.”

Alex smiles, “Bye Y/N.”

~*~*~*~ 24th November 2018 ~*~*~*~

Chaos. That is the only word to describe the current situation that you’re in.

The Cook household is manic, Forrest is running round like a mad man as any toddler who’s just been given sweets by his uncle would be doing.

Toys are everywhere and Jamie is running around too as he’s been tasked with tidying them before the grandparents get here to babysit. Katie scolded Alex for giving Forrest sweets before they were due to go out before she went upstairs to get ready.

Katie’s Mum wasn’t here yet to babysit Forrest for the night whilst you were all going out and that added to the stress because the taxi was due in about 25 minutes. So you’re trying your best to be the good Auntie that you are and calm your godchild down before you all go out, but your good nature results in a causality.

Alex catches your arm as you almost fall over a mountain of toys Forrest decided to pull you through, but as you tried to salvage your footing you must have caught the leg of the table your shin smacked into as well. It didn’t hurt too much, the initial shock of it got you and the fact you almost fell over, but then you hear the awful sound of fabric ripping, it makes you wince. You know what's happened before you even look down to check.

“You’ve got to be fucking joking.” You mutter under your breath before you quickly glance at Alex and say a small, “Thanks.” as he stopped you from going arse over tit.

Alex asks slightly concerned, “Are you okay?” and that’s the first interaction with him since you walked in the door ten minutes ago.

You could blame that on the fact the Cook’s household was fucking mental, but it’s more than likely just normal that he doesn’t want to talk to you. You’re just glad he caught you if nothing else, the last thing you need is to fall and bruise yourself.

“Yeah, thanks,” You nod, letting go of his arm you were still grasping to perch on the back of the settee so you can get a look at the damage done to your tights, “Can’t say the same about them, for fucks sake.”

They are beyond salvageable. There’s a massive hole in the calf which is that big it almost fully reaches round to your shin. Theres now a massive fucking ladder up the side of them which makes them more transparent and you can feel it’s gone right up to your arse too.

“I can’t go out like this.” You sigh, wondering what you can do but it also pisses you off because you literally arrived a matter of minutes ago in your taxi feeling really good about yourself for a hot second, but now that’s all fucking disipated.

Jamie shrugs, suggesting, “Take them off.” as he watches Forrest play with some toys across the room.

“Oh yeah,” You roll your eyes, and your sarcasm rings clear telling him that you’re not in the mood for such a simple comment like that. You wore them for a reason, and that reason is because it’s fucking freezing outside, “And get fucking hypothermia because I’m shivering all night? I don’t think so Jamie.”

You’re only wearing a skirt tonight because Katie asked you to anyway. She wanted you to wear the skirt version of the dress that she had which you were fine with doing.

Katie was wearing a really cute red tartan dress with a long sleeve black top underneath whereas you opted to buy the dark green high waisted tartan skirt and you paired that with a white long sleeve top and you had your tights and ankle boots on.

You’re bloody freezing as it is, the last thing you want or need is to be taking your tights off. It’s a strong no from you.

“I mean you wanted a quick fix.” Jamie holds his hands up in innocence and you just ignore him for a second before walking out of the lounge and to the bottom of the stairs after hearing your best friend begin to walk down them.

“Katie, do you have tights I could borrow?” You ask her as she gets to the bottom of the stairs.

“I binned all mine the other day and ordered more but they haven't arrived yet.” She tells you and your once jolly mood plummets further, “They all had holes in them… How come?”

You show her your right leg and you turn slightly to pull your skirt up a little, making sure the lads don’t see but Katie can see just how high the ladder runs up.

“Oh.” Katie winces at that, feeling bad she can’t help you.

“I’ve got stockings you could wear?” She offers as the both of you walk back into the lounge, “They’d come up to your thigh?”

You almost want to slap her. You know exactly where those items of her clothing have been, which is why you give her a disgusted look as you say, “I’m not wearing stockings that you’ve been wearing whilst Jamie’s railed you.”

“They’ve been washed.” She scoffs.

“Thanks, but no. I can’t wear these though.” You sigh as you both walk into the lounge. You stick by the arched frame though and after a second of deliberation, you say, “Whilst you're sorting yourself out, I’ll walk home and change.”

Katie looks at you with concern filled eyes, “But the taxi is due in twenty minutes.”

“Exactly, and you don't have the time to be messing about.” You say as she’s clearly still got things to sort out. She’s only just now plugging her straighteners in and she doesn’t have her shoes on yet either. You continue with, “And your Mum isn’t here yet to look after Forrest. If you can pick me up on the way out, that’d be grand.”

Katie nods at you through the mirror as she starts parting her hair so she can style it, “Yeah that’s fine.”

“Right, I’ll go now then.” You tell the room before turning to grab your coat from the bannister.

But you almost stop dead when you hear Alex say, “I’ll walk with you.”

Did those words really just leave Alex Turner’s mouth?

They clearly did because he’s pulling his jacket back on and taking a step towards you. Not wanting to be a burden, you shake your head, “You don’t have to, it’s not that late.”

“It’s okay, I’ll walk with you.” Alex insists, giving you a look that’s assuring but he makes it lighthearted by saying, “Gives them more incentive to come and pick the both of us up from yours then, right?”

You assume he must remember from your walk home a few months ago that you didn’t like walking home in the dark. You see no other reason for him as to be so kind to offer. So you don’t argue with him further, even though you already feel nervous to have to spend time with him alone.

“Right.” You nod and avert your gaze from his. You look back to Katie and Jamie and say, “See you in a bit.”

~*~*~*~

The walk home was uncomfortable to say the least. Despite your speed walking, it really did seem to take forever to get back to your house with silence between you and the singer.

You’ve got past the point of trying to start a full conversation with him at this point, so you just opted to repeat the lyrics to your favourite song, Not fair by Lily Allen, to yourself three times knowing that by the time you finish the song in full for the third time you should be home. And when you’re correct, you’re very thankful.

Unlocking and getting into your house leaves a new sense of anxiety in your stomach though. You’ve left the place a fucking mess and you hate that when someone new walks in. Especially someone like Alex who hasn’t always been the nicest to you in the past, so you start rambling again as you let the both of you in.

“My house is a tip so sorry about this.” You tell him as you quickly slip your boots off so you can change your tights when you get a second. “Please ignore everything you see. I’ve really not had any time to clean up today. I was out this morning and then by the time I got back katie was mithering me to get ready for tonight which is fucking comical because she wasn’t ready even before we left.”

Alex closes the door behind and walks into your home and you don’t need to look at him to know he’s already looking around at your possessions. Most people do when they walk in anyway considering the back wall of your lounge displays your ever growing record collection.

You’re unsurprised when you hear him say, “Christ, that’s a lot of records.”

“I know right,” You smile and walk the both of you further into your home.  

And because you can’t handle silence as you start searching your shopping bags for a new pair of tights, you give him another anecdote, “My Dad gave me all of his from back in the day. Couldn’t believe it when he said I could have them all. I’d only just started my collection at the time and I probably had about twenty of my own and then he gave me all of his because he said it was old technology and he’ll never have any use for them anymore. And then my grandparents followed suit and they gave me all theirs too. Couldn’t believe my luck.”

“Three generations worth of collectors then?” Alex smiles and you nod.

“Yeah, I guess so.” You nod, not bothering with the bag you were currently routing through anymore because you’re a little bit taken aback by the fact he’s pulled your favourite Gorillaz album out.

Abandoning your search for replacement tights for the moment, you carry on your story as you watch him, “Been fun adding to the big collection though. I love just putting on a record to pass the time. It’s why my Spotify unwrapped is always so shit because I always listen to my LPs and not on my phone so at the end of the year it’s like ‘you listened to two thousand minutes of music this year’ and it’s bullshit because I just listen to so much more but it’s all on my turntable unless I'm walking to work.”

Alex hums with a smile on his face as he continues searching for more records. He’s pleased to see all of his own up there, including his EP, the TLSP albums, and the Submarine soundtrack. And when he pulls out Miles’ latest album Coup De Grace, he can’t help but chuckle seeing that Miles had signed it and written a message to you saying, ‘Y/N/N, my biggest fan in the world. Love you loads and I hope you enjoy the new tunes. All my love, Miles x’.

When you notice the singer looking at that, you laugh and tell him how Miles had given you a lovely message on the front of all his LPs.

“Bless Miles, he always writes me a nice message on each album I get sent.” You start to ramble as you search for new tights. “I don’t really remember when he started doing it… Oh yeah I do, I think it may have been when I mentioned when I first met him how much I liked Age of the Understatement and we were talking about it for ages. And then like a month later I get the record in the post and he’s signed it and it had the sweetest message on the front to go with it and he’s never stopped. He’s a gem.”

You stop talking about Miles when you get baffled for a moment how your tights weren’t in the shopping bag from the shop you thought you bought them from. So your search persists as you carry on routing in other bags you’ve yet to take upstairs.

As you do though, your nervous chatter persists. You really hate that you can’t stop it, and you’re sure you’re annoying your guest but he doesn’t stop you, and thankfully he doesn’t look annoyed by them today. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t take you by surprise today by actively starting a conversation with you.

Just as you’re about to run upstairs to your room, you hear Alex ask, “Can I ask you a question?”

If Katie would have asked you that, you’d have said ‘You just did’ but because it’s Alex and you’re certain he doesn’t get your humour, nor would he tolerate it, you just say, “Yeah, of course you can.”

And you walk back into your lounge so you’re not being rude as you wait for his question. Alex looks as relaxed as possible as you feel like your heart is going to start beating out of your chest despite him still plucking records from your shelves.

His brown eyes linger on you as he asks, “Do I make you nervous?”

You certainly weren't expecting that question.

“What do you mean?” You find yourself asking, not understanding where that’s come from and you feel like you’re frozen in your spot.

Alex seems to think about his words before they leave his mouth next. And your heart that's thudding ten to the dozen in your chest doesn’t feel like it’s able to cope for much longer so you’re very thankful when he says what's on his mind.

“Well when I walked you home in the summer, you said that you ramble when you're drunk or nervous. And yes, on a few occasions we've seen each other lately we’ve been drunk, but you’re not now and you’re exactly the same.” Alex points out as he looks between you and the track listing on the back of your Brian Eno LP.

“You’re really chatty and jumpy when I come near you and it's like you’re flustered and jittery... Like the way a fan usually is but you’ve known me for too long for it to be that, so that’s why I'm asking,” Alex repeats himself, “Do I make you nervous?”

“Erm, yeah.” You nod, unable to say much else, “I guess you do.”

“In what way?” The singer asks you as he puts the record back where he found it before giving you his full attention and starts making his way over to you.

“I’m not scared of you or anything… You just really stress me out. I can never read you, never read what mood you’re in or even whether you like me as a person or you just think I’m Katie’s annoying friend that never shuts up.” You struggle for your words because you truly don’t know how to tell him without offending him. The last thing you’d want is for him to dislike you anymore.

But Alex’s gaze and increasing proximity makes you say more, “I don’t really know why you make me nervous after all this time. But you definitely unsettle me.”

You want to curl up into a ball and hide. You feel fidgety with the closer he gets and you want to avoid his gaze. But because he’s pointed it out, you don’t allow yourself. You stay strong and keep his eye contact despite his teasing.

“When you’re around me you talk like you- I don’t know how to describe it… You almost act like someone who's addicted to the E-numbers in sweets.” Alex grins, almost like it’s a little inside joke with himself. You try to keep yourself calm when he reaches his point, as he stops a few feet in front of you. “So that's why I’m curious if I made you nervous or not.”

“Well I guess the simple answer is yes.” You nod, but now with him so close, you try to look anywhere but at him.

This is far too awkward for your liking. Alex hums in response to that and he plucks another record that you recognise to be Histoire de Melody Nelson from your shelf that’s just beside you.

You think you’ve escaped the conversation now and you pray you can just go back to being awkwardly silent with each other and never relive that again. But apparently that’s not the plan.

Just as you were turning yourself around again to head upstairs, Alex leaves you shell shocked when he asks, “Do you want to fuck me?”

Instantly your eyes are the widest they could possibly get and you’re sure your jaw falls open. Looking at him intently to try and make sure you’re not dreaming this, you deadpan, “Excuse me?”

“Do you want to fuck me?” Alex asks, putting the record back like it's the most casual thing to ask someone he barely speaks to, “Is that why I make you nervous?”

This should be the easiest response you’ve ever given him.

“I-”

But your words fail you. Your heart feels like it’s about to beat out of your chest.

Wait… Do I want to fuck him?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: So... What did you think??? What do you think is going to happen next??? Did you enjoy it? I really hope you did! 

Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist x

Taglist: @alovesreading​ @kennedy-brooke​ @ohladymoon​ @hazskillerqueen​ @more-multifandom-of-maddness @thereisaplaceintheheart​ 

[pipsuwu]

Pretty Boy

A/N: Yes, I did make this gif, but Tumblr dot com has fucked the quality :’) anyways....It has been YEARS since I have written fan-fiction (the last time I wrote fanfiction it was 2018). If you like it, feel free to let me know. If it is absolute dog shit, feel free to let me know. Enjoy, you horny bastard. MINORS, DO NOT INTERACT.

Summary: You and Spencer have no clue what you are to each other until you confess to him...  Pairing: Spencer Reid x GN!Reader 

Genre: Smut                      

Warnings: Foul Language, Sub!Spencer, dirty talk, praise kink, scratching, marking, temperature play, Spencer being referred to as “Princess”, there are a lot of pet names, light dacryphilia, light overstimulation, asphyxiation, 

Word Count: 3,496 

“Would you please stop looking at me like that?”

You shift your gaze, suddenly deciding the wall to your right was far more interesting to look at. When was the last time the wall was painted? The paint is chipping away at the corners…

“Does it make it hard to focus when I do ‘look at you like that’?” you ask, “Just curious…”

“It’s a bit difficult to talk to you when you practically f-fuck me with your eyes,” he says, looking down at the table you’re both sat at. He has been fidgeting with his hands the entire time the two of you have been talking. He was the one who asked you to come here with him for lunch… he did say the two of you needed to talk, but… he hasn’t been able to get to the point. You look back at him, he still has his gaze down to the table before him.

“Does that make you nervous?”

“You mean do YOU make me nervous?” Spencer sighed, looking back at you briefly before deciding he could not handle eye contact with you at this time.

“Well, do I?” you asked, matter-of-factly. “Do I make YOU nervous?”

“Honestly? Yes, but also no, I do not know quite how to articulate it… what are we?” He looked up at you, holding eye contact this time.

Ah, so that’s what this is about…You knew this would come up. You and Reid had an… interesting relationship to say the least. The two of you met 6 months ago while he was out with some of his coworkers at a bar, apparently he had crashed some form of “girls’ night” with his bald handsome friend/coworker/wingman? (It wasn’t Spence’s plan, he made sure to ramble on about it being all baldy’s idea) Long story short, he ended the night talking with you at the bar for over an hour rambling on about anything and everything he could think of while you just listened to him. God, he is so cute when he rambles…Anyways, you snuck your number in his blazer pocket before he left and it was not long before you two were talking…but the labels in your relationship are a bit unclear even after 6 months of talking. You two hang out, go out together, he comes over to your place, you go over to his… It's typically just to watch horrible documentaries while he rambles off statistics and you listen to him. And then there are the times you two have kissed…okay, you two were practically eating out each other’s faces, but that is not only a newer development it is also besides the point…

“I don’t know what we are, Spence… we’ve never really talked about that. Our “friendship and/or relationship”-if you could even call it that-is a bit odd.”

“Well, let’s talk about it,” He replies, after drawing in a deep breath and furrowing his eyebrows.

“Our “friendship and/or relationship”-if you could even call it that,” He says using his air quotes before putting his hand down and reaching the other to pick up his drink and take a sip, you see his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he swallows, he has a really pretty neck… oh right, you’re supposed to be having a conversation…You look up at his face again while he takes another sip.

“I like our “friendship/relationship”…? But I would be lying if I said I did not want to…uh fuck you.”

He chokes slightly, coughing from a harsh intake of air. His mouth stretches into a thin line as he processes what you just told him. He nods, biting his lip before he clears his throat.

“Too much?” You ask, chuckling nervously stirring your very watered-down drink with the paper straw you were given.

“Th-Thank you for your uh honesty, I guess,” He looks down at the table again before meeting your gaze.

“You guess?” You question him, giving him a confused look.

“I don’t even know how to respond to that.” He quips, you can tell he’s thinking about what you said, but words are escaping him.

“So you don’t know if you feel the same?” you ask, tilting your head. He shakes his, before a look of panic crosses his face.

“I mean no, as in I do not know uh how I feel,” He felt the need to clarify, you smile and nod your head.

“That’s okay, Spence, you can take your time figuring that out if that’s what you need.”

He looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t quite have the words. Until his face just went blank. Completely neutral.

“Let me think about it alone,” He says after a moment, to which you nod.

