#yeah I'll be on team Julia

[kiarastromboli]

Teach me 4 (Chris Sturniolo x y/n)

Part. 1 Part.2 Part.3

Mesterlist.

Warning: Bit of angst, Smut content, don’t like it = don’t read it :)

Summary: Two years have passed since Chris and Y/N's breakup. Many things have changed, but apparently not the feelings Y/N has for Chris. But how will her return to Boston for the summer holidays unfold when she knows she hasn't moved on?

Note : I'm sorry for making you wait so long for this fourth part. I just wanted to make sure I did it right. Despite everything, I'm still afraid this part won't please you as much, and I apologize if the result isn't what you expected. I did my best.

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"Julia, stop, that's enough," I said, bursting into laughter at the excited screams of my best friend on the other end of the line.

"Stop?? It's been almost 2 years since we last saw each other, y/n. How do you expect me to keep calm when I'm going to see you in less than 24 hours?" She said, overexcited, and I could hear her fidgeting in every direction.

Indeed, it had been a while since I left Boston. After my parents sent me to the other side of the country, I started researching universities nearby. At the end of high school, I wasted no time in enrolling and starting my studies.

I had successfully completed my first year at the university, and now it was summer vacation. My parents agreed to let me return to Boston to enjoy my break with them and my friends.

As for my relationship with my parents... Let's say things are different, but the distance imposed on us did me good. I had finally started to live for myself, and many things had changed in my life. As for them, they were content because my results were excellent, and they could see that I had gained autonomy and maturity since my departure.

Anyway, two years had passed, and my life had changed a lot, but I was so happy to finally be back in Boston.

"Yeah, I know," I said, chuckling. "I can't wait to see you and the others," I said, turning around to lie on my back in my bed.

"We'll have to organize a party for your return!" Julia screamed in my ears.

"No, Ju, please, that's enough," I said, moving the phone away from my ear a bit, which she had just shattered again.

"Huh huh, anyway, you don't have a choice. Mom's not here for 3 days, and it's perfect for the party we're going to have when you get back!" She said, emphasizing the word 'party.'

"Juliaaaa!" I said, sighing. "Who are you even planning to invite to this party? It's not like I had a hundred friends back in high school," I said, laughing.

"We don't care, y/n. Who would refuse a party in a big house during summer vacation? I'll invite our group of friends and then check with the old art group from high school." She started to say, "Oh, and why not the football team! And the lacrosse team and the school mascot! Oh my god, I wonder if he still has his costume; that would be hilarious!" She said, laughing.

The Lacrosse team, Chris.

From that moment on, my mind went on pause, and I didn't really pay attention to what Julia was saying.

It had been so long since I had heard about him. After my departure, I hadn't received any news from him. And it was my fault. Every time Julia tried to talk to me about him, I immediately shut down. I thought with time the pain would fade, but it was false. Four months after my departure, my heart still bled as much as the last time he passed by my window. I had done everything to stop thinking about him and turn the page, and I had done it so well that I almost forgot that by returning to Boston, I would also be returning to him.

"Y/n, are you listening?" Julia said, raising her voice, bringing me back to reality.

"Huh? What? Sorry, Julia, I'm exhausted. I think I need to rest for tomorrow; the journey will be long. Can I call you back later?" I said, stuttering a bit, still destabilized by my thoughts.

"Yeah, sure, don't worry. See you tomorrow. Love you, bye," she said warmly.

"Love you, bye," I said with a small smile before hanging up and placing my phone next to me.

Chris.

Is it normal that my heart still bleeds so much for a high school crush? Am I just too sensitive? Is it because he's the only man I've ever let into my heart until now?

Questions kept piling up in my mind, and no matter how much I shook my head, they wouldn't leave me.

Anxiety eventually took over the excitement. What will happen if we see each other again? Will we even meet? Does he still think about me too? Is his heart still bleeding as well? Did he drown in sorrow when our story ended?

More and more questions. I better close my eyes; tomorrow is a big day...

_______

My morning passed extremely quickly. I woke up a bit late, so I was in a hurry. I got ready quickly, gathered my things, and said goodbye to my roommate not to miss my flight.

My parents picked me up at the airport, and I didn't expect warm hugs, but it was still hurtful to barely get a 'how are you?' The whole ride to the house was filled with discussions about my results and how my life was going there.

It had been a while since I saw them, so I just decided to suck it up, smile, and play the perfect little girl I always portrayed in Boston.

"No, I'm just saying that just because your results are satisfactory doesn't mean you don't need extra courses, you know, those things look good on your record," my mother continued to ramble when we finally arrived home.

God, this journey felt longer than my high school years!

"Yeah, I know, Mom. I'll think about it; can we discuss it later? I'm tired," I said before leaving the car.

Once my suitcase was unpacked, I thought I would have a moment of respite to finally collapse into my bed and rest from this exhausting start to the day. But that was without counting on the stormy arrival of my best friend.

"Y/NNNNN!!!" she screamed, rushing towards me to hug me.

With fatigue and confusion, it took me a few seconds to realize it was indeed her standing in front of me, and suddenly, I felt overwhelmed by my emotions. Tears started to well up, blurring my vision.

"Oh my god, Ju'!" I said, stammering and nervously laughing.

"If you start crying, you know I'll cry too, so stop that right now," she warned me, furrowing her brows not to start crying herself.

"Sorry, sorry!" I said, chuckling and wiping my eyes. "I missed you so much!!" I said, shaking my hands before hugging her again.

I spent the rest of my day with her, talking about everything that had changed in my life since my departure, and for the first time in a long time, I felt genuinely good.

I felt like I was recharging, regaining all the positive energy I had been missing.

"Anyway, you know me; I wasn't going to let a jerk like him talk to me like that. So, I preferred to end our relationship, and it's for the best!" Julia told me.

She had just told me about her latest relationship with one of the lacrosse team players from our high school, and as usual, I couldn't help but think of him.

"Are you sure everything's okay, y/n? Since I started talking about Tom, I feel like you're not really here anymore?" she asked, concerned.

"No! Well, yes, it's okay; don't worry. It's just that—" I began to say before cutting myself off with a sigh. "It's nothing; it's just my return here made me rethink everything that happened before I left," I confessed.

"You mean what happened with Chris?" she said, giving me a sympathetic look. "Sorry, I know we're not supposed to talk about him. Excuse me, I forgot—" she added before I interrupted her.

"No, Julia, it's fine; it's okay. I'm better; I assure you it doesn't bother me anymore," I lied, smiling and grabbing her hand. "I'm better, I promise it doesn't bother me anymore," I lied.

"You know I love you," she said, smiling and squeezing my hand.

"Yeah, I know, I love you too," I replied, chuckling.

After this little discussion, Julia stayed overnight at my place. I eventually gave in and agreed to have the party at her house.

Deep down, I had a bit of hope to come across Chris. I know I shouldn't, but it's stronger than me...

I mean, I would like to know what he's become. Has he continued with lacrosse? Did he go to university? Or has he found a job he's passionate about? Does he still smoke? Has he rebuilt his life with other girls after me?

In a way, I wanted to know to reassure myself that he was doing better and that what I did didn't hurt him too much.

But on the other hand, selfishly, I hoped he had waited for me, that he hadn't seen other girls, and that he was still hoping, just like me, that one day we would meet again.

And God, I know how contradictory it is of me to hope for that when that night I made it clear to him that there would be no chance of things working out. But no matter how much I fought against what I wanted, I knew that my heart was still in his hands, and his alone.

I hate myself for being so stupid and not being able to move on, even though it was just a relationship between two completely lost teenagers for a few weeks.

But I had never experienced anything so genuine. Every conversation, every look, every caress, and every kiss haunt me...

They're still there in a corner of my mind, even though I try to push them away and tell myself it's for the best. My soul screams at me to find his. Maybe that was my punishment—for making him believe that our story could last, for making him believe that the girl he truly loved existed when it wasn't the case.

_________

"Are you sure it doesn't bother you that the lacrosse team is here tonight?" Julia asked me for the hundredth time today.

After our little pajama party at my place last night, we went to her place in the afternoon to prepare for the party tonight.

We were finishing getting ready, and people were supposed to arrive any minute.

"Ju', as I've repeated to you throughout the day, it's fine, it doesn't bother me. And besides, if you don't invite the lacrosse team, what excuse will you find to invite your little Tom and make him regret it?" I said mockingly to tease her.

"Ahaha, very funny. You know very well that I would have found a way, one way or another, to make him regret it!" she added, giving me a playful punch on the shoulder, making me chuckle.

"No, more seriously, y/n, if you're not ready to see Chris tonight, I don't mind kicking the lacrosse team out of the party," she added, becoming serious again.

I sighed before responding, "You know, anyway, I can't ignore him for the rest of my life."

"Julia, I know you're worried about me, but it's behind me, I promise it'll be fine," I reassured her with a reassuring smile.

She began to open her mouth to reply, but she was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell at the entrance.

"Well, it looks like the party is about to start!" she said all hysterical, and I followed her downstairs to welcome the first people.

In the span of thirty minutes, the house filled with teenagers ready to have a blast.

There were mostly people from our old high school; we barely knew half of them, but as Julia had told me, no one refuses a party in a big house like hers during the summer vacation.

It quickly turned into chaos; people were absolutely everywhere, and bottles of alcohol were aplenty, but still no sign of Chris on the horizon.

The party was in full swing; it was almost midnight, and in my despair of not seeing Chris show up, I ended up giving in and joining the game like everyone else, downing drinks one after another, which was not really in my usual habits.

Maybe it was better this way; the more alcoholic beverages passed through my throat, the less Chris haunted my mind. After all, maybe that was my solution.

"Oh, shit, sorry!" I said, bumping into a guy with my head down, making him drop his phone.

I bent down to pick it up before him, and when I raised my head, I came face to face with a face I knew all too well.

"Y/n?" the tall brunet said, looking surprised.

It took me a few seconds to realize it was indeed Matt in front of me.

Chris's brother...

"Oh my god, Matt," I said, surprised. "You're the last person I expected to see tonight!" I said, chuckling.

"And I thought you were on the other side of the country!" he said, also chuckling before opening his arms to hug me.

"What are you doing here?" he asked once our embrace was over.

If I had been a little more sober, this situation would probably have worried me, but at the moment, I was just happy to see him. Matt and I had spent very little time together, but just enough for meeting him at this party to make me super happy.

"I came back for the holidays," I replied, smiling.

"Oh, that's great," he said, smiling too. "You could have at least let us know!" he added, laughing.

"Hey, relax, I just arrived yesterday," I said, rolling my eyes.

Our conversation quickly ended, giving way to an awkward silence. So, without really thinking, I asked him the first question that came to my mind, "Did you come alone ?"

"Oh, um..." he began to say before taking a pause, as if he didn't really know if he should continue or not. "No, I came with my brothers," he said, clearing his throat and running his hand over his neck.

Chris is here.

Suddenly, everything clicked in my head; it was obvious how stupid my question was.

My head started spinning; alcohol seemed to take hold of me even more. It was as if realizing he was there for real had suddenly spiked my blood alcohol level.

"Are you okay, y/n?" he said, placing his hand on my shoulder, looking worried as he saw me pale.

"Um, yeah - yeah, don't worry, I'm just - I've had a bit to drink, you know, it's not really my thing!" I said with a nervous laugh, trying to hide my distress at the moment.

"Do you want me to get you a glass of water? Or something else? I'm sorry if it's me who put you in this state by talking about—" he started to say before I cut him off.

"No! - Matt, it's fine, everything's okay, it's not your fault. I'm just, I just need some fresh air, that's all," I added.

"Um, okay, do you want me to come with you?" he asked, and I could feel how uncomfortable he felt for me at that moment, and that was really the last thing I wanted.

"That's really nice, Matt, but it's okay, thank you. I'll be fine," I told him with a smile before walking towards the exit.

As I moved through the crowd, I prayed not to run into Chris. I didn't want to see him. I thought I was ready and that it was what I needed, but the state I am in right now proves otherwise.

Fuck this shit, I'm going to need more alcohol for sure to handle this.

In my rush towards the exit, I grabbed the first bottle of alcohol I saw lying around, whiskey - it couldn't get any harder.

Damn, will I ever manage to move on? Am I destined to feel like this for the rest of my days?

Finally reaching the front door, I felt my eyes fill with tears, making my vision completely blurry.

Once outside on the porch, I placed the bottle on the small coffee table there, sat on the outdoor couch, and allowed a few tears to flow.

I could hear the muffled sound of music inside, and paradoxically, the cicadas and the silence of the night outside.

A few minutes ago, I was fine, happy, enjoying the party with my friends, and it took me going back to thinking about him to ruin everything.

Physically, I wasn't doing that bad; I didn't feel the need to vomit or anything. I just had a bit of a spinning head and trouble standing up.

Mentally, though, it was a different story.

My sobbing was interrupted by a noise coming from a little further in the garden.

I raised my head with a start to scan the surroundings, wiping away my tears. I especially didn't want anyone to see the only girl crying at this party. I was already not considered a cool girl at school, but this would have been the icing on the cake.

There shouldn't be anyone outside; Julia had made it clear that she didn't want anyone in her mom's garden.

I spotted a silhouette in the dark, and eventually, I caught the smell of a joint. So, I sighed before getting up to get closer.

"Get out of here, idiot! Julia doesn't want anyone in her garden. It's not that complicated to follow such a simple rule," I shouted at the stranger, rolling my eyes.

He approached me until he reached the point where the porch light could illuminate him.

I took a step back, completely thrown off when I recognized his face.

"Sorry, I just got here. I didn't know we weren't allowed to hang out in the garden," he replied softly, keeping a reasonable distance from me.

"Chris?" that's all that could come out of my mouth at that moment; I was completely bewildered. What was I supposed to do at that moment?

My tears started to flow again, and I couldn't do anything to stop it.

Chris stood there, not saying anything. He was as lost as I was at that moment, but I could see that seeing me cry was far from a pleasant thing for him.

He seemed hesitant, shook his head, and muttered to himself, rolling his eyes, "Fuck this."

The next moment, he took me into his arms, letting my head rest against his chest. It was as if he understood without me needing to express myself.

I broke down, letting my tears flow; that's what I needed—his arms around me. He held me tight, and I simply didn't want this moment to end. With my right hand, I clung to his t-shirt as if my life depended on it.

"Y/n, shhhh," he whispered, caressing my hair when my breathing became irregular due to my sobs.

I couldn't breathe; I felt suffocated. The more tears that fell, the worse it got, but, on the other hand, it felt good. All these emotions I had buried, all these tears I had prevented from flowing, were finally coming out.

"Y/n, calm down," he said, grabbing my cheeks with his hands and bringing his face to mine to look me in the eyes.

"Hey, look at me, look at me, breathe, everything's fine," he reassured me, stroking my cheek with his thumb.

"I-I'm so—" I tried to speak, but I couldn't stop crying.

"I'm so sorry, Chris," I said with a broken and fragile voice, shaking my head.

"Y/n, it's okay, stop," he said, pinching his lips, and I could see tears welling up in his eyes, despite his efforts to suppress them.

"What I did—" I started, trying to calm down, "what I did to you—I had no right to do that. I'm sorry, Chris," I said, letting my head fall once again against his chest and starting to cry even harder.

"Y/n," he said, seizing my face again to look at me, "Y/n, I’m not mad at you. Look at me, I'm fine, everything's fine; it's behind us."

"It's not behind me, Chris," I told him, shaking my head and stepping back.

"It's not behind me at all. It continues to eat me up inside every day! I tried for two years!" I told him with a forced laugh, wiping my tears. "Two years, Chris, two years trying everything to get you out of my head and to stop hoping that things would go back to normal!" I added.

"Y/n—" he said, passing his hand over his face before I cut him off.

"How can you not resent me after what I did to you!?" I said, completely lost.

"Because that's life, y/n!" he said, raising his voice and advancing towards me.

"Because people come in and out of your life, tearing your heart out against their will!" he added, and I just closed my mouth; I didn't expect him to express himself like this.

"Y/n, I could have chosen to hate you, yes, it's true! I could have chosen to keep acting like an idiot and keep destroying myself slowly, as I did in the first months after you left!" he continued to say, carried away by his emotions.

"But what would it have served? What would it have served to keep making the same mistakes all my life?" he asked, and I simply nodded, dumbfounded.

"Y/n, I tried to hate you to make the pill go down more easily, believe me. But how could I hate a girl like you?" he asked, tears in his eyes.

"How could I hate the only woman who managed to open my heart and show me that there's always hope?" he continued, this time advancing towards me, and my heart started racing in my chest.

"I got my act together because you deserved someone better. You deserved to know that I was doing well, and I knew! Believe me, I knew how much you blamed yourself," he said, wiping my tears.

"That night when you told me straight in the eyes that you no longer loved me and that you no longer believed in us, I knew you were lying to protect me," he said, and I felt tears flowing again.

"You lied to me to protect me without even thinking about yourself. You put me before you, where no one had done it before," he continued, tapping his chest.

"Chris—" I said with a weak voice.

"No, I don't blame you, y/n. I don't blame you because I know you simply didn't have the choice to do that," he said, wiping my tears.

"And these last two years, I lived in doubt because I wasn't sure 100%, but when I saw your gaze on this porch, all my doubts flew away, and now I know," he said, plunging his eyes into mine.

I looked into his eyes; I had managed to regain normal breathing, and everything he had just told me had calmed my heart.

The open wound in my chest, bleeding and letting all my distress pour out, was closing.

I didn't know what to add; I didn't know what to say to him. It felt like a million things were happening in my mind, but what could it possibly mean?

And then my thoughts escaped my mind, fixating on his blue eyes, his pure eyes, his sincere gaze fixed on me.

I had forgotten how beautiful this man was.

I became aware of his warm hands on my cheeks; my heartbeat quickened, and I thought I saw a glint of desire growing in his eyes.

The silence became heavy, yet neither of us wanted to say anything.

Our faces slowly approached, and my eyes juggled between his and his lips.

What was happening? Was it supposed to be good? Or bad?

I wanted to throw myself at him, yes, but was it correct? Was it the alcohol? Did I misinterpret what was happening?

"Chris—" I said in a soft, almost inaudible voice before he closed the gap between our lips.

Shivers ran through my entire body; it was soft and so good.

His soft lips moved perfectly against mine.

One of his hands resting on my cheek slid down to the small of my back.

Meanwhile, my two hands found their place on his chest, and our kiss deepened.

This kiss, originally meant to say ‘welcome home’, quickly became more profound.

Our tongues collided; things escalated. The hand that rested on my waist descended to grip my hip, while one of my hands left his chest to settle on the side of his neck.

I felt something reignite in me, something I hadn't felt in a very long time: desire.

I became aware of what was happening, and I snapped out of this trance by stepping back and opening my eyes.

I caught my breath before telling him, "Chris."

"I'm sorry," he said, catching his breath too.

"We can't do this; we can't revisit this. I'm back in Boston only for the holidays," I said, shaking my head, trying to think of something else.

"Sorry, I don't know what came over me; I shouldn't have." he said, running his hand through his hair.

"It's okay," I said, stepping towards him and placing my hand on his shoulder.

"I just found you again when I didn't think I'd have this chance; I want to do things right," I confessed.

"So, does that mean we're friends now?" he asked, and his question tore at my heart because, of course, I didn't want to be just friends. But things were too complicated for us to allow anything more.

"Yes, it means we're friends," I said, smiling slightly, and he returned a smile.

"I missed you," he said, hugging me.

"Missed you too," I replied, "feels like it's been ages since we last caught up," I added, chuckling.

"You must have hundreds of things to tell me then," he said, separating and smiling.

"I don't want to spoil your evening with my stories; it can wait," I told him, running my hand through my nape.

"Y/n, I went out to smoke a joint alone because this party is really lame," he said, rolling his eyes, "so believe me, I'd rather sit here with you and listen to everything you have to tell me."

"Hey, it's my comeback night, you're not allowed to say it's lame!" I told him, offended, giving him a shoulder punch.

"Okay, okay, sorry!" he said, laughing, before sitting on the couch, and I followed suit.

He took a joint out of his pocket, and before lighting it, he turned to me. "Hmm, want some?"

"Oh no, thanks, I'll stick to this tonight," I said, grabbing the bottle I'd left on the small table.

"Whiskey?" he said, surprised, "who are you?" he joked.

"Shut up, idiot, I grabbed the first bottle I came across on my way here," I said, rolling my eyes.

The conversation flowed naturally between us; it was almost as if we had never been apart. Of course, in two years, both he and I had changed a lot, so it was a bit strange. However, that connection, that complicity we had, seemed intact.

I'm not sure how long we stayed on that porch, talking, but the bottle I had drunk was already half empty, and Chris must have been on his third joint since the beginning of our conversation.

"I can't believe you told him that!" Chris said, laughing.

"I warned you; I'm not the helpless little girl I used to be," I replied, chuckling and shrugging.

"Yeah, I saw that," he said, gradually stopping his laughter.

The silence returned, and I was lost in my thoughts, already quite tipsy and in a curious mood.

I had been hesitating for several minutes, debating whether to ask him a question. The more I drank, the more I wanted to ask, even though I knew it wasn't the best idea.

"Chris?" I finally said softly, breaking the silence.

"Hmm?" he simply replied, turning his head towards me.

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked him timidly.

"You just did," he said with a smirk.

"No, seriously, stop it!" I said, laughing and giving him a shoulder punch.

He straightened up, turning completely towards me, resting his head on his hand with his arm leaning against the top of the couch. "Seriously, I'm listening," he said, still with that sly smile.

His eyes were red and squinted because of the weed, and I won't lie, it made him quite sexy... or maybe I had had a bit too much to drink; what was I even saying?

"Have you dated other girls since we broke up?" I asked, instantly regretting it.

"Y/n—" he began before I cut him off.

"Sorry, that was a dumb question. I don't know what got into me," I said, hiding my face with my hands.

He chuckled at my action. "It's okay; I don't mind answering if you answer too..." he said, shrugging.

I removed my face from my hands to look up at him.

"But are you sure you really want to hear my answer?" he added.

I just nodded.

"I've slept with other girls, yes," he began, and I cut him off without thinking.

"How many?" I asked, sitting up.

"I don't really know, two or three, but they were just casual things, especially at the beginning when I needed to distract myself," he explained, feeling the need to justify himself.

"Okay... and why?" I asked.

"Why what?" he asked, confused.

"Why casual? In two years, you had plenty of time to find another amazing girl to be with. You can't make me believe that as the first one to fall for you, no other girl wanted you," I said, rolling my eyes.

"I didn't want to..." he confessed to me. "I— " he started before sighing, "I'm not sure if it's a good idea to explain why," he said, looking away.

"No, tell me; I want to know now," I urged him.

"Y/n," he said, looking me in the eyes.

"Chris, please, it's okay; we're just talking," I said, eager to know more.

"None of those girls were comparable to you," he admitted, "and I know it sounds silly, but it's just the truth. I couldn't get interested in those girls, and it wasn't their fault; they were interesting, and in another context, it might have worked with them," he said honestly.

"But my mind kept comparing them to you; none of them talked like you," he started saying, "none of them laughed like you," he added.

"None of them kissed like you," he said, looking at my lips, and I felt my panties dampen at that. Fuck.

"Every time I slept with another girl, I couldn't help but think of you, your body, and your moans," he said, lost in his thoughts.

"I couldn't stop thinking about how your lips wrapped so perfectly around me," he said, and I had to slightly open my mouth to get more air.

He shook his head, snapping back to reality. "Anyway, until now, I haven't been able to settle down with another girl because the only one I have in my mind is you," he said shyly.

I stared at him, mouth agape. I was dying to have him; everything he just told me had me way too excited.

"And you?" he asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I said, clearing my throat.

"And you, have you dated other guys?" he said, chuckling.

"Oh!" I said, blushing. "No, none," I replied timidly.

"None?" he repeated, surprised, and I simply shook my head from side to side.

"And how many guys have you slept with then?" he asked.

I took a moment to answer, embarrassed by the situation.

"Y/n, it's okay; you can tell me. I just told you mine!" he said, rolling his eyes.

"I-" I said before sighing and biting my lip, and he furrowed his brows.

"None..." I said softly.

His eyes widened at my response.

"Are you serious?" he asked to make sure.

"Stop it; you know very well that I'm not the type to sleep around," I said, feeling awkward.

"No, I know that; it's just hard for me to conceive that you've managed two years without sex," he said with a smirk.

"Wait, what does that mean?" I said, furrowing my brows.

"Y/n, when we were together, you played the innocent a lot, but you can't deny that you were just as horny as I was, if it’s not more…" he said, laughing.

"Chris!" I said, bringing my hand to my mouth before chuckling as well.

"No, I'm not saying it's a bad thing; on the contrary, it was something I loved about you," he said honestly.

"I even found it rather sexy..." he added, shrugging.

I squeezed my thighs together at that moment, and Chris noticed because I saw his eyes leave mine and land on my thighs.

"We should change the subject," I said, taking a deep breath and running my hands over my thighs, a bit embarrassed.

"Sorry, I didn't know it would have that effect on you," he said, unable to help but smile.

"It's okay," I said, biting my lip.

We looked at each other for a moment, both feeling a bit awkward.

His eyes briefly shifted to my chest, and that was the last straw for me.

Without thinking twice, I straddled him, immediately connecting our lips. He didn't waste a second to put his hands on my hips, making me moan.

He took the opportunity to slide his tongue into my mouth, and I started rocking my hips against him, making him groan in response.

His hands came to grip my hips to stop my movements, eliciting a frustrated groan from me.

"Y/n, this isn't right," he said, separating our lips.

"Chris, I don't care," I said, reconnecting our lips instantly. I was too hungry to stop there.

My hip movements resumed, and I could feel his erection through his jeans.

My hands were on his cheeks, and his hands firmly held my hips.

"You said we should do things right and that we were friends," he said, separating our lips again.

"Y/n, you've been drinking, and I don't want it to be something you regret tomorrow," he added.

"Some friends sleep together sometimes..." I said innocently, playing with his necklace.

He bit his lip and looked away. If there was one thing that could make this man weak, it was my way of acting innocently with him.

"Y/n," he said, closing his eyes and letting out a frustrated groan.

I knew I could make him crack; I just had to tease him enough.

I buried my head in his neck to kiss and leave a few love bites.

He tossed his head back to give me better access. "Fuck..." he whispered, and I slowly resumed my hip movements.

"Y/n, stop this," he said weakly, still with his fingers dug into my hips.

"Make me stop," I whispered in his ear before leaving a trail of kisses on his jawline.

"Y/n," he said in a firm voice this time, grabbing me by the neck to make me face him. "Don't play with my nerves like that."

"Chris, please," I said, gripping the wrist of the hand around my neck.

"I'm the one asking you. It's just a favor we're doing each other as friends," I said with a slight moan. "You help me fill the void I've felt for 2 years, and I give you the opportunity not to have to just imagine fucking me for once," I added.

"You said it yourself, no girl moans like me, no one kisses you like me, and their lips don't wrap around you as well as mine do," I continued to convince him.

"It's just a one-time thing. After that, I swear we'll be just friends for real, please, Chris, I need you," I pleaded.

I don't know if it was the alcohol or simply the lack of sex, but I never thought I'd be capable of saying such things to a guy in my life.

"Just a one-time thing?" he asked.

"Just a one-time thing," I replied, nodding.

"Fuck, this is so fucking wrong, y/n. What are you doing to me?" he said before kissing me again without removing his hand from my neck.

He slid his hand under my dress to grab my ass and massage it while helping me grind against him.

"Mmph, Chris," I moaned into our kiss.

"Shhhh," he said, slapping my ass.

I started pulling at his T-shirt to signal that I wanted him to take it off.

"Not here, princess," he said, smiling against my lips before separating them. "Stand up," he ordered, and I obeyed.

He stood up as well, firmly grabbing my hand before guiding us inside.

We quickly made our way through the crowd, passing by Nick, who tried to stop us, but Chris simply ignored him, too busy at that moment trying not to bend me over one of the tables in the house to fuck me in front of everyone.

We climbed the stairs, and Chris opened the first door he saw, which happened to lead to Julia's room. If she finds out about this, she's going to kill me.

He slammed the door shut behind us, making sure to lock it.

Then, he pressed me against that door, tightening his grip around my neck just enough to restrict the blood flow, causing my head to spin.

He wasted no time in forcefully removing my dress, it was so abrupt that he could have torn it if he wanted.

"Chris, be careful, take it easy," I said, chuckling, before he silenced me with yet another kiss.

"Don't ask me to fucking take it easy when you've spent the last 10 minutes teasing me on that damn couch, y/n," he said, removing his T-shirt.

He took off my bra, adding, "I fucking missed you."

The next moment, he slid his hands to the back of my thighs and lifted me, making me moan in surprise. It seemed like the hold he had on me back then hadn't changed.

He reconnected our lips, heading towards the bed where he tossed me, making me moan again from the sudden force.

"Chris," I sighed in a heated breath as I sat up, facing him at waist height.

But before I could reach for his belt to undress him, he violently pushed me back. "You'll move when I tell you to move. Have you forgotten your manners?" he said, a smirk playing on his lips.

His gaze was dark and intense; he could have threatened to kill me, and I would have moaned because of how much he affected me.

"Touch yourself," he ordered.

"What?" I said, feeling my face turn all red.

"Don't make me repeat myself; you heard me," he said authoritatively.

I swallowed hard before starting to take off my panties.

"I didn't tell you to remove your panties," he said, interrupting me.

"But—" I began to say before he cut me off.

"Is it so hard to be a good girl, Y/n? In two years, have you forgotten everything?" he said, shaking his head.

His words made me even wetter; I dreamed of one thing only: feeling him inside me.

"No, sorry," I said before starting to make circular motions on my clit through my panties.

He licked his lips, slowly removing his belt without taking his eyes off me.

"Stand up," he ordered.

Without hesitation, I stood up, still looking at him innocently in the eyes.

"You are so fucking beautiful, Y/n," he said, holding me by the chin.

His compliment made me immediately smile and blush.

"Your wrists," he asked, letting go of my chin, and I handed him my wrists.

With his belt, he tied my wrists together before kissing me.

He leaned towards me without breaking our lips to signal me to lie down on the mattress, which I did.

He separated our lips for a brief moment to press my arms above my head. "Don't move," he whispered before sliding his lips into my neck.

"My poor baby, I can't believe you've abstained for 2 years," he said before descending his kisses towards my chest.

"Now that I'm here, I'll take care of that for you, my princess," he said, circling one of my nipples with his lips to kiss it.

"Chris, please," I moaned, wriggling a bit.

"Shhhh, be patient, believe me, I won't stop there," he said before starting to descend his kisses towards my lower abdomen.

The closer he got to my thighs, the more I felt like I was losing my mind. It had been so long since I had felt that burning desire between my legs.

"Fuck, Chris, stop, please, I need you," I pathetically begged when he started to kiss my pussy through my panties.

He just chuckled at my pleas before removing my panties and diving his head between my legs.

He surrounded my clit with his lips, and I couldn't hold back the moans that escaped my mouth at that moment.

Lost in my own pleasure and especially completely carried away by the sensation of his tongue against me, I brought my two hands, still tied, to his hair to hold on.

He lifted his lips from me, making me raise my head towards him. "No, don't stop, Chris!" I said desperately.

"I told you not to move, Y/n," he reminded me, placing my hands back above my head.

"I'm sorry, I had—" I was interrupted in the middle of my sentence by his hands abruptly grabbing my waist to turn me over.

"What are you doing?" I said in a surprised moan when he grabbed my hips to put my ass in the air.

"This way, you'll have a much harder time moving," he said, and I could hear the smugness in his tone.

He kissed the base of my lower back, making me shiver, ensuring that my head remained pressed against the mattress below me.

He then placed a few kisses on my ass before resuming his work between my legs.

One of his hands kneaded my ass while he teased my entrance with the fingers of his other hand.

"Oh my—Chris," I said when he accelerated his tongue movements.

The sensation in my lower abdomen that I hadn't felt in so long was building up again; I was extremely close.

"C-Chris, I'm gonna cum," I moaned, burying my head in the pillow to try to muffle the sound of my moans.

"Give it to me, baby," he said, inserting two of his fingers into me and reconnecting his tongue to my clit.

"Fuck, Chris!" I exclaimed, feeling my legs tremble, and within seconds, my orgasm overwhelmed me.

Chris didn't detach his lips from me; he continued, and his fingers didn't slow down either. "Chris, I- I can't," I told him, breathless.

He detached himself from me at the sound of my words and turned me over again onto the mattress to kiss me.

I put my hands, still tied behind his neck, to bring him impossibly closer to me, which seemed to amuse him, judging by the way he smiled against my lips.

"You taste so fucking good, baby," he complimented me between our kisses, and I wrapped my legs around his waist.

I was still very sensitive, but I wanted more, I needed more.

So, I tightened my legs around his waist so that his erection pressed against my pussy.

"Are you that impatient?" he chuckled before reaching between our bodies to unbutton his pants, and I just nodded.

He straightened up to completely remove his pants and boxers before returning to position himself between my legs.

"If it hadn't been so long, I would've edged you for hours," he said, rubbing his tip against my thighs without entering.