The check gets paid, split as usual, and then you both go your separate ways. You go to your apartment, changing into a baggy t-shirt and your underwear the minute you get in. You decide to watch some random cooking show on the food network as background noise for a nap on your couch.

The nap was going swell until hours later, you got a call from none other than the pretty boy himself. It has barely been 3 hours… you answer the phone.

“Hey uh Spence-”

“Open the door,” He interrupts, you sit there for a moment, processing what he said.

“P-Please open the door,” He stutters out, you hear him sigh on the other end of the line. You nod, even though he cannot see you. And then, you get up and open the door for him.

“Spence…”

He doesn’t dare step into the apartment, only focused on you standing in front of him.

“It has barely been 3 hours,” You say, your head tilted as you scratched your scalp.

“You said to take my time, I took as much of it as I needed,” He starts, pausing to take a deep breath.

“Can you come in before we have this talk awkwardly in the doorway to my apartment,” You shift to the side, so he can enter the apartment space. He presses his lips together before nodding, he starts taking off his converse and socks by the door before walking to the couch to sit down. You close the door and grab an iced drink for the both of you from the kitchen, before joining him on the couch.

“You said you wanted to f-fuck me?” He said it in the form of a question, his voice so quiet you could barely hear him. You just look at him quizzically.

“Maybe I want you to fuck me,” He states before clearing his throat, “I like the time we spend together, but I do not think we can be ‘friends’... at least not platonically.”

“Maybe..” You repeat back to him.

“I shouldn’t have said maybe… I-I want you to fuck me,” Spencer’s ears start turning red when he stutters out the confession. You smile softly at him, amused.

“When-”

“Right now.” He says it while shifting around, fidgeting, his hands rub over his thighs back and forth. You raise your eyebrows. He looks down at his thighs. You grab his face gently, turning him back to face you. Your free hand moves his hair out of his eyes. You sigh softly.

“Are you sure?” You asked him, you wanted certainty.

“Yes, I am completely sure,” He says, nodding a little. He doesn’t break eye contact for a second.

“Okay, Pretty boy,” you respond practically in a whisper, stroking his hair gently before letting go of his face. He takes the drink I gave him and takes a sip before taking off his scarf and tossing it to the side.

“What’ll the safe word be?” you ask, while watching him take off his blazer and setting it with his scarf.

“Safe word?” He asks, eyebrows furrowing.

“Yeah, a safe word, in case you want to stop,” you state before taking a sip of your drink.”Is that a problem?”

“No, how about ‘potassium’?” He asks, looking back at  you,  you pause, nodding. He started loosening his tie. You get up, grip the collar of his button up, and tug him towards you. You start unbuttoning his shirt.

“Wait, potassium?” You ask, causing him to pause. He just nods slowly. You look in his eyes for a minute before booping his nose, nodding back to him before moving your hands back to his shirt. “Potassium it is,” you state, his shirt joins his clothes, and you tug on his belt. Spencer lets out a little gasp, looking you in the eyes, biting his lip a little. The belt gets undone and tossed with the rest of the clothes. You then unbutton and unzip his pants, your eyes never leave his. Even as he steps out of his pants, shuffling them to the pile of his clothes. He moves his hand to the bottom of your shirt, looking down at it while he starts to fidget with the hem in his hands before looking back up to meet your eyes. You look down before looking back up at him, nodding a little. He gets the hint. He takes off your shirt, dropping it on the floor, before gently leaving a chaste kiss on your lips. Your hand moves to run through his hair before gripping the hair at the back, tugging a little causing a low whine to come from Spencer. You deepen the kiss, biting his bottom lip. He moans lightly, bringing his hands up to rest on your shoulders. You tug on his hair again harder this time, moving your lips to lightly kiss his jaw before pulling away. You pull your hand out of his hair, lightly pushing him to sit down on the couch before straddling his lap. You sit back, admiring the view. Spence is already panting, he looks up at you through his lashes, his lips are red, and so are his ears. He is so pretty… You run your fingers through his hair gripping it to pull his head back, he closes his eyes. You start running your tongue up his neck, he shudders, humming to himself. You start marking his neck, biting and nipping at the sensitive skin. He moans lightly, his hand slipping in your hair and gripping it lightly causing you to groan. You leave hickeys and bite marks in a path towards his chest. His breathing gets heavier and heavier. You lick up his chest, before swirling your tongue around his right nipple. He gasps, his grip in your hair getting harsher.

“Y-Y/N,”He stutters out your name.You pause before moving to the other nipple, swirling your tongue around it, sucking lightly. He huffs out a heavy breath, groaning lightly. You occupy yourself kissing and marking his chest until you see Spence sliding the hand that isn’t still gripping your hair for dear life into his briefs. You grab his wrist swiftly and bring it up to his face. He lets go of your hair.

“Okay, Princess, I don’t recall saying you could touch yourself,” You state sarcastically.

“Princess?” He questions.

“Do you not like it?” You ask.

“I-I like it a lot...actually” He replies, he can barely look you in the eyes while admitting it. You smile at him, before tightening your grip on his wrist.

“Princess… don’t touch yourself right now, I want to take care of you.”

“Th-Then can you touch me?” He asks.

“You have to be a little more specific, Pretty boy.”

“Can you touch my cock, please…”he is incredibly embarrassed, even asking, you can tell by the tone of his voice, he avoids even looking you in the eyes after saying it. And you bite your lip, shutting your eyes for a second, nodding at him.

“You asked so nicely, so why would I say no?” You drop his wrist before giving him a light kiss, he deepens it, biting your lip and groaning into your mouth when he feels your hand grip the base of his cock. You move your hand along his cock, your grip tight. He groans and whines in your ear. You rest your head on his shoulder before biting down. Your hand gradually picks up the pace along his cock, squeezing tighter every so often, while he pants and moans practically right in your ear. He moves his hands to your shoulders, gripping his nails into your skin and dragging them down your back. You let go of his shoulder with your teeth and moan in his ear, arching your back. Your pace immediately quickens in response.

“Shit, Spence,” you curse, shuddering a little. He whines, continuing to dig his nails in your back.

“I need to c-cum,” He stutters out, his cock twitching as you quicken the pace even more. He stutters out moans, his face contorting in pleasure, sweat drips down his forehead, and on his chest. He seems lost in trying to reach his high. You reach to grab your drink, and take in enough drink allowing an ice cube in your mouth. Spence fails to notice, his eyes squeezed shut, as his back arches slightly. Muscles in his body twitching as he gets closer and closer to cumming. You dip your head, holding the ice cube between your teeth, running it over his chest, his eyes immediately open, as he whines, shuddering at the cold while his cock twitches and his body tenses up.

“F-fuck,” he stutters, bucking his hips up practically fucking your hand, in uneven thrusts. “I need to cum please.” He says a groan following. You lift your head taking the ice cube out of your mouth.

“I’m not going to stop you,” You state, smugly, slowing the pace you have on his cock, watching him come undone. His head immediately fell back, his hips frantically bucking up to meet your hand, as his eyes tears up moaning loudly. You slow your hand down to a complete stop, not wanting to overstimulate him too much… yet. You pull your hand away and lick his cum off your hand. He looks up at you through watery eyes, letting out a light groan at the sight. You were still holding the ice cube, so you decided to just suck it into your mouth letting it melt on your tongue. You briefly leave to get something to clean with before joining him back on the couch. You clean him up before giving him a light kiss letting him recover. You straddle him again, getting in his lap, and he groans. You look at him confused before lightly shifting on his lap. Oh.

“You’re hard again.” You say, shifting your hips again. He grabs your hips trying to get you to stay still, you grip his hands and take them off your hips. You get up and take off his briefs completely, throwing his briefs in the pile of his clothes. He reaches out for your underwear, tugging on the band of it while looking at you. You place your hand over his and help him tug it off leaving it on the floor. Straddling him again, he kisses you. He grabs your arm, mumbling under his breath while tugging on your arm. You raise your eyebrows, not understanding what he wants.

“What is it, Pretty boy?” You ask, making direct eye contact. He avoids eye contact, opting to instead look at your body. You take your hand and place it under his chin lifting his face. He looks at you, almost pouty, you can tell he doesn’t want to say it. Yet he musters up the courage anyway.

“C-can you sit on my face?” He asks, his voice is hushed, he looks embarrassed that he even asked. You have a shit-eating grin on your face right about now.

“…Lay down.”

“Thank you,” this man will be the death of you for fucks sake. You get up so he can lay on his back, once he does you straddle his chest and run your hands through his hair. Every angle is Spencer Reid’s angle, but looking at him like this… he’s so pretty. He runs his hands over your thighs, squeezing them impatiently. He’s begging you with his eyes at this point. You take a deep breath before moving up, positioning yourself over his face, you do not get to finish taking your sweet time as Spence uses his grip on your thighs to pull you down onto his face.

“Someone is very–oh shit, that’s really nice—impatient,” You observed, as he wasted absolutely no time fucking you with his tongue like an absolute madman. The moans coming from you are absolutely obscene and it’s giving Reid quite the ego boost, he’s trying not to smile. You have to stop yourself from practically riding the man’s face. He has barely even started and you already feel your orgasm about to hit you like a tsunami. Your legs are shaking, your breathing rapid, and your hands need something to grab onto so naturally you chose to put them in his hair.

“Th-That’s it, Princess, you’re r-really good at this,” You are tugging on his hair, taking deep breaths, feeling him dig his nails into your thighs and your ass. The closer you get the more you tug on his loose curls. “Shit, Spence, I-I need to—” In order to try and attempt to finish that sentence, one would need to be able to focus. That was practically impossible as Pretty boy had the audacity to look you in your eyes and dig his nails into your ass scratching all the way down. You feel like you just got the air knocked out of you as your orgasm hits. He keeps going, trying to hold your shaking legs as you cum. He keeps going and you eventually move off his face, straddling his chest, trying to recover. You hold both his hands, intertwining your fingers with his.

“I wanted to keep going,” His big ass puppy eyes meet yours as he pouts slightly.

“Don’t pout,” You lean down, resting one hand on his chest, the other reaches back and wraps around his cock. His eyes widen, a moan escapes him, as your thumb gently circles the tip.

“F-fuck me,” he cries out. You give him a soft smile.

“As you wish,” You line his cock up and sink down on it slowly. He groans, grabbing for your hands again to hold them while he takes deep breaths.

“Are you okay?” You ask him and he nods a little.

“I’m—I a-am—I am…wonderful” He can barely get out the words, whimpering in between syllables. His eyes squeeze shut as he takes deep breaths. He is squeezing your hands firmly. His hips fuck up into you and your breath hitches. “P-Please, fuck me.” He says, opening his tear-filled eyes. You do not feel the need to respond verbally, obliging him. You roll your hips before quickly lifting up and moving swiftly back down. He groans, moving his hands to your hips, gripping them. He thrusts up while you continue to set a steady pace. He moans, digging his fingernails into your hips. You moan on top of him, placing your hands firmly on his chest. You feel a little overstimulated, your hips stutter and your legs shake slightly. Tears start running down Spencer’s face, he cries out, soft whimpers leave him as he looks up at you. You move one of your hands, gently wiping the tears from his flushed cheeks before leaning down and kissing each cheek, picking up the pace despite your shaky legs and stuttering hips. Your fingers dig into his chest, scratching lightly and rolling your hips. Feeling a hand leave one of your hips you tilt your head in confusion as you feel Spencer’s hand grab your right wrist. He tugs at the wrist and you allow him to guide your hand to his neck. Your eyes widen and your eyebrows raise, nearly stopping the rolling of your hips against his cock. Experimentally, you wrap your hand around his neck, pressing against the sides of his neck to restrict his airflow, but making sure you do not choke him improperly. His cock twitches and his head falls back onto the couch cushion, his mouth opens, but no words come out and his hips stutter upwards, meeting your pace.

“Shit!” You curse as you cum, continuing to ride out your orgasm. Your hand squeezes his throat a little harder, causing Reid to grip at your wrist, digging his nails into your skin. He cums inside you, moaning and sighing out a light,’fuck’ as he relaxes on the couch, tears streaming down his face. You removed your hand from his throat resting it on his chest.

“Was it worth it, Pretty boy?” You asked, wiping his tears away. Spencer only nods, breathless.while tracing the scratch marks he left on your ass.

[callmewrinkles3]

Long story short - DR3 x Fem!OC

Masterlist.

Summary: Summer break 2023 means a trip back to Perth to see how construction is going on the farm and but especially to spend Em’s birthday with family.

Warnings: Mentions of past abusive family dynamics, mentions of sex, past pregnancy loss.

Words: 6k

A/N: Hey hey! We know you’ve missed oneshots so here’s Em’s birthday for you to enjoy. We may have cried multiple times writing this, just very normal. It was pretty great lol. Hope you enjoy it and let us know what you think! All our love, Alex and Cíara.💜

August 2023

The summer break every year - with the exception of 2018 and 2020 - had involved being in the States. It was usually LA and sun for a few days, or a week somewhere in the mountains for Dan to do altitude training to prepare for races like Brazil and Mexico. But that summer things were different. With the farm construction happening fast thanks to the baby’s due date coming so soon, and Blake and Charlie being adorable, the three of them were flying back home to spend the full two weeks of the shutdown in the Australian winter. It was still milder than a European one, Em giggling as the boys changed into thick hoodies before ending the journey that had started in Italy.

Dan wanted to take full advantage of the time off, conspiring with Charlie to plan Em’s thirty third birthday. She knew it was happening and just let him plan it. Even with her dislike of parties she knew Dan wouldn’t go too overboard, so she just laughed and told him to do what he wanted. Having it surrounded by people felt strange. The year before had been just the two of them in their little bubble, and before that it had always been with Dan. She hadn’t had her parents involved since she was ten and had her final birthday party before secondary school. Because she was a summer baby her parents had acted like she didn’t need a party. The kids in school wouldn’t realise there was no party to be invited to.

She insisted it wasn’t necessary to organise anything but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Dan wanted his pregnant wife to be as happy as she could be before the chaos of the last half of the season happened so it was a full thirteen days surrounded by their people before the flight back to Faenza.

Em had to admit that it was a perfect idea. Ever since she’d found out about the pregnancy and told Grace she needed her mother there for all the questions she had. It was a blessing to spend time and to ask the questions she was embarrassed about - even when Michelle butted in and made jokes at her expense. It was there with her family and she felt good. She could call either of them any time that she wanted but it was no substitute for actually being there. She needed the hugs and physical contact that only a mum could give.

What Em had needed the entire time was for the woman who’d promised to love her as her own to wrap her in a cuddle and remind her that everything was going to be fine. That she was going to spend Christmas with her beautiful newborn baby girl. And when Grace said it Em believed it.

They got to spend the two weeks with family and eating good food, being looked after before the world could intervene. That’s what Grace and Joe had always done for Dan and they pulled Em into that world, looking after their kids when they needed it the most.

But the best thing about staying with her in laws and not the building site that was currently their farmhouse was getting to stay in Dan’s childhood bedroom. Grace hadn’t redecorated since he’d left for Italy half his life ago, the old school NASCAR posters on the wall and karting trophies on shelves. The photos of his family and friends were there to surround Dan with reminders of his childhood. Em refused to mention the one of Dan and Michael on their school football team that had disappeared when she was in the shower one morning. She couldn’t ruin their time at home talking about something like that. As far as she was concerned the picture was never there. It was the same way they were all pretending Michael had never been in their lives. Grace and Joe knew better than to ask about him.

That whole situation hurt a little less every day, but it still ached. It was easier when they weren’t in the paddock. The plan was to spend more time in Italy so Dan could be at the factory more where Michael wouldn’t really be. In London and Perth they could avoid his neighbourhood and the places he liked to go. But race weekends it was impossible. They shared the same garage, the same hospitality. They turned left to go into Dan’s driver room at Budapest and Spa and knew that he was the other side of the too flimsy wall having turned right. They could and did run into him at any time. Em wanted to tell him how she was, how the baby was. How his niece was. But Lulu wasn’t going to be his niece. She wasn’t going to even know him. It gutted Em that her brother wasn’t in her life anymore but he’d made his decision and it didn’t hurt as much. But it hurt the most during the parties Dan held in Perth.

The first one was ridiculous and unexpected, held two days after they arrived in Australia. It was part Charlie’s idea and part Dan’s, the decision made between them to celebrate Blake and Em. Neither of them realised that it was happening when they arrived back at the Ricciardos that afternoon. Blake had brought her to take a look at kitchen fittings for the farmhouse, the plan to bring Dan back to look at her top picks before they were put into the rebuilt kitchen. She was getting the kitchen of her dreams and she was taking advantage, copper fittings and marble countertops on the wooden cabinets. There was all the storage she wanted, the plans were ready for her to show Dan and see what he thought. It was their forever home and she couldn’t wait.

She arrived back to Grace and Joe’s to their family there, Charlie’s brother Cal and his boyfriend standing near the back nervously. Blake’s parents had flown out to be there too. Dan stood on a rickety kitchen chair, his hand on Blake’s shoulder to stay steady.