"Chris, please, stop talking—" Before I could finish my sentence, he entered me without warning, making me moan in harmony with him.

"Oh my god, y/n, fuck, you're so—" I didn't let him finish his sentence, immediately capturing his lips in a passionate kiss.

He started moving inside me slowly, taking care to go all the way in with each thrust.

Our lips were still connected, our tongues perfectly synchronized—everything was perfect with him.

His pelvic movements accelerated, prompting me to throw my head back to moan once again.

"God, I'll never get tired of the sounds you make. Fuck, it's too good," Chris said, moaning as well, his head completely immersed in my neck, where he left fiery kisses.

"Chris—mmph," I started to speak but couldn't formulate my words correctly. Chris fucked me so well that I lost my words.

"What, baby? What do you want?" he said, seizing my chin to make me look into his eyes.

"I want to—fuck!" I said, moaning and closing my eyes. I felt him everywhere in me; it was too good.

"You can do it, sweetheart. Take your time," he said with a smirk, not slowing down.

"I want to touch you," I said, moaning again. "Please, Chris, I need to feel you," I begged.

He momentarily straightened up without pulling out to unfasten the belt around my wrists.

"Here you go, baby," he said in a soft voice before kissing me again.

This time, my hands went into his hair, neck, and back. I dug my nails into his back and biceps, completely controlled by my pleasure, and began to feel all these sensations invade me.

"Chris, oh my god, I'm so close!" I whined.

He sat up on his knees without pulling out. I moaned as he grabbed my legs and pulled them closer, penetrating even deeper.

"Mmmh, Chris," I moaned, raising my head to look at him.

"Shhhh," he said, placing my legs on either side of his head and encircling my knees with his arms to make sure I couldn't move.

He began thrusting into me at an unbearable speed, and the new angle allowed him to go really deep. His eyes were fixed on the lower part of my belly, where he could see himself entering and exiting. "Fuck," he exclaimed, keeping his mouth open.

"Chris! Chris, fu—god, don't stop!" I said, feeling my orgasm hit me hard when I started clenching around him. He spread my legs again to kiss me while still penetrating me, allowing me to ride out my orgasm.

He gradually stopped his pelvic movements while continuing to kiss me. Our kiss was tired and messy, but he didn't stop there.

We were both catching our breath. He separated our lips, pressing his forehead against mine. We stayed like that for a few seconds before he straightened up and withdrew from me, making me moan because I was still extremely sensitive.

I expected anything but what he did the next second. He grabbed me by the hips and turned me over again, pushing me on all fours.

"Chris, what—" Before I could finish my sentence, he started pounding into me without mercy, making me cry out in surprise and pleasure.

"Oh my fuck, Chris, I can't!" I told him, burying my head in the pillow once again.

"Yes, of course, you can. I know you have one more for me," he said without slowing down this time, bringing his fingers to my clit, making my eyes roll back in my head.

It felt so good, but I was still too sensitive; he didn't give me enough respite. I felt like my heart was going to give out from the intensity. I couldn't help but moan, even though I was unsure if I really wanted him to stop because I could already feel my third orgasm approaching.

"Do you really want me to stop?" he said in my ear, slowing down and pressing his chest against my back.

When he slowed down, I felt my orgasm slipping away, and I thought I was losing my mind. "No! Don’t stop, I can take it!" I said, shaking my head.

He wrapped his arm around my throat to hold me in place "that's my girl," he said and sank his teeth into my shoulder, mixing pleasure and pain in the best way possible. He sped up again, his fingers massaging my clit, and his shaft going as deep as possible, making me see stars.

I was close, and so was he; I could feel it in the way he moaned. "Y/n, oh my—"

"Chris, I'm so close," I cried, feeling my orgasm on the verge of exploding.

"Give it to me, baby. Fuck, cum for me, princess," he said, and that was all I needed to climax. This one was more intense than the others, stronger and more hypnotic.

After a few more thrusts, Chris also came, moaning my name in my ear. "Oh my god," he said, breathless, before pulling out and collapsing beside me.

I didn't move a muscle, too exhausted from everything that had just happened. "Are you okay, baby?" he asked, concerned, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just need to catch my breath," I replied, chuckling.

He laughed too before getting up to find something to clean me up. After a few minutes catching my breath in Chris's arms, we decided to get dressed and join our friends downstairs before someone noticed our absence.

And when I say someone, I obviously mean Julia, who will probably kill me when she finds out I slept with Chris in her bed.

Before leaving Julia's room, Chris kissed me one last time. "I missed you so fucking much," he said.

I chuckled before replying, "I missed you too, but we need to leave this room now." I said playfully, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder.

We finally left the room, and our paths separated when we arrived in the living room because Nick needed to talk to Chris privately.

I was about to join my best friend when I felt someone grab my arm.

I turned to see who it was and found myself face to face with a girl with brown hair and light eyes.

"Who the fuck are you?" she asked me, full of rage.

I was completely confused because I didn't know this girl at all, and I didn't understand why she was addressing me this way.

"Hmm? Y/n, who are you?" I asked, furrowing my brows.

Her eyes widened when she heard my name, and she let out a fake laugh at my response.

"I'm Tess, Chris's girlfriend!" she said with a big smile before approaching me. "So I suggest you keep your distance from him if you don't want me to bash your little depraved slut face!" she said, pushing me before turning on her heel and walking away.

Chris's girlfriend?!!

What the fuck?

Taglist: @chrisloyalgf @christopherscamopants @blahbel668 @thematthewlover @mattsturnioloarchive @carolinalikesthings @bernardsgf @whicked-hazlatwhore @hearts4chris

[canirove]

My neighbour Rúben | Chapter 12

Author's note: Sorry about these chapters being so short btw 🙈 I could put two together, but then the story would be shorter, and what is going to be happening next makes more sense the way it is divided right now. So... yeah. Sorry 🫣

Previous chapter | Next chapter

Masterlist

"Merry Christmas, neighbour."

"Merry Christmas, Rúben" I smiled.

"Did you check if I'm under your tree?" 

"Haven't gone downstairs yet, but that doesn't look like my grandma's living room" I said, squinting my eyes at my phone's screen. "And who said you were what I asked Father Christmas for?"

"Oh, yes. Why ask for something that already is yours" he said with that smirk of his. Thank God it was still dark in my room and he couldn't properly see how badly I was blushing. "Any news about your parents?"

"Nope, nothing. Only that my uncle and his family will come later to say hello."

"Are they team dad too?"

"They are team I don't want to get in trouble. But what about you? How did the night go?"

"It was ok, just the four of us."

"Any plans for today?"

"My mum is cooking, so that will definitely cheer us all. And I'll stop by Lucy's place to give Julia her present."

"What did you get her?"

"A new Elsa costume with a wig and heels."

"Oh, she's gonna love it. And drive us all crazy with the noise those heels are gonna make."

"Well, the one living downstairs is Mrs. Jones, so I don't feel sorry for her."

"Rúben!" I laughed. "Poor woman, she's just alone and wants some attention from a hot young man."

"Did you just call me hot?" 

"I... My grandma is calling me."

"Yeah, sure" he chuckled.

"It's true." And as if hearing me, she opened my room's door, turning on the light.

"Sorry to interrupt, sweetie, I heard you laughing" she said. "Are you ready for breakfast?"

"One minute."

"Say hello to your grandma" Rúben said.

"Who is that? Are you talking with a man?" grandma asked, her eyes going wide.

"It's just an Instagram video."

"And why did I hear the word grandma? Who is he?"

"No one."

"Then why is your face so red?" 

"Grandma, it is no one" I insisted.

"Ok... I'll see you downstairs" she said, closing the door.

"Thank you for that, Rúben."

"I was just being polite" he said with an innocent smile.

"Don't you dare smile at me like that" I said, trying to sound pissed. "She's not gonna let it go, you know? She's probably telling my grandad downstairs already."

"And?"

"Yesterday they spent hours trying to find me a boyfriend among the Arsenal players. If they find out I’m talking with a man…"

"You were talking with a friend that happens to be a man. I don't know why you can't tell them that" he shrugged.

"Because they won't believe me. In case you haven't noticed, the colour of my face gives it all away."

"So they'll know you fancy me."

"I don't..."

"You don't like me? C'mon. You've said it yourself, your face gives it all away. And if you didn't like me, you wouldn't have kissed me back. You wouldn't have let me kiss you at all."

“I just… I…”

“You like me. Say it. Make it my Christmas present.”

“What?”

“Repeat after me: I like you, Rúben.”

“I…”

“Yes?” he said while arching an eyebrow, that smirk of his starting to show.

“Fine. I like you, Rúben” I said, covering my face with my free hand the moment those words left my mouth.

“You are so cute” he laughed. “Thank you for making my Christmas morning ten times better.” 

“Yeah, sure” I chuckled, still avoiding to look at him on my screen.

“You did. Anyway, I gotta go check on Ivan. Keep me updated about your day, ok?”

“You too.”

“Merry Christmas, neigbour.”

“Merry Christmas, Rúben.”

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“So, who is he?” grandad asked the moment I sat down to have breakfast.

“Who is… Grandma!”

“We have no secrets, sweetie” she shrugged. “And to be honest, your smile right now would have told us something happened, and you know you are the worst at keeping secrets.”

“He is just a friend who happens to be a man, nothing else” I said, repeating what Rúben had told me earlier.

“I’ve never seen you smile like that after speaking with any of your other friends, boys or girls” grandma said. “He must be special.”

“I’m smiling because he made a joke and I was still thinking about it, not because I fancy him.”

“What’s his name?” grandad asked.

“Does it matter?”

“We’ll call him Mr. X, then.”

“Please don’t” I quickly said. “It sounds…”

“Like the name of someone who does movies for adults” grandma giggled.

“Ok, fine. Then at least tell us the first letter of his name.”

“R.”

“Mr. R? Nah, that sounds weird. Richard. Let’s call him Richard. Rich. Richy.”

“Ricky, like Ricky Martin” grandma said. “Is he as attractive as Ricky Martin?”

“The poor girl probably doesn’t know who Ricky Martin is, love” grandad said. “She is too young.”

“I know who he is. But we can call him Richy.” The idea of calling someone the size of Rúben, Richy, was too funny. “And he isn’t ugly.”

“Oh, she is finally telling us something! How did you meet?” grandma asked.

“He is our neighbour.”

“So he is attractive and posh.”

“He isn’t posh.”

“Attractive and rich. He is a catch” grandma winked. “What does he do for a living?”

“He…” I couldn’t say that he was a football player. They would go nuts. “He works for Manchester City.” Which wasn’t a lie. 

“Is he a football player?” grandad asked, raising his voice. “Which players do I know whose name starts with an R?”

“I said that he works for them, not that he is a player.”

“What does he do, then? Work office? If he is living in that building, he must have one of the big and important jobs” grandma said.

“Something like that, yes. I don’t know the details.”

“Rodri?” grandad asked.

“Who?”

“That’s the only City player I know whose name starts with an R. Is he your neighbour? He is Spanish, so is Lucy, and you speak Spanish. It makes sense.”

“She was speaking with him in English, not Spanish. And besides, she said he isn’t a player, he does office work” grandma pointed out.

“Shame. He doesn’t look like a bad lad. Though Ramsdale is way better, you’ll see” grandad said, back to eating his breakfast.

And that’s where the conversation ended, with him going back to talking about tomorrow's game and how excited he was about me meeting Ramsdale. 

[togethernow]

Get ready for an extra special edition of Headcannons!

Anyways RHYTHM HEAVEN PRIDE HEADCANONS YIPPEE!!!!

They're in no particular order btw

ANYWAYS HERE WE GO

The Paddlers and the Cosmic Paddlers (and I guess the space and cosmic dancers too) are agender!

Yeah their whole general species is agender. They also reproduce asexually (as in paddler babies just pop up out of nowhere)

Oh yeah... on the topic of people from space...

Cosmic girl is trans! (A trans girl to be more specific)

DJ Yellow and DJ Blue are both gay

And dating!

Aheehee they're so so so SO cute

I think DJ Blue always had a crush on Yellow, and since Yellow is always was a physical affection sort of guy even towards friends, Blue always felt super flustered Yellow would hug him or something.

For Yellow, it took a while, but I think he fell in love with Blue after about 2-3 years.

Student Rocker/Deshi/Cecil/whatever you call them is non binary!

They go by they/them

JJ's demi aroace!

He's pretty standoffish and I feel like if he did fall in love with someone, he would still act all cold and distant. (There will be signs though!)

hehehehe flustered JJ...

Wandering Samurai's aroace!

Literally cause while they were out dating n stuff he was here studying the blade

Also I thought it would be funny cause a bunch of ladies like him

I mean he's still flustered cause you would be too if a lady just up and lunged at you, right?

He's more interested in keeping the peace instead of saving the damsels though

UN UN UN UN UN UN UN UN UN UN-

And it's allllll you guy's fault TwT/hj

They are the epitome of banger date idea: fight another couple

Adore is pan!

Heh heh fun fact she actually has a pretty big crush on Assistant (you guys didn't hear that from me btw)

Oh yeah, speaking of Assistant...

She likes girls :3

Does she like Adore back? Idk maybe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

(UUUUGGGGGHHHH WHY IS THERE ONLY THIS AND THE SPRITE OF HER FROM NINTENDO BADGE ARCADE AND NOT THE ONE WHERE SHE LOOKS SUPER HAPPY)

(and yes I'm getting these from rhwiki.net, the superior rhythm heaven wiki)

Ann Glerr is aroace and agender!

In terms of everything in life, it really said "Nah, I'd fish."

She goes by she/it btw

Squirrel dude's also aroace!

(Gee, so many aroace people today...)

(Totally no bias here >:3)

Also because I thought it would be funny

I feel like for Squirrel especially, he legitimately does NOT understand what romance is, despite how long he's been with his colleagues for

Like he just thinks it's like friendship+, which it kinda is? But not at the same time?

Idk Squirrel man, keep studying the science of love and one day, you might get it

And last but not least...

THEY!!!!!!

OML

THEY LITERALLY

AUAUAAUUAUGUGUGUGHGUHGUGHAUUAGUHUAHUGUHU

AAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH

Ok gotta explain them

Skip this next section if you don't want to read a MASSIVE MASSIVE LORE DUMP

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uhhhh so basically in high school Pitcher was uhhh...

not doing too good

For reasons I'll probably explain in the future, (idk how far into the future), she was hit with the dysphoria™ and had this whole like mysterious/tough kid persona

I'll be referring to Pitcher as he in this next segment, as that was how he wanted to be called back then

He was part of the school's coed baseball team, and would wear his baseball uniform all the time, avoiding classes and hiding out in the boy's bathroom or the roof for most of the day.

He had very little friends, like Julia/Senpai/His Crush/whatever you call her since they were childhood friends, They weren't that close, though, since Senpai was very busy with studying or student council meetings or whatever (she was, in fact, the Ultimate Senpai!). Pitcher had A Boy/Romeo/Kouhai as his main friend for a while, due to their troubles in making friends with others (Pitcher cause of his standoffish-ness and Kouhai because of his social anxiety).

But there was also...

Reporter.

Oh sweet, chipper, who shines just like the sun Reporter. Reporter was a popular girl who got along with just about anyone you could think of. That made her job of being the reporter for the school newspaper very easy. That, in turn, made her appear at many schools events, like school dances, tournaments, and... baseball games.

Reporter was supposed to interview players for a segment in the newspaper the next week and she noticed a person she never saw in the school before.

Pitcher saw her approaching and hid somewhere before she could interview him. 'Damn, it's that annoying ass girl' he probably thought. From behind the bleachers, Pitcher watched her interview his other teammates, making sure that she wouldn't come her way. However, as he looked at her, he realized something.

'Ghghghhh... She's so damn cute!'

I mean like, Pitcher VERY WELL knew he was attracted to girls, even in like middle school, but most of those girls were like, beautiful celebrities on tv n such. Reporter was different, though. The way she was always so chip n cheerful, the way she always added meaningful comments in conversations no matter what, Pitcher felt something deep inside him. Like he wanted to squeeze the life out of her, but not in a malicious way or anything.'

'Damn, no wonder why everyone wants to talk to her...'

His hand covered his burning cheeks. Was he really getting this flustered over Reporter of all people??? He growled and scampered home, not wanting to think of it any longer.

Meanwhile, the event was winding down, and Reporter realized that she still didn't get to talk to the infamous, elusive pitcher. She looked and asked everywhere, but she couldn't find him no matter what. Eventually, she reluctantly went home herself.