“I’m usually good at saying stuff but this is really hard. The last…the last year or so has been really hard. And there’s two people who could have walked away but didn’t, and this is to make sure they know how loved and appreciated they are. Blake, you’re my brother. You more than anyone else had a reason to yell at me and tell me to get my shit together - sorry Ma.”

“Just this once!” Grace called as Dan collected himself.

“Emmy, you married me and you love me and we’re having a baby and I still don’t know why you decided to stay through everything that was said about you. But you are the best woman I’ve met in my life, and I love you to pieces. You know. But this is just to say thank you to all of you for being there and helping. Cause I wouldn’t be in a seat again without you all.”

It was scattered applause and Em reached for her husband to give him the biggest hug, pulling him tight for a moment as Lulu kicked against him.

“You’re gonna be the best dad, Dan. We love you so much. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

The words were completely true, even with everything that had happened. The emotional and physical pain. The embarrassment being turned away from the paddock in Spa the year before thanks to stupid mind games. The hospital visit and the therapy and the near screaming match with her parents. Because they were home with their baby coming soon and in love. It was hard and worth it.

She spent that day swapping between Isaac and Isabella on her knee, Cal and Ryder taking the other child and playing. The last thing she said to Cal before he left was that Ryder was a keeper, watching the younger man blush. He was a sweetheart like the rest of their family.

Blake and Charlie were the last ones to leave, hugs to everyone the order of the day. Finally they left, Em going nearly straight to bed to sleep thanks to missing her usual afternoon nap.

Em told Dan not to make a huge fuss of her birthday, that a relaxing day would be fine. But she knew really that there was no chance her husband or family would let her birthday pass like that. It was the one day where they could shower her with love and affection without her complaints so they took full advantage.

She woke up that morning to Dan covering her in kisses, pulling her in for slow birthday sex that had them both gasping for breath and desperate to keep quiet. Her husband held her even tighter for a few moments before they got up, Dan leading her to the kitchen where Grace and Joe sang Happy Birthday as she came in. There were pancakes and bacon waiting for her with a candle lit on the top of a lavender iced cupcake. She started tearing up immediately, not even attempting to pretend that it was the pregnancy hormones that caused her emotions. It was happy tears. She was happy and loved and that was what she cared about. She and Dan had made it through, and the joy that morning compared to the worry of the previous year was so different.

It felt like a dream compared to the year before, her husband by her side and she was pregnant with their baby. They were getting everything they wanted and life was good. Nobody was taking this from her and she spent her morning curled up against Dan on the couch as he kept whispering how much he loved her, making her grin and kissing her cheeks with each smile.

Nothing had prepared her for the birthday party that Blake, Charlie, and Dan had prepared for her at the Clarke’s farm. Dan led her into the barn where they’d held their wedding, a shout of “SURPRISE” ringing around the room. She loved it so much, lavender decorations everywhere as their families were all there. She started tearing up of happiness again, tears spilling over as Isaac and Isabella came running over to her yelling “happy birthday Auntie Emmy!”.

She honestly didn’t expect gifts from people. Dan had been the first person to give her gifts just because, but there was a table tucked away in the corner with presents for her to open later. It was insane to her how many there were, everyone saying she could open them later. Charlie’s parents hugged her and pulled a chair out to urge her to sit, Em watching as Isaac and Isabella brought over their presents for her.

The first one that Isaac insisted on her opening had Toy Story wrapping paper, and inside was a huge box with everything she could ever want to make friendship bracelets with. They had a tradition to make new ones every time they were in Perth with the kids, weaving thread and beads together to make cute ones. Isaac explained how he wanted new ones, and he wanted them to make new ones for the baby too.

“They’re gonna be teeny tiny cause the baby’s gonna be like Iz’s dolly, but we need them to have lots so they grow!” He explained to Em, clearly happy to have a new cousin to play with.

“You’re so right, Baby. I love it, thank you! You’re gonna come over at the weekend and we can make some before I go back to Europe?”

With a nod and a kiss on his aunt’s cheek Isaac ran back to his uncle Dan, the promise of getting to go look at the cattle on the farm too alluring. Instead his little sister took his spot on Em’s lap, handing over a box wrapped in lavender unicorn paper. Inside it was a bright pink Barbie box. The doll had brunette hair like Em, complete with a travel set. There was a neck pillow, a suitcase that looked like Em’s own one, and everything else Barbie her could need.

“It’s just like you!” Isabella exclaimed as soon as the paper was ripped away and dumped on the other side of the table. It really did nearly look like her.

“Oh my God, I love it.” She kissed her niece’s curly hair, holding on tightly as Isabella pointed out the phone and camera. “Thank you so, so much, Baby girl. I love it so, so much. It’s the best.”

“Can we play tomorrow?” The little girl asked, looking up with big eyes and an angelic face. It was nearly impossible for Em to say no.

“After school, ok? But then we can, promise. And we’ll have some more cake, but don’t tell your Mum and we’ll make sure to save some for her.”

At the start she didn’t ask why a Barbie doll, it came from her niece and that was what she cared about. But while during the party Isabella kept asking about the baby and patting Em’s tummy, she couldn’t stop wondering why. Once Isabella was safely occupied with one of Charlie’s nieces she decided she had to ask, walking over to her sister in law and getting the words out. As soon as Michelle began to speak Em regretted asking.

“We were in the kitchen and she came to tell me and Mum that you come up with the best stories for the Barbies while you play, but you never had one growing up so you didn’t have a favourite Barbie. She thought because you travel so much Travel Barbie would be your favourite. I couldn’t say no, Em. I’m sorry you never had one.”

Em never thought Isabella would remember that single conversation. It was months ago, the week before her wedding. If she’d realised Isabella would think about it she wouldn’t have said it.

Part of the therapy that Mildred was working on with her was giving her that allowance to be a kid. She’d never gotten to be, but Mildred told her to do the things she wanted to. Spend time with her niece and nephew and play with them. She’d made a bundle of friendship bracelets before seeing Taylor Swift as part of it. So when Isabella asked if she wanted to play Barbies Em said yes immediately.

She and Dan were on babysitting duty, the four of them were downstairs playing with Isaac’s cars. Instead of playing he and Dan had fallen asleep thanks to exhaustion and a sugar crash from the final wedding cake tests. The two girls were alone and Isabella pulled Em upstairs before taking out a Barbie carry case and asking Em to do braids in Skipper’s hair.

It was while Em was twisting the slick strands of plastic hair when Isabella asked her about her favourite Barbie as a kid. She couldn’t tell the truth and break her niece’s childhood. The truth was that her parents thought dolls were ridiculous and she was never allowed to have them growing up, that she had puzzles and non fiction books. Even fiction books had to be by certain authors or she couldn’t read them because they wouldn’t “develop her brain”.

The short answer, the easy one, was “Oh, I didn’t have any Barbies.” Followed by asking if Isabella wanted her hair to match Skippers and a child sitting in Em’s lap to get her french braids put in the subject matter was closed. She was convinced that Isabella had forgotten about it. The next topic of conversation was how pretty her flower girl dress for the wedding was and how she looked “like a fairy princess” in it. But she hadn’t.

Her thoughts were pinned on the topic after she spoke to Michelle. Em went mostly through the motions for the rest of the party, hugging her friends and talking to everyone. Chloe and Scotty made a surprise appearance for her, a giant hug and a promise that Em was coming out with Chloe and Charlie in a couple of days for lunch.

The box with the doll stayed in her hand and all she could imagine was a couple of years time when her daughter started playing with it. She couldn’t imagine having a baby, going through pregnancy and labour to not even want the result. To never really want a baby like her parents never wanted her. Even thinking about her baby girl not having the entire world hurt so much it made her want to cry. It was still four months until she’d arrive and Em and Dan would do anything to keep her safe and love her. Her nursery in London was ready to go, the last thing a photo collage Em wanted to make of all the adults who would love Lulu. The only reason her room in Perth wasn’t ready was because of the construction, but the furniture had been delivered and was sitting in an outbuilding. They already had enough to fill the playroom and the nursery even though Lulu would sleep in their room for the first few months. The travel arrangements were ready to go. They even had Lulu’s luggage all set.

Em had never really understood how someone couldn’t love their own child, but as she counted down the days to her due date it was even harder. She knew there was reasons why, she knew some people weren’t pregnant in good situations. But when she was pregnant and married and had tried for a baby? It was irrational to her that you wouldn’t want that child.

But while the birthday party continued she refused to let herself go there. She wouldn’t let herself think about why her parents were the way they were and how much that hurt. And she definitely wasn’t thinking about how the last time she came home from this room her former best friend had left her life in the most unceremonious of ways. That wasn’t raining on her parade, not today. So she walked over, hugged her husband, whispered how much she loved him and how thankful she was for the wonderful day she was having.

“Remember when you weren’t the party kind and I had to drag you anywhere?” Dan joked, kissing her cheek as she smiled.

“I reckon you were the one who dragged me to different ones ever since we met. But you know me, Dimples. I still don’t like big things much but this? This is nice. These are the ones I like.”

Even at 33 she hated when she was the centre of attention and people sang happy birthday to her. She wasn’t sure if anyone actually liked being surrounded by friends singing off key and out of tune, but for the first time it didn’t feel weird. The people who were around her had been supporting her through every single good and bad moment in the last five years. They loved her no matter how broken or weird she felt. They made sure that she knew how loved she was, no matter what. Every single person had wormed their way into her heart when she’d tried to keep people out. So when the singing ended and she took a deep breath to blow out the birthday candles in one breath she had one wish in her mind. To keep every single person in this room in her life forever.

The winter meant the sun was setting early, exhaustion hitting Em hard. She’d needed naps more and more since she’d become pregnant and this was the second time in a week that she hadn’t had one. After her third yawn and as the kids were getting cranky they all decided to head home. It took Dan to make her sit down and not help clear up, Charlie’s parents half shooing them out of the barn warning that the cleaning was sorted, to go home and rest. Joe drove them back, Grace in the front seat as Em rested her head against Dan’s shoulder and half dozed while the other three made conversation in low tones.

Her husband had to shake her to wake her up when they got back to the house, Em stretching as she undid her belt. It was tempting to stay and sleep in the car, but her back was sore enough after a night in a comfy bed. Sitting up in a car would be worse.

Dan didn’t want to wake her when they arrived back at the house, but it was safer for her to get out of the car on her own instead of Dan lifting her out. He helped her up and closed the door behind her.

“Did you have a good day, Kiddo?” Joe asked a half awake Em as they walked back into the house. Dan’s arm was around her waist to help keep her up and stop her from tripping up with tiredness.

“Best birthday of my life. You didn’t need to do it, but thank you for doing it for me.”

“It’s what you deserve, Darling,” Grace insisted. Her mother in law pushed a kiss to her forehead before Dan brought Em up to bed.

Before they made it into their room Dan dragged her into the bathroom, getting Em to sit on the toilet as he took her makeup off fully and helped rub her moisturiser in. She was too tired to do it, almost deciding to just sleep without washing her face. But as delicately as possible Dan wiped it off, using crouching in front of her as an excuse to stroke her cheek and steal kisses from his wife.

Once they were ready to go to bed Dan lifted her off the toilet and across the hallway to deposit her on the bed, Em giggling at his actions. It didn’t take long for him to pull her dress and leggings off, replacing them with clean underwear and one of his old, worn shirts that was soft enough for Em. She laughed as he kept stealing kisses from her as he pulled the shirt over her bump, rubbing gently

“I’m lazy and sleepy but I can still change my clothes on my own, Babe.”

“You know very well that I love undressing you. Even if you actually have to wear something to bed because we’re at home.”

If they were in the apartment or even on the farm they wouldn’t be wearing anything. The skin to skin contact in bed always made Em relax and help her sleep better but considering they were at Dan’s parents they had to be semi decent. Em wore one of his shirts and Dan would at least keep his underwear on. Even when he complained more than once.

“Any excuse to see me naked, right?” Em smiled before kissing his cheek and finally laying down to be able to rest. “C’mon Dimples, your wifey is exhausted. Come to bed.”

She patted the mattress beside her to wait for Dan to crawl into the bed and she could get into his arms. She knew it’d take him longer to fall asleep than her. Every night since she’d gotten that positive pregnancy test he’d started his own little night time ritual of telling the baby a story while kissing and stroking her bump. He wasn’t joking about wanting to be a hands on dad, so since day one he did everything in his power to connect with their baby. It didn’t matter how long was left until she was in his arms, he wanted his daughter to know who her daddy was from day one.

From all the things he did or could do those five or ten minutes as they wound down for bed were some of his favourite of the day. Most nights Em stayed awake listening to what her husband was saying while she read. Other nights like this one she fell asleep easily and left her loves to have their late night chats.

“Before I get in I have one last thing for you.” Dan pulled a colourful Happy Birthday gift bag that was hidden in the bottom drawer of the wardrobe. “I know you’re going to say I’ve given you too many gifts, but it’s your birthday and our anniversary so birthaversary rules mean I get to spoil you. If you let me I’d spoil you every day. I’m so lucky to get to love you and be your husband. I couldn’t say this earlier cause I’d start crying, but I just…thanks, Emmy. I couldn’t do any of this without you. And you’ve made me the happiest man in the world. I love you.”

“I love you too, Danny. So much. Marrying you is the best thing I ever did. And this better not be lingerie that won’t fit me anymore.” He laughed at her words and handed over the bag, sitting up beside her in the bed. It was six years of being around Dan, of him getting overexcited and determined to spoil her rotten at all times. She’d jokingly complain about how he got her too much, but he was like that for everyone. She learned to get used to how Dan showed his love with gifts and making life easier for people. This was another one of those occasions so she sat up on the bed with a pillow supporting her back, looking at her husband as he smiled.

“You’re the hottest mama in the world, Baby girl. But no, it’s nothing like that. Just open it, ok?”

The second Em opened the bag and saw the stuffed crocodile inside she started crying. Pregnancy hormones couldn’t be blamed for these tears.

When she was three her parents brought her on a trip to a holiday camp in Wales. She barely remembered any of it apart from a little playground beside the pub there, but it was the kind of place that was where they could take her for a weekend to prove how normal they were. An hour from Liverpool, two nights and enough photos to prove they took their daughter away on holiday.

One of the few things she did remember was how much she loved Captain Croc, the crocodile mascot that wandered around. They’d gotten her a teddy, the first one she remembered having. He was vivid green and yellow, blue dungarees with yellow interlocking Cs and big white eyes. He was her comfort toy, hugging him in her tiny arms and bringing him everywhere until she started primary school.

She thought she remembered the feeling of having a new best friend to play with and make up games. Now she knew it was probably her brain trying to make a memory to help her cope with a messed up childhood.

The one definite memory that Em did have was how thirty years later she watched her husband tear up as he looked at a photo of her tiny self holding Captain Croc. Dan held it together until they made it back to the hotel after they left her parents house with the final box of things she was taking. Once they were in that room he started sobbing because he didn’t understand how nobody was there to hold that little girl and tell her how perfect she was. He sobbed because he knew that it was one of the few really happy moments she had in her early childhood. Not that she realised that it should have been better then.

But above all Dan sobbed because that’s what their baby might have looked like. It was the week after she should have had their first baby. They should have been parents. Imagining how their baby could have been hurt like that by anyone cut him to the core and he sobbed in Em’s arms as she held him and promised that they would do better. They would make sure their baby was so loved. She was used to the casual cruelty of her own parents, the way they used words as weapons. Dan who’d never known anything but support and love didn’t understand it.

This teddy meant more than just a gift from her husband to remind her of a bright spot in her life. It was the reminder of slowly healing wounds that still weren’t fully scabbed over. That photo had opened them up more again, and the teddy reminded her more. The day she told Dan the story he held her as they both sobbed. He’d have done anything to have a little girl who looked just like his Emmy. Anything to see his Emmy holding their mini me baby but life was unfair and cruel. Instead of holding their baby that day they held each other, promising that one day it was going to happen. They were going to get to have their family and be happy, no matter what.

But in the final hours of her birthday, thirty one years after she first held her teddy, Em started sobbing again. She had no idea how Dan had found an exact copy of the Captain Croc she’d loved so much but he did. Hers was too delicate, kept in a box in the apartment in London to be shown to her kids as a memento. But he’d found a brand new one, making child and adult Em sob with happiness.

“I knew that a certain little lady wanted to give you a Barbie because you never had one, so I thought that Barbie could do with having a friend. And in a couple of years when our little lady is able to she’ll want to play with them too.” Dan helped Em pull him out of the bag. It should have been easy but her hands were shaking so badly that she couldn’t get him out fully.

The adrenaline and relief flowing through her body made her shake like a leaf in Dan’s arms. Em didn’t know how she had gotten this lucky. She had friends who flew hours to see her for her birthday, a family who loved her enough to make a big deal of her. And the most loving and caring husband in the world. She still didn’t know what she did to deserve it and get it, but she was so thankful for it. It was yet another day where even with everything that had happened, even with the way her parents acted and her family was it was worth it because she had Dan. She’d have done it over and over if this was the result. She was married to the love of her life, she was having their baby, and they were happier than she thought possible.