On the way, her mind exploded with various scenarios on how a conversation with the pitcher would go. What would it be like to sit down face to face with him and talk about whatever? What would the inner thoughts of someone like that be like? Why did she never see him until today? Before she knew it, her heart was racing, and not just because she really wanted to talk to him. That day, she vowed

"I'm gonna talk to him no matter what!!!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Annnnnnd ramble over

If you made it to the end, you're a real one. Thanks for sticking along. Happy pride month to you all!!

[allwormdiet]

Insinuation 2.7

Finally, some good fucking interpersonal developments

They cheer when she joins the team? That's outrageously cute, stop that right now

Also yeah Taylor you're faking companionship for personal gain of course you feel bad, that's been like 10% of the torment you specifically have been subjected to (I'm not supposed to know about Julia's shit yet but whatever)

Again, very clever ideas made less clever by the ensuing practicalities of the situation. The thing with the spider silk all over again, but now the stakes are higher, and that's probably gonna be a recurring thing

God but it kills me how low Taylor's self-esteem is, poor girl. Emma and the others have done such heinous fucking damage. Someone rizz this girl up or something (am I using "rizz" right), let her feel like she can be attractive

Jesus how touch-starved is Taylor at this point in her life

How often does anyone just go for casual physical closeness with her

Does her dad even hug her that much anymore? Does she let him, or does she bristle at the vulnerability and push him away?

...I wonder if Lisa knows this and is taking it into account.

God, finally, a normal view of the Docks. I cannot begin to describe my relief at the fact that the narration here was like, fine, actually. Thank you for lightening up on them Taylor, please let this last

The Undersiders' hangout sounds about like what I'd expect, although the whole "abandoned factory beneath the loft" part I think escaped me before. Very Lost Boys of them

...I have to imagine it smells at least a little rank in there. Two teenage boys, plus dog smell, and I can't imagine Rachel is super observant of her hygiene, and I don't know enough about Tattletale to say whether she's bad about cleanliness but even if she was that's one against, I dunno, six if you count the dogs. Maybe they invest part of the team budget into Febreze or something

This is... sweet, actually. From both sides. They're making accommodations for Taylor, and Taylor is accepting those accommodations to do them all a favor

Insane that a Ward like, is actively trying to murder someone. What kind of beef does Sophi Shadow Stalker even have with Brian?

I feel some kind of sadness at how young Brian is and how much he acts like an adult. There's almost never a happy story behind kids or teenagers who act that way. It'd be nice if he got more opportunities to relax and act his age, buuuut I don't think this is that kind of story

What a cool power though, honestly. I know the migraines are a motherfucker and I'd probably be a huge baby about that if I had to deal with it, but just shortcutting so much guesswork about like, everything with people and things

Also it's great to see Taylor realize how bad she might have fucked up in trying to infiltrate this team

Heh, yeah, exactly

I wonder what Lisa's reading off of all this. She must have remarkable self-discipline to not be cackling evilly rn

Ruh roh Raggy

Current Thoughts

I love these kiiiiiiiids

It pains me to know they've all had a shit enough time in their lives to all trigger as parahumans, especially being spoiled on Alec's deal as a spawn of Heartbreaker and Lisa's borderline prison sentence under Coil and Brian's struggle with his family. Idk if we ever get more insight into Rachel's path, I'd like to hear it even though I don't think she'd be quick to talk about herself, but I'm gonna guess it's about as sad as the others

I want them all to be happy, and keep being friends without the pressure from Coil to all do crime shit

I know I don't get what I want

so I'll just enjoy the time spent with them best I can

...Anyway I wonder if Taylor's gonna get a mild fear of dogs after this or what

[deimosbreakfrost]

Total Drama Island (2023) S2 "Rewrited" au

A possibly cringe Fan Fic that I'll hate on the future

So, this is a fan fic of an Rewrited au of mine... """""Rewrited""""" because I'll change alot of things and I am just making this fan fic for fun while showing you guys what I would change.

Okay, let I start this modern tragedy already.

First part:

Episode 01, The kids will (not) be okay:

-The episode starts with Chris, Chef and the entire cast from the Total Drama island (2023) on a plane, going to a new season in a "new" place. Chris was talking to someone by a Walkie Talkie.

*Biiz*

???: Mr. McLean, seriously that you're lying to them saying that they're going to some kind of "total drama: World Tour" 2?

Chris: umm... Maybe--?

???: McLean! That's pratically clickbai-

Chris: Hey! Don't you dare use this "modern generation" language on me! Anyways, be ready because we're almost getting to there.

???: ah, ok-

- Chris ends the transmission

Chris: wow! That boy still annoying...

Chef: Chris, we're recording!

Chris: Ah, don't worry! After this introduction we will be finally free! ... I mean, just me, not you!

Chef: grr...

Chris: ah, calm down! Anyways, it's been a year 'total drama fans'! Since we don't see Each other THAT long, I'll give y'all a quick recap.

Last season on Total Drama Island:

16 new contestants showed up with the dream of taking that 1 million dollars price.

And the eliminations we're surprising!

Caleb was just there. until he even had the chance of doing something, Bowie made everyone eliminate him! Poor boy...

Nichelle humiliated herself Infront of everyone.

Emma HAD a chance of showing to everyone on live tv that Chase is (or was) a horrible person, but Chase was luckier than her.

Julia was boring, the way she talked, the "spiritual, love and peace" things that she normally talks about was annoying enough to her team.

Wayne would do anything and everything for his best friend Raj, and he was more than happy when he found out about his buddy's secret!

Scary Girl was Creepy, but not for Axel and Ripper! They we're her Unic friends that she had in a while, and the Unic ones that think that her actions are more annoying than scary.

Priya was pathetic! Seriously that she think her parents are so great that she easily go insane when someone criticizes them? Pff, surely the most well deserved elimination of that season.

Mk was smart, a little too much. And because of that, she went from being Bowie's Allie, to be a traitor! Well, it was that, that Bowie made everyone believe.

Raj has a secret, he loves Bowie! And because of that, he made our fandom go wild for them! The fandom loves them! Especially that people from that one Social Media that has "Tum" on the start...

And Chase knowed About that! The fact that Bowie and Raj we're dating, of course. Not the fact that the fandom is crazy for them. So, as a indirect revenge for MK, he was double eliminated with Raj!

Ripper and Damien have a... Interesting friendship. A "nerd hater" and a nerd!

Ripper was... Adorable? Yeah, he went from being a pathetic alpha male wannabe, from being a even nicer version of Owen, and because of that "adorable" personality that he gained he made Damien, Zee and especially Chase be his best friends! (Axel and scary girl too) Good for him, I guess.

Damien screamed a lot until His friends convinced him that being public humiliated in live television isn't that bad!

And Millie was nice, she tried to write a book about how much this generation is potentially bad, but after Priya's elimination, she learned that it was just a exception! There IS good people from this generation, you just need to find the right ones! (Priya not included)

And let's go to the final 3...

Axel, she had everything to win! The strength, the power, the personality... But, Ripper and Scary Girl missed her, so they finded a way to make her go back to them! That's what you gain when you are friends with a fake emo and ex-bad boy.

Zee, how did he got in there?! He could easily be eliminated until the merge but no one wanted to! And if wasn't for the "milk" part of the last challenge, he would have won! But he didn't.

And Bowie won! He used and eliminated half of the cast not counting with Wayne and Raj, of course.

Chris: So yeah, EVERYONE that I mentioned is back!

-Then it cuts to Chris in the passagers cabin with the 16 participants.

All the 16 participants are in here

The one that went out first:

Caleb: I'll make YOU guys regret voting me off...

-Caleb said in anger, while pointing at Bowie

Bowie: geez...

Ripper: you got a bit 'edgy' after 1 year, huh?

Caleb: what?

The most misunderstood one:

Ripper: huh?

Chase: wait, since when Ripper is misunderstood?

And the worse one:

Chase: excuse me?!

Emma: pff...

And of course, the winner:

Bowie: yeah, exactly, me!

Chris: well, I don't know if you guys noticed but Bowie was the Unic villain after a long time that won a season, the Unic one that did that was heather.

Bowie: wait, reall-

Chris: okay, this is slowly getting boring! So let's make the things end quickly!

-the ground below all the participants opened up, making all the participants fall into The water.

Chris: Ahaha... I'll miss that, and Chef already leaved without even saying "bye"!!

-Chris quickly ran to the drivers cabin, grabbing the plane's volant and taking control of it.

Chris: arg! Okay, I'll be quick! This surely the last time you all will see me hosting this program! Yeah, this is Sooo sad! But listen up! The future is bullet proof and the aftermath WILL be secundary! And time to them do it now and do it loud! I am Chris McLean, and I'll never, EVER see y'all again! Bye, losers!!

-after Chris leaved everyone behind, the scene cuts to the brand new hosts

...

Topher: Yeah, we're finally hosting our favorite reality show ever!

Sierra: But it's just so sad that Chris is gone for like... Forever?

Topher: nah, judging by the way he is he'll surely randomly appear when we Least expect it or something. But anyways, yeah, Chris finally gave his role as host for someone else!

Sierra: two to be exact.

Topher: yeah, right! Anyways, I am Topher! I was a participant of Pahkitew island!

Sierra: and I'm Sierra--!! I was a participant of World Tour!

Topher: and if you haven't noticed yet...

*Both Sierra and Topher say together*

We are the brand new hosts of total drama island

...

Topher: season 2.

Sierra: you don't need to explain it to the Audience-

Topher: okay, now pull the opening already.

[wrestler-smash-or-pass]

Weekly Wrap Up - 12/3/23

Top five smashable wrestlers this week:

Julia Hart (Spooky Variant) - 81.9% smash, 277 total votes

Orange Cassidy - 77.1% smash, 354 total votes

Anthony Bowens - 74.8% smash, 214 total votes

Shota Umino - 73.4% smash, 203 total votes

Danhausen - 68.8% smash, 324 total votes

More stats under the cut, along with my observations, commentary, and some of my favorite tags...

Bottom five smashable wrestlers this week:

Vince McMahon - 3.9% smash, 334 total votes

Kyle O'Reilly - 37.2% smash, 231 total votes

Andy Kaufman - 38.2% smash, 251 total votes

Kane - 41.0% smash, 188 total votes

Andre the Giant - 47.6% smash, 307 total votes

Most total votes this week (most enthusiasm)

Orange Cassidy - 354 votes

Chuck Taylor - 334 votes

Vince McMahon - 334 votes

Danhausen - 324 votes

Damien Priest - 318 votes

And least total votes this week (least enthusiasm)

Kane - 188 votes

Julia Hart (Cheerleader Variant) - 203 votes

Shota Umino - 203 votes

Anthony Bowens - 214 votes

Kyle O'Reilly - 231 votes

The closest match was Julia Hart (Cheerleader Variant), which was decided by a single votes

Top Five Overall

Kris Statlander - 91% smash

Rhea Ripley - 84.2% smash

Eddie Kingston - 82.8% smash

Julia Hart (Spooky Variant) - 81.9% smash

Orange Cassidy - 77.1% smash

Bottom Five Overall

Vince McMahon - 3.9% smash

The Boogeyman - 22.6% smash

Brock Lesnar - 23.2% smash

Doink the Clown - 28.3% smash

Gunther - 29.6% smash

Top Women Overall

Kris Statlander - 91% smash

Rhea Ripley - 84.2% smash

Julia Hart (Spooky Variant) - 81.9% smash

Penelope Ford - 72.9% smash

Aubrey Edwards - 66.1% smash

Top Men Overall

Eddie Kingston - 82.8% smash

Orange Cassidy - 77.1% smash

Anthony Bowens - 74.8% smash

Shota Umino - 73.4% smash

Samoa Joe - 72.1% smash

Thirteen of you are actual sickos who voted smash for Vince McMahon. I NEED to know what is going on inside of your heads. Unless, idk, you thought "smash" implied violence.

Great showing from the Best Friends this week. OC, Danhausen, Trent, and Chuck (and Trent and Chuck together!) join their friend Kris Stat as certified smashes. Though, somehow a threesome with Best Friends the tag team rated higher (66.7%) than Chuck or Trent separately (66.2% and 61.3%, respectively).

You guys definitely prefer House of Black Julia Hart over Varsity Blonds Julia, and who could blame you! She is a powerful combination of scary and beautiful.

I was out at a bar with my husband when the request for Andy Kaufman came in, and I said to him, "Someone just submitted Andy Kaufman??? He didn't wrestle." And my husband replied, "Yeah he did. He called himself the intergender world champion and offered $1000 and his hand in marriage to any woman who could defeat him." So that was a neat history lesson and definitely shed some light on the line "Andy Kaufman in a wrestling match" in the REM song "Man on the Moon," which I'd previously assumed was some kind of weird Michael Stipe metaphor.

I have seen some complaints about the images I've used for some of these wrestlers, and I don't disagree! Anyone who requests a wrestler is encouraged to add a photo to their ask! And since you can't include photos in anonymous asks, if you don't want your username associated with the poll, mention that in your ask and I'll create a separate post for the poll instead of replying to your ask. I did also find a source for photos that isn't just a Google image search, so image thirstiness will improve soon.

And now for some of my favorite tags and comments

@howlinghunters on Best Friends: #These two have always given me#'Someone will die.' 'OF FUN!' vibes

@are-we-really-doing-this on Danhausen: #I’d suck the tattoos off his body

@jennegatron on Chuck Taylor: #I would let chuck awful waffle me (please tell me wtf this means it sounds terrifying)

@jennegatron again on Trent Beretta: #his brain is so smooth#but he's simply so hot

@rosabellebelieve on Orange Cassidy: #make him into pulp

@wrassle-castle on Vince McMahon: #if i fuck him can i also kill him?#cause i'd take that L#for the greater good

@tahiri-veyla on Kane: #the only appropriate smash for this is with a semi

@dm-me-your-weltanschauung on Vince McMahon:

[frozen-orbit]

Some of my favorite lyrics from my Renegades playlists that i associate with Nova:

"Don't you call me a coward traitor." - Partisano, Miguel Bosé

"I am not a child now, I can take care of myself. I musn't let them down now." - I'll try, Jonatha Brooke

"I'd be starving if I ate all the lies they fed." - Get it together, India.Arie

"I don't know where to go. What's the right team?" - Scream, HSM3

"I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me. I'll be the actress starring in your bad dreams." - Look what you made me do, Taylor Swift

"I don't wanna fight alone anymore, break me out from the prison of my own pride. My God, I need a hope I can't deny. In the end I'm realizing I was never meant to fight on my own." - On my own, Ashes Remain

"I feel just like an actress up on the stage, I can't believe what I'm hearing myself say." - Say Goodbye, Katharine McPhee

"If I could go back and change the past, be a little braver than I had and bet against the odds, would I still be lost? Even if I woke up in my dreams, would there still be something I'm missing?" - Wondering, Julia Lester feat. Olivia Rodrigo

"If I could show them everything I've seen, open their eyes to all the lies, then would they change their minds like I did?" - This Wish, Wish

"I know what I came to do and that ain't gonna change. So go ahead and talk your talk cause I won't take the bait." - Focus, Ariana Grande

"I'm afraid of the things I don't say, the thoughts in my head that keep me tossing, turning, lying awake." - Low, Wage War

"I'm more than what you've made of me. I followed the voice you gave to me, but now I've gotta find my own." - Listen, Beyonce

"In darkness I've walked by relying only on the shining star. I know I've been walking this way based on my will and choice, but I keep looking elsewhere. Are these my lingering feelings? I know it shouldn't but I'm afraid that it will turn into regrets." - TMT, Stray Kids

"In youth, you'd lay awake at night and scheme of all the things that you would change." - Warriors, 2WEI feat. Edda Hayes

"I've seen you before, you all are the same, you're just another going up in the flames. And if I'm dying in the fight, it'll be while I'm bringing you down to the grave." - Enemy, Tommee Profitt

"Love to watch all the stars when they align. Come alive, I don't ever take a night off." - Miracle, WayV

"Maybe I'm safer when I'm on the run, no time to open up my heart. Maybe I'll hide behind my walls again instead of tearing them apart." - Second chance, HSMTMTS

"Now there's blood in my hands. Guess we're one and the same." - Interlude, Stormzy

"Only got one shot, I’m a one-girl army." - Do or Die, AleXa

"Should I question every move I make?" - Bet on it, HSM2

"So I had this dream. It meant everything, and I watched it come alive. Then I let you in, underneath my skin, and I learned to love the lies. Now I lay awake and I contemplate, have I become what I hate? Can I take it back? 'Cause it's all I have. Will it get the best of me?" - Bow down, I prevail

"They say that I must learn to kill before I can feel safe." - In the shadows, The Rasmus

"Whatever they say, I’m not guilty. Yeah, I’m a bad hero." - Villain, AleXa

"You still don’t really know me. People might think I’m a nice girl but they don’t know the real me." - BEcause, Dreamcatcher

[sunnyie-eve]

5 | Acting like an Ass

Series: Indispensable | Teen Wolf

Paring:  (Stiles Stilinski x OFC Martin)

Word Count: 3.5k

Warnings: Panic Attack

A/N: Might be a few mistakes

| MASTERLIST |

~~~

Since last night Lydia has been ignoring me because she didn't like how I talked to Jackson last night. Like I was just going to let him talk to her that way? We might not get along well but she's still my sister. "You look more like... well you before we became friends." Stiles takes his seat next to me in class.

"What do you mean by that?" I ask looking at him.

"Hurt, pissed, alone, overall a done look."

I raise an eyebrow at him, "I'm fine." I shake my head.

"What's wrong?" He asks.

"I said I'm fine." I look to the front of the classroom.

"You're not though."

I huff, "It's just Lydia is pissed at me because I talked back to Jackson last night. I literally was just standing up for her and she doesn't care." I explain to him.

"She will at some point." He tells me but I ignore it not believing.

After class, Stiles drags me to go listen in on his dad. "If he sees you... he's going to get on you." I laugh as we head towards where his dad was.

"Yeah, but I wanna see what's up." He continues to drag me to the office.

"So why do I have to come with you?" I ask laughing.

"You're in the wrong place at the wrong time." He says but I let it go as we sit on the floor outside waiting. "Favorite color?" Stiles asks hugging his bag.

"Purple. You?" I do the same as him.

"Blue. Oh, favorite type of fries?" He glances over at me.

"Curly fries all the way." He puts his hand up for a high five so I give him one.

"Best kind ever." I laugh at him.

"Favorite song of all time?" I ask.

"Dear Maria, Count Me in." I shake my head at him.

"Wherever You Will Go." He nods his head and as the bell ring for us to get to class, his dad comes out.

"We are watching his family's house. Maybe he'll wind up there. Give me a second." He walks over to us. "Don't you have a test to get to?" He asks his son.

"Don't mind Julia, she's good. What's going on? Did you find Derek yet?" Stiles asks.

"I'm workin' on it. You go take your test." His dad tells him.

"All right, Dad, listen to me." Stiles tries to talk making his dad raise his voice. "This is really important. You have to be careful tonight, okay? Especially tonight." Stiles tries to tell him.

"Stiles, I'm always careful." He tells him.

"Dad, you've never dealt with this kind of thing before, okay? At least not like this." I could understand where Stiles was coming from.

"I know, which is why I brought in people who have. State detective. Go take your test. Also, try not to get your new friend in trouble." His dad smiles over at me so I return one as we head to class.

"You have 45 minutes to complete the test. 25% of your grade can be earned right now simply by writing your name on the cover of the blue book." I see Stiles quickly write his name. "However, as happens every year, one of you will inexplicably fail to put your name on the cover, and I'll be left yet again questioning my decision to ever become a teacher. So let's get the disappointment over with. Begin." Mr. Harris tells us.

After a few minutes, Scott rushes out and Stiles follows but I say in class. Stiles comes back after some time but Scott never comes back to class. "Because of the full moon tonight?" I ask Stiles as class ends and he nods his head.

"You helping me lock him up tonight, right?" He asks as we walk.

"If you want help yeah. I'm not just going to insert myself into y'all's life like I'm been a best friend as long as you two have been." I explain as we head to the cafeteria.

"Why not? You're part of the team now." He nudges me.

"Well, I don't wanna invade y'all's personal lives at times." I try to explain.

"Julia now that you are on the team... that means we're gonna be best friends soon, and we all get up in each other's personal life." He smiles at me.

When it was lacrosse practice I met up with the guys in the hallway. "Can you pick up on stuff like, I don't know, desire?" Stiles says as I join them and I'm guessing he just learned Scott can smell like emotions.

"What do you mean desire?" Scott asks him.

"Like sexual desire?" I shake my head at Stiles knowing what he wanted to know.

"Sexual desire?" Scott repeats.

"Yeah, sexual desire. Lust, passion, arousal." Stiles explains.

"From Lydia." I tell Scott.

"What? No, in a general, broad sense, can you determine sexual desire?" Stiles looks at me then back to Scott.

"From Lydia to you?" Scott says so Stiles says yes.

"Fine, yes, from Lydia to me. Look, I need to know if I have a chance with this girl, okay? I've been obsessing over her since the third freakin' grade." I roll my eyes knowing she doesn't care about him.

"Why don't you just ask her?" I motion over to her.

"Well, to save myself utterly crushing humiliation. Thank you, Julia. Okay? So, please, can you just go up and ask her if she likes me? See if her heartbeat rises, pheromones come out." Scott says okay and walks over to her as we head outside.

"You don't even need Scott to ask for you because I know the answer." I say as we get to the benches.

"No, because you aren't close. She could keep it as a deep secret. You're just jealous that she could like me." I laugh at him then walk over to Jackson.

"Can I borrow your lacrosse stick real quick?" He laughs at me.

"Why would I let you touch it?" He asks.

"So I can throw a ball at Stiles. I wanna hurt him for a second." I explained to him and he groans handing it to me. "Thank you. Now when I get a ball I need you to get him to turn around so I can get him from behind." I smile then take a ball from coach. "Excuse me, I gotta borrow this." I see Jackson get Stiles' attention.

"What are you d-," Since I didn't wanna hurt Stiles too badly I aim for his shoulder, then threw the ball at him with a behind-the-back shot.

"WHAT THE HELL JULIA?!" He spins around holding his shoulder.

"Don't say what you said next time." I walk back over giving Jackson his stick back.

"Hey! If you ever think about playing, I'll let you join the team!" Couch shouts at me.

"Maybe next year." I let him know.

"Hey. What happened?" Stiles asks as Scott shows up.

"What?" Scott seemed not like himself.

"What do you mean, what? Did you ask her? Did she say anything? Did she say she liked me? Did she imply she liked me?" Stiles just gets asking.

"Yeah. Yeah, she likes you. In fact, she's totally into you." Stiles gets happy but by his tone, he was lying.

When the guys were practicing Scott knocks down all the others including Danny at the goal. The whole team rushes to check on Danny so I rush over too. "Dude, what the hell are you doin'?" I walk over to Scott with Stiles.

"He's twice the size of me." Scott tells us.

"Yeah, but everybody likes Danny. Now everybody's gonna hate you." Stiles tells him.

"I don't care." He walks off from us.

"Your lipstick." I hear Jackson tell Lydia so I turn around to look at them.

"Oh. Oh, wonder how that happened." She checks herself. "Yeah. I wonder." He says sarcastically. I look at Stiles and his jaw was hanging open shocked.

"In fact, she's totally into you... Listen to me next time and watch what you say, or the next ball is hitting your spine, harder." I cross my arms looking at him.

"I'm sorry, but you play?" He asks as we walk back towards the school since practice was canceled now.

"Yeah, it's a secret hobby of mine." I laugh.

"From the pain, I'm still feeling... you're good." He rubs his shoulder.

"Thank you. I hit you with a BTB." He stops to stare at me.

"You're telling me you don't suck at back shots? I suck at those." He tells me and I decide to joke with him.

"You suck at lacrosse all together not just your back shots." I smile at him and he punches my arm.

"I hate you." He walks into the locker room while I go to my locker. "Okay, here's the plan. We head to my house get things ready for tonight then head over to Scott's and chain him up so he doesn't kill anyone." Stiles shuts my locker on me. "Then when the night is over I'll take you home." He smiles like a dork.

"Sounds like a good plan." I agree not really having a choice.

When we get to his house he runs straight to his room while I said I was going to get a glass of water first. "Stiles that you?" His dad walks in.

"Nope, he's in his room." I smile so he smiles back.

"So you're a friend of Stiles? New. I'm guessing since I've only seen you come over once." Sheriff Stilinski asks.

"Yes Sir. I just became friends with him and Scott. After years of only a few small conversations in class, we finally started to hang out." I explained to him.

"He's not paying you to be his friend right?" He asks making me laugh.

"I wish he would." I joke and he laughs too.

"Julia!" Stiles shouts for me.

"You sure? You really volunteered to become a friend of his?" Noah asks me as I clean my glass by hand.

"I sorta did. There are times when he doesn't give me a choice. There was like only one option for me and I had to deal with it."

He nods his head, "I believe that." I nod my head now.

"For example, he told me at school after lacrosse practice... Okay, here's the plan. We head to my house get things ready for tonight then head over to Scott's." I take a seat at their dining room table.

"Sounds like my son alright." He takes a seat too. "I never got your last name." He asks.

"Oh, Martin. My mom is Natalie Martin and my twin sister is Lydia." I tell him.

"I can see that now." He chuckles.

"You're actually the first to say that. When I tell people my age or older they say I'm lying at first because I'm so different from them." I let him know.

"That's ridiculous because you all share some features. Also, it's okay to be different, if being different makes you you, then keep being different." He tells me and I can't help but smile. "I saw the look in your eyes when you said differently so I just wanted you to know." He explains to me.

"Thank you Mr. Stilinski." He nods his head.

"Please call me Sheriff or even Noah, I don't care. I like you, you're a sweet girl." He laughs as Stiles marches into the room.

"What the hell? I called you?" He crossed his arms at me.

"I know but I was talking to your dad. I'm not going to be rude." I tell him.

"Can I take Julia now?" He asks his dad.

"Yes, I wanted to tell you before I head out that I'll be out all night." He tells Stiles.

"Remember be safe, especially tonight." Stiles tells him as he walks over to me grabbing my arm and dragging me away.

"See told you no choice. Be safe tonight Sheriff, bye." I tell his dad.

"Nice talking to you Julia." He shouts back.

"Really ditched me for my dad." Stiles shuts his door.

"Again was having a conversation with him and wasn't going to be rude." I explained again that Stiles shows me what he has for tonight.

Once we leave to go to Scott's, I notice Stiles glancing over at me from time to time. "Can I help you?" I ask him starting to get annoyed.

"No. Why do you ask?" He asks looking ahead.

"You keep side-eyeing me." I explain.

"What my dad said to you... If being different makes you you, then keep being different. He was right, I feel like if you were the exact same as Lydia... I probably would never get to start to know you. Plus you're fun to talk to." He explains as I look over at him.

"You were eavesdropping?" Is all I say.

"Yeah, from when you said who you were." He says as we pull up to Scott's.

"I'm sorry." I tell him before we get out.

"For?" He asks confused.

"That Scott kissed Lydia behind your back and then lied." I let him know.

"You were right... Now let's go." We get out.

I watch as he uses a key to unlock the door and open it going in holding the door open for me to come in. "Scott?" Melissa calls out.

"Stiles and Julia." He says as she walks into the room.

"Key!" She looks at the key in his hand.

"Yeah. I had one made, so..." He explains.

"That doesn't surprise me. It scares me, but it doesn't surprise me. What is that?" She asks about the bag as he drops it on the floor making the chains make a sound.

"School project it's really complicated to explain what the guys are trying to do." I explain to her and she nods her head.

"I believe that." She then looks over at Stiles. "Stiles, he's okay, right?" She asks.

"Who? Scott? Yeah. Totally." Stiles says weirdly.

"He just doesn't talk to me that much anymore, not like he used to." She says upsets.

"He's had a bit of a rough week." I sum it up for her.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Yeah, um- Okay, uh- Be careful tonight." She tells us so we say you too.

"Full moon." She adds but makes Stiles freak. "There's a full moon tonight. You should see how the E.R. Gets. Brings out all the nut jobs. You know, it's, um, actually where they came up with the word lunatic." She says before she leaves the house.

"Lead the way." I tell Stiles so we head to Scott's room.

"Oh, my God! Dude. You scared the hell out of me. Your mom said you weren't home yet." Stiles bumps into me as he leans back.

"I came in through the window." Scott says acting creepy.

"Okay. Uh, well, let's get this set up. I want you to see what I bought." Stiles bends down to the bag.

"I'm fine. I'm just gonna lock the door and go to bed early tonight." Scott tells us and I don't believe him.

"You sure about that? 'Cause you've got this kind of serial killer look going on in your eyes, and I'm hoping it's the full moon taking effect, 'cause it's really starting to freak me out." I let him know and Stiles agrees.

"I'm fine. You two should go now." Scott tells us.

"All right, we'll leave. Well, look, would you just at least look in the bag and see what I bought? You know, maybe you use it, maybe you don't. Sound good?" Stiles suggest that Scott comes over to look.

"You think I'm gonna let you put these on and chain me up like a dog?"

"Actually, no." Stiles quickly handcuffs him up.

"What the hell are you doing?" Scott yells trying to get lose.

"Protecting you from yourself and giving you some payback. For making out with Lydia." Stiles tells him and then leaves the room so I follow.

"Really?" I ask as I see him get a dog bowl with Scott's name on it.

"I don't care if it's the moon. He's being a asshole." Stiles had a point.

"It's actually funny." I cross my arms trying not to laugh. "I won't interfere unless you want or need to me." I say as we walk back up to the room.

"I brought you some water." Stiles pours the water from the bottle into the bowl.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Scott throws the bowl away making Stiles walk back into the room from the hall where I was.

"You kissed her, Scott, okay? You kissed Lydia. That's m- like, the one girl that I ev- and, you know, the past three hours, I've been thinking, it's probably just the full moon, you know, he doesn't even know what he's doing, and tomorrow, he'll be totally back to normal. He probably won't even remember what a complete dumbass he's been. A son of a bitch, a freaking unbelievable piece of crap friend." Stiles goes off on him so I head downstairs.

"Anything!" I hear Scott yell.

After a minute I head back up and sit next to Stiles on the floor. "What are you doing alone downstairs?" He asks.

"Giving you two space." I force a smile.

"Julia, you're just jealous everyone likes Lydia and not you." Scott says as we hear him struggle to get free. I close my eyes trying to ignore him. "I can smell it. Jealously, sadness, loneliness, it's pathetic but then again you are." He laughs as he struggles and I try to breathe calmly but I can't so I rush downstairs for a drink.

My hands were shaking as my heart was pounding and I couldn't breathe. "Hey, hey, breathe. Try to breathe. Focus on me, look at me." Stiles grabs my hands forcing me to look at him. I just stare into his eyes and it helps a little but my panic attack stops after he pulls me into a hug till I was breathing normally again. "You have panic attacks?" Stiles asks letting me go.

"I used to a lot in the past. Haven't had one in years. I guess what Scott said triggered some old memories." I try to laugh it off.

"I used to get them when my mom died. I knew you were having one as you rushed away." I just look down. "I'm going to stay down here for a while if that's okay?" He nods his head.

"It's okay. If you need me I'll be in the hall floor." He smiles leaving me alone. From downstairs on the couch, I could hear Scott screaming so I cover my ears. "JULIA!" Stiles comes running down the stairs. "Scott gone. He broke the handcuffs." He pulls out his keys so we rush to the jeep.

"Question, where the hell would he be?" I ask.

"I don't know, that's why we are driving around." His thumb taps on the steering wheel paranoid.

As we were driving we see flashing lights so Stiles stops the jeep rushing out to look for his dad. "Dad? Dad? Has anyone seen my- has anyone seen my dad?" He asks then walks towards the body.

"Stiles. What are you doing here?" His dad shows up making Stiles hug him relieved he's okay. "Again, what are you doing here?" His dad asks as they stop hugging.

"We were just driving around then saw the lights and got worried. When Stiles got out to look for you he panicked not finding you." I explain to the Sheriff.

"We just found a body that was out in a dead bomb fire." He lets us know.

"That sucks." Stiles says making me hit him.

"Come on, Stiles some respect for the dead guy." He rubs where I hit him.

"I didn't know what else to say." He hits me back so I hit him back again.

"I like her. Keep Julia around Stiles or you're grounded till your dead." His dad points at him.

"What? I-," He's cut off.

"It's late and I think you should take Julia home now then head home yourself. I'll be home soon." Noah tells him.

"Fine, see you at home." Stiles walks back to the jeep.

"Goodnight Sheriff." I smile giving him a goodbye wave.

"Night Julia." He returns one.

"Wow, he really does like you. I believe just by what was all said in one night, likes you more than Scott." Stiles says driving me home.

"You said once we become friends we invade each other's lives... Guess what? I'm making my way into yours easily." I laugh.

"Make yourself right at home then." He laughs. As we pull up to my place Stiles stops me before I get out. "It's not pathetic that you feel those ways at times. I'm starting to feel them myself with Scott being a werewolf now." He lets me know.

"I get what you mean but it's still different for me. I live with Lydia and she reminds me every day." I look at him.

"If you ever need to rant about things or want someone that will listen to you... Give me a call or come over." He gives me a smile.

"Night Stiles." I open the door.

"Night Jules." He smiles as I shut the door and head inside.

I already am starting to feel the pain of what's to come.

[elisysd]

18. And if the storm is hitting I'll try to keep you steady

Masterlist - Previously - Next

Chapter soundtrack: Ember - Tip Stevens

It’s a sheepish looking Noah that came out of the bathroom. Julia threw his t-shirt at him, a playful smile on her face.The poor boy didn’t know where to go and looked like a kid who would have been caught red handed. Niels didn’t seem any better and Julia felt a little guilty. She didn’t want to make them uncomfortable.

“Hey, judgment free zone. I don’t care, guys. It doesn’t change anything.”

“Can we keep what you saw between us, I don’t want anyone to know…” said Noah in a low voice, almost ashamed.