It took longer than she expected to calm down her sobs, Dan holding onto her tightly. He ran his hand against her back, whispering how much he loved her in between pressing kisses to her face and head. It was whispers of how proud he was of her, how much he loved her, how wonderful she was. And most importantly how he knew that their baby loved her already.

“Marrying you a year ago was the best decision of my entire life, you know that, right?” Em whispered, her voice still shaking with sobs. “Y’know, right?”

“I know. We’re still a couple of hours away from exactly a year.” Dan checked his watch, it was ten in Perth, two in London. This time a year ago he was waiting for Em to come back and pick out wedding rings with him before their four pm appointment.

“Happy anniversary, my Love. It was the best idea we ever had.”

Her birthday overshadowed the fact that it was their first wedding anniversary. A year ago they were running around London, Em buying her wedding dress in Marks and Spencer as Dan wore a suit she loved him in. The two of them standing in the registry office in Kensington and promising to love each other, desperate to keep the other happy and get through the next few months together.

It was hard to believe that 365 days had passed since she finally became Mrs Ricciardo. She loved it. She’d loved being his wife every single day, even the horrible ones. It was a year where she’d woken up at her husband’s side every single morning and she could never take it for granted.

“Happy anniversary, Baby girl. You and our little one here are the greatest things that ever happened to me,” Dan whispered as he pulled her up, close enough to finally give Em a kiss while he rubbed her bump.

“Happy anniversary, Danny. Here, for you.” Em reached across and pulled the wrapped package out from under the bed. She’d been wracking her brain about what to get him, but in the end it was an easy decision. Dan opened it quickly, Em watching as he realised what it was.

Traditionally the first anniversary was paper, and she found someone on Etsy who made star charts of the night sky on important dates. It was the sky above London the night they met, Monaco the first night they spent together, Spa when they said they loved each other for the first time, and London when they’d got married. The poster was their important moments highlighted and she saw the grin spread across his face.

“You are amazing. Thank you. This is…it’s everything.” He put it to the side as he pulled her in, holding her as she began to lull to sleep.

“You know what’s crazy? Next year we’re gonna be celebrating our birthdays and anniversaries with her.”

“That’s all I want. The three of us snuggled up together doing nothing all day.”

Em couldn’t help but smile, imagining how it would be to wake up with their baby and her husband right there. No plans needed except spending the day with the loves of her life. She didn’t want anything else and it felt greedy to even consider asking to get anything else. She got to marry her Dan and love him openly, and their baby was strong and healthy and growing. It was more than she could have imagined.

“We’ll cuddle and eat cake. She better like lemon drizzle. I mean I’ll settle for chocolate fudge if I have to.”

“She might not. I mean I’ve been eating it so much she might hate it. Or she’ll be obsessed.”

“Lulu’s half you, Emmy. She’s obsessed already I think.” Em laughed at his tone, curling into Dan.

“Can I sleep like this?” She asked, hiding her face against Dan’s chest. She felt ridiculous holding Captain Croc in her arms as she could feel sleep hitting her while her husband was holding her tightly. But she felt just as defenceless as the little girl in the photos. The big difference between the Em of thirty years ago was that now there were people who looked after her and hugged her on the bad days. Who made sure she was eating and cared for. She’d never had someone love her unconditionally like that until Dan was in her life.

“Anything you want, birthday girl.”

Em’s wishes were Dan’s commands, so she fell asleep in her husband’s arms, head on his chest as her teddy was between them with Dan’s low whispers to their baby echoing in her ears. It might be immature, a grown woman and soon to be mother getting that comfort, but she wanted and needed it. The rest didn’t matter. She and Dan were happy and that was what was important.

—

Taglist: (Let us know if you wanna be added!)

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[pawnshopbleus]

Put Me in a Movie - Chapter Seven

Miguel O'Hara x Fem!Reader

Summary - You’re a famous actress and he’s one of the greatest directors of all time. What happens when you get cast in his new movie?

Chapter Six

Music filled your ears as you entered the nightclub. The room was bustling with people dancing and grinding on each other as they let the music take control of their souls. Under the dim lights of the club, you could make out the figures of two familiar people. Peter and MJ were dancing with each other in the middle of the dance floor. You pushed your way through the bodies of strangers to get to your friends. 

You gave both of their sweaty bodies big hugs. You were happy to see Peter and MJ were enjoying their child-free night. MJ especially needed a break. Being an author meant that she was home most of the time which meant that she was the primary parent looking after May. 

Jessica soon appeared almost out of thin air. She was looking as glamorous as ever under the strobe lights of the club. Jessica said that she was glad to see that you made it. She also expressed her worry that you might not have come. She said that you looked like a goody two shoes. 

“You must have not seen the New York Fashion Week article about me then,” you laughed. 

“Oh, I have,” Jessica said, “That is something a goody two shoes would totally do.” Jessica did not mean that in a bad way. She was a very sarcastic woman and often used humor as a way to bring light to situations. You learned that very quickly as Jessica simply laughed and said that it was just a joke. 

For the first hour of the night, you danced your butt off. You danced with Peter, then MJ, and then Jessica. You eventually found yourself dancing with complete strangers, male and female. Some were very good with their moves while others looked like they had two left feet. You were an okay dancer. You weren’t professionally trained or anything, but you were born with rhythm. Some people lacked that. 

You soon found out that you couldn’t dance the night away as you once dreamt of. You walked your tired feet over to the bar and sat down on a bar stool. The bar was less crowded than the dance floor, but you could still hear the music playing loudly. 

You asked the bartender for a shot of his favorite. He winked at you in a non-flirtatious way and poured you a shot of vodka. You downed one and then another and then another. You were about to put the fourth one to your lips when a voice stopped you. 

“Might want to make that your last one or else I’ll be carrying you up to your bedroom again tonight.” 

You turned your head to your left and there he was. Miguel was standing there with a smug look on his face. It was a look that contrasted the one that he often wore during filming. That look was replaced with one that looked familiar and inviting. 

“What are you doing here?” You asked, completely ignoring his previous statement. Your shot of vodka was completely forgotten by now. 

“I own this place, but no one knows besides Jessica and now you,” he said. 

You must have been too drunk to remember what happened after he said that. His voice mixed with all the other commotion that was happening in the club. All you were focused on was the way his finger circled the rim of his glass. Or how his canines looked like vampire fangs. Oh, how you would love it if he sunk his vampire-like fangs into you. You wanted him to mark you, use you, do anything he wanted to you. Was this the alcohol talking? Maybe, but you couldn’t deny the fact that Miguel O’Hara was attractive. He wasn’t voted 2018’s sexiest man alive for nothing! 

Miguel could sense you drifting away from him. Not your physical body, but your emotional one. Miguel couldn’t deny his attraction towards you. Since the very first moment, he saw you as Lady Olivia in a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night three years ago and he couldn't rid his mind of you. He knew that his marriage was turning to shit, but he didn’t know that Jessica was going to cheat on him. After he found out, he felt less guilty about his attraction toward you. He didn’t know how to get into contact with you so when he was offered the job as the director for his new film, he knew exactly who he wanted as his leading lady. By that time, you were already climbing up the ladder of Hollywood stardom. 

Your mind was something that he admired. Unlike most people in this fame crazed town, you were humble, kind, and genuine. When he saw you with that stray the day of the table read, he knew that you were one of a kind. He knew a lot of people who would just leave the puppy there and would not spare it a second glance. You, on the other hand, picked up the dog, regardless of its vaccination status, and treated it like it was a porcelain doll. 

Miguel was not one for looks. Yes, Jessica was a beautiful woman, but that’s not why he married her. She is such a talented actress and he fell in love with her talent. They were friends before and they remained friends after. But you were different. Your beauty was otherworldly to him. It was so unique and one of a kind. Sometimes he would forget to yell ‘cut’ because he would get lost in your spell. You were beautiful, talented, and kind, and he needed you. And as you were in front of him, nodding along to the nonsense that was coming out of his mouth, he knew that he loved you. 

A song came on next that you haven’t heard since high school. Your eyes lit up and you smiled for what seemed like the millionth time tonight. “Come dance with me?” You offered your hand out to Miguel. 

“I don’t dance,” he said. 

“Please, for me,” you pleaded. 

Miguel looked at you and sighed. He couldn’t say no to you. Not after he got lost in those beautiful doe eyes of yours. 

He muttered a curse word under his breath and took your hand. You nearly jumped with excitement as Miguel dragged the two of you to the crowded dance floor. 

The dance floor was packed which didn’t leave much room for the two of you. Your body was pressed up against Miguel’s as your hips swayed from side to side. Miguel put his arms around you and followed your lead. 

He was right. He didn’t dance, but that did not mean that he was bad at it. After a few minutes, he got the hang of it and started twirling you around. You accidentally bumped into a tall and broad man that was dancing with a woman that was about an inch shorter than you were. You apologized to the man and the woman and tried to continue dancing, but the man had other plans.  

“Control your bitch, dude,” the man said. 

Your mouth went wide as soon as you heard the man call you a bitch. You were about to stick up for yourself, but Miguel beat you to it. 

“What the fuck did you just call her?” Miguel’s voice was menacing. Miguel was tall, but not as tall as the man that just disrespected you. That was not going to stop him from beating the shit out of him. 

“I called her a bitch,” those were the last words the man spoke before Miguel was on top of him. His fist was repeatedly punching the man in the face. Blood was getting everywhere. On the floor, Miguel’s fist, Miguel’s clothes, on the man’s clothes. It took five men, short and tall, skinny and fat, to restrain Miguel from the man that called you a bitch. Said man was still on the floor, knocked unconscious. The woman that was with him was long gone. 

You didn’t need a man to protect you, but seeing the way that Miguel almost killed a man for you did something indescribable to you. It made you want him even more than you already did. But you knew you couldn’t have him. He was your director, your employer, your boss. 

“What the fuck happened?” Came a shriek from Jessica Drew herself. 

“Call someone to clean this up,” Miguel said to Jessica. Then, he left without another word. 

He was embarrassed, to say the least. He lost self-control and unleashed something violent within him. He didn’t want you to see that side of him, but when that man called you a bitch he knew he was already gone. You were far from what that man called you. You even apologized to the man when you bumped into him! Miguel knew that you were going to be the death of him, and this incident was evidence enough.

Chapter Eight

[tellmethisisnottumblisnextfuckup]

Hello I’m a Larry but I feel like they broke up a couple of years ago. I’ll also say I’m more of a Harrie and his music makes me believe he’s been in other relationships. But I’m also willing to be convinced otherwise!! The hopeless romantic in me wants to believe in the strength of their love so I guess my question is what evidence have you gathered that makes you believe they’re still together even now? I know this might be a lot to ask. Thanks in advance !!!

I’m this close to grabbing a digital pen and correct Larry to Larrie. (Did you know it’s one of the signs of having trolls in the dungeon)

Anyway. I do want to answer.

Life. Dear anon. It’s life that taught me everything. Do tell me when you time their break up - because I’ve been here since more than “a couple of years ago” - i know it’s super easy to throw this sentence - but you’re telling this to someone who has been here lol - and I wasn’t in my diapers on the playground when these 2 fell in love. So when do you time their break up? Because you know they’ve lived half their lives in the spotlight, in this industry and time and time again -let’s just say day-by-day week-by-week only proved the immense respect, and love they feel for each other. We’ve had these naysayers like you in the years, so this is nothing new but you know what? None of you are ever able to point out a period which proves that these 2 have broken up.

This is not a movie or high school. They have fought tooth and nail for their love, for their freedom, they “hid” it when they had to, but even then- jeez it gives me chills to remember all those moments- even then an eye movement, a caring look, a hidden touch, the other’s reaction- it just gave it away. And not to mention how fucking obvious they were when they didn’t hide it and just let it all out.

Life. Because I happen to be in a loving and supportive relationship since 2007. Because love isn’t a break up - getting together- break up- getting together spiral. Love is about trust, and respect, and growing together, being better together, finding your best friend in the other, it’s about fighting for what you two have together. That’s what they did when they were babies - fighting w modest, sony, whatever you want to add here. They don’t need to fight though because as soon as the cameras stop rolling they’re an out-couple to the surprise of no-one in this industry.

Life because we have 5 people in the same band and always these 2 seem to be so goddamn unlucky to share clothes ON A CONSTANT (to be PC), who finish each other’s sentences, who when even making eye contact making the other 3 look aside to their handlers with a pale face, always these 2 who in the band disappeared at the same time, who even AFTER 1D were still disappearing from the globe at the same time and reappearing at the same time, who had to have 235 stunts running at the same time to make them straight otherwise if you strip these stunts down all you have is two singers w constant denial of their sexuality. (Remember what Sir Elton John said..), it’s only these 2 whose teams work still to this day to make you and others believe H and L aren’t even in the same continent because god save them from cutting all their record incomes.

Life. Because WHY. You cannot explain why this happened in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 (you’re damn right I’ll type all the years out), 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and keeps happening in 2022 spring- summer.

Life. Because you learn what is THE LOOK. What it means that “when you know you know”. Because you learn that 16 year olds don’t just utter things out like always and moving in together and home. Because it IS possible to be and still be with your first love.

Life. Because relationships do not have an expiration date, because it can happen, because it does happen. Because those looks and touches were the very thing that drew me here in the first place and you cannot fake this shit.

Life. Because you can be w your SO together for years and they’d still say they’re not willing to have ONE innocent couple tattoo.

Life. Because celebrities lie. Money talks. Paps are paid. This industry is homophobic. Media shows what is paid for. What you see - they want you to see that.

Life. Because you learn to look at what you’re not shown, what you’re not told.

Life. Because in the 242 million pregnancies people have a year, they DO show at 8 months. 🙃

And finally: Because they’ve come so far from Princess Park and that lyric fits no one and he’s a habit that he CAN’T BREAK and he’s happy to shout this out every night to his fans anon.

Life. Because the strength of these words, all their goddamn lyrics goes deep in your heart and you know it’s not just some cheap 1000 words Y/N on goddamn wattpad.

Have a nice Saturday anon! 💚💙

[all-risejd]

After Shine Part 1 (Damian Priest x OC) (Eventual The Judgment Day x OC)

Danika

June 16, 2018 - Dallas, Texas

She’d been back from Japan maybe five days, and was riding the uplifting high of being close enough to California she swore she could smell her momma's cooking. Tonight was going to be amazing, she could feel it in her bones, she wasn’t exactly sure why Cage had sent her on the road with his talent, when a group of them decided to work Ring of Honor, but she’d spent the last year touring with some of the most irritating bastards she’d ever met (she sort of loved it though). The move to New York almost two summers ago, alone and in the big city, had been disarming. She swore looking back she’d spent most of the first two months crying herself to sleep.

Danny Cage had been a friend of her fathers, sort of, and he’d ‘taken her in’ out of respect for how famous her dad really was. He hadn’t actually known what to do with an almost eighteen-year old girl who wasn’t at all interested in the limelight of the ring. It’s how she became an Influencer, she supposed, they traveled constantly, so she started a blog, and back then she could make little short stories with some of Cage’s younger talent. There was one man, Martinez, that she tended to stick close to. He was large and big, and just this side of dangerous, but he’d saved her ass more than once in Japan - she’d never forget the night he punched some handsy Englishman for copping a feel of her, when she’d come to collect them from a bar. 

The thing about Martinez was he didn’t want her around, not really. But she was always underfoot. She wanted him to win, he had the power and the drive, and fuck the charisma once he got stared in the ring - he was damn hard not to look at. The thing was, he was mean. And more often than not she suffered for her attempts at helping him, but there were days (sometimes even two in a row) where he would talk with her in Spanish about his home, about his familia, about who he wanted to be, and in turn she told him stories of her familia, of being adopted by a huge Latino family, and how lucky she was. Then there were rushed mornings, where she was tossing women (sometimes multiple) out of his hotel room, and running around doing last minute checks to see if he had anything, before corralling the still intoxicated, angry bull of a man toward the taxi.

“Hey, kid, you're dad’s on the phone!” Cage shouted, and motioned to his cell phone - her’s was dead.

“Thanks, Mr. Cage.” She hurried to him, around the pool, side stepping the large man in question who was drinking before ten in the morning, stretched out over a lounger, he shot her a smile, which made her blush. “Papi?” She said into the phone, a grin pulling at her face as the familiar noise of home sounded behind her.

“Hola, Danika, we are going to come tonight to the matches, Dominik wants to see you.” She smiled warmly, Cage was just going to love hosting the Mysterio familia. “How was Japan?” She launched into telling him all about the customs and their version of wrestling, and how she’d met Chris Jericho, and boy was he protective of her, she talked about the fashion and all the gifts she’d brought back for them, but mostly she asked about her younger sister Lainey, who Dominik had been visiting with while she’d been out of the country (six months in Japan was longer than she’d anticipated). 