“Whatever you guys are doing is not any of my business. As long as you are both happy, that’s what matters to me.” Julia said.

“It’s not serious. We are not in a relationship or whatever.” said quickly Noah and Julia thought she noticed a glimpse of disappointment in Niels eyes.

“But even if you were…” she started to add.

“But we are not. And we will never be, so drop it.”

And with that, Noah left the room, slamming the door and making both Julia and Niels jump. Niels sighed before tidying up his room. Julia could see that he was trying to distract himself. She approached him, putting a hand on his shoulder and forcing him to look at her.

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s not your fault. Like I told you, it’s complicated. He doesn’t accept himself. So it’s just hook ups here and there, when no one is around.”

“But you like him.” she stated.

“Am I this obvious?”

“No, you are not, but I think I’ve known you enough by now to be able to see when something is bothering you, and Noah walking away like that and saying you guys are not serious, I saw it affected you.”

“Yeah but I can’t force him to come out, you know. Anyway, I have to focus on the race now.”

And that was her queue to leave. She joined the rest of the team and took place in front of the screen. Soon, it was time for the race and her eyes frantically searched for the navy blue car before remembering Ethan was starting from the pitlane. She then looked at the grid and the empty grid box that was where Ethan was supposed to be, before her gaze moved to the red car behind. She was sure Martin would have an aggressive strategy to try to gain a few positions at the start, and she knew Ethan would try to do the same. She just hoped for no crashes at the start. But as expected it was messy as Martin tried to quickly overtake Noah who did his best to hold his position while going wheel against wheel with the Ferrari. From the side she could see Ethan trying his best to keep up and find the space to engulf his car. Sadly, Noah, too busy trying his best against the Ferrari didn’t and couldn’t see the Maserati and, as Ethan tried to slip past him, bumped his front wing with Noah’s side, sending him away in the wall.

Julia scrunched her nose as the yellow flag was raised and soon the safety car was deployed. She could see on the broadcast Ethan leaving his car, visibly frustrated and angry. Julia wished she could go to him so they could talk but she couldn’t leave the garage, not now at least. She focused on the race, and on the white Skoda cars as they were trying to hold their positions.

In front, Elijah and his Ferrari were fighting with Romy, who was on the way to win her first Grand Prix. Even if Julia would love to see Ferrari on top, she wanted her best friend to win and shut every single person that had once told her she would never achieve it, that she would never be enough. She hoped she wouldn’t break under pressure. She only had two laps to go but Julia was sure that the Ferrari had a better tyre management than the Audi and that it would make the difference. Elijah was taking back almost three tenths per sector and was getting closer and closer until Romy couldn’t do anything else but let him overtake her. She fought with everything she had and Julia knew it was not her fault, but she could almost see and hear the disappointment in Romy if she was closing her eyes.

As for Noah and Niels, they managed to bring back the cars, still out of the points but at least they were no damages to report. As Julia was about to head for the podium celebrations, a blonde guy that she started to recognize all too well was waiting near the garage, already out of his racing suit and dressed with his team t-shirt.

“I would say good race but I will refrain from commenting on what happened.”

“It happened. I miscalculated the space I had.”

“Still. Martin was way too aggressive on Noah. Trying to overtake from the inside in the corner at the start was stupid. Noah couldn’t give any space to anyone, it was too narrow. And Martin was so damn persistent about it! You were lucky, you could have spun and that wouldn’t have been pretty.”

“Thank you, Julia. For trying to cheer me up.”

“Hey, always. Come here.” she said, throwing her arms around his neck.

First surprised by her sudden burst of affection, Ethan didn’t know how to react and Julia took it as a way that he preferred to be alone. As she was about to pull away from him, he caught her by the waist and pulled her in his embrace, burying his neck in her shoulder and breathing in her scent. She smelt like rubber and petrol but he didn’t care. He was expecting her to leave his embrace quickly but she stayed. She nuzzled her nose against his chest and he felt her sighing and he soon felt tears wetting his shirt.

“Joolsie?”

“It sucks, Ethan.” he heard her mumble against his chest.

“What did they do to you, today?”

“I… I feel useless and disrespected. I feel invisible. And I feel like shit. I just want to help, you know and they don’t care about me. Maybe I’ve been wrong all along, maybe I’m not that good. Maybe I didn’t work hard enough, maybe they are all nice to me because of my dad and they want to be on his good side and…” she was rambling and spiraling.

“Julia. Hey, stop right now. You are damn good. You know me, you know I wouldn’t lie to you. And those white, cisgenre and old men? They are threatened by how good you are. It scares the shit out of them. You can do their job a hundredth time better than they would ever do it. Believe me. Please.” he took her face between his hands and forced her to look at him. Her eyes were glossy and even if she tried to avoid his gaze, she couldn’t.

“I don’t know what to do… I can’t quit. I would have to pay them back… And I don’t have the money to do that. And I know my dad could help but I don't want to involve him.” she confessed.

“We will find a way… I promise you we will.”

She nodded and Ethan pulled her in one last time before they both headed to the podium celebrations. Julia couldn’t help but feel proud to see her best friend up there but she knew Romy’s smile was fake. She was, once again, second. Of a race she could have won. She was frustrated, she could see it. And Julia felt conflicted. She was disappointed for her best friend but happy to see her dad on the highest step of the podium. She didn’t forget to snap a quick picture before sending it on her family group chat so her dad would also see it later. When the crowd started to finally scatter, she left Ethan, saying she would meet him back in the hotel room. She needed to find her dad first. She wanted to congratulate him personally. After all, she better than anyone else knew the struggle and hardships his dad went through since the beginning of the season.

The garage was all too quiet for her liking. They couldn’t have already stopped celebrating. She knew they had Japan next week but still, a few glasses of champagne weren’t forbidden.

“Julia? What are you doing here?”

She turned around to see Martin, his racing suit laying low on his hips.

“I’m here to see my dad, any ideas where he is?”

“In his office, I think, some people from a Spanish sponsor came to see him.”

“Thanks. Congrats, by the way. Your maneuver on Noah was a bit out of line, especially since it cost Ethan his race, but beside that, well done.”

“We were about to go downtown to celebrate with some guys from the team, do you want to come?”

“No, I don’t think it’s a good idea and Ethan is waiting for me back at the hotel so…”

She could see him clench his jaw but he didn’t add anything. He waved to her before heading towards the exit of the paddock. Julia looked at him for a brief moment before walking to her father's office. She was about to knock when a man, wearing his black hair in a catogan, left the room in haste, followed by her dad. She didn’ have the time to see the man but his voice, she could recognize it from anywhere. It was one she had heard many times when she was accompanying her dad on the tracks when he was still driving.

“You can’t threaten me like that, Carlos! I rebuilt this team, I hired the engineers and the strategists, you can’t impose your people on my team. That’s not how it works!”

“Yeah, and look at where Ferrari is. Barely able to fight for the top positions. How many races did you win this season? One. This one and it’s only because Lamborghini’s car was not made for the track. Most of the time you are barely able to stay in the points. I’m investing money in this team Charles, for you to be able to develop a car that is the best out there. If you and your team can’t do that, maybe it’s time for Ferrari to find you a replacement.”

On these words, Carlos Sainz turned around and left, leaving Charles disconcerted and with a worried look on his face that Julia was only rarely seeing.

“Dad… Is everything okay?”

“Not right now, but it will be,” he sighed.

“Is there anything that I can do…”

“If you can magically make our car go from P4 in the constructor’s championship to P2 or even P1, let’s be delusional, it would be perfect.”

“That’s what Carlos was doing here, right? He was coming to put some pressure on you.”

“He has always played dirty, more or less. But he wants my seat. And he has always been very influential inside the Scuderia, he still has some friends here. I fear he won’t play nice to have it. But stay out of it and don’t worry. It’s my business and I can manage.”

“I could do that, you know. Making it faster. Well maybe not this car but… the next one?”

“You would need to start to work on it now, Ju’. And you are under contract with Skoda. Even if they released you at the end of it, you would be under gardening phase and would probably be only working on the car in two years. I don’t have two years.”

She knew that. Of course, she did. An engineer couldn’t go from one team to another just like that, there were too many things involved. Manufacturing secrets, plans for future upgrades… But would it stop her from helping her dad? Never. Even less after what she had heard.

“You wanted something?” He turned towards her and for the first time she could see how tired he was. The season was taking a toll on him and she was sad that her mom was so far away. He would need her.

“I just wanted to say congratulations for the race. And give you a hug. You look like shit.”

“I could use a hug from you, right now.”

She didn’t need to get asked twice. She rushed into her dad’s arms and allowed herself to forget about everything. She was safe there, protected, away from the cruelty of the world. Her dad had always been her hero. She was looking up to him so much. Of course he was not perfect, no one was, but she didn’t care. To her he was perfectly imperfect.

When she entered the hotel room, it was silent. And empty. Ethan wasn’t there and she wondered where he could be, especially since he had told her they would meet there. It had been a tough race week and she couldn’t wait for it to be over, to go back to her routine and to not share a room with Ethan anymore. It had messed with her head and awakened feelings she didn’t want to have. She needed space. And a part of her dreaded the moment she had to go back to her old ways with lonely hotel rooms.

She enjoyed the fact of being alone to take care of her, going through a long but needed self care routine before getting into a comfortable jumper and sweatpants. It had been an hour and Ethan still wasn’t there. She thought about texting him, asking where he was, but gave up before hitting the send button. Maybe he didn’t want to spend time with her after all, maybe he had other and better things to do. She laid in the middle of the bed, removing the stack of pillows and took her notebook, flipping though the pages and scribbling down ideas when some were coming to her. She thought about what happened between her dad and Carlos and it made her angry. She knew how important the team was to her dad. He dedicated his whole life to it and thinking that, from out of nowhere, he could loose everything he fought so hard to build didn’t sit right with her. She couldn’t stand by and watch the events playing in front of her without doing anything. And after all, it’s not as if she had better things to do.

Watching Julia breaking down, twice, because of her work made Ethan feel powerless and angry that he couldn’t help her. Like a lion in a cage, as he was waiting for her to come back to the hotel room, he paced back and forth until he made a decision. Maybe it wouldn’t lead anywhere and maybe it was stupid but still, he wanted to try. She deserved so much better than how she was currently treated.

That was how he ended up in Christian’s office, team principal of Lamborghini, ready to beg him to help Julia.

“Ethan, I like you, a lot. But, I can’t do anything.”

“She is talented, Christian! She is really, really good at her job. She needs to be in a team that can help her give her all, that has the budget and the capacity to let her develop her skills. She is fading away there. They are stealing her ideas without even giving her the credit.”

“And what do you want me to do, exactly?”

“Buy back her contract. If we do it now, she won’t need gardening, the car development for next year has not started yet.”

“Our engineers teams in Lamborghini and Maserati are full, Ethan.”

“Can’t you try anything?” Ethan was almost begging now.

“Maybe in F2 but I doubt it’s where she wants to be. I have to think this through. I’m not promising you anything, okay? Don’t get your hopes up there is a high chance that it will be a no.”

But it was not. Not one from the get-go at least. So Ethan had hopes and he just prayed with everything he had that they wouldn’t get crushed. Back to his room, he found Julia asleep, completely spread in the middle of the bed, her notebook still in her hand. She looked cute and slowly he approached her, careful to not wake her. He removed her notebook and his eyes fell on a drawing in a corner of the page. She drew eyes. His eyes. And he felt himself blushing.

He changed his clothes and got in bed next to her. He didn’t have much space but he didn’t want to force her to move. So he laid on the edge of the bed and fell asleep. He woke up the next morning, feeling warmer than usual before slowly opening his eyes to see brown hair on his pillow and a hand a few centimeters from his face. From up close, he could see her freckles and was almost able to count them if he wanted. She also had a frown on her forehead and Ethan had to resist the urge to touch it to erase it. He stayed still, looking at her but slowly, as if there was something that was pulling him to her by an invisible string, he felt his chest moving to her and his hand found its natural place on her hip. He wanted nothing more than to pull her against him. Maybe if he pretended to be asleep, she wouldn’t get mad?

But of course, she would. So he refrained himself and got up, showered quickly before going downstairs for breakfast. When he came back, with a few of Julia’s favorite pastries he had managed to snatch for her, he was surprised to see her up and ready. She was packing her suitcase.

“Are you already leaving?”

“If I want to fly with my dad, I have to leave in an hour so… yeah.”

He didn’t want her to leave. He wanted to keep her inside this hotel room. Just for a few hours more. He wasn’t ready to see her leave and he was aware how dramatic he was sounding. He would see her the next day, she wasn’t going to war. It was a stupid reaction.

“Or maybe you could fly out with me? I mean… with us. As in Kyle, Ludwig, my teammate Harun, and I’m pretty sure Romy will join us. You don’t have to leave, now.”

What he wanted to say was: You don’t have to leave me, now. But thankfully it stayed in his head. The last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable. Not now at least. He liked to embarrass her, but not today. She looked at him with her big eyes and he involuntarily gulped.

“You want me to fly out to Japan with you?”

“Ye…yeah? Not only with me. I just… I think it would make Romy happy. And a happy Romy is a happy Kyle. And a happy Kyle is a happy me. So you are contributing to my happiness. By extension.” he stuttered.

“I’m contributing to your happiness… I don’t know if it’s cute and if I should feel flattered. Be careful, or I might start to think you actually like to have me around.” she joked.

“You know, I do.”

She opened her mouth to say something but quickly closed it and suddenly her suitcase seemed to be very interesting.

“Niels wanted to go to the panda zoo in Shanghai… would you be interested? We wanted to make it a group activity with everyone we are close to. You don’t have to say yes or to feel like you have to come. Maybe you think you are too cool for that kind of thing, and…”

“Count me in. I’ve always wanted to go there.”

“Nice. Great.”

“That was all you wanted to ask?”

“Yeah. I’m all good.”

“And about the flight…”

“I… I would really like to come with you.”

And Ethan couldn’t help but hope that when she meant by you, it was himself and not the others.

They were the last ones to arrive at the airport and everyone was surprised to see Julia next to Ethan. Romy even squealed, getting out of Kyle’s embrace to rush to her best friend before dragging her away with her. Most probably to gossip, thought Ethan. But still, he picked up Julia's suitcase and dragged it along with his to his friends.

“Oh look at you carrying your girlfriend’s baggage, how cute.” laughed Ludwig in the sole purpose to rile Ethan.

“I can’t let it in the middle of everything.”

“A few weeks ago, you would have. You would even have hid it just to piss her off.” he retorted.

“Yeah well things change.”

“You are so in love, oh god, I never thought I would live to see this day coming.” he was now fully laughing to the point the girls started to look in their direction.

“Fuck off. I’m not in love! I’m trying to be a good friend, okay!”

“Well show me how much of a good friend you are, here’s my bag.” said Ludwig, handing his suitcase to Ethan that was starting to feel really angry.

“You know where you can fit your suitcase, Lu?”

He saw his best friend gulping, taking back his bag and walking fast to the boarding zone. As Ethan was about to follow him, he noticed Kyle standing on the side, not really moving and keeping his eyes shut.

“Bro? You're good.”

“Yeah, it’s just that I must have stayed under the neon a bit too much. I have a migraine. And it’s getting kind of blurry.”

“Do you want me to do something?” Ethan was worried. “Do you want me to get Romy?”

“No, certainly not. I don’t want her to worry. It’s okay.”

“Do you still have your appointment with your ophthalmologist?”

“After the Chinese Grand Prix, once we’ll be back home.”

“Does Romy know?”

“No. And I don’t want to tell her, she will only worry and she doesn’t need that.”

“I don’t like that Kyle… If your eyesight issues last, it’s going to impact your career.”

“It won’t. I’ll find a solution. It can’t be that bad.”

Kyle’s tone made Ethan understand that it was not up to discussion anymore and his friend set off, leaving him hanging. He looked behind him and intercepted Julia’s gaze on him. She arched an eyebrow, silently asking him if he was doing okay to what Ethan gave her a slight smile. He didn’t know if he was reassuring. Truth be told, he was worried about Kyle. The flight was about to be a long one.