“We are actually going to bring her with us tonight.” Danika’s heart soared damn near out of her chest. “And Cage has agreed, you need a vacation, so while we have custody of Delainey and are waiting to figure out what’s going to happen with your mom, you're coming home tonight.” She couldn’t help but grin even wider, after they talked a bit more, and she got off the phone, she wandered back to the pool, settling onto the lounge next to Martinez.

“¿Qué te tiene tan feliz, pequeña?”

She shot Martinez a look, she knew he knew English, probably more than he let on, she responded in kind, “Mi familia is coming to the show tonight, and I’m going home for a while afterward.” The man lowered his sunglasses to look her over, he shot her a toothy grin, it both unsettled her and made her want to vibrate out of her skin, “I might even miss you.” She admitted, after a long moment. 

May 21, 2020

Danika Wesson moved through her bedroom technically cleaning up, she’d finished her weekly list of projects from AEW’s Talent Development and had set up social media accounts for several new talents under him as well as worked with them to do their first videos and pictures. She herself had spent the day doing an unboxing of new Mysterio gear for YouTube. She had to have the whole bedroom cleaned and in top shape for the weekend because she was getting a weekend visit with Lainey. Now, with a pregnancy test clutched in her hand she was pulling all the laundry into her arms and headed for the bathroom she shared with Dom and Aalyah. Her room was still covered in more Mysterio merchandise than she would like, but she’d get over it. 

Living with the Mysterio’s had been… an adjustment in her youth. Now she was just the third kid in the second floor of the house who did laundry because it was Dom’s job to clean the bathroom and Aalyah’s job to vacuum their floor. “Dominik!” She called over her shoulder, Aalyah was mercifully in her bedroom ignoring them. Dominik appeared in his doorway, basketball shorts and a comfortable looking gray short sleeve shirt. “Help?” She gave him a curious look, he glanced at the maybe seven articles of clothing she was holding with a raised eyebrow. “I need your help, Dominik, in the bathroom.”

“Oh.” She watched as his eyes widened a bit, a mischievous smile on his face like he thought they were going to mess around (they were not doing anything remotely sexy with either Aalyah or Angie in the house, she had rules), then he was following behind her. She let him open the door, in their teen years they had spent a lot of time being fussed at for being in the bathroom together, and with old habits dying hard, Dominik immediately locked the door behind him as she tossed the laundry into her purple hamper. “So no period then.” He cocked his head to the side, looking down at Danika, who hadn’t really thought much about their height difference until recently. 

She cut her eyes at him, “Wow, Captain Obvious. Glad to see you have made it to the party.” She rolled her eyes, and stepped closer to him, “Do you really think I would risk moms wrath by sharing the bathroom with you otherwise.” She pinched his chest, above his left nipple, another holdover from their youth when they pushed boundaries of friendship often too far. Or at least Angie, their shared mother, had thought they were pushing boundaries back then, relatively speaking things had been pretty tame. Sharing food, Dominik reading to her while she was taking a bubble bath, tickling and shoving at each other, once they handcuffed themselves to each other, and there was a whole summer they spent reenacting scenes from Jackass.

Dominik snickered, “You could have just agreed. A nice yeah Dominik you're right I didn’t have my period this month would have been fine.” He had morphed his voice into something resembling a girl but it sounded more hilarious than accurate. 

“I don’t sound like that.” She huffed but grinned at him nonetheless, “And it’s been two months.”

“Well that’s a bit more serious than I thought.” He moved to sit on the sink, another thing Angie would have their asses for, sinks and counters were not made for butts. “Are you sure it’s not what happened when we were younger?” His voice was a bit worried now, “You went like five months without a period then had like… cyst or something.” Bless his heart, he was trying. 

She gave him an appraising look, “I mean I guess it could be but Dr. Keyes removed my right ovary and all that jazz.” She shrugged. “I have a test, figure we might as well do this now.” She brandished the test at him only for him to yank it out of her hand, he immediately tore into the box and started reading the instructions. Never let it be said Dominik didn’t love to know everything. “You gonna share with the class?” She pointed at the directions. 

“You just pee on the stick.” He shoved it back at her, “Once you do that, we just wait two minutes.”

She took the pregnancy test and narrowed her eyes at him. “I know we fucked multiple times but I dunno if I want you to hear me pee…” There was a bit of desperation edging into her voice. 

Dominik laughed, hard. “I can pee in the tub while you pee on the stick. We can pee together.”

“I hate you.” She snickered, “By all means pee in the tub, heathen.” She waited for Dominik to climb off the sink and slowly walk around her to head for the tub, he wrenched the shower open just as she pushed her yoga pants and underwear down. “How do you even…” She trailed off as she figured out how to hold the stick and not pee on her hand. Settling down over the toilet, pointedly facing away from Dom and the tub, she cleared her throat, “Together or whatever.”

It was weird. She was so relieved to drop the test in the sink and clean herself off, she closed tre toilet and sat on it, before pulling the test back into her hands, and folding her hands around it, protecting it from view, while Dom moved back to sit on the sink, his shorts back in place. “Two minutes.” He set the timer as he kicked his legs out looking like a much younger boy than the 23 year old man he was. 

“Two minutes.” She agreed, “So did you talk to Megan? Are you two gonna patch things up?”

“Negative ghost rider.” Dominik offered as he looked up toward the ceiling, “She uh, well she didn’t like me being on the road and she hated our friendship. Like how am I supposed to explain that my parents adopted you but you aren’t my sister when Aalyah introduces you as our sister to everyone.”

“Tough break, boo.” She offered almost sweetly. Megan and Dom had been on and off since they were in tenth grade. Danika was honestly happy to see her gone, not because she wanted to be Dominik’s girlfriend but because Megan had a tendency to make Dominik’s life hell. In fact Danika had only just managed to talk him out of marrying the monster the previous Christmas. 

“You get all your work done?” Dominik asked not so subtly to change the subject.

She let him have it, “You mean the unboxing for Rey and the stuff for AEW? Yeah. I got it finished.” She let out a long sigh, “I think Cody has more talent he wants me to fly out and meet.” She admitted, “So I can finish setting up the accounts and can finish getting everyone started on their socials, plus Cody wants me to do a series of soundbites for him.”

Dominik hummed, “You should have finished going to school for filmography.”

“Shoulda, woulda, coulda.” She hummed, impatiently, “How much longer?”

“Like a whole ‘nother minute.” Dominik turned his attention back to her, “Do you want kids?”

“That’s an odd question, considering we are sort of on a knife blade here.” Danika huffed, “I mean, yeah, I like the idea of kids, I don’t want kids that… I don’t want kids with someone who I’m not sure is going to be around, I don’t want a repeat of my childhood.”

Dominik was silent after that, contemplating what she had said, she would bet. He had wanted to be a dad since literally the third grade. His phone alarm went off, announcing they could look at the test, Danika didn’t move, her whole body was frozen, it felt like moving was impossible. Dominik, thankfully, grabbed the test from her folded hands. “Oh.” He whispered, before he climbed off the counter, and knelt in front of her, “Danika, am I someone who you think is always going to be around?”

She jerked the test out of his grasp and looked down, two pink lines. “Oh.” She let out a little giggle, “Well, Dominik, I think I made another one of your dreams come true.”

Dominik was silent again, “We don’t have to do this.” He cupped her face, “I want you to be happy too, we both know I’ve wanted kids since I was like seven, but…” He trailed off, “If you aren’t ready for this, then I’m not ready for this.” He assured her.

Before she could answer there was a harsh pounding on the door, “I have to pee!” Aalyah shouted.

“GO DOWNSTAIRS!” Dominik and Danika both screamed back at her.

“OH MY GOD, MOM, DOM AND DANI ARE IN THE BATHROOM TOGETHER!” 

“Dios, she gets older but does she get any more mature?” Danika hissed, but leaned into Dominik’s hands, “I want to have children with you, I’ll give you all the babies you want, I know we aren’t in love like that, but I do love you, unconditionally and forever. I know you won’t-”

“MOM!” Aalyah shouted, followed by, “MAMI!” 

“Dios.” Dominik grabbed the test and shoved it into his basketball shorts pocket, he hauled Danika to her feet, unlocked the bathroom door, and yanked it open to glare down at Aalyah, “Being the bratty little sister should end at eighteen.” He snapped, “We are both over eighteen, and can be in the bathroom alone or together if we wa-”

Angie had climbed to the second floor, and was looking between the three of them, “¿Qué son todos los gritos?”

“They were in the bathroom together, again, with the door locked.” Aalyah looked positively excited to say it aloud, Danika rolled her eyes violently from where she was hiding behind Dominik.

“Mom,” Dominik sighed, “I was helping Danika with something, yes it was in the bathroom, yes the door was locked, her belly ring got messed up, she lost the ball and we had to change it.” He offered unamused. “Now, if you could just move-'' He made to push around Aalyah, who pushed back, the jostling dislodged the pregnancy test which he hadn’t put into his pocket properly. 

Danika wanted to scream, she reached for the test at the same time Aalyah did, the younger girl snatching it out of her grasp, “OH MY GOD, YOU'RE PREGNANT!”

“Can we stop screaming?” Danika snapped, she grabbed the test and pulled it back.

Angie was talking in spanish far to fast for her to keep up with, but she caught the jist of it - Angie was bemoaning the fact that she’d let Rey talk her into adopting a street kid from the wrong side of San Diego, with a dash of the shame that Danika would bring to their name (although she largely used the Wesson last name publically, legally she had been adopted by the Mysterios, making her legal last name Gutiérrez). 

Dominik glared at Aalyah then looked directly at his mom, “Detener. Danika está embarazada de mi hijo.”

Angie looked for a moment like she’d been slapped, “You're child?” She clutched at her heart, “What?”

Dominik and Danika shared a look, with Danika shrugging her shoulders, Dominik had opened this can of worms so he could close it. “When Megan and I broke up I was heartbroken, Danika and I might have drank that bottle of tequila we told you we didn’t drink.” Her eyes widened, “And we uh, well…” He looked at Danika for support, she instead sent Jefe a text message, Rey would be home within the next few minutes, and she could tell this was going to be a fight the level of a Latino telenovela if the man didn’t come sooth his wife, quickly. “Look, before that we’d never had sex, and we’ve sort of messed around since then, but-”

“Eres hermano y hermana.” Angie looked close to tears.

“Legally, yes.” Danika agreed, “Biologically, no. We’ve tried to explain this to you multiple times. We don’t see each other as siblings, yes both of us look at Aalyah like our little sister, but Mom, we are best friends.”

Angie shook her head, “Tendrás que casarte ahora.” 

The front door opened and closed, downstairs, the alarm system pinged to let them know. “We are not getting married.” Dominik countered, irritated. “It’s not happening, we aren’t in love.” Dominik snapped, his voice going hard, “We are never going to get married.”

“Hey, now, we have an agreement about your fortieth birthday.” Danika wiggled her eyebrows at him, “If you haven’t gotten married by the time you're forty and I’m thirty-eight we will get married.”

Rey snickered as he joined them, “I remember this agreement, you two signed it in crayons.” 

Dominik looked between his father and Danika, “Ok, well, we aren’t getting married right now.”

“Why would you get married, mi hijo?” Rey looked perplexed.

Seriously, it was a wonder to Danika that they didn’t have a WWE themed reality television show. 

Aalyah chose that moment to cackle, “Because Dominik got her pregnant.”

There was a long stretch of Rey’s eyes darting between Dominik and Danika, with Angie sniffling to herself, and Aalyah pitched forward in a way that suggested she wished she had popcorn. Finally Rey cleared his throat, “What are we doing about this?”

“We hadn’t decided yet.” Dominik cleared his throat, “We were talking about our options and what we wanted to do when Aalyah started being her usual bratty self, and caused this whole argument.” Dominik explained, exasperated. 

Rey hummed, “Danika, cariño, what do you want to do?” 

“Jefe, I would like Dominik and I to talk about it privately, once we have a decision we will let you all know.” She cast her glance to Aalyah, “That’s my shirt, asshole, give it back.” 

“You’ll be too fat to wear it.” Aalyah sang as she walked back to her room.

“I thought you had to go to the bathroom!” Dominik snapped after her.

Aalyah cackled, “I never had to pee, I just heard you two talking in the bathroom and knew the door would be locked.” 

“Oh, you little-” Danika made to give chase, but Dominik caught her around her middle.

“Not so fast,” He tutted, “You're carrying my child, and I don’t want the little bean to inherit whatever ridiculous gene it is that makes you and Aalyah act like children all the time.”

“That’s rich.” Rey huffed, “You usually start their little fights.” Rey looked pointedly at Dominik, then at Angie, “We will support their choice, mi esposa, let them make it.” He took her arm and started to steer her down the stairs, “I will say, if you are going to give us grandchildren, at least let us do something Catholic for their birth.” With that Rey headed them down the stairs.

Danika growled under her breath, “Come on.” She tugged him back into the bathroom, and locked the door. She reclaimed her seat on the toilet, and motioned for him to kneel before her again, “Alright, take two.” 

He snickered, “Danika Wesson Gutiérrez, my best friend, my soulmate, my hero, and my ride or die, would you do me the honor of having my baby?”

She burst out laughing, unable to hold it in, she laughed until she felt the tears start on her cheeks, “If you ever propose to anyone let me write the script for you, boo.” She giggled, “Alright, let’s do this, we’ve always been good together, you are my knight in shining armor, I mean you did ride across San Diego to the scary part of town to rescue me, and you punched that guy in ninth grade who told me I couldn’t be a Gutiérrez because I wasn’t Mexican, and you-” 

He cut her off with a chaste kiss, just a press of their lips together, “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” She nodded her head, their noses bumping, “Dominik, I’d be no one without you, I’ve always wanted to have kids, and if I were going to accidentally get pregnant, I am so glad it’s with you. Cause come hell or high water, as Uncle Adam says, we are always going to have each other's backs.” She nuzzled his nose, “Now aren’t you meant to be packing for SmackDown?”

He rolled his eyes, but stood, ruffling her red hair as he went. The both spilled back out of the bathroom, pushing at each other and laughing, until Dominik veered off into his room, no doubt to actually pack up for his and Rey’s upcoming flight. She headed back to her room, and gazed around the piles of Mysterio merchandise. Her life with the Mysterio’s might be a rollercoaster, but she wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. She ran her hand over her flat stomach, mostly to reassure herself that there was a little baby growing in there. 

Dominik had promised her adventures, when he came to rescue her on his bike when they were eleven and thirteen (with Dominik being the older one), and he’d yet to disappoint. 

[alexlesuagz]

Conversations With Your Drug Dealer [Part 1]

Characters: Vicky Lopez, Julian Ramis, Pippa Goldfinch, Dana Lopez, Chelsea Bloom, Edward Ramis (mentioned), Freddy Stewart (mentioned) Warnings: Teen angst, emotional abuse from parent to child, early spoilers for S5, underage drug use, canon divergence Relationship(s): Vicky Lopez & Julian Ramis, Chelsea Bloom/Vicky Lopez, Julian Ramis/Freddy Stewart (mentioned former one-sided crush on Julian’s side) (pls don’t hate me) Synopsis: Vicky, stressed out over recent issues, decides to buy drugs to relax. There is only one person she knows who has them. (Please note: I am aware the characters’ interactions in this fic are not canon. I just merely did some…divergence, if you will.) Feb. 13, 2018 10 more minutes until lunch. Vicky raps her pinky against the desk repeatedly in anticipation. Come on, damn clock, go faster! She grabs her paper and scribbles some more answers onto her worksheet. It’s science, a subject she gave zero shits about, so she doesn’t care whether her answers are correct. Once she finishes, she scratches her left cheek as she glares up at the clock, now continuously tapping her foot against the floor like it’s some belated kind of morse code. 8 more minutes. She lets out a loud exhale through her nostrils as she puts her head down on her desk, her hands running through her wavy black locks. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots Chelsea, her best friend, giving her a small look of concern from the other side of the classroom. Are you alright? Chelsea mouths. Vicky nods quickly. I’m fine, she bullshits silently. Chelsea looks back at her worksheet, and Vicky looks back up at the clock. 5 more minutes. Fuck this. If she had to last another unbearable 5 minutes in Miss Goldfinch’s class, she was going to lose her fucking mind. Also, it was 5 mere minutes, so why not just ditch? She thinks as her hand shoots up. “Yes, Vicky?” Miss Goldfinch asks. “CAN I USE THE BATHROOM?” Vicky exclaims in her best I-am-in-pain-and-I-must-piss voice. Miss Goldfinch glances at the clock. “Vicky, dear, it’s 4 and a half more minutes until the end of lunch, can’t you just hold it in?” Welp, that didn’t work. Time for the Trump card. “I DON’T THINK I CAN, MISS GOLDFINCH.” Vicky says through clenched teeth. Miss Goldfinch looks back at her and frowns. “What do you mean by that?” Vicky walks up to Miss Goldfinch and whispers some words into her ear. “Oh…OH…okay, then. Do you need anything?” Vicky shakes her head rapidly. “...Well, alright, then, go right ahead to the bathroom, and take your backpack with you if you must.” “Thank you, ma’am!” Vicky shouts as she grabs her bag and power walks out of the classroom. Great. Now that period 4 torture time’s basically over, now all I need to do is wait for…wait, what’s his name? She pulls out her phone and checks her notes. Julian Ramis “The Murderer Kid” …Ah, yeah, him. According to reports, the kid was arrested for murder around five years ago, which is why people tend to avoid him. However, she did not know everything that happened, and even information about the crime wasn't exactly what she wanted. What she wanted was cannabis. “Who’s that?” Vicky asks, pointing to the boy sitting alone at the less crowded side of the bleachers, typing on his laptop. “Oh, him?” Chelsea asks. “Yeah, beanie boy.” Vicky replies. “Is he a transfer or something? I haven’t really noticed him before until now.” “Oh, no, he ain’t a transfer.” Chelsea responds, shaking her head. “That’s Julian Ramis. Apparently, dude, uh-” Chelsea’s hesitating now. “He what?” “He, uh, ‘game over’-ed someone, like 5 years ago.” Vicky could feel her eyes widen and her jaw drop. “Are you, like, serious about this?!” “Yeah, like totes serious!” Chelsea exclaims as the two girls walk down the bleacher stairs. “Why else would he be so emo-looking?! Constantly smells of weed, too. I feel kinda bad for him, but at the same time, he’s like, really scary. Last time I tried talking to him, he immediately started getting high and mighty, calling me a ‘ginger, rat-faced bimbo!’” She shudders. “Jeez, he seems pretty bad.” Vicky replies. Of course, a guy who constantly smells of weed would have weed in his general vicinity, right? Vicky rehearses her plan in her hand once again. Alright, once the bell rings, find Julian, drag him over to the gender-neutral bathroom, and force him to fork over the drugs. And if all else goes to absolute shit, then remember that one self-defense acronym!...What was that one acronym again-? BBBBBRRRRRIIIIINNNNNG!!!!! Oh yeah, ‘solar plexus’, ‘instep’, ‘nose’, and ‘groin’. Alright, I’m ready. When lunch comes around, the whole school grounds are open, so Vicky knew she had a lot of searching to do. However, considering where she had seen him the first time, she had a good idea on where he was going to be. Sure enough, as Vicky clambers onto the bleachers, she spots Julian in the relatively uncrowded corner, eating what seems to be a meatloaf sandwich with one hand and typing on his laptop with the other. He’s also hidden in the shade, like a true emo. Vicky takes a deep breath in and exhales. Fuck it. Just introduce yourself and try not to get into trouble. She walks over to Julian, who’s still too invested in his laptop to even acknowledge her. What is he even doing, anyway? Writing fanfiction? As quietly as possible, she looks over his shoulder to study his screen. Oh. Oh. First of all, Chelsea was right, he does in fact smell like weed. Second of all, what the hell is he even trying to type? “Rejected and despised by all, I walk a dark and tormented path, leading to despair…” Julian suddenly shuts his laptop. “You know I know you’re behind me, right?” Shit. “I-uh-” She’s stammering now, trying hard to form words in her mouth. She then points at his backpack. “WEED. NOW.” It doesn’t take a genius to process what Vicky’s asking for. Julian takes 2 seconds. “...no.” “What?!” Vicky sputters. “But WHY?!” Julian slams his hand over her mouth and shushes her. “Jesus Christ, at least whisper!” In response, she removes his hand and hisses through gritted teeth, “...but WHY?!” He waves his free hand at the surrounding people. “Are you SERIOUS?!” He seethes. “Who KNOWS what the fuck you’d might say if I give it to you, you absolute dumbass!” Vicky whispers, “Come ONNN, Julian, just one ounce! Socializing and school’s been so hard for me lately! I bet you can relate!” The moment the last sentence leaves her mouth, she notices Julian’s eyes widen and his mouth hang open. “You-” He hesitates. “You-” Oh, fuck, I really screwed up big time, didn’t I?

Julian’s free hand is curling into a fist. …Oop, yup, I really screwed up big time. The hand that she’s clutching is shaking exponentially, like the boy’s about to explode at any second. She closes her eyes, bracing for the punch… BBBBBRRRRRIIIIINNNNNG!!!!! …but the punch never comes. Julian lowers both of his hands, glances at the crowd going towards the school doors, then looks right back at Vicky. To her surprise, his shoulders sag, and he lets out a huge sigh. “You know what? There’s no point in arguing. Meet me in the alley behind the building after school today.” “B-but I got cheer practice today-” “Fuck it, tomorrow.” He turns around and follows the crowd as they’re entering the building. “And bring the money!” The rest of the day had gone by in an absolute blur, and eventually Vicky found herself in the girl’s lockers with the rest of the cheerleading squad. “Yeesh, that shit was TOUGH!” One of the girls groans as she puts her stuff into her bag. “Tell me ‘bout it,” Chelsea grumbles. “Well, at least we had each other, right?” She gives a playful elbow jab in Vicky’s direction. “Oh, yeah, yup, mhm!” Vicky instantly replies, nodding. Chelsea buttons up her shirt and smiles at her. “Alright, I’m gonna wait for you outside, is that okay?” “Yeah, sure.” Vicky watches as Chelsea leave the locker rooms. “Oh, hi, Coach Kirk!” Chelsea exclaims. Sure enough, once Vicky leaves the school building, she notices Chelsea waiting for her in the courtyard. After they greet each other, they settle into their classic routine that is walking in complete investment with each others’ day. “Yeeeaaah, that test was TOTES unfair. I mean, why the FUCK were there apparently 3 Bs in a row?!” Vicky hisses angrily as she kicks a pebble on the sidewalk. Both girls watch as it hops and skitters down the road and onto the street. Suddenly, the pebble manages to hit a passing squirrel on the head, causing it to screech and hop away into a bush. “…Whoops.” The girls then continue to walk in silence. Vicky has no idea on what to talk about, and as far as she can tell, Chelsea didn’t know what to say either. That is, until she spoke. “Y’know, Vick…” Chelsea said as they stopped at a crossroad, “…what date is it today?” Oh, shit, I kinda forgot about that, Vicky chastises herself as she pulls out her phone. “Oh, it’s February 13. Why’d you ask?” “…what’s the signa— sigmi— eegh!” Chelsea shakes her head as she corrects herself. “SIGNIFICANCE of tomorrow?” She fidgets with her fingers as the two girls make eye contact. “Tomorrow’s February 14.” “Yeah, and what’s also tomorrow…?” Chelsea’s hands are waving slightly. Vicky can feel a slight uncertainty in the back of her mind. Then it hits her. “Tomorrow’s…Valentine’s Day.” “Y-yeah, I was originally hoping to do this tomorrow, but I think it’s better that I do this today.” Chelsea puts her backpack down in front of her and opens it. “Hold on, wait just a second-” Vicky feels herself standing completely still as she watches Chelsea continuously shuffling through her bag. What is going on?! As much as she loved Chelsea as a friend, something begins stirring in the back of Vicky’s mind. Oh, God, what’s gonna happen? Is Chelsea gonna give me a “Fuck you” card??? Wait, what did I even do to deserve it, then- “Here, I found it!” Chelsea stands up, one of her hands clenched around something. What even is it? “Uh, Vicky…” Chelsea’s now tapping her pointer fingers together, her hand still holding something. “You know we’ve been friends for a while…and being by your side for all these years has made me realize something.” Wait, is this going where I think it’s going- “…I…like you. Like, really, really, like, like you.” Right as the words leave Chelsea’s lips, something in Vicky’s heart stops. What that something is, Vicky doesn’t know. Is the feeling in her chest anxiety? Excitement?? Horror??? “Oh, shit, I forgot the card-” OH, GOD, THERE’S MORE?! Chelsea digs through her bag some more and pulls out a small pink card folded in half. To Chelsea’s credit, the card didn’t look bad — Vicky herself spots the amount of effort that was put into the paper hearts, the origami butterflies, and the pop-up rainbow. But something still is twisting Vicky’s stomach into two, and she doesn’t know what. She can’t even pay attention to what Chelsea was saying until the last part. “So, uh…Vicky Lopez…will you be my girlfriend?” Chelsea says as she opens the palm  of her hand to reveal what was in it. A heart locket necklace. Shit. On one hand, Vicky knows how incredibly sweet Chelsea is being right now, and she herself does care for Chelsea. But does she care for her that way? Do I like girls romantically? Do I like Chelsea romantically?! Hell, what would Mom think?! Smiling uncertainly, Vicky tentatively takes the necklace out of Chelsea’s hand and puts it around her own neck. It’s Vicky’s exact size. Vicky then takes the card from Chelsea’s other hand and skims through its contents. “I…” She finally stammers out, “I-I don’t know what to say…” Even Chelsea at this point looks anxiety-ridden — she’s fidgeting with her fingers and one of her knees is knocking against the other. What should I say? Vicky thinks. What should I do?! Throughout all her 18 years of living, she’s never even thought about love. Her mom would’ve probably set her up with some rich dude, anyway! There are two options she can take now — either she lets Chelsea down as gently as possible, or she accepts the confession and possibly puts her and Chelsea into a fuckton of shit. Fuck it, one option is safer than the other. This is for both her and Chelsea’s good. “I’m sorry, Chelsea…” She mumbles, “…but no, I don’t like you that way.” Chelsea’s expression drops into what can be best described as “well-hidden dismay instead of disappointment”. Shit, this isn’t very “let her down gently-” “I…” Chelsea hesitates, probably unsure of what to say. Vicky closes her eyes, getting ready for any violent outburst. What Chelsea does next isn’t what can be described as “violent”, but it still catches Vicky off guard. Out of absolute nowhere, Chelsea’s expression morphs into anger as she exclaims, “Well, I guess you don’t want this, then!” and grabs the necklace like it’s Vicky’s collar. “Chelsea, what the fu-?!” Just before she could finish her sentence, the necklace’s clasp breaks into two, causing it to get wrenched off her neck. Both girls are now standing at the crosswalk in stunned silence, Vicky with a Valentine’s Day card and pain in the back of her neck, and Chelsea with a necklace with a broken clasp and shock engraved into her facial expression. Chelsea speaks first. “Vicky, I-“ Chelsea’s words breaking the heavy air between them are what Vicky needs to talk. “I think I have to go.” “Vicky, I’m-” “Look, I’m so sorry, I think I have to go!” Vicky exclaims as she turns around and dashes across the street, leaving Chelsea in the dust. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. If things can’t get any worse, Vicky’s mother Dana is the one to greet her at the door. “You’re 10 minutes late, Victoria.” She drawls dryly. “I know.” Vicky lowers her head sheepishly. Dana scoffs. “‘I know’ won’t cut it. Be glad I don’t feel like arguing right now, young lady, because I’m NOT happy with your behavior today!” “Wait, what?!” Vicky protests. “What do you mean by that?!” Wordlessly, Dana reached inside one of her pockets and pulls out her phone and presses play on an audio file. It’s a voicemail. From Miss Goldfinch. Of course it’s fucking Miss Goldfinch. “Uh, hi, Mrs. Lopez, this is Vicky’s teacher speaking. I just want to talk to you about my concerns regarding your daughter’s recent behavior.”  Vicky’s eyes are glued to the phone in Dana’s hand, but through the corner of her eye, she notices Dana shaking her head and mouthing, Disappointed. I’m so disappointed. “Now, she’s not in trouble, but I’ve noticed she’s been increasingly more anxious over the past couple of days. Is it alright if we schedule a time and date to talk about it? Thank you.” The voicemail stops, and Vicky lowers her head to the floor. “Like I said before, be glad I don’t feel like arguing with you today. Just…just go to your room. You’ve embarrassed me enough.” Ashamed, Vicky walks past her mother and heads up to her room. Once she enters, she closes the door behind her and sighs as she leans against it and slides down. Oh, wait a second, I still have Chelsea’s card! Luckily, this time Vicky isn’t driven by her anxiety, so she actually decides to herself to read it and not skim over. Hey Vicky, If you got this card, then this means that either you accepted my confession or rejected it but were nice enough to take the card anyway. Either way, happy Valentine’s Day! Here’s a little thing I wrote: ”I cannot fathom my lust for the stars, because the world taught me to always look at the ground. When I look at you—my sun—I know I’d have to relinquish you from my sights, yet I wouldn’t mind if you were the last person I’d see before my eyes burn out from your beauty. I’d rather stare at you for 100 seconds and go blind than spend 100 years without you by my side.” …Okay, I stole that off of someone’s FriendNet profile, but you know I’m not great at expressing my feelings through words. Either way, I just want you to know that no matter what happens, through all the challenges we’ll face in our lives, I will always be by your side. <3 - Chelsea Right next to her name, Chelsea had drawn a rose. Vicky sniffles and blinks back tears as she closes the card and checks her phone. 3 unread messages from Chelsea. 4:25 PM CB: Hey CB: I’m sorry about what happened 4:30 PM CB: Vicky? [Read 4:50 PM]

[AUTHOR’S NOTE] YIPPEE-KY-YAY, IT’S FINALLY DONE! Sorry if the writing’s kind of rusty n’ sloppy, I’m still trying to develop my writing style- Either way, I hope you enjoyed! :D Also, the “conversation with the drug dealer” comes in during Part 2 because Part 1 is just Vicky Lopez angst lol-

[disorganizedkitten]

Gifts Between Girls

Miraculous Ladybug & Jackie Chan Adventures | 2018 | 1,542 | Ao3 

Neither Miraculous hero were expecting a visit from Captain Black, especially not right after a an Akuma attack.

“Ladybug, Chat Noir!”

The two heroes turned at the shout, expecting to see a new reporter or something trying for an interview. Instead they were greeted by a bald man in a turtleneck and a trench coat.

He was wearing both. In summer. In Paris.

Chat Noir was about to comment on the pure impracticality of it all, when Ladybug saluted the man. Chat stopped to look between them, unsure of what to do now. He was well versed on most of the other superheroes who were currently active, in case one decided to come help them with Hawkmoth, but he had no idea who this guy was. These two actually, Chat mentally corrected himself, taking note of the teen to the man’s side. Who was wearing an orange hoodie.

Did these guys have insulation problems?

“Captain Black. Agent Chan.” Ladybug’s hand fell and she frowned. Red flags shot up in Chat Noir’s head. If Ladybug wasn’t happy- “Please tell me this is a social call.”

“Ooh she can see an agent where there is one. I like this girl! She’s not Viper of course-”

“Jade.”

“Sorry.”

“No Ladybug, I’m afraid it isn’t. We have some things to discuss with you and your part-” Beep Beep Beep! “Tner. What was that?”

“That’s our timers saying we can’t stay,” Chat cut in, moving to stand at Ladybug’s shoulder.

“Can you meet us two roofs over in five?” Ladybug suggested.

“Yep.” The teen answered quickly.

“Jade.” Her companion hissed, but didn’t move to do anything else.

“Chat, will you be able to make it too?”

“Yeah, I don’t need to meet up with anyone for another half hour.”

“Alright, see you there.” Ladybug grabbed his waist and threw her yo-yo up and out, swinging them both a ways away.

Chat took the opportunity to interrogate her. “Bugaboo, what was that?”

“Someone I know from my civilian life. Be extra careful when detransforming, Jade is a superspy. Also, they have teammates that can turn invisible, so again, extra careful. And they can fly. And move faster than the speed of light. And turn into animals. Keep your fist closed if possible. I’ll see you as soon as I’m recharged.”

Chat caught her arm as she moved to leave. “Promise you’ll explain?”

“Later Chat. I promise.” And then she was gone.

Chat Noir bounded another few roofs over and ducked into the subway. He released his transformation, keeping in mind what Ladybug had said. Invisibly, flight, shape shifting, superspeed. Who the heck were these people and how did Ladybug know them as a civilian? Was his Lady a spy herself?

That- It didn’t completely fit, but it didn’t not either. That was a scary thought.

“Kid, we’re fine. I don’t feel any active talismans anywhere near us. Mind you, Sugarcube and Herbs are more receptive than I am, but I doubt they’ve figured out how to cloak Talismans yet.”

Adrien turned to his Kwami, who swallowed another piece of cheese instead of continuing.

“What? I know stuff.”

“What do you mean, Talismans?”

Plagg shrugged. “Didn’t Ladybug say she’d explain?”

“Yeah,” Adrien sighed. Was he not trustworthy? Why did Ladybug know all this stuff first? “Are you done eating?”

“Adrien, I can never have enough of my precious Camembert.” Plagg deadpanned, taking another triangle and shoving it in his mouth. “But I suppose I can last for one more transformation.”

“Plagg, Claws out!”

*****

“She’s my cousin, Tikki.”

“Oh. So then why are you worried?”

“Because, they deal with magical Chinese artefacts. And what are the Miraculous?”

“O-oh,” Tikki breathed around a bite of Macaroon. “Which other Magical Chinese artefacts have they messed with?”