As usual, Harun was already in the jet, hiding in a corner in a way Ethan always found creepy. He took a seat, next to the window and as Julia was passing by to sit opposite of him, he took her hand and forced her to sit next to him, as Romy and Kyle sat in the seats facing them.

“Sorry, it’s just that I don’t want Ludwig next to me.” he confessed.

“You could just have asked me, you know. No need to rip my arm out.”

“Oh nice, and where am I supposed to sit now?” complained Ludwig seeing the group altogether.

“With Harun.” answered Romy.

“Great… I’m gonna spend nine hours trying to make conversation with a wall. I hate you all.”

“No, come on Lu, after the take off you can come here and sit on the floor.” said Romy in an apologizing voice.

And Ethan couldn’t help but think that it was going to be a very long flight.

Author's note: I know that I did Carlos dirty in this chapter but he makes a great antagonist, don't you think? What do you think will happen next? Let me know your theories, I love to read them.

Don't hesitate to leave a comment or an ask, as well as reblogging and leaving a like. It helps a lot for the story to find its audience. I also have a taglist for this story, so if you want to be added so you never miss a chapter, let me know.

Taglist:

@herondalism @aundercover @musingsbyshreya @karmabyfernando @reengard @mycenterfold @smoooothoperator

[watercolor-hearts]

Hi! I have a lestappen prompt if you are still taking prompts!

Prompt: Charles and Max are secretly married but they have a kid or kids together. They must keep their relationship a secret at races since they are still drivers for f1 but they must also juggle being parents.

I hope you have some fun with this prompt! I will love to see where you take it cause I think it can either be fluff or angst, or both!

When I first read this prompt, I was like 'ah, easy one, I'll write something for it in a few hours'. Nope, my guy, nope. I had to rewrite it like three times because when I thought I finally had a good idea, it turned out it wasn't good. So yeah, it was quite of a challenge. 😃

Max/Charles • 625 words • emotional hurt/comfort • parents Lestappen • mentions of homophobia • hugs • Ao3 link

-

“Daddy, Papa, when can I go to a race with you?” Julia asked on a calm Sunday afternoon when she was coloring in a coloring book while Max and Charles drank their coffee on the couch. Charles looked at Max, opening his mouth to answer Julia's question but Max was faster. 

“Come here, baby, we have to talk about something.”

“I wanna go to a race with you,” the little girl said while climbing onto Max's lap, burying her face into his dad's chest. 

“I know, princess,” Max nodded, kissing his daughter's hair and hugging her. “But... It is not that easy.”

“Why?”

Max looked at Charles and then at their daughter again.

“Because there are some... Not so nice people there. Some people do not like it when two boys love each other and have kids together. And we do not want these people to hurt you, to tell you mean things,” Max tried to explain, “In this world, in the racing world there are a lot of people who do not like men like your papa and me. Because we like men, we are in love with each other and we are married. We have to keep it a secret.”

“B—But boys can love each other too,” the little girl mumbled to Max's chest. “It's not fair not to let them love each other.”

Charles smiled and leaned to Max, resting his head on his husband's shoulder. 

“They can, but... There is a big chance Daddy would lose his job if a boss in his team found out he was gay. That boss does not like gay people. So daddy has to keep it a secret.”

“Christian doesn't like Daddy?” Julia asked. Max shook his head. 

“No, not Christian. Christian likes Daddy, you know him, he likes you too. Another boss, Helmut, does not like people like me, like us with your Papa.”

“I don't want to be a secret, Daddy,” the little girl said, lips pouty. “I wanna go there with you. I wanna see vroom vroom cars go very fast and Daddy or Papa win.”

Max tried to swallow the lump in his throat. He never wanted his daughter to be a secret, he never wanted to pretend like he was single and straight. He never wanted to lie and shield his daughter from the real world, from making friends, going to races, but when Helmut saw how Max had behaved with Daniel when they were teammates, he threatened him that he would make Max lose his seat if it turned out he was gay, because "they don't need pussys in real men's sport". His dad wasn't much better, either. 

“Come here, baby,” Charles told Julia when he saw Max taking a deep breath and trying not to cry, “Give Daddy a bit of space.”

“Julia hurt Daddy?” she asked, lips trembling as he climbed to Charles' lap. 

“No, baby, you didn't hurt Daddy, don't cry,” Charles said, hugging the little girl to his chest, trying to soothe her. 

“It's okay, princess,” Max whispered after wiping his tears away. “Daddy will solve this, I promise.”

“Do you wanna watch a race on the tv?” Charles asked. 

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Julia said, nodding intensely, eyes sparkling, and a huge grin on her face. She loves watching races, and she already knows a lot of radio and commentator lines. 

“Which one would you like?”

“Your first win, Papa!”

“Good choice,” Max smiled as Charles started looking for that race on the F1 TV app. “You have good taste, princess.”

“When Papa wins next I wanna be there and cheer for him.”

You'll be there, baby. After I win this championship, you won't be a secret anymore. Our family won't be a secret anymore. 

[dr-jem-nutcase]

MvA h/cs

Cooked up some movie & TV h/cs...cuz I can

Overall

before the timeline of the movie, the monsters had a TV on occasions. This was a rare treat which lasted until the TV set broke on its own and couldn't be repaired or got destroyed

the monsters' rec area was like the hand-me-downs central; anything the staff didn't want or need anymore went to the monsters, from those playing cards to radios to whatever. It usually came from the trash heap for Dr C's meals

the 2000s brought a little variety as a lot of people at the base made the transition to DVDs and threw out their VCR sets and cassette tapes

after the post-freedom upgrade, the base set up on-demand entertainment for the monsters

for every streaming site, every monster has their own accounts. Except for Link & Butterflysaurus (or B) who share accounts

they can all agree on sit-coms and comedies, believe it or not, some film noir or some off-the-wall random movie

depending on the sport, they all like watching a good game

Susan

down for most anything anyone wants to watch

likes period and mid-century romance/dramas like Downton Abbey, Bridgerton, Call The Midwife, Mad Men, and anything based off Jane Austen's books

was a Twilight fan back in her teens and now cringes at those memories of being on Team Edward

chic flicks: Legally Blonde, Pretty Woman, The Notebook, Mamma Mia!, Audrey Hepburn movies. Titanic and Moulin Rouge! are both fully capable of making her cry almost every time. This is a very good reason why she has her own streaming accounts

can make it through most horror movies but doesn't really enjoy them

roots for all sports teams from Cali

the only monster most willing to watch whatever BOB wants to watch

liked watching cooking shows and DIY tutorials when she was small. She'll still watch them sometimes inspite of the fact she can't easily cook or pull off most DIYs

BOB

the kids' page on streaming sites & YouTube Kids all the way!

has the kid's tendency to watch the same thing over and over again and never get sick of it

the other monsters can't watch adult films and shows with him. He'll ask questions like, what's going on during a bedroom scene or "What's a [enter any profanity of your choice here]?". He's also a parrot who will mindlessly repeat a single swear word he only heard once

sometimes you'll find him watching random stuff like a Malaysian talk show or a Julia Child cooking tutorial or some abstract silent film

you know those kids' shows that interact with the audience, like Mr. Rogers, Blues Clues, & Dora the Explorer? Yeah, he REALLY gets into them

had a kids tablet for about two weeks but then accidentally ate it. Monger hasn't had the heart to give him another one

Dr C

his pastimes include lab experiments, reading books and science papers, playing chess (via a computer versus the CPU/another player online because no one at the base wants to play), and other mentally/intellectually stimulating activities, so he'll watch something if he wants and/or needs a mental break

the other monsters tried getting him into Big Bang Theory. To everyone's surprise, he didn't care for it

has BritBox

when he's chilling, he'll watch vintage/vintage-style musical movies, particularly with good dance numbers like Singin' In The Rain. One of his heroes in dance is Gene Kelly; Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers would've been on his list, but he hasn't had a skilled dance partner offhand since his college days

likes videos like Ted Talks and Infographics Show (YouTube). He may be the most brilliant man in the world but he knows there's always more to learn

his YouTube subscriptions include dance groups and science lecturers from around the world

doesn't care much for most sports but he'll gladly watch polo and a lot of the Olympics. Tried to pass the time by reading a book during a football game once, and Link said, "Doc, if you don't put that book down, I'll throw you and that thing in the trash!". Never again

Link

as mentioned in an earlier H/C post of mine, he's a closeted shonen anime fan and he'll watch anything but One Piece

football is his favorite sport to watch. He watches it when he can

NEVER misses Super Bowl Sunday. Or at least to the best of his ability. He was very disappointed when one of his missions happened on Super Bowl Sunday

also likes WWE

martial arts: always and forever, baby!

has watched both Luca and The Shape of Water. He doesn't mind them but he got pretty annoyed when people made comparisons between him and the Amphibian Man or the sea monsters. BOB was like, "Hey, Link! Why don't YOU turn into a human when you leave your tank?"

was into superhero movies and TV series in the 2010s but jumped off the bandwagon when he thought they were being overdone. Though he still likes Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, and anything with Wolverine

thinks Star Wars, Harry Potter, and most other popular sci-fi/fantasy franchises are just for kids and nerds

doesn't care much for romances or most cartoons either

if something scares him or makes him cry, he'll try to hide it

it took him a while to be able to watch anything with Shrek after being mistaken for Shrek in the Halloween special

[a/n: I can also see him being a gamer]

Insecto/B

likes sports no thanks to Link

will watch most anything Link watches

likes some anime, particularly Sailor Moon for whatever reason

likes cartoon shows meant for older kids

doesn't like horror movies, has a hard time settling down or going to sleep after watching one

avoids animal/nature programs as some of them can be quite traumatizing

every now and then she'll be caught watching something with BOB like Bluey

Monger

watches the news every day

knows better than to believe everything he sees

watches a little M*A*S*H before bedtime at least twice a week

every now and then watches stuff like All in the Family just cuz he likes the comedic but logical political tension among the main characters

still has analog cable (antenna and all) at the farm

hates I Love Lucy because his wife had it on TV more than anything else

likes war films and a number of films about World War II. There's a few he won't watch tho because he thinks they're either badly made, too sentimental, or too depressing

likes comedies from the 1950s-60s

The President

likes watching himself on TV and videos online

likes talking smack to opposing politicians when watching videos of them, like, "In your dreams, bucko! Not while I'm large and in charge!"

comedies, comedies, comedies...and game shows

Simpsons fanboy

has an appreciation for daytime TV: long-running soap operas, talk shows hosted by middle-aged women, Judge Judy, Dr. Phil, etc.

considers the family sitting in front of the TV together as quality family time and sit-coms as an American staple

can't watch foreign language films with English subtitles. He eventually gets bored and falls asleep

as mentioned in an earlier H/C post, he doesn't trust biopics one bit. After finding out over half of The Greatest Showman was fictional, he lost faith in any portrayals of history both on screen and stage

Derek

liked watching famous news reporters and weather-folk as role models when he was a kid and as inspiration when he became a weatherman

took Susan and other girls he dated to the movies

if not at the movies, he and Susan would curl up on a sofa and watch something together, going back and forth between what he likes and what she likes

likes most sports, except basketball

Ted Talks, late night talk shows, and popular sit-coms

watches whatever catches his attention on Hulu and Max

had a very hard time watching anything with the monsters. Still does but it's not as hard anymore

Invisible Man

went to a few drive-in theaters with his wife on dates before and after they got married

Andy Griffith and Red Skelton were some of his favorite shows

yet he enjoyed some of the heavier and less lighthearted films, like Streetcar Named Desire. If he cried, he tried to not let anyone know

not much of a cinema-goer but he enjoyed taking his two older kids

liked what little he saw of The Carol Burnett Show while in prison

if he saw Mel Brooks' films, he would've loved them

von Wolfmann (my OC, a German wolfman and past monster, at Area 5X 1960-65)

having lived much of his 70+-year life away from society, he probably had no idea what TV & cinema were, let alone knew they existed

The Cyberian (my OC, a Soviet Russian cyborg and past monster, at Area 5X 1981-85)

TV became a bit of a staple in the Soviet Russian home over time, so there was a handful of shows that she liked throughout her life

she liked going to the movies with her dad/grandparents as a kid and teenager, a special treat

didn't like anything based off books. "Just read the book." She said. "No pictures but they're a lot more interesting than THIS sad piece of work"

thought period pieces were boring. More than once she fell asleep watching them

grew up with black-and-white TV, so she was excited the first time she saw color TV

learned some of her English from what little TV the monsters had and learned a bit about the USA and the world outside the USSR

probably would've been the only monster to have been a big fan of Star Wars and/or Star Trek

[ethersierra]

Uhhhhh seven birds theatre au for the ask game cuz it’s on my brain andjskdbdb

[from the ask game: send me an au and i'll list 5 things that would happen in it]

oh HELL yeah. The numbers list ended up being bizarre and mostly setting up roles but uh its ok it is definitely a bit longer than five

Merle is basically just Clint. Always taking up community theatre roles and killing it. Usually plays a mentor figure or comedic relief.

Magnus and Julia had been doing the carpentry and woodworking for the sets for forever (they didn't work with the performers very often, just saw each other in passing), but ever since Julia died, Magnus took a step back from the theater altogether. He was just... gone for a couple seasons. But he finally returns in October for the winter musical, deciding he needs a change of pace so he auditions and gets the lead.

Taako often plays the lead or comedic relief, depending on what the show is. He is good friends with Merle but they also do hate each other. In this season, he is cast as the leading love interest, a snarky hard-to-get gal (or guy idc ) who has better things to be doing than talking to this endearing fool.

Davenport is the stage manager who constantly has to keep the team on track. No, Taako, you *can't* take that shoe from the props table to hit Merle.

Lucretia is the Director. It's capitalized because i said so. She keeps everything together and running and keeps detailed notes in the margins of the scripts.

Lup and Barry prefer to be side characters or in the ensemble so they have more time to take up side projects.

After the first rehearsal, Taako is like oh hey uh Magnus right? Yeah I've been doing this a while and it'll really help our performance if we get to know each other outside our roles. Want to get coffee?

And then they chat a bit but then Taako is like lets get down to business and he has a fucking list of questions that they ask each other. Antics ensue.

They get closer through a series of goofs over tripped up lines, and end up in several shenanigan sprees with Merle??

Obviously Taako cannot let this guy know his feelings. And Magnus is like, trying so hard to keep his cool but he is a puppy dog. So he goes to Barry who he's been friends with outside of the theater and is like.... dude what the fuck do i do

and barry is like dog i dont know how i can help you there i've been in love with my best friend for the past 10 years and we live together

and magnus is like are you sure you aren't already dating?

And then the rest happens however :]

oh by the way anyone feel free to use this !!!

[canirove]

My neighbour Rúben | Chapter 9

Previous chapter | Next chapter

Masterlist

It was the day of the Christmas party and Lucy was going crazy trying to make sure everything looked perfect. 

"Do you think the tree is crooked?"

"It looks perfect. Everything does, relax" I said to her.

"It's just... People usually look at every detail during these parties, I've done it myself. But after everything that happened with my ex, I'm sure they'll be paying attention to every single thing. Including if the tree isn't perfectly straight."

"They are gonna be so focused on the food that they won't pay attention to that, trust me." 

A couple of days before the party we had gone to taste the menu she had picked, and it was simply delicious. It was the thing I was looking forward to the most that night. Well, that, and seeing Rúben again after what felt like an eternity.

He had been busy playing for City and Portugal and we hadn’t seen each other since the Christmas market. We had been texting, but it wasn´t the same, and for the party he would also be wearing a suit. Just the thought of it made my cheeks get warm.

"Oh, those must be the first guests!" Lucy said when someone rang the bell. "How do I look?"

"Stunning. Doesn't she, Julia?"

"You both look stunning. We all do!" she said with a big smile.

20 minutes later, the apartment was buzzing with people, everyone eating, drinking and chatting. But Rúben was nowhere to be found.

"Maybe something happened at work and he is running late. Relax" Lucy said.

"I am relaxed."

"Yeah, sure. That's why you are constantly looking at the front door.”

"Whatever. I'm gonna go check on Julia." She was in her room playing with other kids from the building and one of their nanny's, but before I was able to made it there, someone grabbed me by the arm, pulling me towards Lucy's office.

"What the..."

"Merry Christmas, neighbour" Rúben said. He was standing in the middle of the room with his hands behind his back, that smirk on his face, while looking... While looking like the most handsome man the world had ever seen.

And I knew I was staring, opening and closing my mouth like a fish, definitely looking like an idiot. But I didn't care. 

"Aren't you gonna say Merry Christmas too?"

"I... I..." I muttered, still trying to process what I had in front of me. "Yes. Merry Christmas, Rúben. When did you arrive? I didn't see you!"

"I sneaked in. And I got you something" he said, taking a step forward. 

"You didn't have to."

"But I wanted to."

"I didn't get you anything."

"It's ok. Your company tonight will be enough."

"My... You..."

"Here" he said, handing me a little bag. 

"Where did you find this?" I asked. Inside it there was a piano ornament just like the one we were looking for at the market.

"In Portugal when I was away with the national team."

"It's perfect Rúben, I love it."

"You do?" he asked, closing most of the space between us. 

"I do. It is a perfect little copy of the first piano I ever played."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Rúben!" Julia screamed from the door, running towards him. "Merry early Christmas."

"Merry early Christmas" he chuckled. Julia had been saying that to everyone at the party, correcting them if they didn't say "early". If it wasn't the 24th or the 25th, it was not allowed to say Merry Christmas according to her.

"Are you coming to the party? I'm hungry and the other kids are boring."

"I'm gonna leave this in my room and I'll join you" I said.

"What is that?" she asked.

"Just a little early Christmas present" Rúben said. "C'mon."

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"Oh, dear God" Rúben suddenly said. We had been mingling with the other neighbours for a while, he introducing me to most of them. Despite coming into this building almost daily for a few months and now living here, I barely knew anyone. 

"What happened?"

"That woman over there, Mrs. Jones. She's obsessed with me. One time she cornered me on the lift and tried to kiss me."

"I don't blame her." 

"What?" Rúben chuckled.

"What what?" I said, feeling my face about to burst in flames after realising that I had said that aloud. 

"Let's go somewhere else" Rúben said, taking my hand and leading me to the other side of the apartment, away from everyone. "You look beautiful tonight, by the way."

"Thank you. You also look really good."

"Your face kind if of gave it away earlier. I supposed it was because of that and not because you were having a stroke."

"So funny" I replied, rolling my eyes. We had stopped next to the big windows in one of the corridors, the whole city at our feet. He was still holding my hand, and despite the difference of size, they fit perfectly. 

"Oh!" Julia suddenly said next to us, making me jump.

"Where did you come from?" 

"My room" she shrugged. "But look! That´s mitles... Mistel... That Christmas flower that tells you to kiss someone."

"Mistletoe?" Rúben said.

"Yes, that one! You are standing underneath it, so you must kiss" Julia said, pointing at the ornament at the top of the window.

"We... Must?" I said with a nervous laugh.

"Yes, that's how it works."

"Ok" Rúben said, leaning forward and giving me a peck.

"Oh, that's not it! It must be like in the movies!"

"Julia..."

But before I could say anything else, one of Rúben's hands was at the back of my neck, the other on my lower back, turning me around until we were doing that famous pose they do in all romantic movies. And then he kissed me. I can't remember much of what I did, even if I kissed him back. I was too shocked.

"Yes, yes, yes, that was it!" Julia said when Rúben lifted me up again, his eyes fixed on mine. "I'm gonna tell mami!"

"Julia, wait!"

"Let her go" Rúben said. The hand that was behind my neck was now on my face, cupping it. And he was close. Very close.

"But..."

"Did you like the kiss?"

"I... I... " I muttered.

"I think it looked like a movie kiss but didn't feel like it. This one, though..." he said while his thumb caressed my lower lip, making me gasp. "This one will definitely feel like one."

And then he kissed me again. 

Despite the initial shock, this time I kissed him back, my arms finally remembering that they were alive and moving until they were around his neck, pulling him closer to me, making our kiss more intense. He now had both his hands on my lower back, also pulling me closer to him, not letting any space between our bodies. It was the best kiss I had ever had. Not that I had much experience kissing, but...

"Movie worth it?" he asked, his lips brushing against mine. I just nodded, making him smile before he was kissing me again. And not just on the lips. He was kissing my jaw, my neck, my collarbone... My skin was burning wherever his lips had been, weird noises leaving my mouth. And then, I heard Lucy's voice somewhere. 

"The toast."

"Uhm?" Rúben said against my neck.

"The toast. Lucy is doing the toast, I must go."

"Why?"

"Because once it is over, I'm playing the piano."

"With this hand?" he asked, lifting it and starting to kiss every finger, my palm, my wrist, my forearm. Dear Lord, who knew being kissed there could feel so damn good?

"Yes, with that one."

"And with this one too?" he said, doing the same on my other hand.

"Rúben, I'm serious. I must go." Though I didn't want to. I wanted to stay there with him, kissing. 

"Ok. But we aren't finished" he said with that smirk of his, grabbing my hand and taking me to the living room.

[fraudulent-cheese]

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT EPISODES 5 AND 6 OF SEASON 2 OF TD2023!!!

MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!

I'll get the ships out of the way - WE DIDNT GET RAJBOW DIVORCE!!!! REJOICE!!! Their conflict wasn't solved well, but at least it's solved man! Rajbow is still alive!

Ripaxel is actually really growing on me? The shipping hasn't overridden their personalities which was a MAJOR concern for me. Glad to see Axel still kicking ass and Ripper being actually funny! ALSO THEY BROKE THE COUPLE'S CURSE! Neither of them have even been at risk of being eliminated which is kind of insane because usually the couples in TD have one partner (or both in gidgette's case) be eliminated right after they're established but THEY DIDNT! YIPPEE!

Priyaleb on the other hand... Yeah i don't care for them, sorry! they are the obligatory straights of the season for me, i REALLY don't care now that Caleb might be returning those feelings (i can STILL hold on to my grey-romantic Caleb headcanons >:D ) and i prefered when they weren't returned! Zee's involvement was funny tho, and Priya's pretty enjoyable in episode 5! They're cute but i DONT CARE.

MKULIA IS STILL IN THE GAME! Love how the only thing that bothered Chris was that MK stole his hair dryer XD that is very in character!!! They were fun in episode 5 and hey! They're still doing the alliance bit since they got a duo confessional in episode 6 so im excited to see where they go next!!!

Damien was fun in episode 6. just got nothing to add i don't really care for this man

i LOVE ZEE AAAAAA HE IS SUCH A SILLY LITTLE NOODLE OF A MAN lowkey might be one of my favs now (in canon) they figured out how to make imaginative jokes that have to do with the soda bit! He is such a vibe man

MK's been great too, i like how the cheating had consequences without those consequences being getting kicked off the game!

i'll mention the challenges before going over the eliminations, the iceberg challenge was pretty nice imo, i think Ripper getting involved with the MKulia cheating is fun and him ripping his shirt off is funny tbh. The snowball fight was really fun too!

The obstacle course is fine, the wall with the boots reminded me of Wipeout (which, fun fact, is called Total Wipeout in french) so that was pretty neat

The kayak challenge had a neat twist, loved Axel just punching Ripper off the boat and the confessional right after was pretty funny. Axel and her stupid ass boyfriend, it's great

OK ELIMINATION TIME!!! CANT SAY I DIDNT CALL THEM BUT I TOTALLY DID!!!!

I did say Nichelle might get eliminated since the writters have done nothing with her, but i... don't like what they did at all. The movie deals should've been real and Julia just snuck them on her bed since they were sent to production and they didn't give them to her yet. it just. sucks that all but one elimination while the teams were active were girls, especially Emma's and Nichelle's. Scary Girl is 100% coming back later tho so we'll see!

ALSO. DID I PREDICT EXACTLY HOW BOWIE'D GET ELIMINATED OR DIDNT I? Ok it wasn't exact but i was right on the money in saying Julia would get him eliminated by telling the others about him supporting the cheating. especially since she did it to save MK, im considering that an MKulia win. For once im actually satisfied with an elimination this season! dang!

My predictions are kinda the same - Scary Girl coming back, MKulia being real, Priya being eliminated soon - but i'll add my specific thoughts on who i think will be next in terms of eliminations next monday i think.

DAMN, this post is LONG wow

[noahtally-famous]

td 2023 s2 ep1 spoilers below the cut

(okay so I have not finished s1 but I know the general gist of what happens through mutuals posts and just the td tag lmaoo. maybe later I will actually sit down and watch the whole thing, but that time is not now.)

moving onto my thoughts of s2...

AHHHHHHHH idk how else to explain it but I absolutely LOVED the episode, and honestly I have a feeling I'll love this season, simply bc everyone is so great!!

heck even ripper and chase were tolerable, like, there weren't any fart jokes or anything, it was great!

MKULIA SWEEP???? HELL FREAKING YEAH idc if it's a friendship/alliance, I'm living in my world where they're toxic yuri

Caleb getting some much-needed character development??? I'm SO here for it, and the stuff mentioned during the episode def fits the kinda vibe I have going for him, so that's even better!! (potential caleb & emma friendship??? they can bond over kittens and of caleb being emotionally mature)

also his reactions to the team choosing was gold, I can't wait to see what A-Game he's gonna bring. I'm hoping he doesn't become a version of justin--I just want him to want to be a useful teammate and person for his team/friends/competitors and want to win as well. no overly crazy 'tda justin' villanry pls?? (I mean, I won't be averse to it if it does end up happening, but it'd be cool if things changed up this time around)

CHEMMA BROKE UP THANK FRICKING GOD, our prayers have been answered!! please please PLEASE have them stay broken up

raj & wayne on the same team again!! I was not expecting that tbh, but I'm curious to see where this goes

rajbow is so adorable, like bowie not even letting chris finish before he immediately picks raj first for his team is so 🥹

ngl chase is still a dumbass but now that chemma is out of the way, I mean it affectionately, I can't bring myself to hate any of the characters and that trend isn't going to stop here. that moment when he ran at granny hatchet and bowie was like "I don't believe it, I think he's gonna make it" like that scene was insane

damien is amazing as always, no words need to be said. manifesting a final two involving him

NICHELLE. FUCKING NICHELLE. GOD I CANNOT ARTICULATE HOW MUCH I ADORE HER HERE!! saving the best for last goddammit, I love her so so so so much, omfg the way she slayed the challenge, pls I'm so hyped for her character development this season, I can't wait for the other contestants to eat their words abt her

axel trying to 'be nice' ("i'm a work in progress" yes you are but you're doing amazing) but acting like an ass to ripper is something I live for. "I'm not following you, we're running in the same direction!" LMAOOOO

the fact that priya doesn't hold any resentment toward her parents still irks me, but I still love her character and I'm excited to see what's in store for her

GRANNY HATCHET SLAYED, 'NUFF SAID

I'm still hoping for some axelle content, but I'm more than happy with the mkulia servings we got

I'm lowkey interested in scary girl's change of character. I feel like this wont be the last we see of her--will she be like an amy and swim back to the island to enact revenge? or will she be like ezekiel and live on the island in secret? or will she be a secret third thing? I sure as heck don't know but I can't wait to find out!! her parting words def seem ominous enough to imply something

speaking of, scary girl's change of character and when she talked abt how she became "normal" everyone's reactions were sending me lmaooo

bowie going "you're never right" to chase but is the one to choose chase on his team, like yes dude frrr that frenemy whiplash was wack lmaoo I love it

same with bowie choosing julia, like yes we love to see two manipulative competitive strategists banding together

on a different note, I wonder what will come of bowie and emma's friendship from s1 and how that broke apart. maybe they could rekindle it in s2? hmmm

zee and their suitcase of sodas 😭

"she's an animal" OKAY MK TONE IT DOWN (pls don't, actually pls continue doing it) YOU'RE NOT HELPING MY MKULIA CASE HERE

millie being priya's first pick >>>

"what strategy? you just stop and run, it's not rocket surgery" 😭 I used to dislike ripper, but if he continues on like this, that opinion will def change. it's only been the first episode and I already don't dislike him anymore so-

MORE MKULIA P L E A S E IM HOPING

chris is still 'tdi chris' aka the b e s t chris imo, and I'm here for it!! also chef and chris's dynamic is still spot-on

in conclusion, im so very excited for what this season will bring!! in case you didn't realize, I LOVED the first episode!

[myceliumbean]

Cars 2 Agents AU How did Rod survive III

Featuring: In which they rest

Summary: the agents were on a mission, and everything went wrong soon after they entered Russian airspace

Dammit, I just couldn't find a proper place for Rod struggling to tell them about his near-death experience and thus considering changing the chapter names

She's in golden red paint. Holley watched as Julia sneaked into the hangar, woke up Eva, bumped Boris' front tires with a cheerful smile, put down the boxes she carried, and waved goodbye to the team before leaving.

"Much like a storm of energy and cheers, right?"

"Wha- oh, yeah, she's…" Holley turned to face Alyona, who had taken out another cup of cocoa and sipping on it happily. Someone's goot to stop the forklift from taking in this much caffeine. "Is she even at your age?"

"Ah ha! Eva, you owe me one!" Alyona made a resounding "ching" with her tines. "Julia is much older than me, even Michaele, if you would like to know, maybe… let me think about someone… oh, she's like Boris' daughter, and I'm more like his granddaughter!"

The Ilyushin-76 in the background made a not-very-heartily protest and said something like "I'm not that old".

Eva chuckled and smashed the hude cargo plane on his front tires. "Aw, but you almost act like that, you and Zil are equally overprotective."

Boris rolled his eyes, and tilted to the side to take a proper look at Holley and Alyona. "Well, if that's how you want to phrase it, then I'm gonna adopt Siddeley."

Daniil choked at the unexpected words, and Michaele made a soft noise as he tried to bit back his laughter. Then, Alyona smacked the forklift on the back of his red helm, and the two bursted into laughter as they playfully chased down each other, driving circles in the big hangar.

Holley didn't realize she's smilling too, until Daniil drove up and tapped her with his tine. "You look good when you're smiling. Don't be too worried about your friends, they're safe with us."

"…thank you, Daniil. It's just- I don't know, I'm never afraid even we're pointed by guns and completely outnumbered." Holley shuddered as she recalled the feeling of Finn lying limp against her frame, or how cold Rod is when Finn told her the American spy had passed out. "I know it isn't good for us agents being too close or too attached to others, but I can't…"

"Get some rest." Daniil smiled warmly, as if he could read Holley's thought so easily like flipping a book. "You'll need it. Zil has so many things to tell you. I'll take Alyona to check on the other two agents, feel free to call us if you have any question."

"I will. Thank you, Daniil."

Watching as the two forklifts headed for the door to the hangar on the left, Holley let herself drift into her own thoughts.

Finn Mcmissile. Rod Redline. Siddeley. Even Mater, who they had mistaken as Rod. They're all great people.

Holley had joined the mission by accident. She's supposed to hand over the information and period. It was Finn who insisted that he'll need her help and pulled Holley into the center of danger. Not that she's complaining, really, she had learn so much from the field, and fron Finn himself.

If Holley's honest enough to herself, she's actually scared of how fast she became friends with Finn and Mater. Siddeley, on the other hand, was not really close to Holley, but they went well together, and their similar age made the interaction more like ordinary friends than mentor and mentee.

The jaguar would probably get lost in her thoughts forever if that bright red figure didn't stayed there for enough time at the corner of her eyes.

Holley didn't recognize that car. She casted a glance at Boris, but the big guy just continuously reading his book and use his wing to cover Siddeley up with some piece of canvas everytime when the Gulfstream V shuddered in his coma and caused the canvas to slip off.

But as far as she knew, the hangars near this one were control areas, no way they're allowing some random vehicles wandering around like that.

Holley looked at that red car, who might be a jaguar too, and got a look and a smile back.

Chrysler, why on the world was this stranger smiling at me?

That bright red jaguar waved a front tire at Holley and quickly headed to the right side of the hangar, opened the door, and disappeared behind it.

"…um, Boris?"

"Yes, Ms. Shiftwell." The Ilyushin moved his gaze from his book to the small purple jaguar. "Anything wrong?"

"Well, that red jaguar… is it fine to let someone else in? Or is the car part of the team?"

"Ah, him." Boris somehow sounded amused. "He's fine, Zil called him in for some security assistance."

"Oh, I see. Maybe I'm too worried about my friends… will you mind if I take a nap here?"

"No. Just suit yourself, Ms. Shiftwell, I'll look after you guys." Boris said certainly. "I'll wake you up if they're awake."

"That will be appreatiated, thank you. And just call me Holley."

"Good. Now sleep, Holley, Zil's gonna push you to the very end of your strength."

@longjiaojiao had joked about Julia being Zil and Boris' adopted daughter, and I think putting this in would be fun, as Eva was almost the same age as Boris (and they're both a bit younger than Zil) and one of her best interests is teasing her relatively more serious colleagues

Alyona, by the way, is the youngest of the team, even might be younger than Holley, while Siddeley being a bit older than she in this AU

And congratulate to our ghostly-wardering-around and having-too-few-canon-scene C.H.R.O.M.E. agent, Leland Turbo for making his debut in the AU!