“Um, I think last year it was masks, the first year Jade was in America it was Talismans, there were demon spirits and portals somewhere in the mix, um, I’m not sure for the others.”

Tikki nodded. “Alright! I don’t sense any of those active right now, but the Rooster was active a couple of minutes ago. I agree you should be careful. Don’t you trust your family though?”

“My family, yes. Captain Black and Jade when they don’t know that I’m trustworthy with magic and know full well what implications it can have? Not so much.” Marinette peeked out of her hiding place, her forehead scrunched in thought.

Tikki nodded. Technically it made sense. “I’m ready to transform if that makes you feel safer.”

“I need to meet up with the others anyways. Tikki, Spots on!”

Ladybug wasn’t the first to the rooftop, not that she actually expected to be. She landed on an adjacent rooftop to wait for Chat Noir and assess the situation. She didn’t really think they’d try to seize the Miraculous while she and Chat Noir were fighting Hawkmoth, but Section 13 could be unpredictable.

****

Chat Noir reached the area, looking around for Ladybug. She wasn’t with the others on the suggested roof, instead crouching on a nearby rooftop.

“Why aren’t you over there yet?”

“Because Chat, I’m waiting for you. I don’t want to leave you out, again.” Ladybug shrugged. “Ready to go?”

“Yep.”

They shot across the small distance in sync, landing gracefully but not silently. Chat Noir noticed, rather belatedly, that the teenager wasn’t up here. For one reason or another, it put him on edge.

“Ladybug. Chat Noir.”

“Captain Black,”  Ladybug replied promptly, saluting again. Chat half-imitated her. “You needed to speak to us about something?”

“Yes. You are the keepers of most of the Miraculous, correct?”

“Well we aren-”

“ Are, of course. However their location, much like the location of your own assets, is a secret.” Ladybug cut him off, making a ‘cut it’ motion with her fingers against his wrist.

“Good.”

“Is there a reason for this inquiry Captain? Has Section 13 discovered something in our jurisdiction?” Chat was lost, and they were only two sentences in. Ladybug had better explain everything on Patrol tonight.

“Straight to the point I see. Yes. We’re going through our archives and found what has been confirmed to be a Miraculous. The Rabbit Miraculous, I believe.”

Ladybug nodded. “Are you alerting us to it’s location or handing it over?”

“Handing it over.” Captain Black held out a small black and red box. “I’m trusting you to keep it in the correct hands.”

“Of course Sir. Thank you. Anything else?” Ladybug accepted the box and moved her hands to behind her back.

The Captain shook his head. “No. Good day, Heroes.”

“Would you like a ride down?” Chat offered suddenly. He wasn’t sure how Captain Black had gotten up in the first place, so he didn’t see a way down.

“No thank you.”

“He’s using the Rooster Talisman,” Ladybug whispered to him, leaning over.

“The what now?” Chat looked over at Captain Black, but he was already gone.

“The Rooster Talisman. I think it’s first in the lineup of the Talismans of Shendu? I know it’s one of them. Grants the power of levitation.”

“How involved in this are you?”

“I have cousins in the business,” Ladybug explain sheepishly. She shot into a fighting stance. “Do you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Chat listened. He could hear something moving through the air, but he couldn’t pinpoint where. Wait, did Ladybug mean the sudden tingling in his hand?

“There’s a Talisman active. Not the Rooster. I, I’m not sure which one, but it’s not the one Captain Black had.”

“Oh.” Chat joined her, back to back. If someone was using one, well, he didn’t know what they were, but they seemed dangerous enough.

“I come in peace!” Suddenly the teenager was in front of him, hands up and palms out.

“Agent Chan, right?” Chat guessed.

“Yeah. Look, I know you probably don’t have any reason to trust me and all, but that’s not a real Miraculous. It’s a tracking device.” She pointed. “Or, one of them is. The other wasn’t on him, so I’m hoping he gave it to you?”

Ladybug scowled. “Of course it is. Why else would he have two?” She tossed two black and red boxes at Jade. “Okay, Jade, how do you tell which is which?”

“He gave you both? But why-”

Ladybug snorted. “He didn’t. I may or may not have pulled a Viper.”

Chat raised an eyebrow at her. He’d never heard that saying before. Jade however, reacted positively to it.

“Oh my gosh! How do you- That’s awesome! I didn’t know anyone else did that!” Jade flicked the lids of the boxes open. One shot out a light that spun around her. She snapped the other closed and pocketed it. “Hi Kwami, bye Kwami. You need to go with Ladybug now.” Jade closed the first one and tossed it back to Ladybug. “I don’t know how you know that term, but if you do you’re pretty trustworthy, all things considered. Don’t let anyone rewrite history or anything, okay?”

“Yes Ma’am!” Ladybug saluted again. “Take good care of your stuff to, Agent Chan.”

"Me? When do I not?”

Ladybug shook her head. “You don’t want me to answer that.”

The teen shrugged in response, then vanished again. “Good luck you two!”

“Tell Jackie and Uncle hello from me!” Ladybug shrugged at Chat’s raised eyebrow as she stopped waving. “What? I said I had cousins.”

[90s-html-lesbians]

Watching Overly Sarcastic Productions and thinking about immortal roommates tonight... Ava's origins are extremely murky and will remain so, but if we want to imagine something, we might imagine Minoan Crete, which would put the time of her birth at around 1900 BCE or even earlier (an absolutely mind-boggling number of years ago). Ava will never confirm it in so many words, but she'll make references/jokes to bulls and volcanos every now and then that make Bea go 👀👀👀. That's if we want her origins to be semi-based in real history and not something completely out there like the Kaktusverse or something.

whoops, only just now saw this and this, and to answer the latter rq because i feel it might be weird to answer it now but it feels ruder to not, but fav genres are mostly like first person shooters, + street fight esque hames, RTS gamex & platformers

haven’t and don’t play many games, so fav games would probably be spiderman ps4/2018, minecraft, super smash bros, kotor, & command and conquer generals + earthworm jim 1 & 2. not a fav but diablo 2 is immensely fun

i keep meaning to branch out, i wanna try more of the what’s it’s name, a tier or w(e games like bioshock, skyrim, mass effect, god of war, assassins creed (bc defo agreed on the hot women + the historical setting is defo interestujg), portal

or something

also pls do elaborate on the skydrim modding 👀)

anyway back to the program

Ava: how do you know i was around when the minoan crete was around

also ava: *has a bunch of misc random bull & bull themed paper weights & knick knacks & plushies scattered theoughout the apartment esp on ava’s side of the bedroom*

also ava: beatrice, lilith, you won’t *bull*ieve it- beatrice & lilith: you got arrested again didn’t you?

GL-18200

real ava origin is that she just spontaneously started existing out of nowhere /j

she’s literally older than the universe itself

no but more seriously i feel a bit like: (see below meme) because i don’t know too much about it but am 👀👀👀 regardless

also what’s the kaktusverse? 👁️

ava & lilith and probably later on bea defo got up to so much crimes because whenever they got caught by local law enforcement *mushroom voice* you cannot kill me in any way that matters

some random bits

keep meaning to mention but 1) lilith was the daughter of a military leader

lilith pre vampirification was like, briefly a military leader, mostly through coercion because the forces she was commanding, b4 she cane into command, were loosing badly, the town (probably lilith’s hometown) was almost destroyed and while they already had vv few competent peoplr let alone leaders among them (tbf they really didn’t have a need for em, but then the town was ambushed), even the few were either injured or dead so when they noticed lilith still being alive, and thanks to knowing about her dad + thx to lilith’s dad, knowing that lilth had showed a good amount of aptitude in fighting and military strategy shit, they coerced her (probably through threatning some friend or family of hers) into helping “just to fight off the invading forces” and so they did

but the forces wanted lilith to help them invade other places to “recoop looses” and what not, so that wasn’t the end of the coercion

lilth ended up faking her death so she could get out of the deal without putting her friend/s and(or family at risk, but it also meant she couldn’t return home to keep them out of danger

And then not long after that, like a year or two later lilith became a vampire

i think ava lilith & beatrice all probably need to skidaddle off by themselves every so often (to varying ampunts and degrees obv), and while ava & lilith are mutually aware of that and did the majority of the communication shit over it a while ago, beatrice isn’t on the same page

So a bit into beatrice formally moving in with ava & lilith, she just kinda gets antsy, in large part because the mental gymnastics of convincing herself people don’t care or don’t care very much, are at an all time high and in all honesty, while it might seem counter intuitive ava & lilith’s near constant prescencex are making it worse

but beatrice can’t manage to make herself say that until one day she ends up turning full tail (literally) and just is like 🏃‍♂️

lilith finds her a bit later at some mcdonalds or some fast food place (thanks to the becoming a werewolf stuff, beatrice has a lot bigger appetitie that she’s still adjusting to which means there’s a good few times where beatrice unwittingly finds herself suddenly feeling weak from not enough food and so ends up just having to go with the closest source of food she can find that won’t take her a bunch of effort to eat pr like poison her or anything ((ava & lilith, but esp lilith because she can relate makes sure to watch out for how much food beattice’s had in a day and do shit like keeping snacks on hand, eyc to try and minimize these incidents))) and just sits with beatrice until she’s ready to talk

beatrice & lilith are probably often the best at talking each other out of whatever dumb mental gymnastics they’re doing now because of how similar they are

also lilith & beatrice are, depending on who you ask surprisingly chaotic, they’ve accidentally gotten involved in a few disasterous shenanigans (which is a lot different from purposely doing so)

lilith started courting beatrice but completely forgot to mention so poor beatrice is vv confusedly flustered to death several times over by lilith

also ava 🤝 lilith 🤝 beatrice: god’s sleepiest soldiers

ava wants to spend time w lilith so she (im)patiently waits until nightime but she also wants to take full use of sunlight so she also is awake during the day, which, esp since ava gets tired a lot quicker than the average person means ava quickly learns to take several naps during the day or else be knocked out cold during the most inconvenient of times

sometimes those naps happen during night so lilith often decides to just nap w ava when that happens, and they never really change that system, so basically they’re vv used to taking naps several times a day, especially with each other so not napping would throw them off their rhythm and also they’re probably so used to the routine that they begin feeling sleepy when they see the other taking a nap, regardless if they woke u literally just an jour or so ago

Fantasia

[spaceshipkat]

Hi Kat! Do you have any advice for those who want to become freelance editors?

practice practice practice. my first real editing experience came from being a critique partner for a lot of writers (this was like a decade ago, back when twitter wasn’t the cesspool it now is) bc i got to learn (technically) on the job. reading a lot helped, in as many genres and categories as i could. paying attention to minute details in books (such as how to use proper grammar. i wish more people paid attention to that when they’re reading books for fun, so things like em dashes would be used properly, but i digress). i didn’t start working as a freelance editor until 2018, bc by then i knew a lot more about writing and editing after i got my BA in history. we had to critique others’ work alongside editing our own in that degree, so i got a lot more experience under my belt.

practice makes perfect, as they say.

one thing that also helped me become a freelance editor is the authors whose books i’ve worked on. i’m not gonna name names obv but nearly every writer friend i was a critique partner or beta reader for sold to the Big 5 (the ones who aren’t yet published will be one day, i’m 100% certain) so being able to put their books on my resume helped me get the job with the company i’m now with. i was also a pitch wars mentor for two years, which looks good on a freelance editing resume bc it proves that not only can i edit, i’m a good collaborator and a mentor, so i don’t just slap an edit onto the page and tell the writer to make it without explaining why i suggested the edit. i never make an edit (well, a big edit, like cutting a character or rearranging a battle scene; i don’t always explain why i changed a comma into a semicolon, yknow?) without explaining why i made it and providing an example or two of what the author could do instead.

i also know how to be kindly honest. by that i mean that i will be brutally honest about what needs fixing, but i’m not a dick about it. my edit letters always start with praise, explaining the things i really enjoyed and things the author did really well. then i dive into the edits that the book needs. for most edits, but especially if they’re big, i explain why the edit needs to happen and provide advice on how to go about making the edit. for instance, my most recent client was concerned about the middle third of her book, since one plot thread is all but dropped only to be picked up again in the last third. i agreed that the middle had a big slump and also that that plot thread shouldn’t be dropped bc it was one of the main driving forces behind the plot. my suggestion was to cut two characters who, while interesting, weren’t exactly needed in the book (they could easily wait til the next book in the series to make their debut), and replace them with a brand new third character who would be the ticket to 1) holding up that plot thread and 2) upping the action and stakes in the middle of the book to erase the slump and make the narrator feel more urgent about defeating the big bad in the last third of the book.

and honestly, besides all that, one of the most important things an editor needs to know how to do is match the voice, style, and tone the author is creating. it’s not the editor’s book, so the editor needs to check their own writing style and voice at the door and adopt that of the author whose book they’re editing. it’s one reason why editing takes up a lot of creativity (one major reason i don’t want to be a career editor, bc i’d just end up using up all my creativity on other people’s books rather than on my own books). when you make an edit, you have to ensure it fits with the ambience the author has created, rather than introducing something with a completely different tone.

idk if this even makes sense since i feel like i’m rambling at this point, so i’ll end here. but hopefully this explains a little? feel free to send another ask if you want any clarification!

[asherlockstudy]

Hi :) I was scrolling through your rhink tag a bit and noticed that you've been a fan since at least 2018. I was wondering if there was any moment or collection of moments that made you think they could seriously be in a relationship

(I hope my wording doesn't sound accusatory; I love their bond - and your detailed posts about them/their work - and am just curious about how you started to see them as more than friends)

Thanks :))

I believe I actually started watching them around early 2016 😖

I don’t remember when exactly I started thinking something more was really happening but I believe it was relatively early. I mean if I started watching in 2016, then I am pretty sure I already suspected hard enough, to the point of conviction, by 2017-2018. Definitely.

As to how, I am pretty sure it wasn’t one single incident or a few particular incidents. It was many incidents that I can’t just list. I don’t know, watching them daily for so many years was probably what made me land on the conclusion I landed on.

It might seem small however I remember the first thing that did a huge impression to me. They were getting interviewed by two young women and there was a black and white dog there. The dog had heterochromia, one eye was blue and the other brown. So, I don’t remember well now, but they were joking about how they would take that dog as their own or that this dog was already theirs, and Rhett joked that the brown eye is supposed to look at Link and the blue eye at him. So then Link muttered under his breath “yeah, only blue eyes can look at Rhett” and Rhett suppressed a laugh but also looked uncomfortable, but the women, who weren’t the types to cover something up or make light of it, looked very stunned at this. And it was, I mean, it might seem small to you based on the jokes they make now constantly but it was not like this back then, neither was Link really joking, the circumstances of when and how it was said are one of the most suspicious moments ever in Rhink history. I think that’s when I really thought “well, hold on now”.

And I just searched for the video and it’s late 2016 so it turns out I actually starting reaching that conclusion since late 2016. Boy am I suffering along huh

PS: before the big rhink shipper exodus / shrinkage that happened about two years ago, many people here believed they legitimately were into each other or in love. Few voiced an opinion that they had acted on it like I do now but the ones who were believing they were more than friends were way more than they are now

[protect-daniel-james]

Heyo! I'm a Croatian NT supporter. I'm queer and I love football so much. I always said that I would watch the national team of the first out queer international player.

Wich happens to be Czech Republic as of this week. No joke I nearly cried when I watched Jakub's coming out video, I am so happy for him, even tho my only memory of him is me yelling at his team 2 years ago.

Him coming out means that I'm gonna support Czech Republic besides my Croats. I have followed your blog for a while on my main and I remember during Euros 2 years ago, that you post alot about Czech NT.

Now I don't know anything about the Czech NT. So I was hoping if you could teach me a bit about the NT, so I don't go in blindly next month lol.

I could research myself but i know that supporters know more about their team than the internet! So here we are. I'm humbly asking your help on the Czech NT.

I'm a bit scared to ask with my normal account so this is a burner acc.

-a queer football fan

Hi! First of all, I loved the Croatian NT from 2018, and I still have a soft spot for them now. I'm happy to explain a bit of stuff about the Czech NT. And most of all I'm happy for Jakub, and honestly, the response has so far been overwhelmingly positive from the fans, which is great.

One thing that is not talked about (but should be mentioned) is that like two weeks ago, one Czech journalist (Luděk Mádl) made a tweet saying "a Czech footballer is planning to do a public coming out"

He didn't say the name, but people in the comments started speculating, and it turned into a convo of "I have a friend who has a friend who knows a cleaning lady who knows the kitman and he said that the lads in Sparta's dressing room say it's Jankto". Of course, it wasn't confirmed, but still... A lot of people criticized the journalist for posting the tweet and starting this whole conversation when IT WAS NONE OF HIS FUCKING BUSINESS before the player announces it himself, so he deleted the tweet and apologized. Anyway, Jankto came out this week, in a very nice manner I would say. Now everyone is kinda curious whether he will assume the role of a role model, and speak about his decision to come out etc., or whether he will just keep doing quietly his job. We will see.

The current NT is very likable. In the past, we had some shitty coaches, and some shitty (behavior/character-wise) players, or just not very memorable ones, being carried by Petr Čech and Tomáš Rosický (when he wasn’t injured lol). And our previous teams also had some scandals, like drunk driving and prostitutes at hotels etc… This all seems to be a thing of the past, and the current team (including the manager) carries itself with a lot more dignity. The last shitheads left seemed to be Krmenčík (diver) and Kúdela (if you remember the whole Kúdela-Kamara incident from two years ago, where Kúdela allegedly racially abused Kamara during a match between Slavia Prague and Rangers. It’s not my place to speculate whether he did or did not, but Kúdela later mocked the whole situation, so it’s obvious he didn’t understand why it was a big deal. Yeah I don’t like him.) They are both now playing in Indonesia so hopefully they’re not getting a callup again. The rest of the team seems to be likable.

The coach, Jaroslav Šilhavý. He comes across as a gentleman, a really good guy, well-spoken, calm, collected, and approachable. Kind of nice dad vibes. He said a couple days back that sometimes the players are shocked when he uses vulgar language because he just seems like such a nice person who would never say “fuck” or anything. He seems to be reasonable, maybe too conservative in football tactics, but really a good person overall, polite, and fair.

The most known players are probably Tomáš Souček and Vladimír Coufal, and they both represent well what we love seeing in NT players. Hard-working, passionate about football, no celebrity bullshit. Souček is the captain, and probably leads better by example and stamina than by motivational speeches, but I am happy to see him as a captain. Sometimes people say he’s kind of “simple” (he does speak in a way that gives the impression XD), but I think it’s true in the sense that he really just genuinely loves running and kicking a ball and that’s all he wants to do. He’s literally a cinnamon roll.

Coufal is the no-nonsense soldier, who “dies on the pitch for the team” (as he himself says). I admire him a lot, he worked hard, he got to the Prem from the thirddivision of the Czech league (where he was getting “paid” in beer and sausages). And the best thing is, he is no stupid "red card collector" or "just a fighter". He can look like that on the pitch, but off it, he comes across as an intelligent family man. He really embodies the heart and spirit.

Now onto the star. Patrik Schick, he really shined at the Euros, and then last year in Bundesliga. He’s kind of the poster boy, very handsome as well (and his sister is a model; I think he was kinda considering that career as well?). I was pleasantly surprised when I listened to an interview with him that he’s very grounded, down-to-earth, kinda shy, doesn’t enjoy posting on social media too much etc. Plus, he is best friends with Jankto (and I hope he’s being supportive). They usually room together and play FIFA haha, they also did a couple of interviews and challenges together.

(I lowkey shipped them, now I feel kinda bad about that)

I really like Antonín Barák, who plays in Italy (Fiorentina); he commented on Jankto's instagram post, he also distanced himself from a presidential candidate who was using the NT's shirt (with Barák's number) in his campaign, he seems to be one of the "socially responsible ones" in the team.

the rest of the team is kinda meh, i don't know enough about them to really say much - some of them just seem to be boring and with no interests or personality (Vydra), some of them are predicted to be stars (Adam Hložek, he's the starboy, 20 years old, but hasn't really stepped up in the NT yet)...

And about Jakub himself: he comes across as very determined and focused. I listened to an interview with him some time ago where he spoke about how he went to play in Italy at 18, and how he learned to "take care of himself", cook, speak Italian, live on a budget etc. Then he decided he would like to play in Spain so he learned Spanish. He's also into esports and owns an esports team (but apparently he's not very good at them himself, as Patrik Schick always beats him - at least that's what Patrik said). He seems to be approachable, e. g. he appeared in a video quiz done by a Czech football-focused youtuber (who's not super famous). Also, he likes to draw/paint, and did a drawing of Paulo Dybala some years ago. He always seemed to be a very driven person with various hobbies, and I felt a bit sorry for him coming back to the Czech league (and not performing very well). The thing is, he used to play for Slavia years ago, then he was in Italy and Spain, and now he's in Sparta (Slavia's biggest rival), so a lot of people hated on him for that. And he wasn't performing well for the NT and for the club in the past months - which could be related to him sorting out his personal life. He went through a divorce, then his ex-wife sort of alluded to him not paying the child's support (they have a son) in kinda cryptic Instagram posts, the situation around him was a mess.... Now the ex-wife spoke of her support for him, and said that she hopes he can be at peace, safe and happy.

I really hope Jankto's coming out will help people - the players and fans alike - realize how much homophobic banter still goes "under the radar" most of the time here, and that they will become more aware of how difficult it must be for Jankto to be constantly in such environment.

[kittyball23]

Welp, happy 1-year anniversary to this movie! While not the best, it still exists 🤷 Honestly the best parts of it for me was seeing the Ericka and Mavis moments. I also was kinda hoping there would be a DVD out by now so I could complete the collection I have at home, but I’m sure whatever contract is needed for that is floating in limbo somewhere too. Anywho, I’ve put some of my answers to a 20-question game from the Amino App that was made for the first movie’s 10th anniversary (didn’t see that post until a couple of days ago, lol) under the cut in case you wanna know more about my thoughts on Transformania and also the rest of the franchise! :D

Thoughts on the franchise as a whole

Ah yes, Hotel Transylvania. To have sparked 4 movies, a show, shorts, some video games, and graphic novels, I’m guessing it was popular enough among folks xD For me, the movies are cute enough as they go, and entertaining with its cartoonish interpretation of classic horror icons. There are memorable moments and characters, maybe even good life lessons at times. Overall enjoyable films, and a fun watch :)

2) Favorite character

Ericka Van Helsing. She’s a bad@ss 😎

3) Favorite movie

3rd movie, hands down. A lot that had to do with how entertaining the Van Helsings were and also for giving us the Drericka ship ^_^

4) Favorite song

3rd movie had a lot of great songs, but if I had to decide my favorite it would be “Love is Not Hard to Find” from movie 4

5) Favorite video game

Don’t play video games, so N/A

6) Favorite actor/actress

Kathryn Hahn ✨

7) Thoughts on the TV series

Well, I only saw a handful of episodes from the TV series… and then stopped xD Idk, I guess it just wasn’t what I thought. Characters felt a little OOC, and just didn’t hold my interest :/ Honestly, what I would have liked would be a show taking place post HT1/HT2 since it takes place in about a 8-year time period give or take and could potentially have stories to tell with humans and monsters getting along, looking more into how they’ve each adapted at the hotel, and also just more of the characters we’re familiar with from the movies themselves

8) Favorite episode of the TV series

Like I said, haven’t been dedicated to watching the TV series, so can’t really say ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

9) Favorite character from the TV series

From the episodes I did watch, I’d say Lydia was most entertaining

10) Favorite graphic novel

Motel Transylvania. I like the concept of expanding the hotel, and Johnny’s efforts in trying to make that happen xD

11) Genndy or Derrick (Director)

Probably Genndy

12) Adam or Brian (Dracula’s voice actors)

They’re both great, honestly

13) First impression of this franchise

The first movie came out when I was in like 6th grade, and I do recall classmates taking about wanting to go see it. But it didn’t really catch my interest, even when I did watch it for the first time in 2018. I felt it was too childish, and the fast movements bothered me

14) Latest impressions of this franchise

I think it’s kind of losing its steam a bit, because plot-wise 4 wasn’t the best it could be (which I guess was also part of the reason that led to the decline of the fandom…) but guess I can still appreciate what we have

15) How did you discover this franchise

My little bro got interested back in 2018 after seeing trailers for the third movie

16) Favorite zing

DRERICKA 💕

17) Favorite moment of all time

Transformania’s smoochy time scene (I mean hey, it’s pretty much the closest we got to an on-screen liplock from Drericka, plus I just can’t get enough of how clearly in love these two are with each other 😍 And how grossed out Mavis is as a result of that xD)

18) Did the finale satisfy you

Err… it was okay. Nothing more, nothing less. I do like the idea of Drac retiring and giving up the hotel to Mavis and Johnny, but the execution of the rest of the film’s plot I felt didn’t do it as much justice as it could have. I guess with all the switching around with the release date for this movie going further and further out, I was anticipating something worth the wait (also, January 14th?? The October release date I think would’ve been ideal since it’s spooky month. Even this January would’ve made more sense since it has a Friday the 13th in it)

19) Do you wish for more

At some point, yes, but maybe in 5+ years as a breather. If it does come back, I think an animated special of some kind would be cool, or a 2D show that takes place after part 4 with the brand-new hotel

20) Would you recommend this franchise

All in all, I would say yes! If you want just some silliness to pass time, with a mostly likeable ensemble of characters, then this is it :)

[rachel-archer]

Curious II

Alright, working title: After Shine, I haven’t started the post to AO3 yet, but I thought I’d give you guys a little bit more since I’m not sure about posting it yet...

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Danika

June 16, 2018 - Dallas, Texas

She’d been back from Japan maybe five days, and was riding the uplifting high of being close enough to California she swore she could smell her momma's cooking. Tonight was going to be amazing, she could feel it in her bones, she wasn’t exactly sure why Cage had sent her on the road with his talent, when a group of them decided to work Ring of Honor, but she’d spent the last year touring with some of the most irritating bastards she’d ever met (she sort of loved it though). The move to New York almost two summers ago, alone and in the big city, had been disarming. She swore looking back she’d spent most of the first two months crying herself to sleep.

Danny Cage had been a friend of her fathers, sort of, and he’d ‘taken her in’ out of respect for how famous her dad really was. He hadn’t actually known what to do with an almost eighteen-year old girl who wasn’t at all interested in the limelight of the ring. It’s how she became an Influencer, she supposed, they traveled constantly, so she started a blog, and back then she could make little short stories with some of Cage’s younger talent. There was one man, Martinez, that she tended to stick close to. He was large and big, and just this side of dangerous, but he’d saved her ass more than once in Japan - she’d never forget the night he punched some handsy Englishman for copping a feel of her, when she’d come to collect them from a bar. 

The thing about Martinez was he didn’t want her around, not really. But she was always underfoot. She wanted him to win, he had the power and the drive, and fuck the charisma once he got stared in the ring - he was damn hard not to look at. The thing was, he was mean. And more often than not she suffered for her attempts at helping him, but there were days (sometimes even two in a row) where he would talk with her in Spanish about his home, about his familia, about who he wanted to be, and in turn she told him stories of her familia, of being adopted by a huge Latino family, and how lucky she was. Then there were rushed mornings, where she was tossing women (sometimes multiple) out of his hotel room, and running around doing last minute checks to see if he had anything, before corralling the still intoxicated, angry bull of a man toward the taxi.

“Hey, kid, you're dad’s on the phone!” Cage shouted, and motioned to his cell phone - her’s was dead.

“Thanks, Mr. Cage.” She hurried to him, around the pool, side stepping the large man in question who was drinking before ten in the morning, stretched out over a lounger, he shot her a smile, which made her blush. “Papi?” She said into the phone, a grin pulling at her face as the familiar noise of home sounded behind her.

“Hola, Danika, we are going to come tonight to the matches, Dominik wants to see you.” She smiled warmly, Cage was just going to love hosting the Mysterio familia. “How was Japan?” She launched into telling him all about the customs and their version of wrestling, and how she’d met Chris Jericho, and boy was he protective of her, she talked about the fashion and all the gifts she’d brought back for them, but mostly she asked about her younger sister Lainey, who Dominik had been visiting with while she’d been out of the country (six months in Japan was longer than she’d anticipated). 

“We are actually going to bring her with us tonight.” Danika’s heart soared damn near out of her chest. “And Cage has agreed, you need a vacation, so while we have custody of Delainey and are waiting to figure out what’s going to happen with your mom, you're coming home tonight.” She couldn’t help but grin even wider, after they talked a bit more, and she got off the phone, she wandered back to the pool, settling onto the lounge next to Martinez.

“¿Qué te tiene tan feliz, pequeña?”

She shot Martinez a look, she knew he knew English, probably more than he let on, she responded in kind, “Mi familia is coming to the show tonight, and I’m going home for a while afterward.” The man lowered his sunglasses to look her over, he shot her a toothy grin, it both unsettled her and made her want to vibrate out of her skin, “I might even miss you.” She admitted, after a long moment. 

Dominik

Summer Slam in 2020 might have been the proverbial start to Dominik Mysterio’s career in the WWE, but it had also been the end of his semi-normal private life. His high school sweetheart had left him shortly after because his time on the road was ‘too much’ too hard for her, and for a brief stint he’d fallen into sleeping with his best friend, Danika. He and Danika shared a set of twins, named Delarosa Analucia Raquel (they call her Rosa) and Domenico Andrés Felipe (they call him Nico), but they’d kept that largely underwraps for his career. For the first time in months Danika was at a show tonight, with both almost eighteen month olds (wearing noise canceling earphones) in her arms. He picked her out easily in the crowd, from the backroom when the camera spanned the crowd a second and third time, the babies were rocking little Mysterio onesies, with his and Rey’s logo on the chest, if they were facing forward, she was standing with Aalyah and his mom. 

Angie hadn’t been so understanding about him and Danika’s questionable relationship, Danika was almost two years younger than him, and she was probably a little less understanding now, considering Danika was pregnant again. Not that Dominik minded, he liked being a dad. Danika had skipped two grades and the pair had met in middle school, she’d supported him and his dreams from the moment they met, never once had she questioned who his real father was, nor had she asked him about Rey’s legendary matches. She was one of the few people who saw him for him. Angie had been livid, when the twins were born, that Danika and Dominik refused to get married. On the flip of that, his mother was not foaming at the mouth for Aalyah and Buddy Matthews (known as Buddy Murphy or just Murphy), there was an age gap, and they’d had a rollercoaster relationship since they got together in 2020 (although their relationship had started as kayfabe). They’d broken up for a couple of months over the summer, and Buddy had been linked to Rhea Ripley, briefly before he and Aalyah reconciled. 

Tonight - well, it was rumored to be the start of legitimate hell for him. It’s the fourth of July, they had barely made it through one of the biggest pay per views of the year - Money in the Bank, and he was already on edge because he hated that they dropped the titles after only sixty some days as champions, it was a little irritating, but as far as creative cared to explain, it was the beginning of a massive storyline for him. He caught the sweet smile of Danika on the big screen. He loved his best friend, and positively adored her. She might be the only person who openly accepted Aalyah’s odd relationship with Murphy, although he was pretty sure she’d told him off for leading Rhea on (or something along those lines). Danika wasn’t interested in the WWE or their storylines, or participating, Angie had warned her that sometimes there wasn’t an option.

Last year, he could remember taking the twins to see fireworks in whatever town they were in on the road. Danika is lucky that she can travel with them year round, she’s a tiktoker and an influencer. She’s been beyond careful of sharing too much about the twins with the world - instead she had made it a going mystery. Tonight the twins were at their first real WWE show (Danika had come most of her pregnancy, and had shown up for events a few times after that when Angie or Aalyah could watch the twins). He wasn’t looking forward to facing Judgement Day tonight. He still was a bit confused about how he and Rey had become targets for the Judgement Day, but he chalked it up to the fact that his dad and Edge (Uncle Adam) were such close legends. 

“You ok, Dom?” Rey asked from where they were watching the matches in the backroom - Austin Theory had just interrupted Bobby Lashley, and honestly Dominik sort of wanted to see them wail on each other. He gazed at his dad, watched as Rey looked around the room, obviously checking for anyone who might be bilingual before he switched languages, “Tu madre tiene buenas intenciones cuando se trata de Danika, sabes que los ama a ambos. Tal vez deberías pensar en lo que significa tener otro hijo.”

“I know she means well, and we have thought about it, right now neither of us are even remotely interested in casarse solo para apoyar la tradición.” He looked around to make sure no one had heard him, “And a third isn’t going to break the bank account, currently she makes more money than me.” Dominik murmured unbothered, he wasn’t going to marry Danika just because tradition strongly suggested it, he wasn’t going to marry her just because his mom wanted him to. Sure, there was probably honor in doing that, but Danika was more than vocal on the fact that she wanted to marry for love not obligation. Dominik watched as his father seemed to think that over, “Mamá no está exigiendo que Aalyah y Buddy se casen.” 

“That is different, I think your mom still expects him to dip.” Rey hummed, as Austin started yelling about something in the ring, his right and youth or something. Dominik pulled his phone free of his shorts pocket, he tended to wear shorts and a t-shirt over his ring gear until they were ready to go out. “What are you doing?”

“Checking on Danika.” He offered, slowly, because Damian and Finn had entered the room flanked by Rhea who wasn’t medically cleared to be back, and had arrived with street clothes on - she looked adorable in the skinny jeans and oversized black t-shirt. With no cameras on the trio they looked over friendly with one another, joking and laughing. He caught Rhea’s gaze, the woman sent him a wink, he snickered a little bit to himself. They had to hurry out of the room for an interview, so Dominik pushed his phone away, and scurried out of his over shorts.

(TBC)